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

Our chosen social group to represent is teenagers. We chose this particular group because we felt that teenagers get bad representations within the media, and by creating our film, we have exaggerated these stereotypes to show how negative stereotypes could in fact create negative behaviour. We have represented our chosen social group by bringing in modern technologies that teenagers today would use and be able to relate to the emotions these technologies create. One of these technologies was Facebook, we used Facebook to show that 'Sarah' had moved on, and was now in a new relationship. Many teenagers have discovered that their ex-partner is in a new relationship this way, so the audience would be able to relate to the anger and frustration the kidnapper would feel. We have also used everyday situations that an 18 year old girl would be doing - having relationships, and going out with friends.

The location we used for our opening sequence allowed us to easily represent our chosen social group. Part of our sequence was based in Wrexham Town Centre, where Sarah was out with her friends. This is very easy for our audience to relate to, as most 18 year old girls would be going out to town with their friends. Other ways we used mise-en-scene to represent our social group was the costume we dressed our actress, Lowri, who played Sarah in clothes that are available on the high street. Therefore, this makes it instantly easier for the viewers to relate to Sarah as an ordinary person. Props, such as using an iPhone also showed a clear representation of our group - teenagers.

Other representations in the media, which are similar to our film include; Taken and The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Both these films show a young girl being kidnapped, therefore having similar themes to our film. 

The media often depicts teenagers to be anger and love fuelled problems to society. As a group, we wanted people to be aware that if stereotypes in the media are repeated too much, teenagers will act in this way. We have taken the idea to the extreme, to show how love can lead to obsession, and at what point could this become dangerous? We hope people understand how a normal situation, such as going out with friends, and getting into new relationships can take a turn for the worse. Audiences will be able to relate to the pain that the kidnapper is feeling, but also empathise with Sarah wanting to move on from her past.

A teenager in an existing film with a similar genre, compared to Sarah in Missed Calls:



'Sarah' in Missed Calls



Comparing Film: 'Kim' in Taken