Planning - sounds

When planning our piece we decided we needed a piece of music that was:

• upbeat
• happy
• quirky

This was because after doing our research we know that many teen angst films use this sort of music, as it makes sure the opening to the film is positive, and catchy which will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film.

other non-diegetic sounds we know we needed to use in our films are:

• an alarm clock sound
• a voiceover
• a school bell
• the sound of birds

These sounds would all add effect to the film and make it run more effectively.

Risk assessment

Planning a Teen angst opening sequence

Our initial ideas

Target audience

• The target audience of the teen angst film would be 13-18 year old girls.
• The target audience will be females as teen girls watch movies that show love, relationships and friendships, where as boys seem to watch more action type movies that show thrilling scenes and stunt doubles.

costumes
using colour pink for mean girls as this is stereotypical of teen angst films and groups them so they are easily recogniseable
Madison to wear neutral colours in opening scene as she is new to school therefore not in a group, this will also make her stand out.
Dylan to belong to sporty group so seen to be athletic and therefore will be seen kicking around a football with his group of friends.

Evalutation task 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Danny trying out for the sports team in Grease

basket ball team in High school musical

Madison walking past

In this shot of our film you can see a group of boys playing football in the background. This group also contains Dylan, our main male character, who is portrayed to be very athletic and very popular. This group is the sports team of our film who are always seen to be playing football. This is very similar to High school musical, as Troy Bolton the lead in that is always seen with his basketball team and they are the most popular boys in the school. This is how we have portrayed Dylan's group of friends in our film. Portraying our character like this counter acts another teen angst film, grease. In this film Danny the male lead tries out for the sports team to impress Sandy, the female lead who he likes. However it does not work out for him and the film does not base around the jocks, as this film is much older than the other films we are left to believe this could be a reason why the jocks are not as important as they are in the more contemporary films we watch today, such as High school musical. This is why we have made sure the boys in our film are seen to be the popular sporty ones as the target audience will be expecting to see this. 

Amber and her followers

A Cinderella story  - mean girls

Similar to a Cinderella story our mean  girls are a trio with one being the obvious leader. In this film they are shown to be wearing the colour pink which connotes femininity, which is something we tried to replicate in our film. We constructed this by making sure there was high-key lighting which makes the girls look much more young and exciting rather than a dull atmosphere. We also made sure that the main mean girls shown to be in front of the other girls at all points in the film as this shows she is more important. However we also tried to make sure our main mean girl was different to the mean girls in other films. We made sure she was a counter-type as stereotypically mean girls in films have bleached blonde hair, whereas Amber, our main mean girl, is shown with black hair. This is so that she stands out from the other films, such as A Cinderella story, and is also relatable to other people, that can not always compare themselves to the girls in other films.

Sam - A Cinderella story,  Gabriella - High school musical,  Georgia - Angus, thongs and perfect snogging

Madison, our main character, is portrayed as the new girl in our film, this is similar to Gabriella, in High school musical.   Gabriella is shown to be very shy and quiet and also incredibly smart and focused on school, this is something we tried to portray in our character in the opening of our film. We thought this is how our character would be represented if she was just joining a new school for the first time. Our character is also similar to Sam, in A Cinderella story. Sam is seen to be very quiet, she tries to blend into the background so that people do not question her and stay out of her way, however she always ends up in the limelight. This is similar to Madison, she wants to stay hidden and just focus on school work and on making a few, nice, new friends, however she struggles to as everyone watches her as she is the new girl. She then befriends Amber and her followers which makes her top gossip of the schools social circle. Another character Madison could also be compared to is Georgia Nicholson in Angus, thongs and perfect snogging. In this film she is not in the most popular group, however the popular, school heart throb ends up liking her, something very similar to our film, as Dylan is the boy everyone wants, just like Robbie is in Angus, thongs and perfect snogging.

Madison - female lead character

Madison, being the female lead is different to some films, such as Clueless and wild child. In these films the female lead is seen to have bleach blonde hair and to be very rich and into fashion and always wanting to buy and wear the latest designer trends. They are portrayed as the popular girls in school from the beginning, something Madison is not. However in Wild child, Poppy, the female lead is very popular before she moves to the school, however seems to get a reality check when she joins and realises that she will not be as popular here, so in some ways she could be compared to Madison. Cher, however is seen to be very popular from the beginning of the film, there is a time in the film when Thai, her friend, seems to gain more popularity, which is one of the problems Cher has to overcome within the film. Therefore Madison and Cher are not similar in anyway and show many differences.

