This document discusses how a student media project represents particular social groups. It describes two main characters - Bradley, who is a sporty, clumsy bisexual who doesn't yet realize his sexuality, and Cooper, a geeky, awkward gay man. The opening scene is set in a school, a common setting for teen romcoms, and uses conventions like upbeat music. However, it challenges conventions by having the shy character eat a banana seductively rather than getting bullied, and by featuring a gay couple rather than a straight one. The characters embody social stereotypes like the jock and geek but also push boundaries.

1. Q1: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. The opening sequence that we created is
called ‘Art Class’ and is a romcom film.
There was a variety of conventions used,
such as the setting being in a school. Most
teenage romcoms are set in school, even
though we didn’t exactly go for a teen
romcom. However, our target audience is
15-18 which means that they could relate to
the film as it was set in a school. An example
of this is Mean Girls, which is a known
romcom. It is similarly set in a school, which
shows that it mainly appeals to a younger
audience such as teenagers.

3. Another convention was the music. It has an upbeat sound to it and it is a
classic rock sound which is conventional to the teen romcom. The fast
pace that the sound has, fits the genre. We also tried to add comedic
elements, for example, when Bradley walks into the door. He assumes
that it is the other door that opens, and so walks into it. He then looks
around hoping that no-one saw, which would probably seem funny to the
audience because they saw it.

4. The ball that he is carrying around is a way to show
that he is the sporty kind of guy, which most romcoms
have. This gives an understanding that even though
the film is about a gay couple, he is the one who
seems more straight and isn’t necessarily gay yet in
the film. Instead of having a new student come to the
school, the protagonist has to take an extra curriculum
activity to pass his grades. This is how he joins the art
class, which he is ‘new’ to. Even though it isn’t a school
transfer, it is similar to it.

5. Our film challenged conventions in some ways. For example, normally in
romcoms, there’s a shy/geeky person who isn’t really an open person.
However, in this case the geeky character was not shown to be shy, but rather
confident in eating a banana seductively whilst staring at the sporty character.
This would’ve probably led him to getting beat up because of being
inappropriate, however in this case all he got was weird stares, rather than
getting beat up or something like that. Another way we challenged
conventions is by having a gay couple rather than a straight couple for our
romcom. We wanted to come up with something that isn’t being seen much
of, rather than being too mainstream, so we had two guys as the main
characters for our romcom.

6. Q2: How does your media product
represent particular social groups?

7. My media represents particular social groups in different ways.
Firstly, the main character that is being introduced is bisexual but
doesn’t know it yet. He is presented to be a sporty/jock type of guy,
who’s into football and guy stuff. This is also clear from the way he
dresses, as he is wearing a bodywarmer and tracksuit bottoms. His
‘soon-to-be’ lover is also introduced, but not much is shown about
him. He is a guy, who is sure about his sexuality (gay), which is clear
from the way he looks at the main character and giving him looks
whilst eating the banana seductively.

8. When deciding on what ethnicity to choose for the characters, we
were thinking about making them two very different races, as this
would be an unconventional thing to do and a way for us to create
something new, rather than being too mainstream. The idea was
that one of the characters, Bradley would have a traditional
background where the family wouldn’t allow homosexuality, which
would complicate things as later in the film, as he would start
developing feelings for Cooper. Even though this was an idea, we
had struggle with finding the right actors, and therefore ended with
the actors we could find the last minute.

9. The protagonist, Bradley, is represented to be a sporty character.
This is clear from his costume, as he is wearing tracksuits and a
vest, which presents him as being into sports. The audience
could also understand that he is plays football, from the ball that
he is carrying to put into his locker. He is also represented to be
clumsy, as the ‘jock’ types of guy in romcoms are usually
represented as not being the brightest. We tried to show this by
when he walks into the door, which shows him as being a bit
clumsy.

10. The other character, Cooper, is represented as the geeky one. This is clear
from his costume and performance, as he is wearing glasses and a jumper.
He is being the awkward type of character, where he thinks he is being
sexual when eating the banana, trying to get the other character’s attention,
but receives a weird look, which shows that the protagonist is clearly not
interested. The audience can understand that he is the gay character from
his performance, with the way he is eating the banana seductively whilst
starring at the other guy.