Only in Whispers Evaluation (Question 2)

QUESTION 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Only in Whispers - Evaluation

Casting

W

hen casting for Emily, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Ellison

Oswalt, the central actor in the film ‘Sinister’, 2012.

Casting

W

hen casting for Emily, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Ellison

Oswalt, the central actor in the film ‘Sinister’, 2012.

Below is a screen-grab of the

character we eventually casted as

Emily. As you can see, we were

inspired by the curiosity of Ellison as

he enters the attic of his own home,

and so we attempted to convey the

same excitement through this scene.

W

hilst we had the aid of inspiration,

we also initially had a thorough idea

in our heads of what we wanted her

to look like and how we wanted her

to come across to our audience. We

wanted a high-spirited, zealous

brunette with a great mind-set for

adventure. We couldn’t have found

anyone more perfect to play this role

than Emily Whitford.

Emily

casting

W

hen casting for Megan, we knew

exactly what we wanted to see in her

character. A character that

influenced our creation would

probably be Katie Featherston, the

central actor in the film ‘Paranormal

Activity’, 2007.

casting

W

hen casting for Megan, we knew

exactly what we wanted to see in her

character. A character that

influenced our creation would

probably be Katie Featherston, the

central actor in the film ‘Paranormal

Activity’, 2007.

Below are screen-grabs of the

character we casted as Megan.

Evidently, we were inspired by

the concern on (above) Katie’s

face. This is why we attempted to

deliver the same emotion on

Megan’s face.

megan

W

hilst we had the aid of inspiration, we also

initially had a thorough idea in our heads

of what we wanted Megan to look like and

how we wanted the audience to react to

her. We wanted a spineless, tentative

brunette with an intellectual mind;

effectively the complete opposite of Emily.

We couldn’t have found anyone more

perfect to play this role than Megan

Davies.

Social groups

O

ne of the main social groups represented in our film is siblings;

the two main characters are teenage sisters. Again when we

casted the two actresses for our film we wanted to reveal them

to be nothing other than typically ordinary sisters who bicker

and disagree, so that in many cases the audience will be able to

relate to the two characters. The majority of our audience will

be working class, and we wanted to represent the two girls as

distinctively English.

Social groups

A

s a group we studied characters who have siblings in films. We

also had shared knowledge due to the fact the three of us each

have siblings of our own. We noticed that it is not uncommon for

one sibling to follow in another’s shadow. We tried to deliver this

idea as much as possible in our production. For instance, we

placed Emily and Megan with a distant composition within our

medium two shots of the two speaking. This reflected their

contrasting personalities and relationship, too.

Social groups

Despite there being a fairly small age gap between the two, we wanted to show how Emily convinces Megan to do pretty much anything. Megan follows Emily into the attic even though she is extremely reluctant, she cannot stand up for herself and feels pressured by her sister. We produced low angle shots for Emily climbing and walking into the attic to invite the audience to appreciate her superiority and leadership.

Social groups

Emily’s dialogue throughout our opening consists of lines such as "don't be such a baby" and "you do this every time" to indicate that Megan is often scared of things Emily wants to do which can be common with siblings, however, we exaggerated this fact by ensuring that the concluding situation allows us sympathise with Megan, who didn’t want to meddle in the first place. Emily also frequently patronises Megan regardless of the fact Megan isn’t a lot younger than her.

Social groups

O

ur costumes for the two characters were nothing exciting or

particularly unusual. This is because we decided it would be a lot

more believable and connote that this is just an ordinary night in

a typical family home to begin with. Traditionally, Ouija boards

are dangerous and not something to be messed with. Therefore

when Emily discovers it and is not at all threatened by the idea it

automatically says to the audience that Emily does not care about

consequences, unlike Megan.

Social groups

W

e used several other props such as the book Megan is reading

initially which may suggest to the audience that Megan is a lot less

social than her sister Emily, who enters the room after frantically

snooping around to find something more ‘exciting’ to do. It may also

imply that Megan is more intellectual. Megan is quite happy to be

reading rather than going up into the attic, “I don’t want to. It’s

scary.” board whilst saying "I don't want to. It's scary." which makes

her sound childlike and perhaps boring in comparison to Emily.