Creative process: Visual Cultures Proposal

Contemporary Stereotyping in Visual Culture - Video

This project involves the creation of a 5 minute video highlighting for and against arguments within the idea of contemporary stereotyping in visual culture. 

For my project I am focussing on video and contemporary films and television involving the typical American “High School” stereotypes. I am using “Mean Girls” as my main focus point, using the stereotype groups found in the canteen scene, these include “Varsity Jock” and “The Plastics”. With each of these stereotypes being announced I will then delve into more films and television programs which also focus on similar stereotypes. 

I want to show how most contemporary television and film aimed specifically at teenagers creates this norm of being “branded” in school. There is always a group of quiet, “nerdy” teenagers, as well as there always being a group of outgoing, popular teenagers. Television and film are taking these groups to the extreme and though they do exist in the modern high school the use of social media such as Facebook has increased the divide between these groups. These cliques have been focussed on so much that young people today feel like they need to be a part of one whether it suits their personality or not.

I want to create a visual show of all these stereotypes to show how common and similar these characters used in television programmes and films are. I am going to research different television shows and films which are aimed mostly at the teenage market. During my research I will be trying to find high school stereotypes that match the ones shown in the focus clip from the film “Mean Girls”. I want to find out about real life situations to do with these high school stereotypes and perhaps incorporate some of the more serious facts to do with these issues into my visual essay. I will look for relevant articles and news reports to find out this information. 

I will be using iMovie to create and edit my visual essay and I will be getting the majority of my film and television clips downloaded from Youtube.