Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

An analysis of representations in my opening sequence:


The opening sequence starts with very slow paced editing – which helps in focusing the audience’s attention on the dialogue between the cashier and her daughter, as nothing too exciting or colourful happens. During this dialogue, the mother cashier says to her daughter that “It doesn’t look as if it’s getting any brighter does it love”. The use of words such as ‘love’ and the overall colloquial language suggests a friendly and close relationship between the two – showing there are no barriers or conflicts between the young and older age groups as they both speak equally to one another. It also enforces the stereotype that women are more caring and loving than men, as the friendly nature of the conversation contrasts sharply with how the teenager speaks to the cashier.

The sudden eerie roar of the soundtrack that kicks in when the male teenager walks into the room suggests that there is a new, powerful and somewhat unusual presence. Since we already had a teenager in the room and this audio was not present – this may lean towards the representation of males as being dangerous and capable of disturbing the peace, as the room was peaceful and calm before. This is probably fairly conventional in film, as dangerous antagonists are usually portrayed as men.

The absence of dialogue when the cashier asks the teenager “Can I help you at all” – can be uncomfortable for the audience as they wait for a reply. The long pause could connote the stereotypical representation that teenagers can be rude and unsocial towards older generations – as if there is a communicational barrier between them.

There is use of a long take of a panning up shot from the teenager’s feet and legs up to his face – to form a low angle shot. This low angle shot frames the male teenager to look large on the screen, making him seem more powerful in relation to other objects and characters in the scene. Males therefore seem to be cast as more dominative and powerful than females, who aren’t shown to be nearly as large in later shots. It also shows a non-conventional perspective on representations of age, as the younger age group appears to have the advantage against the older one with the teenager overpowering the cashier.

The tracking close up shot on the gun as the teenager draws it onto the cashier has obvious denotations that the teenager is involved with the crime world. This can have follow up connotations that men can be prone to crime – which follows a film cliche that criminals and antagonists tend to be males, representing men as being more aggressive and risk-taking then women. It also could suggest that teenagers can fall into crime fairly easily too.

There is a long take where the camera is positioned so that the gun points directly at the shop cashier – this emphasises her struggle and lack of leverage – further developing the representation of men as being overpowering towards less aggressive females in this sequence.

The cashier – hoping that the male teenager’s empathetic side will be unravelled – tells him that “I have a daughter, she was here earlier!”, but the teenager swiftly cuts her off, insisting that he doesn’t “care about your daughter”. This represents the teenager from even being cut off from his own age group, as he feels nothing towards the cashier despite her having a girl who is around his age.

When the armed teenager presses the female cashier – she ends up giving him the information that he wanted. This is probably a fair reaction to being held at gun point, but it could still be interpreted to represent women as being weak willed, as she knows it could put other lives at risk.

After she gives him the information, the teenager character breaks the forth wall and looks directly at the camera for a split second. Throughout the entire opening sequence, the teenager lacks emotional expression and readable body language and therefore in a way this break of character seems even more eerie to the audience. It could be interpreted as the teenager actually ‘showing off to the camera’ before he pulls the trigger and shoots the woman. This makes him seem psychopathically dangerous and you could say that in a way he distances himself from any kind of group.

The male may belong to the male gender group and the teenager age group, but his actions are that of such psychopathic degree that audience members are likely to disassociate those actions from meaning anything in terms of representation. It is also a good point to make that it is so unconventional for someone of his age to dress the way he does – in dark smart attire – and be involved so heavily in crime. It’s so unconventional that it may not represent the teenager age group at all. 

We chose to represent our antagonist character in this way so to intrigue the audience. They might want to find out about his background after seeing how ruthless he is - to find out why he is like how he is. We represented the woman the way we did because we thought it depicted realistic reactions to the situation that she was in, and we chose to make her seem possibly weak at points to put emphasis on how dangerous the male teenager was.