How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

1. Q2) How does your opening
sequence represent particular social
groups?

2. Grace Blessing plays the role of the hostage AJ who is a happy confident and feisty
girl, much like Scarlett Johansson in the film Avengers. She belongs to a working
class background and is often seen as calm and together. The fact that she is working
class is hidden by her classy yet flashy dress sense. Although in the film she is
portrayed to be quite a bold person (because she believes Shamus and tries to help
him as much as she can), in the daydream/opening sequence she is portrayed to be
quite vulnerable. She is quite close to Shamus when it comes to age, perhaps just a
month younger than him. She has friends but isn’t necessarily popular. She becomes
quite close to Shamus and could be a possible love interest as well as an accomplice,
much like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, where Ron is
tormented by Malfoy for being a Weasley. Her family structure is stable and healthy
and therefore doesn’t cause any problems for our heroine. In the ending of our
opening sequence, AJ’s body language is quite relaxed and comfortable whereas in
the beginning of our opening she is portrayed to be quite vulnerable as she is
struggling to break free of her bonds/rope binding. This is quite like Diana Agron in I
am Number Four, where No. 4 saves her from her evil ex-boyfriend. The angles don’t
really emphasize AJ’s character on a whole. The fact that the camera angles are not
too creative but in fact simple makes the audience yearn for more screen time with AJ
as by now they have a ton of questions as to who is she and why did he have to save
her? In order to turn Grace into AJ we had to make sure costume was up to scratch. It
was girly but mixed in with a hardened edge. This reminds me of Emily from the
series Revenge, who is classy and mysterious but also strong and fearless. There
wasn’t too big an issue with casting Grace as AJ as she is quite confident when
comfortable but can also be quite shy as a person, however this is quite rare. This
made it easier to create the character AJ as the actor and the actor had similar
character traits.

3. ● Aaron Joy played the double role of a Bandit/Teacher. They both reflect the same
personality but with slight differences. The teacher picks on Shamus and embarrasses him
just like the teacher in Freaky Friday because his student’s mother broke his heart when
he was young and therefore fails her. This actor was chosen due to the booming quality in
his voice as well as the fact that his physique is quite intimidating. The body language is
quite aggressive and stiff but also quite slow as well. He comes from a good-background
and education in reality but in the daydream he appears to be shabby and odd and
obviously unhappy with something in his life which therefore makes him orchestrate the
kidnapping of AJ. In the shots that have been used of him, he is shown to be quite
intimidating .e.g. when he holds AJ at knife point and demands that Shamus loses his
weapon. His shot is also quite gruesome as blood splatters everywhere. This shows that he
is not a very likeable character in the film due to the fact that Shamus wants to shoot him
and make him bleed so much. He is quite a young teacher, perhaps in his late 30s. This is
quite like Mr. Ryan in 90210, except he is a pleasant teacher. These camera angles build
him up to show that the bandit/teacher is quite intimidating which is much like the white
male teacher in The Freedom Writers who picks on his first black honour student. Costume
played a massive part in the role of turning Aaron into the bandit/teacher. The previous
costume was quite dark to show the menacing and dangerous side. His change into the
teacher was still scruffy in some ways but also quite smart as he wore black trousers with a
shirt and a matching tie. In the penultimate shot of the bandit turned teacher, there is an
over shoulder shot as the teacher kneels over and looks down on Shamus intimidatingly.
The costume could have been better as instead of wearing a scarf as he could have worn
an actual bandana.

4. ● Shaharyar Sheikh plays our main and most important character Shamus. He is
present in nearly every single shot which emphasize his importance as a whole to
the film as well as to the opening sequence. He reminds me of Peter Parker’s
character but not his alter ego, Spiderman who is quiet and intelligent. Another
character which he is quite similar to is Harry Potter whose parents died unlike
Shamus’ whose parents go missing at first but are later murdered which then in
turn makes Shamus crave for revenge on those that have killed them. In the
beginning, the camera angle emphasizes that Shamus is the character of most
significance as he is the first face you see which makes him important as he is on
a stealth mission. The traits of Shaharyar were not ideal for our original image of
Shamus but it worked well in the end as it emphasized his silence as a person.
We wanted to make more visual sense so we therefore made costume quite
simple to fit the character. We kept the costume similar from the daydream to the
reality to keep it consistent as Shamus, as a character, doesn’t change but his
skills do as he is physically challenged in the beginning of our opening sequence
which then changes to him being mentally challenged. Shamus now lives with an
abusive and uncaring foster family. This is much like James and The giant
Peach, however he lives with uncaring relatives. School life isn’t at all good as
the people tease him and the teachers look down on him. As a character, he is
quiet and usually keeps things inside, not very social and unable to care for
others other than himself due to his situation. His defense mechanism is ignoring
people who he severely dislikes in terms of reality.