How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Chrissy was our main protagonist in our film opening, we had seen her perform in many school productions such as Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland. She was readily available and fitted the ballerina role perfectly, her interest in our chosen genre social realism was also very beneficial to us. Her youth made her look innocent and vulnerable. Her pale skin looked extremely effective under the spotlight.
As a character Chrissy both follows and challenges the conventions of the social realism genre.
Chrissy (our main character) represents a young, aspiring ballerina who has to battle with mental issues and drugs as a result as the huge amount of pressure put upon her by the demands and expectations of the elite sport that is ballet. She also has to deal with family pressures, friendships and relationships and at Chrissys age this is all relevant. Social realism films always feature problems that are prominent in todays society such as drugs, bullying, sex, racial abuse, family problems, violence etc. We wanted to focus on the use of drugs in todays society but not in a conventional way. As a group we decided as our film is based on the elite sport ballet it would be fitting to surround our idea on the topic of performance enhancing drugs.
In social realism films the characters are often played by unknown actors, this makes the film more relatable and believable but also this is sometimes due to restricted budgeting. We have followed this guideline to conform with the conventions of the genre and to hopefully make the character Chrissy relatable to our target audience.
The character Chrissy, shows a likeness to the character Nina from the Black Swan (Natalie Portman). Nina is the main character in the Black Swan like Chrissy she represents a pure and innocent personality however as the film continues she becomes increasingly unstable. Both Nina and Chrissy challenge the female stereotype, and they prove they can play challenging and important roles. Gender and sexism are topics constantly challenged in other social realism films. We too have tried to challenge this representation by using a all female cast.
From the screen grabs below you can see the similarity in the portrayal of both Chrissy and Nina.
Chrissy was our main protagonist in our film opening, we had seen her perform in many school productions such as Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland. She was readily available and fitted the ballerina role perfectly, her interest in our chosen genre social realism was also very beneficial to us. Her youth made her look innocent and vulnerable. Her pale skin looked extremely effective under the spotlight.
As a character Chrissy both follows and challenges the conventions of the social realism genre.
Chrissy (our main character) represents a young, aspiring ballerina who has to battle with mental issues and drugs as a result as the huge amount of pressure put upon her by the demands and expectations of the elite sport that is ballet. She also has to deal with family pressures, friendships and relationships and at Chrissys age this is all relevant. Social realism films always feature problems that are prominent in todays society such as drugs, bullying, sex, racial abuse, family problems, violence etc. We wanted to focus on the use of drugs in todays society but not in a conventional way. As a group we decided as our film is based on the elite sport ballet it would be fitting to surround our idea on the topic of performance enhancing drugs.
In social realism films the characters are often played by unknown actors, this makes the film more relatable and believable but also this is sometimes due to restricted budgeting. We have followed this guideline to conform with the conventions of the genre and to hopefully make the character Chrissy relatable to our target audience.
The character Chrissy, shows a likeness to the character Nina from the Black Swan (Natalie Portman). Nina is the main character in the Black Swan like Chrissy she represents a pure and innocent personality however as the film continues she becomes increasingly unstable. Both Nina and Chrissy challenge the female stereotype, and they prove they can play challenging and important roles. Gender and sexism are topics constantly challenged in other social realism films. We too have tried to challenge this representation by using a all female cast.
From the screen grabs below you can see the similarity in the portrayal of both Chrissy and Nina.
Chrissy is shown on the left, the two shots show the similarity of the two characters.
Both characters seem lonely, in the Black Swan and in our opening both Nina and Chrissy are pictured on their own as opposed to being with their fellow dancers. Both these frames above are taken from parts of the films where the characters are alone secluded from the rest of the dancers. I get the impression both characters enjoy their own company as they are both very independent, however as the films proceed we can see the damaging effects of loneliness.
Chrissys costume is simple and dark, she wears a black leotard and has a simple/minimal make up look. She wears traditional pink tights and pointe shoes. Chrissy's costume is similar to that of Nina's warm up wear (the clothing she wears when rehearsing), however in the Black Swan the character Nina has several costume changes and in the performance scenes her costume is more complex she wears tutus and corsets with feathers her make up is dramatic and she wears a hair piece. However I also noticed in the Black Swan as Nina's transition from pure, elegant swan to her darker, fierce more evil side her outfit changes to fit the persona she is playing. Our character Chrissy only has one costume.
These two images show the performance scenes of both films/openings. You can see the similarity in camera work, the shot types are both medium shots and the two shots are both filmed from a slightly low angle, this is done to portray the characters as the most important and symbolise that this performance is the most important thing to both of them. I think it also shows that when these characters are dancing it builds their confidence, we can compare the screen grabs from above and the screen grabs from below. When on stage the characters look confident and composed they are centre shot, they are the focus and the audience can feel their emotion and sense that this is their moment to exceed their friends, family and own expectations. However the two frames below show afraid, upset, out of control characters. The camerawork is very similar in both shots they are both close up shots and both characters are pictured in the side of the frame, i think the space on the other side of the shot symbolises the journey they have ahead and the goals they wish to achieve.
The shot below also shows the similarity of location.
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