AS Media Coursework on how our film opening represents social groups

1. How does your media product represent
social groups?

3. In our film opening, we have represented two social groups.
The primary social group is females, and the secondary social
group is ballet dancers.

5. Cast
Half the judges and both of the ballet dancers were female,
which made up the majority of our cast. This was to
represent ballet dancing as a predominantly female-
orientated activity.
Though ballet dancing is not necessarily restricted to female
dancers, we thought that by females dominating our cast, it
would appeal more to our audience, women.
We did, however, still have male actors making up the other
half of the judging panel. This was to signify that although
we usually associate females with ballet, it is not
uncommon to see men in the ballet profession now. It also
provided a balance of professional opinions.

7. The placement of the judges are also important, as one of
the male actors was sat at the head of the panel, to reflect
the stereotypically authoritative nature of men which is
also expected of a judge. By contrast at the opposite end
of the table a female judge holds all of the information,
showing a more secretarial role which is a common
typecast in business.

9. Music
Our music needed to relate to that of real music for a
ballet audition. We chose classical music which was a
moderate tempo, so that females could be portrayed as
graceful and delicate.
The character of Jessica contradicts this, as her rushed
behaviour is the complete opposite of graceful. This is why
we chose to use diegetic sound for her scenes, to create a
larger contrast between the two dancers.

11. Lighting and Editing
Though we used artificial lighting, it was still very
soft. This is to create an association between
women and warmth and gentleness. This then also
applies to the calming effect of ballet dancing.
We did not use any transitions or effects other than
fade-in, between clips. This was also designed to reflect
the gracefulness of women and ballet dancing, as lots of
effects would have made the piece less fluid and
naturalistic.