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

There are some similarities between these two shots. The one on the left is from our film 'The Lost Locket' showing our female protagonist, Leola. The shot on the right is the female protagonist called Mia Hall from the film 'If I Stay'. Leola is in the middle of walking down the school hallway and Mia is standing by the lockers, again in the school hallway. This shows that in typical romance films aimed at teenage and young adult audiences, using a school hallway is a convention of the genre. We have made Leola's shot a close up so that the audience can relate to her character. She has also just finished the voice over and so by her looking into the camera the audience can still relate to her. Mia is also shown in a close up to show her emotions. She is talking to the male protagonist, Adam, at this point and as this is their first conversation together the close up shot allows the audience to see the shyness and also the fearful emotion she is portraying. Another similarity between these two shots is that they are both wearing smart casual clothes. This suggests that most teenagers who attend a collage wear casual clothing. However, as Leola is wearing a thick coat and Mia is only wearing a cardigan, it could connote that Leola has a hidden personality which the audience is yet to fully see. Mia has a cardigan on suggesting that she is more relaxed and shows her personality more. Another difference between these two shots is that behind Mia there is a crowd of people and behind Leola there is only one person. This could suggest that Leola is shy and she also prefers to be on her own and Mia is more confident with a crowd around her. The lighting in the shot with Leola is quite harsh meaning that it is harder to recognize the setting which she is in due to the light highlighting her and not what is also around her. The shot with Mia shows that the lighting is gentle and subtle suggesting that she is an innocent character. It is also clearer to see the setting behind her. Another similarity which occur between these is that they both look around the same age of 17. This conforms to our target audience because they will be able to relate to the film better because the events happening throughout these films could happen to them. The events which we have placed in the opening is Leola trying to find her way around the new school as we thought this is an effective way for the audience to also gain a sense of where the film is set. I know from having previously watched 'If I Stay' this happens in the opening also suggesting that if a film is set in a school or collage setting, it will usually show the character walking around so that the audience knows the setting and sees at familiar if it appears at a later stage.