Evaluation of Distribution Institution for Film

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From left to right: Rebecca, Rebekah, Rachel. On screen: Michaella

Evaluation of Representation of Social Groups in our Film

Representations

‘’Evaluate your representation of a specific social groups(s) in your piece’’

• We deal with two stereotypical types of representations in our chick flick teen drama "Just a Girl."
• The popular girls that have the nice houses, spoilt, wear make-up and have loads of friends are represented as being mean characters or in other words the villain.
• The 'nerd' girls usually are shown as having few friends, math elites, wear no make-up, have average clothes and in some cases wear glasses. They are represented as being the sweet innocent victim and the audience sympathise with them.
• These representations are contrasting and are highly exaggerated. Because they are contrasting, they almost cancel each other out. Because they border on parody, we do not expect the audience to take them seriously and translate them to 'real life'.
• These stereotypes have become so familiar they are almost teen archetypes. In TV programs such as Glee and One Tree Hill the popular girls are always shown as having friends around them and very often in American media as being ‘cheerleaders’.

 The popular cheerleaders in ‘One Tree Hill’.

The popular girls in ‘Glee’. The ‘Cheerios’ Cheerleaders.

Representation of 'nerd' stereotype in "One Tree Hill"

 

• Our main character played by Rachel represents the stereotypical teenager of a shy, timid and unpopular girl. The popular girl played by Rebekah represents the spoilt, rude and glamorous teenager. This is a common stereotype shown in films for the two main characters forcing the audience to compare them to create the drama.
• This stereotype usually takes it in an exaggerated form by showing the shy girl having no friends or friends with unique characteristics and doing cringe things that make the audience empathise there ‘goofiness’. Contrastingly, with the exaggerated form of the popular girl who is usually rich, spoilt, ‘dumb’ and in a relationship with the equally as popular guy.
• Our sequence opens with the  use of split screen and medium long shots which were effective in showing the clear contrasts between the two main characters and differentiating the girls’ personalities and different stereotypes with teenagers in terms of social groups for the audience - mise-en-scene was important as we contrast the girls' clothes and bedrooms and the props around them.
• The cross-cutting in the beginning between the two girls’ houses and morning routines forces the audience to compare the two.
• Similarly in "10 Things I hate About You" they used cross cutting between the two sisters in which the popular girl, sweet and the unpopular, alternative girl are made to be compared because of this editing technique. Again, it waters down the representation because of the lack of verisimiltude and the sense of deliberate juxtaposition.

 Our use of split screening portraying contrasting characters/surroundings immediately without dialogue.

 Mean Girls’ use of split screening showing the same representation of teenagers in all four boxes.

10 Thing I hate About You. Medium / two shot of the contrasting characters. 

Our contrasting two characters showing power with one character and weakness and shyness with the other.

 

• The next scenes focus on the girls’ daily routine. Cross-cutting is used throughout to put emphasis on the contrasting main characters.
• Close-ups and medium-shots are the main camera angles used as this shows the audience a clear view of their facial expressions and the different routine they go through.
• This allows the audience to clearly distinguish the two contrasting representations.
• Stereotypes of the popular girl using props such as straighteners and make-up show the type of teenager she is.
• Contrastingly the nerdy girl is show as putting on her glasses and no make-up.
• Non-diegetic music is used during the process of the girls’ daily routine. The music used is a rocky, alternative genre. It has a rebellious teenager tone to it and fits in well with our chick-flick genre.
• In teen drama, teenage life is often represented as being more interesting than it really is. We also hint at this in our representation. However, as already said, our genre does not rely on verisimilitude but is meant to be entertaining escapism.
• Dialogue is used when both girls are getting ready. A cross-cut is used to hear both girls’ responses. The nerdy girl calls her mother ‘mummy’ and finishes  by saying she is going to the library after school and that she loves her. The dialogue reinforces her characteristics of being the nerdy girl of the two representations of the social groups.
• Alternatively, the popular girls response to her mother is different as she calls her ‘Mum’ and finishes by saying she has dance practice with the girls. This shows that that her character is more girly and therefore she is in the poplular social group.

 This medium shot shows the popular teenager using her props emphasising her character.

 Mean girls showing their perception of popular girls’ make-up.

