Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social group?

The girl in our opening is similar to Leigh from the original 'Psycho'. They are both the main victim of their film and are made so the audience will sympathise with them. Both are blond haired, slim, pretty women who show a wholesome, pure and innocent look which makes there murder even more tragic. They are both murdered in exposed way by insane people (which is implied in our opening) and most importantly neither have done anything wrong to be murdered, both where at the wrong place at the wrong time/ The only major different between these two character is that Leigh is sometime shown in a more promiscuous way than the girl, like the fact she is killed in the shower, naked. This is to be expected in a major movie like 'Psycho' because it can help sell it to an audience.

 

In our opening we wanted (and succeeded) to make the girl represent a victim. This is a very common stereotype in a thriller film, as throughout history women have been seen as the weaker sex so it is easy to show this is a film. We did this by choosing a sixteen year old girl, who are usually shown as a weaker character in movies, so when she was being murder it was expected for her not fight back and die. The girl we used didn't wear much makeup and wore a white dress, this suggested that an innocent and pure girl who had been at the wrong place and time, making her look like more of a victim when the murder takes place. On her wrist she wore a bracelet which was the same bracelets the dead girls in the photos wore. This connected them together, giving the girl a reason for being in the abandon building. Also it foretells the future as the girls are dead in the photos and she get murdered at the end, which is another connection. We filmed in a room which looked dirty and creepy, not a normal place for a sixteen year old girl to bee. This added to the mystery of the storyline and suggested that the girl was properly exposed and in danger while in the room. The camera shots we used when filming the girl was always quite close-up (especially when she was being shot), this was so the audience could see her emotion and really understand how she was feeling which creates empathy for her. This was scared, making her more of a victim when she was murdered. Also when she was murdered, we used a low angle shot to make her look weak and more of a victim.