Soraya Arghandawi

Representation

In our opening sequence we have 3 characters. In our sequence we wanted to make

sure there were typical conventions so the audience would be able to recognise it is
a thriller film. Nevertheless, we didnt want to make our characters too conventional
so the audience could feel as if they relate to them.

Lilly (Victim)
Gender: Lilly is a female, we decided this would be best as stereotypically most
victims within films are female as they are typically viewed as weak and vulnerable.
Throughout the whole sequence Lilly is portrayed as vulnerable and nave which
creates an emotional bond between her and the viewers as they feel compassionate
towards her. We decided to dress her in cartoon pyjamas as it connotes her
innocence to the audience.
Age: We decided that Lilly should be quite young, therefore the actress used was 8
years old and we felt this would be ideal for the character. We wanted the victim to
be quite young as this would make them look more innocent and because it was a
movie about kidnapping audiences could sympathise more with her character
because of her age.
Race: The victim conforms to the typical race of a victim as she is Caucasian, we
decided this would be the best race for the protagonist to be as stereotypically
Caucasian people are seen as more innocent and audiences may sympathise more
with them.
Sexuality: Within our production the sexuality of Lilly is not made known as she is a
child so we didnt see it as being relevant.
Disability: Lilly is not shown as visibly disabled within our opening sequence as we
didnt see it as being relevant.

Sarah (Lillys sister)

Gender: Sarah is a female, we decided that a female would be the best person to
leave Lilly at home by herself as this is a countertype of females, normally females
are seen as more nurturing towards children and more sensible. Therefore it is seen
as unusual that Sarah leaves her sister by herself at home.
Race: We decided that Lilly should also be Caucasian as her sister is, there were no
stereotypes that we tried to conform to for this.
Age: Sarah is meant to be aged 19 in our production, we decided she should be
quite young as stereotypically young adults are seen as reckless and irresponsible
which explains why she left her 8 year old sister alone while she was asleep.
Soraya Arghandawi

Disability: Sarah has no visible disabilities in our production, we felt that this was
not relevant to the storyline for the film.
Sexuality: In our opening sequence we assume that Sarah is heterosexual as before
she leaves the house she is dressed up with makeup on so it could be presumed by
the audience that she is meeting up with a boy by her appearance.
Kidnapper
Gender: Not much of the kidnappers identity is revealed to the viewers, audiences
may just assume its a male as stereotypically most kidnappers are male. However,
we wanted to hide the kidnappers identity as it creates an enigma.
Age: There is no visible proof in the production to show the audience how old the
kidnapper is, there arent even any stereotypes of what age kidnappers tend to be.
Race: There is no evidence to show the audience the kidnappers racial background
as their face is covered the whole time.
Disability: The kidnapper has no visible disabilities in or production and we did not
think it was particularly relevant to the narrative.
Sexuality: The kidnappers sexuality is not make aware to the audience and we didnt
think it would be relevant to focus on.