Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent different social groups?

Actor No.1

Tom Broomfield: Age - 13 Gender - Male

Tom's character within the production fits the category of a 'typical child' as it is not stated what his name is. He is generally put into the same social group as the other two children, as being the apparent 'victims' of the situation however his visible older age suggests that he may be the most mature child of the group, however this idea is contradicted when he is the first child to be caught by the unidentified dangerous character in the plot.

Actor No.2

Jessie O'Sullivan: Age - 6 Gender - Female

Jessie's character is probably the most important of all of them within this production as she represents the 'victim' character of the story. As she is the youngest of the children and also a female, the audience see her as stereotypically vulnerable and due to this, the audience generally side with that particular character. Within the production we see her playing with toys and wandering around, in contrast with the other two children who are doing written work or are on their phone. This adds to the vulnerability of her and again highlights that she is the youngest and most helpless of them all. Additionally, the prop used by this character was a small stuffed bear which is a stereotypical prop used to accent the infancy of the child and make them appear to be reliant on other characters.

Actor No.3

Kit Bispham: Age - 12 Gender - Male

Kits character is a minor character within the production, as he is not of a significant age in terms of the situation the children are in. He is nor the youngest or oldest character meaning he, as well as Tom's character can be put under the social group of a 'typical child' who, like the others, appears to fear the character who is looking for them. It is important to have characters like this, or the importance of the significant, protagonist characters would be lost.

Actor No.4

Mark Broomfield: Age - 48 Gender - Male

Marks character is the protagonist of the production and is the cause of the situation that occurs, being that the children hide from him. His character is probably the most stereotypical of all the characters, being that he appears to be a dangerous, scary symbol who the other characters are fearful of. He is the eldest character, meaning that steriotypically he holds most of the power and control (he is to be feared, not fearful) contrasting with Jessie's character, representing two polar opposite social groups. The way that you can only see his feet throughout the whole first half of the opening sequence, makes him substantially more mysterious and adds to the effect of his character. However, when finding out who he actually is (the children's father) the stereotype of the character switches to one of a friendly, older character. We see this from the change of music and change of low angle shot which makes someone seem feared of evil, to a high angle shot of him holding the young girl and hugging the older children.

Class

The family presented within the production are a typical middle class family. This is clear due to the setting being inside an average family house, and the clothing and props that are used.

Race

All of the characters are white, however this was not intentional as other children with other ethnicities were considered for the roles, however the children we chose had to look like the father, played by Mark, who is white.

Gender

The protagonist in the production is a male, and the main victim is a female which conforms to the stereotype of the man intimidating and overpowering the woman as they are more physically powerful. The low angle shot used when the little girl is found in the cupboard with the male figure towering high over her also intensifies this view of man's dominance over women.