The media massively contributes to the stereotypical view of different social groups. Within our production we decided that we would have a young, teenage girl as the main character. We tried to match this to the stereotypical view of the majority of teenagers being perceived as 'unstable' and rebellious in the sense that they drink and are unable to control their aggression.
Furthermore, by using a female character we felt that this would impact on the overall perception of her being vulnerable, in the sense that she was young and small in contrast to her age, giving the initial thought that she is weak and unable to defend herself as appose to that of an older male, who we decided to play the role of her 'imagination'.
We decided on using this stereotypical view of a teenager portrayed in the group of a 'college slacker' because we thought that the audience would be able to relate to the character more.
We achieved this view through the props used; beer can and a bandage on her wrist. Although, we did not show how the damage to her wrist was caused, this created the audience to follow their bias imagination of her causing harm to herself. This also was a good idea to leave the audience in suspense, as for a short opening of a film sequence it would not be appropriate to reveal a lot of the story line that follows it.
Also, the appearance of the character matched that of the social group of college students who look like slackers. This consisted of large, volumised hair, dirty black tracksuit bottoms, with an odd denim jacket. This helped us to portray college students of not having pride in their appearance, often wearing loose casual fitting clothes, usually that of a dark colour to make them look slightly intimidating.
However, we also challenged this perception as the character is actually a dedicated student, especially towards her music career, despite her untidy appearance. We hoped that through this we would achieve a character that perhaps fitted into the social group of having a rough lifestyle, therefore not having a lot of money to buy fashionable clothes to wear.
Also, a lot of the shots used within our production mainly focuses on the feet on the main character. These shots represent how she is always looking down on the floor walking, not wanting to look up at what awaits her as she is incredibly paranoid and does not want to face up at what awaits her because of this uncontrollable fear. This idea could make her fit into the social group of a 'bully victim', as though she does not have the confidence to stand up for herself and has the negative attitude, as she is always looking down at her feet. It also represented her as being insecure and a loner in comparison to popular teenagers who are out socializing a lot.
Because of this, we felt that by her drinking on the streets matched the social interpretation of the way teenagers are portrayed particularly in the media such as the news. However, at the same time we wanted this to mirror the decision of her turning to drink excessive amounts of alcohol perhaps because of her difficult lifestyle.
Moreover, the decision for the prop of a piano to be included, represented a solitary hobby, in which she played alone. This further portrayed her as an outsider with no social life. We aimed to show music as a way of an escape for her and to finally express herself. Therefore, when this is taken away from her due to her injury, she results in having nothing else in life that she perceives as working hard for to achieve.
The shots that were included also portrayed her as being alone. For example a long shot of her sitting alone on the park. This presents her of having no friends, and the idea of her wanting to be alone as she is segregating herself off from society by choosing a quiet area of the park of a lonely bench on the outskirts.
We hope we achieved the way we wanted our social groups to be perceived by the audience, and was successful in a lot of stereotypical views created by the media about different social classes. A lot of the main character was inspired by the media on the television such as the TV programme 'Skins'. This is a particularly good example of how teenagers are portrayed in a rebellious way, but still put forward as likable characters at the same time.
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