Character Profile: Sam

Our group decided to call our victim 'Sam' as he is a homeless man and therefore his name needed to reflect his lifestyle. It is monosyllabic and simple as oppose to flamboyant to signify that he is poor and he leads a simple life. There are many stereotypes of homeless people, e.g. they are drug addicts, they sit on the street under a blanket, they wear neutral colours - nothing to bold etc. Whilst some of these may be true, it is not the case for everyone and therefore cannot be stereotyped.

However, because we had a maximum of two minutes to portray our characters, we have followed a few stereotypes to get our message across of a hate crime. For example, we have dressed Sam in a khaki jacket to signify nature as he has been living in the streets. We have chosen to film very few shots of him sitting down - particularly none of him under a blanket - purely to not offend others who are in this situation and do not want to be stereotyped and linked with certain associations. However we have followed some stereotypes as hate crimes are a serious matter and need to be made aware of as they are becoming increasingly common.

We have also shown him carrying a carrier bag as these are free objects that people take for granted and are therefore unwanted. To show him with this suggests that it is functional and a necessity as oppose to a useless, everyday object to people who take it for granted. This furthermore suggests his rough lifestyle where things are a necessity not a luxury.