R & P Post 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

For our main representation we chose to represent the social group of female college students. In our film, we aimed to create an antagonist - Grace - who, despite initially appearing as a normal, everyday teenage girl, possesses traits that indicate a different side to her character as an obsessed figure driven by jealousy.

For instance, in our opening sequence the first few shots show her turning off her alarm clock and breathing audibly. Whilst this could be seen as due to the shock of the alarm, it acts as a precursor to various shots of her reaching for her phone to check her victim's social media status, suggesting her obsession and first instinct to track the activity of the girl she is stalking. We also wanted to contrast normal props and mise-en-scene of a bedroom such as makeup and books with far more blatant indicators, such as coloured contact lenses, a mood board with a map and the constant references to the stalked girl's social media profiles, to further imply the stalker's obsession. In terms of clearly connoting her age within the opening sequence, we planned on using clothes with a modern style typically associated with young people, as well as dialogue of her brother telling her she is "going to be late for school". 

We wanted to demonstrate the multiple aspects of Grace's character

Whilst we also wanted to challenge the archetypal damsel-in-distress figure which often seems to be the most prominent position for women in the majority of thrillers, we also had to be careful in balancing our representation of women through the victim and stalker. An example of this is that although Ella, the target, seems powerless and reflective of stereotypical female characters of inferiority at first, later in the film she eventually has the strength of character to fight back and force her stalker to quit, as is the case in many stalker films. Despite the representations of Grace being largely negative, it could be implied that she has a strong, determined character through her meticulous planning of her activity, her decision whether or not she goes to school and her emphatic response to any disturbance - in the case of our opening sequence, her abruptly closing the door. The inclusion of both of these characters implies that young women clearly have varying characteristics and personalities.

Hedy Carlson (Single White Female)

The main inspirations for the antagonist were Sy Parrish from One Hour Photo and, in particular, Hedy Carlson from Single White Female as their desire to 'be' someone else - either part of a family or a person themselves was similar to our initial ideas. In the case of Single White Female, (which in itself has now become an Urban Dictionary term to mean copying to the extreme extent of stalking), Hedy's extreme behaviour, such as matching her victim's appearance was also reflective of the type of character we were aiming to create ourselves.

Sy Parrish (One Hour Photo)