Planning- Titles and Connotations

Titles and Connotation

The titles that will appear in our opening sequence teen angst film are the production company, camera director, main characters, the writers, who the music’s by and the editor.

Production Company: Chelsea Cox, Ellie Hancock and Rebecca Black

Camera Director: Chelsea Cox

Main Characters: Rebecca Black and Extras

Writers: Chelsea Cox, Ellie Hancock and Rebecca Black

Music: The artist we decide to choose

Editor: Chelsea Cox, Ellie Hancock, Rebecca Black

From my research I have found that bold, colourful fonts are the most popular for teen angst films which we are going to use ideas of titles and fonts from films like juno as we thought these really stood out and were unique. We are also going to give our fonts a human feel as we are going to put them on moving objects and bring them to life. This will make people more attracted to our film and increase our target audience.

Planning- Fonts and Captions

Fonts, Titles and Captions

The fonts we are going to use in our opening sequence are big, bold and white. We chose this style of font as it conveys the teen angst genre and coincides with our production logo. As the colour matches and it works well in contrast with each other. We also decided to use big bold cartoon font as it appeals to our target audience specifically and will help to widen the target audience as typical bubble writing and cartoon fonts appeal to the teenage audience a lot more than any other age group

Planning-Script For Voiceover

Script for the voice over:

2 Days Later... appears on the screen  

Holly: It all began in secondary school... I have always seen myself as the outsider of friendships groups. I've never been accepted by the 'it' girl Chanel. Just because she's got long brown hair, wears a tone of make up, has fake boobs and fake nails...Anyways enough about her.

Holly: So it was just your average school day, but this one particular day was different. I had friends, people actually smiled at me and knew I assisted. I mean I know deep down it's only because I was having party but I was popular for once so I didn't care.

Voice over fades out

Channel: (walks over to holly's table at the end of a lesson) Sorry about the other day

Holly: ( holly pauses, puts her pen down and looks up) It's ok, are you coming to my party?

Channel: ( with a sassy tone Channel says) It better be good see ya later

(she flicks her hair and struts off)

Voice over fades back in                                                                          

Holly: Deep down I knew I shouldn't be trying to impress her but her sweet 16th is coming up and I NEED AN INVITE!

The school day had finished and Holly went home to her parents packing up their bags ready for their trip away.

Holly's Mum: You will be ok on your own won't you? I've left all the emergency numbers on the fridge and some money in an envelope for any emergencies, remember to switch everything off when you got to bed and...

Holly: YES mum I get it! I'm going to be 16 in a day not 6.

Holly's Mum: I only say it because I care Holly

The night of the party

Holly: I'm excited but so nervous, what if it’s a shamble, what if don't look nice, what if...

Holly: The night was great...until I got Busted, it was an embarrassment. I'm now the school joke!

Threatening messages everyday, snide remarks, horrible name calling, why did I try and be a bitchy girl like chanel.

Planning- StoryBoard

Planning-Settings Of Our Opening Film

Busted Setting

Longsands Academy, St Neots

One of the settings where are going to film our opening is Longsands Academy, which is a secondary school in St Neots. We are going to include a variety of places within the school such as classrooms.

We chose Longsands Academy as one of our main settings as this is the stereo- typical place for a teen angst film. Also we all go to Longsands Academy which gives us access to use it as a setting.

We are going to have a mid-shot of the main character Holly sitting in a classroom whilst receiving loads of texts about her party the previous night.

Rebecca's House

Another setting we are going to use to shoot our film is Becky’s house which is in St Neots. We chose this location because it’s accessible as it’s close to town and it has good facilities for a party and filming.

We are going to use several rooms within Becky’s house such as the living room, kitchen and garden.

Characters Bedroom

The last setting we are going to use to shoot our film opening is a montage of different bedrooms to show teenagers getting ready. This will include a variety of different shot types like shot reverse shot, mid shots and the 180 degree rule.

We chose to do this as this is a stereotypical setting for a teen angst film as this is where most teenagers spend their time so conveys the genre and target audience.

Planning-Characters

Planning Of Characters

Our main characters name is Holly and she is 17 years old in the film opening she is going to be wearing blue jeans, grey top and glasses. This is portraying the genre of teen angst as this is what teenagers stereotypically would wear at school. This helps us to portray her innocence when she is being threatened at school as it shows she's a countertop of teenager as she is wearing clothes that are not provocative and she is covered up.




