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:

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).