Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task.

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.

Rough cut

this is our rough cut for our film opening. Enjoy.

Font for our titles

We went on dafont.com to look for a font to suit our opening sequence.
This is the one we chose:

Titles

We have researched into different hand written style titles.
Here are some of them:











Likes: The sketchy title, it has a young look, perfect for a teen rom com.















Likes: The doodle like effect. Its a careless style, again representing teenagers.










Likes: Even though the writing is pink and swirly, it looks messy to show its a handwritten style.

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.)

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.

Analyslis

Here is a film opening analysis of Bridget Jones's Diary:






Bridget Jones’s diary was released in April 2001, the romantic comedy is based on the novel be Helen Fielding. It was a very successful film.

The opening of Bridget Jones establishes the genre and the mood of the film.
The opening shot is a mid shot and establishes the scene. The opening scene is set in her living room. She is sitting on the sofa drinking wine and is upset about being all alone.

Costume is used cleverly in this opening sequence, as she is wearing pyjamas, she looks like she doesn’t care what she looks like. Her living room is cluttered and messy, this suggests that she stays in a lot and doesn’t go out much.

The props used are the television, a glass of wine and a magazine. The way she gets herself drunk shows that she is depressed.

The diegetic sound of the telephone saying that she doesn’t have any messages is humorous. It also emphasises how alone she is. The other diegetic sound is the music. The song ‘All by myself’ goes alongside all the other details that make her seem lonely to sum up what kind of a character she is.

The genre is established straight away, already the viewer is laughing at her dancing and her character. This shows it is a romantic comedy.

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

• 

LOCATION

As we are going to make a teen romantic comedy, we need to get the location right, so the genre is easily established.
Typical locations of a teen rom-com:

• High school
• school canteens
• corridors of school

Our opening sequence will mainly be filmed in a school corridor, like this one:

PROP LIST

Big sunglasses
We need a pair of sunglasses for when the main characters first walks through the doors of the corridor.

I Pod
She will be listening to her music as she walks through the school.


















Big Handbag
















Hairbrush

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.

initial ideas

From researching into romantic comedies our group have been discussing ideas for our Rom Com opening. Here are some of them:

- School Location (coridors, classrooms, canteen, prom?)
- Different social groups
- Stereotypes
- Boy meets girl
- teenage issues

Romantic Comedy Research

We have chosen to use the genre of the romantic comedy. This can be presented by all generations. Here are a couple of examples:



This is aimed for a teenage to young adult audience. It shows different social groups and stereotypes which is typical of a teenage rom com in a school environment.





This is another example of a teenage rom com. This shows the problems and embarrassing moments a teenager goes through.

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...