G321 - Jelly Baby activity

To get a better understanding about the order of titles we did an activity in class where were given jelly babies and we used them as characters in an opening sequence, we also used post it notes to write the titles on. Here are some pictures of the activity:

We were given a genre of film and we had to base our opening title on that genre considering the film as a whole as well us just the opening. My group was given the genre of a drama thats targets women, so we came up with a storyline based on that.

By Charlotte Hester, Katie Pridige and Mia Norton.

G321 - Two Romantic comedy film openings analysis

The story line of a romantic comedy is usually very predictable (Boy and girl meet. They begin a relationship. A problem occurs. They overcome this problem. end up together "Happily Ever After"). Some example divert from these usual plot points, for example 500 Days Of Summer (2009) sees the two lead characters ending up in different relationships hat aren't with each other, after a difficult relationship.

Usually the target audience are females as it is believe that men don't like the romance involved in the films - although this is not necessarily true and it is often seen that many men enjoy Romantic Comedies. Some Rom-Coms are aimed towards the male audience instead of female. For example Shallow Hal (2001). This is aimed more towards the male audience as not only does it follow a male through the story, but the story line is all about the stereotype of males only showing interest in a woman because of her physical appearance. A film such as Friends With Benefits (2011) is aimed towards both male and female audiences as it focuses on two lead characters (a male and a female) and the unconventional relationship they form that many people can relate to.

Shalow Hal (2001) - Trailer

The film is clearly a romantic comedy as the narrative demonstrates that the film is about a romance involving ridiculous situations that don't happen in real life. The lead character Hal (Jack Black) is incredibly shallow and only bases his choice of woman on looks. He meets a hypnotist who hypnotises him to see the beauty inside of a person but on the outside, changing their physical appearance only to him. He doesn't know this and meets a woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who he sees to be beautiful and others see to be ugly. It all ends happily after Hal discovers he's been hypnotised, but realises he's fallen in love with her no matter what she looks like.

The emphasis on the stereotype of men only taking a woman's appearance into account when finding a girlfriend aims the film towards men as in the end the male stays with the female because of her personality. The opening line within the narration of this trailer says

"Every man has a dream. Every man has a fantasy. Every man has an image, of the perfect woman."

The repetition of the word man shows clearly that this film is aimed towards men as it follows the story of a man.

Friend With Benefits (2011) - trailer

The narrative of this film follows two lead characters (a male and a female) who have both just come out of relationships. They are both fed up of going through the same situations in every relationships. The two characters agree to become "Friends with benefits" meaning they would stay friends and have no emotional attachment to each other, but they would only have a physical relationship. This doesn't end well - as expected by the audience - and the two characters then avoid eachother. They eventually end up together as a Rom-Com always will.

This film is aimed at both male and female audiences as we follow both a male and female through a story. Males will be able to relate to the male character and females will be able to relate to the female character. In reality some people do have friends with benefits so they may be able to relate to the characters within the film. Those audience members who do not have a friends with benefits situation will most probably be interested in this new/alien idea of no emotions in a relationships.

Katie Pridige

G321 - 25 Word Film Brief

Twins (Richard & Christopher) trick Tallulah. She thinks they're one. Richard = Player. Christopher = falls for Tallulah. Big argument. Truth revealed. Chris' romantic gesture wins Tallulah's love.

Katie Pridige
Mia Norton
Charlotte Hester

G321 - How will we attract audiences

Based on the questionnaire we took, it is clear that Bridesmaids is the most popular romantic comedy that people enjoy watching, this is because people said they related to the characters and storyline. This means we will include more characters like the characters in Bridesmaids to be able to connect with the audience. Even though the film is based on women, by having androgynous characters, it allows males to be able to find the characters funny as they may connect with them in some ways.

Another film like ours is There's Something About Mary, because it is about 3 men who are all in love with the same woman. This film attracted audiences by having a mainly male dominated cast making men feel like they could enjoy the romantic comedy genre more. This film was also set in many locations, but a key location in the film is the golf course which is again targeting the male audience. This means we will include more sports related locations to make sure the males don't get bored watching the same girlie locations e.g. a spa or a shopping mall.

Seeing as our film is based around men, more males will want to come and watch our film to see if it compares to any other rom coms that are based arounf men like 'This Means War'.

One of the most popular characters in the rom com American Pie is Stilfer because he is a ladies man but he doesn't fall in love, so we will give one of our male characters those personality traits.

