Part 5- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Camera, Angle, Shot Movement and Position

At the start of my opening sequence our main character, 'Becky' is portrayed as an aggressive, wild and rebellious girl. To emphasise this We shot her with some low angles to portray her strength and superiority. However towards the end of the opening sequence when her mother enters her room, there is a sudden power shift. Becky is crying and vulnerable, we portrayed this with a high angle to display her inferior side. Her mother is swearing aggressively to Becky and we shot her with a low angle to display her power and superiority she possesses over the character of Becky. We also used many close ups in order to display a clear view of the characters facial expression to the viewer. For example when Becky barges into a random girl on the street we used a close up of the victims expression so the viewer can get an idea of the emotions the girl is going through. It also emphasises the violence and rebellious behavior of Becky.

Mise-En-Scene

When filming we made sure we portrayed a gritty side of life. Becky's costume plays a big role in representing her character. She wears a baggy hockey top, grey tracksuit bottoms and fake sneakers. Her costume is very plain and casual which illustrates her poor wealth and displays to the viewer that her parents may not work and there is a struggle for money. Another way we displayed a poor side of life in our opening sequence is through our portrayal of the location. The streets that our main characters lives in is not exactly a nice place. The stair case, litter and vandalism, demonstrates the area as a gritty, urban area which is what we aimed to show. Also the actor's house is very small, with an empty fridge and only possesses basic necessities. We also portrayed the poor side of life through the prop of her alcohol bottle. She is drinking 'Bacardi Breezer' which is cheap alcopop.

Editing

We used quick abrupt cuts between many of our shots to portray the harsh, grittiness of the location that our character lives in. Also in some cases we used long takes on shots in order for the reader to see the characters body language and facial expressions.

Sound

The sound portrayed in my opening sequence plays a big role in how we represent the social groups of society. For example the mode of address of Becky is very foul. Throughout the opening sequence she is constantly swearing saying the F word many times. She speaks very informally with no respect towards others. Also the non diegetic sound of the soundtrack I produced has an asian flair to it at the start in order to represent our characters ethnicity. The soundtrack is a simple drum beat which is what we wanted to keep the footage tense and therefore engaging the viewer.

Typography

When editing we created graphics to put on top of our footage and for our title we used a full screen graphic. Our graphic was plain white text on top of a black background because this simplicity is common in the BSR genre. As well as it being common of the genre it also portrays or characters as very basic, plain people in the society they live in, connoting that problems such as teen pregnancy occurs on a daily basis.

Expressionism

When creating our production me and my partner ensured that we would use natural lighting because it makes it more realistic and believable for the viewer. The natural lighting was enough to light our production so we were pleased with it. Also the colour of our footage is not too bright and saturated. We ensured we filmed on a gloomy day so the colours were grey and dim. This portrays our characters and the location as a gritty, poor place.