How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

Owen Howard - When The Weekend Comes Owen Howard - When The Weekend Comes

Sam - Leader

The main actor in our opening sequence is a tall male, the reason for this is because we have used a negative stereotype of the males being the most powerful and dominant compared to woman. Sam also looks intimidating which is what we tried to do so the audience don’t know the ideology of the opening

sequence when watching. This makes them watch carefully as they are unsure on whether he is the antagonist or protagonist. Sam is playing a young adult aged between 18-21 so we had to try and match

an actor who looks older than their age but matches the negative stereotype of a male. The age is important in our opening sequence because football hooligans are nowadays stretched with age starting from teenagers to adults in their 50’s. However, when we planned our opening sequence we wanted to make sure our characters had the potential to look between 18-21 because maturity levels are lower at this age compared to middle age adults which meant the audience can still look at characters such as

Sam as a protagonist rather than an antagonist because he is younger and has an excuse to make mistakes and do stupid things. Sams’ clothing is designed specifically to make him look like a football

hooligan which also has the negative stereotype of making him look intimidating and strong. The baseball cap adds an element of a ‘leader’, as it makes him stand out from his friends in the firm and shows he

has authority. We then decided for Sam to wear a blue and white tracksuit top with a sports logo on the front. The colours of the tracksuit top represent him as a male because the colour ‘blue’ is often

associated with males compared to women and in my opinion i think that this fits the stereotype of a man being the ‘strong, powerful gender‘ and also refers to the past because men are often associated with

fighting and violence. Adidas trainers are associated with the ‘perfect model‘ of a football hooligan. Commonly worn in the 80s by hooligans and ever since they have been continuously worn by football hooligans. The bright blue colour suggests the stereotype of a male once again and the white stripes

imply they are adidas. The symbolic logo represents they are a ‘boys’ model of trainers and often linked to ‘casuals’ (which is another word for a firm) shoes.

Dark blue baseball cap

Bright Blue and white adidas trainers

Blue and white tracksuit top

“Blue is a masculine colour; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males”

“Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness” “Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness”

Jordan and Jake (part of the firm)

Both males are relatively tall acting at an age between 18-21. They are both males and part of the firm because the negative stereotype of the males being the strongest and associated with violence makes it more enjoyable for the audience as they are already assuming violence is going to happen which therefore means they will be

using the negative stereotype about men. Both look motivated as Jordan (on the left) is bouncing around suggesting he is excited and Jake (on the right) looks intimidating implying he is drunk or anticipating a fight. We

chose these characters because they are exaggerated, this mens that they are playing up to the negative stereotype of men and using it to their advantage. As a group we thought the negative stereotype of men should stay throughout because the audience can easily understand the genre from the exaggerated actors and also it keeps the audience waiting eagerly for violence as they are assuming its going to happen. The use of mise en

scene in my opinion changes the ideology from the audiences perspective because originally they look innocent and harmless, making them protagonists rather than antagonists but the use of props (alcohol) implies that they

are under the influence of alcohol which is why they are shouting and becoming over-confident. The negative stereotype the audience identify at the beginning is the main factor in why they change their ideology of the

characters because, the audience are waiting for a fight but then realise the reason it is happening is because the alcohol is making the characters become aggressive and therefore suggests that the history of a ‘football

hooligan fight‘ is not traditional it is mainly due to the influence of alcohol. Therefore, means that Jake and Jordan are looked upon as an antagonist for creating the violence rather than a protagonist. The clothing is

slightly different to Sams because their very dark in comparison to the majority of Sams clothing being blue. The reason for this is to outline once again who the protagonist is. Sam stands out and shows he has more power

and control than the common members of the firm like Jake and Jordan (above). The clothing is not as striking or clear that they are part of a football firm. The reason for this is because they are of lower social class and cannot afford expensive sporting clothing like Sam, this once again shows that Sam is in charge and is no coincidence

why the leader of the firm (Sam) has the best clothes.

