Improvements from my Preliminary.

 Prior to my preliminary, I did not realise how easily I could break the flow of the film, just by moving myself slightly.After seeing the break in continuity in my preliminary exercise, I was more wary of my footage and checked after filming. I knew more about how to stop filming and continue without breaking said continuity to show more angles and allow for more understanding of the piece. Mise-en-scѐne was also more of a consideration as I realised it was a vital tool for characterisation, particularly in my piece which had no speech in.

The Technology

On iMovie, I found out how to cut clips to allow for continuity when ordering the clips. This also allows for titles to go between the clips. This is important to keep the audience interested in the story and 'believing' in the story. It was difficult to cut out errors whilst keeping the clips continuous. Sometimes I had to alter the ideas I had for the film to make it better.

I also learnt how to cut the music so it fits the clip by removing choruses and verses whilst keeping it sounding continuous, which was quite difficult, which usually appears in films. I did this to make the song lyric appear by the title so the link was made between the genre of the song and the genre of the film. 

On this piece of coursework, I have learnt how to present my research, planning and manufacturing and, now, my evaluation using different media forms on my blog. The experience has led to me being more creative with my blog using visual aids with my written work as well as sound on my blog, through the video. This is important as to show the full potential of my media knowledge and allowing the audience to have more understanding of what I have written.

Audience Feedback

1) Could you tell what was going on?
Yes = 4    No=0

2) Did you know who the Protagonist is?
Yes = 3     No=1 (Too much on parents?)

3) What genre is the film?
Romance = 3     No clue = 1

4) Why do you think this?

• Song   
• Hearts/Titles  
• Everyday

5) What did you like about the film?

• Song  
• Journey   
• Radio   
• character set up   
• actors  
• hooked audiences

6) What did you dislike/what needs improving?

• Hearts should move
• More dialogue

7) Do you feel this opening targets you?
Yes = 3     No=1 (it didn't) 

8) Is this a good opening?
Yes = 4   No=0

9) What do you think will happen next?

• Meet a guy
• arrive in school
• new school/fall in love

From this, I see I have targeted my audience however there were some suggestions of improvement to keep the audience interested and keep it interested.

How Did I Target My Audience?

The romance genre tends to be used as a form of escapism. Women tend to use the romance as a way to have hope for a 'Happy Ever After' and this is why Romance films tend to be in real time (there are some exceptions such as Brokeback Mountain) and this is a convention I incorporated into my opening sequence. To keep the escapism quality, I had to create an eventual happy ending, despite life's obstacles. The mood was created through romantic music that talks about the anticipation of love, starting a relationship with someone - this could also be suggested through the anticipation of moving school.

By introducing the girl first, I created interest in her which allowed a relationship between the audience and the protagonist to be created. This is done through the enigma codes 'where is she going' and 'who is she' as I start the clip with just Jo tying her shoes. The audience begin to wonder her story and pull from their experiences to come up with more of an idea of what will happen in the story, therefore thinking more about Jo and becoming 'friends' with her as they are of similar age. I do not use speech to keep the audience guessing the plot and therefore interested. She appears nervous and that is emphasised through close ups and this creates more curiosity over what is going to happen to her.

Jo Timbers is the only real character introduced, giving her more screen time to allow the audience more time to connect with her. The character is very much like the audience - afraid of not fitting in. Her working background makes her more accessible to the audience as she is very normal.

The music allows the audience to know it is a romantic film and it targets the female audience. The singer is a handsome man who is talented in more than one field of entertainment (TV, Theatre, Music and Dancing) John Barrowman makes a youthful rendition of this classic song.

Who Are My Target Audience?

PG

After looking at several Romance films, I have found out that certificates are not a good reference to target audiences, they just rate content. For example, both Sleepless in Seattle and Enchanted are PGs, but they target different audiences.


Sleepless in Seattle targets a more adult theme, Tom Hanks' character is a widow with a son who is searching for more love. Enchanted is based off Fairytales and for people to believe in the romance from fairy tales and therefore the certificate reflects the audience in this case.

The romance genre targets 16-45 years olds, however this is not exclusive. The target age group of any given film is usually reflected through plot and the age of the main characters, this is why my main characters are teenagers and the plot reflects teenage life (school and fitting in.)

