How Does Your Media Product Represent Paticular Social Groups?
As we modernised our noir film we decided that instead of having a typical everyman we would modernise the main protagonist as well. This challenges the convention of a typical everyman as he is quite wealthy and is not shown to be weak or flawed within the opening title sequence due to a femme fatal. We decided not to have the main protagonist as a white American/British as we wanted to challenge the conventions of a typical everyman, by doing this we showed the main protagonist is not always a white male and in the present day people are more diverse. Doing this it makes the film more interesting as it slightly different from a typical noir film. The detective is shown to have a high class due to the watch and outfit, however the scenes in which the detective is shown, he is always sitting down and working which can relate to the working class as well. His outfit is typical for an everyman as he is wearing a shirt and tie which implies status. The detective is also a young male which is typical for an Everyman as it shows they can be quite vulnerable and easily manipulated, we did not decide to shown his vulnerability in the opening title sequence that much however as we wanted to show more of the villain in the Opening title sequence to make it more engaging and to create more enigmas, which is what an opening title sequence is meant to do. We decided to use a male for our main protagonist as our production as the target audience prefers watching someone similar to them so they can relate to them.
The Detective - The Everyman
The Villain is shown often to help create enigmas in our opening title sequence. We purposely didn't specify if he was a murderer, kidnapper or terrorist so it wouldn't spoil the plot at the beginning but also so it was left to interpretation by the audience. The criminal was shown to be in control, which was done by body language and different height levels. We used a few low angles to make him seem more powerful to create a sense of danger. We also gave him a typical villain outfit and showed him in all black to show his evilness. As our noir film was slightly modernised we gave a typical modern mask so the audience in the present day could relate him to a villain, this also disguised his identity as well to create an enigma. He was outfitted with gloves as well to show that he was also intelligent as well as he didn't want to get caught and portrayed him as a professional as well like typical henchmen in noir films. The location in which the hostages are held was cluttered with objects in the background to show that the villain was a working class villain and was not wealthy. For props we gave the villain a gun to show his authority and also because that it a typical convention of a noir film as villains did not use other weapons.
The Criminal - The Villain
The hostages were hidden and not shown to have identities so they were made to look expendable. We placed the audience in the role of the victims so although they were expendable it still created empathy towards them. This was done by: showing a point of view shot at the villain through the hoods, sound of heartbeat and the intense music. We used high angles on the hostages to show how helpless they are and weak. We also wanted them to be white British so they looked just a like civilian which is a typical convention. The location of the hostage scene was small and made too look confined to give a sense of danger.
The Hostages - The victims
