Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Friday, 11 February 2011
Evaluation question 5
Note: Due to technical problem the lip-sync is slightly out of time.
We asked some people from our target audience to watch our title sequence then we asked them a few questions about it. In summary we asked them:
1. What they thought the genre was?
2. Who they thought the main character was?
3. How real the film looked?
4. Is it similar to other chick flicks that you have previously seen?
5. What they thought the name of the film was ?
Their answers were mostly right, but there was some slight confusion in some places. They knew the genre was chick flick, they identified this though the characters. When we asked who they thought the main character was there was some confusion there, Emily thought it was the 'Queen Bee' Julliette, but Paige knew it was 'the outcast'at the end. We then asked if the film looked real because we wanted people to be able to relate to our characters. They said it was similar to chick flick films they had seen, they were regarding to the type of character which they see in films like mean girls. Lastly we asked what they thought the name of the film was and they thought it was 'Who's that girl' which again was correct.
There was a preferred reading as our target audience understood what we were trying to portray. Most understood the genre of film based on our characters. They also understood the outcast character as she was shown as different from her friends. This was our aim, for our audience to understand our storyline from our title sequence as this is what will get them to continue to watch the film.
Also, here is the comments from our facebook group that we created:
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Evaluation question 4
The audience for our media product would be teenagers around the age of 12-17 and would come from a middle class background. They would be at a high school level and will often get together in groups to watch chick flick films. 
The people will be normal teens that can relate to characters from movies such as mean girls, because mean girls has 'clicks' which are quite common in high schools. Words to describe them would be friendly and 'girly'.
They will enjoy getting together with friends and having sleepovers, shopping with their friends, and going out socialising.
They will enjoy watching television programmes such as Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, 90210,and other female cast programmes that have something that they can relate to, whether it be mise-en-scene of type of character.
Their favourite films will consist of A Cinderella Story, High School Musical, Princess Diaries and they will love Mean Girls and will often quote the film to their friends.
Their favourite music will be sung by artists such as girl bands like The Saturdays, Justin Bieber, and they will listen to music that is quite new and current. Their taste in music will probably change as the charts change.
Websites they will visit are Youtube and they will spend a lot of time on social networking sites like Facebook where they will have lots of friends.
Their dress sense will be quite stylish but also simple at the same time, such as jeans, leggings and cardigans but they will enjoy dressing up from time to time.
They dream of living in big cities and places such as America, and may want to be quite popular and successful in their life.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Evaluation question 3
Question 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
What a distributor does?
1. They decide on the release date
2. They do audience research
3. They decide how many prints to make of the film (they need these for the cinema)
4. They decide what kind of cinema to show the film at
5. They also sort out the advertising and marketing
A Cinderella story is one of the films that we looked at, the film is a chick flick genre the same as ours, their distribution company was Warner Bros. pictures. Mean girls was distributed by Paramount pictures. Overall Paramount pictures are owned by Viacom. So I would pick Paramount pictures also to distribute our film, this would also give us access to MTV and Nickelodeon. This would allow us to do horizontal integration. Paramount are a mainstream company and are very well known around the world.
We are aiming to get our film into multi-plex cinemas all around England and maybe even in America as the chick flick genre is very popular there. A lot of chick flicks are actually made in America and are successful like Mean Girls and Raising Helen.
Mean Girls is an example of a successful chick flick film. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures, it had a budget of $17,000,000 which is average for this genre. It was released in the USA in 2839 screens, it was released in 364 screens in the UK and it was also released in more screens around Europe. This is similar to what we would want for our film. This film was just as successful on DVD if not more.
The benefits of using this strategy is that using Paramount will expose us to other companies that can help promote the film, being a Paramount distributed film will also give us credibility as it is a well known company. The number of prints would be over 2000 and this would mean we get a higher coverage. Paramount movies such as 10 Things i hate about you had a marketing budget of 16 million. We would get a figure similar or higher than this to spend on the marketing of our film. This money would be spent in marketing in different ways. We will also do some online marketing which will be very low cost.
