Evaluation Question 2

Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents the White British ethnicity as all of the characters are within that group, there is a mixture of genders which are portrayed as they would be in a normal Noir Film.
The reason why there is just one ethnic group is because it was quite common in the 40/50's to have Noir films entirely focused on the upper class (A/B), which rarely contained any other ethnic groups apart from White British, in this case, we thought it best not to challenge any stereotypes.

The mix of genders portrays the female gender being played as victims (two) one of which is the main focus in the film, this could be classed as seeing the female gender as weak, whereas the male gender represents both good and evil, being the murderer is exploiting the female gender, and the detective is attempting to save them, this could also depict the female gender as weak as in many Noir films there was always a damsel in distress, this could be classed as a negative representation, this is very stereotypical for that era.
In terms of ethnicity this film opening has been made to copy the usual representations of Film Noir, meaning the majority are of white ethnicity, this shows whites as the dominant race, as was typical in 19040's Britain and America, this is obviously a very negative representation as it does not show equality and is very stereotypical of people's attitudes and behaviours in that era.
In terms of age our film opening is also very stereotypical of films from that era, as ours shows a middle aged upper class white male as the main character, this, also is a negative representation for gender and ethnicity, we also picked out the older age as the main character would have more experience in what he does, it was very rare in the 40's that anyone of a younger age, this is a negative representation because yet again it represents inequality through genders and ageism.

The clothes the characters wear are very stereotypical to the film genre, men wear suits, women wear dresses, the locations the characters are in are also relatively stereotypical to the Film Noir genre as the main victim is in a dark, derelict area where she is killed by the male murderer, as is the other female victim who is killed outside of a Cathedral, which is often judged as a quiet and unvisited area. Whereas our male victim was killed by the side of a river, in a relatively public place, this could be seen as a daring act by the murderer.

Because this film is aimed at the A/B class, it's character are also upper class as to have similarities to the audiences watching the film, we show this mainly by clothing and presentation of that character e.g. no scruffiness and the characters always have their appearance enhanced e.g. make-up or hair do's.

The music to represent each character varies e.g.Samantha Scarlett (main victim) has her own music track when her murder scene plays, this represents that she is unique or of importance to the film.
The lighting is relatively low key when the scenes take place inside representing negative moods, natural lighting is also used which tends to be bright, but can also be shady yet again representing the presence of negative emotions with each character.