Our power point presentation

Main Task Power Point

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In respose to Hannahs posts :)

I am also really looking forward to planning and filming and editing our media 2 minute clip, I am really excited to do the filming because I think that this is the best part of the entire movie, and also the part that I will do the majority in. Hannah is going to be our continuity editor and Alana is the editor. We know that we will need to be very organized after Christmas and we won't be able to have people messing around otherwise we won't be able to film all of this. To organize our actors & actresses we are going to make a Facebook group advertising our film. In this group we can talk to all of our members at once so we can let them know what days we will be filming and what they will need to bring to each filming. I think that this would be the most successful way of talking to all of our people who are willing to help us.
In response to Hannah's posts about the food I have plenty of things left over from a party I had in June, so we can use these. For the food we can make cakes and make small sandwiches with something in them that won't go off. In Tescos at the moment they do cheap Party Food because it's nearly Christmas, we can stock up on these type of things and put them in our freezers, and then cook them and bring them into school and keep them in the Food Tech fridges.
I've just gone on Tesco's website and I've just put into our Basket

bread for sandwiches, x1

lemonade x2

cherryade x2

limeade x2

sausage rolls (frozen) x1

and mini pizzas (frozen) x1

the total came to £5.03

By Laura :)

General Thinking of Filming.

I think that it would be easier for us to film after school as we'll most likely have all the actors and extras. However, for some scenes we may need to film in the morning because of lighting. Also a problem with filming after school is that a lot of people do after school activities or need to do their own school work. We will have to take that into consideration.
I am sure that the prom scene will be easy to do because Laura or I have fairy lights and decorations which we could use to make the Drama Studio look more like a hall. I know that I have plenty of bowls and baskets for food and punch. Also I believe that Laura has a silver platter which we could put sandwiches on to make the scene more realistic. Also the Drama Studio has spotlights which we could use to light up the band we are using 'Shock Cityy'.
Also the cast will most likely still have their dresses/suits from prom or have some sort of formal wear. But i will check and let you guys know whether anyone needs to borrow anything.
With the school uniform if they don't have their own because they have handed it down to siblings or giving it to charity. There is always the lost property box in the main office which I'm sure we can borrow from there.
To create the Dolly for the Queen Bee walking scene I do have a skateboard but it isn't very good. I will ask Laura if she has one. But don't worry because I know plenty people who do have skateboards that I'm sure they will let us borrow them. This would be very helpful as then the filming would be very smooth.
With food at the Prom scene I don't mind using some of my work money to buy the props closer to the time. And if need be we could always see if the Food Tech department wouldn't mind lending us a fridge for the food.
The only thing i am worried about with filming is that if we are going to film after school and not in school we will have to book the cameras out quite early as there will be other classes filming for their coursework. I think we should definately now decide when and where we are going to film and what date to then be ready to book the filming equipment before another groups books them out.

Alana

Illustrated story board

Here as i said, i have illustrated our brief plot and camera shot outline. It begins from the top left box of the bottom picture, it then continues on the same as each picture moves up. The first shot is of a prom scene as discussed within the plot line posted by Alana. moving slowly through the social groups until we land on the 'queens' the audience then grasp a slight knowledge about the plot line. the second is that of the flash back, the catalyst for the events to follow, we see how the school is usually run. the third is that of the 'queen bee' arriving, there is a pan up and down of the 'queen bee' as she arrives out of her car.

the next section of shots starts with the queen bee followed by her cronies and them talking about the prospect of a new girl arriving and them adopting her into the group, done through a mid shot. followed by a POV shot of the queen bees. this is showing in their take on the school, and their status. We then cut to shot of the new girl being dropped off in the exact same way as the lead queen bee showing the great comparison between the two.

The third is a POV of the new girls prospect of starting a new school. with a low angle of the school , we make the school look a daunting and menacing place to start. then showing her reaction we see her fear and apprehension and we create an emotional bond between character and audience. a long shot introduces the characters to scene and we move with the new girl following her journey and her introduction to the new scenarios that a teenage girl would encounter. her meeting the queen bees would be very intense and slightly unnerving. As the scene and conversation progresses the queens decide to make her one of them and take her under their wings.

in the close-up of the lead queen bees face(foreground) we show she is the main character within the school and in the background we see the two cronies changing her appearance to fit in with their idea of what a teenage she should look like. The next shot we wish to split into six smaller scenes all going at the same time focusing on certain parts of her appearance changes, working together making this overall dramatic change, this would look really effective. The next shot is that of all the queen bees stepping back are reviewing the new girl and the changes they have made to her. the last shot is an extreme close up of the lead queen bee's lips saying 'Welcome to St. Ivan'





