Planning - storyboard and shot list

 Storyboards

Production of our story boards

During the production of our story boards we tried to make sure that each part was drawn in enough detail for all of us to understand clearly what was happening in each scene, this also helped us when it came to the filming of our opening sequence as we could clearly see what was happening at each point during our film. The ideas we put into our storyboards were our initial ideas, however some things changed, or were added or removed during filming to improve the film.

Original Shot List

In the bedroom

• Establishing shot - sunrise
• Long/Mid shot - Girl in bed
• Close up - alarm ringing/ turning alarm off
• Panning down - from bed to slippers

MONTAGE - in bedroom

• Close up - feet getting out of bed (into slippers)
• Low close up (on the floor) - feet walking towards wardrobe, away from the camera
• Long shot - as feet walk further away
• Close up - note on wardrobe
• Close up - girls face reacting to the note
• Long shot - opening wardrobe
• Long shot - Clothes being thrown/piling up on the bed

MONTAGE - in bathroom

• Close up - dropping towel, feet stepping into shower 
• Low angled close up - turning on shower

MONTAGE - in bedroom

• Mid shot - brushing hair
• Extreme close up - applying lipstick
• Mid shot - spraying perfume
• Close up -doing hair 

MONTAGE - in hallway

• Long shot - walking down the stairs

In the car 

• Establishing shot - of houses as car drives past them all

School entrance 

• Extreme Long shot 

School corridor

• Long/Mid shot - girl at locker
• Long shot - Mean girls entering
• Long shot - knocking books out of the girls hand
• Long shot - "hi Dylan" as Amber walks past Dylan
• Shot Reverse Shot (close up shots) - conversation between Madison and Dylan
• Over the shoulder shot (Over Madison's shoulder) - Dylan giving books back
• Over the shoulder shot (Over Dylan's shoulder) - Madison thanking Dylan
• Over the shoulder shot (Over Madison's shoulder) - Dylan introducing himself
• Over the shoulder shot (Over Dylan's shoulder) - Madison introducing herself

Planning - Production Company Logo

We had two original designs for our film production company logos:

The first design shows a camera strip with the writing "star productions" across the top and two gold stars in the film strip. The use of the film strip  connotes that we are a low budget independent film company, and the use of the yellow writing connotes happiness, fun and excitement. We think this shows our audience what they should expect to see in our films. The use of the two golden stars suggests that we are of high 'star' quality and that our films will be of this too. 

Our second design is only in the colours black and white, which makes it look very sophisticated and classy. The logo features a film strip, which again connotes that we are a low budget film company, the words 'Maximum productions' are written inside the film strip in a clear, bold font which makes it very eye catching towards the audience, Above this is a scene from London, showing iconographic famous British landmarks, such as the London eye, Big Ben and the house of parliament. This suggests to the audience of our films that it is a British company and therefore any films that we produce will also be British based. 

I prefer the second design as I personally feel that it is of much better quality and in my opinion makes the film look more expensive than the other design does, I think this will impact the audience's views before they watch the film, and we want the audience to think highly of the film before they choose to watch it. 

We all decided we preferred the second design, but wanted to incorporate parts of the first design to improve this. In our final design we used the second design but added five stars around the edge. This suggests that our film is of five star quality. 

Planning - characters

Madison Griffis
This is the female lead character who is seen as a new girl joining the school. She is good looking and seen to care about her school work, a stereotypical characteristic of a female lead character. She comes from a troubled background, due to her recent family split, and this makes her very naive and easily mislead. This is seen when she leaves her friends to become one of the 'mean girls' changing the whole plot of the film and changing herself as a character. We tried to portray our lead girl like this as it makes her relatable to the target audience as she is a typical teenager facing everyday situations.


Dylan Barker
This is the male lead character who is portrayed as the most popular girl in school. He is athletic, good looking and lusted after by all the girls in the school. However the audience also learn that he is very self-conscious and thinks if he does not stay in a relationship with Amber (the popular mean girl) then he will loose his reputation, which makes him afraid of being targeted, especially if he ever got on the wrong side of Amber. The 'real Dylan' starts to develop in the film when Madison joins the school and he holds part of the blame for the conflict and rivalry between Amber and Madison. This is because he starts to  realise that perhaps Amber is not the girl for him and how much nicer Madison is.


