Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When looking at our main victim, Charlotte, we tried to think of who she was most similar to compared to other characters from other films of similar genres. We chose to compare her to the female victim from Taken, who was kidnapped by unknown antagonists. Both characters are stereotypical to the role of a horror/thriller genre.While Charlotte wears a school uniform, the victim is shown to be wearing comfortable clothing, the audience would recognise these characters as teenagers, unexpected of what is to happen next. Both characters are portrayed as young, vulnerable females who are oblivious to the danger they are under, the audience would feel sympathy for these young girls as they know they have the potential to be taken. The female audience especially would recognise and relate to the two female characters, as they can relate the characters experience to themselves forcing the audience to feel sympathy for the victims. The male audience would also be interested in the film due to the Male Gaze Theory, if men find the main female characters attractive, they maybe influenced to watch the film as they would view both characters as eye candy or be persuaded by their beauty to watch the film. Other similarities between characters are that they both are involved in dramatic events, both being the main characters, action revolves around them and without them, the film would have not plot and would not be able to follow the structure of a film. Both characters are placed in recognisable settings, one in the space of her own homer and the other in a forest leading to her house. The only slight different between this is that our character Charlotte would be classed as in a more vulnerable space, the dark and ominous forest could possibly foreshadow the later events of Charlotte's kidnapping compared to the other who is in the comfort of her own home but it still vulnerable to the dangers around her. Despite all of the similarities, both characters are set in different genres, our character being placed into a more horror based genre, whereas the other girl from the movie Taken, is based on more or a Thriller film. This could suggest that Charlotte, from Follow Your Tracks is most likely to face a more severe fate compared the other other main character from a Thriller film.