Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When developing my characters, i aimed to create a realistic character that my audience can relate to. Therefore, i have applied Dennis McQuail's Uses and Gratifications theory to my title sequence as my audience will be seeking to watch a character who they can relate to. My target audience consists mainly of students and working class citizens from Category D and E and i hoped that my characters were believable enough that audience members from these groups can emphasise with these characters. I decided to create a character who would be played by an actor or actress who are down to earth and can easily represent and average person. I chose Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Sam and Zooey Deschannel for Alex.

To expand my audience further than my target audience, i created characters who were both middle class "succeeders" from Category C1 and C2. I mainly showed this middle class status through the clothes Sam and Alex were both wearing. Sam is wearing a suit and tie and his formal attire denotes his middle class and from the very beginning of the film the audience are aware that he is of this class. I have used the red tie to connote the danger he will face throughout the entire film, this red tie could also be seen as connoting seduction and this would be going against Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory and would be sexualisng the male instead of the female. However, i have chosen to make use of the Male Gaze theory throughout my title sequence in order to attract more male audience members who i found watch horror films more than females. I have chosen to portray the piece from a male perception and this will help me to gain a wider female audience who will respect Sam's bravery and assertiveness as he enters the house with a baseball bat. I have used Sam's Nissan Micra to denote that he is middle class but still has youth in him as he is only 24, the colour green could connote jealousy to the higher class who can afford these luxuries. As explained in my location scouting, i have filmed in a modern housing estate which is commonly found in and outside big cities, i have chosen this location to show Sam and Alex's class and how the zombie virus has spread to cities.

In similar films, the character Sarah Polley in Dawn Of The Dead (2004) is a doctor and shows that she is of middle class and this is often highlighted when she returns to her husband and child and the nice neighbourhood they live in and throughout the film when he medical knowledge is a practical strength. By using her having such strengths would be defying the generic conventions and is making her the protagonist hero as opposed to using a male. In 28 Days Later, Jim is also of a middle class and is first introduced as a patient in a hospital and lots of high angles are used to make him look small and weak as he takes in his surroundings, however throughout the rest of the film as he faces more and more zombies and finds other people, he is represented as a more powerful and heroic protagonist which is how i would like to represent my character Sam by using low camera angles to highlight his power.

Similarly, i have portrayed Alex as being a fashionable middle class woman, although she is dead in my title sequence, my female audience can still relate to her because of her fashion and their nice home. Both of my characters are 24 and i have used young characters to attract my target audience of 16-25 Category C1 - Category D and E audience members.

I have mainly represented young people in my piece as all of my characters are between 16-25 and this is because my target audience can relate more to them, the dead bodies are shown to be young by their fashion and by using modern fashion my audience can further relate to them. My main characters are both aged 24 and are an ordinary couple who live together just outside of London, this will be shown more throughout the film by using flashbacks and Sam will be portrayed as an assertive male by using low camera angles to make him look more powerful which will be a contrast to when in my title sequence where i have used high angles to victimise Sam and make him look small. All camera angles on women will be in keeping with the Male Gaze theory and this is to attract more male audience members from both Category C1 and C2 as well as my target audience of Category D and E.

I have stuck to the generic conventions and stereotypes of horror films by having a male as my protagonist and Ive done this as it never fails in any type of conventional horror and will attract a larger male audience. Two of the three bodies used in my title sequence are female which again is another convention and stereotype of horror films where woman are seen to be the victims and by having them both blonde they could be seen as the typical blonde who always died. However, i specifically chose blonde actresses to connote their innocence by having light coloured hair.