How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?By Katie Clover

James Johnson - Costume & props

To show that he is upper class he is dressed smartly in a shirt and tie.

To show his age he has a mobile phone as his age group, around 20 years old, are often linked to using technology.

We use glasses as a prop to show James’ intelligence as well as his work, which again links to his class.

As he is male we used a tie in the colour blue, rather than a more feminine colour such as pink.

Isobel Melbourne - Costume & props

To show that she is girly she is holding a large amount of shopping bags. These bags are from shops aimed at her age range, around 20, such as Hollister and Republic. This also shows her class as she doesn’t have to worry about spending a large amount of money.

She is wearing sunglasses to imply that she is fashionable which represents her gender and age.

Her costume consists of bright colours such as pink and purple to represent her gender.

She has quite a lot of make up on and her hair done nicely to show that she’s feminine.

Comparing Character’sCostumes

Below is a picture of Rebecca from Confessions of a Shopaholic who is quite similar to our character of Isobel. She has

bright, mainly designer clothes and is carrying a large quantity of shopping. This

presents her as feminine and confident.

Isobel is also dressed in bright clothes as she has a bubbly and outgoing personality. She is

carrying a lot of shopping bags too which portrays her as wealthy. The main difference between these two characters is that Isobel has a grey coat on which reflects where she lives as it is cold in England. Also her clothes aren’t designer because we had to work with what costume we already had, although this doesn’t matter as she is still dressed formally.

Comparing Character’sCostumes

Above is a picture of Edward from the film Pretty Woman. Like our male

character he is also a wealthy business man, although he is older.

Throughout the film he mainly dresses in formal attire such as

shirts, ties and sometimes suit jackets too.

James is wearing a shirt and tie to represent his wealth and the fact that he is hard working. However

he is wearing jeans and white trainers to add a more relaxed

side to this look in order to reflect his age.

Representation of females

At one point Isobel drops her bags which presents females as quite clumsy.

She then checks her appearance in a window and smudges her make up which implies that females care a lot about their appearances.

What she says during the voice over presents females as relying more financially on their father’s which contrasts to males as James has a job.

Representation of males

We have given the character of James less dialogue, such as having Isobel do the voiceover, to imply that males often talk less than females.

James is walking at a slightly slower pace which shows that males are often more relaxed and laid back.

During the bench scene males are presented as calm as Isobel seems nervous about the coffee incident which is portrayed by her playing with her hair and apologising. By doing this it shows that females can be more dramatic and also implies that they have stronger emotions, for example Isobel feels guilty. This contrasts to James’ reaction as he says it’s fine and focuses on why he was there in the first place instead by calling his date.

Class & Status

Conventionally in romantic comedies the main characters are from 2 different classes, however we didn’t follow this convention as we used 2 characters from upper classes.

James: To show he focuses on work and is not very sociable he is talking on the phone about how he doesn’t want to meet Isobel. He is wearing smart clothes to show his wealth, and Isobel mentions in the voice over that his shirt is designer which adds to this. His phone is quite an expensive phone and we used this prop rather than a cheaper phone to show that he can afford luxuries. We also use the prop of glasses to show intellect which relates back to his well paid job. James is shown as being high status and represents the upper class as being hard working and serious.

Isobel: She is carrying a large amount of shopping which shows that she can afford to spend a lot of money which indicates that she is wealthy. Also, during the voiceover it shows that she relies on her dad for money which shows that she doesn’t need to work as her parents are rich enough to support her. Isobel is the same class as James but represents the upper class in a contrasting way. This is because she is shown as being relaxed as she doesn’t have to work and ditsy because of mistakes that she makes such as walking into James and spilling his coffee on him.