Location

Location

When thinking about the location for our opening we had several ideas to begin with. We wanted the house to be a middle class terraced house to show the background of the girls and let the audience know m

ore about our c

haracters.

We wanted the house to have a corridor in the house so that we could experiment with different camera angles to make the opening more interesting.

Also, when thinking about different settings that would be good to experi

ment with, me and Justine thought that it would be good to have a mirror in the corridor. As this would be good to

experiment with different angles.

Characters/Costumes

We got a lot of our inspiration from films like Wild Child and

Sydney White which include characters that are bubbly, girly, and include bright colours. We also thought that Wild Child was a good source of inspiration as there is a part where the girls are in fancy dress. This is the kind of style that we wanted for the film as the girls are in

bright colours yet still look a bit edgy. There is also a close-knit group of girls which is a factor that is also relevant to our opening.

Analysis of other media products

o help us come up with an opening for our own film we needed to look at other openings to get inspiration from.

Love me if you dare has a very distinct look and feel about it which is very original. In particular the way different aspects of the mise en scene have been incorporated, for example the bright colours, high contrast and brightness that runs throughout the film makes it almost like a cartoon, yet very realistic at the same time. This is the sort of look for my film that i had in mind although not to the extent of this film, as i do not have the experience or the talent to create something of this standard yet and i think that if i was to try and create something like this now it would look very tacky. The use of the animation at times gives the film a more childish feel and helps to express the thoughts of the child characters and their imaginations. I like how the feel is not really based around any particular storyline except the possession of a simple merry-go-round toy that enables the two main characters to create the game of dares that get more and more extreme as the film goes on. This is one of the routes i was looking into e.g. not having a specific storyline set out but focusing on a characters and then the events will just fall around that. The camera work in 'Love me if you dare' is very interesting and experimental but i think that it works really well. The opening is narrated by the main character where he sets the scene of the whole film, this is effective as it allows to connect more to the character and understand them. There is a lot of selective sound and synchronous sound to emphasise different parts of the film and again create an over-the-top dramatic effect just like the colouring and editing used throughout the film.

In comparison, 'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' is an equally eye catching film, although where 'Love me if you dare' is very fairytale like, this film is very realistic and 'ordinary'. I think this is very effective as it then allows the audience to relate to the situation in a far more believable way, even though the storyline may be completely fictional. The opening of the film introduces us to the main character and by the first 5 minutes we can tell alot about his life, we see his apartment and his car, the fact that the car next to him has scratched it also tells us that he's quite unlucky, most importantly we learn that he lives a very lonely and ordinary life. Unlike 'Love me if you dare', this film does not have very flashy camera work or editing although i feel that it really creates the mood that it needs to. There is not much digetic sound used in this film although there is a lot of synchronous sound which helps to set the mood and feel of the particular scene. I really like the mise en scene as although the main colours used are dull grey and brown shades the colours that is used e.g. the main girls hair colours, really emphasise a point and contrast against the background, which i feel is very effective. This film is very good at replicating one of its audiences lifestyles for example when we are first introduced to the character we see him in his messy flat where he's sleeping on his sofa bed, this is something that we use in everyday normal life which i think is better than in mainstream films where the apartments are often neat and clean, unlike those that most people own.

The use of colour in both these films is something that i will try and incorporate in our own opening of our film, and also the camera work and editing of 'Love me if you dare' is an aspect that we could use as inspriation to try and make our opening more interesting. I think in terms of mise en scene both these films have the aspects within them that i think will inspire me during my project. The things that i am not so fond of in both the pieces is the choice of music used, as i didn't think that it was very effective in my opinion although the use of narration in both was very effective, but i wouldn't use this in our project i don't think as it would be too difficult to get right and script as this is a weakness of mine.

Characters in films

Jerry Maguire

The character of Jerry Maguire is narrated by the man himself and when we are learning about all the different sportsmen/women you really get a sense that he knows what he's talking about.

We see he's a top end sports agent who just focuses about his business.

All he seems to care about is the amount of money that they make.

Doesn't really think about the way it effects people ( the little boy who cant get his autograph on a product because it wasn't the right brand).

You start to see by the end of the scene that he is realising how corrupt the industry is and feeling bad about being part of it.

American Beauty

At the very start, we are introduced to his daughter on a home camera talking about how much she hates her father.

When the film starts Narrated by the character Lester, he tells us about his uninteresting life and seems very unenthusiastic about everything.

Learn about him and his family and that he's a bit of a loser.

When we first see the town and neighbourhood he lives in and the camera zooms in to his house, this emphasises the insignificance of the man within the world.

When he is in bed the light is shining on the other side of the bed but not his which is in shadow, this emphasises the dull mans life.

Can tell that although his life may be bad at the moment throughout the rest of the film we most likely will see how he gets it back from when he states "It's never too late to get it back".

Although it may seem that from the outside everything is perfect with the white picket fences and the roses at the front of the house things are not as they appear as things inside the house are far from perfect.

Harriet is a 21 year old girl. She is fair haired, very skinny and pale skinned. She wears barely any make up and is a very quiet, secluded person, she barely leaves the house most days. 5 years ago she suffered from an eating disorder and had to be institutionalised in a clinic. This turned her whole life upside down, her mum suffered from bitchy comments from women at work, and her dad just couldn't understand how his daughter had developed such a thing, you could say he was ashamed of her. When she gets back from the clinic she is met by a scowling neighbourhood, and we follow her struggle to get back to a 'normal' lifestyle and rebuild her relationship with her mum and dad.