Stratergies that we will use to spread word of mouth will come from things such as early screenings, with tickets given to competition winners. This will help spread word of mouth. The internet will probrably be the best place to start if we want people to start talking about our film. We could set up a group on social networking sights such as Facebook or Myspace. Which is used by people all around the world this would give us coverage. We could also set up an account on a network like twitter and this will keep people informed of release dates and whats going on. These sorts of things would be succesful as they can be seen by a lot of people, and can spread within minutes. We could also do marketing by sending out our stars and get them interviewed or invited to red carpet events, at these places they could advertise themselves and the movie. If there is enough money we could also do some tv trailers or a few billboard campaigns to get our film seen. 
We could use new technologies to advertise and market our film. This is a good stratergy as millions of people now have the internet so it is accesible by a lot of people who are just browsing. We could start by uploading a trailer or some sneak peeks onto youtube. These can be watched by anyone and the more popular the videos become the more people watch. Pop up advertisements may also work as people will se them, if we have access to MTV, whenever someone goes on the MTV website we could have a pop-up or a link to the trailer of our film. Social Networks will also be very useful for campaigning.
Cinema websites such as odeon and Vue are looked at everyday and these are what people mainly look at before they go to the cinema, so our film should be advertised on the websites before the release date and whilst it is showing so that people have the option to see the film.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Monday, 31 January 2011
Evaluation question 1
Question 1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I think you can recognise that our video is an opening title sequence firstly because of the titles. Our titles are shown in a more artistic way than mainstream chick flick title sequences, we used things around us to create them. This is similar to the titles in Napoleon Dynamite.
Also i would recognise our video as a title sequence because we are introduced to each character and we find out a little bit about them and about what kind of person they are. Similar to the opening title sequence of Raising Helen when we are introduced to the main character and we are shown what her life is like.
Our film genre was chick flick, we looked at other chick flick title sequences to find out how the genre was established. We showed our genre by revealing the main characters to the audience,as they were all girls it was very obvious that this film was centred around females and this would show that the film was a chick flick. In the title sequence we showed all the four friends getting ready to go out, slightly showing their life. This is regularly done in chick flick title sequences.
We challenged the conventions by the way we displayed the titles, most chick flicks have simple, formal, 'girly' text but we made our titles from things around us. We did things such as writing on mirrors with lipstick and putting labels on clothes. We thought this would make our title sequence more interesting. So the mise-en-scene in the title sequence was very important. Also we showed all 4 main characters usually you would just see one main character but we wanted to show the contrast in character we felt this made the title sequence more engaging.
Our title sequence does support Levi Straus' theory of binary oppositions. In our titles it is the girls who are popular and pretty vs the girl who doesn't really care and is the outcast of the group and we tried to show this through attitude and mise-en-scene. We felt it was important that the audience understood the binary opposition in the first scene as this was the main synopsis of the film. We felt this was also what made people want to watch the movie, so if we could establish the difference people would continue to watch to see how it would progress and what would be the outcome.
I think you can recognise that our video is an opening title sequence firstly because of the titles. Our titles are shown in a more artistic way than mainstream chick flick title sequences, we used things around us to create them. This is similar to the titles in Napoleon Dynamite.
Also i would recognise our video as a title sequence because we are introduced to each character and we find out a little bit about them and about what kind of person they are. Similar to the opening title sequence of Raising Helen when we are introduced to the main character and we are shown what her life is like.
Our film genre was chick flick, we looked at other chick flick title sequences to find out how the genre was established. We showed our genre by revealing the main characters to the audience,as they were all girls it was very obvious that this film was centred around females and this would show that the film was a chick flick. In the title sequence we showed all the four friends getting ready to go out, slightly showing their life. This is regularly done in chick flick title sequences.
We challenged the conventions by the way we displayed the titles, most chick flicks have simple, formal, 'girly' text but we made our titles from things around us. We did things such as writing on mirrors with lipstick and putting labels on clothes. We thought this would make our title sequence more interesting. So the mise-en-scene in the title sequence was very important. Also we showed all 4 main characters usually you would just see one main character but we wanted to show the contrast in character we felt this made the title sequence more engaging.
