Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We targeted our production towards the age group of 15-45 year olds, we started our age range at fifteen as it links in to film ratings given by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), with one of the age certificates being 15, we decided on this age as we wanted to include in our production more mature themes such as violence which we didn't think appropriate for the next descending age certificate, 12. The age certificate of 15 allows us to include "strong violence, frequent strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking", taken from the BBFC. As a group we thought that the age range could apply to middle-age people as well as they can still enjoy the thrill out of spy-thrillers and looking at the franchise 'James Bond' most middle-age people would have been brought up on spy-thrillers. This was also the age range of the interviewees who took part in our vox pop to determine what people look for in thrillers.
We are aiming towards the psychographic 'explorers' and 'strugglers' as they seek adventure, escape from their everyday lives, so would be looking for something they can be engrossed in that allows them to forget the reality of life, and energy; explorers are often the first to try out new products so they would be keen to see new thrilling movies that keep you on the edge of your seat, they are mainly comprised of younger demographics such as students. The demographics we are aiming towards are C2 and below as they would more likely be seeking excitement and escape from their lifestyles, these demographics are made up of skilled manual workers, semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, unemployed, students, pensioners and casual workers.

This is our killer, his identity is never revealed and is quite an enigmatic character never fully revealing if he is the hero or villain. Our intentions were to make him a hero, however he is a hero that doesn’t mess about and gets the job done, no matter how tough or merciless; a similar character from a thriller movie would be James Bond, he too doesn't take a particular moral high ground he just gets the job done despite casualties, he is seen as emotionless and remorseless. To show that he is a hero we put him in a suit to show that he cares about his look and so that the audience can make the association to James Bond as he is also often seen wearing a tailored suit. Quite a few of the shots we took of the hero were low-angle to show that he had the power and the upper-hand which is what an audience would expect a hero to be, more powerful than his opponent in order to win. He is portrayed by a fairly young actor as we wanted the character to have a youthful energy about him and we felt this was quite a refreshing
take from the stereotypical middle-age hero. He is dressed in a suit which symbolises his status and well paid job, he dresses smartly so represents the wealthy upper-class that spies are often shown to be. The sole prop used by this character is the air rifle, showing a strong connection to that particular prop and that it is quite important in his lifestyle, it is all he is carrying on him so may be viewed as his safety or defence. He is filmed in a secluded woodland location showing that he isn't afraid to get dirty for his job and also emphasises the idea of him being isolated and far from help and civilisation.

This is our victim, he too is an enigmatic character, keeping the audience guessing if he is on the side of the allies or enemies. Our intentions were to make him an enemy target however to make him appear as harmless so that the audience questions the actions and intentions of the hero, make the hero seem more of a rogue. This character is also a young adolescent male, this is to make him seem an equal to the hero. The characters appearance is well-kept and he is dressed smartly showing that he too is also from the wealthy upper-class that are stereotypical of spies. His identity was revealed late into the opening as we wanted to keep it as much of a mystery as possible but to get the connection between this character and the character the hero is stalking facial features wild need to be identified so that a comparison can be made between the victim and his photos found on the killers desk. The props used by the victim are a newspaper, mug and file of the hero claimed to be dead; the newspaper is another symbol of the middle to upper class and the mug connotes that he is in a relaxed state whereas the file is highly important and shows irony as the viewers can see that the hero said to be deceased is in fact alive. The location he is shown in is at home in a comfortable atmosphere that is viewed and safe which becomes ironic as he is shot down towards the end of the opening whilst still in his home.