Shot List

Shot 1 - Tom is walking down the street, on his way to school.This should an extreme long shot showing the school, his entire body and the houses around him.
shot 2 - This should be the title of the movie (Teenaging) with him still in the shot, but moving out of view of the camera.
shot 3 - This shot is of Tom's feet as he walks down the school corridor. This should be a long shot, with evidence that it is in the corridor. The shot camera pans up to see the character's face at the same distance.
shot 4 - The camera cuts to an extreme long shot of the whole corridor, with Tom talking to his friend.
shot 5 - We see the two friends talking to each other using the 180 degree rule from behind a character's shoulder, clearly seeing the head and shoulders of each character.
shot 6 - We see Tom walking down the hallway checking the time on his phone. we see the phone, half his arm and hand, and the hallway.
shot 7 - Tom goes into the toilet, we see from his point of view him standing at a urinal, whilst listening to his thoughts.
shot 8 - We see an object thrown at Tom's his head, and his reaction.

Settings used
Shot 1- Sedley Taylor Road
Shot 2- Sedley Taylor Road
shot 3- Long Road corridor, with lockers preferably
Shot 4- Long Road Corridor
Shot 5- long Road Corridor, next to a wall or locker
Shot 6- End of Corridor
Shot 7- Long Road Male Toilet
Shot 8- Exit of Long Road Male Toilet

Title Ideas

Grown Ups

Young Adults

Immaturity

My Life in a Nutshell

Underacheiver (This is spelt wrong on purpose)

Teenaging

Pissing in the Wind.

Costumes

Seeing as our group is making an opening for a teenage rom-com, we think that typical teenage attire will be suitable and convenient. Anyone caught in the background will be wearing the same kind of clothes as those starring in our opening, this will help to establish the college environment our opening is set in.

Mood Board

animatic

Mood Post

Initial Ideas

the film is almost all shot in the first person, with a college student (filmed at Long Road) who walks around the school on a normal day and we see everything that happens to him through his eyes. We hear his thoughts as he goes about his daily routine, just having got in to college, he goes to the toilet, talks to his friend etc...He goes through a normal life and we hear his thoughts, which is where the comedy will come from. We will not show the romance element of the film in this part, as we do not have a girl in our group, we will instead focus on charater development by letting the audience hear his typically teenage thoughts.

Film Opening Homework

Media Studies Homework
Harry Potter Five
Sound- The opening soundtrack sets the scene, mysterious and dark. The storm noise combined with the long shot of storm clouds shows the pathetic fallacy used. When Harry and Dudley run away from the park they are panting loudly which for me makes them look panicked. The panting noises from Harry and Dudley emphasises that they are running quickly because of danger. The soundtrack during the attack shows how dangerous the dementors are. It has a weather report in the background saying it will be hot and sunny, which is contradicted when the storm clouds appear.
Camera- The camera moves slowly through a misty and dimly light titles, only two titles, into sunlight which establishes a shot of Little Winging. Jolty camera when Harry and Dudley are running, which I think shows the purpose of them running. An Extreme long shot of the storm clouds shows the storm caused by the dementors.
Mise-En-Scene- empty park makes it look depressing, Dudley’s clothes are stereotypically worn by unkind teens. Newspapers blowing are used to show danger and I think they are used to show danger in the scene, not in reality. Dimly light path shows danger as the dementors wear black clothes. The dry grass makes it look as if the area is poor.
Editing- Storm clouds show danger as soon as Harry raises his wand, when it is the dementors that makes the storm clouds appear. The dementors action towards Harry and mainly Dudley show the horror genre aspects of the movie. Swift camera movements to show divide between Harry and Dudley.
Graphics and special effects- starts with a very dark and misty image of the Warner Brothers symbol, the darkness tells us that there are horror aspects of this films genre. Dementors are shown to glide mysteriously and that makes them scary and hold power they should not have, evil power.
Genre- The two titles in the sky show the magical elements, dementors are magical creatures and Harry casts a spell which all show the magic part of the genre. The dementors show part of the story as being on the villain’s side as they suck out people’s souls which is evil. The spinning merry-go-round and the start whilst is spinning mainly because at the time it was recently used, but it also seems to be magic as it is spinning for a long time. The length of time can also be interpreted as mystery to the story.
Narrative- The Black sky shows bad things happening with magic as it is caused by the arrival of the dementors. It is in the dark that the dementors come which is used to foreshadow a bad thing happening in the story, not reality. The confrontation between Harry and Dudley tells the viewers about the tense relationship they have. The dementors attacking Harry foreshadows how the dementors will join voldemort later in the story. Harry’s loneliness shows how he does not like Little Winging due to a lack of friends and he is on his own in the park which shows how he is in danger, none in reality. (the part about the fictional Harry Potter also applies to characters)
Characters- The confrontation shows both character’s personalities, however small parts, both character’s costumes can be linked to stereotypes. The link between dementors and sucking souls shows their characteristics, but that was known already at that stage about the fictional make-believe characters. Harry’s scare is a part of his personality and it is very visible when Harry looks up at the storm clouds caused by the dementors, the fictional characters, at this point it can be seen clearly.

