Question 2 PPT

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Representing Social Groups

Question 6 of Evaluation

Various different social groups are shown within my film opening, these are typical stereotypes of which the audience are easily able to recognise and interpret into the specific categories intended by us.

Introduction

The three different social groups I believe we have successfully interpreted is: Gothic/emo, typical popular high school jock and the ‘it’ girl. These all have different contrasting stereotypes which helps the audience strongly tell between these groups.

I have taken into account the various typical conventions shared between gothic characters which sets them apart from other categories. After some thorough research I noticed similar patterns within chick flicks in representing Goths and emos and these are what we have used in order to represent them in this same way to ensure the audience recognises the social group intended.

The Goth Girl

The classic stereotypes put into place and thought by most around us believe that Goths are rather moody, dark, mysterious, listen to heavy metal genre of music, wear dark/black clothing and tend to keep their distance from others and themselves to themselves. We believe this is how we have represented our gothic character within our film opening and have done so to ensure that the audience fully recognise which social group she is from so therefore they are able to easily interpret what that given character is like. As you will see in our opening film piece, the character has darkly coloured ‘scene’-like hair, dark lipstick and eye make-up along with mainly black clothes and is also seen to be give off quite a moody, uncomfortable atmosphere to those watching her.

Our Goth Girl taken from a still of our film opening

By creating this character to be so recognisably gothic by ensuring strong stereotypical conventions have been used, the audience are able to recognise that she has been portrayed to be like the typical moody, mysterious Goth helping to interpret what the characters initial personality and self is like saving a great deal of time working this out.

This is a character quite often seen within most high school chick flick movies and are commonly known for their lack of common and general knowledge, popularity with the hot, attractive girls around school and are usually portrayed to be extremely good looking and handsome. I believe that we have represented this character of ours in the same manner in order for the audience to just make assumptions to what the character is like; good looking, popular and someone who all the girls want but also a little dumb and naive about his game play.

The Jock

The ‘jock’ is represented and included in various chick flicks such as in the popular movie ‘John Tucker Must Die’, he is portrayed as extremely popular around the high school especially with the girls, quite cocky and because of this the girls within the movie decide to get revenge upon him from being so ‘big headed’ and playing along girls (an idea we have with our film narrative).

I and my group have been successful in interpreting these stereotypes into action within our piece to re-create the typical social group character being ‘the jock’. The character within our opening appears to be very appealing to the eye as seen in the photography both female characters possess but also very cocky and naive because of it due to the fact we see him texting both girls, arranging to go on a date with both, both females having the same photograph of him, that he is playing both of the girls along thinking he can get away with it. We have portrayed him as the stereotypical high school jock effectively, popular with the girls, cocky and good looking.

Image of ‘Josh’ the Jock within our final piece

These are seen in most if not all chick flicks set in a high school, she is the girl that everybody wants to be, pretty, popular and confident. The ‘it’ girl within a very famous and well-known high school chick flick would be Regina George. The female who is seen to be quite ‘up herself’ and rather arrogant towards the rest of the school students, especially the ‘unpopular’ social groups such as nerds and they also don’t tend to mix with Goths; the contrasting character we have chosen to compete with the ‘it’ girl.

The ‘it’ Girl

We have created our ‘it’ girl character to be that of attractive, very girly, popular, outgoing and confident. This is due to those strong stereotypes developed over the decades through various media products. It helps the audience immensely with knowing what the character is like and also ensures they know what social group she is in which is the ‘it’ girl by recognising this from the character’s appearance.

Our ‘it’ girl taken from a still in our film opening

Overall I believe all social groups; Goth, ‘it’ girl and jock have been represented in the correct manner and have been represented in the stereotypical way which was what we intended to do.

Here’s a few still shots from within our final film opening. I have described thoroughly about the meanings within the shots and also how it represents certain characters to be.

Still Shots from Piece

This close up of the Goth girl in our film opening suggests the character has 'attitude' by her fierce, dark appearance clearly visible within this shot of her doing make up. It also suggests that she cares deep down as she is clearly concentrating hard in trying her best to look good, for a date perhaps? This also allows the audience to establish what this character is actually like, due to stereotypes created by those all around us, we automatically have this character down as a Goth By this stereotype, we also make assumptions about her personality, we think of moody, depressed and keeps herself to herself. This view is also supported by the movements she makes next, how she throws her clothes over the cubicle, how she storms out the bathroom

This shot at the very end of the opening is significantly important which is why we have decided to put it at the end so it keeps in the audience's head for much longer and is still fresh in their minds. This shot is so important as it states the actual name of the film, tis is vital as it's what the film will be recognised by. The title is in two different coloured fonts, both black and pink which conveys and supports that the two female characters within the opening are extremely different and contrasting people, the pink represents the girly girl while the black the Goth It also matches with the title itself as 'double date' involves two people. The title also gives more of an insight in to what the film is actually about, gives them clues about the narrative as the audience may have been wondering why two people are getting ready to see the same male, it may suggest that they are both fighting for the male character

This is a long shot of one of the girly character looking at herself in a full body mirror, the long shot allows the audience to see her important body language which shows she is confident and impressed with her but not with this outfit as she changes again. Her pose conveys how feminine she to us maybe appealing to the audience which have relatable situations when choosing what to wear.

I have purposely captured this still shot of the girly character applying her lip gloss as it conveys what type of character she is; pretty, feminine and the audience make assumptions due to this that she is popular, especially with drawing male attention. The shot is of the character looking into the mirror applying her make-up which automatically suggests she takes care and pride in herself, making herself up for a date.

This is a still shot of our actress Laura who was the girly girl within the opening. As you can see this is a medium shot of the female from the back, she is looking into the mirror in the process of getting ready. This conveys her femininity and appeals to the targeted audience being mainly young female teenagers as it's relatable to them.

We can also see the character's surroundings, they are also very girly and feminine which conveys the same meaning as before; we have done this so that the audience can get a feel of what type of character she is instead of learning about her whole life style. This is due to stereotypes, we see a girly girl in a girly room and automatically make assumptions to that the girl is over the top girly like she is portrayed to be.

The credits are shown surrounding the character; we have chosen to do so in order for them to be clearly visible to the audience without their eyes having to drift into the corners and edges of the screen. Instead they are clearly visible just by following the characters allowing the audience to focus more on the characters, to learn and concentrate on the narrative of the film.

This is also another shot of the character getting ready for the date in the opening scene. The credits on this shot have been placed in against the character's dark hair in order for the audience to clearly read the text. The brushing of the hair motion also connotes the ‘girliness’ of the female which the audience may be able to relate to and this may also be found appealing to those feminine females out there. This shot is a close-up shot still from this scene, this shot may be familiar to those audiences who enjoy watching chick flicks on a regular basis as this close-up shot of the brushing of the hair is also seen in the very famous chick flick 'Legally Blonde' shown below.