Here is my evaluation for question 2, I decided to film the question in a directors commentary style video, because I felt this would make it easier to include multiple references to the opening than if I was to do the evaluation in the form of writing and pictures. Below is the script which I used when filming the evaluation.
Gender:
In our film opening, it is girls who are presented in a negative light. This is through the use of the often seen stereotypical characters of two girls who are mean about each other for their own gain.
However, within this, we have used a high angle on Rebecca, the girl who is being bullied, in order to show that she is subservient to Rachael, the girl who is bullying her. An example of this is when she is sitting on the computer watching the video, because the camera is pointing down on her in order to make her seem less important within the scene.
This is meant to give the audience mixed feelings about the two girls, because whilst they will initially have sympathy for Rebecca as she is picked on, over the course of the two minute film opening they will lose most of this sympathy. This is because of her actions which make her arguably just as bad as her tormentor - it represents the ever changing loyalties and friendships which girls have.
There is the use of the male gaze theory in the opening, at the beginning when the camera is focused on the legs of Rebecca as she walks. This is a different use of the male gaze theory to the one which is usually seen within films, because it is used on the character who is not supposed to seem as attractive as the other one.
Age:
The age which is represented in the film are teenagers, and they are seen negatively in the opening. Whilst the audience doesn't know the reasons as to why the events of the opening are occurring, it shows the often repeated negative stereotypes of teenagers, because it shows the aggression and anger which has built up within the two girls. This complies with the stereotype which is usually associated with teenagers, as they have thin loyalties which can be broken easily.
The characters wear two different styles of clothing, which we chose in order to set them apart within their age range. Rachael wears bright, colourful clothing, which immediately tells the audience that she is a lot more popular and thinks of herself more highly than Rebecca, who wears dark clothing and makeup. This also allows the audience to fit them into different teenage stereotypes in their head, for example describing Rebecca as an emo.
By creating two vastly different teenage characters, we will allow the target audience to see elements of themselves within the media product, which the uses and gratifications theory would suggest that they would watch the media product in order to gain these.
Ethnicity:
Both of the characters which can be seen in our film opening are white race, in order to show that they were similar in just about every way possible before they fell out. This means that we don't show any race as being dominant within the opening, although later on in the film, a mixed race character called Angel is portrayed as being more important than Rebecca - it shows a role reversal, as usually she would be the character who didn't fit in.
However, it can be seen as a limitation of our film opening that we couldn't include this character of mixed race, because we couldn't think of an effective way to include her within the opening.
Disability:
The opening of our film doesn't contain any disabled characters, primarily because a character like this would usually draw sympathy, and we don't want the audience to be able to sympathise with them.
Sexuality:
There are no homosexual characters in our piece, and only heterosexual characters. This is because homosexual characters would be seen as, like disabled characters, an object of sympathy, which is not what is desired. However, there is also the different stereotypes of clothing which are worn by the two girls - Rebecca's clothing is more masculine than that of Rachael, which presents her as perhaps having a deep rooted sexuality which she doesn't tell the people around her about in fear of further rejection - it ponders questions which will encourage the audience to watch the rest of the film.
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