Evaluation Question 2

How does your opening sequence REPRESENT particular SOCIAL GROUPS and SETTINGS?

My media product represents one particular social group which is young teenagers who desire to pursue their dreams in becoming something in life.

The characters that mainly associate with my genre Teenage Romance would be a popular young handsome boy and an independent young girl. An example is Sam Montgomery (Hillary Duff) and Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray) in A Cinderella story (2003). Sam, a independent young smart girl who worked hard in school and got grades; she worked in a cafe that her step-mother owned in order to raise money so she could go to university and make something of herself. Austin is a young handsome popular boy who captain for his school’s American football team.The main characters in my opening sequence are:

Ricardo:

· Ricardo/Male/17yrs old

· Black/British

· Handsome

· Popular

· Loves sports

· Aspires to be world known basketball player

· All the girls love him

· He doesn’t like to over dress as he is laid back

· He is carefree

· He enjoys hanging with his friends

In the camera Ricardo is represented as cool popular boy and we see this right from the beginning through his body language when he is walking and is greeted by one of the pupils in the school. This is similar to way John Tucker (John Tucker Must Die) is seen in the camera... as he walks through the corridor of his school he is greeted by girls/boys who attend the school.

The non-digetic sound be a funky/rocky/upbeat soundtrack portrays him as cool/edgy laid back teenager as it contrasts with his body language (the movement of his body when is walking). This can relate to Poppy Moor in Wild child even though she was opposite gender when she was walking into to the school fancy dress party and the non-digetic sound represented her as cool/edgy.

The props that Ricardo uses, for example the duffle boy that he was wearing in the opening sequence represents him as an athletic sporty person. This is similar to Jack in The Secret Life of the American Teenager as he always has a duffle bag on him; as he plays American football for his school team; by jack wearing this he is represented as sporty person and makes people notice him as that.

Alison

· Alison/Female/17yrs old

· Asian/British

· Pretty

· Sweet personality

· Independent/dedicated

· Loves to dance

· Aspires to be a great dancer

· Kind hearted

· Quiet and shy

The camera represents Alison as hard working independent girl and we see this when she is in the dance studio by herself just finished dancing and stretching even though she did not have a lesson; she still went to practice so she could make herself better. This is similar to Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl... she would practice making and designing clothes at home so that she could make better at it.

However Alison’s body language and facial expression in the opening sequence portrays her as quiet and shy as when she see Ricardo she is love stuck and starts blushing; she doesn’t try to communicated with him in anyway and ends up walking past him. This relates to Sam Montgomery in A Cinderella Story when she sees Austin Ames in the hallway and she is love stuck just starring him as she is walking and she is too shy to talk to him.

Alison is represented as someone who loves dancing and aspires to be a great dancer through her costume and props. The costume she was wearing when she practicing by herself in the dance studio was her full dance kit; and the props used such as the stereo and CDs were hers from home and not the school. Alison always made sure she brought her own props instead of using the schools because some else may be using at the time she want to use it... this also represents her as someone who is independent. This is similar to Sarah in Save the Last Dance when she was practicing her dancing in an old studio by herself with her own props (Stereo and CD), everyday so she could be ready for her audition.

The way the opening sequence is edited represents Alison as some who is dedicated to dance through the way the cutaways kept on cutting back to Alison as she was practicing dancing and stretching. This can relate to the opening sequence of Step up as we constantly see cutaways of the two dance groups rehearsing dances.

One issue we encountered was with one of our casts, was with Jesse when on the day of shooting he went out of site to buy food and did not make it back time as we had already planned the time on shooting schedule and needed him when everyone was walking through the playground however resolved this issue by shooting when school had finished and found it better as there were more people walking past.

We had chosen our casts from the other Media class. We only needed two characters and we choose Dhara Syal who plays Alison Stanfield and Jesse Chuku who plays Ricardo Evans. We wanted our casts to not only be dedicated and reliable but to be able to fit into their characters. Jesse Chuku already is a basketball player as he plays for the school team so this made it easier because he already had something in common with his character (Ricardo). Even though Dhara Syal is not a dancer, her personality fits with her character (Alison), as she a quiet kind-hearted person.

In order for our casts to stay true to the representations of their characters, we would practice the shot before filming; whilst practicing I had to explain what they should do in more detail and then act it out if they were still confused. If it did not look natural or how we wanted it to look I would give them an example of the situation that relates to the shot and ask them to act out what they would do. Then when it looked right we would film it. An example of this was when Dhara (Alison) did not understand the sort of facial expressions she had to do when she saw Jesse (Ricardo) and even when I showed her by acting it out and she acted it out after; it still did not look quiet how we wanted it to look. So I give her a scenario to do with the shot, “How would she look at this good looking boy that she has always liked but is too shy to talk him” and told her to act it out. When Dhara acted out the shot after I had said that, it looked much better as it looked natural.