Evaluation: Question 2

Q2 How does you media product represent certain social groups?

The main character of our film is a boy aged around 11-13, who lives in a, middle class house and goes to the local school. He's of English descent and looks quite average. However, he isn't very well liked and is bullied at his school. Thus he is a sort of loner and spends a lot of time on his own when at school. His home life is similar as both his parents are hardworking and don;t have much time to spend with him-he is also the only child in the household. Because of this, he has a lot of spare time on his hands. He is very interested in ninjas and their culture, and probably plays loads of video games, reads books and many other solitary hobbies that fill up all the spare time he has.

Crossed arms show that he's confident- but also closed in.

The boys outer presence in the film is quite confident despite his status as a loner and outcast. Even though he is ostracized by his peers, he is still quite confident in himself, which shows that he is an optimistic individual. We can see this from his body language- in many of the shots, we see him crossing his arms and standing with his feet slightly spread. This gives the impression of someone who is determined and confident. From the close ups of his face, we can see the expression in his eyes which are looking straight ahead. This once again represents him as very confident and determined. The amount of shots that focus on him show he is the main character but can also show how he is very confident- confident enough to take up all these shots by himself. Furthermore, the way that he is in the center of all these shots which usually are quite wide without any other subjects around him show that he's confident enough to stand alone and not be apart of a group. The main character is also very childish- he believes in his plans and dreams and is confident that they will work out. The soundtrack that plays in the background represents this as it is nursery rhymes sung by Chinese primary school students, and it gives a far eastern feel to the film as well as making it seem very childish and almost cute, so the audience can't really take it seriously.



Styrofoam sword.

He's immature and this can be seen with his use of a fake sword prop and simple costume which looks like it was thrown together by an inexperienced kid. It represents him as not being a real ninja and makes him more comical and less serious as a character. The costume he wears also represents other aspects of his outer presence, The fact that it's a hoodie he wears shows him to be an average kid, and the colour (black) has the connotations of blending in, which reflects how he blends into the crowd. The prop of the belt also represents him to be quite an odd character. It looks rather feminine, and this gives the impression that he's taken it from his mother to use during his challenge. Once again it gives the impression of his immaturity and reinforces ideas that he threw together this costume with anything he could find.

His inner presence is that of a quiet, more shy person. This can be seen in the opening as he does not have any dialogue with the man who approaches him. He only stands and waits, which makes it seem like he's more introverted and still not able to interact with other people very easily. The prop of his mask can also show how he is an introvert, and not really willing to connect with people around him. Even though he's living his dream, he still feels the need to hide away inside himself, as perhaps he doesn't feel comfortable enough around other people to show his face. The wide shots again show how he's a loner at heart, even though he's comfortable with that. The background of the many images and articles on the wall shows how he is very studious and almost obsessive with his interest with ninjas. Because of the wide pan of the images, we can see just how much time and effort the kid puts into his plan, showing him to be diligent. He is also quite creative as he makes his costume himself and puts together the whole idea alone.  Overall, this represents him as a studious, geeky loner type, being very quiet but imaginative.

Similar characters to him could be Jaden Smith's character in Karate Kid (2010) who is also an outcast in his new country and is also a very diligent worker as he trains hard to master kung fu so he can prove himself to his bullies. Another similar character could be the titular character to Kickass (2010) who is equally as immature and does very similar things (such as obsessing and making their own costume) except with super heroes.