Representation by Joshua Hurst

The media including film and movies present different type of

people in different ways normally basing their appearance and
personality on stereotypes. This is because the public associate
certain things and actions with particular people so it is easy to
convey to the audience the characters personality by using well
known and sometimes inaccurate stereotypes. There are many
different categories which have stereotypes; gender, sexuality,
ethnicity, class and status, disability/ability, age and regional
identity.
An example of a stereotypes used in films are disable people
portrayed as weak, incapable and inferior towards able bodied
people. This is because of them being displayed as dependent
on able bodied people. However, many disable people are
physically and mentally very strong and superior over the able
bodied. For example, athletes in the Paralympics.
Even males and females are shown differently through
television and film. Men are normally the protagonist and the
one saving the day because they are seen as stronger and
more intelligent than females. However the antagonist (villain)
is also normally a man with something unique about him like an
accent. In contrast females are displayed usually as helpless
and dim witted and normally the ones who need saving, the
damsels in distress . However, these stereotypes are not a fair
representation on gender roles in society because there are
many female bosses and female police officers who have
dominance over men.
In our opening scene we are portraying the little girl as helpless
and innocent because of her size and youth. This is evident by
her texting her mum to take her home as she is incapable of
doing this herself. She is also seen as defenceless and that
anyone could overpower her displaying her vulnerability to the
audience making them empathise with her more. Also this will
make the audience feel protective of her as if she was their own
child. In the next part shes appears she is displayed as being

physically incapable of inflicting harm on anyone through. The

use of a high angle shot showing her petite figure emphasizes
this displaying how she is smaller than most things.

In our opening scene we have a tall broad male playing the

antagonist in clothing which limits you being able to see him.
His size makes him intimidating and presents him as strong so
that he could overpower most characters. The audience will
associate him with danger because of how he is covered up.
This represents him as being mysterious and adds fear and
peril to the film because of how the audience are unsure of the
appearance. We have used a tall broad covered up man
because in society people would be wary of him because he is
seen to be a threat to anyone.

The representations of the different characters in our opening

sequence are instantly clear to the audience because we have
based them on real stereotypes making it easy to interpret the
persona and personality of them. Basing the characters in our
opening sequence on stereotypes and pre-conceived
perceptions which people have to certain individuals makes it
easier because it means there is no need to display any sort of
back story.