• We use mise-en-scene a lot to reinforce the two contrasting stereotypes.
• With the use of location, when filming Rebekah we used glamorous settings by emphasising the use of colour to the bedroom showing she has nice surrounding and perhaps is more privileged.
• Rebekah’s costume consisted of a pink dressing gown and matching slippers telling the audience she is conscious of what she wears and how she is perceived in her eyes.
• Rachel remains in her mismatched tom boy and plain pyjamas showing no concern of her appearance.
• The contradictory props used for Rachel consisted of academic books and the nerdy glasses.
• Rebekah’s props consisted of the mobile phone in hand, designer back and make-up (materialistic items).
• We were able to create these stereotypes so easily because this kind of mise-en-scene has become so associated with both stereotypes.

 Mean Girls’ representation of the setting of a popular girls’ bedroom.

The setting of one girl is plain and the other is glamorous.

Mean Girls’ representation of the setting of a popular girl’s bedroom.

• Long shots were often used in our piece to show the audience who the dominant and popular character was with the ‘crew’ around her and the nerdy girl standing alone.
• The corridor scene is a key scene in to the showing major differences between the two stereotypes we are dealing with in our sequence.
• We show the popular group all grouped together on one side of the corridor whilst Rachel (the nerdy girl) is alone. We show this using a long shot so the audience have a clear view of the positioning of the isolation of the nerdy girl and the popularity of Rebekah.
• In many chick-flick films such as ‘Mean girls’ and TV programmes such as ‘Suburgatory’ the ‘nerdy’ girl is represented as being an outsider by using a variation of group shots and long shots to show them being left out.
• This reinforces the stereotype of the nerdy girl being isolated and seen as being different compared to the popular girls full of confidence and social skills.
• Finally, we use shot reverse shot at the end to show the conversation between the two contrasting stereotypes.
• We used shot reverse shot to emphasise the power on the popular girl with the use of high key lighting on her face and extra screen time.
• The high key lighting puts her in a positing of power. This occurred naturally due to the sun. However, this arrangement worked out well for us.
• The smaller size of Rachel is emphasised when the camera is behind the shoulder of Rebekah showing the size difference.
• Similarly, in TV programmes like Lizzie Mcguire on Disney channel Lizzie and Miranda are shown to be spoken down on by the popular girl. A medium group-shot is used to show the size difference emphasising the popular girl’s power.

 Mean Girls show the popular girls grouped together and the nerdy girl alone.

 Suburgatory’s representation of the group shot of the popular group and Tessa (in the middle) standing alone.

 ‘Just a Girl’s’ long shot showing nerdy girl alone/left out and popular people grouped together.

Media representation of a girl being left out.

Overall

To return to some of the ideas while researching the genre, while we have used very stereotypical representations and there could be concerns that we are damaging the representation of women by showing that aspiring to be the popular pretty girl makes for a happy ending, we are not expecting audiences to relate our film to real life. It is true that a lot of teen drama ends with 'getting the boy' as the happy ending - but this is true of any film with a romance element and our film is intended to be escapist, not educational.

Evaluation of Representation of social groups in our film

Representation of Teenagers / Girls in Our Film

• As a chick flick, it seems productive to look at the representation of teenage girls in our film.
• A ‘Popular’ clique and a ‘nerdy group’- two classic teen stereotypes - both in our piece.
• We exaggerated the two different types that we were portraying to help make it easier for the audience to identify what type of character they each were - therefore the stereotyping becomes so obvious the audience is supposed to recognise it and be entertained by it.
• Also by exaggerating it helped to give our film a light hearted feel - comedy can undermine the stereotype by almost mocking it. 
• A prime example of a film that exaggerates stereotypes a lot is 'Mean Girls' where they introduce the different groups and we see the exaggerated stereotypical perception of them, so our use of almost comic stereotypes is linked to our genre.
• By using split screens in places we were able to help show the clear difference between the different characters so the audience could clearly tell who they were/what type of person they were.
• Props and mise-en-scene in the split screen parts of our film helped to make this difference apparent. In Charley’s room/bathroom there was lots of make up and touches of pink and she wears a fluffy dressing gown whereas in Rosie’s room, there are lots of books, plain white sheets and she wears sensible pyjamas.

•  Using mise en scene we were able to create the character that we wanted. Eg. Costume/hair/make up was very girly for the ‘popular’ and like a tomboy for the ‘nerd’
• Dialogue helped to create/ represent them in the way that we wanted. “Move, Ginger” was said by the popular girl to show that she was mean and looked down on people and that this is partly based on physical appearance.
• The way the frames were composed was similar to other films. The person that the audience was meant to feel sorry for is always on their own. Similar to films like ‘Mean Girls’ where the ‘popular’ ones are always in a group to be intimidating and the unpopular one looks vulnerable.

