Point 19 - Narrative Theorists

When researching the narrative theorists I quickly realised that a lot of the theories fitted to our groups narrative for our film task. For example, Propp's theory of having 8 stereotypical characters matches our characters as we have a villan (the bullies), a princess (the girl crush) and a prince (the main nerdy character who gets the princess in the end) With Todorov our equilibrium is the main male character getting on fine in life, the disruption is him getting invited to the Reunion and embarassing himself and the re-equilibirum is getting the girl and the school bullies becoming nice. Strauss's binary opposition theory takes place also with evil vs good and female vs male.

 

So through this task I've discovered these theories still relate to the media nowadays even though they were created in the late 20th century they still take place and help create big hollywood blockbusters.

 

Point 16 - Research on Institutions

Research on Institutions on Prezi

Point 15 - 'Pearl and Dean' website

When looking on the Pearl and Dean website and in the business section I learned about how the industry categories their audiences.

They commented on the drastic change in cinema over the past decade, showing people how it used to be all about the Hollywood blockbusters but nowadays people are more likely to watch a heartfelt documentary or an indie film not some big 3D family action film. This has had a big impact on the diverse range of audiences who go and watch films at the cinema.

Pearl and Dean split their target audience into three groups: Family (family focus attracts a housewife and child audience), 15+ (Cinemagoers who are young and upmarket) and Art House (The art house cinemagoer is older). This is then split again into: Age, Class and Gender. An example is shown below:

For our film opening I would categorise our perfect audience member into the 15+ group as they are upmarket and young so would be similar to the tribe group of a townie which I defined as my perfect audience member on the previous post.

Point 14 - Perfect Audience Member

When researching on the uktribes website I found my perfect definition of an audience member was a TOWNIE.

• This tribe is the core of the British Population
• They like a variety of entertainment
• They like R 'n' B, mainstream hip-hop and pop music, but this isn't a main focus
• They are very into talent contestants, celebs and soaps.
• Holidays and socialising are a big thing also

Tribe Icons:

Cheryl Cole, Danny Dyer, John Terry, Lacey Turner, Scott Mills and Rhianna

 



Brands and Media Consumption:

As you can see this tribe are very top heavy on Media, Radio and Cinema but not so much on reading newspapers and keeping up-to-date with events going on in the world.

For our type of film this tribe definitely fit the criteria of our perfect audience member. They are very trendy (hence the name!) and are the people to ask when wanting to know what is happening in the entertainment world at that moment in time. They are very into their media so would be good judges for our type of film when finding out what works and what doesn't. They seem very relaxed and easy-going people and would pair well with our genre as it is a funny, light hearted drama comedy.

And this is how they dress:

Point 13 - Audience Research

Our task was to find out some audience research on what films people think have good openings, what attracts people to films and what puts them off. Here is what we find out:

Audience Research on Prezi

Point 11 - Annotating 9 Key Shots

For this task I've chosen to use the opening of ' Breakfast at Tiffany's'.

Key Shot 1 - This shows the opening title of  'a paramount picture' letting the audience know the company that produced the film.

Key Shot 2 - The screenshot is an establishing shot of a street in New York City, setting the location of which the film is set.

Key Shot 3 - This shot is of Audrey Hepburn getting out of a taxi, showing her middle class level in contrast to the high clas store next to her.

Key Shot 4 - The next is a low angle shot of a lady looking up at a Tiffany and Co store. With her look of a pearl necklace and hair in a bun along with the high angle shot looking up at it, it shows she is someone who is a wannabe high class women.

Key Shot 5 - Thie screenshot shows Audrey's full length dress and her whole body portraying to the audience her elegance and class.

Key Shot 6 - Another screenshot is of Audrey Hepburn staring into the Tiffany and Co window display while eating her breakfast. This shot is on screen for about 30 seconds while the titles appear to the right. By the length of time it is shown it is giving off the idea that she is day-dreaming and longing to have something in the shop.

Key Shot 7 - This shot is taken from inside the shop looking out at Audrey Hepburn outside creating the effect that she is seperate from them and in a different world of which she wishes she was part of and with her head tilted we assume she is thinking.

Key Shot 8 - This shows Audrey Hepburn walking away from the shop while the titles appear on screen and she is putting on her scarf.

Key Shot 9- This screenshot shows Audrey running into a building with a shot of a driver waiting outside giving the idea that she is late.