Amber - the popular mean girl
Amber is the stereotypical mean girl of a teen angst film. She is arrogant, stuck-up and incredibly materialistic. Her main aims are to keep hold of her 'popularity', her appearance and of course keeping a relationship with the most popular, good-looking boy in the film, Dylan so that they can remain the ultimate 'it' couple with much more power. Amber thinks the whole school love her when in reality this is not the case. Madison and Amber are rivals throughout the film, until Madison ends up leaving her friends and moving to sit with the mean girls. However when Dylan ends up leaving Amber for Madison the friendship ends and the rivalry is worse than ever.


Mean girls 1 and 2
These two characters are Amber's followers. They thrive to be her and want to remain popular, therefore they do not want to get on the wrong side of her and do everything within their power to make sure she always likes them. They do not always enjoy spending time with Amber but they think it is better to be with Amber, than to be without her as they may be hated by others.

Social groups 

Within the film there are three main social groups. 

The first social group is the athletic sporty group. This is the group that Dylan belongs to, and he will often be seen with a member of this group kicking a football around or laughing together. Most of the good looking boys in the school are part of this group so there are often girls watching them, or lusting after one of them. This is what makes this group an important aspect of the film as the boys in it will be someone the target audience will want to watch.

The second social group in the film will be the 'Nerds'. This group will be identified by the mise-en-scene in which they wear. This will be glasses, unfashionable clothing and will often be seen carrying school books. They will dress smarter than the other students in the school which will connote their intelligence.

The final social group in the film will be the mean, popular girls. This is the group that Amber belongs to and that Madison joins for a short while. This group will often be see wearing pink coloured clothing as this connotes how girly they are as pink is seen to be an incredibly feminine colour. Activities that we see them doing include applying make-up, gossipping and trying to intimidate other students. This will be seen in the opening sequence when they knock Madison's school books out of her hands. This is their way of showing Madison where she belongs as they feel slightly intimidated by her due to her being attractive as well as smart. They know the boys in the school admire them and enjoy this attention and therefore do not want another girl to steal this from them.

Powerpoint pitching our ideas

Before we confirmed all the decisions we had planned in our film we had a task to pitch the ideas we had to the class, this pitch was done in the form of a presentation, so therefore we used a powerpoint to deliver our ideas.

This was our first slide, showing the target audience and why we choose these ideas specifically. The class all agreed with these ideas and thought that this was a good age group to aim the film towards as they are the age group that often watch teen angst films. 

In this slide we had scanned in copies of the original notes pages we had written when we first began to plan our film.

When showing our USP we tried to link it back to the target audience as it is the reason we thought this was the USP. This is because many teen angst films are produced in America and therefore have different aspects and realisms to those that are shown in the UK, therefore our film is realistic for a British teen audience.

When we first planned our film we created a rough draft of how we thought the title sequence would progress. We had to make sure that this showed conventions of typical teen angst films so that it would keep the audience interested from the beginning.

we needed to produce a plan of the plot of our film so that we could make sure that the opening sequence we planned would be useful and fit in with the entire film

As we know how important it is to get the main characters in a film right we made sure we showed the two lead characters in our pitch so that we could get the class' ideas and opinions on how to develop these characters.

Our next slide showed the locations of our film. This is so that we could shpw that our film shows similar aspects of stereotypical teen angst films 

We produced two different logos for the production company and asked the class watching our pitch which one they thought was most effective, there were mixed opinions on both the logos. 

we wanted to show the audience the comparison between our film and stereotypical teen angst films

At the end of our pitch we asked the audience if they could think of a title for our film as we had not found one that we liked and thought was catchy enough. An idea was put forward to us was "last one in" as it would show that Maddison was the new girl to the school, however we did not think this title was catchy enough and therefore did not want to use it.

