Top Chick Flick Directors

As part of my research for my final AS task I am going to look at two different directors who have successful movies in the chick flick genre.
The first director I looked at was John Hughes. He directed a few of my top favourite chick flicks such as Sixteen candles, The Breakfast club and Pretty in pink. All of these films have elements of humour in them, drama at times and most definitely romance. Two out of three of these films have a female protagonist. The Breakfast club in fact contains four main characters, but overall there are only 5 characters in the whole film. Quite often, John Hughes' films have catchy songs, such as the iconic scene where Judd Nelson fist pumps the air whilst 'Don't your forget about me' by simple minds plays in the background. I managed to find a clip on youtube which shows this iconic ending:


Also, John Hughes' films contain stereo typical high school characters. This is especially shown in the breakfast club and pretty in pink. Pretty in pink shows a girl (called andie) who's quirky and different, who has a male best friend called duckie who is hopelessly in love with her. She does not even consider the idea of being with duckie as he is not attractive nor is he popular at school, This is shown in contrast to a popular boy called blaine who expresses an interest in Andie, and she immediately is taken by the idea of dating blaine simply because he is rich and popular at school.
Similarly in the breakfast club, four teenagers are forced to attend detention on a saturday. All are from completely different social groups and think that because of this they can not get along. However, funnily enough they end up enjoying the time they spend together but all agree that come monday, they will be back in their original social groups, avoiding one another as they have done all along.

Another director I have decided to look at is Gurinder Chadha. She directed two of my most enjoyed chick flicks (Bend it like Beckham and Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging) Both of these films largely consist of humour, drama and romance, which is very similar to John Hughes' films. Again, as with Pretty in pink, the two main characters are quirky and different to your typical girl, they challenge the stereotypical teenage girl idea, however these quirky characters are surrounded by typical teenage characters. Such as, the popular good-looking boy, the mean girl, the caring friends and the parents who don't understand their daughters.
Below is a scene from Angus Thongs and Perfect snogging which shows how the humour and romance commonly shown in chick flicks.


From my evaluation of these films I can conclude that it would be ideal for me to base my 2 minute film opening in a high school environment. This will be useful as I can ask my peers to complete questionnaires on what they would prefer to see in a chick flick film.

Chick Flick collage

At the end of AS level media studies, I have to produce a two minute film opening. I have decided the genre I will focus on are Chick Flicks because I have watched numerous chick flicks and feel because of this it will not be hard for me to recreate my own version. To help prepare for this I have researched various chick flicks and have made a collage of a few of them below. 

One thing I noticed all chick flicks have in common is the use of a pink/purple/red theme. This convention could be because pink and purple are stereotypically quite girly colours (this is used to attract young adults). The use of the colour red could relate to the elements of love a chick flick typically contains. 

Furthermore, another thing I noticed was that almost every chick flick contains an element of humour throughout. The story line is pretty straightforward, containing a beginning-where the story is introduced and you become aware of the protagonist's daily life/routine, eventually a male character is introduced who catches the attention of the protagonist, a problem eventually arises in which the two main characters have reason not to pursue their love interest any further. And then to end the film, one character (typically the male) redeems himself by showing an act of true love. Finally the two can live in harmony, with a 'happy ever after' ending. 

Preliminary task analysis

Our actual task was to film someone walking into room, film them having a conversation with another person and then filming them walking out the room. Three camera techniques were necessary here which I recently researched about.


Overall, I found this task very interesting to do as it was my first time properly filming/directing a scene. I was also eager to use the three different camera techniques I had recently learnt ( Shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action).


To film the scene, I used a sony handicam on a tripod. I had never used a sony handicam before or a tripod so before I actually started filming, I experimented using the camera and tripod together correctly. Luckily It did not take me too long to get the hang of it! What was also new to me was holding the handle on the tripod correctly to pan across a room, showing the actor walking across. Luckily I had used iMovie before so I did not have to spend ages finding out how to edit the videos and put them together to make one overall scene.


To plan the overall scene I created a storyboard (which is shown in my preliminary task preparation post). Unfortunately there was not enough time for the actors to properly learn their lines that I had written on the storyboard and so they had to make them up on the spot. This was not efficient as I filmed them having the a conversation around 5 times before I was confident I got the right shots, and each time they could not remember exactly what they had said.


Leading on from my previous point, it was then difficult to edit my videos correctly, so that the dialogue flowed appropriately as if it were a normal conversation.


