Final Product - Unrequited Love - Opening Scene

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

Looking back at my preliminary task which we had constructed in the beginning of this school year, in comparison to our final media product, Unrequited Love, i can see a fairly high development in our team. Not only have we improved our team working skills, but also in our technical skills.

The main technical advancement has been us being able to use a Cannon XF300 during the construction process of our final media product. The Cannon XF300 had many different functions, like the depth in field, which all needed to be learnt in order to film our final products to it's best standard. For our preliminary task however we had used a handheld camera, who's main function was just the zoom feature.

I also have learnt organisations skills, which were needed in many occasions. For example, I had to make sure that the actress would be available to ilm on the day we wanted, make sure she is able to get to the location without any problems or getting lost. Also as a group we had to make sure that the script, storyboard, screenplay and shot list were all ready ad finished before the filming day as during our preliminary task all this had been a problem. Our actors back then all had different time tables so it became difficult to find the perfect timing to actually start filming. Further on we had no shot list or completed story board which made the whole process even longer as we didn't know which shots to record and not.

Additionally, I believe we as a group also grew together very well as at the beginning we hardly knew each other, let alone strengths and weaknesses. However over this year we have learnt a lot about one another and made sure that we used those strengths in our final product, like for example, a team member of mine is a part-time rapper and also lyricist. So we had him make us a track related to the film which we could use in our opening scene.

Also here has been a lot more creative input by us, which worked very well for our opening scene like the paintbrush shot, were she paints on the screen. Another one would be where she knocks over her pot of brushes. Such little shots have worked very well and also during the editing process were put together very intelligently.

Another change in me now is that i now use a lot more media terminology and also understand what it means. At the beginning of the year when we were thought what mise-en-scene is, i didn't really understand it and then we had to use it in our preliminary task as well. However during the final media production i knew what everything meant and was which has helped me a lot.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of making our opening scene, I have learnt a great deal about different technologies, and mainly on how to use the Cannon XF 300 to for the filming of our final media product. Having never actually used such a complex camera before, as even for our preliminary task we used a handheld camera who's main function was the zoom feature. However in this Cannon XF 300, not only does it have zoom ring wise and button wise but also features like depth in field, filters, focus levels and channels switches for the sound.

Depth in field, was a feature which really interested me, however unfortunately when we filmed it, the outcome wasn't as greatly shot as we wanted it to be, therefore we didn't use it in our final product.

Lighting, another key feature which I have learned through the construction process. We constantly had to make sure t
hat there wasn't too much key lighting, either on the actresses face or anywhere in the background so it wouldn't attract the audience attention, away from our character. There were also moments when too much light from outside (sunshine) would disturb us, therefore we had to find a way to stop it which was getting a large surface, like cardboard paper and hold it up against the windows which helped block the light then.

Once everything was filmed, the editing process came into the picture. This is where we would take all our footage and bind it together, also along with the music track which a group member had constructed already and the voice-over which we had recorded. We had decided that we would play both music and dialogue throughout the opening scene as when we had carried out our survey, this was what the audience preferred. Whilst editing I found it hard and difficult to operate on Final Cut Pro, as I have never really used a Mac before, and it had different techniques to the ones I have learnt. Due to that, my group members put together the footage, and then he audio was added and faded in through Sony Vegas, which is the software I am quite familiar with.

Overall, I have learnt that technologies are not exactly easy to use, as they are developing constantly and more and more new and complicated features are being added onto them so that the outcome is greater than ever.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In our media product, an opening sequence to a Rom-Com film, 'Unrequited Love', we tried to appeal to our certain target audience. To attract the audience, we had to make sure that our key features in the film were met. We aimed on a target audience of females ages between 16-28 year old, and a film which would be rated a 12A so that even families are able to come and enjoy the film. Once the target audience was figured out we had to plan what features in our opening scene would be presented which would wan the audience sit and watch.

We believe we attracted our audience through the ideas and characters put together for the film. Our character Jenna is not a much outspoken person who also like to keep to herself when it comes to sharing or conversing. This creates a mystery in the audiences' minds on how this girl could be someone love interest or eve how she manages to open up to that one person? What is so special about him?

Also we have made a great use of location which is a skill Jenna has too, the Art Room. We had planned to keep that link of art that she has, there throughout the whole movie as a way for her to express herself. As many people are drawn into arts, but they themselves don't necessarily have to have the skill, would be highly interested in this film as well as artist themselves.

Further on, the music track which a member of the group put together is an attraction point as it is something fresh and also something to look forward to. His pre-existing fans would be interested into watching the film as they can hear this exclusive track made for 'Unrequited Love' specially.