Planning - actor scheduling

We had to make sure that all the actors we were using were free to film at the same time and that our filming location was also free to be used.
To film the scenes in Madison's bedroom only two people were needed, this was Alice who played Madison and one person to do the filming. This was the easiest scene to arrange as between the two of us we were able to find a time that we were both free.

The scenes in the school were the most difficult to film as we had to include so many extras, aswell as all the characters we were using which included, Madison, Dylan, Amber and her two followers and Dylans friends. This scene was difficult to film as we needed all of these people which amounted to a large number. Therefore we had to arrange a time that all these people were free to film it all.

The most difficult scene to arrange filming of was the scene in the car. This was because we had to arrange a time that our driver was free, we had to make sure that the roads were not too busy as well as our filming would not work if we were stuck in a traffic jam queue.

Production Company Logos

This logo consists of a large golden statue. Statues are seen as grand and important, which suggests that this company is of large importance within the industry and that it is a big competitor. The colour gold used also connotes rich, wealth and quality, which suggests that this film company is admired my the rich and wealthy and that it is expensive and therefore the best company around. The statue standing up high, showing the name in large capital letters also suggests this importance. Spotlights normally show people that are meant to stand out, so therefore using them in this logo suggests that the films made by this company are expected to stand out. The blue and yellow background is made to look like a sunset, which suggest new beginnings to the start of each day, which could suggest that this film company create new and exciting films. This film company has produced some of the biggest hit movies known, such as Avatar, Ice age, cheaper by the dozen, Mrs.Doubtfire, star wars and The Sound of music.

The Columbia company logo is a lady, that is wearing a long white robe gown and seems to be draped in the American flag, standing on a podium. As she is placed on the podium making her stand tall she is seen to be very important. There are constant debates about who this lady is, however being draped in the American flag suggests that her figure is representing the United states of America, the country in which this comes from. The colour white in the robe connotes innocence and purity, suggesting that this company follow correct procedures and make good quality films. The lady is holding up a torch with a bright light shining over the sky background. The bright background connotes positivity, which suggests that the company create good, high quality films. This company has also created many top hit films, such as, The amazing spiderman, Casino Royale, Dracula and 2012.

The Paramount logo shows a mountain peak in front of a back ground of smaller mountains. This suggests that Paramount are the biggest and best out of all the other companies, which shows they are a large important contender within the industry. A circle of stars go around the peak of the mountain, which suggest that the company is of star quality. The left side of the sky in the background shows the sun surrounded by bright colours, suggesting day time, and the right side shows darker blues and greys which can suggest night meaning that this company creates movies that can be watched all the time.

The Walt Disney pictures logo shows a castle, which is seen as magical and fairytale like. Castles are normally used to represent princess' which could suggest that this film company focus their films towards children. The pinks, blues and purples used are all colours that young children seem to enjoy. These colours can also be used to connote a calm yet magical atmosphere, suggesting that these films are not violent so will not upset young children. The silvers used in this logo also connote a glittery, magical atmosphere suggesting that these films are all make believe fiction and highlight the key points of hope and wishfulness when following children's dreams, The silver font also does this as well as make a unique trademark for the company. As it is also a fancy looking font it suggests that Walt Disney make high quality films that are top of the range. Walt Disney's films include some classics such as Cinderella, The Lion King and Toy story, as-well as more modern films such as High school musical and Pirates of the Caribbean. Walt Disney films also contain many animals within them, ranging from woodland creatures to animals from Africa and the Sahara desert.

The Hunger Games - Mocking jay Promotion so far

So far i feel the most productive method of promotion is the official trailer with over 16 million views in less than 2 months, the official Hunger Games channel also have released 3 other short videos of the film each reaching a minimum of 3 million views.

Another method i feel may impact the film is that the famous singer Lorde has sung a track for the Mockingjay soundtrack potentially bringing a larger audience to the film.

The main character Katniss Evergreen also has appeared on the front cover of Empire magazine one of the most famous film magazines in the world, the feature promotes and criticizes the film both giving extra publicity and attention to an audience that may not have initially went to see the film giving them a mass audience.

