Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent

particular social groups

Question 1
In our film, we have introduced four particular characters.
During pre-production of our project, we discussed who would be the appropriate character in
our film. First, we had to think about the protagonist for our film. When discussing, we thought
that our protagonist should be from a middle class as this will appeal to most of the teenagers.
We wanted our protagonist to have curly hair and cast an actor who looks white. This is so that
every teen drama has a protagonist who is white so that it appeals to mass audience.
The protagonist is James. If we look at the picture, he is wearing a black hoodie, t shirt and a
pair of jeans. From the costume, the audience can find out that he falls under working class/
lower class. This is because working class people are known for wearing hoodie and jeans.

This is a picture of Gabe Nevins in

the paranoid park, he is the
protagonist in the film.
His hair is long and curly. Long hair
implies that he does not care about
his appearance or may not have
money to have get a haircut. This
implies that he is in middle class
because if he was in upper class,
he would have short and clean hair
style. This is exactly how we
wanted our character to look like
and have similar effect on the
audience. This represents typical
teenager boys who are too lazy.

James
There are many stereotypes
presented in the teen drama. James
is stereotyped as being a drug
addict. This is shown by the choice
of location which is Skate Park.
Skate part connotes that most drug
dealing is taken place at the skate
park. Also, James is wearing a dark
hoodie which may suggests to the
viewers that he is drug user.
Furthermore, James is shown as a
strong character. It is evident when
he pushed Ahmed to the floor.

He is wearing black hoodie which gives him a skater

look. From the hoodie, audience implies that he is a
skater and falls under a social class of skater. This is
exactly what we wanted our protagonist to wear so that
audience can classify him as a skater. The colour black
is associated with power and mystery as James and
drug dealer need to hide their identity. This conveys
that they are up to no good witch fits the theme of our
film. Moreover, James is wearing dark depressing
colour. These reflects teenagers are stereotypically
represents their mood and feelings. The hoodies they
wear gives mystery and imitating persona which gangs
have as they represent social group that you would see
in the street in real life.

The audience can also know that James is

the outcast who has only few friends. This is
evident when he skates in the empty skate
park. Empty Park signifies that he is by
himself, when usually Skate Park is meant to
be buzzing place and filled with people.

The Psychographic that our protagonist falls under is a person who has high interest in
rollerblading.
We decided to have the protagonist character played by a male because in contemporary teen
drama the main protagonist are mainly played by girls. The representation of protagonist in our
film should increase the film that have protagonist as played by the male character. Thorough
using male character, we would

From analysing, other teen movies we gain

an understanding of modern cinemas
portrayal of the lower/middle class, as they
are depicted living in their own world ,
consumed by a life of drugs, violence , and
dishonesty.

From the setting, we know they go middle

school. This is seen when James walks
through the corridor. This signifies that they
are .young adult who spend most of their time
in school where they face problems.
Therefore, they are represented as students.

Location

Furthermore, He is hating his life due to the

fact that he caught his girlfriend cheating on
him. This is seen when James has a
flashback and sees his girl with another guy.
This leads him being depressed and
unhappy, which is soon by the dark costume
he is wearing.

Location
hood=
drug, crime
The located
is set in London. It can be seen with the skate park. London is
london=
chavs,
middle
class/ lower class.,
violence,
violent
associated with
high unemployment,
violent
youth, thug,
chavsunemployed,
and high crime
rate.youth.
This
reflects on the plot of our opening sequence. For example, James is seen
aggressive when he pushed max to the floor. This signifies that teenagers in London
The
aregirlfriend
more violence. We have chosen this to include this stereotype in our film
Middle
class
because
society believes it is the truth, also known as the preferred reading.
gold
digger
Violence and aggression represent the teen in London.
known for hooking up with rich guys
cheater
leather jacket

Max

John Hughes 1986 film

Ferris Bluellers day off
is a film that successfully
portrays Max. In the film,
Ferris is an upper class
teenager who gets
anything he wants. E.g.
clothes, cars and even
girls.

Girlfriend

Max is an upper class teenager. This can be

seen with the hipster costume such as,
sweater, shirt, chinos and pairs of vans. This
signifies that he can buy any branded and
fashionable clothes because he comes from
the upper class. The way he is dressed
represents him as an upper class.

Rebecca is a middle class student. She is a gold digger, who hooks up with rich
guys. This is seen when she is found flirting with one of the richest boy in the
corridor, Max. This suggests that she is in middle class because she needs go out
rich with guy to get what she wants. Furthermore, Rebecca is wearing black leather
jacket which connotes that he is evil and danger. I think we have implied her as a
threat by the use of costume. For example, Leather jacket are normally worn by
bikers that are bad. Therefore, leather jacket signifies that she is the protagonist
and a trouble maker.
However In films, girls are portrayed as weak and vulnerable. But, in our film we
have portrayed Rebecca as a danger and evil. We have shown this through the
dark black leather jacket she is wearing. It connotes that she is a bad and evil who
will cause problems. Rebecca go against the representation as most teen drama
have girls that are over protective of them self and they are not represented as
negatively as shown in our film. Contemporary media representation rarely
challenge values of society as they might not get positive feedback. The reason
behind this is that if film represent the characters in a negative way, the audience
may not watch the film.
Furthermore, in film girls and boys are represented differently. For example, boys
are seen as the trouble maker. Whereas girl are usually associated with the good
behaviour. However, we have challenged the convention and shown that girls are
more trouble marker than boys. This will differentiate our film from other
competitors. Also, Rebecca is negatively represented because she comes from a
working class family, which means she is only given little bit of pocket money, and
therefore she has to hook up with guys to get what she wants.

In our media product we have separated our character through cliques. This is done by
separating a group of people that have similar interest which is commonly found in high school
setting. For example, we have represented James as a rollerblader. This signifies that he would
hang out with people that has similar interest to his. Also, rollerblading are normally played at a
skate park and this leads him interacting with other characters such as drug dealers. This is
again shown in our media product when drug dealer extends his hand with packet of drug
towards James. This represents social groups that have common interest are most likely to
hang out together.

Our film has 3 male characters and only one female character. We have done this to signify that
film are dominated by male characters as most film has significantly more male character than
girls. This suggests that male more powerful. Therefore, male character are represented as
dominant.

Drug dealer

To find the costume that drug dealer would wear, we

had to research by finding images on google. From the
research we gathered that most drug dealer wear
hoodie to hide their identity. Also. We found that they
wear similar clothes like teenagers to blend in.
We represented drug dealer as a nice person so that
he can make James a Drug addict so that he can sell
drugs to him when he gets addicted. Furthermore, we
have presented them in a location such as Skate Park
to imply that drug dealing mostly happens at park.
Moreover, the drug dealer has his hood on when he
approaches James. This signifies that he is not up to
no good, which makes the audience think James must
be aware of him, as he might do something bad.
I think we have represented teens in London well because London is a city that has people from
different race and ethnicity. In our film we have casted people from different race, background,
ethnicity and country. For example, we have drug dealer who has a background of Middle
Eastern but born and raised in London. This connotes that London has different people from all
over the world. The representation of this social group is shown as dangerous as film such as
shifty has a character from Middle Eastern that works as a drug dealer. This only suggests that
Middle Eastern people are mostly involved in drug compared to white people.