RA: [QUESTION 2] How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What social groups are present in our opening?

The protagonists are all:

• Females
• Teenagers
• Middle class
• White

Males are present in our opening as two of the corpses and the main zombie.

The zombies are also teenagers, and two of the corpses are children. There are no adults present in our opening.

How are the social groups represented? Are they depicting traditional gender roles or challenging social norms?

• The young females are represented as strong and intelligent, as they are the only known survivors of the apocalypse. This is an example of emergent ideology in our piece. In many texts, female protagonists are either love interests for the male characters, or in need of being saved: the 'damsel in distress' stereotype. This therefore challenges traditional gender roles of women being reliant on men.
• One reading of our opening could be that males are antagonised as the only male character in the opening is that of the main zombie.
• The fact that the only survivors are young females challenges social norms, as you would probably expect the most strong, intelligent and capable social type to be an adult male.

How is this representation constructed in the opening?

Mise-en-scene

The costumes of the protagonists represent them as strong and realistic women, as they are all wearing jeans or shorts. Often in films, teenage girls would have a costume of skirts or dresses which represent them as feminine or sexualised, so our characters are anti-stereotypical in this way.

Non-Verbal Language

Our protagonists, particularly Imogen and Alexis, seem unafraid by the situation they've found themselves in at the beginning of the piece. We can see this from their stoic facial expression and nonchalant posture. This connotes a fearless element, making the protagonists seem strong and heroic.

Sound

Alexis' dialogue in her monologue presents her as the leader of the group, connoting her mental strength, intelligence and bravery. It also creates character exposition for her character, which positions the audience with her, creating empathy for the female protagonist. She is also the first person to speak within the opening, which represents her as the main character of the film.

Camera

The very first shot of the opening is a close-up of a dead girl on the floor. This immediately presents connotations of a sinister and evil situation, as children- particularly little girls- represent innocence and happiness. So this use of semiotics creates a feeling of fear in the audience.

Editing

In post-production, we darkened the footage of the first time you see the zombie in the doorway. We did this to give the introduction of the zombie a menacing and dark feeling. The footage is also cropped so as to show a disjointed view of the zombie, creating fear of the unknown.