Evaluation Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main representation we wanted to focus on and address was our representation of age. By using influence from other films and TV programmes in the media we attempted to conform to and revert some of the stereotypes that are enforced in the media.

British Teenagers

The age group our film opening represents is teenagers. There is a lot of representation of teenagers in the media as many TV programmes and films are centred around teenagers. This also means that many stereotypes for teenagers have been developed, both positive and negative ( the majority being negative).

Dress

It was really important to us that what our characters wore accurately represented what teenagers in London wear today to make our sequence as identifiable and idealistic to our audience as possible. We wanted to give our actors as much freedom as possible to allow them to truly represent their style. Instead of designing each actors outfit we gave them guidelines for what we suggested they wore. We made suggestions based on what we wear ourselves and also what we see teenagers in films and tv dramas wearing, seeing as most of our styles are inspired by the media.

Branded clothes and streetwear/sportswear is very popular amongst teenagers in London and we ensured that this has come across in our project. 

Often the negative representations that are placed on teenagers are also placed on the clothing they wear e.g. hoodies and other streetwear. My exploring the individual personalities of our characters throughout the film and presenting them in a positive light we wanted to show that even though our characters are wearing clothing that can be associated with anti- social behaviour they themselves are not delinquents, to enforce that you cannot stereotype people and make assumptions on their behaviour and personalities based on their clothing.

Behaviour

Teenagers are known for partying and having a good time and this is something we were keen to put across in our opening. We wanted to create an almost idealistic party lifestyle for the audience as it is evident the characters are having a lot of fun with their friends. 

However, teenagers are also often presented as badly behaved, rowdy deliquents in Tv programmes and films. This can be seen in programmes and films such as Skins, human traffic and kidulthood.

Although there is drug and alcohol usage in our opening the focus is much more on the dangers of this and we want it to stand as a warning to the consequences of overuse of drugs and alcohol.

Overall we wanted to adhere to some of the typical stereotypes of teenagers so that we could attract our target audience of teenagers as the film would be relatable to them. However, we also wanted to show through further character development that there is much more to our characters than just drugs and parties and at the same time bring awareness to some of the problems that teenagers face that are often undermined in the media.