 

• We also used quite a few close ups that are used a lot in chick flicks. It helps to show how the characters feel towards to each other, especially how they feel about the other 'cliques'. A good example is in 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'

• The non-diegetic music we used in our film made it clear that this film is light hearted and that the stereo types shouldn't be taken seriously even though you are meant to have empathy towards the characters. Again, we think this softens our representations and will position the audience to understand them the way we are intending - as a fun, light-hearted plot device rather than reality.
• In some chick flicks that contrast an unpopular girl and then a popular girl and her boyfriend, it is clear that the boyfriend is ruled by the popular girl but has sympathy for the unpopular girl. This is seen in films like ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘A Cinderella Story’

• We tried to make our film have this aspect, so when Rosie drops her books, Seth goes to help her. This helps to make show that even the popular people are not all bad and can be redeemed. In fact, this classic redemption narrative arc is what makes sure any negative aspects of our representation can be cancelled out. Ultimately all the differences between the teen groups are wiped out at the end. This could be criticised for representing teen life in an unrealistic way that 'real' teenagers cannot aspire to, but our genre needs a happy ending.

Evaluation Of Representation of Specific Social Groups

Representation of Teenage Girls

• Two main representations – 1^st created by Rosie –Tomboyish. 2^nd by Charlie – Girly.
• Slightly clichéd and more American, but familiar to our audience as they are familiar media stereotypes- in ‘Mean Girls’ as well. 
• Expectation is that the moment the stereotype is identified, the audience will relax and look forward to watching events they can predict unfold.
• Predicatability associated with genre texts (Neale) but does lead to narrow range of highly exaggerated representations (Lacey).
• Some critics feel these can be harmful (Pickering) while others feel they "do no harm" if audience recognise them as a plot device and not related to reality (Dyer)

'Cady' from 'Mean Girls'

'Karen, Regina and Gretchen' from 'Mean Girls'

• These representations often the ones most frequently used in teen dramas –also created in the film ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ with ‘Kat’ and ‘Bianca’

• In ’10 Things I Hate About You’ it’s made obvious to the audience that Kat is the ‘loner’ and Bianca is the ‘popular’ one.
• We have tried to replicate this, by composing the shot in the hallway to show Charlie surrounded by friends and Rosie being on her own.

  

• Minimal dialogue  used in our piece and '10 Things I Hate About You’opening – gives audience  chance to get to know the characters through their movements, facial expressions and  non-diegetic music
• At start,  negative representation is created of popular girls. Intentional - wanted the audience to feel sympathetic towards Rosie. The popular girls behaviour isn’t extreme so our piece shouldn’t be harmful towards our audience or affect real life perceptions, as Pickering suggests negative representations may.
•  I agree with Dyer, who suggests that the audience are good at separating media from reality and stereotypes are not bad as long as they ‘do not harm’
•  I expect that our audience will be able to differentiate between the stereotypes created in our piece and real life, as they will have first hand experience of being in school and in that environment. Representations more potentially harmful when take audience outside their own experience and they don't have own experiences to compare against (Hartley)
• Through the use of mise-en-scene, we’ve tried to create juxtaposition through costume and props, Charlie’s room is really girly and colourful, her costume is a pink dressing gown, and when she’s getting ready she’s surrounded by beauty products. In contrast, Rosie’s room is very simple, basic colours like white and blue feature.

  

• Paired with split screen to show contrast between characters - may highlight to audience derogatory stereotypes about women –  our opening focuses a lot on girls getting ready -  stereotypically women take a long time to get ready - might reinforce negative stereotype through repetition of it.

 

 

 

• However, this character clearly 'villain' at beginning - not aspirational and comic exaggeration weakens stereotyping.