Our title sequence does support Levi Straus' theory of binary oppositions. In our titles it is the girls who are popular and pretty vs the girl who doesn't really care and is the outcast of the group and we tried to show this through attitude and mise-en-scene. We felt it was important that the audience understood the binary opposition in the first scene as this was the main synopsis of the film. We felt this was also what made people want to watch the movie, so if we could establish the difference people would continue to watch to see how it would progress and what would be the outcome.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Friday, 28 January 2011
Friday, 21 January 2011
Filming : Molly
This is Molly, she is another one of Julez's followers. She will receive a text and be getting ready to go to meet her friends.
Prop list:
Make-up
Clothes
Phone
post it note
shoes
grips
Risk assessment:
Clutter in the bedroom whilst filming may be an issue, particularly whilst using the tripod, so the area must be cleared to insure no damage to the camera or tripod will be made.
There is a scene outside where I film molly coming out of her house, so the obvious risk would be passing cars on the road. To avoid this risk I should keep to the pavement and watch out for passing traffic.
We took out the shot list when we went filming, but we did not follow it exactly as some ideas were more manageable than others.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Friday, 7 January 2011
Research and Planning: Photos of cast
Juliette Webb is going to be our 'Queen Bee'.
Molly Hall is going to be one of the other girly girls
Laura Turner is going to be the other girly girl.
Jodie Shane is going to be the 'outcast'.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Audience research: Facebook group
The facebook group we set up really helped us in terms of putting ourselves in our target audience´s place.
Most girls were in agreement that the queen bee is goodlooking, popular and rich, and wears nice designer clothes. Alll the girls asked in our facebook group would respond better to the down to earth character than to the queen bee. Some of the reasons for that are that girls watching the film can usually relate to her better, since they are not in the position of the queen bee and the main character is usually nicer.
Many different ideas were mentioned when asked what they expect to happen in a chick flick. Some girls said they would expect a popular girl to fall in love with a geeky boy or an unpopular girl becoming popular. Some girls expect a love story with lots of drama, but also a bit of comedy.
We asked the invited girls whether they think our mood board represents the chick flick genre well and all of them said they do because there are many typical things in it girls like or expect to be in a chick flick. It also displays a girly girl´s world or ideal world.
We showed a picture of a girl we considered as an actress for the queen bee and asked whether she is typical looking for a queen bee. Everybody said she does, since she is goodlooking and rather attractive.
We also showed opening sequences of two chick flicks and asked for example why they can connect with the main charcater, which character they like the most and what they would expect to happen next.
The audience usually likes the main character the most, because they can identify with her, since she is normal and down to earth.
The answers to those questions help us to set up our own main character.
Most girls were in agreement that the queen bee is goodlooking, popular and rich, and wears nice designer clothes. Alll the girls asked in our facebook group would respond better to the down to earth character than to the queen bee. Some of the reasons for that are that girls watching the film can usually relate to her better, since they are not in the position of the queen bee and the main character is usually nicer.
Many different ideas were mentioned when asked what they expect to happen in a chick flick. Some girls said they would expect a popular girl to fall in love with a geeky boy or an unpopular girl becoming popular. Some girls expect a love story with lots of drama, but also a bit of comedy.
We asked the invited girls whether they think our mood board represents the chick flick genre well and all of them said they do because there are many typical things in it girls like or expect to be in a chick flick. It also displays a girly girl´s world or ideal world.
We showed a picture of a girl we considered as an actress for the queen bee and asked whether she is typical looking for a queen bee. Everybody said she does, since she is goodlooking and rather attractive.
We also showed opening sequences of two chick flicks and asked for example why they can connect with the main charcater, which character they like the most and what they would expect to happen next.The audience usually likes the main character the most, because they can identify with her, since she is normal and down to earth.
The answers to those questions help us to set up our own main character.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Risk Assesment
There are risks involved in filming,firstly the camera strap could get caught, trapped, or pulled which could be dangerous for the person wearing the strap around their neck. To prevent this we will be careful how the camera hangs around our neck.Another danger is the tripod, if the tripod, if someone isn't being careful they may trip over or walk into the tripod, to prevent this we will not leave the camera unattended and we will be careful when moving the tripod. Also if someone picks up the tripod they could accidentally hit someone with it, so we will be cautious when moving it. We have a few outside shots, a danger to this is traffic, to prevent any accidents we will not work in the road and be very wary of traffic. We also won't film in the dark as someone could get hurt. A danger with the camera is that someone might drop it to prevent this we will make sure that the person holding the camera will be very careful with it and handle it sensibly.