By Hannah

Representation of Gender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGm3ijVMnFA
The opening credits of 'Hollyoaks' uses a wide range of filming techniques all the way through to gives its audience a small taster of what their T.V drama will be like, including its plots, characters and most of all the representation of their characters.
First of all we are faced with the image of an eye, quickly paced with non-diegetic music. the music is played on an electric guitar, this gives the impression of a modern day soap, that fits in with a young hip setting of characters and locations, adding an urban edge to the credits, This creates the overall emotion of the opening clip. This music played is the theme tune for 'Hollyoaks', making it easy for the audience to recognise and associated the piece of music with the programme, the music is what firsts attracts the audience and gives out the immediate message as to what the rest of the content will be like. The music acts as the underscore for the programme, being very fast paced makes the audience link connotations that the music resembles the characters fast-paced life style, but it could also resemble their relationships, as they have many and can be very fleeting.
Another thing that leaps out to the audience is the fast past editing. The audience are immediately plunged into a endless montage, that seems to introduce all of the characters in their individualistic way. the montage, in matched in with the music enhancing the fast paced lifestyle of the characters almost rushing the audience into meeting and recognising each of the characters. the montage consists of faces and people which are all cut differently, forcing each character to stand alone, also the fact that there is only one character in each shot focuses the audiences attention. the fast pace, means lots of action going on at once, tantalising all of the senses as each shot is portrayed differently. The wipe that is introduced early on again suggests that some characters are more dominate than other, especially girls on girls, how some of them demand more attention, possibly from boys? The Action match is mainly shown when the male characters are in shot, this enables the audience to focus in on the athletic ability of the males, compared to the stationary position of most of the women. Some characters are portrayed to appear from a shape dissolving from the next, the shapes of circles sets rounded images in peoples mind such as clam, and less aggressive, again this could portray each of their personalities. all of these different editing techniques are stitched together by cross-cutting, giving the impression of all of the action going on at once.
The editing enhances the camera shots and angles, that play a large roles in separating each of the genders. The very start we are transported to the up close and personal view of an eye, this suggests that there are no limits between personal space of characters. We are also faced with the theme of vanity as we see throughout the clip that women focus a lot and are proud of their looks. Again this is shown when the women are usually paned up from the bottom of their body to the top and the way in which they stand or are positioned suggest sexual connotations, and that they as women are aware of their sexuality. canted angles, gives the impression that everything is slightly different from normal life, there is always an exciting spin to be placed on a situation that maybe elder people may find boring, enabling the audience to face the characters youthfulness and vitality. Wide-shots place the characters in their scenes but also let the audience view their physique, which is something to be proud of and makes each of the characters seem very desirable because of the way they look, which gives the programme so much of their stories as it is their looks which attracts attention from the opposite gender and force relationships between the sexes and this is what the audience wishes to watch. zooming in and out of characters faces gives snapshots of expressions and glimpse's of personalities coming through, the women seem to pout whereas the males seem to smile and give 'cheeky' winks towards the camera, showing the differences between the two.
The mise-en-scene plays a large part in making the characters look real. The main difference in the appearances of the two genders is that the women seem to wear brightly coloured clothing, suggesting parts of their personalities they have of the type of mood that they are portrayed as having. much of the clothing reveals parts of their bodies and also clings tightly to other parts, again showing their knowledge of their sexuality. The heavy make-up seems to make the audience feel as if the women are aware of their beauty and attract a lot of attention from their general demena on shot. their hair is mainly down and adds to their sexual appearance as hair is very appealing. This accompanied by jewellery of golds and silvers suggests lots of connotations of desire and riches and lustful thing. The men are quite different wearing more dull colours, that outline their physique appealing to the women based audience. the clothes do not detract the audiences focus like on the women but instead focuses it on their faces taken in, in a lot of detail. Another factor that enhances the clip, is that of the lighting involved. the fast upbeat lights focuses the attention of the audiences attention onto the character, as their is very little to look at in terms of objects. keeping in sync with the music the lights show a pulsing upbeat outlook of the characters and their approach to life. the contrasting colours of black and white also suggest that opposites attract and could be a double meaning of genders.
the closing scene is that of the title 'Hollyoaks' where the stereotypical colours of 'baby pink/blue' are used, outlining the typical stereotype of boy and girl behaviour. both the 'Os' in the name are changed to the scientific symbols of male and female, which both zoom in, bringing to the attention of the audience that gender is a large factor within this TV drama.


