1. By Claire Wall How does your media product represent particular social groups?

2. In my coursework title sequence I included a female character who was presented as taking a long time to get ready. By dominantly representing the female character as being fussy about her appearance this could connote a link to dominant ideology that girls are interested in boys. The title I’m Single suggests that the character is looking for a love interest. This is a dominant ideology because females are thought to take hours to get ready. Furthermore this is also a dominant representation because I faded the shots to black which showed the passing of time, this shows dominant representation of females taking a long time to get ready to go out. By using dominant representation to portray the girl as a teenager interested in fashion this supports the dominant ideology that teenage girls are interested in fashion and fashion is important to them. This links to the professional film Bridget Jones’s Diary where dominant representation is used to present the character Bridget as being interested in love but shows Bridget being unhappy about being single and by herself. This however is a contrast to my title sequence and the title of the sequence connotes this.

3. By dominantly representing my character as being feminine I had the character change into dresses, this shows a dominant ideology that girls always wear dresses and are supposed to wear dresses. This also connotes the femininity of the character in my title sequence. This suggests the character’s interests in fashion which is also a dominant ideology. My title sequence fits in with the typical stereotype of girls as it shows the girl wearing many dresses, taking a long time to get ready and also not being satisfied with the way she looks. However a girl not being happy with the way she looks is an emergent ideology but also can be considered as a residual ideology due to the different opinions of females in modern day life. By suggesting that relationship status plays a big part in my title sequence this shows a dominant ideology of females always thinking and talking about males , however this could be argued and could also be a residual ideology. Also it links to the professional film Love Actually where the voiceover is talking about love and relationships and also connoting that relationships play a big role in the film.

4. The social group represented in my title sequence is teenage girls. This is an emergent ideology in Romantic Comedy films where teenagers find love. However this contrasts with the character in Bridget Jones’s Diary as the character is a woman in her late 20’s and is represented as not being outgoing due to the fact that she’s crying and miming to a love song. You can tell the age of the female in my title sequence because of the clothes she tries on , this reflects her interests also. Additionally as the girl seems concerned and uneasy with her looks this also connotes the dominant ideology of teenage girls as being self-conscious. For this I used a dominant ideology to portray the typical stereotype of a teenage girl. The music also suggests a slightly flirtatious tone to the title sequence which could also be linked to characteristics of a typical teenage girl.

5. I used realism in my title sequence by having the camera as a point of view and recording the girl looking in the mirror as she decides what she is going to wear. Also by not having the camera on a tripod this also connotes that the camera is in a way showing what the character sees. Additionally I used point of view shots to make realism occur in my title sequence. The diegetic sound also helps to connote that the title sequence is through the character’s eyes. However at the end of the title sequence I used over the shoulder shots to help the audience imagine that they were there and make the title sequence seem more realistic. The director also uses realism in Love Actually by using over the shoulder shots too, for example in the airport it shows many different angles and views of people.