How does your media product

represent particular social

groups?
 Representations of Zara
The clothing we decided to dress Zara in
was all black, as we wanted to portray her
as a simple girl. This immediately separates
her from other people as she is not shown
to be consumed by materialistic objects,
however she does use a blackberry- so the
modern generation of today (our target
audience) can still have a hook to cling on
to. Also, as she is a Muslim girl, by keeping
her clothing simple, we may be able to Whilst filming ‘Zara’s scenes, I made
connect with other Muslim girls around sure she was in the corner and made
the country as they may face the same her to appear small. To show her
issue.
insignificance and how trapped/empty
she is. Still considering our audience we
included stereotypical behaviour of
giggling as we wanted a true
representation of teenagers.
 Zara

We wanted to portray Zara as someone who has no choice but to conform to religion, hence
why we use a low angled shot of her from the sink, to show her facial expression and how
blunt she feels towards it. I mainly used high angled shots of her to present how small and
insignificant she feels, wanting what she can’t have and dreaming of the impossible
considering who she is and what background she comes from. The final shot of Zara at the
end, where she sighs and looks into the mirror, shows todays younger Muslim generation and
how they do not necessarily want to commit to religion as they are made to be.
 Elizebeth
Having Elizebeth is a fantasy for Zara.
She is Zara’s best friend whom she is
secretly in love with. She is dressed in
simple clothes, yet slightly more
visibly westernized. This represents
how Ellie is more socially advanced
than Zara. However her clothes are
not over the top which still shows she
is working class.

The shots of Elizebeth at the start are

mid-shots which show how similar
she is to Zara. She disregards the
attention Zara provides her and
chucks her phone carelessly,
presenting how she does not show
the same affection Zara does.
Involving new media technology once again,
helps out target audience to make a
subconscious attachment to this character. It
also shows how all teenagers are the same in
the respect of technology.
 Sound
We had the Islamic prayer call
to signify that Zara is indeed a
Muslim. In our audience
feedback everyone was
immediately able to tell that
our character follows Islam. It
added verisimilitude to the
diegesis we create, possibly
helping others to understand
what the characters life style
is like.

Towards the end there is a point where Zara speaks in her native tongue
responding to her mother, her mother continues to speak in the same language,
however Zara then begins to communicate in english showing she is culturally
aware, but she chooses not to stick to the culture she is brought up in.
 Typography
We chose to stick to a simple
typography, as we wanted to
stay true to the British Social
Realist convention. Rather
than using flashy effects we
created a white box with Black
writing inside to represent our
character in a way. Showing
how ‘squared off she is’ and
how she is the centre to
everything in our story line
and narrative.