By Hannah

Reflection of Alanas and Lauras posts

I am really looking forward to making this now. the plot line that we have come up with is amazing and i think that our target audience will be able to relate to some of our characters. i think that the plot line really does reflect on what some parts of school life is about, with a slight hint of humourism and also a bit of exaggeration of stereo-typing we will really be able to make this a good piece of work.
i think we will have to try hard into making this piece fluent and try and sum up most of the story line within the clip and so we are able to intrigue the audience but to also not give to much away. To make this story line more visual i will try and upload the story board that i have created, this is all hand illustrated and gives a rough image and idea as to what is going on within the film.
The pictures that we have taken of possible locations i also to think will be very effective and add to our mise-en-scene effect. as of course our storyline is set in a school and where else would be better to shot it. i feel the best place to do the prom scene would indeed be the drama studios as we will be able to easily decorate the room, and also it is not to big that we will not be able to pull off the effect that there are many people at a prom. if we keep to a small place and make a lot of people be around around a small place, this will give the impression of a lot of action around the events that the audience is following, forcing the film to look real and therefore effective.
This has given us a great out look as to what has to be done and how our ideas and image of our film is going to come to life. i will also try and upload a brain storm i have come up with outline possible people for the characters within our film, and you will have to let me know what you think.

By Hannah

Things to consider

hey,
I know that we have all divided most of the things up to make it an even work load and that we are all given roles to show our talents and abilities but i have just noted a few things that we will need to clear up if we are to make our clip a really effective and worthwhile product.

1. when will we film? possibly -before school: But this would mean it would be harder to organise and less people would turn up. -after school: the more likely option as i think we will be more prepared and more people to star in our film will be more inclined to come.
2. if we are to do the prom scene we will need to ask all extras and actors to bring in their prom dresses or a formal dress/suit.
3. mise-en-scene: Laura-costume: school uniform, prom dresses. we need to ask all those starring in the film to bring their own and the you will style them further to fit in with our idea of what they should look like.

Alana- Hair: both prom scene and school, making sure there is a large distinction between both the scenes and also the group divisions. I think we should be able to get together the supplies, from Alana's work and also if we put in money we can buy other hair products needed.

Hannah- Make-up: make up will play a large role in giving the groups their individualistic facial appearance. The 'Queenies' will need to look perfect, where as the more grunger/gothic look will need black eye liner and so on. Supplying will be done by all three of us as I think we all have unwanted make-up that will be useful.

4. The prom scene: we will be needing: lights(fairy lighting-Christmas lights),

food-bowls of Punch, fake champagne glasses, drink-apple tizer to look like posh drink.

tinsel & balloons-looking like decorations enhance the feel and mood

tables, chairs & benches: seating

5. Cars for parents of characters to be dropped off in: Dom & mini: new girl- drop off

Posh car: Queen Bee- drop off

6. skate board: Laura/ Alana, if you have one we could use. this could be perfect for a possible dolly, we will need to look up on 'YouTube' possibly to see how to make one.

7. music for each group and also prom music: supplied by Robins band?

i will look into further detail about each of these points and post some more information on them, hopefully this will help filming run a lot smoother.

By Hannah

Shot List

Quick Character Introduction
Lydia - Main Queen Bee
Jasmine - Queen Bee Follower
Ellouise - Queen Bee Follower
Natasha - New Girl

Shot List

Shot One

Movement shot on a Dolly -

Shot of Apple Tizer 'Champagne', the shot then moves up into a moving shot between two people talking, then it moves through the Social Groups of the school.

Shot Two

Establishing shot, we're also going to sound bridge the voice over from shot one into shot two to link the two together. This will be filmed from the top of the school, we're going to see the different social groups and the Queen Bee & her followers walking into school ready for the start of the day.

Shot Three

Medium Shot - steady cam. This shot is of a car, with Lydia (the Queen bee) getting out of the car and she shot shows just the bottom of the car door opening and then just her feet getting out of the car, with really 'posh' shoes on, different to everyone Else's. (Close Up)

Shot Four

Tilt shot, of Lydia, from her shoes when she gets out of the car upwards so we can see what she is wearing, and how she differs from everyone else in the school.

Shot Five

Low angle, medium shot of Lydia, Jasmine & Ellouise walking down the corridor talking about the new girl.

Shot Six

A P.O.V shot from Lydia & her Followers point of view, they're going to be looking at all the different social groups.

Shot Seven

Natasha and her older brother (Robert) in his car being driven to school

Shot Eight

Long shot of Natasha (the New Girl) getting out of her car, close up of her feet getting out.

Shot Nine

Tilt of Natasha from her feet up (shows the contrast between Lydia & Natasha)

Shot Ten

Low Angle, P.O.V from Natasha

Shot Eleven

Extreme Close up of Natasha's Face

Shot Twelve

Long shot, Introduction between Natasha & Lydia

Shot Thirteen

[linked to previous Shot)

Arc round to Natasha's shoulder, Q.B come and get Natasha

Shot Fourteen

Close up of Lydia Talking in foreground, in background Natasha will be being slightly changed

Shot Fifteen

[montage] of Lip gloss being applied to Natasha's lips

Her plaits being undone in her hair

Her Skirt being Shortened

Shirt being unbuttoned

Tie being Loosened

Glasses being taken off

Shot Sixteen

Mid shot of Natasha - Now 'Tash'

Queen bee's stood to side of her

Shot Seventeen

Close up of Lydia's lips saying 'Welcome to St Ivans!'

