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

There are not very many ways in which my film represents any particular social groups and I feel that it challenges them rather than represents them.

The first way in which I feel that my film challenges and represents particular social groups is through the main actress. She is a young girl aged 16 and not stereotypical of a terrorist or someone who would wish to cause havoc by planting a bomb in a busy market square. She comes across as a possible student and an average teenage girl but obviously there is more to her than the audience expects. I knew this would be the case and while coming up with film ideas in the early stages of the course, I wanted to use an actress who had a scary appearance but did not look too typical of someone who would be planting a bomb or more specifically, involved in crime. Nowadays, teenagers are frowned upon and stereotypically portrayed as trouble and statistically youth crime rates are increasing. Based on this, I wanted to challenge the stereotype in one way but also follow it in another. I knew that using a teenager would confuse the audience, as they would be questioning the actions of this teenager and leave them wondering why she is involved in such an awful crime. However, I knew that following the stereotype of teenagers being involved in crime would engage the audience more as they are put at ease as it is something they are familiar with which means they are more likely to follow the storyline.   

I think using a teenage girl as the bomb carrier and criminal is more effective as it is less expected and the audience will be held under tension throughout the film, as they would not be expecting the girl to have a bomb and to have the guts to drop the bomb. It is completely untypical to see a girl carrying a bomb; therefore this storyline creates tension and draws the audience in well.