Research and planning: Script
Juliette’s bedroom – morning
JULIETTE sits in front of a mirror and puts blush on and mascara on.
Emily’s bedroom - morning
EMILY puts fake tan on.
Lauren’s bedroom – morning
LAUREN uses hairspray and puts lipstick on.
Liz’s bedroom – morning
Liz opens the fridge and gets out some food and a drink.
Juliette’s bedroom
JULIETTE puts high heels on and writes a text message on her mobile phone. The message says: Hey girls, meet me in front of the shopping mall at 11. XXX Juliette
Emily’s bedroom
EMILY goes to her wardrobe and decides what to wear. Her phone rings and she reads the message she has just got.
Lauren’s bedroom
LAUREN puts jewellery on and reads the text message she has just got.
Liz’s bedroom
LIZ is still eating. Then she gets a text message and reads it.
Long Shot of Juliette's house
JULIETTE leaves the house.
Long Shot of Emily's house
EMILY leaves the house.
Long Shot of Lauren's house
LAUREN leaves the house.
Long Shot of Liz's house.
LIZ leaves the house.
JULIETTE sits in front of a mirror and puts blush on and mascara on.
Emily’s bedroom - morning
EMILY puts fake tan on.
Lauren’s bedroom – morning
LAUREN uses hairspray and puts lipstick on.
Liz’s bedroom – morning
Liz opens the fridge and gets out some food and a drink.
Juliette’s bedroom
JULIETTE puts high heels on and writes a text message on her mobile phone. The message says: Hey girls, meet me in front of the shopping mall at 11. XXX Juliette
Emily’s bedroom
EMILY goes to her wardrobe and decides what to wear. Her phone rings and she reads the message she has just got.
Lauren’s bedroom
LAUREN puts jewellery on and reads the text message she has just got.
Liz’s bedroom
LIZ is still eating. Then she gets a text message and reads it.
Long Shot of Juliette's house
JULIETTE leaves the house.
Long Shot of Emily's house
EMILY leaves the house.
Long Shot of Lauren's house
LAUREN leaves the house.
Long Shot of Liz's house.
LIZ leaves the house.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Research and Planning: Animatic
This is a rough animatic of our title sequence.
There are some problems with our animatic, the first problem is that the pace is too slow, there are some shots missing and the whole thing was not long enough at the moment
Research and Planning :Shotlist
| Shot 1 | Close up of wardrobe |
| Shot 2 | Close up of clothes |
| Shot 3 | Close up of phone |
| Shot 4 | Close up of mascara |
| Shot 5 | Close up of shoe |
| Shot 6 | Close up of perfume |
| Shot 7 | Close up of girl and mirror putting on lipstick |
| Shot 8 | Close up of photos on dressing table |
| Shot 9 | Close up of girl using hair spray |
| Shot 10 | Close up of nail varnish spilling |
| Shot 11 | Close up of fake tan |
| Shot 12 | Close up of a notice board |
| Shot 13 | Close up of blusher |
| Shot 14 | Close up of girl putting blusher on her face |
| Shot 15 | Close up of straighteners |
| Shot 16 | Close up of girl using straighteners |
| Shot 17 | Close up of nail varnish |
| Shot 18 | Close up of makeup pallet |
| Shot 19 | Close up of applying the make up |
| Shot 20 | Close up of fridge and fridge magnet |
| Shot 21 | Close up of opening the fridge |
| Shot 22 | Close up of the girl eating crisps |
| Shot 23 | Long shot of the girl and the reflection in the mirror |
| Shot 24 | Mid shot of girl texting |
| Shot 25 | Close up on phone and text |
| Shot 26 | Mid shot of girl receiving text |
| Shot 27 | Close up of phone and text |
| Shot 28 | Mid shot of another girl receiving a text |
| Shot 29 | Close up of phone and text |
| Shot 30 | Mid shot of another girl receiving a text |
| Shot 31 | Close up of phone and text |
| Shot 32 | Mid shot of another girl receiving text |
| Shot 33 | Long shot of girl number 1 coming out the door |
| Shot 34 | Long shot of girl number 2 coming out the door |
| Shot 35 | Long shot of girl number 3 coming out the door |
| Shot 36 | Long shot of girl number 4 coming out the door |
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Audience Research: Synopsis
In our title sequence we will show four girls getting ready in their bedrooms.