By Laura :D

Plotline

A English comprehensive school called St Ivan's, where three girls think they rule the school. Lydia, Ellouise and Jasmine. Everyone tries to stay out of the way and stick to their own groups (grungers, neeks/emos, athletics) but they don't always succeed.
A new student called Natasha joins St Ivan's. Natasha has transferred from a Private school in Kent. So she is rather posh. She immediately is picked up the neek group as they realised that she is highly intelligent. Natasha becomes head girl and succeeds well.
While Lydia is walking down a corridor she notices Natasha's opportunity of popularity. Lydia, Jasmine and Ellouise drag her into a room to which they quickly do a make-over. They also begin to start calling her Tasha.
Natasha becomes too big headed with the popularity she has achieved. She becomes Queen Bee and kicks Lydia off the top seat. The school life is as normal just that Tasha now rules the school and her old group of friends fear what she has become.
There is then Prom night to which Lydia and Tasha have a heated discussion which ends up with Tasha throwing her drink over Lydia. This then make Lydia realise that she has lost her title of being Queen Bee forever. And that the school is no longer 'hers'



Alana

Character Profile

Here is the character profile for our Media coursework, we chose to use our friends for the roles as we could then shout at them as we feel relaxed around all of them making our filming quicker and more effective.

Lydia - Hannah Thurlow
Jasmine - Priya Patel
Ellouise - Amy-Louise Stewart
Natasha - Milly Leppard

These are the main characters, we then had a few extras for our scenes, these were again our friends as they gave up a lot of their time to help us film our film, these were;

Bonnie Man
Suzanne Homer
Charlotte Docwra
Laura Thurlow
Tom Leppard
Jonathan Howe
Charlie Surey
Dan Rossell

Here are the pictures of our characters, there are single shots of everyone and then there are shots of the certain groups, such as the queen bees, geeks, etc
Underneath each picture I will describe what they wore during the filming and what their role was, I will also describe why we chose this person for the role.

This is our two 'average' guys, (Jonathan Howe & Charlie Surey). We decided to chose them because They fitted the description of what we needed, as they aren't Geeky, yet they aren't really popular either. In the School scenes these two wore simple school uniform, but decided to be 'Cool' and untuck their shirts and have their ties lower down. In the Party scene (Shown above) they wore what they felt they should wear at a part after prom, so they look relaxed but again they look smart, as they have just come from their prom.

This is Natasha, the New girl / Neek / One of the Queen Bee's (Milly Leppard). We decided to chose Milly as this role because we felt that she had the right kind of appearance for this role and it could be easily manipulated. As Milly has naturally curly hair we thought that this would be a good look for the Geek look and then it can be easily straightened and made to look more Queen Beeish when we decided to change her. This is why she has straight hair in this picture because she is a Queen Bee at this point as this is the party scene. Milly wore a very strict school uniform, a long skirt, shirt tucked in and a long tie. Also When she was a Geek she was also wearing glasses as we thought that this was a typical thing for Geeks to wear, these were then taken off when she became a Queen Bee. In the party scene Milly is wearing a dress which is quite long but it keeps in with the theme of Lydia (The Queen Bee). we decided to have Milly in this dress as it can contrast with what Lydia is wearing (see picture below)

This is Lydia, our Queen Bee (Hannah Thurlow). We decided to enrol Hannah as the Queen Bee because she fitted the typical 'Queen Bee' look with long blonde hair, perfect skins and a very dainty but perfect figure. As the Queen Bee Hannah always had to look her best in which she usually does anyway, so we thought that she would be perfect for this role. In the School scenes Hannah is wearing a relaxed school uniform, with the Relaxed tie, short skirt, tights boots and a shirt with some of the buttons not done up, this is contrastingly compared to Natasha. In the Party scene Hannah is wearing a very pretty mid length dress which flatters her curves and makes her look more beautiful than the other girls, even her fellow Queen Bee's. Her hair is perfect and is down, which is the same as Natasha's, except for that Lydia's hair is curled and Natasha's is straight. Also this is different from her Followers who have their hair up which could con notate them being less important than her.

These are our two Queen Bee followers, called Jasmine (Priya Patel) and Ellouise (Amy-Louise Stewart). Their role in the film was to follow the Queen Bee and do everything she says and follow along with her evil plot. In the School scenes the both of them wore a relaxed school uniform, the same as the Queen Bee. In the Party scene they wear nice dresses, which are shorter than the Queen Bees which could indicate that they are trying to be better than the Queen Bee but they're not really trying hard enough. Also in the Party scene their hair is up which contrasts to their Idol, Lydia whose hair is down. In the School Scenes their hair is down which again indicates to the audience that they may just follow everything that Lydia tells them to do and they copy each other to make sure they look the same as the Queen Bee.

