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

Within our film we only represented one particular social group – this being teenagers. If we had made the rest of the film then we would have explored some more social groups, we had actually planned that the main characters would consist of 2 male teenagers and 1 female teenager who are going for a job interview and get ‘trapped’ in the elevator. However we felt that the male teenage demographic was an interesting demographic to explore. Even though the pizza delivery guy played by Iffat is only featured in the opening he plays an important part by setting up the rest of the film. We purposely chose a teenage male character so that a large proportion would instantly be dragged in, and to be honest I’m sure that when the audience first sees Iffat’s character they are instantly able to recognise what job he has.

Introduction

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Within thriller films there are always two extremely important characters. One being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. There are also other incidental characters who may be slightly less important to the storyline than the protagonist but still are focused on throughout the film to make the plot more meaty.

Protagonists in thrillers usually tend either to be middle aged adult men or a teenager. Most of the time if an adult man is featured in a thriller film then they will be psychically strong and quite knowledgeable. Many thriller films use this demographic including Shooter, Law Abiding Citizen and Source Code. You will always find a teenager in most recent American thriller films. They will always be attractive and casual in the way they dress. For example films such as Disturbia and Eagle Eye.

Antagonists are usually unattractive (in a more dark, mysterious way) – however quite a lot of antagonists have become more attractive as Hitchcock puts it, so that the audience feel that anyone can be the criminal they see on screen. Antagonists are usually very knowledgeable and have a tendency to have specific characteristics, like a twitchy eye or an old injury.

Any other incidental characters are usually caught up in the plot due to the fact that they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Usually these types of characters are innocent, but usually have a tendency to turn on each other causing friction within the storyline.

What characters are usually found in thriller films?

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As our audience is largely teenagers we wanted to give them something to relate to. So we did this by creating the pizza delivery guy character, played by Iffat, another student in my group.

We felt that this was the perfect relatable character for our audience. All the teenagers in our audience could probably imagine themselves in the pizza guy’s situation, and hopefully got more scared by imagining how it would have been if it was them.

The psychographic group we represented within our opening was the average 17 year old male teenager who wears a hoodie and walks around oblivious to his surroundings and listening to loud music. We felt that his was a really interesting character to have in our opening as it was someone who is seen as just an average person, who is really innocent, but who is then pulled into a situation, and ends up being killed, again making it seem to the audience like it could happen to them.

We decided that Iffat’s character would be of the working class so that again this would be relatable to most of our audience. We decided to go for someone who was working class as it was something different to the typical social classes you might find in an average thriller.

What social groups did you represent in your film opening?

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Well we wanted to totally challenge the typical type of character you might find in an average thriller film opening. Looking back we do realise that we did pick a very stereotypical pizza delivery guy, but we think that this made our film opening all the most realistic and relatable to the audience – giving them more of a reason to be scared. We cast Iffat – one of our own group members – to play the part of the pizza delivery guy, as he suited the type of character we wanted to portray in our film opening. Usually in most films with pizza delivery guys the characters themselves would be white and be wearing a bright red or blue outfit with a nametag and a baseball cap. We challenged this by having an Asian as our pizza delivery guy, this might be a stereotype of the kind of jobs people believe Asians to have but in film this isn’t picked up on. We decided to create a background to Iffat’s character. He only delivers pizzas a part time job because he is finishing sixth form in about a few months and has the job to earn some money. That is why you can clearly see he is wearing a hoodie on top of his school suit. We also believed that having an Asian pizza delivery guy would be more relatable to the teenagers in our audience, as most of them have probably got part time jobs along the same kind of lines.

What characters did you invent for your film opening?

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Looking back now we all agree that Iffat did a really good job of acting and trying to represent a typical teenage pizza delivery guy.

The clothes Iffat has on reflected that of a typical teenager. A hoodie – stereotypically probably how anyone who is not a teenager views society. However we wanted to mix this up slightly and still have Iffat’s characters school suit underneath so that the audience could tell this was only a part time job and that he may be in a rush because he had no time to change. During the opening to our film Iffat’s character is wearing white headphones – symbolising innocence and purity, but also emphasising the fact that teenagers go around blocking out their surroundings by loud music and don’t pick up on the important things going on around them.

Iffat played the part of the pizza delivery guy in a very realistic way – by acting as if he simply was just delivery a pizza, slightly taken aback by the fact that the speaker box is talking to him. Iffat’s character at first does seem oblivious to the world around him and doesn’t pick up on the small things like the flickering number readout on the wall. His expressions at the beginning of the opening tend to consist of him being happy, bobbing up and down, listening to his music. This changed however when he becomes aware of the presence that is in the elevator with him. His starts to become more serious, finding it difficult to work out why there is a mysterious voice calling out to him.

We wanted Iffat’s body language to simply just reflect the body language of a typical teenage that was once again delivering another pizza on their rounds. Towards the beginning of the opening Iffat body language is very casual and laid back, when he drops the pizza and picks it up he is very casual and cool about the whole affair not really getting into too much worry. You can tell that this is the last pizza he has to deliver for the day, and he does get annoyed when he drops it, so he looks inside to make sure it is alright and the sigh of relief shows the audience this. However his body language changes when he becomes aware that there is a presence in the elevator with him, he starts to become more strict with his movements and moves fast, wanting to find out what is going on around him – this is how anyone would act if they thought they heard a strange voice over the top of the music they were listening to.

Pizza delivery guy’s clothes, expressions and body language?

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We only included one other character in our film opening who isn’t actually seen only heard. It’s the speaker box or the presence that speaks though the box. Now we didn’t actually want to characterise the presence as an actual person but rather keep it psychological and mysterious to build tension. The speaker box class out to Iffat’s character in a deep and slightly distorted voice, saying ‘these cold metal walls will be the last you see’. This being a very harsh and cold statement, shocking Iffat’s character. We wanted the audience at this point to be constantly thinking about what the voice could have been. A mysterious force? A figment of the pizza guy’s imagination? Or even someone playing games? At this point in the film we wanted to keep the identity and true nature behind the voice hidden. This whole strange situation hopefully left the audience wanting to know more about what was going on. We had decided that the presence that we had created would be watching Iffat’s character. That is why there is the CCTV footage in our film opening – to give the audience a sense that there is something watching the pizza guy. We wanted to make the presence seem omnipresent as if it was actually controlling and wondering around the elevator and the hallway outside.

Other characters in our film opening

Well as a group we believed that our the main social class of our audience would be working class people. As this demographic would be the type who would probably be interested in watching our film, because it takes some which most people use everyday and turns it into something scary – I’m talking of course about elevators. However the working class is not the only class of people who might want to see our film. The middle class may also be interested in our film due to it’s slightly edgy storyline and new take on the thriller genre. Also the fact that if our film were to be marketed correctly then it could reach to audiences that we didn’t even expect would want to see our film.

You can never be sure of how many different types of demographics are going to enjoy a certain a film until after it has been released. You can never predict how people are going to react to it and if people who react in a positive way to it will encourage more people to see it. However as a group we believe that ‘Rising Fear’ is a pretty versatile film that seems to be wholesome and from the responses that we’ve got from students and teachers that have seen the opening they found it entertaining and above all else tense and suspenseful.

I think our film would appeal to a wide and varied audience, because of the fact that it’s not just a conventional thriller film but develops and changes what is usually seen in films of the thriller genre.

What social class of people would watch your film?

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