After I finished the editing and published my video on my blog, I turned to my peers and asked them for feedback on what I could improve the next time I filmed a scene and what was good. Here are some issues they raised:

• In the very first scene, the headroom could be considerably lower as there is a bit too much space on top of Nina's head. Perhaps I could also move closer to her to film as there was too much extra space around her. 
• Also, when I pan across the room to follow Nina I struggled to keep up with her as she was walking too fast. Next time I will have to tell her to walk much slower so that instead of slightly cutting her out of the frame, I can 'lead' her with the camera. 
• In my shot reverse shot, the angle at which i film the scene differs, for example when i switch to show Georgia talking to Nina, you can tell the angle is slightly different and I have filmed her too close. 
• In the scene it is quite difficult to hear the two actors having a conversation so next time I will tell them to either raise their voices slightly or I will have to use a microphone. I would do a sound check however the sony handicam is not attached to a computer so this would not be ideal. 
• Also,Nina is sat at an angle whilst Georgia is sat facing right ahead of her. This is is probably why my shot reverse shot does not look equal and at different angles,because nina is sitting not directly facing Georgia. 
• Another issue in my shot reverse shot is that there is too much space on the side of my actors, I could have made them more central in the frame instead of too much to the right or vice versa. 
• When I follow Nina as she looks at the clock, I tried doing a point of view shot however the shot of the clock is much too zoomed in and so the camera was very shaky as I filmed it. This was because I had no time, so next time I will attach the camera to a tripod and film the clock correctly. 
• Another issue with the clock was that although in the dialogue Nina says 'Oh it's lunch time' the clock clearly says its 3pm and so next time I will pay extra attention to detail and change the clock so that it says 1pm. 
• As aforementioned, when Nina stands up to leave the room, I lose her again as I pan across the room so I will have to ask her to slow down when walking. 
• To conclude on the issues I faced, one major problem that caused a majority of the issues listed here was the lack of time I had to correctly film the scene. Next time I will leave an adequate amount of time to successfully film a scene properly.

A few of the good things my peers informed me of were:

• My ability to accurately demonstrate match on action, when I edited the recordings and put them together I was extra careful to make sure they added up so that when Nina walked through the door I showed her from inside the room in the exact same spot she was in from when I filmed it outside.
• My idea to add in a point of view shot from Nina's perspective when looking at the clock. 
• The way I included an effective 'two shot' which helped to establish the relationship between the two actors in the scene.

Overall to conclude my analysis, I am fairly pleased with the outcome of the video, albeit I did make numerous mistakes, these were crucial in that I will next time, be able to avoid repeating the same mistakes and be able to produce an aesthetically pleasing piece of work (this experience will help me with recording my two minute film opening).

Preliminary task

This is my preliminary task video:

Preliminary task preparation

I have prepared for my preliminary task by creating a storyline of what I want the scene to be about, and dialogue etc. I also prepared for the preliminary task by researching into three camera techniques I am required to use. These were:

• Shot reverse shot
• Match on action
• 180 degree rule 

I am nervous to film my first proper scene and I am hopeful it will go smoothly, I am also hopeful,

after practicing each technique,  to use them correctly in the preliminary task and see what the overall result is. 

Here are pictures of my storyline:

Camera Techniques

In preparation for my preliminary task,I learned today about different camera techniques which would have to be included in my preliminary task, such as:

• Match on Action
• Shot reverse shot
• 180 rule

I used a video camera to try out each of these and have been able to come to the conclusion that it is actually very difficult to correctly do each of these techniques whilst making the scene and camera work look professional.


Here are examples of each technique:



Shot reverse shot:

I thought that this would be a good example to use as it clearly shows the two characters having a conversation whilst correctly using the shot reverse shot technique. As you can see the camera switches to show the character that's speaking,on the same eye level as the other character.

Match on action:




I think this a very good example of the match on action technique, as you can clearly see the person walking through the school, you see the back of the student opening a door then see them walking in from inside the room.

I also found it hard to understand what exactly the 180 rule technique was, and so I watched this video which clarified it for me.

First Lesson

Today I learned about what to expect from my first year studying media.
I think it sounds interesting and I am thoroughly excited to explore various ideas concerning the type of coursework I will be producing over the next year.

I particularly enjoy reading books and so it will be a nice change to look at the visual aspect of telling a story, I will also be able to (at the end of the year) present my ideas through my own individual way and create the beginning of a film.

Not only do I enjoy reading books but I also enjoy watching various films. I never focus on one particular genre and have a wide range of films I enjoy (anything from schindler's list to romeo and juliet or even your typical chick flick).

I hope the year ahead is as enjoyable as the first lesson and my skills/knowledge of media develops as the year progresses.