Main Post 12.2 Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To compare to the characters in our opening sequence, I have chosen two characters from drama film ‘Wild Child’. I picked ‘Wild Child’ as a comparable film to our opening sequence not only because it is clearly in the dramatic genre, but because the main characters are teenagers, like in ours. The screen grabs I have selected were from school scenes in both films, giving me a good opportunity to compare the two.

When looking at screen grabs from ‘Wild Child’ you can see that the characters are of a similar age to the characters in our opening sequence. The mise-en-scene, in particular the costume is representative of a school girl, particularly through the matching blazers. In the below photograph of the other characters, the teenager’s social group is represented through their uniforms, as well as their hairstyles and the way that they are standing. We took these elements as inspiration when trying to represent the teenage schoolgirl look in our opening sequence.

It wasn't that difficult in representing this age group when filming because the actors, one being myself, are part of that age group. However in order to represent this social group through filming, we purposely added elements, particularly within the mise-en-scene that would make the audience aware that they are teenagers. One of these was through the use of costume, this can be seen through the screen grab that the girls were dressed in school uniform; this not only adds to the narrative that they are in school, but also shows how young and perhaps innocent they are through seeing their scruffy presentation. Another element is the body language; the girls both go everywhere together. This is shown with the fact that they both go to Sophie’s locker and walk side by side. When you put this into perspective, adult friendships aren’t like this, therefore it could be said that it is representative of a teenage social group.

Above are screen grabs from our opening sequence, showing two characters in full costume.