Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Stereotypes act as codes that give the audience a quick common understanding of the person, usually based of their class, ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender or occupation. Within our opening sequence we used some stereotypes, however we did also challenge them. 

Enid Akuffo played our victim role within 'Just Friends' which I feel fitted the representation of a victim well. We wanted her to portray a vulnerable girl, easily lead and slightly 'dorky'. Often these are the victims in thriller films, the girls are often gullible in picking their friends, which is what we really wanted to zoom into because that is the main plot our film revolves around. She is also easily absorbed into Claire's encouragement of drinking, which is often a circumstance that victims get themselves into, in thrillers, as it makes them a lot more vulnerable.

We also never hear her speak, which contrasts greatly with the character that I played, Claire. Claire has a voice over throughout the opening sequence, talking about her love for control. In one part she even addresses the audience, asking them for reassurance. I think this represents her character because she is trying to convince herself that what she did was acceptable. I think this shows the type of person she is, we wanted to show her as an 'unstable psychopathic teen'. Though Claire doesn't fully fit Propp's theory that in all films there is an apparent villain, victim, donor etc. As normally the villain is a man however her voice over and dark clothing makes its obvious that she is the villain, along with the content of what she says in the voice over.

I think Enid's character is quite a stereotypical victim however often we think of victims being white females with long blonde heir etc. However her clothing of a skirt and beige scarf and mac coat gave her the girly aspect that we often see victims in. Along with the close ups of her face that show her scared expressions and the impact Claire has on her.