INTRODUCTION POST

Introduction post
Welcome to my As blog, this is where I have documented all the research and hard work that went into creating my film opening. 

This is our final podcast where we discuss what we have learned and enjoyed about As media. 

Final rough cut

This is our final rough cut

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON FINAL ROUGH CUT

Audience feed back on our final rough cut

I interviewed two audience members and the outcome was that our film:

• is targeted towards a youthful audience
• due to the school setting and props relating to youths e.g. the bike
• it is predominately targeted towards a female audience due to the love interest however it could appeal to both genders
• the style of film making is disjointed and it is obvious that there is more than one film maker

EVALUATION QUESTION 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Contrasting approches 

There is a big difference between the typical media language of an Indie film production company, such as Warp and a studio or big 6 subsidiary like Working Title. Working Titles approach is primarily  centred on widening audience appeal beyond the UK, a 'commercial' approach. On the other hand Warp positively represents minorities and the under privileged, who would most likely be not included or negatively stereotyped in a Working Title production, for example Richard Curtis's film Notting Hill featured a predominantly all Caucasian cast even though Notting Hill is a well known African American area of London. We chose to feature a mixture of both. We have taken common conventions that are frequently used in Working Title films and from Warp films. 

We also researched into the audience of both genres and their audiences. This research can be found on these links:

my link list for this

Social realist audience 

Rom-com audience

Social realist history 

Rom-com history 

Common conventions of rom-coms

After researching into common conventions of 8 rom-com films Dear John, Bridget Jones Diary, About a Boy, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, The Notebook and Wild Child I found that the reoccurring conventions of rom-com's were:  

VOICE OVER AT THE BEGINNING

Bridget Jones Diary opening scene

At the beginning of Dear John, Bridget Jones Diary, Love Actually

 and About a Boy the voice over is normally by the

main protagonist of the film and it is usually, particularly 

in these examples, a really important and meaningful message

 that is conveyed. In Love Actually for example, Hugh Grant

 talks about love and how its everywhere and when it comes down 

to it, thats all that matters. It also gives us an

 insight to the character, in Bridget Jones Diary her voiceover tells us a lot about her 

situation, "It all began on New Years Eve on my 32nd year of being single. Once again

 I found myself on my own going to my mothers annual turkey curry buffet, every year

 she tries to set me up with some buffy haired bore..." In this first 20 seconds or so we 

Love Actually opening at Heathrow Airport

already know that she's single and she has been for some time, she's reluctantly going 

to her mothers and that her mother has had some disastrous 

attempts at finding her a boyfriend. The voice over gives exposition.




This is not the beginning voice over but clearly shows how it creates exposition. 

Dear John opening

About a Boy opening

LOVE TRIANGLE

The Notebook, showing the love between Noah and Allie
In almost every rom-com there is a love triangle,

 this is a situation where there is a couple who are

 "meant to be" but there is another person who 

also loves one of these people. In Bridget Jones

 Diary theres herself, Daniel Cleaver and Mark 

Darcy, in The Notebook its between Noah, Allie

 and Lon. The love triangle usually is what the

 film is based around, e.g The Notebook the

 whole film is based around the fact that Allie, a well to do upperclass lady, is in love with Noah, 

who's a low class working man, but she is destined to marry Lon who is also a well to do business

 man. This then takes over the full film as we see the tragic tale of a girl who has to choose between

 her heart and her mind. 

BINARY OPPOSITE WITHIN LOVE TRIANGLE

Daniel Cleaver

Mark Darcy

Within the love triangle of the films, there is always binary opposition between two characters that the main protagonist has to choose between. For example in Bridget Jones Diary, Bridget has to choose between the-well-to-do, upperclass barrister, Mark Darcy and the sleazy yet charismatic Daniel Cleaver who also happens to be her boss. Another example of this would be in The Notebook, Allie has to decide between her summer romance and first love Noah, a country boy who's very poor and only has his love to give her and Lon, her parents choice, a wealthy handsome business man who can giver her everything she's ever wanted and more.

