Joe Shrimpton

1(b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework

productions.

I am going to analyse my A2 coursework, which is called ‘Driven Away’.

It is a teen drama and contains lots of inter textual references of other
teen dramas such as ‘Skins’ and ‘The OC’. Throughout the short film,
which I have produced, I have represented the teen audience in a
variety of different ways. From other teen dramas I watched it was
clear that the representation of the teens was looking at the general
stereotype and their known culture in today’s society. The narrative of
the story is that there is one central female protagonist with two other
main male characters however hay are trapped between the female
character so what we have is a love triangle.
The first part of our film was set in a secondary school, this is one
way in which the teens are represented, this is where we see the three
characters in the same area as the female character Summer is
inviting the two boys, ‘Jake and Tyler’ to her party, at this stage this is
the equilibrium. Next we have the party scene, this is where lots of
links to the teenage stereotype. This is a house party where we see
lots of alcohol being drunk, using the typical teenage image with the
loud dance music with people dancing and others half asleep. the
music used at the party scene is a combination of dance and heavy
dub step which would attract the teen audience and the other
outsiders who are fans of this type (genre) of music, also the music
which we used was at a very fast pace which signified the rush of the
whole entire environment. The last setting we used was outside the
house where the party was held, as the narrative of the story follows
the aspect of the two male characters falling out over the female
character and I think that the fact the two male characters go outside
the house for a fight shows the stereotype and immaturity of teenage
life and culture. One main part of the film is towards the end where we
have used the cars as props, this is where teenage culture inter links
here as well as the target audience are those who are learning to drive
or already do. As the cars are used in a violent manner this represents
the male teenage audience more as there is an inertextual reference
to boy racers with supped up cars and loud music etc.
The characters in Driven Away are obviously teenagers but they
represent certain things in different ways. Firstly the female character
called 'Summer Davis' who is the central protagonist is the star girl,
the one who is always in the line light and every girl wants to be her.
We represented this by making her wear a sparkly dress so she would
stand out from anybody else. Also we purposely used lots of makeup
on the characters face so she was signified as the main target. The
next character one of the two males called 'Jake'. This character comes
across as being the more friendly male as he is more chatty getting
involved with others and always having a smile on his face. We
Joe Shrimpton

represented this by dressing the character in bright cheerful colours

such as the pale blue shirt he wears at the party and this is to signify
the personality of the character. Also we see this character sticking up
for 'Summer' as she is being bullied by the other male character. the
next character called 'Tyler' Is the 'bad boy' character as he is the one
who has started the argument. Tyler throughout the short film is
always on his own with no expression on his face at all. This character
is dressed in dark clothing, also in the car scene he is in the car which
is a darker colour and looks like an evil vehicle and sounds the loudest,
this again signifies the character as a whole. The two male characters
are binary opposites which is why there is a love triangle between
these three characters as the girl is stuck in the middle but she lives
up to her stereotype as being the centre of attention.
Overall I think that this film represents teenagers in a true fashion
showing the audience what things are based on in a certain culture.
This is a media text which represents things in a variety of different
ways looking at the ways in which things are perceived and shown
within the narrative and characters themselves.