This is our geeky couple, we didn't give them character names as they are extras and not part of many scenes, (Suzanne Homer and Dan Rossell), in the scenes that they are in which is just the party scene we can see them both wearing very thick rimmed glasses which are very stereotypical of a geek. They are also wearing an outfit which is perhaps typical of a Geek, such as Suzi is wearing a golfers jumper, which could be what a geek wears as it makes them look smarter, she is also wearing a skirt which is blue and red, this then goes with her jumper and makes her looks a bit more geekier then she might do on a usual school day. The contrast between her School uniform and her Prom outfit isn't much different as this may be typical of something that she might wear to school. Dan is wearing a shirt, jeans and trainers, this may not be a very typical outfit for a Geek to wear but somehow included with the glasses it makes Dan look very Geeky. Also on his shirt he has his top button done up.

This is our two average girls, they don't have character names as they were extras but they are Bonnie Man and Charlotte Docwra. Their role in the film was to play extras and just be there. In the school scenes they wore School uniform but as like the Queen Bees their shirts were untucked but they wore trousers instead of skirts like the Queen Bees did. In the Party scene they wore pretty dresses but they weren't as elaborate as the Queen Bee's dresses, however Charlottes is similar to Millys.

These are some Photos of the Groups -

The 'Average Girls'

The 'Average Boys'

The Queen Bees

The Geek Couple

By Laura (:

What we did today in our Media Lesson

Today in our Media lesson we took photos of our possible locations for filming;

We have the Drama Studio; we would use this for the actual Prom, I think this is an effective location to locate our Prom in because it is well lit, it has a stage for our band and it also has lights. It would also be very easy to dress it up and make it look snazzy. The only downside is that the Drama Studio is quite small.

Another location for our Prom is the New Dining Hall. I think this is a good place to use because it is very well lit, and it looks quite posh, the only downside is that it doesn't have a stage for our band to go on, so we would probably have to make one. It doesn't have any tables that we could cover to make them look good

Another location for the Prom is the Main Hall, it's light, airy, and massive. only downside is that it will be being used for the drama production.

Locations for the Queen Bee to be walking through before she gets to the Prom
N corridor - this is good because it's light and airy, but it's quite thin

S corridor - this is good because it's well lit, but then again its small for a complete pan round the queen bee

S corridor downstairs - good because it's light but it also echos

Laura :)

Name Possibilities

We haven't yet thought of a name for our film. And as the name of the film is a major part I thought i would be a good idea to think of a few to choose from.
The title of a chick flick normally gives the audience an insight to what the film is about.
Here are a few I think will be good to go with our storyline:

• Queen Bee
• Cliche
• Pinks Not Perfect
• Plastics
• Killer Looks
• If Looks Could Kill
• Faith

I think that either Queen Bee or Pinks Not Perfect would be the best film for our film.
Let me know what you guys think.

Alana

Changes to our Final Ideas (:

In a previous blog post I said what we're going to do in our film:
' Our basic idea for this was that we would have a Queen Bee and her followers (like in mean girls there is Regina George, and her followers; Gretchen Weeners and Karen Smith) and they would be talking about this new girl that has arrived (Cady Heron in mean girls), the shot would then cut to her and the 'nerd' type group, they would probably be talking about how they are in awe of the popular girls and how they wish they could be like them. Then the Queen Bee decides that she wants to make the new girls life a bit of a misery, they decide to take her and put her in their group of friends where she instantly becomes popular and gets all of the attention, but a good type of attention, nothing like she would have got from anyone when she was with the nerds. She doesn't mind because now she feels as if she is popular, but then the Queen Bee decides she isn't worth her time and kicks her out, her new friends now ditch her and her old friends don't want her back.'
We have now had some new ideas for this

• Instead we're going to start the two minute clip at the end of the movie and then have a kind of flashback effect
• The Nerdy girl will throw some 'wine' over the Queen Bee and then the Queen Bee is going to say how she was never like this and then it will REWIND and show the beginning of the film
• We're going to start the film with the girls and guys at prom
• We are going to have a Band playing for us, so that sorts out the issue of copyright music, as they write their own music & songs

I really like this new idea because it enables us to get more in and also enables us to define this movie as a chick flick in the first few minutes instead of us having to do like a voice over or something to tell the audience what it is. I think if we do this well then our two minute clip will be successful.

Hannah & Alana, I'd like to know if you've got any other ideas we could add to this to make it even better?