THE "MEET-CUTE"

Notting Hill opening scene, two shot

This is the first encounter of the two potential romantic characters in an unusual or comic circumstance, film critics like Roger Ebert referred to this as the "meet-cute" situation. During this

 the scriptwriters often create a humorous

 sense of awkwardness between the two 

characters by an initial clash of personalities

 or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, a comical misunderstanding or a mistaken identity. 

InNotting Hill the two protagonists meet in Hugh Grants characters bookshop when a man

 hides a book down his pants and then asks for an autograph off Julia Roberts' character 

which creates an awkward atmosphere between William and Anna. They then run into each

 other again and this time William spills his drink all down Anna's top which is an embarrassing

 situation for them both yet humorous for the audience.

THE REUNION 

At the end of every Rom-Com the two main characters that 

were established as the "meant to be" pair reunite at the end

 of the film. In The Notebook, when Allie sees Noah's picture 

in the paper she immediately drives to his house to see him 

again and when they're reunited, although awkward at first, their love is rekindled. 

ADULT VS. TEEN

Four Weddings and a Funeral Cast

Wild Child dinner scene

Another common convention of the Rom-Com genre is that there are two main types of them, teen Rom-Coms and Adult Rom-Coms. The difference between the two is that and adult one is usually centred around the "adult life" so the main protagonist will be 20+, they usually have the "meet-cute" in the workplace or around this, their main audience is 18+ whereas in a teen Rom-Com the main protagonists are under 18 focuses on aspects of teen 

culture and the aim for their audience is 12-18. Wild Child is an example of a teen Rom-Com

 as the main protagonists are all below or around 18, Four Weddings and a Funeral is an example

 of an Adult Rom-Com.

OPENING SHOT

Establishing shot of Bridget Jones Diary

Opening of About a Boy.

Opening of Wild Child.

Theopening shot of a Rom-Com is normally an extreme long shot of the surrounding area but with its focus on the main protagonist. 

In the films  Love Actually, Bridget Jones Diary, About a Boy and Wild Child a tracking shot or a 

panning shot is used and it will follow the main character with either an audio bridge over the top or avoiceover. 

AUDIO BRIDGE

The audio bridge in almost every Rom-Com is either pop or pop/rock music being played while 

the establishing sequence is taking place.

TITLES

The titles that run through the opening sequence of a Rom-Com are usually in a sans-serif font and have the attributes of a hand-writing, swirly or bubble nature. Also the colour is usually a bright and bold to connote that it isn't a serious film. For example in Bridget Jones Diary they use a mix of bubbly 

styled writing and also a hand-writing styled font. 

Common conventions of social realist films

After looking at the 5 different social realist films: 

1. Sweet Sixteen (directed by Ken Loach in 2002) set in Scotland in 2002
2. A room for Romeo Brass (directed by Shane Meadows in 1999) set in working class Nottingham in 1999
3. 247 (directed by Shane Meadows in 1997) set in a typical English working-class town in 1980s
4. Mickybo and me (directed by Terry Loane in 2004) set in Ireland (Belfast) in 1970
5. This is England (directed by Shane Meadows in 2006) set in England (mostly filmed in Nottingham) in 1983
6. Kes (directed by Ken Loach in 1969) set in Yorkshire 
7.  East is East (directed by Damien o'donnell in 1999) set in Salford Manchester
8. The full monty (directed by Peter Cattaneo in 1997) set in Northern England 

 I found that the common conventions of a social realist film were: 

Nottingham counsel estates

• Location Shooting - The locations that are shot in social realist films are usually shot in a natural, realistic environment such as council estates or parks without the use of a studio unlike big Hollywood films. The film This is England is mainly filmed in Nottingham. 
• Types of Shot's - Usually in social realist films a lot of establishing shots are used to give the audience a bigger insight of the environment. Also handheld camera's are used a lot in a documentary style to get the preferred reading of a real life film.

Sweet Sixteen

• Unknown Actors - Normally unknown actors are used purely because film company's who produce social realism films cannot afford A-list stars to act for them.

