Question 2 - Thriller Evaluation

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

The opening to our thriller film, The Pursuit, focuses purely on one particular social group. This notable and significant social group is that of the young British male. Stereotypically if these young British males are seen to be wearing hoodies or clothing that hides there identity, they are labelled as being a 'chav' or a rebellious 'thug'. The representation below of young British male reinforces the negative representation of this social group by the media. It is thought that a large amount of this social spectrum loiter around in groups and are rarely seen alone. Also they are stereotypically known for wearing hooded clothing which hides their identity and suggests that they don't want there identities being known, implying that illegal activity may be about to occur with them.

This image taken by the BBC documenting British teenagers and their anti social behaviour depicts the stereotypical view of young white British males as portrayed by the media.


Young British males at the heart of the Manchester Riots in 2011.

An example of how the social group young British males are portrayed negatively by the media is shown within the image above. After the riots across England in 2011 young British male's came under scrutiny for being at the root of the riots, reinforced by them being shown burning down buildings and looting goods from various stores on the news as the events were taking place. These young British males were all of different ethnicities and had different cultural backgrounds but still fall under the category of 'Young British Male'. This kind of coverage of young British males suggested to the British public that all young British males are like this and capable of doing such acts, they would know associate this social group with a sense of danger and rebelliousness, therefore we chose to dress our characters (Jack and Holly) in costumes similar to the ones shown above to reinforce this association with young British males and danger.

 We decided the costume of Jack should be very similar to what many of the younger males were wearing around these times and also what a lot of young males still wear, particularly in urban areas with high crime rates. Therefore we chose Jack's costume to mimic the stereotypical view of what young British males dress like (as shown in the images above). We chose that Jacks costume should be primarily dark in colour and ensure a darker tone when seen with our black and white effect, we also made sure that Jack was wearing a hoody to show that his character may be attempting to conceal his identity; much like the young British males in the riots across England in 2011 who were obviously out to cause trouble. The character of Holly who has very little screen time is also shown to be wearing a hooded jacket, also attempting to conceal his identity and reinforcing the stereotypical image of young British males. Jack and Holly's costumes help to portray a realistic representation of a large proportion of young British male, youths appearance as of today. Jack and Holly's concealed appearances could lead to the audience making the assumption that they're up to no good or perhaps the characters lack a sense of morality much like the youth's presented in the UK riots of 2011.


The character of Jack, showing his dark costume complete with hoody.

We attempted to challenge the generic stereotype of young white British, male youths by making each one of our characters separate from each other. Youths of today are usually stereotyped to form within large groups known as 'gangs', by ensuring that each one of our characters are alone for a large majority of our thriller film we are challenging this stereotype. But we are then quick yet again to represent this social group as the character of Jack portrays more stereotypical British youth behaviour in the form of being unsociable. Jack appears to have his head down for a large majority of our thriller film, attempting to avoid contact with anyone he may pass and making himself very unapproachable.

The three male characters shown in our thriller film show little emotion throughout and express no dialogue. These characters would appeal to young British youths in a society that is run down and expresses little aspiration. As our characters are all teenagers, it is likely that it would appeal to audiences of a similar age range and enjoy the viewing more than say an adult due to social bias and relatability. Our story line is the sort of thing teenage males in rundown areas of society could relate to and find appealing as it involves violence and mystery, the story line is not simple and takes some thinking about to fully understand. As low finance areas such as Anglia Square, Norwich have little to aspire to, young British males may find themselves getting caught up in such things like violence and drugs.