2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In ‘Intruder’, the way that gender and ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are represented go hand in hand. Traditionally, in majority of Noir Thriller films, for example; Psycho and Once Upon a Time in America (with Eve being killed within the first two minutes of the film) women are shown as being the helpless victim, often being killed in their own homes perhaps showing them to be naive or unintelligent. However, some films such as The Third Man and Gilda use a Femme fatale used to cleverly lure in the generic male villain. They are often beautiful, mysterious and dangerous; knowing much more than what initially comes across. This is shown in The Third Man with Anna knowing more about Harry Lime’s whereabouts than let on. This Femme Fatale character is taken to the extreme in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume Two with the Bride taking on a predominately masculine character, seeking revenge on her old boss Bill, not letting anyone stop her, and often killing whoever gets in her way. Despite these variations in the way women are represented, for ‘Intruder’ I have chosen to use the more traditional female victim character. This is because I feel the location used and my actress reflects Psycho in the way that the man comes into her house killing her whilst her attention is on something else, for example in my film, she is looking at the bracelet, and Psycho, Marion Crane is in the shower. The effect of using this intertextual reference and making the female character the victim is so that the audience can relate to her. It is much easier for a woman to relate to someone, who is victimised in her own home, as opposed to a character such as the Bride in Kill Bill, or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Although before, the female audience may not have seen themselves as being in danger in their own homes, after the Joanna Yeates case, they may be forced to think twice about their safety and who to trust which will be reinforced on viewing ‘Intruder’. The fact that Jo- my female character- appears to be middle class; having a good job and a nice flat in the middle in the middle of a city also shows the audience how it is not just lower class females who are attacked, shown again by the fact that Joanna Yeates lived in an affluent part of Bristol and was an architect- a very well respected and highly paid job.
  I have also used traditional conventions of the male being the one to carry out the murder represented as the ‘evil’ in the opening. This, once again is to allow the audience to relate. For example, most murders of women carried out in the home, are carried out by men, with the female audience being afraid of a man breaking into her home, not a fellow female.
However, despite the fact that the opening is centred around the female victim, if I had more time to extend ‘Intruder’, I may have decided after this murder, to turn round the roles of victim and shown the man who carried out the murder as being the victim.

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