• Semi-improvised scripts - Sometimes directors such as Ken Loach use semi-improvised scripts to make the film have more 'realistic' dialogue. He used this in the film Kes and Sweet Sixteen.

• Social Issues - Many social issues are explored in social realist films such as in The Full Monty, where we see the issue of unemployment explored.

• Religious View's - Religious view's are shown in social realist films for example in East is East, the conflict between the farther being a committed muslim and the rest of his children wanting to be normal children growing up in Britain.

What we chose to use 

binary opposites within the love triangle 

binary opposites within the love triangle

We chose to use from the rom-com conventions:

Unglamorous locations
and below establishing shot

1. A voice over at the beginning
2. A love triangle
3. A binary opposition within the love triangle 
4. The hand writing style sans serif title

Hand writing san serif

We chose to use from the rom-com conventions:

1. Unglamorous locations
2. Establishing shots
3. Unknown actors

Soundtrack / music 

The non-diagetic soundtrack within the bedroom shots shows how we understand the common conventions, the slow paced and brooding acoustic guitar is commonly used in modern social realist films, for example in the Warp film Tyrannosaur it is used to create sympathy for the main protagonist. However in the classroom scene we used naturalistic ambient sound to help create realism, this is more of a convention used through out any genre. The upbeat Otis Redding song 'Try a little tenderness'  is happy and energetic, this style of song is commonly seen in rom-com films for example in Bridget jones  the song 'It's raining men' which fits this style is used to create humour. 
We have also tried to create humour within the shop scene through the mixture of over the top dancing and an up beat energetic song. Also the film 'Pretty in pink' uses the same song 'Try a little tenderness' which was the inspiration for our shop scene, the rom-com film also uses a combination of dancing and music to create humour, as our film fits this tend it is clear that we have understood the common conventions of the rom-com genre. 

It is clear that the choice in music is important and can anchor a preferred reading from examples such as the sad mournful acoustic guitar music played after the violent opening scene of Tyrannosaur. This unexpectedly creates sympathy for the murderer of an innocent dog. Also sound tracks are a key part of marketing and targeting an audience. A bad example of this would be the film The World's End. The films target market was a youthful audience around 15-21 as this is the age group which the first two films in the 'Cornetto trilogy' predominantly appealed to. However the choice in music for this film contributed to the films relative failure as it was outdated and was unknown to a youthful audience, if its target market had been an alder audience it may have succeeded. A successful approach is that of Bridget Jones diary as it used a smart variety of music in its construction and marketing. 

Warp's uses its synergies and horizontal integration with their record label to create soundtracks for their films. For example Submarine uses Alex Turner from The Arctic Monkeys. We would look to get youth-friendly acts to cover tracks that would appeal to our older secondary audience. So we would get the track Try a little tenderness to be performed by a well known youthful act to appeal to both audiences. Donnie Darko is a good example of this as they re-recorded the track Mad World written by Roland Orzabal and performed by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews and it appealed to a youthful audience due to its youth-friendly performance of the song and to an older audience due to the use of an outdated song. 

Mise en scene / opening shot

The scenery opening shots are counter typical of a rom-com. Rom-coms more commonly use a glamourous close up shot of the protagonist, we found this from our research into the common conventions of rom-coms. However ours uses non glamorous extreme long shots of local moorland. Social realist films usually contain a working class setting for example in the Warp film This is England many grafted walls are featured with bleak and depressing working class areas. Our bland and bleak moorland is more in style with the conventions of a social realist film. 

bleak moorland

type writer

the PS2

However the cluttered quirky bedroom is more common of a rom-com as it is set in a relatively expensive house which is well furnished, in a large bedroom containing expensive miss-en-scene like the type writer and PS2, this is more glamourous. 