The girls are very girlie, so many girlish things will be shown, such as make-up, fashion, and the colour pink. However, one of the girls is different. Her bedroom will not be as girly as the other girls’ rooms and she will not be such a “chick”. The audience will see the girls texting each other. Therefore the audience will know that they are friends and that they are going to meet. Because of photos the audience will know that one of the girls has a boyfriend. In another shot the girl who is different will look at a photo of the same boy and it will be very obvious that she fancies him, which is a sign for turbulences later in the film.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Initial Plan Of Film
We had a group meeting and started to do the initial plan of our film.
We thought about characters that we would have we decided on having 4 girls and 1 boy.
1. The first girl would be the queen bee, the popular one that people want to be.
2. The second girl is the queen bee wannabe, she follows the girl and wants to be her.
3. The third girl is just a tag along, she is slightly 'ditzy' and doesn't really care about her role in the group.
4. The fourth girl is an outcast in the group, she doesn't want to be there and she likes the queen bees boyfriend
The male is the queen bees boyfriend, he actually likes the girl who is the outcast but he is with the popular girl for his reputation.
We have some casting ideas but they are not finalized at the moment, our ideas are Megan Stanley, Emily Nicholson, Molly Hall and Toni- Leigh Porter. An idea for the casting of the boy is Joe Woods.
We are going to film in four different bedrooms for the girls, they are getting ready and that is what will happen in the titles. The bedrooms will be 'girly' and slightly messy as the girls will be getting ready. We may also show the male character in a bedroom on the computer. The props we will need are a mirror, camera, make up, photos, clothes, shoes and other girls things that you may find in their bedroom.
As we are filming indoors we will not have problems with weather or light but we will ask for permission when we use property and equipment.
In the opening sequence we will show the girls getting ready in the morning, this will introduce us to each character and we will see what they are like, as we only have 2 minutes so we have to use photos and close ups to show their status.
The titles will be written on objects, the characters names will be written in different fonts and colours. Similar to how the titles are shown in Romy and Michelles high school reunion. Tilt shots are widely used in chick flicks so we will use some tilt shots in our title sequence.
We thought about characters that we would have we decided on having 4 girls and 1 boy.
1. The first girl would be the queen bee, the popular one that people want to be.
2. The second girl is the queen bee wannabe, she follows the girl and wants to be her.
3. The third girl is just a tag along, she is slightly 'ditzy' and doesn't really care about her role in the group.
4. The fourth girl is an outcast in the group, she doesn't want to be there and she likes the queen bees boyfriend
The male is the queen bees boyfriend, he actually likes the girl who is the outcast but he is with the popular girl for his reputation.
We have some casting ideas but they are not finalized at the moment, our ideas are Megan Stanley, Emily Nicholson, Molly Hall and Toni- Leigh Porter. An idea for the casting of the boy is Joe Woods.
We are going to film in four different bedrooms for the girls, they are getting ready and that is what will happen in the titles. The bedrooms will be 'girly' and slightly messy as the girls will be getting ready. We may also show the male character in a bedroom on the computer. The props we will need are a mirror, camera, make up, photos, clothes, shoes and other girls things that you may find in their bedroom.As we are filming indoors we will not have problems with weather or light but we will ask for permission when we use property and equipment.
In the opening sequence we will show the girls getting ready in the morning, this will introduce us to each character and we will see what they are like, as we only have 2 minutes so we have to use photos and close ups to show their status.
The titles will be written on objects, the characters names will be written in different fonts and colours. Similar to how the titles are shown in Romy and Michelles high school reunion. Tilt shots are widely used in chick flicks so we will use some tilt shots in our title sequence.Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Audience Profile
A typical audience member for my film opening are teenage girls aged from around 12 - 17 years old, I think they would come from a middle class family that live in small to medium sized neighbourhoods. The audience will be at high school level, some doing their GCSE's. They will often get together in big groups to watch chick flick films.