Our use of the props also is there to guide the audience about the style and characters f this film which makes them feel more comfortable as they know more information about it, just by visually analysing it

Key moments in the opening scene that would attract our audience:

• Jenna knocking over the pot f brushes which looks great on camera.
• The shots where Jenna is shown painting the camera, however she is painting her painting with those same exact colours. That shot impressed many people who are actually aged between 16-28 (we showed them our final product)
• Music Track as it ties the whole sequence together.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distrubute your media product?

Evaluation Question 2

How does you media product represent particular social groups?

G - Gender: Female
E - Ethnicity: Oriental Asian
A - Age: 17
R - Region: Westernised British Society
S - Socio Economic Status: Student (Comes from a High Middle Class family - C1)

In our opening scene we present an Oriental Asian girl as the actress for the character of Jenna, because stereotypically  Asians are seen as intelligent people who also are very creative. The character is also very interested in Manga which is very popular in Oriental Asian culture, which just helps the character to be more believable to the audience.We chose this actress because their ethnicity has a great impact not only on our target market but also the film. In the library scene, we have presented the mise-en-scene in such way that the audience is able to tell about her likes and dislikes when they see those manga books on the table. Furthermore, from the over the shoulder shot, the audience is also able to see that she actually is drawing a manga character, 'Sailor Moon'.

We decided that, we wanted the character to be a college/sixth form student as everyone is able to relate to them, because the targeted audience too is either students themselves or have been at a point in their life. Her nerd characteristics further on develop that student, telling the audience how importance her studies are to her. Also it portrays typical stereotypes on how nerds are cut off from the social world or are more shy and reserved which is also seen in Jenna.

Further on, the props we used to represent that nerd category are mainly the thick framed glasses and books which are next to always linked back to nerds by the audience. Also the two plaits add on the cuteness factor which is portrayed in many different movies as well as in real life, which is seen more childish hinting the comedic side of Jenna as the genre we have chosen is Romantic Comedy. Another prop which was used was the painting which she is shown painting. That can suggest that the character is into romance and might even read romantic novels due to her painting red lips. Reading romantic novels is very common in the female gender.

We used a fair range of different type of shots which vary from Mid Shots to Close-Up's to even the break of the forth wall. All these are there so the audience is able to connect with the character. They have quite long or at least reasonable amount duration which let the audience observe the character and the mise-en-scene so that they are able to understand the character rather than being in confusion about her.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Top 10

According to a media magazine (Paste-Magazine) these are their top 10 of all-time:

1. Annie Hall (1977)
2. When Harry met Sally (1989)
3. Amelie (2001)
4. The Princess Bride (1987)
5. Manhatten (1979)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
7. Say Anything (1989)
8. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
9. High Fidelity (2000)
10.  Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

According to another media (film) magazine (cinemablend) these are their top 10 of all-time:

1. When Harry met Sally (1989)
2. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
3. Annie hall (1977)
4. Pretty Woman (1990)
5. Groundhog Day (1993)
6. City Lights (1931)
7. The Princess Bride (1987)
8. Silver linings Playbook (2012)
9. The Wedding Singer (1998)
10. Roxanne (1987)

Film Classification

We as a group decided that our film would most possibly be rated as a 12A and 12 for video works such as DVDs and Blu-Rays by the BBFC or at least according to their guidelines. The main areas of the narrative considered which would make it a 12A rated film would be:

• Language: Moderate and light use of foul language is intended to use due to it being set in a college, teenager environment.

• Violence: Although not glamorised, and neither encouraged, violence will be present in the narrative; however since it is crucial to narrative development and is motivated by revenge rather than senseless blood lust. 'Safe Haven' (2013) was classified as a 12A film even though throughout the narrative, violence was shown; however it all was for it's narrative development. Therefore our film would still be appropriate for a 12A certificate even after some aggression.

• Theme: The central theme of the film is relationships but there are undertones of revenge and blackmail which motivate the theme of violence, making it unsuitable for a U or PG certificate.

There are other areas which the BBFC guideline considers (such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, nudity and sex) which affect the classification of a film however these are not prominent within our films narrative and therefore not meeting the criteria for a higher classification. On the other hand the mature tone of language and theme and the mild presence of violence justifies the films placement in the 12(A) category.

Furthermore, we also used public feedback for our decision. For example, the results from they survey we used to construct our audience profile conceived that our most frequent respondents belonged to the 16 to 24 age groups; this range now consisting of our target audience; the 12A certificate is ideal for accommodating all of the target audience.

