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

Meg Altmen                                                                                                  

Suffering through a painful divorce from her husband.

Age: 35

Occupation: pharmaceutical millionaire

Likes: Having a drink and being with her daughter.

Aimee Hodges

Interested in learning people

Age: 19

Occupation: Pychologist

 Likes: Reading & Socialising


My opening was based on a female who was being watched by her every move. She was seen as innocent female but who knows ‘what happens behind closed doors’. As far as the audience know the female was an innocent woman who was being watched however inconspicuously she had something that had a value of importance to someone in particular (the male actor). This is similar to the actors in the thriller film ‘Panic Room’ starring Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart. The similarities I found were between the female actors mainly. Reasons being the two actors in the ‘Panic Room’ also have something that a group of several burglars want in their case ‘money’. One night when the burglars think the house is empty they attempt to break in and get the money. However what they don’t know is that the mother and daughter are in fact in but their asleep.  Basically the mother wakes up to the sounds of someone breaking in so she grabs her daughter and they make their way to the panic room- in time before the burglars reach it. In my ideas I felt that the female’s emotions/feelings were similar in both films as they both experience fear and attacks.

The differences between the two are the fact that I only created a short sequence and only so much happened in that in order to really see how the characters compare but there is enough footage in order to see that they both experience similar emotions. In terms of appearance and costume between the female actors there aren’t really any similarities however between the burglars and the male actor in my sequence there is.

The costume and appearance of the male actor in my sequence had a very similar costume to one of the burglars in the ‘Panic Room’. The costume designs were made to all dark (black)this included wearing a black jacket (zipped up), with a black top underneath, black gloves (even if there were not to be seen visible) because robbers or any persons committing a planned crime would wear gloves to prevent leaving any finger marks, black shoes and trousers. The reason for the black clothing stereotypically describes a burglar even in cartoon films. Although the crime committed in my sequence was not a burglary the appearance could help foreshadow a type of burglary or similar crime for further on in the film.

The characteristics followed by the idea of a burglar or someone committing a crime were used through my sequence through camera shots of the actor ‘watching’ the female on her walk home. Similarly to the ‘Panic Room’ there burglars were meant to have been keeping a close eye on the house and to have made sure that no one was in this films case the mother and daughter were not due to be moving in until the following day.

The Panic Room Trailer