Media Studies Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular

social groups?

Our first representation was Gender. As the stereotypical post-apocalyptic film utilises male characters to become the main focus

and protagonist of the film, showing them to be strong and independent, therefore being dominant in a superior manner to

females. We agreed to stick with that general concept as we felt it would benefit our film's narrative and be relatively simple to then challenge other conventions whilst keeping the audience's interest

with the stereotypical protagonist, making it easy for them to relate.

Our film's main character took major influence from the films:

I am Legend and The Book of Eli.

As you can see our protagonist (middle) looks similar to the other two male protagonists, clothing wise, in films that are of the same

genre as ours. We opted to dress our character as a clear-cut survivor which can be clearly established in cargo trousers, boots and a darkly-coloured open jacket. We then equipped our character with

a bag to influence the fact he is travelling and can fit all his possessions in one small holdall, emphasising his deprived state.

However we did not use a gun as a prop as we feared due to the actors age it would look unrealistic and stray from the narrative.

Another factor that influenced the portrayal of our protagonist is how other characters similar to ours played a specific role in their

film. We noticed that in the two films mentioned above, both of their protagonists were male and were lone survivors. This then

influenced us on having our male character as a lone survivor rather than having him accompanied by anyone. However the two

characters above seem to benefit what's left of society whereas our character is just 'another guy'. This gave us plenty of opportunity

throughout our opening that suggests he isn't a boring character and does have interesting aspects about him.

Our second representation was Age. This contrasted the stereotypical age of other protagonists that can be seen in

post-apocalyptic films as they tend to be adults. However we chose to use a teenager or a young adult, some would say. This was

because we didn’t feel as if our film needed an adult character to get the gripping storyline across. We thought by having a teenager it

could also attract and relate to our target audience of 15 - 25 year olds which happens to be the predominant audience for this genre.

Our main character is presented in a positive way as they aren't seen doing anything of a negative manner. They are seen touching the

walls of the house as well as stopping in several places to look around which shows the audience they are reminiscing about the house, implying he is sad to leave. They are also seen looking on emotionally during a number of flashbacks that they seem to be

having during the journey which will add to the sympathy the audience will have for the character. This contrasts the average

social group of a teenager that is portrayed negatively throughout the media with carefree and arrogant attitudes.