2. How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

I have compared the way social groups are represented in my film opening to other media products.

Typical teenage girl

The photo on the left is a screenshot from the film '16 wishes'. I am comparing this to a screenshot from my own film opening shown on the right. In both photos the characters are representing average teenage girls. Their clothes and overall style are very similar. My film opening character is wearing a skirt and casual tshirt similar to the character on the left from '16 wishes'. Their posture is also very similar as they are both walking openly and look approachable. Also all of their facial expressions seem happy and easy going. The lighting and camera angle that has been used is the same for both shots. They both are medium shots with natural lighting. This allows the audience to see the whole of the characters figure and suggests that the characters are pretty neutral in terms of their emotions and the narrative. This shows that my way of representing this social group is the same as another media product. I feel that I have represented typical teenage girls well in this photo and that it is easily recognisable.

Chav

With these two photos I am comparing how the social group 'chavs' are represented. The photo on the left is from the film and book series 'diary of a chav' and the photo on the right is a screenshot from my film opening. Overall I think that my social representation is the same as this media product and achieves the same overall response. The body position and facial expression is pretty much the same for both characters. They both have one hand in the air and are pulling a very 'confident' face. Both outfits are also very similar. For example they are both wearing bright coloured clothing and a snapback. Some differences are their hairstyles and the fact that my character is not wearing any 'bling'. I would change this and add some jewellery to my character if I was to do this again. Despite this, the same feel is created and so I think that I have represented the social group of 'chavs' well and in the same way as another media product.

Goth

Out of the 3 social groups that I represented in my film opening I feel that this was the weakest. On the left is a photo from the TV series 'iCarly' and on the right is a screenshot from my own film opening. My initial aim was to represent the social group 'goths'. However, after comparing my version to the representation made by iCarly I am realising that mine is a bit misleading and not very clear. The hand gesture that my character makes is a 'rock' sign which would actually be associated with a different social group, such as 'rock chick'. If I had of kept the expressions made by my character more like the one in the photo from iCarly I think it would have been much more obvious that I was representing goths. Also I could have put some coloured streaks in her hair like in the picture on the right. Aside from this I think my representation is not completely unsuccessful as it is still showing that there is a range of teenage styles and this was the main point of this scene in my film opening.