Production House and Logo

As we are finishing with our filming task; where we managed to get all the shots that we wanted, now was the time that my group started to think of own Production House of who's logo will go at the beginning of the opening scene. We all mutually decided that we would like our production house to be called 'LoveLife', which goes perfectly together with the genre we chose.

It is very essential that the audience is able to get a rough idea of what type of film it is going to be, just by looking at the production logo itself. For example, The Harry Potter series which was produced by the 'Warner Brother's' Studio indicated this importance in every singe movie. As you can see, the WB logo just got darker towards the end of the series to build up the tension of the bad times taking place in the wizarding world.

At the start of the series with 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' you can see how bright the logo is (their original one) because it is a story about a child and him being introduced to this whole new world, therefore the maker's want their audience to feel and engage with Harry on this new journey. However as time passes, their audience is so linked and a part of this fictional world that from the start itself they want them to feel how horrifying everything is becoming.










Therefore on a conclusion, we had decided that our logo will need to be bright and red, to show the feeling of romance to the audience, however we also didn't want a really bright red as it might not appeal to the eye, so a red which is slightly more dull.

Voiceover

The voice over plays a very key part in our opening sequence as through the voice over, the audience is able to learn facts about the character. A voice over is used very often in movies through various different genres but it plays a key part in Romantic or Comedy movies as it would voice out the character's feelings at a moment without them having to physically speak. This also shows that the character can be a particular shy and reserved person which our character, Jenna Lin is. So we as a group concluded that using a voice over throughout the opening sequence would be the ideal thing to do.

The Voice Over:

"

Hi, this is me, the one surrounded by a force field of books.

Beneath this geeky exterior is me, a person who hides herself away in the world of literature and art.

Why am I alone you ask? Well....I'm a nerd, and I'm here at school before everyone else.

As they say, the early bird gets the worm.

But, academic success comes with drawbacks; other than satisfying my parents expectations, I have no motivation....*sigh*

What if I wasn't a nerd? I'd be popular, right....I mean, check out my fashion sense.

Check out these coordination skills.

My connection to art? Let's say that studying stresses the mind so art is a hobby which solves the problem.

Anyway, I've got a secret for you....

"

Weather

As our set day of shooting is coming near, we needed to make sure that the weather was perfect too. The weather we want and expected was, it being bright and sunny as it lightens up the mood automatically. Also due to the sky being clear and bright, the audience would automatically understand that it is not a mysterious, gloomy and thrilling film but a very joyous and light-hearted one.

The day we had originally set was Monday and Tuesday the 9th and 10th of February. Due to it still being technically winter we weren't 100% sure if the sun would come out or not. However when we checked online we found out that Tuesday infact would be one of the brightest day of the week and Wednesday would also be quite bright therefore we moved shooting days to Tuesday and Wednesday and Monday wouold be used for us as a group to go over everything and make sure we have got everything we need.

Shot List

This is our shot list which we have constructed to help us on set. It will be our guideline and very similar to the story board which just gives us more information on the technical aspect. It's main goal is to provide a brief criteria for each shot which factors in the shot duration, location, and camera SAM (shot, angle and movement). 

Screenplay

This is the Screenplay which I have written for our film Unrequited Love, with the input from the rest of my group. This Screenplay is there to give us a basic idea how the final outcome should look like and what our main ideas are which we need to cover during filming. This gives us some of the specific detailed information in the frame to help us concentrate on what we want to present back to our audience. For example, I have written that Jenna (our female Character) inserts the colour 'Red' onto her pallet which is connotative towards the feelings in Romance, such as Love and affection. However it also connotes with anger and frustration which can foreshadow to the audience about how these feelings might also be explored on, later on in the narrative.

A screenplay adds on information which the storyboard is unable to do, like the soundtrack which would be playing in the scene. Also it describes more of the movement in the scene whilst in a storyboard it just describes the shot and what is present in the frame.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard which I drew however we as a group decided on. The storyboard is here to help us guide on what he finished product should look like, in terms of shots, mise-en-scene and also what is going on around in the shot, e.g. movement.

I first drew it out in pencil so that if i was to make make any mistakes then they can be rubbed out and when we were happy with it, I went over the lines with a black pen which gave it a clearer image.

On the day of shoot, we would be definably using this on set as it would help us guide through what type of shot's we are to take and it would just speed up our production process.

Update

Yesterday when we went location scouting, we came back disappointed, finding out that we won't be able to continue with our original plan and will need to use our back up for which we did manage to get the locations sorted.

After yesterday's incident, we as a group had a discussion on how we plan on executing our back up idea for which we came to the solutions that we would leave the characters as they are; still keep a voice over which would present the comedic side of our female character, and then have her painting in the art room. The image she will be painting will hint the romantic genre and side of her to the audience. Furthermore we want her to portray her clumsiness as well for which we plan on her maybe dropping a few equipments or knocking them over.

