Evaluation

One I with my group have created an opening title sequence with the genre rom-com. We have a sub genre of a ‘teen’ film as the film is about secondary school life of students falling in love. Our title of our film is ‘Graduation Day’. We chose this because the main event of our characters declaring their love for each other is on their graduation ceremony. We thought it was quite catchy and says a lot about our film. Our opening title sequence starts at the end of the film (in the present) which subverts the linear narrative. The opening sequence shows a girl moving into a dorm room. There are suitcases and boxes to signify that but also law books and a text message to hint she is starting university studying law. She then finds photos in a box and looks at them; these are the characters of the film. She then finds another photo which then leads back into the high school days when the film begins. Two The target audience for our film would be the ages 13-26 dominated by a female audience. However, the secondary audience would be male as couples may watch this film together. ‘Graduation Day’ will be targeted at a niche audience because of the ages and how this teen rom-com will reflect on their lives. The psychographics of the target audience would have gone to or are at secondary school maybe even go onto higher education. They would enjoy facebook and socialising with many people having close friends. They may enjoy watching a lot of American dramas and films such as The Hangover, 10 Things I Hate about You, Glee, Friends and many more. Our research on our target audience was much more informal when asking fellow pupils but many seemed interested. We also presented our brief and treatment to a class of ages 16-17 and all gave responses of how this film is a potential hit. Three We have chosen Summit Entertainment to distribute our film because of its huge success with Twighlight. Twighlight was definitely a huge hit with the younger generation as well as people in their 20’s. It wasn’t a rom-com however but it did have romantic elements in there with two main characters also which links into ‘Graduation Day’. Summit Entertainment has distributed two amazing comedies along with many others but ‘Sex Drive’ and ‘A Lot like Love’ were huge hits. These films are targeted for over 15’s which is around what our film is targeted at also. Four The narrative is different to many romantic - comedies as it starts in the present going back in to the past. However, I have demonstrated that idea clearly through the close up shot of the last photo. The idea however was to keep the plot and characters personalities quite discrete to make the audience much more interested in finding out the rest of the story and watching on. It is similar to ‘The Hangover’ in many ways. This is because at the beginning it is unclear whether it is a comedy but shows the location well of Vegas; ours does this by showing the locations of university and school. It is similar to ‘The Hangover’ also because it does not start straight away with the story but gives a small clue of where it will take place. It gives a small clue to demonstrate the genre of the romantic side by the text message. The text message was purposely done to show the romantic genre. The photos and books represent the teen genre of high school days. Furthermore, the comedy aspect of it isn’t shown straight away but many found one of the characters photos funny because of the facial expression. The cinematography has purposely been shot to not reveal the character. I have used close ups on the props to reveal the life this character leads. The extreme close ups are more revealing to the detail of her being in a relationship, but also to reveal a slight bit of the character. The over the shoulders show the characters which again hides her identity keeping to the conventions of my film but showing the mise-en-scene of the things to expect in the film. When editing I used minimal transitions and kept it to jump cutting. The jump cuts of the piece add to the upbeat mood of the film. This also links into the soundtrack of the opening title sequence. We chose an unknown band with their own piece of instrumental. It gives the youth feel to it which links into the teen aspect. I chose to stick to non-diegetic sound to take over as the opening is meant to be quite secretive. The lighting of the sequence is perfect for this kind of film. I picked a sunny day to film on which connotes the happiness but also the soft feel to it links into the romantic side of the film. The mise-en-scene was carefully selected to show exactly who the character is and give an idea. I had the suitcase and boxes for moving in. A completely empty room to show that is bare and she is moving in not out. Also, the mobile phone with the text message to show she is at university as well as the law books. To show this character’s intelligence more books were shown but also a high school jumper. Then the photos were shown to signify high school days. It was very simple which was wanted but it was good as the message got across very clearly. I chose an Allstar look for the typography to give the American high school feel to it. Especially for the characters as it shows them as being American teenagers which links into the subgenre of the film. ‘Graduation Day’ is also in that font as on that particular day there are flags with that font. We wanted to show the stereotype of an American high school. Five ‘Graduation Day’ is a film filled with