In terms
of social groups, our film in particular is closely involved in the
representation of youth, considering our protagonist is only 18 years of age
and our other implied character is a child of only 2 years. With our
protagonist, and also villain being a female named ‘Emily Roberts’ this
seemingly innocent persona is generally a controversial decision as a main
character, especially after observing through research that previous
psychological thrillers have typically had middle aged males playing the main
roles; For example Bruce Willis in ‘The sixth sense’ and also Anthony Hopkins
in ‘The silence of the Lambs’, two of the most successful psychological
thrillers of all time. In choosing characters of these specificities, we became
increasingly aware that we were challenging the usual conventions of a film of
this nature, being a somewhat milder than horror, psychological thriller.
Even
recognising that the characters in our opening credits are very young, I
believe the conventions of our film, including factors such as music, lighting,
Camera angles and editing effects, all contribute in creating a film opening
better suited to and questionably targeted towards a more mature audience, with
the nature of these effects being characteristic of a psychological thriller.
In terms of age, and the stereotypical expectancies that come with these,
‘Emily Roberts’ very much challenges what would usually be expected from an 18
year old girl. By this is am referring to the content of our film, being the
occurrence of a murder and also her mannerisms/attitude throughout the clip. I
say this because when creating the character, we tried to make it very clear
that she was obviously psychologically disturbed, and not at all the usual,
happy teen. When considering this, it does not appear likely that a girl of a
similar age in society will be able to relate to either ‘Emily’ in general, or
the events in our opening, and even though there is no representation of older
generations in our short film, I am ultimately questioning whether it would be
received better from an older audience. However, in saying this, although I
don’t believe many teens will be able to relate to our character in any way, or
whether our character represents an average 18 year old girl In general, I do
believe the use of such a controversial character will spark interest among
that age range.
As well
as this, the protagonist in our film opening is female, whereas the young victim
is male. This disturbing situation significantly adds to the ‘Thrill’ in our
psychological thriller, and is certainly an unorthodox scenario. Our
representation of females in our short film is very much negative; whereas both
males in the film, one being the two year old victim and the other being an
older psychologist are presented in a very innocent light, particularly the
young boy. In doing this, we felt it would give not only the audience, but the
entire film a real sense of right and wrong, which was certainly an unorthodox
decision when choosing a female to be the villain. In using representation in
this way, I believe it had a positive effect on our film in terms of
challenging what would usually be expected in society.
When
considering the social class/status of ‘Emily Roberts’, we decided on an
everyday, middle class background. In light of this, we felt this would add to
the absurdity and also outrage of the murder; I say this due to what I have
learnt through research of psychological thrillers/crime. From intense research
into characters from various psychological thrillers, it seems that a common
theme throughout many of them, especially the ones including mental illness, is
that the protagonists all seem to come from a poor, troubled past. After
considering this, we believed our film would be more interesting, and draw more
of a response from the audience if we chose a normal girl, from a normal
background, with no exterior troubles whatsoever. In terms of representing the
‘well-off’ middle class in this way, I think it made a significant difference
in how our character is perceived by the audience, and we hoped it would
ultimately horrify them through the use of such an underestimated character. We
attempted to make ‘Emily’s’ social class clear through the mese en scene, and
attention to detail. For example, when seeing the location shots of the clinic
Emily is later admitted into, it appears very well kept, gated, and fairly old.
I believe all of these factors add towards a sense of class and certainly
suggest Emily is not from a poor working family, but certainly a well off,
respectable one. As well as this, when thinking about the mese en scene in
terms of the representation of the middle class, we wanted the location of the
murder to be in a large sized house, very much in a suburban area, considering
many middle class people live in locations such as this.
In
general, I believe the way we represent various social groups such as females,
males, the young generations in contrast to the older, and also the middle
class people, all help in contributing to making our psychological thriller
much more unorthodox and controversial. This ultimately makes it much more
effective in horrifying and staying with the audience long after its end, due
to the hideousness of the crime committed by someone so inconspicuous.
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