Another idea which we had later on was that we should keep the environment around her empty. Meaning that no eye catching objects should be there nor any sign of life, because this sole point would emphasise the fact that she likes to be in her own world, and is not much of an interactive kind even though she has friends.

Copyright Permission

 Here is a a small letter which I wrote to the 'Royal Pirates', requesting to use their song track, 'Drawing the Line', for our opening scene. This is a very important step to do as we do not own any copyrights for this track even if it is being only used for educational purposes.

Due to me not being able to gain their email address, I had to send a message through YouTube, to their official channel.

Evidence that I have actually sent my message off to the 'Royal Pirates':

Location Scouting

For the location scouting, we as a group visited the various locations we had in mind for our opening sequence. Finding the right location is a very important tasks due to it being linked with the mise-en-scene. Not only does a location set the setting but it tells the audience a lot about the character itself. For example, if a establishing shot is presented to the audience of London then the audience would automatically link that the character might be struggling, very modern, maybe rich and posh. Also from this shot they can also foretell that the story would happen in many different locations in London which suggests that it is a grand film.

Morden Underground Station

The locations which we had decided on were; Morden Underground station; Morden Library and a Room. We decided on going to Morden first, in order to talk with someone who would be able to grant us permission to film. However we had to return disappointed as we needed the officials to give us certificates to film both at the Library and the Underground station. We did try to contact those officials but the film department at 'TFL' would not receive our calls, therefore we wrote them an email hoping that they will get back to us in time. At the library we were granted permission but we had to wait for at least two weeks to get a certificate to do so,
which would be too late for us.

Morden Library

Because we can not confirm that we would be able to film at those locations, we decided to get our back-up idea locations sorted. For that we would just need a library and an art room, which we could easily access at school. However we still needed to be 100% sure that the school would allow us to film there. Once we spoke to the care taker, who would be at school on the Tuesday during half-term, if he could open doors for us, we received a positive answer.

Pitch & Pitch Feedback

In class, we presented our Pitch, where we had to present our idea to the class who would then give us feedback on the overall plot and also our research.

Whilst starting off our presentation, we presented the log line of our film. This was a brief overview of our film, left with unanswered questions at the end so that we were able to get the pupils interested to keep listening.

Having everyone paying attention, we offered our plot. The plot however was again just an overview; not a very detailed but enough to make everyone understand the story. Moving on from the plot, we explained our Lead Characters, Jenna and Ryan, to them in more detail so that they knew what kind of personality, likes and dislikes and from what class they belonged from.

With the ideas of the film and their characters done, we needed to talk about more of the researching side we had done, starting with the audience. We explained that we had chosen females between 16-25 years for our target audience, due to them growing up with watching romantic movies and also being more soft hearted. Furthermore we had to inform them of the females we would be targeting would mainly be in the working class or under.

Whilst researching for the budget of our whole film, we came to a conclusion that we would roughly need about 9 million U.S. Dollars, which would roughly equal 6 million British Pounds. Further on we presented our 'Unique Selling point', the 'Language' and setting of our film, including the equilibrium of this story. Also we presented our inspirations for the film through the Productions and Industry.

When we finished we were asked a few questions by the class and our teacher, one being that why we were risking of breaking conventions as it could be risky with the audience accepting it or not. The answer to this was very simple. We want to present something new and exciting to our audience which they would not be used to however due to it being different to other Rom-Com's this film would not easily leave their mind.

Another question which we were asked, was why were targetting that specific audience of ours, and not the higher social standing people as they have more money. The answer to this was that those higher standing people have jobs which take up most of their time and also they would rather enjoy film's or show's related to their profession. For examples, Lawyers would enjoy watching the show called 'Suits' rather than a teen drama. However the group which we are targetting is the working class who have weekends and evenings off, leaving them enough time and freedom to watch and enjoy a film. Also they seem more of the 'casual' type who would talk about recent movies with their friends.

Props/ Costume / Make Up

As our planning is coming to it's last stages now, we as a group needed to start thinking about the props we would need to create the setting, the costume our actor would need to wear so that she our character is more believable and also her make-up/appearance.

One immediately thinks of thick black framed glasses when they would read the character description of Jenna. Thick framed glasses connote to the audience that they are to be worn by nerds and bookworms which would perfectly describes our character, Jenna. Furthermore  we also needed to make sure that thick framed glasses suit our actor, as we still want her to look attractive rather than comic; so we did a look test of her with glasses.

