Reflective Evaluation Question 2 Social Representation

Films have always followed traditional stereotypes concerncing age/race/gender and so on, the main ones do include the stereotype that men are always the "hero"(not the victim in terms of horror) whilst women are more of a "damsel in distress" and much weaker and vulnerable then men, however many films purposely portray characters to go against these stereotypes in order to add a sense of personal feeling for a larger range of people as in the past many films would have only be targeted at a single gender, and whilst films are still targeted at particular groups( Target Audiences) they try to represent everyone more equally now to gain wider audiences. However there are still many cases where the stereotypes are followed and characters represented in the similar ways and a lot of the time these representations follow societies view on certain aspects for example teenagers will always be represented in a different way to an older generation according to the way society sees these two groups. The clips below show how some of these representations are portrayed or challenged in recent horror films

Examples
This clip from zombie land represents teenagers in a typical way of being stupid, and making bad decisions as the main character puts himself in harms way needlessly. however it also keeps the traditional stereotypes of males as he does carry a gun and is able to protect himself to an extent, but unlike most films this male character is potentially portrayed as the victim and vulnerable as he is all alone. This scene especially shows that aspect of the film and shows his desperation to escape and the clear fear within his facial expressions which is unusual for the usual"macho male" style that men are usually portrayed as and are normally supposed to be unafraid and brave. The film continues this stereotype throughout and many times shows the "Stupidity" of the younger generation with the introduction of a female the same age as the main male character, however she is represented in a completely different way to him and he is represented as a much more feminine character then usual male characters and so challenging stereotypes.

This clip from resident evil challenges stereotypes as it does throughout the whole film for a number of reasons. The first is that the main character throughout is a female however she is represented in the way you would expect males to be and unlike many males in the film she survives and fights for her life on several occasions showing the "heroism" normally portrayed by men. In this particular clip she fights the threat by herself without hesitation and clearly represents her in a different light to the stereotypical weak women usually seen in films, and is shown to be very strong and a skilful fighter and so challenges the stereotype of women being vulnerable and always needing help from men to get out of danger.

















The clip from our film represents gender in a non-stereotypical way because the two male characters are uncharacteristically scared of the threat and instead of being the usual "male hero" try to escape from it without attempting to fight or kill it and is similar to the characteristics shown by the main character in the clip of zombie land. It also represents age as both the characters are of similar ages however they also do not follow the normal representations of teenagers as they are not shown to be stupid or reckless and try to escape.

Evaluation Question 4 & 5 Audience & IMDB user ratings (Harrison Lee)

	Dawn of the Dead Votes	When creating a film it's important to know your audience and their like/dislikes, therefore we have researched what audience we would like to aim our film at by looking at the ratings given to similar films on imdb.com and looking at what we are allowed to actually use in our film according to the official bbfc ratings. Average
Males	38,496	8.1
Females	3,470	7.3
Aged under 18	444	8.6
Males under 18	397	8.7
Females under 18	44	7.8
Aged 18-29	21,283	8.2
Males Aged 18-29	19,476	8.2
Females Aged 18-29	1,698	7.7
Aged 30-44	16,920	8.0
Males Aged 30-44	15,540	8.0
Females Aged 30-44	1,243	7.5
Aged 45+	3,232	7.2
Males Aged 45+	2,751	7.3
Females Aged 45+	443	5.8
IMDb staff	6	8.6
Top 1000 voters	651	7.5
US users	17,477	8.1
Non-US users	23,505	8.0
IMDb users	52,222	8.0

            

                           Day of the Dead 

Votes	Average
Males	20,977	7.1
Females	1,504	6.9
Aged under 18	188	7.8
Males under 18	178	7.8
Females under 18	10	7.2
Aged 18-29	11,560	7.3
Males Aged 18-29	10,737	7.3
Females Aged 18-29	769	7.3
Aged 30-44	9,312	6.9
Males Aged 30-44	8,683	6.9
Females Aged 30-44	560	6.7
Aged 45+	1,380	6.4
Males Aged 45+	1,207	6.5
Females Aged 45+	152	6.2
Top 1000 voters	549	6.6
US users	8,670	7.0
Non-US users	13,341	7.1
IMDb users	27,700	7.0