G321 - Film Certification

For our film we have decided to certify our film a 12a. This is a suitable certification because there will be minor sexual activity, minor violence and occasional soft swearing. If we rated our film any higher than this we would limit our audience figures and we wouldn't make as much money which isn't good seeing as we are an independent company and we need as much money as we can get to be able to compete with the mainstream companies. If we rated the film any lower, we wouldn't be able to include as much material for the audience so our older target audience of older males would be bored watching a 'children's' film.

 

 Other Romantic-Comedies such as Shallow Hal (Has a similar target audience to our film) have this film certification. Other Romantic-Comedies have many more sexual references throughout, For Example Friends With Benefits is a film actually about two peoples sexual relationship. Friends With Benefits was a 15 because of this difference. Not many Romantic-Comedies will be above a 15 because they are never incredibly gory, overly sexual and do not use many swear words. They are never below a 12A because the target audience for a Romantic-Comedy would not be kids under 12, this genre would not interest them.

By Charlotte Hester

G321 - Discoveries on Title Timelines

These romantic comedy timelines show that the opening titles are well paced over a longer period of time than most film openings for other genres. They span over up to 7 minutes. The opening titles of Pretty Woman are not very well integrated but we discovered that romantic comedy titles could be well integrated, for example the titles in the opening of Easy A are very well integrated into the shots/scene.

We each analysed a different romantic comedy opening and created these timelines. The we came back together, sharing the information we found and that allowed us to have a better idea of how romantic comedies generally have their titles and therefore we can do something similar in our opening.

Katie Pridige
Mia Norton

G321 - Audience figures

The audience figures for our genre of Romantic Comedy vary depending on what film you watch. Based on our questionnaire, Bridesmaids was the most popular Romantic Comedy because of the actors and actresses involved and the way they played their characters. On the opening weekend of Bridesmaids, it pulled in $26 247 410 at the box office and $169 076 745 overall. This is a massive profit seeing as the film only cost $32 500 000 to make. Another popular romantic comedy is He's Just Not That Into You which grossed over $93 000 000 at the box office. 

Other unpopular Romantic Comedies include American Pie which pulled in an overall gross of only $13 833 980 and Knocked up at £8 165 211. I think these were unpopular because they are romantic comedies targeted at men and men don't necessarily go to the cinema to see a rom com, so what we aim to do as a group is incorporate the favoured elements of the popular and unpopular rom coms in order to make a very successful and popular romantic comedy ourselves. 

By Charlotte Hester

G321 - Mindmap of who our target audience is and how we will targetthem.

Charlotte Hester

As we are aiming our film to the male audience we will be using the Male Gaze theory in order to attract these audience members. The characters in the film will be close in age to our audience members so they will be more relatable and the representation of a heterosexual relationship will attract more people as the majority of relationships are heterosexual.

G321 - Filming our remake.

Our group set aside a day to film our opening as there were many different shots to film and we wanted to ensure we had enough time to finish. Each member of the group had the task of gathering certain props as there were so many to collect. After gathering all the props we set about creating our own mini studio to film the shots we needed. As all of the shots used in the opening of Se7en are either a Close-up or an Extreme close-up we did not have to worry about location, our main focuses were lighting; camera angles and that our props looked appropriate.

By looking to our shot list, timeline and storyboard we could confirm that we were working our way through the shots that needed to be done. But for further confirmation we kept the original video open on a laptop so as to keep our version of each shot as similar as possible to the original (For Example keeping lighting, and angles the same).

By closing the curtains and keeping the lighting mostly artificial (whilst attempting to make it look natural) we had more control over how bright the shots actually were. If we relied only on daylight we would have had to rush to ensure we did not lose light.

For shots that needed much more concentrated light we were able to make the room completely dark and place/adjust this one light to get the affect we wanted.

Overall our final shots look as accurate as we feel we could have made them. During the editing process we will be able to create a similar atmosphere to the original by adjusting the colouring and shade of the shots.

Blog Post written by Katie Pridige

Katie Pridige, Charlotte Hester and Mia Norton all present on the day of filming.

G321 - List of scenes for our full film

Characters
 - Tallulah
 - Jade
 - Richard
 - Christopher

Scene 1:  Tallulah is getting ready for her date with Richard. Richard and his twin brother Chris are having a conversation about how Richard needs Chris to cover for him on the date - as he has to leave half way through. Chris is really annoyed and disappointed with Richard for suggesting they lie to Tallulah. There is a clear contrast between the personalities of the twins.

Scene 2: At the restaurant on the date. Richard leaves halfway through and trades places with Chris in the toilets at the restaurant. When Chris enters the date as Richard he meets Tallulah and finds that he has feelings for her as the date progresses. At the end of the date the two agree to meet up again. (At some point during the date Chris must mention how he does not like it when men wear jewellery after seeing a man wearing some. And Tallulah must mention how she has always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride.)