The people will be quite normal, everyday people that can relate to characters like Bridget Jones. Words to describe them would be friendly, down to earth and 'girly'. They will enjoy such things as sleepovers with their circle of friends, shopping with their friends, going to the cinema and bowling. They will enjoy watching television programmes such as Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, The Hills, Friends and they will watch night time soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street.
Their favourite films will consist of A Cinderella Story, High School Musical, Princess Diaries and they will love Mean Girls and will often quote the film to their friends.
Their favourite music will be sung by artists such as Cheryl Cole, girl bands like The Saturdays, Justin Bieber, Pink and JLS.
Websites they will visit are Youtube and they will spend a lot of time on social networking sites like Facebook where they will have lots of friends.
Their dress sense will be quite stylish but also simple at the same time, if they wanted something cheap they will shop at Primark, if they wanted to maybe splash out a bit more they will shop at shops such as New Look. They will wear clothes that are comfortable, like jeans, leggings and cardigans.
They dream of living in big cities and places such as America.
If they went to the cinema this week they would see the film eat, pray, love as it is a classic chick flick, they will probably see this with their group of friends.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Genre Research Summary
1. What do the titles tend to look like? Fonts, transitions, pace, contents? Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
A lot of chick flicks do not start with a title sequence we will normally just be introduced to the main character then the film starts. If there is a title sequence for a chick flick film the writing is usually either a posh and feminine like Freestyle Script, or a simple font such as Adobe Caslon Pro Bold. In the two chick flicks that i studied, one used a freestyle script style of font and she's the man had a very simple font similar to Adobe Carlson Pro Bold. The transitions vary depending on the music, if the music is fast then the transitions are usually very fast. If the music is slow or has a steady beat the transitions are usually slower. The title sequence usually shows you the main character or characters and shows you their life or the start to one of their days. This is done to show what their life is like and to give some sort of back story.
2. What kind of music and/or other non-diegetic sounds are used? Include a link or embed to demonstrate.
In chick flicks their is usually non- diegetic music played at some point, the artist is usually female and the songs are well known. In A Cinderella story they have used a ballad from Natalie Cole. There is sometimes a voice over or the characters thoughts are sometimes played. This helps the audience get to know the character.
3. What types of character do we see in the opening sequences? How are their characters established through technical features (e.g. costume, make-up, setting, cinematography, sound, editing ...) Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
The characters that the audience sees in the title sequence are usually the main characters of the film and the people who the audience are meant to get to know. The main characters are usually a group of girls with a male love interest. There are sometimes a group of people below them or a group above the main character who they feel inferior to. The characters can be established by costume as the people who stand out if they are wearing posh or designer wear. Or they may be wearing old, run down clothes to keep them from being noticed. They will either be popular or very unpopular, there is never really an in between.
4. What kinds of mise en scene dominate? What are typical features of setting, lighting, props? Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Chick flicks are mainly set in 2 different places, either big cities or high school, there is however some set in small towns. Chick flicks are mainly dominated by American actors and actresses but there have been some successful British chick flicks. Their costume can identify there place in society and their popularity. Their group of friends is also an indication to what sort of person they are.
5. What narrative codes are employed and how? For example, are lots of tight close ups used to create an enigma? Is tense music and fast editing used to create an action code? Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Close ups help us distinguish who the man character is and this is something that we are going to take into account when meking our title sequence. Narrative codes are created by mainly the music in chick flciks and how the character acts. Fast editing gives the audience an idea of what pace the film is going to run at, fast paced title sequences generally mean that the film is going to be upbeat and for a younger audience.
Roland Barthes theory is supported in the title sequence of 'she's the man' however Levi Strauss' theory also applies as the girls are against the boys.
6. How is the genre established? How do we know they are action films, or rom-coms, or supernatural horror films? You could comment on cinematography, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, characters etc. Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Genre is established by many things, like the location, the characters, the music, the writing, the colours, the way people act. All these things can indicate the genre. We know when a film is of the chick flick genre when there is a female lead Charlotte, then we are led on to the type of character they are. Popular or unpopular are the main types. From this we can get an idea of how they are treated and what their life is like, some can relate to the character some cannot but we still have some idea of what their life might be like. Chick flicks are similar to everyday life except they are slightly more dramatic, this is why so many people can relate to them.The music will usually be sung by a female singer and is a known song, the writing is either simple of feminine and usually in a feminine colour. The first shots will establish the character and some of their location. The genre can be established quite easily in the title sequence.