Point 10 - Full Textual Analysis of Film Opening Sequence

Little Miss Sunshine

The opening sequence of Little Miss Sunshine starts with a fully coloured yellow screen representing the colour of sunshine with the music starting straight away. Next, an extreme close up shot of a young girl with big rounded glasses is staring straight into the camera lense with the reflection of a TV screen being reflected into her glasses of a women. This is straight away telling the audience that this is a main character, it then cuts back to a cartoon animation of a yellow bus driving along a road with the name of the actress playing the part. We then see a low angle shot of the girl wearing a red jumper with sporting bands round her wrist with her hands to her face acting surprised with then a quick cut to the TV where the women is doing the exact same gesture when winning a beauty pageant. This is showing that the young girl seems to think of nothing else but winning a pageant and you realise it must be her passion. With another quick shot of the yellow bus moving along you then get introduced to an older man wearing a blue shirt and tie with a close up shot of him talking to an audience of which you don't see but he uses a firm hand gesture when speaking which suggests he's possibly talking in a lecture about a serious topic, suggesting he's a hard worker and quite a serious person. A backwash colour of yellow is shown again with the title of the actors name appearing and then the shot of the yellow bus moving along the road. A bird's eye view shot introduces us to a young male who is doing weights with a simple white t-shirt on and black fingerless gloves, his facial expression is very serious and concentrative giving the feeling that he has determination, which makes sense once you learn about his character in the film. The actors name then appears on the screen with the yellow backwash of colour again and the bus moving. A close up shot of somone sniffing cannabis up their nose is shown next with the camera tiliting upwards after to reveal a much older male with a leather waistcoat and a colourful hawaiian shirt on, suggesting to the audience he doesn't have a care in the world and enjoys life by his care-free dress sense. You then see a shot of him facing away from the camera but you see his face through the reflection of him staring into a dressing table mirror, the same sequence then appears with the actors title and the yellow bus. An older female is introduced next with a still camera shot of her driving in the car while on the phone to someone and smoking out the window, this is creating the idea that she is stressed out and leads a very busy life style as she is using smoking to calm herself down, the animation bus appears again but this time starts to disappear off the right hand side of the screen while the actresses name appears. This is suggesting the opening sequence is coming to an end before one last side shot is shown of a older man in a wheelchair staring directly out of the window in a hospital and a close up shot of his facial expression is shown afterwards as he looks very serious and deep in thought, suggesting he has been through some sort of trauma. His name appears while you see the last inch of the bus move off screen and then the main film title is shown behind the yellow backwash of colour with each word getting slightly bigger leaving the word 'Sunshine' in big capital letters along with 'Miss', before the director's name appears. Then the film begins.

I find this opening sequence works very well through a number of different elements. It is very simple and repetitive and doesn't include any special effects or features. It simply states each main character to the audience and gives them a little background on each one. It also gives you an insight into how these characters all seem very different to each other and with this it urges you to watch more in order to find out what happens next and what their story is. The track played behind the opening title is called "The Winner Is" by Mychael Danna and DeVotchKa and is a nice calming piece of music to compliment the simplicity of what's happening on screen.

Point 9 - Breakdown of Film Title (21 Jump Street)

I decided to use the drama comedy film '21 Jump Street' for my graphic breakdown of an opening title. This is a recent film that tells the story of two cops who became friends when at police camp, having been sworn enemies in high school. They go undercover in a local high school and try to blend in while bringing down a youth drug group. This is the opening title:



And this is my graphic breakdown of the opening title:

Point 8 - Research of Genre

Drama comedy films usually convey a well thought out story that has meaning to it that the audience can think about afterwards but for them to enjoy it more a touch of comedy is added to make it more light-hearted. With the drama side of the genre the storyline is usually a serious, plot-driven narrative that shows realistic characters, settings, life situations and involves intense character interaction. It mostly never focuses on special-effects comedy or action but focus on telling a realistic and emotional storyline. With the way the narrative is structured most start by showing you the ending of the film and then works it's way back, allowing the audience to be very confused at the start of the film and then all is revealed if you keep watching it, another is having a voice over at the beginning and one character introducing themselves while shots are shown on screen. The comedy side usually provides the humour by the characters doing silly embarssing things that the audience can either find hilarious because it's so unreal or something that they can relate to as they've done it themselves. Examples of these films are:

A women who gets divorced and goes on a round-the-world trip to "find herself".

A story of man and following his life.

Telling the tale of a group of teenagers in DT.

Shows a family determind to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant.

 

Most of these films have a light-hearted story to it which a range of audience members can enjoy from young to old. Other conventions of this genre is having upbeat and modern music and providing a rollercoaster of emotions, making you laugh in hysterics at one moment and then in floods of tears the next.

 

So for our film opening we need to include:

 

• A voice-over
• Modern music
• Main character introducing himself to the audience
• A silly embarassing moment (which the audience can relate to)