2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The detective, our main character, is dressed as a conventional 50’ detective. We wanted the audience to know who this man is and what he does, so the story becomes obvious to them.



This is who we wanted our main character to look like, a stereotypical 50’s detective. And as you can see in the still above, we have darkened the side of his face, adding drama as well as mystery.

This car looks like it’s from the 50’s, so its keeping in with the noire style theme. It also looks as if it would be quite expensive in that period, suggesting the owner is financially stable. And you also don’t find out who the owner is straight away creating a slither of mystery in that short space of time.

We also leave the audience to figure out who this woman is, but again, help them, using stereotypical conventions. She is a typical housewife from the 1950’s, we tried to show this by dressing her in a summer dress and cardigan which we thought would fit the fashion in that time period well. We have dressed her as feminine as possible, this will help add a sense of vulnerability to her. You can see part of the house from this shot, and it looks as if this couple live in a well looked after house, which is telling us more about these characters. We wanted them to look like a young couple living in the sub-burbs, close to where the main character works, whilst still living in an isolated area.

Again, we dressed the murderer very stereotypically, as he’s wearing a black woolly hat, a brown heavy jacket and just generally looks dirty. We thought this would make him look more like a villain, poor, desperate, and it would be better than if he just looked normal. The trees in the background show that behind the house there is nowhere to run, so the audience might be able to predict the outcome from this situation. In previous shots we can see the characters in the comfort of a well looked after house, perhaps showing a sense of safety but when the Thief (the villain) comes into shot properly it is outside in the cold surrounded by trees and the harsh environment. This shows that the characters are not in a comfortable, safe environment anymore and anything can happen.
Our whole opening, including the flashbacks, are in black and white, as we wanted our opening to look like the start of a detective, noire style thriller.