Alcohol

Conor and Josh (part of the firm)

Both characters are represented as 18-21 year olds and are both tall, the height was purposely chosen to be tall because the actors are playing a role that requires to be 2-5 years older than they are. Once again the use of

make up and clothes makes them look pressuring and aggressive, this will mean the audience is likely to react to them as antagonists. On the other hand the clothing is not exaggerated and over the top which means that

when they walk down the street together the public would not associate them with ‘football hooligans’. The gender of them is once again male because I think the negative stereotype of men makes it more believable for the audience and they can understand whats going on easier because of the stereotype of men being referred

to as aggressive, strong, powerful etc. Josh (right) is seen smoking (above), we used the advantage of him being a smoker as this really sets the tone of how the boys are acting and what type of social class they are.

The audience are meant to see this as a negative stereotype once again because we are associating recurrent groups (hooligans) with the use of alcohol, drugs and smoking. However, Conor (left) is seen without alcohol or a cigarette which suggests that the other boys in the group are not encouraging him to have some and this is

meant to be seen as a positive thing because it shows that not all groups influence drugs, alcohol etc to people who refuse to have some. Josh (right) is wearing an adidas tracksuit top, this implies that he is of higher social class to Conor (right) and can afford expensive clothing. Although, it also tells the audience that the difference in social classes doesn't mean people of lower and higher don’t interact with each other. On the other hand, Josh is still only wearing the colour black and white rather than bright colours because we wanted the main

characters to be seen in colour’s such as blue so they can easily be identified but it also implies who has authority and the most power within the group. Conor (left) is wearing a baseball cap which suggests he is a

football hooligan and part of the firm because it’s distinct and in comparison to the normal public Conor would easily be seen.

Cigarette Adidas tracksuit top

Baseball cap

Kaan and Owen - ‘assistant leaders’

The two characters above are part of the firm but are also ‘main characters’ because they are the ‘assistant leaders’ of the firm. Owen (right) is the smallest in the group and goes against a negative stereotype of the

smaller people not being able to be in charge or have as much power as the taller people. We have represented Owen as someone who has ‘small man syndrome‘ because he is completely harmless and the audience will react to him as a protagonist and a ‘fan’s favourite‘ but he shows signs of wanting a fight and encourages everyone else to get involved on the way to the pub which also implies he is aggressive and excited by the

prospect of violence. Kaan (left) on the other hand, is a tall individual who is represented as a quiet lad and also goes against the negative stereotype of the tall men being the strongest and most dominant. Kaan, Owen and

Sam are looked upon as being the leaders but Sam is represented as the ‘king of the firm‘ in comparison. When Sam meets Owen and Kaan on the bus where they then meet the rest of the group, this shows that they are the

main characters and will be looked at by the audience as protagonists. Owen (right) is the only other person wearing blue where this is shown on his adidas tracksuit top and baseball cap. This implies that Owen has

enough dominance to wear the colour blue and this could be seen by the audience as Sam, allowing Owen to wear the colour blue because he has proved that he ca be a ‘top hooligan’. Whereas Kaan,(left) is wearing a

brown tracksuit top, we have done this to show that he has not proved himself to be a top hooligan (like Owen) but is of higher status than the other members of the group by not wearing black. The audience should react to

this excitedly because it suggests that violence is involved in order to earn rewards to wear the colour blue. Both characters are not seen drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes because we wanted them to be seen as

‘protagonists‘ or at least characters that show a positive stereotype of football hooligans.

Light blue adidas tracksuit top

Dark blue baseball cap

Brown tracksuit top

Ben - the ‘lookout’

Ben (above) is a character who is playing his age, this means that he is 2-5 years younger than the other characters because we wanted the small phone call scene to show that he is working from the bottom of the firm to the top towards Sams’ level. His clothing suggests that he has a lot to learn because he doesn’t look intimidating or forceful compared to the other members of

the firm however, he plays an important role in the opening sequence because he tells (the leader of the firm) Sam how many opposing fans their are waiting to fight his firm. The small scene he plays also shows that he is younger than the others and hasn’t proved himself yet

which is why he has the worst job in the firm. The audience are meant to feel sorry for Ben and feel emotional. Ben is not looked at as a protagonist because his job in the firm doesn’t

suggests he is someone to look up to or is a hero however, he is a likeable character who the audience will have a soft spot for as they see him chase his dream of one day being like Sam.