Evaluation Task 2

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

 

 

My media product is based around one small social group - young, awkward teenagers. I chose this group in particular as through its representation, the characters go on to represent other themes. For instance, the characters are alone in the woods - this fits in with the stereotype that awkward teens prefer to be away from other people; by making the forest the location where the action takes place, the stereotype then mixes with the cinematic trope of magic and unknown power residing in a natural setting such as this.

The characters are dressed simply, with no bright colours or flashy designs or labels. The idea of teenagers wanting the newest and the most fashionable clothing better suits the characters of a chick flick than an action-comedy. This then represents more of their character, as often in films writers like to introduce red herrings and obscure characters that do not draw attention at first but later turn out to be vital to the plot. In order to further represent the social group to which my characters belong, I decided to give them a look of insignificance; if you saw them in the street, nothing would draw your attention to them at all. Classically teens of this social group prefer to go unnoticed.

In this shot especially, the order in which I placed the characters echoes both a filmic stereotype and defies a social one. Teenagers in this social group are often classed as 'different'. This perfectly suits my film, and I used this idea when arranging the shot - by having the two older, taller, and more menacing looking characters either side and the small, less threatening one in the centre, the arrangement creates an unusual hierarchy of unusual human beings. In a different social group - perhaps of more popular teenagers, the largest/prettiest, most powerful member of the group would take the centre. As for the filmic stereotype, to represent the social group of 'nerds', 'chief nerd' is often the one you do not expect. However, in films such as these there is often more unity in the social group from the start, so not distinct leader is set in stone.