pitch- The treatment

Title of opening scene :

"NEW GIRL On The Block"

After discussing our initial ideas our film , we came up with the name New Girl On The Block as this would follow a character who was new to her surrounds , however we have now decided to choose.

A brief outline of the movie/movie opening:

our film opening will be about a teenage girl who is new to the area and is trying to fit into her new surroundings. However she has a hard time doing so as a group of girls are persistent in prohibiting her from fitting in.

if this were to be presented as a full movie we would showcase the ideas of friendship, heart break, aspirations and social challenges. The way in which we would show these ideas is through the characters endeavours throughout the movie, as they would have gotten into certain situations that would show any one of the previously mentioned ideas. For example we composed a mock scene where the main character and her enemy become friends over a period of time whilst spending a certain amount of time together in detention.

Within our film opening, we will show the main characters journey to her new school, as well as incorporating the things she sees on her way there.

Problems with opening scene ideas

When working with a group of people, ideas are destined to clash especially in a group of strong willed people.

When putting forward my ideas for the opening sequence most of my group members had either not heard of or not watched St. Trinians which due to human instinct if you don't know something you will immediately reject it which is what they did. So I set myself a target : get my group members to see/understand my vision.
I took some time to plan my moment of action in my head then explained my idea along with explaining the basic information/storyline of St. Trinains. After this my group finally understood and accepted my Idea of Inputting an aspect of St. Trinians into our Opening.

I didn't win them over with my Idea of inputting SKET but you can't win them all. So all in all I left happy knowing some of my ideas are going to be used in the opening.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 

ideas for own film opening

own film opening:

I decided to put in my own research of what ideas I would put into my own film opening
and I have figured out that I would focus more on certain sub genres to teen movies such as: teen comedy and teen dramas, this is because I would be able to relate to teenagers on a personal level as teen drams touch on subjects and situations that teenagers go through every day, whereas I also will utilise teen comedy to contradict the realities and seriousness of these situations as it will allow teens to deal with their issues without becoming depressed or discouraged by them as the comedy side of things would assist in decreasing stress levels.

I recognise that there are plenty of different genres of movies that I could have chosen from such as: Chick flicks and Teen action. However I felt as though you can only interest a certain type of audience with those genres and I've thought that if I were ever to make a film opening I would want to engage as many people as possible.

As for sound, it would depend on the story at hand, for example if the opening of the film had a slow pace when it comes to editing I would keep Foley sound at the forefront, above the backing track as this way the viewers would be able to understand as much of the opening as possible by being aware of the things going on with the characters as well as around them. And vice versa with a film opening with a more fast pace.

                                                                       Teen drama:

 Teen comedy:

Teen action:

Chick flick:



Opening: Research

We went around college asking our fellow students what it is they would like to see in a teen film opening,

here are some of the responses we received. 

From the feedback we have received we can see that most people expect a teen film to be action packed, with a side of comedy and romance

  

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas for own opening

OPENING SCENE 

For our own opening scene I have many ideas in which I believe could be used in some sort of way. 

In terms of films we could use as a stimulus I think movies such as the ones stated below would be good:

I think St. Trinians is a good stimulus as it is based in a British school and would be easy for us to portray.

Planning- teen film opening

                                                  planning of our opening scene: 

what sub genres will we be using?

As a group we have been looking at ideas of the different types of sub
 genres we could use within our opening scene. Determining this has allowed
us to further understand the project at hand, as we will be able to make conscious decisions
on what to include in our opening scene, in order for it to correlate with the sub genre we have chosen. The sub genre we chose was a 'teen drama', this is because we felt that through a teen drama we will be able to relate to our Target audience, as this sub genre will enable us to touch on subjects pertaining to the everyday lives of teenagers.

characters and representation: 
In our film opening we are trying to be as efficient as possible, so we have decided that each member of the group will be playing some part in the opening scene. this way each of us will be able to experience both filming and acting during this project as well as this being a fair solution, it will increase our knowledge using the camera equipment and us all acting will allow us to fully understand what we are doing.

locations we have considered using:
we wanted to make our film opening as realistic and relatable as possible and so we didn't want to over exert ourselves when choosing locations because we waned to capture the raw reality of middle class teenagers of this generation. As a result of this idea we chose to film our scene opening in these three locations:

