Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The protagonist in our opening sequence was inspired heavily by Drew Barrymore’s character in the opening of Scream.

Firstly, in terms of costume, they are both wearing a neutral coloured piece of knitwear. This is a very casual item of clothing and the colour of it emphasises their innocence. They are also both wearing little obvious make up because they are just enjoying leisure time at home.

The body language of the characters starts very relaxed and friendly so that the audience will like them. But they become increasingly perturbed as the scenes progress. However, the protagonist in The Noise becomes more annoyed at the constant disturbances by the phone while the protagonist in Scream gets scared because of the voice that is threatening her over the phone.

Both of the characters in these films are used as a device to provoke an emotional response from the audience. They are portrayed as innocent girls which in turn makes the antagonist look more evil because they harm the character.

There are differences, however in the uses of dialogue in the two films. In Scream, the character is talking to somebody on the phone while Lucy in The Noise is simply answering the phone but getting no response other than a strange noise. We decided to use little dialogue and keep the sequence predominantly visual because it only lasts two minutes.

The most obvious similarity between the two films is the use of the phone as a major plot device. Both characters are just casually going about their business, Lucy enjoying a book and the character in Scream who is about to watch a film, when they are disturbed by ominous phonecalls.

Although set in Essex, Lucy in The Noise generally represents teenage girls in the UK. This is because the way she is dressed isn’t stereotypical to any place in the UK in particular. Also, the very little dialogue means that her accent is not a major feature of the sequence. Aswell as this, she is only saying ‘hello’ as opposed to any slang words so all teenage girls from anywhere in the UK would be able to understand and relate to her.