FINAL CUT POLLY BUTTON

Music

We chose this beat for polly button to capture our target audience, as it is young and popular.
It is cool sounding, and this is what polly button thinks she is.

The other music we created on garageband was the part going alongside the Brad Chapman clip. Brad Chapam is supposed to be cool and slick, so this music went perfectly with his attitude.

The McFly music is fun and upbeat. As she dances it makes her seem care free. It shows her true nature, as she is quite clumsy and slightly geeky.

Video criteria

- Holding a shot steady where appropriate
- Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate
- Using a variety of shot distances
- Shooting material appropriate to the task set
- Selecting mise en scene, including colour, lighting, objects and setting
- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
- Using titles appropriately

Feedback from class

Mise en Scene:
- College toilets, McFly and the ipod show the age group
- Hair spray, sunglasses and make up shows genre

Camerawork:
- Close up
- Over the shoulder, reflection in the mirror
- Crane shot
- Match on action
- Close up of eyes is a bit strange

Editing:
- Like the names, good font and positioning
- Jake and James jump from front of the car to standing further forwards with a girl?
- Good use of slow motion, hair flick fits well

Sound:
- McFly song says says 22 seconds on ipod but plays from the beginning in the film opening
- Need to edit out voice-diegetic
- Good sound over eyes
- Giggling may work in some places throughout

Generic Conventions:
- Teenage romantic comedy
- Typical colours
- Ipod
- Make up
- Girl falls over, comedy

Script

Polly Button walks in through the door, smiling, bag on arm, looking confident.

Over voice
Polly: This is me. (freeze frame) I'm cool, calm and sophisticated. (freeze frame ends she does a little slip. Chad Chapman walks in round the corner.) and this is Chad. Chad Chapman. (Chad flicks hair and smiles. Polly sighs thoughtfully. They lock eyes.)

Target Audience

Our target audience for our opening sequence are teenage girls from the age of 12 upwards.
To capture this audience we will use stereotypical colours, characters, props and music.

prop and costume list

This is so we know who is responsible for bringing different props in and when.

• Caitlin- pink top, scarf.
• Lisa- Big sunglasses
• Rose- hairbrush and make up
  
• Katie- I Pod

This will be brought in for the 12th feb, when we do our filming.

Our Animatic Opening Sequence

We chose the first bit of music to represent Polly because she thinks she is cool, and the music had a young beat.

We made the song by McFly sound more tinned and hollow, this made is sound more that she was listening to her I Pod. We think it was very effective, and made it sound more diegetic.

We have change the name of Chad-Michael Efron to Chad Chapman.

COSTUMES

The two main characters in our opening sequence are the boy and the girl.

The girl will be wearing:

• lots of jewelery

• big sunglasses
• handbag
• scarf

girly top















The boy will be wearing:

• shoulder bag

• shirt

• 

Shot List

This is a list of all the different shots that we could use in our opening sequence:

- Establishing shot
- close up
- extreme close up
- tracking shot
- pan
- zoom
- over the shoulder
- point of view.
- long shot
- extreme long shot
- low angle
- High angle

the deadlines

Coursework:

Interim deadlines - practical, rough cut, 9th February (last lesson)
- Writing, 9:00am 9th March to Moodle.

Final Deadline - Practical, final cut, end of first lesson 2nd March
- Writing, 9:00am, 16th march to moodle.

More Romantic Comedy research

This is the wikipedia definition of a romantic comedy. This helped us gain further insight to what it exactly means, and what we have to do to achieve a typical romantic comedy.

The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two protagonists, usually a man and a woman, meet, part ways due to an argument or other contrived obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two protagonists meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes the two protagonists are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner, or because of social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. The protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external obstacles to their being together.

While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them usually realizes that they are ideal for each other, or that they are in love with each other. Then, after one of the two makes some spectacular effort to find the other person and declare their love, (this is sometimes called the grand gesture), or due to an astonishing coincidental encounter, the two meet again. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other and the film ends happily. The couple does not, however, have to marry, or live together "happily ever after." The ending of a romantic comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists' lives, even if they physically separate in the end (e.g. Shakespeare in Love, Roman Holiday)^[1].

There are many variations on this basic plotline. Sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each other's arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character (e.g., My Best Friend's Wedding and My Super Ex-Girlfriend). Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, as in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall. The basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Some comedy films, such as Knocked Up, combine themes of romantic comedies and stoner comedies, creating a subgenre that appeals to both men and women.

Mood Board

This is our mood board, this is to show the genre, mood and mise-en-scene of our movie opening.

Film opening Analysis

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

An opening sequence must comply to certain areas if it wants to accomplish its main aim, to inform the viewer of: who the characters are, what the genre is, where is it meant to be set and what the narrative is.

Joe Wright’s version of Pride & Prejudice (2005) sets the location, genre and time period of the film well with an opening establishing shot of a dewy meadow at dawn, with warm sunlight and morning mist. This implies that is it set in a rural location in the country, and therefore has connotations of peace, calm and an image of romantic readiness. The genre and time period are also introduced through the non-diegetic music being played. It is typical and complies with the set time period well which also sets the mood of the film.
A little later, you are introduced into the main characters’ home. They have used a tracking shot of the main character as she walks through the yard so you get to see her surroundings, and then, as Lizzie walks off, it changes to a point of view shot from the audience to give the impression that you are ‘walking’ through the house yourself. This lets the viewer have the impression that they are in control and also that they are discovering the family and their living conditions for themselves.

When you first meet the character Elizabeth ’Lizzie’ Bennet (played by Keira Knightly) she is walking though the sunny dewy meadow and reading, while wearing a plain green dress of the period. This immediately gives you an insight into her personality and nature. Both of the activities that she is doing, alongside her dress code, connote curiosity, independence and thoughtfulness, but also show that she is not from a very wealthy family, which help the consumer to make a connection and make a friendship with her from the start. This is essential if the viewer is to journey along side the character throughout the story. We see Elizabeth through a close up and then an over the shoulder shot. This way we can see her focus and reaction to what she is doing, and then get to see her reaction to her finishing her book. These are also all essential for a connection with the main character.
We also get to meet Mr and Mrs. Bennet and the Bennet sisters and discover who and what they are like. This introduction helps to secure a knowledge of who everyone is and establish an understanding of the narrative. We meet Mr and Mrs. Bennet once we have come back to a mid shot of Lizzie coming up the outside stairs which is where the story then begins.

At this point we discover a bit of the narrative/plot from the conversation that Mr and Mrs. Bennet then have. It is not much but by the end you discover that is has had a fairly big role to play in the content of the story.


Here is the movie clip of the opening...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvePg4AXicQ


NOT FINISHED

Influence and Ideas

We looked at the Juno opening sequence and liked the idea of the sketchy/cartoon motion.

http://www.shadowplaystudio.com/juno/index.html

We attempted our own version of this sequence. We used the posterisation effect on final cut. This is how it turned out...