PG

Media Institutions

For the name of my distributor, I decided to use a different language like the company Buena Vista. Buena Vista, I found, was Spanish for 'Pleasant viewing'. Since my film is a romance film I decided to make a romance-specific distributing company. Because of this, I picked the French language, a language associated with love. From this I got Bellamour, which, when correctly written as Belle Amour, means Beautiful love. I believed the company should only be in one word.

It would be a relatively independent company that, if necessary forms alliances with major companies. This, however, is not always needed as romance films do not tend to need a big budget in comparison to films from other genre's because they're very close to real life.

In terms of a logo, I considered the logo of New Line Cinema. The logo is of a bit of film so I considered using a film clapper.  I altered it into the shape of a heart to convey that it works with the romance genre.

Characterisation

The main character, Jo Timbers, is the only character to be properly introduced. This is because, according to the conventions of the romance genre, the main character has to be liked by the audience.

Jo's character brings up issues of the representation of Gender and Social Class. Mis-en-scѐne is the main tool I use to represent Jo as such. Her costume is plain grey but, to appeal to my female audience, still has some sense of style to it. Her bag as no designer label and appears to be quite used. She is seen as 'normal' and easy to associate with because she's a lot like the target audience. Her parents are represented similarly. The setting is of a house that is incomplete (the stairs are not finished) suggesting little money. 

In my clip, the representation I make of the working class is that hey are intimidated but the higher class (the reaction shots of Jo to the letter and to the school.) This is important to my narrative as the new school creates the 'problem' as the higher class appear to treat her as inferior but she still finds someone to be with. The family is very close and they are supportive, setting up the disequilibrium as she feels quite alone at the school. Her parents are represented as her support network. Class is relevant as it firstly creates the obstacle that is a convention of my genre. It also conveys a moral message to my audience regarding aspiration that their background should not hold them back and they have the ability to do what they wish. 

To represent my female character as likeable, I represented her as clever (moving to a more renowned looking school) but modest as she still shows nerves regarding moving school where others would be over confident. She still seems very girly with her style of clothes and this makes her more appealing to the audience as she is easily relatable to them and would not alienate them. During the whole film, she would innocently fall in love (she does not try to seduce him which makes her more appealing.) She also becomes the victim of the obstacle (he leaves her) making her more appealing and we side with her easily.

Using, Developing, Challenging Forms and Conventions

Genre

My media product uses the forms and conventions of the romance genre. This is done in different ways:

Music= My song is "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", a classic love song. This song is about the obsession and 'crush' stage of love, making it, perhaps, more suited to Teenage love (as we assume their love life is full of crushes. This, therefore, corresponds with my film's plot and the lyric 'Let Me Love You' (which, incidentally, is the title of the film) conveys an impression of an obstacle. This song was also used in a teen film with Heath Ledger singing it (10 Things I Hate About You - Modern interpretation of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' another romance film targeted at female teens. The song is used as a form of serenading to convince the girl to go out with the boy.) My version of the song is sung by John Barrowman. The song was released in 2009, giving it a more modern sound. John Barrowman himself is known among teenagers as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood (Cert: 15). He is an attractive young(ish) man which targets my female audience. The music creates anticipation for love, it is a positive song. The other music (drumbeat) also creates anticipation. It's a twist on the drums set before an execution to create a more positive form of anticipation. This introduces her nerves as she approaches the Disequilibrium.

• Plot/Characters = I introduce the girl in the pair first, which is a convention of the romance genre (as I saw from the film 'You've Got Mail' - where the man and woman fall in love despite a diffence (he was the boss of a major corporate chain of book shops whilst she works in a traditional single bookshop) the woman is the first of the couple to be introduced. This is arguably an issue of class though more so of the ideals. Another film that uses this convention is Pride and Prejudice; which is all about social class. Mr Darcy is very middle-class and Elizabeth Bennett is of lower-class yet despite this they fall in love. I also give the girl more screen time, which makes the girl more easy to create a relationship with as she receives the most screen time, targeting my female audience. This is shown through eyeline matches and close-ups so the audience can understand the characters though processes. She is also seen as very girly and likeable. Her parents embrace and she gets embraced, showing the love and support in her house. Her parents' relationship could be an aspiration for the protagonist to reach. Jo is moving school in my opening sequence, showing a potential for a new start from which the audience could consider a new love. She falls in love with someone who welcomes her to the new surroundings. They are pushed apart (obstacle) before reunited. 

