The social group presented in our film opening are middle-class white British males.
Below is Tyler's character compared with Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter:
Similarities
- White British males with blonde hair to represent dominance and 'evil'
- Force their friends to suit their own agendas
- See their friends die
- Begin as selfish people but end up realizing what they did wrong
- Have cowardly friends
- Get angry easily
- Both are main characters to the film
- Both have power over their friends
Differences
- Tyler is a protagonist, Malfoy is an antagonist
- Tyler wears casual clothing to represent his middle-class whereas Malfoy wears a smart school uniform to represent a sense of superiority and educated
- Tyler gets blood on his clothes at the film opening but Malfoy doesn't get stained for a while which shows the difference in genre and age rating on their films
- Tyler is much older than Malfoy which represents maturity
- Malfoy is an obstacle that the protagonist needs to overcome but Tyler is the protagonist
- Malfoy is the typical blonde-haired antagonist in a kid's film but Tyler is a more complex character who maintains a typical thriller convention of a protagonist
We used Tyler's character to represent a thriller typical protagonist who is assertive because it works well with Ewan's character who is the complete opposite of Tyler's character. It creates a sense of tension between those characters and it turns Tyler from an assertive, dominant individual to a more selfless, caring character. His character is also good for the audience's view on him because it changes throughout the film opening.
Below is Ewan's character compared with Anthony from Dead Man's Shoes:
Similarities:
- White British males with brown hair to represent simplicity, friendliness, dependability and health.
- Wear casual clothing to represent middle-class
- Both get murdered by the antagonists
- Completely innocent
- Depend on the protagonist a lot
- Both get caught in the cross fire between the protagonist and the antagonists
- Their deaths cause the protagonist to go under a change in their personality
- Both considered weak
- Both get flashbacks to what happened to them
- Ewan and Anthony both aren't very conventional of a thriller deuteragonist
Differences:
- Ewan's bright white shirt is symbolic of his purity whereas Anthony's black jacket is symbolic of his death
- Ewan stands up for himself a bit more than Anthony because of the differences in situations
- Anthony was abused and killed himself but Ewan was shot
- Ewan's death is established at the film opening but Anthony's death is only revealed at the end
- Ewan's death is partially because of the protagonist but Anthony's death is all due to the antagonists
We used Ewan's character to represent innocence, purity and dependability because it compliments Tyler's character and is the catalyst to the story progressing. Ewan's character is like Anthony's in that they both feel like they shouldn't be in a thriller movie so it makes the audience sympathise with them. Therefore when the antagonist kills this kind of character, the audience immediately have a strong hatred towards the antagonist. It's an effective way of setting up the genre and story.