Part 5 Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

The main character in my media product , is a young British Asian by the name of Yusuf. His character is of the typical British teenager . Throughout my media product he is portrayed as a very passionate teenager for his sport. He is also shown as being ambitious due to the fact he starts from the estates of Essex and eventually starts making his name in the boxing ranks of Britain.

This close up shot of our character ,Yusuf, in the mirror is the first shot showing the character properly. The use of the close up shot , enabled the audience to see that he is Asian as well as having a mosque hat on his head. This close up was the first real sighting of our main character. The audience will stereotype him , their first impressions of the character will be what they stereotype him to be. The stereotypical views we aimed to achieve from this shot was ; " He's a terrorist". This stereotype is very often linked with Muslim people. Another stereotypical view we tried to achieve from this shot is that he is a typical Asian " chav" . This stereotype will be because of the costume of the character , as he is in a tracksuit. Which shows poverty , as well as having an association with crime because most British social realism films tend to show young criminal characters in jogging bottoms or dressed down characters if they are committing their petty crime. Lastly another stereotype which we intended to be shown from this close up shot , was that it shows his dedication. This is because he is going to the mosque , showcasing his qualities as a Muslim. However this denotes the fact that our character is not in fact dedicated towards his Religion but his hobby ; Boxing.

From this over-the shoulder shot , a lot is revealed about our character. He is looking back to his house , and secretively taking his hat off. This rebellious act , almost immediately puts a different slogan on the character in terms of the audiences views. He went from being an obedient and dedicated young boy ,to a rebellion and secretive teenager. I say teenager due to the fact most teenagers are mostly associated with these traits. In British society , teenagers are looked upon as if the cause of all bad things after a series of shocking events in the united kingdom , such as the London riots. Now our character Yusuf , has automatically changed the audience's views on the himself , and his social group is now more like the youthful British social teenagers which Britain look down upon.

This is a long shot of our character , the long shot helps us to establish the scenery. The background clearly shows that it is very run down and the character is running through an alleyway. One thing which British social realist films emphasise on a lot , is the use of unvarnished things. Meaning they show everything how it is without trying to make it better. They do this to show how bad areas are sometimes. We decided to add this shot because we needed to add a bit of British social realism ideology in order to get the right feel to the film. And this location gives the audience the feeling of poverty , hardship. These are main themes which occur in British social realism. The use of the mise en scene in our location has helped us adjust towards the British social realism genre , now the film is given a different stereotypical view because poverty is portrayed and it shows the character is living through tough times.

This is an establishing close up shot. This shot reveals a lot about the film itself. First of all the mise en scene ; It is a mosque. The mosque does look very makeshift , showing that the local mosque is not funded well which obviously means the neighbourhood which the character lives in must be no different in terms of status and image. Again this links into the ideology of film four of having unvarnished subjects , it also brings the elements of British social realism themes into it as it reveals poverty and hardship again. One other connotation from this close up is the narrative. This is the pivotal moment within the story , Yusuf ignores the mosque calling and instead has his sights on his boxing session. This gives the audience the sense that he is widely dedicated that he is even risking sin from his god. It also creates an enigma to why he is boycotting his religion. In terms of the stereotypical views given on this shot , it would be that people will say the young Muslims don't realise the importance of Islam. More widely people may come to the conclusion that the youth don't value religion.