How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The scene opens on a close-up of a pair of expensive shoes, stubbing out a cigarette. It then cuts to a close-up of someone buttoning up their leather jacket. The clothes that they are wearing are quite expensive and they are dressed very smart. This is a traditional representation of a convention within a gangster genre film, even though it’s quite ironic that they’re bad people and get up to illegal things. This represents men to be quite expensive because they are able to afford nice clothes etc. so this could be a positive representation for men. However it is a modern/ negative representation for men because of how they have got that money to pay for it.

We included non-diegetic parallel music to play over the top of our two minute opening and the music is very fast and beaty and the music gives the impression that they’re up to something and really sneaky. Being sneaky is a modern representation of men because being sneaky is not a traditional representation of men or something you’d associate with them.

During our clip, the scenes aren’t very long and the cuts occur often between shots. This shows the pace of the action. Cross cuts are frequently used to show how fast the pace is and their journey to their location. The pace of the cuts match the music which is being played throughout. This suggests that men are fast and quite sporty, whereas girly music is normally quite soft and slower. This is a traditional representation of men because the music shows them to be sporty and active.

Two shots are used to show the relationship between characters and how they are a team together. The two characters are best friends and this is quite a traditional representation of men because they are thought to be popular and sociable, going out drinking with their mates etc. However it is quite a modern representation because a stereotype of men is that they’re individuals and the fact that a man relies on another and is best friends with him challenges this stereotype because they are not very independent and confident.