Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups

Our production I feel does play to certain social stereotypes. For example the film is set in rural England so it is unlikely to see a vast number of people from a different ethnic background. Therefore everyone in the film is from a white British background.

In regards to gender, The film has an all male cast. I feel this is more due to conventions of the detective genre as  stereotypically, the detective partnerships consist of two men.      

       

Examples of other films using a male partnership for detectives are

Bad boys

and Sherlock Holmes

                                                                         

The characters themselves are stereotypical men of action. My character is aggressive, loud and passionate. James' character is the stereotypical older detective, acting as the guiding hand for his younger, less experienced partner. Again for this I took inspiration from Lethal Weapon. As in that Riggs is the younger, more reckless one of the duo. Whereas Murtagh is the calmer father figure to Riggs. We wanted a similar feel with our detectives.

In our film there aren't any female co-stars. This is again due to the convention of male partnerships. This provides stereotypical male dominance. examples of portraying females as weaker is Bad boys.

 this is an example of a stereotype as it shows a woman struggling in a fight and being scared.

As for physical ability I feel we went against the stereotype. Stereotypically the disabled aren't used as detectives. They are portrayed as victims or in the case of  Unbreakable, the villain.

  

We went against the stereotype as we cast a disabled person as the protagonist. It shows how despite any physical handicap I can play any part as well as or better than any able bodied actors playing a detective e.g Edward Norton in Red Dragon. 

Our film  (Desperation)

Red Dragon.

Another example of a disabled protagonist in a detective film is Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector. Overall I feel having a disabled protagonist portrays disabled people in a very positive light, showing how any handicap doesn't need to influence the character or casting the actor in the first place. 

Age is another stereotype we played to. Our detectives are mid twenties to late thirties. This due to continuity because of the level the detectives are at it would have taken years of work to get there. Examples of older detectives are Bob Hoskins in Who framed Roger Rabbit.

Our victim was scripted as being in his forties. This is I feel slightly stereotypical as the older person is the victim.However there are examples of having an older person as the hero rather than the victim. Michael Caine in Harry Brown for example:

   

In regards to Sexuality, all are Characters and actors are hedro-sexual. In detective films there are few gay people as the protagonist. Often things are implied such as the relationship between Holmes and Watson in the TV version of Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock

 

Other than that either gay characters or gay actors are used as comic relief such as Stephen Fry in Sherlock Holmes 2 : A game of Shadows. I feel not including gay people isn't discrimination all it meant is having a gay character would not have suited the film.

  

Overall I feel no one has been discriminated against in our picture and any social group excluded have been excluded for good reasons on our part or reasons beyond our control