Evaluation 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have three main social groups that are focused on in the title and opening sequence of our film. There are the older, popular, 'good looking' girls that everyone in the school looks up to and respects. The second group is the older, popular and sporty 'good looking' guys. This social group are the guys that most girls adore and guys respect because of their sport ability. The last social group is the younger, 'ordinary' relate-able girls. People in the school don't particularly pay attention to them but don't hate them either. This is the group that the audience can relate to because of the situation they are in and the problems they are faced with.

These character are from the film 'Mean Girls'. They are a stereotype of the 'bitchy', popular girls that most teen angst films have. They are 'good looking' young girls. The clothes they are wearing are pink, which is stereotyped as the colour associated with girls, and modern at the time of filming. Their facial expressions and pose show they are very confident and self righteous. They have long healthy hair that most girls of this age take pride in. They also wear make up which shows they are typical teenage girls but also shows that they have some self confidence issues. This is relatable to the audience. Our character above is Yasmin the leader of the group of girls who are 'good looking' and at the same age range as the characters in mean girls. Our characters will be wearing modern clothes and be very confident as they as seen as they 'bitchy' popular girls they everyone respects but fears as well. These characters will be similar to the mean girls characters as they will take pride in their looks, hair and social image. They are also similar to the mean girls characters as they think they are better than everyone else and are very materialistic with jewellery and accessories such as bags and clothes. They are nearly always with their friendship group and act similar to each other in order to keep up social appearance. The main characters in mean girls are girls and they have similar personality traits to main characters in teen angst films. They are bitchy, care about their appearance and most importantly care about their social status within the school and the local community. They want to be seen as someone important and that everyone looks up to and are jealous of. This is how this particular social group are represented in most well known teen angst and is also how they are portrayed in our film. We portray them like this by including the features listed previously.

This is the love interest from the 'Agnus, Thongs and perfect snogging'. He is seen as 'Good looking' and popular. He has dark mid/short length hair and wears no make up which boys stereotypically don't. This hair cut is modern and the clothes he is wearing are also modern but simple. This shows boys don't care too much about their appearance but try to still be modern. His pose and camera shot show he is laid back and happy. Our love interest in our film has short blonde hair but still seen as 'Good looking'. He is popular and wears trendy clothes. All of these features mean that girls find him attractive and this is why he is the main love interest in the film. Our character is called Blake, (above on the right) and will also be portrayed as laid backed and very happy. (His facial expressions display this as he always look happy and is never angry). He wears trendy clothes that everyone finds cool and this helps him with his popularity. He is the same age as Yasmin and this is why they are together. Blake is a good looking guy who hangs around with the other popular lads in the school and are very good at sport. This is a contributing factor to his popularity in the school. Two girls from different ends of the social ladder 'fancy' the love interest in our film. It starts off with the most popular girl dating him but this changes over the course of the film. This is very stereotypical of the teen angst genre. We represent Blake as the main male character in the film. We portray him as sporty, good looking, popular and seen as eye candy by the female characters in the film and also by the audience. This adds to the representation that Blake is the love interest in the film. In Juno and Angus thongs and perfect snogging it is clear that the love interest plays a big part in the story line and the characters feelings that are shown in the movie. We have tried to replicate these ideas in our movie.

Above on the left is the 'nerdy quiet' girl from the film '16 wishes'. She is the younger, less popular social group. She works hard at school and nobody really notices her apart from her best friend. She doesn't talk to other people and all she wants is to be happy. she doesn't care about how popular she is. 

On the right is the equivalent character in our film called Charlotte. Again, she works hard in school and is happy with her life and the friends she has. She isn't really noticed by anyone other than her friendship group and she is happy with that. She is a nice kind girl who cares for her friends. These girls would wear typically nice, sophisticated clothes that aren't promiscuous. The accessories she has are mainly books and equipment for school as she cares more about that than popularity. She is younger than Yasmin and Blake and so she is very rarely noticed by Blake and Yasmin dislikes her when she does see her. She is friendly and acts mature for her age. She wears minimal make up as she feels she should be accepted for who she is and what everyone else wants. These attributes mean that this social group are seen as less promiscuous than the more popular girls. We represent this character as a perfect student that does no harm to anyone. She works hard and cares about grades and her friends. This is similiar to the characters in 16 wishes and Easy A. These are the contrasting group to the 'Bitchy' group above. These are the two main groups that are conventional throughout teen angst films. Through our research we found this out and then decided it would be wise to include these two contrasting groups.

