This document discusses how a media product represents social groups. It analyzes characters in a movie opening scene. The main character is shown using a vaporizer to quit smoking, representing young professionals who want to quit but lack willpower. His young age yet high position shows intelligence but potential feelings of being looked down on. A female character is included in an action fight scene, challenging gender conventions and representing assassins who see all as equal professionals focused on the job. The characters dress smartly for physical work. Overall, the media product portrays social groups for young people to aspire to, such as achieving high authority without being looked down on for age, or valuing equality and professionalism.

1. Josh Sullivan
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Within my movie opening, my characters are key. Everything from what my actors were wearing to
the way they were posed in the shots was important and done for a reason. For example my opening
shot saw my main actor using a vaporiser. This shot was important so that my audience would be
able to understand the type of person my actor was portraying. The significance of the vaporiser is
that it shows my audience that the character, which has clearly moved from smoking to using this
vaporiser, is unable to completely quit. This may show that my character knows that smoking is bad
but doesn’t have the will power to actually go through with giving up. The age of my character is
also a key part this is because being of such authority at such a young age shows that he has the
intelligence to be in such a high powered job but may feel he is looked down on by other members
of staff because of this. These ties in with the shot of him drinking neat whiskey. This drink may
make him feel that he is older and that by doing so he won’t be so looked down on by his staff. This
character therefore represents the social group of young professionals and therefore this character is
someone who young individuals can look up to and aspire to be like. This allows young people to
believe that they too can be young in a high up job.
My other characters were dressed in smart/casual clothing to show that despite being of high
importance they are constantly doing physical tasks and therefore need to be dressed for the
occasion. I chose to challenge the standard convention of male on male fights and include women in
my fight scene. I felt that this would make my movie intro different and have the audience intrigued
by what my work would entail. The mise-en-scene of this fight scene was crucial as it communicated
with fans of this genre. I chose to make the fight scene outside as that supports the idea of action
film fights, seen in famous action films such as James Bond and the Bourne series. The fact that my
fight scene is male against women says a lot about the male actor in my movie opening. This is
because for a man to go through with killing a woman he must have a strong reason as to do it and
be a ruthless killer who will always complete the job. It also shows that within the social group of
assassins that gender isn’t a factor taken in to consideration and that instead they are all equal and
they are all seen as professionals trying to complete the job given to them. This supports the
conventions of action films which always have a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to complete
the task. This therefore will be intriguing to fans of this genre and caters to their needs. These two
killers can also be seen as people to look up too. This does not mean that young individuals should
look up to them and aspire to kill people for a living but instead people of high power who see
everyone as equal and as professionals.
I believe that by mixing it up and supporting and challenging conventions of this genre it has made
my work different. It represents my audience as open to change and will appreciate the work I have
created. It also allows young individuals to aspire to be like the social groups represented through
my media. Whether that be to become someone of high authority who doesn’t allow anyone to look
down on them for anything or they aspire to be someone who is of high power and sees everyone as
equal and professional in their field of work.