Representation

Whilst we would like our characters to be relatable, our group would like to avoid relying heavily on stereotypes. We understand that our representation of teenagers is a negative one overall, and so for this reason will endeavour not too exploit other common stereotypes. 

Gender

Our protagonist is female and we will represent her as strong and independent. She will be an aspirational figure for our core target audience. At the party there will be a mix of males and females, so that neither gender is outnumbered or more negatively represented than the other. 

A film with an example of a similar female protagonist is Heathers. She is strong and independent and grows more so as the movie goes on. She does not to conform to female stereotypes (especially for 1988) or let herself be controlled by boyfriend JD (Christian Slater).  The audience empathise with Veronica (Winona Ryder), partly because the portrayal of events is believable, and so we understand the reasons for her decisions and actions. It is key that they audience relate to our protagonist in a similar way. The audience are also intriged by Veronica, and she is somewhat idolised for her beauty and character. 

Ethinicity

In our film opening we will aim to represent the multicultural urban society of Britain. Therefore in the party scene will feature actors of a range of ethnicities. 

This scene from Project X is similar to how we envisage ethnicity representation in our film opening. A wide range of ethnicities and races are represented, and they are all interacting together with no differentiation. No particular race does one thing more than another; they are represented as equal. 

Class and Status

We do not intend to target our film at a particular class, so we will not represent one sole class at the party. We will create diversity by using a range of teenagers e.g. girly, quirky and gothic etc. We hope that this will mean that our opening does not alienate any audience, but attracts them because the majority of our target audience will be able to relate in some way. 
We have taken influence from the way that Skins represents class and status. The representation does not alienate any audiences, and the characters are relatable for all classes. Whilst most of the characters are roughly middle-class in skins, and although this has been successful, we would like to portray an even wider range of classes to ensure we target maximal audiences. 

Sexuality

We aim to include both heterosexual and homosexual relationships in our opening, and will treat them both equally without paying much attention to them; we want to represent them as normal. 
Whilst the clip from Project X represents both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, in our opening scene we would like both sexuality representations to be equal. We will not focus on them much, as an attempt to portray them as completely normal. We feel that this is a correct representation of urban society, and a representation that we would like to endorse in our opening. 

Age

There will only be teenagers in our opening, and so age representation is judged purely by our representation of them. The representation is generally stereotypical and negative; they are all on drugs and at a party, which represents them as irresponsible. However the range of classes and ethnicities at the party will represent them as unprejudiced and accepting the new generation of what it means to be British. In this way it is a modern theme, and is relatable for many ages; younger people take fascination in it whereas those that are slightly older will have been there and will understand. 
There have been similar representations of teenagers in media such as Project X, Thirteen and Skins, and our representations of teenagers will be similar, but we wish to represent their intentions as lighter and less sex and drug-oriented, so as not to create such a negative representation. 

Ability

We have decided not to represent disabilities in our film opening for several reasons. Firstly, we do not have the resources or knowledge to realistically portray most conditions. We also think that in would be unrealistic given the situation of the opening scene. 

Drugs
We will ensure that we represent drug-taking and the overdose in a negative way, and will in no way endorse it.