Evaluation Of Representation of specific social groups

Evaluation of representation of Teenage Girls

• Two highly stereotypical types of teen girl representation- shown through characters of Rosie and Charlie.
• This dictated by genre - chick flick / teen high school drama highly formulaic and relies on stereotypes as kind of 'shorthand' to convey narrative (Adorno).
• Charlie - stereotype of girls that like to wear make-up, have hair done,  dress in ‘girly’ clothes - suggestion is more likely to be horrible
• Girls who don’t wear make-up , have glasses, intelligent,  more likely to be bullied by people of the other stereotype and have no friends but represented as 'nicer'.
• These stereotypes are a re-presentation of  media products. For example this representation is clear in ‘The Princess Diaries’ - Amelia wears glasses,  does not spend much time on her hair, compared to the Cheerleaders who do. Cheerleaders are presented as bullies.
• In most American Teenage Drama/ Chick Flicks, the ‘popular’ girls are often cheerleaders. This is the case in ‘Princess Diaries’ and ‘Glee’.
• Implications - could be seen as undermining stereotypes about female vanity by associateing with bullying, could also be seen more negatively as suggesting women judge each other in shallow ways.
• Depends on audience understanding - if see it as 'joke' or not - although some feminist critics e.g. Sue Thornham suggest humour actually reinforces negative stereotyping further as we react less and are not outraged.
• Therefore potentially some feminist issues with our piece.
• Pickering and Althusser - repetition of stereotypes in media helps reinforce them and audience may perceive them as 'real'
• Our piece therefore potentially damaging?
• Dyer - audience reaction counts. If they recognise stereotype for what it is, will not be harmful.
• We are hoping this is the case in our film.

Streotypical cheerleaders in media

Stereotypical 'geek'

Our piece contrasts two

Cheerleaders associated with 'meanness'

Geeks associated with 'uncool'

Geek stereotype expressed through mise-en-scene

 
• Split screen highlights the difference between both girls, as  bedrooms  totally different.  Props used connote each of  girl’s characteristics: Rosie with school books surrounding her in the bed,  plain room,  white sheets;  Charlie with colorful pillows,  make-up and perfume on  bedside table.

• The props and split screen classic media techniques for this kind of extreme stereotyping.

Use of mise-en-scene to establish character

Creating this in our piece

Inspiration

Use of Techniques to Create our Representations

• Cross-cutting shows both girls getting ready in bathroom;  allows  viewer to identify differences in girls. Charlie’s bathroom includes loads of beauty product,  Rosie’s just includes  toothbrush. Charlie spends a long time doing  make-up and hair, and Rosie doesn’t put on any make-up, spends seconds on her hair.
• Dialogue conveys the stereotypical representation of girls with these personality traits. Charlie,  is represented as a rude and stroppy person as she rudely answers her mum. Rosie is represented as sweet, kind and childish as she answers kindly to her mum calling her ‘mummy’.
• Similar representations used in films like ‘Princess Diaries’ and ‘Mean Girls’. In ‘Princess Diaries the popular girls are represented as the bullies, and in ‘Mean Girls’, Regina, the stereotypical popular/girly girl is rude and has no respect towards her mother. 
• During school scene, Charlie is in  corridor with her friends and Rosie is alone. Composition of shot is another stereotype, suggesting that girls who care more about looks likely to have more friends than teenagers who are intelligent.
• Rosie given more screen time to allow the viewer to sympathise with her. Although, in a viewer’s perception, they would rather be Charlie than Rosie, as Charlie seem to have a more positive situation. The contrasting stereotypes mean that the viewer’s perceptions are balanced out.
• Overall, it represents teenagers as needing to be socially accepted.

Summary

• Media stereotypes, in the teen genre of Hollywood films, are clichéd or predictable situations or characters (also known as stock characters in film theory), which are “purposefully constructed and repeatedly enacted and disseminated via media” (Lester and Ross 2003).
• Loukides and Fuller (1990), along with Macedo and Steinberg (2007), believe that Film-makers of the teen genre rely heavily on these stereotypes because they provide relatable characters or situations, in which the teen audience will recognise immediately.
• Macedo and Steinberg state that film-makers use teen stock characters- that are based on the collective characteristics and mannerisms of American teenagers- in order to reach this audience as quickly and effectively as possible.
• Some may state that these media stereotypes may carry negative connotations. However, our piece, although it portrays stereotypes of teenagers, it is not damaging because of its exaggeration. The exaggeration indicates to the audience that this is a media piece, and should not be taken literally. 

 

Coursework Before Break (Third Cut)

Cut for Audience Feedback

This cut is further back than the original one we put up in terms of being ready as we ended up refilming a lot of the bedroom sections so we haven't had much time to put it together. It is more like a collection of the clips we are going to use:

A more updated version!