Evaluation 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1) The first photo in the grid is the title of the film, which is a high angle, extreme close up. We chose to have it next to a phone as this represents the influence technology has on a modern teenagers live. This also shows that it is an alarm and so connotes the start of the day or in this use the start of the film. We used a purple serif font as this is stereotypically a girly style/colour. This is significant as the target audience is teenage girls. In this title shot you can also see a pink perfume bottle which is again associated with girls and connotes that the film is going to be based around a girl's life. Pink/Purple coloured titles are a conventions of the teen angst genre and during my research of other films found that these types of titles are shown in other films such as Mean Girls.

2) This shot shows one of the settings used in the opening sequence and in the film which was a school. We used this setting as the film is based around school life and the feeling and problems that come with it. The target audience of teenage girls can relate to the school life and the problems it bring which is why we based the film around the love/social aspect of school life. The lockers and other aspects of the school are examples of iconography. The school setting is a well identified convention of the teen angst genre and my research into other films of the teen angst genre identified that many other teen angst films use the setting of a school, including Easy- A and High School Musical.

3) The clothes in the film differ for each social group. The older, popular group has the most modern/trendy clothes as this is important to them because clothes are an important indication to how popular they are. Expensive clothes and accessories are an important to teenagers social status. The younger group wear school clothes as they are at school during the film and school clothes are conventional costumes for characters in the teen angst films. We chose to do this because teenagers spend lots of time at school. Researching other films lead me to see that many other films including Easy A that are American films and so public schools do not have a standard uniform. This is similar to our older group who wear modern, trendy clothes. The film Mean Girls has a stereotypically girly clothes that the main group of girls wear. These as pink, modern clothes and a conventional for teen angst.

4) The camera work shown in the fourth shot is a long shot. We used a range of shots in filming our film, including close up, mid shot, long shot and extreme close up. The shot shows some of the editing we used such as the adding in names to help the audience know who is who and their relative backgrounds/personalities. The circle and name are in a friendly, colourful style as this will interest the target audience as teenagers take more notice to things that are bright and exciting rather than a title that is dull and boring. These sort of special effects are conventional in teen angst and research showed this in films such as Juno.

5) The title shown in the 5th shot above is a typical title for the teen angst genre. It is conventional as it is pink and in a serif font which connotes that it is targeted at a young female audience as pink is associated with young females. These are a major convention of teen angst films as it helps to establish quickly that the film will be targeted at females and the film will be based on a teenager girl's life. As said above the film Mean Girls also has a pink title as it connotes the female gender.

6) The opening sets the story up by introducing the main characters and what their role is in each others life.
We introduce the main character, Charlotte, by her voice-over explaining who she is. The voice-over of Charlotte then goes on to describe her situation that the film is based around. She also introduces her friends and how she perceives them. 1st person voice-overs are a typical convention of the teen angst genre as the help to set the story. Most of the teen angst genre films that we studied have voice-overs such as Juno and Easy- A

7) The Genre of the film is made clear from the opening of the film. There are many aspects that connote the film will be based around a girl's life and will be the teen angst genre. The pink flowers connote that the film will be based around a girl and that the genre will be something that girl's enjoy watching, such as teen angst. Also the fact that it is a young female that the opening of the film focuses on getting ready for school indicates that the film will be about her and the life of a teenage girl. This shows the genre is teen angst as it is about teenager's lives. The mise en scene such as the pink flowers that allow the genre to be portrayed to the audience and this a convention of teen angst. Films such as mean girls show this mise en scene through clothes, lighting, and props.

8) We introduced our characters by adding in voice overs and highlighting them with their names in editing. The voice overs introduced the characters vocally and how the main character (Charlotte) feels about each of them. We then used editing to highlight the characters in turn, using a brightly coloured circle, and label them with their respective names. The names were in stereotypical 'girly' colours  as this connotes that the target audience and characters are female. Other films such as mean girls use pink fonts because, as stated above, the colour pink connotes that the film will interest girls and be about girl.

9) Special effect were added in to the film during editing. We used transitions to bring in the titles in a way that would be seen as fun and exciting by our target audience. Adding in the labels and circles when we introduced the characters and the titles themselves are the most common special effects found in most films in most genres as well as the teen angst genre. For example, mean girls, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Juno and Easy A. We also had the use of a flashback that used transitions that showed it was a flashback and the voice over also stated that it was in the past. Many teen angst movies have flashbacks that help explain the plot and why the characters feel a certain way about each other.