Laura (:

Anaylsis of the opening of Mean Girls :)

I have decided to analyse the opening for the film Mean Girls, I decided to choose this Chick Flick because it is one of the most successful and well known girlie films of the 21st century. This film follows a girl called Cady Heron, she has lived in her Africa for all of her life up until now when her parents feel that it's time she socialised and went to a high school. Cady herself has no idea what her school life will be like. She soon gets informed of the 'Queen Bee's'; Regina George, Gretchen Weeners & Karen Smith, they notice her and decide to invite her into their group. Cady also starts to notice a guy, called Aaron Samuel's, she doesn't know that he is Regina's ex boyfriend, Regina says to Cady that she will talk to him for her and Regina ends up snogging Aaron in front of Cady. Cady then makes up a plan with Damien & Janice (the people who invite her into their group when she first arrived.) Although Cady is reluctant to carry on being Regina, Gretchen & Karen's friend she finds it quite easy and almost like it's part of her routine. Cady quickly changes into a 'plastic' and leaves the people who befriended her when she first arrived behind, and lives the life of a Queen Bee. While Cady is living her life as a fake Queen Bee she has been giving Regina 'kalteen' bars, which are nutritional bars given to children in Africa to help them gain weight, she lies to Regina and says that they are weight-loss bars. Later on in the film Regina finds about the Kalteen bars out and so she makes a plan of her own to boycott any respect Cady has.
In this film a lot of artificial light has been used to create the illusion of lighting in a school. When Cady is outside there is natural light from the 'sun'
This film also lets us into the normally secretive world of the American High School, their social groups and how bitchy they all are to each other, in this film and probably everywhere in America if you don't have looks then you're not popular with the boys and you don't seem to get anywhere in your school. In our film we would be using the American kind of social groups, with the Jocks and the Nerds and the Queen Bee's.
Quite a lot of the ideas from our two minute clip are going to come from this movie, as we feel it is easy for us to relate to the topics that are raised in this movie.

I like how in American High Schools the pupils wear their own clothes, since being in 6th form I feel it gives us a sense of individuality as we can express ourselves through our clothes, but because we are doing an English Chick Flick we will probably need to do everyone wearing School uniform, in England having a uniform is a very big part of our lives, we wear it nearly every day for the 12 years that we are in compulsory education, so that makes us different from America. In England I feel that the schools make us all want to look the same through our uniform so nothing can distract the teaching of lessons, but girls and boys still tend to express their individuality through their hair or customizing their school uniform and trying to get away with it. In England i also think that girls are showing more skin and growing up too quickly, like girls wearing foundation and heavy make up at an early age, this shows us that our society is trying to get our girls to grow up before they've even hit puberty. This pressure for girls to be skinny and perfect (like a Queen Bee) also comes from Celebrities, girls read magazines and see themselves as not being perfect enough so they change themselves.

In the first two minutes of Mean girls the film credits take 19 seconds of the first two minutes, and the Opening credits come up as the film is going through. At the very beginning there are low angle shots, which could suggest that Cady, is only 5 or so, as it is her first year of school, but we then see that she is 16 or so, and starting high school for the first time. This could imply to the audience that Cady isn't going to fit into the School.

Laura (:

Angus, Thongs & Perfect-Snogging

Here i have found the opening to the film 'Angus, thongs and perfect snogging' i have choosen to look at this type of chickflick as it is British (actors, location and idea for film), this shows how films are approached in England and not America. this shows how differnt each can be, in here we see lots of uses of english accents, vocabulary and also settings. this would again be very useful as we are bristsh and are producing a bristish film. in the first wo minutes of the clip we see alot, giving the action packed suggestion toward the film. we as the audience are able to determin the mood of the film, the genre and the target audience just by the opening two minutes, which is again things that we need to ask ourselves. The film uses natuaral lighting giving the realistic take on the film, there are also a wide range of shots shown through the clip, such as mid shots, close up, establishing shots, high angles, low angles and jump cuts (these are possibly the most effective type of cuts) I loved the use of mise-en-scene to the clothes and make-up really give a sense of real life, sucking the audience in, the extras are alos somthing we need to consider in great deatial if we are thinking of doing a school theme with lots of groups of pupils. I will have a look into mise-en-scene if we are going to look at differnt social groups. Another thing that i homed in on was the fact that the credits appear once the film has started keeping the audience entertained but also able to clearly see the cast and crew within the film, again i was thinking we could go along those types of lines, which may well pull off to look effective and also professional. I found intersting that they used a bristish band within the film clip(2min clip) enhancing the Bristish theme of the film within the short 2 min clip. If we are able to i would really like to have some sort of British link with the music, i think we will be albe to come up with our own small peice of music if we are not able to come up with a copy right peice that we could use. Overal i really like this film and enjoy the quirky energy that it possess, giving the film a edge from other chick-flicks.

hope this is somewhat helpful.