For her clothes we first thought of having her wear a black cardigan, over a white T-shirt and blue jeans. We thought of this because it would give her a classy appearance, and also would look very appealing to eyes. However as we got more thinking, we realised that that look would make our character look very mature and someone who is in her 20s rather than her teenage years. Furthermore it wouldn't really go with her characterisation.

So as a second thought on clothes we came up with her wearing a baggy grey hoodie, over blue jeans and converse shoes. The reason of why we decided on this is because, the whole look suits a teenager more. The cause of us choosing a baggy hoodie is due to it being more comfortable. Jenna's character is such that she likes being comfortable with what she does and does not really care about what people think of her as long as she is happy and satisfied with herself. We choose converse shoes as she is artist as well and it would give her more of a casual feel.

Overall, we based her appearance very similar to Rachel McAdams who played the character of Paige Collins in the Romantic-Drama film, The Vow (2012). Paige also is an artist, who likes to be messy and comfortable but due to her having a memory loss in an accident, she finds herself to become the old her which was glamorous. However, we really liked her appearance in a scene after she returns home with her husband, Leo, and states that she is comfortable in that baggy hoodie, which perfectly linked to our character. Additionally we also plan on having our actor tie up her hair just like Rachel had.

Also we want our character to wear a backpack due to her being a studious girl, so a backpack is almost essential for us. Furthermore it is also on our props list as we would need it for our 'Crab shot' in the first scene.

Lead Character Discription

Jenna Lin - Female Lead (Asian)

Jenna, being an only child, has always been a reserved type of person who does not interact much with many people, however she is very clumsy; falling, dropping, walking into things which now just defines her. And every time she would get up, push her nerdy glasses back, collect her items and again walk on. She isn't someone who gives up easily as she likes to be on top of everything, be it studies or retort back to people's words about her nerdy character.

This 17 year old character belongs to the Upper Middle Class and lives with her parents in South West London. With Jenna we are going along with the dominant ideology of females in Rom-Com's. They also are presented as clumsy, shy and unpopular characters.

Ryan Walker - Male Lead (White British)

Ryan, is a confident personality, but does not like to interact much with people. He is not much of an outgoing person as he likes to keep to himself. He might be confident however does not know how to express himself through the correct words, which could lead to him taking the wrong actions.

He is 18 years old and lives with his parents and older brother. They also belong to the Upper Middle Class. With this character we are going against the dominant ideology as usually the male lead is a popular guy, who is very outgoing and constantly is in a relationship.

Opening Scene Ideas - Back-Up Plans

In case something is to go wrong, we need a back up plan in terms of not only Ideas but also locations. However right now as we have not finallised on any locations, as a group we started to develop a back up plan as well along with our main plan.

We plan on still creating a voiceover, which would be played above the scenes to make it look as if it is her - we plan on only introducing the female character for the opening scene - thought process. For the back-up we would have her sitting in a library to present her as a nerd who is very keen on her studies, however very passionate about art. Therefore we want another location to be an aart room where she could be shown working on a piece of art which could be linked back to the genre.

This is our back up idea so far, whhich we do plan on developing slightly further, so that we are prepared for the worst.

Opening Scene Idea development - 2

Earlier on we thought on starting the opening sequence with a voiceover which would tell us already a lot about the character. We would introduce the voiceover by our main lead female character writing into her dairy. A diary connotes of a character/person not having many friends and also being shy to the world therefore they need to express their emotions through written words.

Now we plan on portraying only the female lead in the opening sequence due the film being through her perspective. The voiceover we plan on doing will be her diary entry however we will see it playing over other events too. Furthermore we would have some parts of the voiceover matching with the events that take place in the opening scene.

The setting and location that we have thought of is her room at the very begining, a tube station and a library. The tube station would tell the audience where the film is set, London. Library is chosen due to her being a bookworm. And her room, would just show her character to the audience. For example we might include picture frames of her with her family which would tell the audience that she loves them a lot. Or we could also have a few teddy bears lying around the room which links back to it being a rom-com, and also that she is a shy childish girl.

Ideas for Lead Characters

For our two lead lovers, we need to come up with ideas for their personalities, appearances and also names.

As a group we instantly agreed on both characters being from Middle Class families as it would be more bonding with the audience. Due to a major sector of our target audience being from the middle or working class, they would be able to relate and form a bond with our characters which is what we want.

By following the usual conventions of Rom-Com movies, the male lead should be a popular character or a total nobody. And the female is then the opposite of the male charcter, either she then would be a nobody or a popular character.

If we were to present the female as an unoticed person, straight away on gets the idea of presenting her as a nerd who is really into studying, wears big glasses, is shy and likes being away from other people into her own world of books.

