Chick Flick Target Audience

By getting together a focus group of girls aged 14-18, and asking people what their favourite films, forms of social media, tv programmes, hobbies, celebrities, shops and music are we managed to produce this poster which represents a large sample of teenagers from our target audience.

If we attempt to keep these in mind when choosing how to produce our film opening, it should make our film opening more successful, and more relatable for young teens.

Finalised Story line

After weeks of consideration and preparation, we have finally decided on what our story line should involve for our 2 minute film opening- on Sunday we start filming!

We have decided to film the conversation between the editor of the magazine and the intern in an office environment. Luckily, due to various contacts we have been able to arrange a time for us to film our scenes in an office.

We have decided to start with our protagonist walking into the office (match on action) , we then will do cut aways and close ups to various props around the room i.e: magazines, posters and a clothes rail. We will each bring in bits of clothing to put on the clothes rail for verisimilitude. We would like to have people sorting things out on the clothes rail with a tape measure. 
we would then like to do a mid shot of our actor sitting at a desk, sorting through papers when she finds a letter saying 'confidential'. We would then like to do an over the shoulder shot of her opening the letter, once she reads the words 'court summons' we will then cut to a close up of the confusion/shock on her face. 
Just before you see her going to bring out the rest of the letter to see what it says, we will then have our 'editor' shout out 'samantha?' in the background, as she does this we will then switch back to a mid shot to show our actress struggling to quickly put the letter back in the envelope whilst her boss gets nearer to entering the room.
Once the editor comes in, we will switch to a wide shot she will demand 'where is my coffee?' then slamming her books down on the table, once she does this we will then go back to a mid shot and show once again Samantha's confusion as she realises she forgot to get her boss' coffee! 

We have 2 hours in which to film all of this in so I am hopeful we will be able to get all of our scenes filmed! 

Storyboards

Here are our storyboards which show various shots we hope we can do for the beginning half of our film opening. 

Nine frame analysis

I have decided to do a nine frame analysis on The Devil Wears Prada.

This first shot shows the office as very modern. The use of the monochromatic colours emphasise the sleekness of the location (the building is all white and the employers all wear black) The main character Andrea is contrasted to this and sticks out because of her brown clothing. This also emphasises how she does not belong in this environment. 

Behind the character here we can see posters of previous 'runway' magazines. This is an effective way of using props as it increases the verisimilitude. Also, the rule of thirds is followed here as we see that the character is not standing in the middle of the frame, thus we have a clearer view of the posters. When making my own film opening I hope to use posters in the background as well. 

Furthermore, the use of props here also contribute to a sense of verisimilitude, as you can see the clothes rack in the background. As with the magazine posters, I will aim to use a clothes rack in the background in my own film opening. 

Here you can clearly see Andrea is out of place in the scene as everyone who already works at this office are wearing black, thus this emphasises her presence as a stranger who doesn't belong in this setting. 

The scene switches between everyone running around panicking in the office to their boss walking out the car, the shot of her foot creates mystery around who she is as you never see her face. Since she is seemingly very important, the audience will be curious as to what she looks like. 

Once again, the shot completely cuts out the characters face as you can only see her body. She is keeping in tandem with everyone in the office who are specifically all wearing black clothing. You see her carrying a magazine which links her to the office upstairs.

This mid shot is very important as it finally presents this mysterious character who everyone seems eager to not cross paths with. 

The characters expression is very cool and nonchalant and her hair is perfectly styled. Because this shot is important, it contains no other background props so the audience can clearly focus on the character.

Here, the editors secretary is rushing to keep up with her as the editor critisices her on how incompetent her secretary is. Her voice is very cool which shows the audience how she thinks discussing this stuff is beneath her and she should not have to be explaining this to her secretary. 

The mise en scene here is very impressive, it reinforces the importance of this character as this large,modern and aesthetically pleasing office is hers. 

The use of font is very typical for a chick flick and the use of the colour red on the word 'devil' fits in with the connotations of hell and the devil, you would think of the colour red to describe hell. 

Inspirational Film Openings

This film opening has given me a lot of new ideas on what I could possibly use in my two minute film opening. As similarly shown in the Lizzie McGuire film, the opening scene switches between two narratives. In Legally Blonde the scene alternates between showing the protagonist getting ready and showing the journey of a letter. Also, it builds up slight tension as we never actually see the main characters face, not until the letter everyone is signing reaches her.
It's also very girly, focusing on makeup and her painting her nails, not to mention the pink curly writing showing the names of the cast members.

In terms of using these ideas in my two minute film opening, as with all other chick flicks I will aim to use:

1. A Girly font (soft colours with quirky, curly writing)
2. Upbeat, cheerful music 
3. Perhaps a voiceover from the protagonist (as shown in Confessions of a teenage drama queen)
4. Perhaps I could also alternate between two different scenes in order to further the storyline and give the audience a wider understanding of the protagonist's life (in terms of my idea we could alternate between our intern working at Vogue then working at her actual job in tescos, serving a customer shopping). 

Top 10 camera shots

To help me film my movie opening, I have looked at the top 10 camera shots typically used in Chick Flicks. Below are a list of all of them:

1. Establishing Shot- This is used to show the audience where the setting takes place, e.g. rural countryside or in the city. This is clearly shown in the princess diaries where you can tell the story takes place in San Francisco. Similarly this is shown in Angus thongs and perfect snogging where we establish in the first two minutes that the film is set by the sea in England ( in this case Brighton)
2. Close up shot- These are used a lot in chick flicks as it is easy then for the audience to observe the certain range of emotions a character may be feeling,whether they are happy, sad or angry.
3. High angle shot- High angle shots can be used to emphasise the loneliness of a person. This may be useful with Chick flicks as in a film, typically there is a love interest involved and usually something end up going wrong and there is a period time in which the protagonist is upset/lonely without this person. 
4. Shot reverse shot- this is used to show a conversation occurring between two characters. It implies a connection between the two people.
5. Tilt shot- Usually after a film, the camera slowly tilts upwards towards the sky and ends.
6. Tracking shot- this can be used to follow a character as they weave their way through busy cities (e.g. In the Devil wears Prada a lot of tracking shots are used to emphasise how busy New York city is).
7. Two shot- A two shot is one which depicts two people in the frame, this is usually used to imply a connection between the two characters. In chick flicks this is commonly used to show two people after a date. 
8. Wide shot- A wide shot is used to show where the story is taking place or if a character goes on holiday, For example this is used The holiday where the storyline switches from LA to England. 
9. Long shot-A chick flick often starts with some sort of journey and this is often portrayed by a long shot showing the main character walking through a city/town or even a school. 
10. Mid shot- As previously mentioned, this long shot then cuts and moves in closer for a mid shot. 

After researching and coming up with these 10 camera shots, I will aim to use all, if not a majority of these shots to fit with the typical conventions of a chick flick. 

Film Openings

Through the help of this blog entry: http://whatculture.com/film/the-importance-of-film-openings.php
 I have analysed the openings to Saturday night fever and Adventures in babysitting. Using these, I have decided on ideas which I hope to convey through my film opening. Observing these two film openings helped me to develop my understanding of the typical conventions used in chick flicks. Below are the videos of the two film openings:

I also observed the opening to Confessions of a shopaholic and 10 things I hate about you. Here are the videos to show you both of the film openings:


Here is a prezi which shows a summarised version of everything I have observed through these film openings and everything I would like to include in my own 2 minute film opening: