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

Mean girls

These are the 'mean girls' from our film opening and can be compared to 'The plastics' from mean girls and they are both stereotypical but also challenge the stereotype. The postures of both of the groups of girls are very similar, they show that they think they are more superior to everyone else. The looks on their faces show that they are moody and 'mean', also both of their outfits are very fashionable and also have long, well looked after hair and you can tell that they take care of their appearance. The lighting in both photos is very bright and there is a light directly on them. They also challenge the stereotype for mean girls because all of the mean girls in our opening have ginger hair, and the main mean girl also has ginger hair, usually they have blonde hair as people associate blondes with being ditzy, pretty and just overall usually the mean girl. In our opening our main mean girl is ginger which are usually shown to be the nerd/unpopular girl like in mean girls and easy a for example, so by challenging this stereotype it makes the overall film more interesting.

Protagonist



This is the protagonist of out opening, we have kept it very stereotypical for our film in the way of the main character is liked by everyone and is seen as very innocent. Although, our character is seen as very innocent until the film goes on. The pose of both of them are very similar and also they are both smiling with shows their innocence, also their outfits are similar, they are both wearing leather jackets, tight jeans and low cut tops which is seen as very fashionable. The lighting used in both photos is bright which connotes a happy environment. One thing that challenges the usual stereotype is that the character that is playing the outcast is not usually blonde because they are normally seen as the mean girl, Jo from Mean Girls 2 is one of the only other films I have seen that uses a blonde for the protagonist.

'Heartthrob'

The heartthrob of our film opening is very stereotypical and is very similar to the heartthrob Aaron Samuels from mean girls. They both have dark hair, although Aarons is longer and covering his face more and Johnny's is out of his face and gelled up. The settings for both of the photos are very similar as well, because they are both taken in a school, also the lighting in both are quite bright but with shadows in the corner. They are both smirking in their photos and looking directly to the camera, this shows that they are both confident and slightly arrogant. They are also very similar in their films as both of their ex's are the main mean girl and then the more unpopular girl gets involved. Also their outfits are quite different, Aaron is wearing a shirt whereas Johnny is wearing more of a causal outfit although both still fashionable.


Generic gay character

The gay character that we have in our film opening is a very stereotypical character because he is very similar to Damian from Mean girls. This is because they both have a lot of girl friends and their best friends are girls, but also from first glance you wouldn't just assume they're gay as they wear the same sort of thing, tight jeans and a boyish top therefore you can tell they care about their appearance as they are still very fashionable and they care about what people are thinking of them. They are both very catty and love knowing the gossip and being involved, as well as this they both like being the centre of attention and when they start talking you can tell they have quite a few feminine qualities. The type of setting they're in shows that they are very happy, outgoing characters because they're standing/sitting in a bright environment with a light background behind them, they also both have dark hair.