                         Shaun of the Dead 

Votes	Average
Males	136,726	8.0
Females	21,506	8.0
Aged under 18	2,892	8.5
Males under 18	2,366	8.5
Females under 18	507	8.3
Aged 18-29	100,908	8.2
Males Aged 18-29	86,580	8.2
Females Aged 18-29	13,892	8.2
Aged 30-44	46,854	7.9
Males Aged 30-44	40,942	7.9
Females Aged 30-44	5,547	8.1
Aged 45+	7,500	7.1
Males Aged 45+	6,022	7.3
Females Aged 45+	1,392	6.1
IMDb staff	37	8.1
Top 1000 voters	779	7.5
US users	50,996	8.2
Non-US users	101,692	7.9
IMDb users	181,501	8.0

                       28 Days Later

Votes	Average
Males	104,035	7.6
Females	15,475	7.8
Aged under 18	1,371	8.0
Males under 18	1,108	8.0
Females under 18	253	7.8
Aged 18-29	72,675	7.8
Males Aged 18-29	62,403	7.8
Females Aged 18-29	9,913	7.9
Aged 30-44	39,686	7.5
Males Aged 30-44	34,857	7.5
Females Aged 30-44	4,454	7.7
Aged 45+	5,723	7.1
Males Aged 45+	4,942	7.1
Females Aged 45+	716	7.3
IMDb staff	22	7.9
Top 1000 voters	747	7.3
US users	35,811	7.8
Non-US users	79,543	7.6
IMDb users	142,264	7.6

                      Zombieland

Votes	Average
Males	118,162	7.8
Females	17,607	7.9
Aged under 18	4,503	8.4
Males under 18	3,489	8.4
Females under 18	971	8.3
Aged 18-29	91,098	7.9
Males Aged 18-29	78,246	7.9
Females Aged 18-29	12,439	8.0
Aged 30-44	35,196	7.5
Males Aged 30-44	31,500	7.5
Females Aged 30-44	3,419	7.6
Aged 45+	5,088	7.1
Males Aged 45+	4,375	7.1
Females Aged 45+	657	7.2
IMDb staff	25	7.6
Top 1000 voters	609	7.1
US users	40,075	8.0
Non-US users	87,475	7.7
IMDb users	146,322	7.8

From these ratings we can see that the target audience of our genre is mainly males, aged 18-29.

It also shows that the audience it least appeals to are females aged 45+.


A 15 is the lowest certificate of the films i've chosen, a film with a certificate of 15 cannot be viewed or purchased by anyone aged under 15.
The content of films rated 15:

• Must not endorse discriminatory language or behavior.
• Drug use may be shown in the film but must not promote or encourage drug use on a whole.
• In terms of horror films, strong threats and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualized.
• There may be frequent use of strong language but excessive or violent use may not be permitted.
• Nudity may be shown but without strong detail in sexual contexts.
• Violence may be strong but must not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury i.e. torture

An 18 is the highest certificate of the films i've chosen, a film with a certificate of 18 cannot be viewed or purchased by anyone aged under 18. The content of 18 rated films is similar to that of 15 rated films except that it can be much more explicit in violence and nudity.

Our Film Rating:

We would give our film a rating of 15 as it does not contain explicit content but does include strong threats, elements of fear and gore. Our film will be mainly aimed at male teenagers and young adults as our findings from imdb.com show that the majority people who saw similar films were male and aged from around under18 to 29.

Attracting our target audience:
We decided to attract this audience through the use of tension in our film, it starts with the victims hiding from the zombie and eventually being chased this creates a build up of suspense to when they are found by the zombie this, will build excitement and fear in our audience.