How does your media product represent certain social groups?

In ‘Coming of Age’ films, the social group that is represented is teenagers…

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…typically female, as they are often the target audience for these films

In our title sequence for ‘Be Mine’, we meet the protagonist: a teenage girl.

From the offset we knew that our media From the offset we knew that our media product would be a product would be a positivepositive representation of teenagers.representation of teenagers.

They are our target audience, so obviously it makes no They are our target audience, so obviously it makes no sense to portray them in a negative light. sense to portray them in a negative light.

The wall scene helps introduce the character to the audience, and lets them find out more about her. We wanted to portray her as a typical teenager girl, so let’s take a closer look…

In most of the photographs, we see her out enjoying herself with her friends. As most coming of age films often include quite stereotypical characters, this suggests that she is not a typical ‘geek’ or ‘loner’, and enjoys going out and socialising. The simple fact that she appears happy in all these photo’s implies that this is going to be a positive representation.

Here, she is seen posing with her friends, which could suggest that she doesn’t take herself too seriously and enjoys having fun.

Here, she is seen with her family, suggesting that she has a good relationship with them, which is not always the case with all teenagers. This again, helps to represent her in a positive light.

In this photograph, we see her all dressed up for prom. This helps to reiterate the sense of ‘coming of age’, as it is a well known milestone for teenagers and symbolises growing up

Our opening sequence also uses stereotyping to represent teenagers:

The actions we see her doing in her typical morning routine, include deciding on what to wear (fashion), going on her laptop (social networking/music) and texting. These are all things that could be associated with a stereotypical teenager.

Location

The setting of our title sequence is in the protagonist’s home. This instantly gives the audience an insight into the social class of the character. The fact that it is just an average house implies that the character isn’t particularly wealthy, and will hopefully make them more relatable to the masses.

Conclusion

• The dominant representation of our media product is a stereotypical teenage girl, with notable romantic tendencies.

• We got this message across through use of props, acting codes, location and soundtrack.

• Our main aim was to make the character as relatable as possible, and I think that it is through these medium’s that we achieved it.

• We didn’t use any exaggerated stereotypical characters, as are often seen in ‘coming of age’ films, such as goth, popular, or geek, as we felt that these were quite clichéd and would only minimise the amount of people that could relate the character.