1. Evaluation question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In order for my media product to present particular social groups, this meant I had to carry out a
series of planned research to find the stereotypical actors within opening title sequences of well-
known horrors and carry out a questionnaire. I carried these out by taking a look at a number of
openings such as Saw I, Scream and Paranormal Activity 4 to explore various social groups. As a
result, I decided to analyse each opening of these films and create a diverse approach by the use of
mise-en-scene, age, gender, ethnicity and class.
Results from my questionnaire that I carried out revealed that the most
popular villain they like to see in a horror is a murderer. Research I found
myself from websites and analysis of horror opening sequences (such as
Scream and Paranormal Activity 4), I had discovered that females were
often the victims of death in horror movies. This may be due to the fact
that women may still be seen as “weak” and incapable to protect themselves
from danger, especially as the villain in a horror is mainly played by the role of a
male or ghost. To develop on this, gender was important to address in my
product and therefore concluded that it would be ideal to have to girls as the
protagonists and victims in my opening title sequence of a horror.
In addition to this, results from my questionnaire were mainly taken from
current students that had the income of £0-£9,000 and were aged between 16 and 24 years old. I
decided to combine these two results of gender and age to come to the
conclusion to have my two protagonists to be teenage girls. My secondary
research of cinema audiences came to the results that females were the main
gender to regularly attend the cinemas –opposed to
males- and was aged between 15 and 24 years of age.
This meant that including two teenage girls as victims in
my horror opening title sequence creates a tensed
atmosphere among female audience members. Teenage girls can be classed
as being gullible; subsequently they could possibly relate to scenes of a film
and fear horror among their own lives, thus representing this social group.
Popular horror films such as Paranormal Activity 4, Scream and The Ring also
use teenage girls in their opening title sequences.
Furthermore, I decided that the primary location for my opening title sequence takes place in
London which is a very diverse and mixed cultured country. This gave
me the idea to have my two protagonists from opposed cultural
backgrounds. As a result, one character is English looking with hair mid-
length and left down with a shirt, sweater and jacket, looking
moderately formal and from a middle class status. Sitting opposite this
character is the second protagonist is an African-Caribbean teenage
with an urban street style. Her hair is partially shaven with hair to one
side of her face, wearing a casual khaki and black leathered jacket, thus looking less formal and could
be from of working or middle class background. The Caucasian character Clarissa is blonde haired,
blue eyed and is appearing wearing more make up then the Afro-Caribbean character, Jade.

2. Clarissa is therefore portrayed in this opening sequence as a sexual objective on terms of the male
gaze theory to reach out to also the male audience which is also explored through the opening of
The Ring.
The use of the tent prop is to appeal to the teenage and young adult
audience to exemplify freedom and youth through the use of a wide
shot as this is an activity that appeals to audience of this age bracket.
This can also therefore create a sense of realism and fear towards
the audience and the activity of camping may be something they can
relate to in their past or future scenarios.
Young adults and teenagers supposedly appear vulnerable at times to others. By expressing this
theory I decided to in co-operate the use of sound and lighting to justify the fear of the characters as
whenever lighting is darkened or non-diegetic sound is slow paced and low pitched, represents a
turn for the worst within the scene.
A way that I have addressed a particular social group is through research and planning of class,
ethnicity, age and gender. I decided that as my protagonists were teenage girls, scripted are a brief
conversation between the two friends about the interest of a teenage boy that they will be camping
with. Another way I have conveyed a particular way to represent this particular social group is by
including a prop that is used in the opening title sequence. This prop is an iPhone in which one girl
decides to make a memory for their trip in attempt to make a home video and is texting and
appearing to not pay much interest. This idea conveys the stereotypical ideology that teenagers are
too involved with technology and do not always pay their full attention along with the use of
colloquial language that is use in today’s modern society.