Hikmat Mohammed - Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We created a character who was able to be identified by our audience, therefore, we created the outcast,who is our protagonist, he is eager to be part of society again, and not to be looked down upon because of his past.

Social Group - Men
Role - Criminals/Assassins 
Representation - Powerful, violent, cold, underhand

1. Assassins/Criminals

There are two very common stereotypes of :

• The professional ones we do not suspect
  
• The  ones we do suspect, and every neighborhood has them

As a group we agreed on the decision that our character is being isolated into one group: criminals. We wanted to break the character from this, forming this character helped us create a story-line which puts the protagonist through a journey.
The sartorial code of our protagonist is cliched in thriller genres, we chose this to allow our target audience to understand our protagonist we made.

2. Middle Aged Men As Assassins/Criminals

Additionally, our protagonist is middle aged, he is coming towards the moment in life where he thinks about the decisions he has made, and tries to set them right. We did not change this stereotype because it creates the powerful theme of regrets.

Our protagonist has similar qualities of Frank Martin from The Transporter franchise. Martin is not an assassin but on his journeys he assassinates in order to save people. Whereas, our protagonist Charles Drake assassinates by given orders, and now is trying to run away from that life because of the guilt.

The voice-over of our protagonist hints guilt, and grief. We decided to use a voice-over because it brings in the audience into what the character is really thinking.

3. Men

Over the decades thrillers have been filled with men because of the past, and the power men conquered. Recently, women have taken over the crime scene like in the mystery thriller TV series Revenge, and film-stars like Angelina Jolie in Wanted. We wanted to take back assassination back to its basics. 

Charles Drake represents the classical assassin whose only fear is guilt. 

This is stereotypical of men in the thriller genre because Drake represents both the modern and classical assassin, which allows our audience to understand.

4. Technical Areas

Camerawork:- 

The wide shots, and close ups, contrast each other. The wide shots are an ideal of the life he wants to be living, however, the close ups show the life he is living and is trapped in. 

Editing:- 

The fast paste editing in the first half of the sequence shows the hectic life. On the other half of the sequence, the cuts are slower which again emphassies the ideal of a more steady life.

Sound:-

The voice-over of Charles Drake brings the audience closer to the character mentally, and it also a convention to hear the thoughts of the character.

Mise-en-scene:-

The open space is a representation of freedom, and the isolation in the dark is his prison that he cannot escape;