2 Representation of Social Groups

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main character in our film opening to Home was a soldier, now discharged. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. His gender requires him to be strong and unflappable; however, he is suffering silently from a serious mental illness.He is young, lower middle class and white. Home is set in an urban, modern environment.

I believe that in our opening, gender is portrayed in a stereotypical way as conforming to the stereotype that men have to be strong and dominant which is the main problem with the soldier. As he is not able to talk to anyone about his problems, he is slowly deteriorating. I also believe that as there is a limited amount of time for our opening to convey certain messages or themes stereotyping is an almost necessary component of our opening, to establish a possibly relatable reason for this person to be this way and for the audience to understand his plight. A character that we were inspired by was John Watson, from the BBC interpretation of Sherlock, portrayed by Martin Freeman as in the first season. Watson is an ex-soldier who is suffering from PTSD and is desperate as his pension is running out. 

Our protagonist has a girlfriend to act as a clear juxtaposition and we will aid the audience in understanding the strain that is put on their relationship as a result of Brown’s mental illness. In the flashback before the soldier went to war.The girlfriend is in her late teens.

For research, I have created a Pinterest account and collected several images which relate to our opening. Pinterest is a particularly useful tool as, with a chrome extension, any image can be located and added to your Pinterest ‘board’ to form a themed and practical bank of inspiration and information. As I will be collecting user submissions on Pinterest I can accurately find out the general representation of soldiers to the public.

For my character in my film opening entitled Home, we decided to give our protagonist a questionnaire in order to develop his character further. We looked at an article written by Charlie Sierra, a screenshot of which is above, about such questionnaires, and he quoted a book written by Pen Densham (an Academy Award nominated filmmaker) entitled "Riding the Alligator". In one of the chapters in the book, he provides a checklist of questions every writer and director should ask themselves when they are developing their characters. The purpose of this is to outline a deep understanding of your characters for both the actors and director and for motivating your character’s choices or actions.

As my film opening features a recently discharged soldier who had been serving in Afganistan for two years the interview will feature an insight into how Corporal Brown feels about finally being home after what seemed like an eternity and the effect that war had on him.

The script that Tom and I wrote for our character interview;

Interviewer: Corporal Brown, how long was your tenure in Afganistan?

Corporal Brown: It was 2 years. Not as long as most but it felt like forever, like I'd never be home.

Interviewer: And what does it make you feel now that you're home again?

Corporal Brown: I don't know. I don't want to use service as an excuse but it's hard to come home from war. All the death and screaming that I have seen really changes you. I feel as if I could never look at myself in the mirror again.

Interviewer: Why couldn't you look at yourself again?

Corporal Brown: The life that I took. The life that ended right in front of me. I can't get away from them. I still see them when I close my eyes. They're never going to leave my head