•  school/college
• flat/ apartment
• estate

plot/themes: 
We have decided to incorporate different ideas from a variety of teen movies from various teen movie genres such as: fish tank, mean girls, St. Trinians and white chicks, in order to appeal to a wide range of teenagers, who enjoy watching different things . The main plot to our opening scene is going to be about a young teenage girl who is new to the area, and is trying to fit in however she has a hard time achieving that. our opening scene will showcase the beginning of her journey in doing so. The themes we will try to include in the opening scene are:

• friendship
• new beginnings
• popularity (Social hierarchy within schools)
• aspiration
• bullying
• drama

we decided on these themes because in the previously mentioned teen movies this is what we have observed as the main themes within those films and they were all highly successful movies.

style of titles :

As a group we figured that our opening titles should be as interesting and creative as possible as our project is time limited, and so in order to include as much as possible of  our story we decided to style our title sequence similar to the recent film fast and furious 6. we chose to do this because it showcases all the important titles however it also includes parts of the story in between these titles and so we thought that this method would be the most productive and efficient way to use our filming time.
Target audience:
For every film production an audience is determined to ensure sales and views. our target audience will be teenagers between the ages of 15-18 simply because our film opening will be able to relate to them as they will either be experiencing school life or just alighting the education system so the event of new beginnings at a school will still be relatable for them.

independent or mainstream: 

Our film opening will be an independent British teen drama production, as this is a small scale project. As well as this we are aware of the funds we would need in order to introduce the film opening as a mainstream one and have concluded that it wouldn't be realistic.

style of soundtrack we will use:
seeing as our film opening will be mainly inspired by the teen drama fish tank, we have opted to include music that is quite upbeat and urban so for example when the main character is introduced we have  thought about including some house music or hip hop.

Movies we have collected inspiration from:

       
                                          white chicks

                                          St. Trinians

                                         Fish Tank

                                          fast and furious 6:- opening credits
                                       

                                          sket 

                                          hairspray

Researching Music and Sound

The concept behind creative commons

Sound : Adding Sound Effects

Our Soundtrack :

After choosing our final soundtrack from Creative Commons , which we thought was most appropriate to match and reflect the sad and heated atmosphere after the argument between the protagonist and someone he knew , we wanted to emphasis this with the use of Sound Effects .

Sound Effect :

When choosing a sound effect we decided to go for the sound track at the opening scene of "Cymbal tradition " which was a sound of a Cymbal instrument , this striking and fast sound was chosen as we through it ambiguously showed the feelings of sadness hit the protagonist as he enter bed after , very upset ; this enhancing and reveals the emotions of the character .

After choosing our effect using also Final cut Pro we added to the beginning of the scene to show the emotions , after considering this we thought about adding some foley sound to our scene , however we thought this wouldn't match the emotion of the scene since their isn't much that could show the sadness of the ever .

Teen Films : Sound Task

What is our task ?

Our task as a group was to watch a scene from Love and Basketball and use music Creative Commons that we thought would compliant the emotions and atmosphere of the scene .

Why is sound important to a film ?

Adding music to a scene is very important as it reflects and enhances the feelings and atmosphere that is represented in the movie , this also shows the audience hidden emotions that they should be feeling 

When looking for music on Creative Common , we had to make sure any music that we did use was Copyright free because it would be breaking the law , however ;  Creative Commons is a good way to insure that we don't not use music which is Copyrighted as it is like a filter , which only lets you download music which is CopyRight FREE ! .

Creative Common Website :

Reflective blog

Shot By Shot Remake - ' The Breakfast Club' comparison

After watching our own remake and the original of ' The Breakfast Club' we had a discussing on how we felt our own remake went and the similarities and differences between the two .


Similarities :

• Our version followed the narrative of the opening as closely as possible
• Both used the dialogue
• Both used same shots possible
• Had the characters entering the scene

Differences :

• As limited resources , couldn't use real cars so showed more a swede side to the opening
• Not all characters same gender as the characters
• Our shots had to change due to limited resources
• Our scenes had different locations so had to adapt to own setting .

