Evaluation Question two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

       In our production our character names were 'Casey' and 'Sam.' We are providing intertextuality by choosing these names, with 'Casey' being the name of the 'Scream Queen' in 'Scream' and 'Sam' being the first name of 'Dr. Sam Loomis' in 'Halloween'. ' Sam is meant to be a typical teenage character who has just had his girlfriend (Casey) round for the evening. He is meant to be representing the 'average' teenage male or the stereotype. Although as Casey leaves we see a slight change in character, which changes the audiences preferred reading of the production. This creates a possible oppositional reading. Casey is meant to be a typical 'scream queen.' "A scream queen is an actress who has become associated with horror films, either through an appearance in a notable entry in the genre as a frequent victim or through constant appearances as the female protagonist." - Source (Wikipedia.) She is Blonde, busty and sexually active. We chose 'Megan Claydon' for this role because we believed that she fitted this role perfectly with her being blonde. We try to symbolise the idea that they have just had 'sex' by having the male dressed in a dressing gown as they both leave the bedroom. This is meant to be the reason for her being the 'victim.' She has sinned and therefore needs to be punished. We tried to portray what is seen to be the 'typical teenager' in our production with our two main characters. 


We got our idea for the character 'Casey' from the film 'Halloween. (1978)' Jamie Lee Curtis played Laurie Strode in this thrilling horror. She was seen to have revived the scream queen title for her role in this film. After watching this film and researching into 'scream queens' we took notes and decided on the actress Megan Claydon. 

Jamie Lee Curtis staring in Halloween

Our 'scream queen' Megan Claydon

"The Victims—The victims tend to be young, attractive, high school or college-aged adolescents. Much has been made about the choice of victims. Some theorists claim that they young people are punished for indulging in vices such as pre-marital sex or illegal drugs. Other theorists claim that is simply a matter of the activities making the victims unaware of their surroundings, making them easy prey for the killer." 

                                           Source: (wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film )


In the opening we also see the introduction of our the 'killer.' He is a masked man armed with a knife. We got our idea from the Character Michael Myers in the film Halloween (1978) played by Nick Castle. We believe this character signified evil very well through his clothing and costume. 

Our Killer played by Tom Pickersgill

Halloweens Michael Myers

"The Killer—With notable exceptions, the killer in the slasher film is usually male. His identity is often, but not always, unknown and/or concealed either by a mask or by creative lighting and camera work. He is often mute and seemingly unstoppable, able to withstand stabbings, falls and shootings by his victims. His background sometimes includes a childhood trauma that explains his choice of victim, weapon and location (the killer can be made out to be pitiable or understood). Slasher villains tend to prefer hand held weapons such as knives, axes and chainsaws as opposed to bombs or guns. As the sub-genre developed, some argue that the real star of a slasher is the killer, not the victims or Final Girl. Throughout most of the franchises, the killer is constant. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers are notable examples of this phenomenon."

                                               Source: (wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film )



Seen as we were only producing the opening two minutes of a horror/slasher movie we did not have chance to look at over character types.  'Final girl' is one that is not portrayed in our opening. This is because the whole idea of our production was to kill the 'scream queen' for sinning. This would then lead onto the murderer progressing on to doing more violent and brutal murdering, they all link to one and other. 




After looking at the BBFC ratings list we believe our film would fall into the 15 years and over ratings category for age. We set out to target our production towards people aged between 15-24. This is because the actors and actress in our production are within this age category, so we believe our production would be attractive to them. Also slasher films tend to be popular with people within this age group.
I believe our film would appeal to both genders, but we are aiming our films at males rather than females because males tend to be more attracted to the slasher genre whilst females conventionally tend to prefer the Rom-Com genre. We have a 'scream queen' which some girls my see her as a 'stereotypical' female or a 'male gaze' for the male gender. But in our opening scene she is the main character appealing to the  female audience as well as the male. Slasher films mainly have both gender stereotypes in them. Whether it be the 'final girl' or the 'killer.'
The ethnicity in our production is mainly Caucasian. This is because we had a limited choice of actors in our local area. With it only being an opening sequence there is a chance for the film to progress and become more of a multi-ethnic cast. I do not believe our film would suffer from it being a mainly Caucasian cast. We may be limiting our target audience, but films like 'Halloween' have still achieved with a predominant 'white cast.'
The sexuality heterosexual. This was because we believed it would be hard to film a homosexual relationship. Because we were working with a non professional cast we would of found that very hard to achieve. Most slasher films consist of a heterosexual couple. 
Class and status in our production is achieved through props and setting. We believe both of our characters are put into the socio-economic group upper class by the audience, this was our preferred reading. You see this through the detached house that 'Sam' lives in. Also through clothing wore by 'Casey' and the fact she has her own car even though she is a teenager. If we apply the commutation test and change the car to a £50 000 Mercedes then suddenly the text means something completely different. Apart from these small aspects not much else is seen through class and status, it would be mainly explored in the rest of the film. 
Neither of our characters have any mental or physical disabilities in our opening. This was because we did not have the available cast to incorporate it into our film. Also we did not feel that people with physical disabilities appeared much in slasher films. Although Franklin Hardesty played a disabled character in the slasher film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The use of a disability is a good way to portray a sense of vulnerability and fear to the victim or killer. 
Regional identity is portrayed in our production. Although I felt that our production had very little evidence of our characters being from Yorkshire. Neither of them had a particular strong accent. Although the setting of the 'killing' scene was surrounded by farming land. People represent farming with Yorkshire and the Northern region.