By presenting the girl as a nerd we would need to make the guy popular however we could break that convention which could bring something new and exciting to our audience. Having the guy be not so popular either would create a cute love story who would bring out a new side of one another. This would create the comedic side of the film.

Moodboard

This is a mood board which I created, not only conveying conventions of romantic comedy films, but also ideas for our own film. Also the images suggest and are able to help me and my group to come up with the characters and their personalities.

For example, the picture in the bottom right corner includes 'Edward Cullen' from the movie 'Twilight', who is a well known male at school, however nothing much about him is known. He is a mystery to all but that still does not make him unpopular. With our characters being developed and written, his persona is very inspiring as it would create tension in the film due to the audience wanting to find out more about this character who is unknown to most.

Futhermore i have inserted images of heartbreaks, their appearances, personalities, some moments and a few romantic comedy films.

Developing Ideas

For the opening scene of our film, we as a group first need to finalise the plot so that we could start working on the opening scene. From our initial ideas we decided we would like to go forward with the Romantic Comedy idea.

In our initial ides we talked about a 'Journey to..' and 'Bullying' idea as the opening scene, however when we talked more about it; the bullying idea had to be scrapped out as we didn't really like that as it seemed a bit too boring.

Also the 'Journey to...' idea seemed too common in films, that's why we thought we could add a voiceover at the begining, which could be a diary entry and then against a pop, upbeat song have her or him do activities which would talk to the audience about her or his personality.

We will have an upbeat pop song because it is an important part to romantic comedy movie. Every movie tends to have this jolly music in the background which already hints the audience of what genre the film is.

Generic Conventions of Romantic Comedies

Whilst films are created, one needs to show the audience clear ideas of the film belonging to a certain genre. For example if it is an action movie, the production need to convey the generic conventions of action movies; this could be done by them showing guns, over-speeding cars, bomb blasts, and the characters talking about a secret mission from the beginning of the movie. Through these conventions one is able to signify to the audience of what genre the movie is.

The genre that my team have decided to work with is 'Romantic-Comedy', however the main genre which we would focus on is going to be 'Romance' which would have elements of 'Comedy'.

Romantic comedies are usually humorous dramatic stories which focus on themes like 'True Love', 'A Happily ever after' or being that 'Perfect couple'. The plot then would focus on two people, who normally would later on be romantically involved with one another. They would meet, feel attracted or hate each other, part ways due to misunderstandings or them believing they are not good enough for each other but at the end they would get back together as being apart is too much emotional stress for them. The screenwriters and directors also leave obvious clues for the audience all the way throughout the movie letting us know and guess that they will be a couple.

When the two characters seperate, be it due to personal reasons, them thinking that the other doesn't like them or if they are just not the perct match, they often start to realise during this phrase that they themselves are deeply in love with the other. Overwhelmed by their new found love they often go for a grand guesture to make the other person feel special who then also would confess his/her love in return, and the film ends happily.

Survey Results

Once we were finished with the survey and were satisfied with it, we all sent it out to our friends on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and also distributed the survey through messaging servers like WhatsApp, which nearly every smart phone owner has. Further on, I asked all my friends to share the suvey on tho their own friends, especially to friends who are in their 20s. This way we were able to reach to a wider audience.

In total we were able to get responses from 72 people, aged between 15-35 years old.

We also asked them about who they would like to be the lead character? The results were not that surprising as I did kind of expect most of them to vote for both as the audience likes to know what is going on through both's perspectives.

When asked about what they believe an opening scene should start off with, 44 responded with music, whilst another 9 said both. I was expecting the majority to be dialogue as usually at the beginning of a film, the viewer is bursting with unanswered questions which they want to be answered as soon as possible. We will definitely keep this finding in mind whilst planning our opening scene.

 Another interesting finding is the answer to the ethnicity question. The majority of Rom-Com's which are made, usually always have white character in it who would either be British or american. We had expected the same to show in our findings, expecting that the audience have gotten so used to the idea of white leads already. However, as you can see in our results is that the White race actually drew together with the Asian race but the majority voted that they don't really mind what race is presented therefore 'Any'.

In-Depth Analysis of a Film from a similar Genre

A Cinderella Story (2004) - Opening Sequence evaluation

A Cinderella Story which released in 2004, is a teen romantic comedy; starring Hilary Duff and Chad Micheal Murry and was directed by Mark Rosman.