Scene 3: The day after the date Richard and Chris are discussing the date. Richard then apologises to Chris about throwing him into the date. Chris however has had a change of heart after realising he has feelings for Tallulah and suggests he meets with Tallulah again. Richard then realises that Chris has feelings for Tallulah and wants what he can't have and the two argue about who will be going on the next date with Tallulah.

Scene 4: Richard goes on the next date with Tallulah whilst Chris sits at home alone. On the date Tallulah begins noticing contradictions from their last date. (e.g. He isn't as sweet/romantic/gentlemanly as before). Tallulah also notices that Richard is wearing an item/items of jewellery.

Scene 5: Tallulah talks to her friend Jade about the dates - questioning the obvious contradictions between them.

Scene 6: Tallulah bumps into Chris on the street and he invites her round to his home for a cup of coffee. When they arrive at his home they find Richard there with another woman. Tallulah doesn't think anything of him having a twin brother at first but then she notices Richard is wearing jewellery and that Chris is not. She is angry with them both and yells at them then storms out claiming she never wants to see either of them again. Chris is upset and angry with Richard for getting him into such a mess, but also upset with himself for not thinking more about Tallulah's feelings. Richard isn't bothered, tells his brother to get over her and move on. Richard then continues his date with this other woman.

Scene 7: After some time Jade and Tallulah are in Tallulah's office talking about what happened. Tallulah is talking about how she definitely felt a connection with one of them (Chris) but she was upset about him lying. They both find an envelope on Tallulah's desk which says a date, a time and a place to meet. She arrives at the place to find Chris (wearing a name badge) has prepared her a hot air balloon ride. She realises how sweet and romantic he is and loves that he remembered such a small detail from their one date. Final romantic shot of them kissing in the air.

Katie Pridige
Mia Norton
Charlotte Hester

G321 - Moodboard including some ideas on setting and character looks

Here are a few ideas on how the restaurant that they go to for their date will look. I thought it could be a nice idea to have them outside. There are also a few examples of the look we would like the twins to have and that the subtle differences between them will be in their clothing. We thought Tallulah would be a pretty and girly characters so I chose a few examples that fit with what we all saw in our heads.

G321 - Audience questionnaires analysed.

To find out what audiences were looking for in a romantic comedy we created a questionnaire and gave them out to 10 different people within different groups (age and gender).

Do you enjoy watching Romantic comedies?
- Yes = 5
- No = 1
- Sometimes = 4

What is your favourite romantic comedy?
- 500 Days of Summer = 1
- Bridesmaids = 7
- Knocked Up = 0
- American Pie = 1
- Other = 1

Why and if other what film?
- Other = Mother-in-law
- comments given were things such as :
- 500 Days of Summer is told in an interesting and not obvious way unlike most romantic comedies.
- Bridesmaids is relatable as I have been both a bride and a bridesmaid.
- Bridesmaids - I can relate to the characters and the relationships between them.

What age range do you think romantic comedies are aimed at? (can tick more than one)
- 12-14 = 0
- 15-17 = 7
- 18+ = 8

What age range do you like to see a romantic comedy based around? (can tick more than one)
- Young Children = 0
- Teenagers = 4
- Young Adults (18-25) = 6
- Adults (25+) = 2

Do you think the use of props such as drugs, alcohol etc. are appropriate to use in a romantic comedy?
- Yes = 5
- No = 4
- Sometimes = 1

Do you think the mocking of social groups/gender hierarchy (men are more powerful) is funny in a romantic comedy?
- Yes = 3
- No = 6
- Sometimes = 1

What do you expect from a film opening?
- The outline of the story = 0
- To be left on a cliff-hanger for the film to explain the rest = 3
- A brief introduction to the characters = 5
- No introduction to any characters just titles and credits = 1
- Other = 1

It's clear from the first 3 questions what type of films are popular at the moments which will tell us the type of humour and storyline themes that audiences will enjoy. The extra comments given about the audience film choices also tell us what audiences look for in a romantic comedy (such as relating to the characters and the situation). We can also see that the audience for a romantic comedy is believed to be teens and over but that it should be based on characters past their teen years, although basing it on teenagers could work too. There were also comments given on the use of drugs and alcohol saying that they were only appropriate if they weren't being abused and the context was appropriate. After seeing how people considered social groups it's possible that further research should be done into what humour would be acceptable and which audiences it would attract. From this we can see that audiences expect an introduction to the characters and hints towards the storyline that will keep them interested/hooked to watch the rest of the film.