• Title Sequence = My title sequence develops the romance genre as the credits appear on love hearts, similar to valentine cards. The 'i's' are dotted also with hearts, showing the theme of love. The title itself is in pink, the use of red (on the hearts) and pink (on the title) conveys the romance genre and show that my target audience are female. My distribution company logo uses the conventions of the heart. 

• Location= It's set in 'real time' and in 'real life' a convention of the romance genre. It is also set in real life settings for the character (school and home) which makes it easy to relate to. The romance genre is an escape and showing that good things can happen to ordinary people is one form of escapism - it is almost a sanitized version of real life.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Narrative Theory  

Hero (Protagonist) meets the Agent of Change (Cause of disequilibrium.) which creates a Problem. The protagonist goes on a Quest to reach the Resolution of the problem. In the romance genre, the problem is usually some kind of obstacle to love, in my product's case it was class.  

 

The other theory was the idea of the Equilibrium (normal life) is altered to turn into the Disequilibirum (a destruction of normal life) then resolved into the same or a different Equilibrium. In the romance genre, the last equilibrium will be being with a new love. The initial Equilibrium is presented as Jo's normal life. We see her at her house and we meet her parents. She is in a supportive family.  The disequilibrium in my clip is the school, she is standing alone as she prepares to walk into the school. The disequilibrium would go on to be that she has no friends. She meets the boy and they fall in love. They fall out during this sequence. The latter Equilibrium is when  the boy apologises and the couple 'fall back in love.' 

 

Narrative Codes   

Enigma Codes   Action codes

Who is she?
Where is she going?
The Bag = School

 Who's he?
Embrace = Friend/parent?

 They must be her parents.

 Why does she have to go so far?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Letter 'Ipswich School' Must be moving school. 'received application to our school.' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The titles and the music tell us there will be romance.

 

 

 

 

 

 Image of school = must've moved school

Why has she moved school? 

My Final Product

New Script and Story board

Script 2
Bellamour Productions - logo and name.

Radio = Good morning, that time of year again! Back to School. Here at Cable FM we decided to brighten your day with John Barrowman's rendition of 'Can't Take Me Eyes Off Of You'... to all those who want to find love this term.

First film

This film has a few continuity errors and is far too long. It's missing the title of the film and the music wasn't properly edited. I will re-film the first half (the part in the house) and edit it in. I have decided to make changes to this section to make it more interesting and give more context, i.e. A radio presenter at the beginning to introduce the setting.

Me filming.

The sequence you see will be separated using the titles/credits and there is also some scenes in the house which I was not filmed doing.

Cast

 Jo Timbers, the main girl, will be played by Christie Thompson. One picture is of her costume and the other is so we can see her face. 









Jake Timbers, Jo's dad, will be played by Ryan Griffiths.

Lily Timbers, Jo's mum, will be played by Lucienne Avis (me) During the scene with me, Ryan will be cameraman.

Props

Preparation

Distribution Company

I've decided to name my company 'Bellamour' which comes from the french words 'Belle', meaning beautiful/lovely and amour, which means love. The company would specialise in European Romance films, such as my own.

I came up with the idea after I found out that Buena Vista meant 'pleasant viewing' in Spanish and I picked French as it known to be the 'language of love'.

I came up with several ideas for logos to match the name

In the end I went with the top left. It is a mixture of a heart (resembling the love/romance) and a film clapper (to signify they're films)

This is what the logo would look like when stationary, but I had some help and  managed to make a moving image to put at the beginning of the film.

Click on the image to see the movement

Script

Music Permission.

Gavin Barker is John Barrowman's agent (www.gavinbarkerassociates.co.uk) He gave me permission to use the song 'Can't Take My Eyes off of you' (Proof below)I picked this song as it is first and foremost a love song and it's about the moment when they first fall in love, which I think targets my audience as they are teenagers, as our my characters, and they are more associated as feeling that deep in love so quickly. The lyric 'let me love you'  shows there is an obstacle that the social class difference prevents them from being in love. The singer, John Barrowman, is very well known although maybe not so much in the teenager's lives as a singer but as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who or Torchwood.

Storyboard

 If you look at the numbers, between 1 & 8, my title credits will take place. As shown below. 

