AS Media Evaluation, Question 3: How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups

By Umut Tasci

What the audience wanted to see as the main character!

Main character

So after I looked at what the audience wanted, I shaped my character to what their want. I will now be breaking my character’s looks down and explaining my choices.

Main character

Reasoning for wearing black:Our previous research suggested that the main character should be wearing all black. There are a few reasons for this choice.The colour black is associated with ‘death’ therefore this automatically suggests that the film is going to be very dark and thrilling.Currently there is a trend called the ‘all black’ trend. It is when people wear nothing but the colour black. This suggests to the audience that the main character is up to date with his fashion, which is a stereotype .

I am also wearing black to almost look intimidating, which is what we wanted because this way the audience doesn’t know the ideology of the opening sequence they’re watching. This makes them watch carefully as they don’t know if I am an antagonist or a protagonist.

Main character

Reasoning for facial hairFacial hair is always associated with people who are slightly older than 16 and 17. This is why I grew my facial hair as long as I can because we aimed to make the main character look between the ages of 18 – 21.

Age was really important in our opening sequence because we knew that younger audiences will look at the main character and take him seriously. On the other hand, older audiences can both relate the character to themselves and also take main character seriously.

Main character

Reasoning for Adidas trainersAdidas trainers are associated with teenagers and young adults aging from 13-26. Because of this reason, we decided to go along with the stereotype and give the main character these shoes. Furthermore, Adidas shoes are usually more expensive than the average shoes thus meaning that the main character is in a high social class.

What the audience wanted to see as the murderer.

Murderer

Reasoning for the maskThere were multiple reasons for the mask (apart from narrative enigma).

To conceal his identity to the in fictional narrative so he doesn't’t get caught by the police.

The shadows that form over the mask throughout the opening sequence, is to ,once again, conceal his identity as well as giving him a dark and mysterious edge, thus implying he is from a more isolated social group

Murderer

Reasoning for the baseball batThese are the reasons why the murderer has a baseball bat in his hand. This was done because the stereotype in every moviewith a murderer is that they will always have a weapon to be able to hurt someone with.