The classroom scene is more typical of a rom-com as it is clean, well-organised and has many expensive computers, it is obviously not set in a working class run down school. The glamorous and flashy shop scene is very common with the conventions of a rom-com. 
The importance of attention to detail in mise-en-scene can be seen from Warps film The is England. The peeling wall paper, Shaun wearing dirty Y-fronts and the very small bedroom all connote that this family lives in poverty and are working class. The soldier picture and radio alarm clack which is playing Thatchers speech when he turns it off, links Thatcher to the soldiers death. The bike left out in the garden connotes that even though the area may look rough, due to the countless graffiti, it is safe as the bike has been left unattended outside. 

Target Audience

 The characters in our film are 16-17 therefore they are relatable and appealing to our youthful teen primary audience. This is a common convention of rom-coms for example in Wild child the central protagonists are all 16. 

Wildchild cast

For audience research I used people of the same age as my target audience (16-17) their input helped me too edit my film to suit their preferences their for helping my film to appeal to my target audience.
Editing
Our editing within the shop scene is fast paced almost like a music video and uses special effects, this is a common convention used within rom-com films. For example in Wild child this is used to create excitement. 



Longer takes are a more common feature of social realist films for example in Shane Meadows A room for romeo brass.



There are altogether less shots which linger on characters for longer periods of time, this is very different to the rapid editing commonly used in rom-com's. 

 This common convention is also featured in Terry Loans Mickybo and me.

Love triangle 
We have followed the common convention often seen in many rom-coms in particular the films of the well-known director Richard Curtis. 

All of these contain a love triangle. In almost every rom-com there is a love triangle, this is a situation where there is a couple who are "meant to be" but there is another person who also loves one of these people. In Bridget JonesDiary theres herself, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, in The Notebook its between Noah, Allie and Lon. The love triangle usually is what the film is based around, e.g The Notebook the whole film is based around the fact that Allie, a well to do upperclass lady, is in love with Noah, who's a low class working man, but she is destined to marry Lon who is also a well to do business man. This then takes over the full film as we see the tragic tale of a girl who has to choose between her heart and her mind. However in our film Harri is in love with Hollie but Hollie is in love with Brad but Brad is in love with Harri. Our love triangle is counter typical as it contains hetrosexual and homosexual love interests. 

Voice over at the beginning 

Bridget Jones Diary opening scene

At the beginning of Dear John, Bridget Jones Diary, Love Actually and About a Boy the voice over is normally by the

main protagonist of the film and it is usually, particularly 

in these examples, a really important and meaningful message that is conveyed. In Love Actually for example, Hugh Grant talks about love and how its everywhere and when it comes down to it, thats all that matters. It also gives us an

 insight to the character, in Bridget Jones Diary her voiceover tells us a lot about her 

situation, "It all began on New Years Eve on my 32nd year of being single. Once again

 I found myself on my own going to my mothers annual turkey curry buffet, every year

 she tries to set me up with some buffy haired bore..." In this first 20 seconds or so we 

Love Actually opening at Heathrow Airport

already know that she's single and she has been for some time, she's reluctantly going 

to her mothers and that her mother has had some disastrous 

attempts at finding her a boyfriend. The voice over gives exposition.

Dear John opening

About a Boy opening

In our film we have also used a voice over however ours isn't just used to create exposition for the central protagonist but also for the two other protagonists. This is counter typical of the convention however we still do follow the convention of creating exposition and anchorage of the central protagonists characteristics. We find out about Hollies love interests but also the other two males reveal theirs. 



This is not the specific scene that clearly shows the voice over but it does include a voice over in this section.

Characters (The bad boy) / Binary opposite

The working class protagonist Brad fits with the common convention within social realist films. In social realist films the protagonist is very commonly a working class character, like in all of Shane Meadows films.

The central protagonist in This is England

Brad also fits with the common convention of the bad boy within rom-com films. For example in the rom-com film Grease John Travolta's character Danny Zuko is seen as the bad boy, this is connoted by his leather jacket and content smoking. Brad also wears a leather jacket and smokes therefore fitting with the common convention used in rom-com's. The elements of social realism are balanced off with rom-com aspects. 