 

The Opening Sequence

Music starts playing- 'Can't Take My Eyes off of You', the rendition by John Barrowman.. The title of the film will appear: 'Love has arrived', one of the lyrics to the song. It will begin at Jo's house on a school day morning. She is getting ready for school, the radio is playing the title song.  On her desk is a good luck card which she glances to and sighs. Also on the desk is a letter on which has a school emblem on it or an image of the school. The letter shows the formality of the upper class school. She puts it on top of some tatty books, glancing over it and she slips it into her bag, which has holes and patches on. She's dressed in baggy jeans and shirt. Her hair has no style and is kept in a ponytail. She moves down the stairs to see her father, eating toast as he heads to the car. He's dressed in dirty clothes (he's a manual worker), as he passes her he kissed her cheek as he steps out of the house. Her mother walks over to her and also hugs her, ensuring her that her first day will be OK. Jo slowly steps out, showing tatty boots/trainers.She walks to school, during which the credits will role. Showing the director, producer, the two main actors and the music. As the titles run, the music becomes louder. Then, she appears at the school, which is a very middle class school. She sighs and she moves to the building.

Film Synopsis

Jo Timbers is a working class girl in the twenty first century. She transfers to a middle class school as her grades excel and she wants a challenge. Unfortunately, the only challenge she faces is the students, who see her as inferior to themselves because of her social standing. Only one boy speaks to her, Jude Carmichael, a popular middle class boy at the school. They met in class, where Jo was put next to Jude but they really become friends when Jude finds her into a 'secret place.' They spend every lunch time together there and one lunch time they get particularly close and Jude kisses Jo. He goes home to tell his parents about his new girlfriend. His father recognises her surname as the surname of one of his employees. He demands that Jude breaks up with Jo to prevent a scandal. Unable to face Jo, Jude stops visiting her 'secret place' and avoids her in lessons. Jo, meanwhile, worries that there is something wrong with Jude. She goes to find him, only to see he has a new girlfriend, Cassandra, another middle class girl and Head Girl. Heart broken, she could only last a couple of weeks at the school before she pulls out, returning to her former, working class school. Jude has inner conflict, not sure whether to follow his heart or his head. After approx. a week, he breaks it off with Cassandra and goes to Jo's house. He proclaims his love for her, promising not to let his parents or anyone else get in the way of their relationship. She forgives him and they become an item, although Jo still goes to the working class school.

Vladmir Propp - Character Functions // Narrative Structure

Vladmir Propp - Character Functions
Heroine:  Jo Timbers


The Donor: New School


The Blocker: Cassandra, The students of the school


The Helper:  Her mum, Jude



The Object of the Quest: To fit in/ be happy.


The Narrative Structure

As displayed in my diagram, the story revolves around Jo Timbers, as Romance films generally give more attention to the female. Her life changes when she moves school, therefore the agent of the change is when she moves. This conducts the problem as she is unaccepted by the students who are of a higher class. Her 'Quest' is to fit in or be happy. This is resolved by returning to her old school but she gets a boyfriend, Jude, who could also be considered as an 'agent of change' within the story. He helps her complete her quest as he makes her happy and feel less lonely.

The Narrative I chose is...

I've decided to use my third narrative idea. I feel that is has the more qualities that adhere to the Romance genre and is more original than the other ideas. The idea of 'class' is not as profound in British society anymore so this film would bring that idea back to the forefront. It follows qualities from two infamous Romance films and targets the correct audience.The idea of conflict is very prominent, which is essential for every film, not just Romance films. The 'forbidden love' idea keeps the audience on edge, similar to a 'will they won't they?' idea.

The Characters:


Main Girl                                                                           Main Boy              
Name: Jo(anna) Timbers                                           Name: Jude Carmichael
Age: 16/17                                                               Age: 16/17 
Parents: Dad- Mechanic                             Parents: Dad- Business manager
             Mum- Cleaner                                 Mum-Teacher of a Private School
Clothes: No brand, simple t-shirt                  Clothes: Shirt/Jeans; designer labels.
             and jeans. dirty/second hand
             trainers. 


Other Girl
Name: Cassandra Jennings
Age: 16/17
Parents: Dad - Business Man
             Mum - Secretary
Clothes: Fashionable, designer clothes.
             Dresses. 

Film Idea 4

This film idea also conveys an image of 'forbidden love', it involves a modern theme (the Iraq war) and it advertises acceptance despite of race and how love can live forever.