By Hannah

Scream film

I have analysed the opening to the great horror film of scream if we are going to consider going down that route. through this i have tried to see how different themes co-operate within the film to create a really tense and eerie atmosphere.
• editing and mise-en-scene
• sound and mise-en-scene
• camerawork and sound
• sound and editing
• mise-en-scene and camerawork
• editing and camera work
these are the themes that have come together through the opening film. at first we are immediately drawn in as the title appears which is red, concentrating on the obvious connotations of blood, pain & death. this is also accompanied by the amplified sound of a knife slashing along with lots of screaming, giving the audience a feel of what the film will be like, hence the film title. the quite scene is soon disturbed by the amplified sound of the phone ringing again showing the significance of the object, the audience focus in on the characters facial expressions that are enhanced through a extreme close up of the face. throughout the film as the story line progresses the camera also becomes more frenzied and extreme demonstrating both points of view from the killer as well as the victim, almost giving the audience an adrenaline rush which is what both characters are also experiencing, this engages the audience more and become emotionally attached to the character. This is done through tracking possibly on a dolly and also a steady cam. Sound is used very carefully throughout the film the absence of music leaves the audience to come to their own conclusion as to how to feel about the film, the diagetic sound within the film is also made to become a key point as much of it is amplified such as the popcorn that seems to foreshadow the fate of the character, also her looking at the knife in the foreground of the shot shows significance and also the dramatic irony of what is about to happen. The dog barking gives the uneasiness that there is a disturbance from outside, this accompanied by the fast tracking and slow intact of emotion through the camera becomes very intense. possibly the most tensions part of the film is when from the outside there is the sound of crickets showing how far away from civilisation the house is set, making the case seem more hopeless if she gets into trouble as there is no-one around to help, this is also accompanied by the eerie rope creaking sound...making the audience resemble this with the unhinging thought of a hanging.
these were just a few of the things i found and so let me know what you think about this with the horror idea.

by Hannah

St Trinians Analysis - How We Know It's A Chick Flick

I couldn't find the opening 2 minutes of 'St Trinians' so i settled for the trailer.
In the trailer you are viewed straight away the setting and the school the girls attend which is mainly where chick flick are located.
In this chick flick you are introduced to many of the different main characters. You also get to see the different groups of people there are at school; popular, grungers, athletics and geeks. In this trailer you get to see the different groups separated through the school. And how the 'popular' girls rule/own the school. The different groups don't interact with each other at the beginning but you then see the girls all talking and doing something together.

The music of the trailer they use is the modern pop tune which most people generalize with chick flick and girly films. However, finding a song to play that isn't copy right may be hard as most modern songs are well known.

We also know that the film is British because of the accents the actors are speaking in and the fact that the girls of St Trinians are wearing school uniform which people will associate with British schools.

The film is also very well lit and open. This shows that the film isn't going to contain any horror or scary parts. This then will let the audience know that the film will be calm therefore letting the audience know that it is most likely going to be either a chick flick or a Rom-com.

Alana

What makes a Horror & Chick Flick

After watching many different various chick flicks and horrors.
I found that tension in horror's are emphasised by music and the extreme close up into the victims face.
In 'Saw 2' the titles are writing in a plain font however it's quite shadowy which causes uncertainty. The first scene is set in dark and dingy room with no windows and no one else in the room. The breathing of the character in the frame is also amplified to suggest that there is going to be a bad outcome.
In 'Scream' the font of the credits are red and in a jaggered font. Whilst the titles are rolling there is an amplified heart beat, knife slash and screams which creates suspension and tension of what the film has in store. When we follow the character around her house, the camera looks through her windows and lingers there which make the audience think that something or someone is going to jump out from there. Once she realises her fate of the evening, she goes round locking all the doors and windows in her house which is amplified. Making us think that no matter how much she tries the murder will someone succeed over her.
'The Village' started off with a very high pitched note which is commonly used in horror films because its off putting. The first two minutes consist of a lot of editing from a cut to another of titles to trees.

The chick flick that i watched was 'Definately Maybe' which introduced the main character at the very beginning. And also introduced the storyline slightly.
The beginning two minutes are very conversational because the main character is talking to the audience about whats happened and how he is coping. The music playing in the distance is also very modern and in the pop genre.

From watching these I hope we'll be able to chose our final idea correctly and successfully make the film look and create the atmosphere that other films of that genre create.

By Alana

Our Presentation of our ideas for our Final Piece.

In our previous lesson with Ms Martin we were asked to produce a PowerPoint presentation on a few of our ideas for our final piece of coursework.
Me, Hannah & Alana mind mapped all of the genres that we would like to do, we chose

• Sci-Fi
• Horror
• Festive
• Drama/Historic
• Action
• Gangster
• Chick Flick
• Docu-Drama
• & Romantic Comedy

We have eliminated Sci-Fi, Festive,Drama/Historic, Action, Gangster, Docu-Drama& Romantic Comedy as we feel that these will take too long and will be too detailed to make in our school environment. So we have decided to explore Horror and Chick Flick. We then did another mind map of ideas for each of these two. We chose films from each of these genres, for horror we chose psychological thrillers such as Saw, true stories such as The Haunting In Connecticut and other horror movies which we have enjoyed watching. Off of these films we then mind mapped what we felt were the main elements of these movies which made them good and memorable.

