How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender: All of our main characters are female but male characters do feature in our film opening. The fact that our main cast are all female creates a positive representation of young women and allows the target audience to relate to the main characters. In contrast, the costumes of the main characters are quite revealing and very feminine representing them as sex objects in a stereotypical way. Most of the girls are made up which supports the stereotypical representation. The male characters in our film opening our not introduced in any depth they are simply used as props to further illustrate the female characters and therefore creating a modern view of males.

Age: As the opening cuts to the first character introduced she is seen in a close-up, stood outside of some school gates. The audience are aware that the setting is a school due to the bell sound earlier on in the opening this suggests that the girl is a teenager and the fact she is not in uniform leads the audience to assume she is in sixth-form and therefore aged between 16 and 18. There is then a cross cut to a mid shot of the girl where she is seen to be blowing out smoke and in this shot you are clearly able to see her costume which is all black. The scene then cuts back to a close up of the girl in dark lipstick with quite an intimidating and aggressive facial expression which creates a negative representation of teenagers. On the other hand, the fact that she is attending school after compulsory education suggests a more positive representation she cares about her education.

Class: Each of our main characters is designed to portray different stereotypical social groups but all of the characters are close friends. The character played by Jade Delaney is designed to represent a girl who is posh which is a colloquial term for someone who is from the upper class section of society. The word posh has negative connotations surrounding it such as arrogance, ignorance and selfishness. In a clear contrast, the character played by Connor Murray is designed to portray a Chav which equally comes with negative connotations such as cheap, dirty, ignorant, rude and aggressive. These serotypes have been challenged by these two characters being portrayed as friends. They are seen walking together in a two shot of which you are able to see an equal amount of each other thus representing them as equals and creating a positive representation of modern social class.

Sexuality: The scene cross cuts to a low angle over the shoulder shot of Peaches (the Posh Totty character). She is seen to be talking to a male character; the audience assume that she is flirting with him due to her body language. The lower angling of the camera allows the male character to appear tall and the inability to see the whole of the male characters face makes him come across as mysterious and making him even more attractive. This suggests the possibility the as an audience we are seeing the character from the females point of view and allows the audience to further connect with her. As this shot continues, the female character goes on the get distracted by the attention she has received from another attractive male character. This creates a stereotypical representation of a heterosexual female as she becomes distracted by another possible mate.

Ethnicity: The shot cuts to a tracking shot of a young black girl walking. In this shot you are able to see the full extent of her costume with props such as a books and thick framed glasses. The props on her person suggest that she is intelligent representing her in a positive way. As the camera tracks the girl there is a cross cut to a long cut to the side of the girl as she drops her books. The camera cuts back to show a long shot of the front of the character she looks distrusted. This shows that she cares for her education creating a positive representation.