Setting ideas for the 'un -popular' character

The settings that Olivia and I are thinking about for the 'un - popular' girl are my the outside of one of my friends house, inside of house and the dirt paths and tunnels in my village - Whetstone.

However the end result we have visualised for the 'un -popular' girl is to be less fortunate, therefore we cannot use the inside of my friends house because she may be offended, consequently for the inside house scenes we shall film in my house. The plan is to make it un - tidy and messy; resulting in my house looking cramped and un - clean. The kitchen will have laundry on the sides, painted pictures on the cupboards, dirty tea towels hanging off handles, newspapers spread out all over the floor (because of the new puppy), the dogs basket etc. The bedroom will be just as un - tidy; clothes everywhere, grungy posters, shoes on floor, bed un -made etc.

The bike scene that we are going to include in our film opening with be filmed on a country gravel path, which has fields on one side and 'jungle like'  bushes on the other. We believe that this scene will be used effectively because the natural lighting will be good, also it shows the struggle that the 'un popular' character has to go through every morning.

This are pictures of my friends house that we are going to use for the exterior shots of the

 'un - popular' girls house.

These are shots of my bedroom after I messed it up, this is the types of setting that Olivia and I are trying to achieve for the getting dressed, bedroom scene. We are also going to put 'grungy' posters up on the walls, this makes the room darker without loosing the light. The dark setting is a reflection of how the 'un -popular' female lead is feeling.

These are two shots of my kitchen; for our kitchen scnen olivia and I are going to 'clutter' my kitchen resulting in it looking un - clean and messy - this is a reflection of the 'un- popular' girls appearance. Using my Kitchen is not ideal however we have no other option without risking offending someone - our vision was to have a small un - unclean kitchen.

This is where we are going to film the bike scene. I believe that this setting will look effective for the scene that we have visualised. The idea behind the bike scene is portray the stuggle that the 'un - popular' female has to go through everyday to get to school: hopefully achieving the audiences' sympathy.  However the scene will look ineffective if the natural light is not bright and hazy - as shown in the pictures. Therefore Olivia and I will have to plan a day when the whether is going to be dry and bright so we can achieve the best possible scene.

I suggested that we include a Birds eye view shot. The idea is that we film the 'un - popular' girl on the bike off the top of the tunnel going in and coming out therefore including two birds eye view shots. However we will film the first birds eye view shot and skip to the 'popular' girl then edit the 'un - popular' female coming out of the tunnel - the viewer is under the impression that she was in the tunnel longer than she actually was.

Mood Boards

I generated a mood board for each of the binary opposite characters we are trying to create in our opening sequence, I did this so I could get a deeper knowledge and understanding of the characters, I did this by thinking about what they would wear, what activities they would enjoy, who there friends would be, what music they would listen to etc and hopefully by gaining this depth and information I can portray this to the audience also through mise en scene.

25 word pitch

We were asked to produce a piece of writing, consisting of 25 words that would sum up our entire film and enable the audience to understand the plot fully. This is what we came up with:

“A romantic comedy aimed at teenagers, which revolves around two female binary opposites and how their high school cliques operate.”

Pitch Feedback

Our whole class agreed that our film should fall under the genre of Romantic Comedy and that it should be aimed mainly at a female audience, however there was some deliberation over what age the target audience should be and underneath I have created a pie chart to illustrate the outcomes. As you can see the over riding vote lies with the ages of 13-19, this is the exact age we were planning on aiming our film at and our class affirmed this idea for us.

Positives
Well thought out characters
Would attract a large audience as many people enjoy the genre/type of film
Well planned out pitch
Very easy to understand and will be very easy to watch, this will attract many people
Love the location choices and think there realistic but at the same time totally contrasting
Been influenced by many different shows and characters (intertexuality) this shows it has been well thought about

Potential Problems
It will be hard to use cross cut editing
Continuity may be an issue, for example the weather will need to be consistent
Could be made more original as there is already a lot of films out that are similar to this
Having to change location constantly may be hard due to weather and it will take up a lot of time
The editing will have to be very slick for it to have its desired effect
You will have to make it overly clear the difference between characters as the audience may get confused easily.

This feedback proved extremely useful, we are going to take all of these positives and potential problems and reassess some of our ideas so that non of the issues raised above will be solved.

Pitch

This is a powerpoint we created to present to our class so we could recieve feedback and constructive criticism as to how we can impove and advance our ideas.

our pitch

Shot List

After vast research we have come up with several ideas our film opening. We want the opening and the credit to be fairly quirky and unusual...



Credits


• When the two binary opposite characters are getting dressed I had the idea of using name labels, for the director’s credits.


• Also whilst the less fortunate (Unpopular) girl is rushing getting ready and doing homework at the same time, she could type her name at the end of her work.


• Whilst both the female leads are eating breakfast, we could use some credits on the food boxes.


• Some of the credits could also look effective with post coming through the door.




Interesting shots


• When the un –popular girl wakes up using a soft focus shot to make the shot ‘fuzzy’ then she reaches for her glasses (the shot is a close up of her hand); the shot changes to a close up of her face (still fuzzy): as she puts her glasses on the shot becomes clearer.


• The camera is put in the fridge, the fridge is then opened and there is a close up/ mid shot of one of the female leads, however this shot is going to be repeated with both of the females –the mise en scene represents the binary opposites.


• When the (un-popular) female is biking to school, she goes under a tunnel – we believe that a bird’s eye shot would look effective here.


• When the females are eating breakfast we had the idea of zooming into one bowl of cereal in the un –popular girl’s house then when it zooms out the shot is in popular girls house: same bowl of cereal.


• The first shot of the ‘popular’ girl begins in an extreme close up of just her eyes then zooms out to a long shot.


• When the ‘popular’ female steps out of the car (at school) – beginning with one leg then the other. A close up of the heeled shoe should be used then a zoom out to show the leg then a tilt shot should be used. This shot connotes her sexuality –Laura Mulvey’s male gaze.

Genre

The genre we have selected for our opening sequence is ‘Romantic Comedy’, we opted for this as it is a genre that we both thoroughly enjoy and think would be fun but challenging to tackle. Romantic Comedy consists of light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals.

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 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 issues that come with being together. However there is always a grand gesture where love is declared and the film ends happily.

We are obviously not going to use a plot line as in depth as the one featured above as we are only creating a short film opening, however another element of romantic comedy that was brought to my attention when researching is that of opposites, in every Romantic Comedy there is consistently characters that possess opposite attributes, this is also known as a binary opposite. Strauss believed that the world was split into a series of binary opposites. Meaning that essentially one thing can only be defined in relation to something it isn't. An example of this would be that a fat person is only fat because there is a thin option. I have noticed that this idea runs through almost every Romantic Comedy, there are never two characters that are in the slightest bit similar, they are always over the top opposite caricatures. I decided to research this further:

All the above Romantic Comedy films feature binary opposites-

Mean Girls- Unpopular and Popular

Legally Blonde- Smart and Dumb

17 Again- Young and Old

Freaky Friday-Insensibe and Sensible

Pride and Prejudice-Poor and Rich

Did you Met The Morgans?- Country Folk and City Slickers

The Proposal- Laid Back and Uptight

Shallow Hal- Fat and Thin

John Tucker Must Die- Beautiful and Ugly

From the evidence above we have decided to base are opening around two binary opposites.

Coursework Deadline Sheet

G321 Course Outline Dec 2009 to March 2010

This is our coursework deadline sheet, this is a guideline as to what we should have done and by when, we are going to try and achieve everything required and meet the deadlines.