Our horror idea was to do a girl walking home from a party, but she's going to be past her curfew so she decides to take a shortcut via the woods between where she is and her house. But she doesn't know that there is a serial killer in the woods and we just get her screaming and then it ends. The location of this movie would be difficult but there is woods in Oxshott & where my Grandad lives, so we could film there, but it would be scary filming it even if it was just us! Also, we would have to wait until dark, so 4pm or so, to film and we wouldn't be able to film it in school time, which would mean more work for us to do outside of school. The Mise-En-scene for this is pretty easy, we would have our killer wearing a long black cloak and a surgeons mask, like he knows how he can kill people because he keeps people alive for a living, so he would know what he was doing. The girl would be wearing a party outfit and a coat or hoodie or something to keep her warm, but she would be wearing a colour that maybe makes her seem venerable. For sounds we would need some kind of tension music which gets quicker and more upbeat when the killer finds the venerable girl. The casting for this would be a tall person for the killer and we would use high angles shots for a lot of their shots cause then it makes them see more powerful, and for the venerable girl we would cast a short girl, maybe blonde (adds humour) and we would use low angle shots to show her venerability.

We then did the same for the Chick Flick movies. we decided to choose an English Chick Flick in the list of Chick Flicks as we felt that there are not many (successful) English Chick Flicks; however Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging is one of the most successful English Chick Flicks of the 21st century. We chose to add this into our spider diagram because it gives an English view on our 'Social Groups' and we are similar in our social groups to America, as in the prettier and popular girls always seem to have a better life than the unpopular girls who maybe are pretty but aren't seen as pretty by the more popular people. But in Angus Thongs & Perfect snogging this is not the case as Georgia (the main character) isn't what you would normally call one of the prettiest slimmest and most popular girls in her school, but she still seems to be able to get one of the hottest guys in her school. We also chose to have other films such as Love Actually, St Trinians (another English take on a Chick Flick) and Mean Girls.

We have chosen to part-base our Final Coursework Ideas on the film Mean Girls, because we felt that everyone is going to do a horror and it will be repetitive to watch these movies over and over again, we also don't have a very big budget to be able to buy things for our Movie. So we did decide to do a Chick Flick, as we have the facilities to do this here (our School) and it probably won't cost a lot. Our basic idea for this was that we would have a Queen Bee and her followers (like in mean girls there is Regina George, and her followers; Gretchen Weeners and Karen Smith) and they would be talking about this new girl that has arrived (Cady Heron in mean girls), the shot would then cut to her and the 'nerd' type group, they would probably be talking about how they are in awe of the popular girls and how they wish they could be like them. Then the Queen Bee decides that she wants to make the new girls life a bit of a misery, they decide to take her and put her in their group of friends where she instantly becomes popular and gets all of the attention, but a good type of attention, nothing like she would have got from anyone when she was with the nerds. She doesn't mind because now she feels as if she is popular, but then the Queen Bee decides she isn't worth her time and kicks her out, her new friends now ditch her and her old friends don't want her back. [I need to confirm this is what we're going to do with Hannah & Alana] for the casting for the Queen Bee and her followers we would cast girls with long hair(doesn't matter what colour it'd be) and a slender figure. For the Nerdier girls we would probably cast the same but they wouldn't be necessarily prettier than the popular girls. For the Mise-En-Scene the cost is low, as people probably still have their school uniforms from last year. we then would just need to buy hairspray and makeup for the perfect make up and hair that the Queen Bee and her followers have. For the music we would use upbeat modern pop, maybe we could use specific motifs for certain people, we could try writing to music company's to see if they'd let us use their music in our movie, but that might be too much hassle and it could take them months to reply to us.

Laura :)

Preliminary Task

I really like our preliminary task, I think our background idea is really good. I think to improve the camera shots we should probably go on the idea that Hannah had of making our own dolly; This would make the shots smoother. I also agree with Alana with that our camera shots and music fit really well with each other.
If we did this again I think we should probably have a bit more of an idea of our shots and the background of our story. I really liked Steph, Alec's & Lucy's preliminary task with the shot of Alec walking through the door but you can only see his feet, I think this was really effective and something we should take into consideration when we do our final task. We should defiantly use a wider range of camera shots, instead of having all of our shots at one level, i feel that if we use a range of shots like high angle mid shot &low angle it'll give our final task a more thorough view.


By Laura