Amber Saville Year 12: EVALUATION QUESTION 2: REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

THIS PINTEREST CAN BE SEEN HERE

For my Evaluation Question on social groups I am going to plan my work and then present it on Pinterest. Pinterest is a site where you can place pictures and captions to show your work. This is why I feel that it will work well to show my question as you can add images and paragraphs of text.

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: CHILDLESS WOMEN

Women tend to be depicted as the lover (who is seen as a potential mate) or they are the mother and very few are childless women.
When mothers do not have children in films they are depicted as an anti-stereotype and sometimes come across as the villain character.
Girls are bought up with the idea of being mothers around them as most girls are given dolls from a young age. This had been the case for hundreds of years.
Women who have had to give up their children are usually represented as objects of either pity or suspicion such as in Philomena.

One movie where the whole world is infertile is Children Of Men (Cuaran, 2006) This is a dystopian film which means it is a film where it is a horrible and not an ideal world.
When searching for movies that include childless women I came across that there are very little options and that childless women are seen as the "unicorn" of society.

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: CHILDREN
In Films children are normally present as innocent and seen as a meter of success of the parents in life.
Although children are not always the protagonist in films they do play a very key role. They enable what people think of the parents: whether they have a more positive or negative role.
In our film the doll is representing children as the woman cannot have her own therefore she uses her imagination and believes this is her child.
There are also groups of children in our film playing in the park. These children are used to make the protagonist seem more sinister as she watches them.

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: MOTHERS

We are surrounded by women with children in our everyday lives and in films.
In films when women have children it portrays them as more caring.
The reason that we have this mother role in many films is because "mum" has been voted the top role model. When researching I found a page that is named Top 20 mothers in movies which was from a page from The Telegraph.

Many films construct mothers in very positive ways as nurturing and caring, as positive role models in society: Harry Potter (Mrs Weasley), The Incredibles (Elastigirl), East is East (Ella Khan), Anita and Me (Mrs. Daljeet Kumar)

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: PEOPLE WITH MENTAL PROBLEM

It is difficult to tell when people have mental health problems as they cannot be seen. However in films it is made clear by their usually cynical actions and outcomes of these actions.
On the other hand although some mental health issues are seen cynical in films, sometimes this is not the case.
Normally we feel some slight sympathy for people with mental health issues as we know that it is difficult for them to get help. Their mental problem would have normally been triggered by something.
There are a huge range of mental health problems for example amnesia, schizophrenia and depression.
Some examples of films that we see people with mental health issues are Girl, Interrupted (Depression), Black Swan (Anxiety disorder), It's Kind of a Funny Story (Depression) and Shutter Island (Schizophrenia.)
When researching films with mental health problems I found that on one website 'Mental Illness" what a theme of movie. I found this surprising as it shows the amount of films that are based around these health issues.

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: DOCTORS

In films doctors are normally the bearers of good or bad news and aren't usually a main part.
They carry vital information which could be the basis of the film like in ours.
Although we do not see the doctor we do not need to to hear what he has to say.
Doctors are very stereotypical characters as we see them as always smart, kind, helpful and dressed in their surgery gear. On the other hand this cannot always be the case for example in The Silence of the Lambs (Dr Hannibal Lecter).
There are many films where doctors are the bearers of news for example My Sisters Keeper and Side Effects.

RESEARCH: SOCIAL GROUPS: WAR PHOTOGRAPHERS

War photographers see trauma, pain and death daily.
They are seen to be such strong people as they can cope with this however the impact of seeing such trauma everyday can be life changing.
The most common health issues linked with seeing such trauma like this is alcoholism, PTSD and depression.
When researching war photography even seeing the images over the screen are horrific. People have asked "can war photography change the world" because of the effect that it has on people.
War photographers are very good at what they do and normally work for high end newspapers and their images become extremely famous.
I researched what social groups are in our opening sequence. There are 5 social groups: mothers who want children but can't have them, mothers who do have children, doctors, war photographers and children.

The mother of who doesn't have children is the main character. In our society we are surrounded by people with children and there is a very small percentage of people of don't have children therefore it is obvious that when you cannot have children it is a difficulty. This woman is of an age of 35-40 as she has missed out on the opportunity to have children although this is why she cannot have a them. The would-be mother is driven to insanity as she is surrounded by pregnant women, childrenand being a woman missing out on this is a big thing. Most women would always want the chance to have children. The would-be mother is a middle class woman who lives a normal life however this news drives her insane and it is clear this is not the first time she has had a mental breakdown like this.

Another social group is people with mental illnesses. Although we only see the would-be mother has a mental illness there are many other people out there who could have them too. They can be of any age and any social class and the fact that we cannot see their mental illness causes difficulty for them to cope.

The second group is mothers with children who the would-be mother envies. In our opening the would-be mother looks at them with jealousy as she wishes she could what they have. They are young women who still are able to have more children which she is also angry about. These women are in the park scene as the would-be mother watches in envy as they nurture their children and families whereas she has nothing.

Another main social group is children which is represented by the doll. The woman craves to have a child of her own therefore the doll is her substitute child as she cannot have her own.

Another social group in our film is war photographers. They are people who have seen lots of traumain their lives as they have witnessed war, conflict and death. They must be people who try and be strong as they see all this trauma. Although they can be strong in their profession, after witnessing all the things they do it can lead to serious consequences. Most war photographers lead to beingalcoholics, being depressed and have PTSD.

The final group is doctors which is only in it with his voice however his part is important as he is the one that delivers the news to her which is what drives her to become to psychotic.