Filming of ' The Breakfast Club' shot by shot remake

Filming :
After planning and having discussing our plans for our Shot by Shot remake we were finally able to start filming for our shot by shot remake .

Behind The Scene :
When filming , we decided to show our process of filming our characters , also we also toke pictures of what locations we decided to use .

Here we are discussing how Sanaa and Ebony will act our chosen characters , also how we will show the chosen props to represent our characters.









Here Sanaa toke her turn in filming The Jock and his father seen , during this scene due to the limitations of not having a real car we had to make the chairs that we used seem like they were in a car , by using different angles .









Here again Sanaa is trying different angles which would illustrate the idea of being in a car










Locations and Props :

Ideas for own Opening Scene

When thinking individual about what i would want our opening scene to be about , i decided to do my own research about different films with different types of genres that i might would want to do .

 

Genres :

Some genres that I might want to explore during the scenes are :

• Teen Comedy
• Teen Action
• Teen Drama

Teen Comedy :

Mean girls is a teen movie , with the genres of comedy and also the sub-genre of the romance , I believe this would be a good idea to base my opening scene on as it would give the ideas of a teen movie , also make the audience humour with the film , however ; this will be quite hard to make up humour parts and jokes .



Teen Action :

This would be a good movie to do , as through the original opening the use of voiceover of the main character as also , conventions of action where shown , however , this may be hard to do due to the conventions action it might be hard to represent this in an opening scene .




Opening Scene :















Teen Drama:

Out of all the types of genres that I have looked that , that I think would be suitable for a opening scene is Teen Drama , fish tank has conventions of a teen movie by its protagonist and her problems through life , this would be easy to shoot around London as it is a British based film .

Opening Scene :

Ideas for film opening

Own film opening

For my teen opening I have been looking at what genre we would base our opening on as many feel that action based,romantic and comedy genres is what make a teen film good from our previous interview asking the public. Sub genre will be based on teenagers influence so

• Partying
• Alcohol
• Peer Pressure
• Relationships

These sub genres will be best to use as they relate to teenagers and what they go through

 Movies that I feel best described these sub genres are 

Mean Girls

Fish Tank

shot by shot remake of the breakfast club/ Prelim

Directors Cut

     A short brief video of the director talking about the shot by shot remake of The Breakfast Club

Teen Movie:

                                                     
                         Teen movie:
                        Twilight: breaking dawn part 2

This movie is a part of the twilight franchise .This film became instantly popular from the time it was released because it related to a lot of young teenage girls as the characters in the movies suffered through similar issues that a normal teenager would do. The main fan base of this franchise of movies is teenage girls because of the main themes that are presented within it, such as: relationships, friendships, love, secrets and high school survival.

key characters:

Edward Cullen:

 

Edward Cullen the vampire who is played by Robert Patterson, and he plays the love interest of his fellow actress Bella Thorne who is played by Kristen Stewart. Another major part he plays is the fact that he has a rivalry against the Werewolf  Jacob, who is played by Taylor Launtner.  

Bella Thorne:

Kristen Stewart plays the human love interest Bella of Edward, who is in a constant battle with herself about whether or not she is in love with Jacob or Edward.

Jacob:

Taylor Launtner plays the Werewolf who is a apart of this love triangle between himself Bella and Edward.

The influence  this movie has on young people:

the main attraction of this movie is the relationship between these above characters and it promotes young love so in a way young girls are influenced by the movie to encourage entering into a relationship. however within this film most of the male characters treat the women with respect so t also teaches boys how to behave towards women and how to respect them.

Trailer of the movie:  

self evaluation:

                                             what I have learnt:

Throughout this blogging process so far I have learnt a considerable amount of things about the film industry, teen movies and TV dramas. Through this blog I have been able to document this knowledge I have acquired so far, and I find it to be really helpful for me as I am able to look back at the blog for revision purposes. The main things I have learnt from this course so far as a whole Is how to work in a team, as this blog is a major part of my course work, group work has become essential in order to succeed. So skills such as people skills, time management, organisational skills and many more have become regular skills that I have to constantly apply during lessons.

