Riverdale Essay

This short clip taken from the TV series 'Riverdale' is a Teen Drama which shows the core media representation groups of class/status and age. The students in the short clip are  teenagers who attend a dramatic and complicated high school. In this film there is a major representation of Class and Status shown through many different aspects of the film. There is also a representation of age. In this short clip we see the contrast between the students who are humble and then we see the opposite students like Cheryl Blossom who likes to Dominate and almost overtake , who is also seen as wealthy and strong willed, linking to the way that she acts and behaves around the people who are less fortunate than her. This Short clip gives us as an audience a good view of High School stereotypes. 

The sound heard in the Short film is a mixture of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is portrayed through the dialogue of the Characters in the film. There is also diegetic sound used by Archie Andrews song that is played using a sound bridge, as it plays over a clip of Veronica walking into the scene in the beginning of the film. When Veronica walks up to the table but is abruptly stopped when Archie closes his laptop when he watches as Veronica walks to sit with them. This shows that Archie is the opposite of Veronica in that she is bold and confident whereas he is not. Showing that maybe Archie takes time to open up to new people. As an audience we know that it is Veronica's first day at the high school when Archie says “How’s your first day going?”.

Likewise there is also a contrast in the dialogue used in the film. We see this contrast in the way in which the different characters talk, for example the way in which Veronica walks in and says “can i join” links to how bold and confident she is, it also shows that she can also be polite. Unlike Cheryl who is dominating and overtakes, we hear this when she says, “Betty would you mind” this sentence shows that Cheryl does not like Betty which we see later when they discuss cheerleading.

We also see that Cheryl’s Character is nice, and that she can come across as rude. We see this in the way that she responds to kevin saying “is being the gay best friend still a thing?” This comment just rolls off her tongue showing that she does not care how rude she is. The dialogue used by Veronica lodge shows that she may be well off but she knows who to stand up for and when, we see that she is not rude and likes to be inclusive in the way that she behaves. The Non-Diegetic sound is also heard in the beginning of the film when Veronica walks down the stairs and looks at all the students having lunch. This Non-diegetic sound is also Archies song that is played over all the noise of all the high school students. The song is heightened at this point of the film to help set the scene.

The short film uses quick cuts to add a fast pace feel to the different scenes used in the film. These quick cuts help create this relationship and continuity between the storyline of the film and the representation represented. The quick cuts link to the way in which the school is chaotic and how everything that happens in the film happens fast. The camera does a lot of movement creating fast shot reverse shots creating intensity in the conversations made, an example of this is seen with Cheryl Blossom