Also in our film there is the other teenagers who are going to be shown in the school and they are going to be wearing normal stereotypical clothing for there age. Which will be wearing jeans and a tops/jumpers as they are at sixth form. They are all going to be dressed similar and as we are shooting in winter some teenagers may be wearing coats, scarfs and gloves which is what they would stereotypically wear to school or college as a teenager.

  

Also in our film Becky's mum and step dad are going to be wearing typical outfit for parents. For example her mum is going to be wearing jeans, a jumper and boots. For her step dad he is going to be wearing chinos, grey top and trainers which is stereotypical for that age group. Their outfits will be distinctly different to the teenagers so you can see from the conventions of the outfits and identify the different age groups clearly.

 

 

 

However when we do the party shots Holly's clothing is going to change dramatically as in the party scene she is going to be shown wearing a very short revealing dress. This will help further to identify the teen angst genre as this is a typical outfit for teenagers who are going out.

In our opening of our film she is also going to be wearing a full face of makeup with red lipstick which connotes the teen genre of girls dressing provocatively. Most of the actors in out film will be wearing a lot of makeup as this is what our genre would like to see it also helps to convey the target audience. The red lip also conveys promiscuous behaviour which is then shown in the party scene.

Planning-Risk Assessment

This is the risk assessment of several of our filming locations. In our group we all did our assessments individually, however we discussed the hazards and the likelihood of them happening. When we are filming we will use our risk assessment to make sure there are no accidents involving our cast at all by clearing all potential hazards prior.

Planning-Production Company Logo

Production Company Logo

We chose to use this as our production company logo as it reflects our production company because people will be able to relate our film to the Oscars. The Oscars are awards that you win when your film is nominated for best British film or similar, so it portrays that our film is up to a high standard.

To make our production company logo we used the programme photo shop to create the sophisticated logo. We used an image of an Oscar and we manipulated to get it to look the way we desired and made it our own. We changed the colour and fonts a few times until we got it the way we imagined it to be. As a group we all helped design and brainstorm for the logo.

We changed our original design of our logo as after class feedback we decided that it could be improved. The new production company logo is also better at targeting our target audience as teenagers are a more likely age group to watch things like the oscars and award ceremonies meaning they would be enticed into the film due to the logo alone.

Planning-Presentation Pitch And Feedback

This is our PowerPoint presentation of our research and planning for our film opening. We designed and planned our PowerPoint as a team taking equal responsibility for different parts of the PowerPoint to ensure we covered all areas of the brief.

When we presented our blog to the class I was absent however I contributed by making the slides on the PowerPoint and helping to plan the opening of the film. I did the settings and characters and helped to use different fonts and colours to make out slideshow appealing.

We received a lot of feedback on our presentation for example the rest of our peers in the class felt like our first draft of our company production logo didn't have enough relevance to our film. After the presentation we then decided to change our production logo to 'Oscar productions' as we felt like this would be more suited to our production company

Above are screenshots of the PowerPoint presentation that we presented to the class in our pitch. As a group we used teamwork to work together to add in all our ideas so we could create a detailed PowerPoint including all of our planning. We brainstormed beforehand to discuss ideas so that we all agreed on every aspect of the film.

Synopsis

The basic story line of Busted focuses on a young teenage girl who attends her local secondary school, Longsands Academy. The first scene shows that this young girl is picked on for not being popular enough in her year.  In order to capture this I plan to use a long shot of a classroom showing the main character sat on her own showing other students who are sat on the opposite side of the class room laughing at her and throwing pens and pencils at her. However the main girl has had enough of having no friends and decides to make a Facebook event inviting a few people from school round for a gathering. She does this as a result of  her parents going away for the night. In order to show the Facebook event I plan to use different editing skills, which will allow the audience to see the Facebook notification and also see the reactions of the different characters at the same time. I will do this using a split screen effect. The opening of the film will then transition onto the different genders of teenagers getting ready for the party. I will film this using lots of different fast pace tracking shots in a few different teenagers bedrooms. This will mainly focus on the stereo and counter typical ways in which the characters are being displayed in the opening of my film. This will help the audience get a feel to the characters personalities. 