Conventions of a teenage romantic comedy

We would expect to see things a teenager would do normally and relate to. Some of it ought to be set in a school or have the protagonist studying. He or she would also dress like a normal teenager (jeans are a necessity) and have some fashion sense, it does not matter which fashion group he is a member of. In Juno the protagonist has to deal with teenager problems, so our character should be exposed to a certain teenage problem. They would carry modern accessories and relax in the current teenage way. They would have one or two things not normally connected to teenagers in their personality.

Teenage Stereotypes

• The Average Joe

• The Geek

• The Jock

• The Prep

• The Good Looking Girl / The Girl Next Door

• The Musician

• The Drug User
  

• The Activist

• The Skater Boy

Teenage Romantic Comedy Ideas

Some examples of of teenage and romantic comedies are

• Ten Things I Hate About You
• Angus Thong And Perfect Snogging
  
• Juno
  
• Clueless
• Four Weddings And A Funeral
• Notting Hill
  
• Love Actually
• Serendipety

Garden State - Opening Analysis

Garden State Opening Sequence

I am going to analyse the opening sequence to the 2004 film Garden State (Zach Braff) by writing about different micro elements and how they are used to establish character, narrative and genre.

The film starts with the sound of a panicking pilot on a radio sending a mayday distress call, set to a black background with the names of the production companies set in a bland white font. I think this use of frenzied, emotional sound over very plain text is a good representation of the film’s protagonist Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), as it shows how although the dull video is set over extreme audio it remains very tame, this mirrors Andrew’s blunted emotions. The next thing you see elaborates on this idea and actually shows Andrew calmly sitting in his seat on a plane which is clearly experiencing a lot of turbulence whilst everyone around him is screaming and desperately clutching the air masks that have dropped from the ceiling of the cabin.

The camera then centres on Andrew, who calmly looks up (at this point the camera changes too his point of view) to the control panel above him and turns the nozzle for the air conditioning. After, the camera shifts back to a medium close up of Andrew and changes back to Andrew’s POV as he notices the seatbelt sign flashing. Andrew’s telephone then appears on the cabin ceiling next to the seatbelt sign and begins ringing. The camera cuts back for the last time to Andrew (still on the plane) the phone reappears, still ringing, on Andrew’s bedroom floor. The decision to have the phone appear and ring in Andrew’s dream would indicate that Andrew’s phone is what wakes him up.

The next shot is of Andrew lying in bed in his bland, white, under-furnished bedroom, (a representation of Andrew’s numb emotional state) with a ceiling fan slowly turning above him, his phone still ringing with the camera in one of the corners, giving an overview of the room. The telephone rings off to the answer-phone and the camera then moves to a more personal shot of Andrew in bed, wearing a white t-shirt, which matches the rest of the room, this matching of colour is complimented by the symmetry with which this shot is positioned (yet another representation of Andrew’s emotions, which have been dulled by years of medication.) As Andrew lays his father leaves an emotional message telling him that his mother has died, the camera moves to a close up of only Andrew’s face as his father tells him that his mother’s cause of death was drowning (something that we later on find out holds special significance) Andrew’s father then hangs up, the shot lingers on Andrew’s reaction. “Don’t Panic” by Coldplay starts to play as Andrew looks at himself in his bathroom mirror which doubles as a cabinet (the break between the two mirror doors going through his face and distorting his image, perhaps meant to show Andrew’s self esteem issues.) Andrew then opens the mirror cabinet to show his obsessively organised pills.

We then see Andrew on his way to the airport driving in heavy traffic with the use of car horns being used to show the excessive congestion that surrounds him. We then see the whole of the five-lane freeway in a far shot which quickly changes to the film’s title in a white font on a black background, the words “We live in a beautiful world” from “Don’t Panic" play over the title, a somewhat ironic choice of words to exaggerate considering Andrew’s attitude at this point in the film.

Chris Ramsden