R+P Post 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

The opening sequence intends to represent British teenagers in particular (male and female) around age 15-19 of relatively middle-class. As our film is a teen comedy set in North London, the teenagers in our production will share similarities with our target audience members.

Our cast will be grouped into stereotypical social cliques (as commonly exhibited in American films such as "Mean Girls" during the scene in the dining hall). However, in our film, social groups will be altered to fit more British conventions in secondary school. We aim to represent cliques that are less common in most films (similarly to "21 Jump Street" in the car park scene). Also, we will incorporate unconventional social groups that do not fit the American or British stereotypes. Traditionally, social representations of teenagers were limited to generic characters; jocks, cheerleaders, divas, geeks, outcasts, stoners, class clowns and new students. However, an increasing number of TV series and films produced in the last 5 years include characters that challenge these stereotypes and indicate that social status is not necessarily associated with appearance or social groups, (for example, "Daria"). Common stereotypes are often inversed in comedy series or films ("21 Jump Street").

We have chosen to represent the typical cliques in a British school, as they would be relatable for our target audience and fit the criteria for the 'teen comedy' or 'coming of age' genres. The generic themes in the 'coming of age' genre are often presented in a trivial or glossy way. Our portrayal of characters and cliques will be both conventional in some ways, while challenging some stereotypes about school in Britain. 

Some characters will be presented as disobedient and reject authority, and our film will include references to conventional teenage behaviour such as partying, drug taking, drinking, fighting, gossiping, having conflict with parents etc. (these typical representations of young people are incorporated in "Project X" and "The Breakfast Club"). Establishing these initial stereotypes will prove to be an effective short cut to character introduction for the audience, as they can identify and recognise them as stereotypes. I would expect the audience to become familiar with the characters through the ways in which they are presented. 

Through camera movement, soundtrack, dialogue and setting we intend to demonstrate the idea of socially segregated groups, the lack of freedom in a high school environment and a sense of hierarchy amongst the teenagers. This is also conveyed in "Mean Girls" as the students in the dining hall are depicted as "animals" when fighting with each other. This creates humour for the audience as it mocks and exaggerates the nature of young people in social conflict. Our cast will have British accents and use regional language/slang in the opening sequence (as in "The Inbetweeners" and "Hot Fuzz").