A lot of chick flicks do not start with a title sequence we will normally just be introduced to the main character then the film starts. If there is a title sequence for a chick flick film the writing is usually either a posh and feminine like Freestyle Script, or a simple font such as Adobe Caslon Pro Bold. In the two chick flicks that i studied, one used a freestyle script style of font and she's the man had a very simple font similar to Adobe Carlson Pro Bold. The transitions vary depending on the music, if the music is fast then the transitions are usually very fast. If the music is slow or has a steady beat the transitions are usually slower. The title sequence usually shows you the main character or characters and shows you their life or the start to one of their days. This is done to show what their life is like and to give some sort of back story.
2. What kind of music and/or other non-diegetic sounds are used? Include a link or embed to demonstrate.
In chick flicks their is usually non- diegetic music played at some point, the artist is usually female and the songs are well known. In A Cinderella story they have used a ballad from Natalie Cole. There is sometimes a voice over or the characters thoughts are sometimes played. This helps the audience get to know the character.
3. What types of character do we see in the opening sequences? How are their characters established through technical features (e.g. costume, make-up, setting, cinematography, sound, editing ...) Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
The characters that the audience sees in the title sequence are usually the main characters of the film and the people who the audience are meant to get to know. The main characters are usually a group of girls with a male love interest. There are sometimes a group of people below them or a group above the main character who they feel inferior to. The characters can be established by costume as the people who stand out if they are wearing posh or designer wear. Or they may be wearing old, run down clothes to keep them from being noticed. They will either be popular or very unpopular, there is never really an in between.
4. What kinds of mise en scene dominate? What are typical features of setting, lighting, props? Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Chick flicks are mainly set in 2 different places, either big cities or high school, there is however some set in small towns. Chick flicks are mainly dominated by American actors and actresses but there have been some successful British chick flicks. Their costume can identify there place in society and their popularity. Their group of friends is also an indication to what sort of person they are.
5. What narrative codes are employed and how? For example, are lots of tight close ups used to create an enigma? Is tense music and fast editing used to create an action code? Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Close ups help us distinguish who the man character is and this is something that we are going to take into account when meking our title sequence. Narrative codes are created by mainly the music in chick flciks and how the character acts. Fast editing gives the audience an idea of what pace the film is going to run at, fast paced title sequences generally mean that the film is going to be upbeat and for a younger audience.
Roland Barthes theory is supported in the title sequence of 'she's the man' however Levi Strauss' theory also applies as the girls are against the boys.
6. How is the genre established? How do we know they are action films, or rom-coms, or supernatural horror films? You could comment on cinematography, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, characters etc. Include one or two still images to illustrate your points.
Genre is established by many things, like the location, the characters, the music, the writing, the colours, the way people act. All these things can indicate the genre. We know when a film is of the chick flick genre when there is a female lead Charlotte, then we are led on to the type of character they are. Popular or unpopular are the main types. From this we can get an idea of how they are treated and what their life is like, some can relate to the character some cannot but we still have some idea of what their life might be like. Chick flicks are similar to everyday life except they are slightly more dramatic, this is why so many people can relate to them.The music will usually be sung by a female singer and is a known song, the writing is either simple of feminine and usually in a feminine colour. The first shots will establish the character and some of their location. The genre can be established quite easily in the title sequence.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Research: Title Sequence Analysis:She's the man
I analysed the title sequence and opening scene of ‘She’s the man’. This film is widely known as a chick flick film featuring Amanda Bynes as the main character. Amanda Bynes is a common lead actress in chick flick films and has featured in ‘what a girl wants’ and ‘Sydney white’. When analysing I considered the different elements that were shown to establish the character, surrounding, genre and time. The film was targeted at teenage girls mainly aged 12 – 17. But this film does include football and a lot of male acting which means this film could be aimed at both genres. This chick flick has a lot of comedy in and it can be put into two genders. This opening immediately introduces the audience to the main issue in the film, which is girl’s playing ‘soccer’. This subject is very rare for chick flicks; this girl does go against what girls are typically like in chick flicks.
