Huda Hashi- Question2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening we are representing police officers, the whole opening and the rest of the film is be based on them. The police officers are perceived as innocent individuals in the pictures, however the character 'Thomas Crickly' doesn't seem to think so. This is a stereotypical view of police officers as they are mainly targeted just by trying to carry out their duties, however, criminals like to target them as they feel threatened by the police. We chose not to challenge this stereotypical view of the police as we didnt want to make the story too complex, although it is slightly different than mainstream films. Thomas sees something bad in them, something they have done to him. As he draws the X's and burns the pictures of the police officers the audience might start to side with them and feel sorry for them as their innocence is shown through their smiles in the photos. The use of blue background of the police officers pictures also suggests that innocence the audience might have picked up. Police officers are usually respectable citizens, which are keen to keep the community safe. The pictures also show them dressed smartly which implies that these officers are also respectable people and have a high status within the community. Our product only shows one social group so far in the opening and that is the police officers. As it is not a very long clip the audience don't have much knowledge on each police officers but sympathise with them anyway as they are portrayed as the victims of this situation. However they are blind to the reasoning of Thomas Crickly's hatred towards them.

This is an extract from SAW IV. This is an example of police officers trying to help out the community, however, always having the chance of receiving challenging behaviour from the criminal. This is a conventional view of police officers which is similar to our film.

This is the view of the police in our society, which we get our ideas of them. In everyday life we see police officers being challenged by the minority that feel threatened by their presence. This reflects 'Vice Vendette' as Thomas is also against the police force, he represent the world of criminals, even though he has a historic story the audience are unaware at this stage therefore he is presented as a part of the criminal category which makes the representation conventional.