Once the film has started, we are shown beautiful tracking shots of mountains, and non-diegetic instrumental music being played in the background. Now this already starts to tell the audience that the story would be much like a fairytale. After the tracking shot, it goes into an establishing shot presenting a castle which is placed between the mountains. This immediately makes the audience think of it as a fairytale story, where the price or princess would live in a lavishing castle. Additionally the text in which the credits are displayed is very old fashioned script writing which makes us believe that the story is set in, "Once upon a time..." which is typical for fairytale's. All these connotations make us link to the fairytale story of Cinderella together with the castle and old script text.

A voice-over starts, telling us the actual story of Cinderella which signifies to the audience, that the girl who is talking (Hillary Duff) may be the main character who's life


may be similar to Cinderella's. A zoom out shot occurs making us realise that the castle and mountain setting was not real in actual, however then the camera pans to see where the actual location of this story is set. The non-diegetic music also changes into some music which has a feeling of humour in it, which suggests the comedic side of this story.

The theme of closeness and togetherness is presented after the pan, of a little girl hugging laughing along with her father. This mise-en-scene presentation nicely ties in with romance. There is a montage of the little girl growing up with her father, which suggests that the film would be most probably be about her life.

Super title's appear however in a different style and font to the previous ones. This time there is handwritten element to it which suggests the old times of the actual Cinderella. Furthermore the supper title's are in a pink colour which again ties in with romance.

A diner is shown, to which the audience learns that the father actually owns it. Facial expressions of everyone inside the diner are very happy and filled with laughter, be it customers or the staff. It all is presented as if they were all a great big family, again portraying the theme of togetherness. Positive non-diegetic sound is played throughout this, however when an older female is introduced, negative non-diegetic music starts to play which lets the audience know that the new character is not positive.

The ugly Step-Sisters

The scene then cross-cuts, to her father and the older female getting married where two new characters are introduced; her two step-sisters. They both are shown fighting which again suggests the comedic side of the film. The audience by now can tell that the new step-mom will be the evil step-mother and her daughters would play the two ugly step-sisters from the original Cinderella story. Therefore we can also tell, that the girl talking is portraying Cinderella and that she will be the love interest in this film.

The theme of togetherness is yet again presented, when we see the girl and her father both talking to each other on a bed. He has just finished reading her a fairytale story which causes them to talk about Price and Prissiness' and also dreams and aspirations. This again links back to the original story and love.

A close up shot of the girl and her dad is shown where their hands are slipping away from one another as an earthquake is occurring. You learn that the father dies and sad non-diegetic music is played. Her step-mom is now shown in control and send the little girl to live in the basement, very similar to the actual story.

This opening sequence contains various of signifier's to connotate the Romantic Comedy genre to the audience. It's main focus, theme wise is shown to be love and togetherness. The audience is able to recognise what genre the film is, however there was no male character introduced, different to other romantic comedy films.

Draft Survey and Explanation

Below you can find an image of our draft survey, which we as a group decided we would put up on on a survey designing website from where we then can distribute a link out to the public.

Initial Draft Survey

However as this is the draft version, we are able to discuss in which order the questions should be  and also make a few adjustments. Therefore we created another draft survey, however this time in the layout which we would use for the public.

Final Draft Survey

We started off by asking people their gender and age so that we know if they are falling into our target audience. We need to know this because through this we would be able to identify their likes and dislikes in the genre Rom-Com, which would be beneficial to us whilst deciding on the final plot and also on the opening sequence of our film.

To know a it more about them, we asked what they or their colleagues like to do in their free time. This is because we would like the audience to feel connected to the character and for that we would need to know what people like/enjoy doing in their spare time. By having this information we would be able to make a character sketch of he lead/s who would have a similar taste like our target audience. 

Survey: Questions 1-4

After asking about them, we got onto questions which would help us making important decisions for our opening scene. First we asked from who's perspective they would like the Rom-Com to be from. Now this is a multiple choice question where they could choose; from the female lead's perspective, from the male leads, or from both. The reason why we asked this question is because so that we know from who's view to base the film from and also it would play an important part to the setting and music as a female oriented movie would end to have lots of voice overs, have beautiful scenery and a competition up against them, which would be another female who would usually be more prettier and popular than them. However if it would be a male oriented movie, you tend to have alcohol and also a close set of male buddies in the film. In that film, it would be about how the guy tries to impress the girl and finally is able to get her. And if it is a movie from both's perspective then the film usually focuses on their break up and how they try dealing with it and in the end get back together.

Survey: Questions 5-7

Another question we asked about the characters is the age and what their ethnicity should be. The reason this is important to us is because the setting and the style of the characters is different if they are teenagers compared to working adults. Also there is a vast change of dialogue between these two age groups. Furthermore there is another change of dialogues between different races. For example, stereotypically Black people would use Slang language whilst Asians would have an accent to their speech.

