Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided to link our protagonist to the character Kim from Taken. Kim is a 17 year old girl, who is very dependent on her father. Her father Bryan Mills, played by Liam Neeson retired from the CIA, in order to spend more time with his daughter. This intern, makes Kim appear even more vulnerable, as she cannot fend for herself, and is very much dependent on her father to protect her. We chose to use the film "Taken" as it played a huge influence on our production. Taken is one of the worlds most popular thriller films, resulting in Taken 2 and 3 being produced in later years from the first release. We gained a lot of inspiration, whether it was from the mise en scene of what the characters are wearing, or the content that is involved in the film.  We felt that stereotypes in films are hugely important, as they reflect on how the media and society can view certain characters. Kim is portrayed as being very innocent, dependent and vulnerable. We wanted to reflect this through our protagonist in our film, and we feel we have done this successfully.


Appearance wise, our protagonist didn't look identical to Kim from Taken, but we feel her characteristics, and mise en scene do contribute towards Kim's appearance. Audiences watching thriller films, always expect a vulnerable girl as girls are stereo typically seen as the weaker sex. Kim has blonde hair, which is stereo typically seen as attractive and connotes beauty and wealth in society. However, in the first and second Taken films, Kim has brown hair, which is similar to our protagonists hair. We didn't want to completely replicate the whole of Kim's appearance , as we wanted to add our own individuality in our film. Kim is usually wearing simplistic, everyday clothing, such as day tops, jeans and jackets. The jacket of Kim's in Taken 1, was very significant, as it was noticeable to her. When Kim gets kidnapped, her father recoginses her jacket, and results in him finding her. This links to our film due to the prop of the dog. The dog lead gets dropped, meaning that the dog runs away. Later in the film, our antagonist states "The dog got away". We used this as it leaves the audience suspicious of where the dog  has gone. Could the dog have gone to get help? We feel that using the dog to leave our audience on a cliff hanger was really effective. As mentioned, Kim is wearing very simplistic clothing, which makes her seem ordinary and just a normal teenage girl. This adds to the innocence towards Kim's character, as she doesn't seem any different from any other teenage girl in our generation. Having Kim's mise en scene be similar to our protagonists, means that the audience can relate to our character more, meaning that they can fully engage themselves as if they were Tara in that situation, and be able to experience the suspense and dramatic climax that I feel is reflected in our film. Our protagonist is also wearing very simplistic clothing, such as a big, warm coat ( which most people wear during the winter months), black jeans which is also worn by many people in today's society, including the male sex, and boots, which conforms to why Tara is in the woods. Wearing everyday clothing makes Tara seem no different from any other girl, suggesting that an attack on her would be unusual as she doesn't look like she would be involved in anything danger related. Our protagonist is also small, which reinforces the innocence and vulnerability behind the character, as being smaller, people immediately associate them to be weaker and more inferior which makes the audience sympathise with that particular character. (This is also one of the reasons why our protagonist was given a lot of prevalence.)

Walking your dog is a very simple and yet ordinary activity to do, which means that the audience can relate to our protagonist. This is effective, as it means that our target audience can put themselves into the protagonists shoes, so they experience the same emotions that Tara is feeling. The dog adds innocence and a purpose to why Tara is in the woods. Kim in Taken, tends to rely on other people, whether it be her mum, dad or her friends. Our protagonist relies on her friends a lot, as we can see this through our film when Tara is going to meet her friend, suggesting that she is dependent on her friends and other people around her. Based around the setting around Kim in Taken, she is situated in America. America is a huge continent, with many countries inside of it. In Taken 1, Kim goes to Paris with her best friend, and then gets kidnapped from inside her hotel room. This is a key difference between our film and Taken. The setting can help bring up the tension and suspense. For example, our film is set in a woods, which connotes danger and creates sinister emotions, however Taken is filmed in urban areas, such as streets, town centers and alleyways. This then suggests that there is more people around in Taken, compared to our film, there is no one around.