The posters you see above are the two official poster releases of the film, they are both quite dark suggesting mysteriousness and the use of fire in both connotes some sort of danger or panic, both posters feature the date of release and title of the movie, the top poster does also feature a list of characters and distributors ect and also a slogan for the poster 'The courage of one will change the world' i am not yet sure if this slogan is being used across all promotion or not.

I also found two websites; Heat World and Yahoo movies launching a competition to win tickets to the premiere, the Yahoo movies site states 'Yahoo Movies and Lionsgate UK have teamed up' this suggests to us automatically the film plans or partnering up with other companies.

Clueless - An example of a Teen Angst

 Clueless is one of the most classic and famous teen angst films there is, it was produced and released in 1995.

Narratives

The whole film is based around the life of Cher, a stereotypical female in the 1990's often described as superficial and wealthy the film takes us through the struggles that she, along with many others, face as through typical life problems such as driving tests, boys and family dramas. This is linked to the teen angst genre as it conveys stereotypical conventions of these, which attracts a teenage audience as they feel they can relate to this, such as the lead character in the film having long blonde hair and being a popular, rich girl that everyone is jealous of or wants to be. 

Mise en Scene

Mise en scene was crucial when creating the characters personalities and egos, this was mainly through costumes and make up all iconography of a stereotypical female, as you see in the picture above the girls are shown in short skirts and popular fashions of that era, the mobile phones suggest the girls came from wealth and this was also portrayed in locations set in the girls homes, one example was Chers home which props were used alot showing off her cars outside and the posh interiors and technologies emphasizing her wealth.

 The lighting used was mainly all high key as it is a fairly comical film with a small amount of serious topics within, this lighting was often from the daylight of the location set in Beverly Hills, also renowned for the wealthy and famous.

Actors

Alicia Silverstone as Cher - Cher is seen as a stereotypical dumb female leading a group of 'popular' girls, shown with blonde hair and blue eyes she fits all the conventions of a stereotypical female lead in a teen angst film.

Stacey Dash as Dionne Davenport -  Dionne is the largest counter type in the film, as she not white American, she is also seen to be very caring in contrast to Cher making her more of a protagonist.

Elisa Donovan as Amber Mariens -  Amber is Chers and Dionnes rival within the film, portrayed as a antagonist and is in constant rivalry with the other girls.

Camera Work

Tracking is one of the most used camera shots used in the film, mainly to show the girls walking through the school corridors, this is also mainly used at a low angle to emphasize the power that the girls have within the school environment.

Mid shots are often used to show the conversations between the two main characters, these often show facial expressions.

Long shots are also used to show the fancy houses and exterior of the locations that the girls are in to emphasize their wealth.

The Settings

I have previously mentioned that the film was set in Beverly Hills, known for its celebrity status and wealthy residents. This impacts the film as it creates the characters to be young aspiring celebrities and fashion icons, brought up with brand new technology the girls are all portrayed to be fashion-conscious and attached to their phones all the time. 

Planning - Settings

The main setting in our film is at a school, this is why we tried to make sure we used mise-en-scene that represented this.

 The iconic use of the lockers connote the school setting. This is used in many teen angst films to show the location and to show the age group of the audience. The image of the door shows the school setting but also the door in which the 'mean girls' burst through when they are first introduced to the film. This was used so they would have a dramatic entrance and so that people would part to move out of their way when they walked.

Girly bedroom

Madison's bedroom is shown to be very girly but also to represent parts of her throughout the story.  This is the room in which the majority of the montage is filmed, so we see Madison waking up and getting out of bed and the dressing table is where we see her getting ready. The wardrobe is where we see Madison throwing out her clothes trying to decide what to wear. We thought of this scene as we thought it was something seen in many teen angst films when the lead female character is getting ready. An example of this film is Clueless. 

Mise-en-scene

We used specific mise-en-scene in the opening of the film in Madison's bedroom. This was to show where we were filming and to highlight that she is quite girly.