Survey: Question 8

Then we asked what characteristics they would expect the leads to have. This is because we want to know what they are expecting out of a Rom-Com character. This is again another help or us on the character sketch which we would be doing soon.


The last but not least we asked if they would like music or dialogue in the opening scene of the film. This is because there are various Rom-Com movies which would start of with either a dialogue or upbeat music which would set a happy mood, however a dialogue could tell the audience about the character or their background if it is a voice-over.

Target Audience Profile

In order to identify our right target audience we first tried to imagine just one person who would watch the film and what their character would be. Because for example, if we decided this would be targeted at females in their 20’s then we cannot guarantee of it’s success as there are females who prefer action movies instead of romantic comedy movies. Now those females would be more unlikely to go and watch the film. Therefore with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the traditional segmentation model and from the 4C’s Model we are able to identify our correct and specific target audience.

The Gender we are mainly thinking to target are females. This is because it's mostly females who enjoy Rom-Com's as they give them a fantasy of True Love or how a good if not perfect relationship should be like. The comedy which is added into it is there so that it keeps them entertained.

Though the Traditional Segmentation Table, my group and I were able to identify that we are targeting females in C2, the skilled working Class; D, the working class; and E, where students are placed. The reason we choose these groups is that because students and the working class are the ones who have the time and interest to watch a Rom-Com; where as people who are classified in groups C1, B and A would have more of serious type of like. Those people would rather watch documentaries, which are educational to them.

Whilst looking at the Young & Rubicam's 4C's Model, we tried to identify the qualities and personalities of our target audience. We were able to identify that we would want this opening scene to be targeted at young adults who are/want to be succeders; those who are mainstream and also those who struggle in life but then in the end are able to find their way to success. The reason we choose these three is because we want our audience to link and engage with the characters which would have these qualities.

The Maslow's Hierarchy of needs is there for us to be able to decide why our targeted audience would come to see this film. What would they get out of this? The answer to this is; entertainment, excitement and a topic to talk about with their colleagues.

GEARS Model:

Gender - Mainly Females
Ethnicity - Any
Age - 16-28 year olds
Region - Westernised Society
Socio-Economic Status - Working Class and Students

Analysis of 'Citizen Kane' opening sequence

Citizen Kane - 1941

The opening scene of the film 'Citizen Kane' (1941), leads us through the place where he residents. An old man is seen on his deathbed with a snow globe in his hands which he is clutching tight on. He whispers his last word, "Rosebud", and then dies. The snow globe falls out of his hands and rolls down the steps till it eventually breaks. A nurse then enters, to find his dead body, and then covers his body with a white cover.

The scene begins, with a close up on a ‘No Trespassing’ sign, which already suggests to us viewers that the property behind this sign would be very old and stranded with possibly no life around except maybe some animals. Also this could be a hint of the character to the audience that he is very controlling and does not want anyone to enter his property. The Camera Tilts upwards, travelling up the fence. There are a few cuts from the lower part of the fence to the top of the fence. This can foreshadow the long life of the old man who is about to die behind that fence, as it is about a 20 seconds long shot.

With each passing shot, the camera is inching closer to the only window which has some sort of light visible; and once we reach it, we find the old man on his deathbed. However when we are moving towards that window, we are shown areas of the lonely property, which has no sort of life visible except some monkey’s which are seated on some bars near a lake. This suggests that the old man which lives there is all alone and has no family or friends and is left alone to die. This can also tell the audience that the old man's life is very lifeless, much like the place where he lives in.

Once we reach his deathbed, we are shown images of falling snow, which eventually fades into a snow globe, making the audience believe that the snow was falling inside of the globe. However it could also be an image which the old man was thinking back to as his last memory before death. This tells us a lot about the film itself; that the film could be presented in flashbacks, narrating the old man's life or important events which finally lead him to die alone. A reason why snow was presented is because the winter usually symbolises death and snow symbolises peace or the cold which could mean that the character was cold hearted therefore is now alone.

Then we have a cutaway to an extreme close-up, where the old man whispers his last word, "Rosebud", but no one is there to hear him. Now this could be a location where he lost something very important; the place where he lives; or a the name of a person which is important to him and gave him that snow globe as that is the only object he is holding tight onto during his last moments which means that the snow globe holds an importance in his life.

After he whispers his last word, he passes away and the snow globe falls out of his hand, rolling down the steps and eventually breaking. The snow globe can represent his life which shows that he was a figure very high up, until he started going downhill and eventually died, shown by the globe breaking.

The sound which is played throughout this opening scene is one organ instrument, representing his loneliness.