Q2: How does your media product represent particular social

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

Stereotypes

Positive or Negative?

Positioning of the audience

My title sequence represents teenage girls in a negative light. My sequence shows the character of Rosie to be an 'off the rails' teenage girl that goes out every night drinking, taking drugs and getting herself in states that would be looked upon by adults as unacceptable. However, I deliberately chose to represent her in this way to show how dangerous modern society can be for young people if they get into the wrong crowd. I wanted to make people aware, through this piece, that girls just like Rosie do end up in this situation and it is important that younger people are protected more and made aware of these dangers.

If I were to do this again or even to develop more of the film, I think I would like to introduce more characters of the same age range as Rosie. By doing this I would be able to show a wider range of representations and show the different levels of maturity that teenagers have. I would be able to show a contrast between a character like Rosie and one or two other characters that were the complete opposite that didn't go out drinking and partying to show a range of teenage lifestyles.

I was able to portray such a negative representation of Rosie through the use of props, costume and makeup. However, if I wanted to over exaggerate the representation I would have had to make these elements more extreme and drastic.

The representation may be a negative one of teenage girls but I felt that it was important to highlight that this is what happens to some girls and it is rare that this image is represented in the media. However, there is a sense that Rosie is also being set up as a positive figure, so in that respect there is a certain ambiguity to the sequence.

The main stereotypes that I wanted to focus on through my piece was the stereotypes of teenagers. I wanted to take some inspiration from american stereotypes that are featured in many films and capture just a glimpse of this in my piece.

I tried to feature these stereotypes through the split screen shots taken when Rosie is deciding on an outfit to wear to her party.

The stereotypes I ended up representing where normal teenage girl, winter look, geek,

rock/biker girl and party/slutty girl, which

was the outfit Rosie chose to represent

her promiscuity.

If I were to do this again I would add more

stereotypes into the sequence and make this section more of a montage to have a greater effect.

I decided to position the audience with the protagonist so that they were able to follow her story and try to understand why she is living the life that she is. My opening scene develops the relationship between Rosie and the audience. The audience follow Rosie and are being introduced to her character as she is heading out on a night out. The use of voice over particularly establishes how Rosie has come to be how she is as she talks about her life from a young age and how she was always getting in trouble for her actions. I didn't necessarily want the audience to like Rosie as such, but I wanted them to understand her lifestyle and how she has become vulnerable through the actions she made in earlier life. Through the use of close up and follow shots I tried to create a more personal experience for the audience so that it felt as if they were having a personal connection to the character. This then lead nicely into the title sequence where the audience were now able to understand why Rosie was trying to make such an effort so that she could feel confident within herself.

I guess that there was a hope that the audience may feel sympathy towards her character and I tried to achieve this through the contrasting backing music used in the opening scene in comparison to the titles, but I wanted the audience to develop their own opinion on Rosie that I hoped would be a positive one.

Examples of shots used to portray the audiences position

Technical skills

This shot allowed the audience to

closely follow Rosie as if they were walking with her as she told her childhood stories.

This shot seperates the audience from Rosie and allows them to step back and assess the damage that has been made. It means they can reflect on how they feel about the character through the distance of the shot.

I was able to represent Rosie being drunk through the editing software and use of effects. Specifically, I used a video effect called ghosting and also additive dissolves over the top of some of my footage. The ghosting and additive dissolve made the footage repeat and play over the top of itself giving the effect of Rosie being intoxicated, the dissolves added more of a flashback effect that acted like drunken hallucinations. I played this over the 'flashback' footage to show how wild her lifestyle was and that her memories tended to be blury and distorted. This gave the impression of Rosie's addiction to alcohol and it was a simple yet effective way to achieve this representation.