The story then continues to the party and how the invite went viral on social media, leaving her throwing a massive house party. Half way through the party and the plot of the story starts to unveil. The main character's parents come home from their over night trip as one of them left their mobile phone at home, I plan to show a slow motion close up of the mobile screen showing lots of miss calls from the main characters parents. This will happen whilst the party scene is going on, all the fast pace transitions, bright flashing lighting and loud music will create built up tension whilst the scene flips onto the mobile phone screen. This built up tension will also help when the next scene happens. The main girls parents come home half through the flow of the party. The mum goes up the speaker and cuts the music and everyone leaves in embarrassment for the main character. The opening of my film will then come to a close near the two minute mark, I will close the opening by zooming in on a clock at the main characters house showing the time that the party ended. This shot will then transition into another clock displaying the same time however this will be the school clock in the same classroom that the characters originally started in. So the opening of the film would have been in reverse from the night before, I am going to demonstrate this by using rewind sounds and to display a rewind button on the opening scene. I also plan to have a voice over of the main character explaining what is going on and how life as a teenager is, this will only take up a few seconds of the opening of my film. 

Research- Easy A Analysis

Easy A Research

In one of the first screenshots of Easy A it has the production company name to help introduce the film. It also shows you a panning shot of the city where the film is set. This can help the audience to get to know the location and demographics of the film more clearly.

In this screenshot you can see the name of the high school where the film is set. This ensures the audience can identify the genre straight away as the location is a high school and they will be able to know if they are the correct target audience early on in the film.

In the opening of Easy A in the screenshot the camera angle is a medium shot with a pair of shoes as the main subject, there are no characters included in this first shot. The lighting within this shot is high key which connotes the film is upbeat and conveys the genre of teen angst. Included in this first shot is the  title and the first part of the title is in standard writing, however the second part of the A is in a different font, size and colour which implies that it is a key subject within the film.

In this screenshot of the opening sequence the lighting has remained high key to clearly show the setting and convey the genre. The camera angle is a wide shot showing the courtyard at the high school which shows the audience the setting early on so they can identify the genre quickly. There are still no characters in the shot at this point which adds suspense and makes the watcher want to keep watching. There is also titles on this shot and they are the same font as 'easy in the title, however these titles look like they have physical presence as they are slanted and have their own shadow and even move with the camera angle.

In the next screenshot of the film opening sequence characters are introduced and they are shown to be crowded in the school courtyard and this emphasises the school setting which again identifies the genre of teen angst. The lighting is still high key which is stereotypical for a teen angst film. The camera angle used in this shot is a wide shot as it shows the depths of the field in the courtyard at the high school. Also in this shot it is even more obvious that the titles have a presence as there is a title between two characters which brings it alive even more.

In the next screenshot of the opening sequence we are introduced to the main character shown by a high angle shot to show us she is the main focus of the shot and is going to be an important character in the film. In this shot the lighting has dimmed and is no longer high key as she is in the shade which could suggest she is in trouble or having drama which is stereotypical for a teenager.

In the next shot it focuses in on the main character in the foreground of the shot which shows a close up of her to show her emotions. Also in the background of the shot you can see a secondary character and she is not in shot. The lighting also goes back to high key in this shot

In this screenshot it shows a low angle and close up shot so you can see the character clearly and it helps the audience to identify the genre further. This character also is shown in the centre of the shot which can convey that he is a strong authoritative figure in the shot and has a lot of presence within the film.

In this screenshot there is an over the shoulder shot used which shows the conversation easier. Again in this show the main character has the focus on her which the audience will be able to identify and it shows the teacher has less emphasis as you can only see his shoulder.

In the next screenshot of easy a you can see that both the girls are once again centre focus of the whole shot and this suggests they are the main characters through the entire film. Also the lighting is still high key although it is dimmed slightly but hasn't changed the atmosphere at all. The camera shot is a wide shot however it is panning with the characters to keep them in shot.

In this screen shot you can see the two main characters are in the lighting and the ones in the background are in the shade which suggests their not as important due to the change of mood in this shot. The fonts of the titles in this shot is continues use of making the titles have physical presence as they are shown to being attached to the sign as the characters walk past. The camera shot here is tracking as the characters are moving towards the camera.