stereotypes of teenagers in a secondary school. It is clearly shown through the photos of the characters in our opening title sequence. The mise-en-scene is the different through the costume of every character. Through Rose the first character, she wears dull colours and glasses representing her as a geek as well as another character called Mary. The main guy Doug is wearing a baseball jacket looking cool along with another main character. This represents them both as the ‘popular guys’. A girl character wearing a fur coat and pouting instantly represents a pretty girl full of herself; this immediately shows the representation as the popular girl. Lastly, an Asian guy with a goofy smile dressed smartly is seen as a geek also as Asians are stereotyped as being very smart. American films such as ‘Mean Girls’ are big on representing stereotypes of teenagers from being popular, to jocks, to geeks and more. As our film is of a secondary school full of teenagers we wanted to show the different representations of characters immediately in our opening. This means the audience would get a sense of characters to expect with personality differences. The close up shots of the characters photos also show more emotion on their face revealing more about personality and body language too. The typography of the baseball writing does suggest teenagers as baseball games and flags e.t.c are known to be a big thing in American high schools. The soundtrack is an Indie band. Indie bands are known to be current in the modern charts as well as quite fun and free. This represents the youth of today also as well as the genre of the film that is why we have used a song like we have. The lighting we used when filming was bright to show teenagers in Britain as fun and happy rather than the rebels shown in films like ‘Adulthood’ or snobs like in ‘Wild Child’. Six When presenting our treatment to a class of people that are in the ages that our film is targeted at we had good feedback. Many said it was a potential hit and that they think it would be funny and fun to watch. Furthermore, they related to the characters more because of what we explained their personalities were and the twist that happens with a geek and a popular guy getting together. They did say that they did not understand how the opening title sequence worked by being in the present and going into the past. They are also interested in the band we used for the soundtrack as they (quote) ‘love Give me the Sun’. We took their feedback on board as a few times our footage did not make much sense so we carried on filming and planning until we got it right which we have finally. The thing that our target audience loved the most was how we chose the characters and how we showed them in photos as it was much more interesting way to introduce them. Seven When planning our opening title sequence we planned to use a digital SLR camera to get really good shots of our characters. This was perfect as we got brilliant photos which look professional with the lighting and focus being perfect also. We had to use a tripod with this so we got still shots that were straight and not diagonal. For filming we used a Canon video camera. My personal opinion of it was not good as it is quite fuzzy and old. If we had the money and resources I would have use a new video camera that captured the sound well as well as a good shot. When using the zoom button it ruined the shot because of how blurry it got. We did use a tripod though so we could have a steady shot so our filming did not look too unprofessional or unlike a film. For editing we used Final Cut Pro. At first I did not know how to use it but once I practised I think I was very good. It is an amazing programme that cuts precisely and makes the filming look brilliant. We were able to add text we wanted to, speed shots up and down and get rid of little blemishes where needed. I have learnt to film properly now by using different angles with the tripod and learned to use Final Cut Pro really well. I think the most successful technology we used was the SLR camera to take photos and Final Cut Pro to edit. The least successful was the Canon video camera as I believe it is old and does not have a clear picture. Eight The most successful things about my project were the research of romantic comedies. I put in a lot of time to find similar moving image texts that linked into what our group wanted to create such as ’10 Thing I Hate About You’ and ‘She’s All That’. Furthermore, my analysing of ‘Se7en’ I believe was good as I got down to the root of the meaning and writing it up well. Also, I am so happy that I have learnt how to use such an advance programme such as Final Cut Pro. It helped make our opening title sequence look like a real film. As I did most of the editing I think I did it to the best of my ability and very well. The least successful thing of the project was the planning and filming. We found it so hard to create a perfect opening title sequence that made sense. We had problems when sourcing a dorm room look as well as good lighting. We had trouble getting the soundtrack as the band was taking a long time to give it to us which was worrying because we had a deadline. We improved it all by carefully planning it again making it perfect and so it made sense. The last filming went well so we could edit it well too having the credits ready to put on. Overall, a project went well with a few hiccups that were dealt with efficiently leaving us with a great opening title sequence.