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

Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our film’s central character one of the main inspiration was Daryl Dixon from the Zombie TV show, The Walking Dead. 

One similarty we can see is the costumes which the two characters are wearing dark but ‘normal’ clothes which shows how they were both regular people before the zombie outbreak, not a soldier or somebody with experience for extreme situations. This isn’t reflected on their body language however, as we can see that they are not nervous or experinced, they have adjusted to the world in order to survive. As they both take place months after the intial outbreak and they have gotten over the part where they are unsure what is exactly going on. Both characters have similar backstories as they lost someone important to them, Daryl Merle from The Walking Dead loses his brother and ‘The Hood’ loses another close family member (which is shown in a flashback scene). One thing we took inspiration from was the weapon Daryl uses in The Walking Dead. Normally in a Zombie apocalypse, the traditonal weapon would be some sort of gun, but both of these characters use a bow and arrow, which shows how they are different to the normal survivor.  

One difference between the characters is their personlity and they way that they show this is through their use of dialogue. While Daryl from The Walking Dead regualry talks to the other survivors  and even makes some jokes at times, The Survivor from our film dosen’t speak once in the opening of the film. One reason for this is that the survivor from our film is more of a loner, and takes care of himself. His personality more matches a character like the ‘man with no name’ from the Good, the bad and the Ugly and other Western characters which have the mystery, ruthless characters. The role that our character and Daryl from  The Walking Dead in their respective films is also different, as Daryl serves as a side character and rarely has a main storyline in the TV show, our character is the main character which means that he has to have a ‘stronger’ back story.

Our film dosen’t really deal with social demographics but as the main character, but as he is Irish, he would probably more identifiable with the C2DE social group. During the film the audience learn that was a normal, working family man, who had to change because of the zombie outbreak. This means that many people would be able to identify with him because he was just like them at one point. This film also shows how social groups become irrelevant in times of distress, and as the story progresses we learn how everyone is affected the same. 

Matt Healey
Jack Quinlan
James Robinson