How does your product represent particular social groups?

We wanted to represent an idea of a Russian Mafia in our film, which are agressive and cruel.  Therefore, they conformed to dominant ideologies and were the stereotypical Russian type.  This was an idea similar to one represented in an episode of Spooks that we studied where binary opposites between the evil Eastern Russians and the Heroic Westerns were established.  This conformed to dominant ideologies of the Russians being corrupt and was a typical drama plot, which we put in our Thriller.  The agents represented in this Thriller were similar to how we represent the agent in our Thriller:  caring/considerate, has a family and feels responsible for their country:

Agents in Spooks

Fiona was very loyal, both to her family and colleagues but she struggled with the conflict of espionage and motherhood.  She loved her son Wes but would never leave the MI5 willingly.

Fiona's husband, Adam was a hard worker but always dreamt of sharing a stable home life with his wife and son.  However, Fiona was shot while trying to avenge her previous life in Syria.  Consequently, Adam went into denial at first but eventually realised that focussing on his work was the best way for him to handle his loss.

Danny was a young and sharp agent who lost his life for his country (in the Spooks episode that we studied).













In contrast, the idea of the Russians being opposite to the agent in characteristics is similar to how Russians are represented in the film Eastern Promises:


Images in the News in Russia in particular, represent how this idea of masculinity is represented for the stereotypical Russian in the media.  An example of this is an image of Putin hunting with his top off, presenting the 'Alpha male' type: 'The Telegraph'

In contrast, our agent in our Thriller is represented to have more feelings and is more caring, such as when he starts screaming in horror once his daugher gets brought in.  Consequently, this represents English men in a much better light compared to Russian men.  You could relate Simon in the Thriller to characters in films such as James Bond where the English man is presented as the 'Hero' and the more appealing person to the audience in comparison to foreign men, such as Russians:

The dunking scene in the opening sequence of James Bond relates to the slow motion clip of Simon being dunked into the tank in our Thriller

However the difference between James Bond and Simon is that Bond always escapes or seems to be in control of the bad situation he's in.  In our thriller, it is very unsure to the audience whether Simon will actually survive or not.  Furthermore, this is why it gives a exciting feel as unlike James Bond where the audience know he will always survive, the audience have the anticipation of what will happen next.