Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Our film is an indie film with a low budget. Indie films such as productions from Warp Films concentrate mainly on the representation of the working class population. This is similar to what we have done, we have filmed this in the North of England in Yorkshire. The North usually signifies the working class.

Age

Our primary target audience is 16-25. The actors in the production are both aged 16, however are aiming to represent an age group closer to 20. The costumes of the characters represent this age range as they are informal training/sports wear. The male protagonist is short, fair haired, well built and has a neutral-southern accent. The male antagonist is a binary opposite in the sense that he is tall and dark haired. The protagonist is wearing lighter coloured clothing, whereas the antagonist is wearing mainly dark colours with exception to his blue running shoes. The audience can choose to attach themselves to either of the characters, however both looks can appeal to the audience, with the protagonist possibly attracting the female gaze and attracting a secondary target audience.

Stereotyping

The fair-haired, attractive, well built, male protagonist presented by Daniel Craig in James Bond is a perfect example of an agent stereotype and we have replicated that with our male protagonist.

Daniel Craig as James Bond

The female sidekick of the protagonist is another example of a stereotype. James Bond inspired the Action genre with the character of 'M' in having a female sidekick and we have represented that in our film. Both of which have southern London accents, that are stereotypically middle class.

Gender

The only gender that appears on screen in our film opening is male. This is because the primary target audience is 16-25 year old males. If the characters on screen are male then it allows the audience to identify with the characters. Also, there is a female voice presented in the opening as well. This is to allow a possibility for a romantic relationship between the protagonist and the female. The male audience will watch the film for the action (as read on BFI, men were drawn to watch films with a strong action element.) whereas the females will watch for either the attractive protagonist or the romance element as females are much more likely to watch a romantic film.

Ethnicity

Our film contains exclusively caucasian characters. This is not intentional but for the reason that there is a lack of availability of other ethnic groups in our school and surrounding area. Thus meaning we may not appeal to the wider audience of multi-ethnic groups. In the successful production of Star Wars, every actor that appears on screen is white, with exception to the voice of Darth Vader. However, this did not appear to affect the popularity of the film as it made $461m in the US box office upon release.

Sexuality

Our film does not explore sexuality, however conventionally, most films are based upon the characters being heterosexual. In the full production of our film opening, there is a likelihood of the protagonist having a heterosexual relationship with his female sidekick.

Northern Demographic