This is the aspect we didn’t pay a lot of attention to. We feel like characters’ social representation in found footage movies is not common, except for Paranormal Activity (2007), where they actually explain the social issues that the characters are going through. Or like Cloverfield (2008), where the character “Rob” was introduced through the sayings of the people in the party, and his social representation. Nonetheless, found footage doesn’t dive into characters’ social groups or issues, as much as horror movies. For the horror genre, characters’ social groups or issues have a strong and crucial link with the sequence and the appearance of the supernatural forces in the movie. For found footage, that focus isn’t the priority. It is about what is shown via the perspective of the character.
This is a challenge, but it can still be spotted in all of four characters in our media product. Nathan, by the way he dresses, is a typical student who simply loves basketball. He can be considered to be the group’s “leader”, as he is also the character that suggests others to break in. Kevin, he doesn’t talk much throughout the opening scene, as he’s not really keen on talking. However, he’s still a part of the group because sometimes, he can be useful to the group. That’ll be proven if our product can extend to a full movie.
Contrast to Nathan and Kevin’s personalities, Mark & Louis are talkative, and very neutral in their next decisions for the group. However, Mark is pretty much influenced by Nathan, as he also convinced Louis to join them, when Louis starts to question the cause of the sound. Louis is also the main character of the opening scene, who mostly holds the camera. He is the only character that worries for the group and suggests not breaking in. Even though Mark has convinced him, Louis still wonders how there can be anything that can make such a large sound, yet the garden looks abandoned.
In the end, although all the four characters are best friends, there seems to be a binary opposition between Nathan, Kevin and Mark, Louis. The way all of them interact with each other, it indicates that Kevin is less talkative than others, yet he follows Nathan, which means that Nathan might have done something in the past that forces Kevin to always follow him. Meanwhile, as much as Mark follows Nathan, he seems to be the closest to Louis than the other two. Even though Mark follows Nathan, it is quite certain that Mark is able to ease Louis’ constant nervousness as the story progresses.