QUESTION 2 By William Jackson

SOCIAL GROUPS/CLASSES• A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics

and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics. Social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and status. Sociologists typically use three methods to determine social class

The lower class: The lower class is typified by poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. People of this class, few of whom have finished high school, suffer from lack of medical care, adequate housing and food, decent clothing, safety, and vocational training.

The working class: The working class are those minimally educated people who engage in “manual labour” with little or no prestige. Unskilled workers in the class usually are underpaid and have no opportunity for career advancement. They are often called the working poor. Skilled workers are often called blue collar workers. They seem to earn more money that workers in middle class.

The Middle class: The middle class are the “sandwich” class. These white collar workers have more money than those below them on the “social ladder,” but less than those above them. They divide into two levels according to wealth, education, and prestige. The lower middle class is often made up of less educated people with lower incomes, such as managers, small business owners, teachers, and secretaries. The upper middle class is often made up of highly educated business and professional people with high incomes, such as doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, and CEOs

The upper class: This class divides into two groups: lower‐upper and upper‐upper. The lower‐upper class includes those with “new money,” or money made from investments, business ventures, and so forth. The upper‐upper class includes those aristocratic and “high‐society” families with “old money” who have been rich for generations. These extremely wealthy people live off the income from their inherited riches. The upper‐upper class is more prestigious than the lower‐upper class.

Within our media product I believe we have represented the main character, Joel, as if he was in the Lower Class, because the area in which we filmed in is an abandon building in a mysterious woodland area. Also the clothing in which Joel wore was almost referred to as “slobby”. The clothing was not clean meaning that he could have been homeless for some time now, which he has been. Another reason why Joel is in lower class is because he has suffered from the loss of loved ones and also insanity. This is the stereotypical behaviour a lot of homeless people have If we were to watch the whole movie Joel and his family would be classed as middle class. They are a fairly normal looking/acting family.

OUR MEDIA PRODUCT SOCIAL CLASS

AGE In many horror films there are actors/characters of all ages. The younger characters are usually represented and the more venerable characters and are usually the ones to be evolved around. On the other hand the older characters are usually seen as the danger or threat, because they are the ones who are physically capable to “hurt” someone else. Within our film opening, we have used two different characters both of different ages. Firstly there is Bonnie who is of the age 5-6, in the film opening she is represented as the opposite to what the younger generation is in other horror films. She challenges stereotypes in this movie because she seems to be the more dominant character of the two, and is the one “manipulating" Joel.Then there is Joel who is roughly the age of 35 is represented as the weaker, more feeble character in the film opening. But Joel in our film opening is still the threat, but he is a threat to no one because he has already killed Bonnie. This means we have followed the trend in which other horror films go by and use the older character as the bigger threat or the more dangerous.

GENDERIn many horror film, both male and female are represented in very different

ways. The male’s are most commonly the known as the strong, bold, hero type character, the one who always seems to save the day. This make the female gender look a lot more submissive. The females are typically represented as the easily scared and they can usually be the first to die. But in some horror films it would be the opposite way around because they want to challenge typical conventions.

In our film opening we have sort of challenged the typical conventions, we have done this by making the male the less dominant character, because he is the one who is scared and mentally weak and vulnerable. The female (although she is dead) is the stronger, braver character because she seems to be the fearless one in this situation whereas the male is in a lot of distress.

MENTAL ABILITY In a lot of horror films, certain characters are presented with some sort of mental

disability. These sort of characters are not found in all horrors but only specific sub-genres such as Psychological and serial killer. They are not usually found within Ghost and science fiction horrors, this is because they typically contain supernatural characters. Male characters are usually presented as ‘mentally stable’. Whereas the females are usually the ones to struggle the most, because they are stereotypically not as strong minded as males.

In our film opening the mental ability of the main character Joel is not very stable. We have challenged another convention. Whereas the male characters are usually presented as strong and independent but we have portrayed him to be unable to cope with anything and isn’t able to do much for himself.

Females are usually classed as the weaker gender, but within our film opening our female character, Bonnie, is a very strong minded and able to act for herself. She is able to help her dad who previously murdered her.

CONCLUSIONIn conclusion throughout our whole film opening we have challenged and

developed typical stereotypes that are found in horror films. In some aspects we have reversed the roles. The male in our film opening was shown to be completely different to what males are typically like in horrors and the same with our female, her role in our film is usually played by a male but we have decided to challenge typical conventions.