Brad

Danny Zuko

Mark Darcy

Daniel Cleaver

Brad's rebel like characteristics form a binary opposition with Harri's quirky and hard working character. This is another common convention used in rom-coms For example in Bridget Jones Diary, Bridget has to choose between the-well-to-do, upperclass barrister, Mark Darcy and the sleazy yet charismatic Daniel Cleaver who also happens to be her boss. Another example of this would be in The Notebook, Allie has to decide between her summer romance and first love Noah, a country boy who's very poor and only has his love to give her and Lon, her parents choice, a wealthy handsome business man who can giver her everything she's ever wanted and more. 

Intertextuality
Our film was heavily influenced by the Warp film Submarine. This is also has a hybrid genre consisting of a mixture between the social realist genre and rom-com genre. Therefore this was a very good example of a film that we could take inspiration from. We chose to use the rom-com conventions from Submarine such as a love triangle, quirky bedroom mise-en-scene and voice over we also decided to use the working class protagonist, bleak scenery shots and slow acoustic music. 

our quirky bedroom mise-en-scene

Submarines quirky bedroom mise-en-scene

Hybridity is used a lot more nowadays, even at an Indie and micro budget level. Working Title 2 was created to produce low budget (for working title) films including the 3 h's 'humour, horror, heart' an example would be Shaun of the Dead which incorporated all 3. 

We have intertextuality from the following films:

• Submarine (mise-en-scene, opening scenery shots, panning bedroom shots and slow acoustic guitar)
• Bridget Jones (the voice over at the beginning)
• Grease (costume character)
• My beautiful laundrette (homosexual and hetrosexual love triangle)
• Pretty in Pink (The shop scene, Otis redding song, costumes for Hollie and Harri and the character characteristics for Hollie and Harri)
• You've got mail (Titles ordering and phrasing)
• Fargo (spacing in between words in title)
• The diary of a wimpy kid (The cartoons of each male protagonist)
• Wild child (The music video fast paced cutting in the shop scene)

Titles

For our main title I wanted the font of our film to signify the rom-com aspect of our hybrid genre. Therefore I decided upon the font brush script as it is a sans serif font which is curled signifying a playfulness therefore suggesting the comedic aspect of the film. However the black and white colouring connotes the social realist aspect the the 

Our title

Greases title

genre as it is more serious. I was inspired by the title from 'Grease' as it's is also curled and signify the films romantic and comedy aspect however the red specifically connotes the romantic part of the film but instead I have used back and white to show the more serious nature of our film. 

We came to this conclusion after doing some extensive research into titles:
Examples of titles we have researched

The titles in Mickybo and Me are all very 

simple which is typical of a social realist

 film. It is also a sans serif font which signifies 

this further. The spacing in titles is also 

significant as they are irregular connoting 

childishness which fits with the film well.

Also this title by saying 'introducing' shows that it has new actors in it as typical social realist films don't have well known actors in them.

In Love Actually the shot then 

fades into the title page. This 

font and colour is significant 

because of it colour and boldness

 it signifies a romantic comedy. We

 can tell this as usually a different bright

 colour is used to connote comedy and

 the boldness and sans serif font signifies

 romance.

The ordering of titles

After looking on http://www.artofthetitle.com I found You've Got Mail's opening title sequence in this order.

This helped me to see what order the titles are placed and how they are phrased. Again I looked at the font used this time and plain sans serif font is used which in this case connotes a rom-com do to its bright colourful background of a posh glamourous apartment.

I also looked on artofthetitle.com. I found many different fonts used in title sequences 

I really liked Fargo's font sequence as it like ours uses type over scenery as well as the interesting use of spacing between letters. I used this in our first rough cut.

However after analysis You've Got Mails tiles I also used their technique of making the name of the concerning person bold. Also You've Got Mail is a rom-com and their font used is very similar to ours, therefore this may signify that our film's genre is also a rom-com.

The wide variation in titles styles reflect different genres and audiences, for example Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee use bright coloured cartoon style font to connote that it is a comedy, where as Tyrannosaur uses a plain white serif font to connote it's more serious social realist genre.