Task 10 Evaluation - Foundation Portfolio: Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The hero of our film is a skinny male teenager rather than a muscular middle aged man that you'd expect. This is because in modern society, males often feel pressured into 'needing' to be this perfect image for them to be successful in life. This perfect image is muscular and deemed attractive by the masses and is often used to represent the hero in a generic action film. Therefore we decided to go against the grain and show how every day people can achieve great things regardless of who they are and that they do not have to give in to social pressures challenging the codes and conventions of our respective genre.

Also, in the Action/Thriller genre there is always a victim which is more often than not, female. In our film we decided to buck this trend also and have a male victim (Subject: X) to show once more that male members of society do not have to conform to gender stereotypes but are allowed to take upon more feminine characteristics and still be accepted. As well as this, in the film world children never seem to get hurt. Teenagers are still technically children so when our protagonist gets shot this challenges the codes and conventions of the Action/Thriller genres as it explicitly shows physical damage to a minor. As well as challenging the codes and conventions, it also challenges social norms as it shows that there is no difference between boys and men, children and adults, it shows that we all can adopt responsibility at any age.

The majority of Action/Thriller films today only ever represent adults as doing something so we decided that using a teenager in our film will not only appeal to a wider audience, but actually get more exposure. It has been proven in recent times that using such young protagonists and antagonists is a successful formula through films such as the 'Hunger Games' series and the 'Divergent' series, both of which are now extremely popular and have a following of young people who find them easy to relate to.

Our film represents the Social Class E (students) as getting involved with something that will have a direct effect on society, for good or bad, instead of just sitting around playing on their Xbox all day. It shows them as being diverse in their beliefs with some obviously standing for good and some for bad. People always talk about how it will be our generation running the world in the next 20-30 years but in our film, they're doing it now. This looks at teenagers, and represents them in a completely different way and allows audiences to view them in a positive manner rather than negative.

Audience Profile for Subject: X 

Age: 20 - 50
Gender: Male
Profession: Doctor/Armed Forces/Manager
Political Stance: Right Wing (Conservative)
Favourite Food: Chicken Jalfrezi
Hobbies: Model Aircrafts, Playing Rugby, Hunting
Where Do They Shop?: Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Zara, Jack Wills, Pandora
Pet: Dog (Greyhound)
Music: Black Sabbath, Nickleback, Foo Fighters, Aerosmith
Favourite Sport: Rugby, Formula 1
Social Grade: A,B,C1
Favourite TV Show: Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead
Favourite Film: Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
Favourite Music Artist: Guns N' Roses

Compiled by Owen Clive