She’s the man starts with girls playing football against the boys at the beach, from the sounds of the girls cheering we can tell that they are winning. The first part of action we see is a boy on a jet ski, this establishes where they are, and we know that they are at the beach. This then leads on to the beach where the match is taking place. The whole title sequence has a scrap book effect. The filming pauses on some of the people and then flashes colour, shapes and the actors name. This gives it an MTV music video/scrapbook effect. The title sequence is recorded like a home video and is very different to usual chick flick title sequence.
The writing is a simple font, and depending on the colours of the shapes it is on top of the colour of the writing changes. The shapes in the sequence are like drawings and paint splatters. All of them are in bright colours, thias means it stands out to the audience but the colours would appeal to both genders. So most chick flicks would include pink but this title sequence doesn’t have any pink, which is quite unusual for this genre. The title of the movie is shown in the same way as the actors names, except the title is a bold, black title.
The title sequence mainly focuses on the main character, every time it stops to flash up a name she is in view. This tells the audience who the main character is and who they should be focussed on. This is common in chick flicks as the title sequences mainly focus on the main characters. There is an obvious divide in this film as there is a group of girls and a group of boys. This supports Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions as it is obvious to the audience that it is girls v the boys, this is a common theme throughout the film. The girls are all skinny, tall and they seem to be confident. In chick flicks the main characters are either confident and popular, or bullied and shy. This film obviously is one about a happy, confident girl.
The sound is mixed in this title sequence, there is a bit of shouting from the people playing football and some sounds that you would usually hear at the beach (e.g. waves). There is also some sound effects when they are kicking the football, the sounds have obviously been enhanced to be louder. This sound is diegetic as they can hear this sound. There is some non-diegetic music in the title sequence in the form of No sleep tonight by the faders. This song is an upbeat song by a female band, this also fits in with the chick flick genre as it usually starts with female music. The music has a fast beat to it and fits in with the people running around. When the title sequence finishes and it goes into the first scene of the movie the music stops and the speech begins.
The mise- en-scene is very important in these title sequences, the beach is quite a typical place to feature in a chick flick film, the girls are wearing bikini tops, but with their bikini tops they are wearing shorts as they are playing football. The male characters are wearing shorts, some are wearing t-shirts and some aren't we would expect to see this in a lot of chick flicks. As it is usually the girls being attracted to the boys, not the other way round. The group of people are taking up a lot of space on the beach from this we can tell that they are quite popular and that everyone is friends, as they are joking and playing with each other. But through this we can see that the girls stick together, we know that they are a tight unit.
Roland Barthes theory of narrative codes is included in this title sequence. The hermeneutic code is used as the titles only show that they are playing football but this does not give away much of the story. The audience are left asking questions like what does the girls playing football have to do with the film? The proairetic code isn't really used in the title sequence as it is quite simple what is happening, we can see exactly what the characters are doing. The semantic code is also not used in the title sequence. The music is quite fast and upbeat, so not tension is created. However Levi Strauss theory does apply to this sequence as the boys are against the girls. As this film is mainly aimed at females the audience is influenced into being on the females side. The audience wants the females to beat the males.
The first scene fits in with chick flick genre, it starts with the main character and a boy who we can clearly work out is her boyfriend. They are lying down on the sand and they kiss. This has many elements of a chick flick, with the romantic scene, the boyfriend and the sunny beach. We could find these elements in a number of chick flick films. The camera is on a mid shot. So the couple take up almost all the frame so the audience is totally focused on them. There is some speech between them before the kiss. This then leads on to the second scene of the movie.
The opening titles of a film are supposed to indicate to the audience a number of things: the film genre, the time, the characters, and tone. I feel the opening title sequence to ‘She's the man’ does this. The story isn't immediately clear but his keeps the audience guessing and this is what makes them keep watching. They want to know what the link is. The title sequence is very controversial as it is unlike any other title sequence that i have seen on a chick flick. Overall I would say the title sequence was good and interesting, but I do not think it fits in with the chick flick genre.
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