These questionnaire results will help us to create our own romantic comedy film opening as we can see what is expected, what would improve our opening and what could make it different to other openings interesting audiences.

Katie Pridige

Charlotte Hester

Mia Norton

G321 - Audience questionnaire

To ensure that the audience received maximum entertainment from our film we compiled a few questions and asked people of different ages and genders their views towards Romantic Comedies and what they like to see included in them. This will then help us to add decent content to our film and not just the elements that we as girls like.

- Do you enjoy Romantic Comedies?

a- Yes
b- No
c- Sometimes

- What is your favourite romantic comedy?

a- 500 Days Of Summer
b- Bridesmaids
c- Knocked Up
d- American Pie
e- Other

- Why? And if other, what film?

- What age range do you think romantic comedies are aimed at? (you can tick more than one)

a- 12 - 14
b- 15 - 17
c- 18 +

- What age range do you like to see a romantic comedy based around? (you can tick more than one)

a-Young Children
b- Teenagers
c- Young Adults (18-25)
d- Adults (25+)

- Do you think the use of props such as drugs, alcohol etc. are appropriate to use in a romantic comedy?

a-Yes
b- No

- Do you think mocking social groups/gender hierarchy (men are more powerful) is funny in a romantic comedy?

a- Yes
b- No

- What do you expect from a film opening?

a- The outline of the story
b- To be left on a cliff-hanger for the film to explain the rest
c- A brief introduction to the characters
d- No introduction to any characters just titles and credits
e- Other

Katie Pridige and Charlotte Hester

G321 - The reason we chose the genre we did - Romantic Comedy

Our group chose to make a romantic comedy for a few reasons. One reason was that it would be a contrast to both our preliminary task (horror) and our opening re-make (psychological thriller). Making an opening that is contrasting to what we have already done will not only challenge us but give us experience in different genres. After our previous two projects were very serious/intense it would be a nice change to do something a lot more light hearted. We also found it a lot easier to come up with story lines for a Rom-Com compared to if we were to write a psychological thriller.
We were given a target audience when deciding on which genre we wanted to do (Males aged 15 - 25). We thought that writing and filming a Romantic comedy aimed at males aged between 15 and 25 would be interesting and a challenge as that is not the usual target audience for a Rom-Com. This means we will have to consider certain themes, types of humor and appealing characters for the male audiences.

Also, there are a lot of generic conventions used in romantic comedies, which would be easy for us to include in our opening. These are things such as; male and female lead characters and many situations which are relatable to the audience (such as a basic/familiar setting and romantic situations). We have easy access to locations and props which are relatable (like kitchens, bedrooms etc.) and the characters would be easy to find actors to play. If we had chosen a more complicated genre such as a sci-fi or supernatural, it would be very hard to include generic conventions as those are things such as other planets, advanced technology, ghosts/monsters, special effects & prosthetics/costumes etc.

e.g below is screenshot from a romantic comedy (Pretty Woman). There is a main male and a main female character and both are in a basic setting of a house/. This is the type of shot that would be very easy to create)




Katie Pridige

G321 - Research into Romantic Comedy

A romantic comedy is a sub-genre of Romance films and of Comedy films. They focus on romantic ideals such as 'true love' or 'love at first sight' and that love can overcome any obstacle put before it. They are lighthearted and fun to watch. Many Rom-Coms have been over the years and the audience always enter with the foreknowledge of the main structure as it is very stereotypical.

• girl and boy meet
• they begin a relationship
• they reach an obstacle in their relationship
• overcome this obstacle
• they live happily ever after

The majority of Romantic comedies are aimed at females as it is thought they are more interested in watching a film based around these romantic ideal as they believe in them. Although this is not necessarily true because many men enjoy watching romantic comedies, some which - like the majority - are aimed at females. But there are some Rom-Coms that break the stereotypical structure and some that are clearly more aimed towards men.

500 Days Of Summer (2009) - used trailer as opening could not be found

500 days of summer is a film that I believe to be aimed at both males and females as it seems to have been well received by both gender. This romantic comedy is very different compared to others as it does not follow the typical structure. The lead male believes in romantic ideal where as the lead female does not. Their relationship does not overcome the obstacles and we are left slightly not liking the lead female (contrasting other films and aiming this towards males as it is usually the male who is made to look like the worse character). The main difference in this rom-com is that the lead characters do not end up together and it is not the traditional happily ever after but it still has a positive ending.

Katie Pridige