Cher - Clueless,   Poppy - wild child

Evaluation task 1 - In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In shot 1 an establishing shot is shown. This shot shows what time of day it is which is therefore setting the scene. Over the top of this shot is the title of our film, displaying the film logo that we have used. The logo includes the title of our film "Madison. However we tried to use a font that was similar to a young girls handwriting. We did this because it is commonly used in films of all genres, especially teen angst films, examples of films using this include '27 dresses', 'footloose' and 'the fault in our stars'. In the logo of our film we have also used an image that suggests someone has just kissed the page. This is to suggest that Madison has signed the page and then left her kiss as a signature. The kiss is used as it is usually associated with teen girls and teen angst films normally use this, for example in Mean girls the lip print is used to cover the 'burn book'.

Shot 2 shows a mid-shot of the three 'mean girls'. In this shot all three girls are wearing pink which connotes femininity and calmer, peaceful love. As pink is a colour used to represent girls we noticed teen angst films use this colour often, especially to be worn by the 'mean girly girls'. This is why we therefore choose the colour pink and made sure that the three antagonist characters were wearing this coloured clothing. As  all three girls are wearing pink it also groups them together and makes them easier to distinguish from the other characters for the audience. We tried to make sure that the other characters in our opening sequence are not wearing pink and are wearing costumes that represent them. In the opening scene and title sequence of our film we dressed Madison, the main character in blue denim jeans, a white top and a black leather jacket with faux fur around the top. We thought this was quite a neutral outfit which showed she was new to the school and therefore was not part of a select social group. The white top also connotes her innocence and naivety which we used to foreshadow the end of the film and she is naive and moves groups to sit with the mean girls as she thinks it will gain her popularity and make the boy she is crushing on like her.


Shot 3 was a panning shot we created around Madison's bedroom. We wanted to use this shot as it showed perfume bottles and other things the lead character has in her room. This set the genre of the film as the pink perfume bottles and mirror suggest a females bedroom. As the camera panned round the room other things were shown such as fairylights, jewellery hangers and pictures of young girls were shown. This would furthermore suggest the femininity of the person who the room belonged to but would also suggest the age group of the characters in the film. It would not be expected for older women to have fairylights and other items like these in their room, however it is a stereotypical teenage girls room filled with stuff that would be used. This therefore shows the genre of the film as showing a mostly pink quite girly room would make the audience assume that the film is going to be a teen-angst based love story, rather than an adventure or a horror film which would use different colours to connote different things and would also be likely to use much darker lighting than the lighting used in this shot.


Shot 4 is an establishing shot as it shows the location of the scene being shown. The shot shows lockers which would immediately suggest a school setting to the audience as they would not expect to see lockers anywhere else. There are few characters in this shot of the film, however the audience would pay little or no attention to these characters as they are not made to stand out or shown in the centre or foreground of the screen, instead they are based in the background of the scene and pushed to the sides, also none of these characters are looking towards the camera or showing any signs of body language which suggests that they should be paid attention to.

Frame 5 shows an example of the editing that was used to create our film as it shows a screen shot from a shot reverse shot sequence where Madison and Dylan, the male and female lead, first meet. It is also the first time Dylan is actually introduced to the audience and they learn anything about him. The frame also shows more advanced camerawork as an over the shoulder shot has been used to show who the conversation is between, as well as the 180-degree rule being used. As this scene in the film is very important we had to make sure we had chosen the correct camera shots and angles to be used, this is because it is the first time the characters met which sets up the future story lines.


Frame 6 shows how characters are introduced. In all teen angst films, such as mean girls the mean girls make large entrances, this highlights who they are and portrays to the audience the popularity they hold. We tried to recreate this stereotypical scene from teen angst movies in our opening sequence when the mean girls are first introduced. To do this we had the trio of antagonists burst through a door, Amber obviously leading them. This creates a type of tension already and all the attention is drawn to that moment, the other characters who showed students in the school noticed this and stepped back, out of the way of these girls. This is because it shows that they are popular and no one wants to be in their way or get on the wrong side of them as their life at the school would then become hell.



Frame 7 focuses on the font and style of writing used. We used the fancy handwriting type font as this suggests someone writing but the curls and flicks suggest it is written by a girl. This is then confirmed by the use of the two colours pink and white. The white is used to stand out and tell the audience the job title, however we used a different colour for the names of the people as this was much bolder and more eye-catching. We felt this information was more important than the job title and therefore needed to be shown in a more obvious way.


Frame 8 is one of the first shots shown after the title's and shows a closeup shot of a note stuck to a door wishing Madison a good day at her new school. This sets up the entire storyline and tells the audience exactly what is going on. Up to this point all sound heard has been non-diegetic sound of music and an alarm clock, therefore there has been no speech that highlights what is happening in the story, however this tells the audience so they can build anticipation as to what will happen on her first day and therefore make them want to watch it to find out.

Frame 9 is a shot from a car window as Madison is on her way to school in her sisters car, we used special effects here as we wanted to make the shot shorter so it was not boring but we did not want to cut out too much of what was happening, therefore we speed this shot up which made it much more effective and faster for the audience to watch.

Final teen angst opening title sequence - Madison

First draft of our teen angst opening title sequence