The document discusses how the costumes and props of characters James and Isobel are used to represent their social groups and statuses. James wears formal clothes and glasses to portray his upper-class status and intelligence, while Isobel carries shopping bags and wears colorful makeup and clothes to depict her femininity and wealth. The document also analyzes how their behaviors, like James speaking calmly and Isobel apologizing nervously, reinforce stereotypes about gender differences.

1. How does your opening
sequence represent
particular social groups?
By Katie Clover

2. James Johnson - Costume & props
 To show that he is upper class he is dressed smartly in a
shirt and tie.
 To show his age he has a mobile phone as his age
group, around 20 years old, are often linked to using
technology.
 We use glasses as a prop to show James’ intelligence as
well as his work, which again links to his class.
 As he is male we used a tie in the colour blue, rather
than a more feminine colour such as pink.

3. Isobel Melbourne - Costume & props
 To show that she is girly she is holding a large amount
of shopping bags. These bags are from shops aimed at
her age range, around 20, such as Hollister and
Republic. This also shows her class as she doesn’t have
to worry about spending a large amount of money.
 She is wearing sunglasses to imply that she is
fashionable which represents her gender and age.
 Her costume consists of bright colours such as pink and
purple to represent her gender.
 She has quite a lot of make up on and her hair done
nicely to show that she’s feminine.

4. Below is a picture of Rebecca from
Confessions of a Shopaholic who is quite
similar to our character of Isobel. She has
bright, mainly designer clothes and is
carrying a large quantity of shopping. This
presents her as feminine and confident.
Comparing
Character’s
Costumes
Isobel is also dressed in bright clothes as she
has a bubbly and outgoing personality. She is
carrying a lot of shopping bags too which
portrays her as wealthy. The main difference
between these two characters is that Isobel
has a grey coat on which reflects where she
lives as it is cold in England. Also her clothes
aren’t designer because we had to work with
what costume we already had, although this
doesn’t matter as she is still dressed formally.

5. James is wearing a shirt and tie to
represent his wealth and the fact
that he is hard working. However
he is wearing jeans and white
trainers to add a more relaxed
side to this look in order to reflect
his age.
Comparing
Character’s Above is a picture of Edward from the
Costumes film Pretty Woman. Like our male
character he is also a wealthy
business man, although he is older.
Throughout the film he mainly
dresses in formal attire such as
shirts, ties and sometimes suit jackets
too.

6. Representation of females
At one point Isobel drops her bags which presents
females as quite clumsy.
She then checks her appearance in a window and
smudges her make up which implies that females care a
lot about their appearances.
What she says during the voice over presents females as
relying more financially on their father’s which contrasts
to males as James has a job.

7. Representation of males
 We have given the character of James less
dialogue, such as having Isobel do the voiceover, to
imply that males often talk less than females.
 James is walking at a slightly slower pace which shows
that males are often more relaxed and laid back.

8. During the bench scene males are presented as calm as
Isobel seems nervous about the coffee incident which is
portrayed by her playing with her hair and apologising.
By doing this it shows that females can be more
dramatic and also implies that they have stronger
emotions, for example Isobel feels guilty. This contrasts
to James’ reaction as he says it’s fine and focuses on why
he was there in the first place instead by calling his date.

9. Conventionally in romantic comedies the main characters are from 2 different
classes, however we didn’t follow this convention as we used 2 characters
from upper classes.
James: To show he focuses on work and is not very sociable he is talking on
the phone about how he doesn’t want to meet Isobel. He is wearing smart
clothes to show his wealth, and Isobel mentions in the voice over that his shirt
is designer which adds to this. His phone is quite an expensive phone and we
used this prop rather than a cheaper phone to show that he can afford
luxuries. We also use the prop of glasses to show intellect which relates back
Class & Status to his well paid job. James is shown as being high status and represents the
upper class as being hard working and serious.
Isobel: She is carrying a large amount of shopping which shows that she can
afford to spend a lot of money which indicates that she is wealthy.
Also, during the voiceover it shows that she relies on her dad for money which
shows that she doesn’t need to work as her parents are rich enough to
support her. Isobel is the same class as James but represents the upper class
in a contrasting way. This is because she is shown as being relaxed as she
doesn’t have to work and ditsy because of mistakes that she makes such as
walking into James and spilling his coffee on him.