As well as this I have learnt about what the openings to a film consists of from the production and distribution companies involved to the title sequence, the opening to most films are similar and conventional in the layout of what is mentioned leading up to the actual film. Another thing I have learnt to do is identify the different factors that make up a typical teen movie, these include: stereotypical characters (jock, cheerleaders etc.), settings/locations (high school), props (drugs, messy bedrooms etc.)
                                What I will do to improve:

I have realised that in my posts I haven't been experimental enough, and this portrays some of my blogs to be quite boring and uninteresting,so in order to improve my work I will try to include more visual aspects to it. Also I will try to include more detailed quality pieces of writing even though it will be minimal to show that I understand the work I have been set. Furthermore, It will benefit any viewers of our blog as they will be able to understand it just as well. 

Evaluation

What have a learnt ?

From looking at all my other posts and everything I have done so far I have realised a few things I have personality learnt and things I can also improve. From doing this blog so far o have learnt to analyse a teen movie and know the conventional themes , topics and subjects that make a teen movie great . For example , teen movies always have the conventional characters , location and themes that relate back to the teenager audience we makes it more appealing for them

Also , I've learnt that openings of a film always have a conventional order of titles or scenes that they go through , For example , you go through a hierarchy of people /companies who helped contribute to the film for example , the distribution and production company always go first when starting a film.

What will I improve ?

After my current blogs , I will now elaborate on my work and the quality of my research , this will all build up to help me with my groups own opening of a film , where I can put all the things I have currently learnt and researched into consideration when doing my own .

Evaluation

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT

Due to the amount of time I have spent blogging and learning about the film industry, I have figured out different ways in which to improve and better my learning. 

During my learning journey I learned how to create the opening to a film and the different stages in which films must go through to be able to reach the public eye. This had been a real eye opener and gave me a better understanding and ideas to help me prepare for my own opening. I also learned about sub-genres: 

• Teen Horror                                           
• Teen Comedy
• Teen Romance etc.

and the themes in a teen film:

• Friendship
• love
• individuality etc.

Furthermore I also learned about the differences between large production and distribution companies and Independent ones. Along with how a films budget can affect which type of companies they are able to work with.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE

To improve I will use more technologies in my blogs and try to make it an interactive entertaining way of learning, that way when anyone or myself feels the need to look back on my blogs they will not feel bored but be able to soak up all the valuable information. I will also increase the amount of things I write on some of my posts as I have noticed some of them are quite bare even though most of the bare ones are supposed to be.

Self Evulation

What I have learnt

From looking at my work I have looked at what I have learnt from blogging and the different uses of sources I have used in order to make my work interactive as well as evaluating  how I can improve my blog to make sure it is to the best of my ability.

What I have learnt is how openings of films are made and the different stages a film goes through in order to be published for the public to watch which comes in handy for when we come to make our opening scene as we will be able to use our knowledge of the title opening in films to help us when doing our title opening and knowing what order to place them in.
Production Companies is also something that we discussed the difference between big production company that are used for well known movies with well known stars (Brad Pitt, Will Smith)and low production companies that produce small budgeted movies.
 Conventional themes is something we looked at also the different topics that we find mostly in teen films

• Relationships
• Peer Pressure
• Partying/Alcohol

We have looked at a few teen films such as Bling Ring, Mean Girls as well as me personally watching other movies such as Bring It On, White Chicks, St Trinians,Fish Tank, Adulthood and Kidulthood films that target teenagers and looking at the different techniques that they use in order to engage the audience

What I can improve

From looking through my blog post I have seen where I can improve my work by making sure that I use a range of different technology such as prezzi etc to make my blogs more interactive instead of using images all the time. As well as this I will make sure that I also use research that I have looked at in order to help me when doing my opening scene in groups so I can use my work and knowledge in order to help when coming to filming, blogging, editing our opening scene.

Planning of 'The Breakfast Club' opening remake

As a group , we discussed throughly all the micro features and things we wanted to focus on our remake , when discussing this we focused on the props , clothing for the characters and the locations of the film .

Characters :

When looking at the character of the opening we found The Jock , The Rich Girl , The Weird Girl , The Criminal and The Brain , when looking at studying these character we though about the clothing we would wear as these characters :

 ( In order from left to right )

The Criminal :
This guy is someone who isolates himself from everyone and everything , but others are not sure about him so do not converse with him , also he is someone who seems quite lonely, this may be because he has no family . This is why we will be giving this character a massive coat to suggest his scruffy self.

