How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents the differences in class in the Victorian era, and also a typical murder which may have happened in this particular era. Due to our opening scene being based on a real historical event, our characters do not necessarily represent a typical social group. This however does not hinder how our target audience views our film, as they are invested in the storyline. Taking into account the time in which our opening scene is set, our characters represent the typical types of people which would have lived in that time. Our group decided to stick quite close to how the real "Jack the Ripper" was portrayed, as that's what the audience find interesting. This is due to the mystery and tension which comes with his persona.

 Although Jack the Ripper isn't the typical 21st century killer, there have been murders which the media have portrayed as mysterious and gruesome. An example of this is a man named "Rodney Alcala", he is a convicted serial killer and rapist who was sentenced to death in 2010. There was a lot of speculation over the murders he committed, this is because in his presence were photos of girls who the authorities were not sure if he killed. Like "Jack the Ripper", Rodney Alcala was given a nickname "The Dating game killer", because he used dating games as a way of meeting woman. The media used the mystery revolving around this case to spark interest and engage the audience. This is very similar to the media following the "Jack the Ripper" case, as their use of headlines and stories really engaged the audience, and still to this day nearly 126 year later, people are still fascinated on how he managed to hide from the police.

Our second main character is the woman who is killed by the Ripper,

Jack the ripper headline

    like him, the woman is an accurate portrayal of what women in the Victorian era would have been like. We achieved this by finding accurate costumes, make-up and hairstyles to fit what they would have looked like. This not only made our opening scene look more authentic, it was interesting for our group to research what kind of things poor Victorian women wore.

Gender

Rodney Alcala headline

Although the notorious killer "The Ripper" was never confirmed to be a male, it has been widely speculated that he was in fact a male. In our opening scene, we try and give the impression that our character is male, by the way our character walks, their height and their body language towards our female actor. Taking this into account, it can be commented that it is quite stereotypical that Jack the Ripper has been perceived as a male, as it is most publicised that men are the typical serial killers. As the female character in our opening scene doesn't necessarily portray a particular social group, we can take into account women during the late 

                                                    1800's, and how they are thought about now. It is well known that the Ripper only killed prostitutes, due to their easy access, and poor personal background, this would enable him to cover his tracks easier. In the late 1800's, it was quite common for poor woman to end up prostituting, due to the lack of occupations available. This can be seen as quite stereotypical, because even now men are seen as the dominant gender, alike the 1800's when men were better of then women. Due to the fact that there are only two characters in our scene, we tried to really show the contrast in their genders by emphasising the Ripper's dominance over the whole situation.

Class     

Differences in class are a big theme of our opening scene, as it is closely linked to the Ripper killings. Due to our target audience being between the ages of 16-25 we wanted to be able to show the difference in class, but not to the extent that they would get un-interested. It is clear that in our opening scene, the female is off the lower class, this is due to her shabby clothes and her way of making money. The Ripper on the other hand is in a black coat and top hat, which strongly suggests he is of a higher class. This is quite stereotypical of women, as it is most common for woman to be prostitutes, and to be exploited in the ways the Ripper did.