The document discusses socio-economic groups in the UK and how they are used to classify people based on profession and income. It then analyzes the socio-economic groups of two characters in a story opening sequence - the teenagers including the main character Ethan are classified as groups C/A or A/B, while Ethan's detective father is group A/B. It also discusses stereotypes of teenagers presented in the sequence, such as crime, partying, and relationships. Gender representations shown are that the male character Ethan is rebellious and aggressive while his girlfriend wants to resolve issues peacefully.

1. Leo Featherstone

2. Socio-Economic Groups are a way of grouping people by there professions and
the money they make and puts them into different classes based on this
information running from E – A. This system is out dated in today’s society
however is still used and useful in real media.
I have two Socio Economic groups for my two types of characters in my opening
sequence.
The first group is for Ethan and the rest of the group of teenagers aged 16-17.
This group of characters fall under group C/A and with Ethan A/B. This is
because of there age, they would typically be in education or further education
like college of 6th form, meaning that they would typically still be living at home
getting income from their parents or a small part time job, meaning that they
would have similar traits as their parents and live a similar lifestyle meaning
they would be in the same class as their parents, this is the case with our
character Ethan. This was also the Socio – Economic group of our target
audience.
The second group belongs to the character of Ethan’s Dad, Detective Alex
Hunter. Alex would come under the group A/B, seeing as he is in a skilled
profession and makes a large income. He has a wife and children and would be
considered middle upper class which puts him under Group A/B.

3. There are a few stereotypes and representations in my opening sequence. The main
stereotype in the our opening sequence is the stereotypes of the characters being
teenagers. The stereotype of a teenager shown in our opening sequence is the group going
out with there friends to a outside gathering/camping trip, eating junk food, making
jokes, being in a relationship and drinking alcohol. Another stereotype of a teenager in our
opening sequence is one the older generation usually associate with teenagers, Crime. In
our opening sequence our teenage character Ethan takes illegal drugs and is also involved
and killed in a murder. The stereotype people have on teenagers getting into trouble and
being disorderly is reflected through this.
The clear representation in our opening sequence is between gender. This representation is
that men are rebellious and aggressive and that girls are calm and collected. For
example, in our opening sequence Ethan is quick to cause an argument and get angry with
his girlfriend Laura, where as she wants to sort it out diplomatically and talk things
over, however Ethan still acts aggressive and even swears at Laura.
This could also represent that men are stronger than women in the way that Ethan has a
power over Laura and is quite controlling, this can be seen in the way that he grabs her
wrist forcefully and is whispering in her ear as she looks away nervously.
I feel that these we’re presented clear to the audience however could have been portrayed
even better through the acting of some of the characters.

4. Our opening sequence fits the stereotypes and representation portrayed in the
product. Specific things were chosen intentionally to show this. For
example, the stereotypes of teenagers, not only were all the props and action
mention before fit the stereotypes people have on teenagers, but also the
costumes that the characters were wearing and the things that they talked
about. For example, the costumes of Luke and Stephan we’re typical and
popular clothes that teenagers that age would wear from popular shops like
Topshop which target audience are teenagers. Also, in the opening
sequence, the characters talk about typical problems teenagers face, for
example trying to get a part time job.
The representations in our opening sequence also fit the representation that are
seen in the real media world. For example as I said before, the men being the
aggressive and strong ones, seen through Ethan as well as the killer who is
male.
I feel that we adhered to the stereotypes and representations effectively
however this could have been reinforced through more emotion in the acting
and maybe focused more on the way that the characters acted towards one
another in the sequence.