The Weird Girl : 
The Weird Girl in the opening , is a girl who doesn't conform to the normal societies dress code or how to act , this is why we are giving her a big bag to suggest a person who likes to learn also a big coat , with a plain top and trousers underneath to suggest her plain personality .

The Jock : 
When looking at the Jock we realised he would give the impression of the popular , sporty individual who was proud and known for their sporty achievements . This gave us the idea to show character by giving him a baseball jacket or a jock jacket to suggest authority of his status at the school , jeans and a prop to show his sporty side to give him a football to emphasis his sporty personality.

The Rich Girl :
Looking at the rich girl , you can see that she doesn't fit the high school working class society as she see herself as higher and more respected then other s , we wanted to show this through her clothes by making her wear a long coat , a blouse and a skirt and girly bag to suggest her young lady facades .


The Brain :
The brain is a character who is clever , and a high achiever in school however , shows that he isn't bothered about school and what it does . This is why we are giving him a causal look with a top , jumper and jeans , he will have a bag and be holding some books as well.

Locations :
The locations for our film is the street where the characters will be walking or driving in and also the main place , these school entrance/ building

Props :
For all the character we age them bags to suggest going to school however , each character have their own personal prop to suggest their personality and their facades they show .
For example , the jock had an football to suggest like for sports , the rich girl had her phone in her hand to suggest middle class personality , the criminal had stolen phone in his hand to suggest facades of a criminal , the brain had books and the weird girl had her diary t suggest her loneliness she has .

Shot By Shot Remake Task

For our task , we are going to remaking the opening of The Breakfast Club . In the opening  of this film , we as a audience are introduced to the main characters of the film , The Jock , The Brain , The Rich Girl, The Criminal , The Weird Girl , whom all enter the scene of the school buliding differently in terms of transport , which reflects the characters personalities and lifestyles .

Characters :

The Jock : The popular sporty type whose dream is to play a sport professional , father figure is plays a dominate figure in their life , who is stern with the idea of succeeding in sports

The Brain : The boy ho is the clever child , but doesn't act like he is , is constantly in arguments with his mother , usually his little sibling is the favourite , dependent on his mother who drives a quite old car  , could suggest working class family

The Rich Girl : The rich girl who is stubborn and snotty also spoilt, she is a daddy's girl who dads runs his own business , looks down upon people.

The Criminal : Lonely boy who many don't like , walking to school by himself quite isolated for enviorment and everyone around him , suggests his working class or even lower class status .

The Weird girl : the weird girl who everyone thinks is a loser , is isolated from her family , is driven to school and then straight  away left to be alone , no acknowledgment about her in her family or school .

From the opening of the film , you can see bits of locations that suggest a school environment before introducing the characters . For example , the sounds of the school bell ringing , and then a jump cut to the outside of the school building showing the kids entering and leaving . also , the view of the clock before this to suggest for the time for the bell . This image of a school is also shown through the modes of transport the character take such as cars , and walking , even though the are the same , all character have a different experience of it .

Traveling and Arriving Storyboard

This is our storyboard we created for a character meeting his friend in the other side of town . We followed this character with adding its travel and arrival , from this we considered all the micro features Camera work , editing , cinematography and sound , which we explained about who they experienced their journey.

Explanations of orders of titles

Orders of Titles 

When considering the order of how titles are placed , you can see that the most important people or companies are placed and go in a hierarchy of those who contributed to the film 

Order of titles :

• Distribution company
• Producers / Production company
• Written by 
• Main characters 
• Title
• lighting , costume , special effect ( who help with visual aspects of film)

For example , the distribution company "paramount" came up first , this is as the money is supplied by them also this gives the distribution company a promotion and a label to the film . this is also followed on by the producers / production company , written by and the main stars of the film . This conventional order of the titles allows the audience to see who and what companies are involved , this may lure the audience into watching a specific film as the companies such as paramount might have distrubted another film that was in their interest , this again promoting them and to their audiences .

This is similar to showing the stars in the credits , this attracts the audience and fans into the film as the are familiar with the actors or actresses and want to see what they do in a movie , this gaining more views .