Lock Down Shot

The different shot types

Genre Conventions - Romance

Film Production and Distribution Companies

Production Schedule

28/10/14 - Powerpoint on genre conventions.

29/10/14 - Create a prezi on initial story ideas and link our ideas together in one prezi.

05/11/14 - Practise shot types in preparation for film opening.

08/11/14 - Create our Facebook and Twitter accounts, look into feedback on these accounts for our three initial story ideas along with title ideas.

19/11/14 - Research the classification of films and what topics come under specific classifications, along with deciding our classification and reasons why.

21/11/14 - Decide the ice rink we want to film at.

03/12/14 - Look at existing company logos and create one, upload our talent release forms and location release forms to our blog.

09/12/14 - Get our audio permission and fill in our risk assessment grid.

10/12/14 - Create our classification screen with company logo, look at how to construct an opening and engage the audience, complete location scouting sheets.

17/12/14 - Have a meeting on the location change, create call sheets, make a blog post on our plans for shooting over the Christmas break.

19/12/14 - Create a shoot list.

22/12/14 - Piece together our anamatic.

24/12/14 - 04/01/15 - Film scenes for our film opening on any free days between these dates.

07/01/15 - Go through every clip we filmed and make an edit decision list.

21/01/15 - Post our rought cut.

04/02/15 - Discuss a script for our narrator.

10/02/15 - Post our edit decision list.

11/02/15 onwards - Edit the film opening until complete.

Meeting 1

After a good month spent on film research, Danielle and Ellie discussed joining forces as film producers to create a film opening as a pair. 

What resulted in this outcome was the fact that we are both interested in romance and chose this as our genre. As this is our very first attempt at creating a film opening, we are eager to put our similar creativity into a project that requires a hefty amount of work. Danielle suggested that it would be more practical to split the roles, and therefore spreading the work load. Ellie agreed to this and thought that it would be a great idea to work as a pair, as this meant that there would be less stress for us as first year students. Ellie wanted to apply a Christmas theme to the film opening, and Danielle liked the sound of that idea as we are both into the Christmas spirit. This was another reason that meant we came together as a pair. Ellie wanted to work with Danielle because as we are best friends, she knew that she'd be helping her with her film opening and Danielle would be helping Ellie with hers. Considering we also both decided to do a romance, we came up with the conclusion of it being an intelligent idea to work together. The reason that Danielle wanted to work with Ellie was because she thought that if she ever struggled with something, Ellie would always be there to support and help her. 

To begin the project, Ellie will write up a production schedule in order to keep her and Danielle organised throughout the duration of this project. This will help them stick to a plan of what must be done every lesson in order to achieve a successful outcome.

Secondary Research - Audience for romance audience

Like most romance movies, the target audience is focused on women. Romantic films have a large target audience as different films attract different ages. The age range as a whole can be from 11 to 40 years old. The teenage romance genre which my film opening will be falling under, is targeted at younger women from the ages of around 13-25. This is because the main actors/actresses in my film are of similar ages to the audience.

The audience of romance consists mainly of women. The action goes on in such a manner that the audience is able to share the feelings of the character, empathising with him or her at all stages of the story.

Romance movies and their ratings

Rated 8.8/10

- Casablanca (1942)

Rated 8.610

- Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
- Her (2013)

Rated 8.5/10

- Modern Times (1936)
- The Perks of Being a Wllflower (2012)

Rated 8.4/10

- The Apartment (1960)
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
- 3 Idiots (2009)

Rated 8.3/10

- The Gold Rush (1925)
- The Artist (2011)
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
- The Fault In Our Stars (2014)

Rated 8.2/10

- 500 Days Of Summer (2009)
- Annie Hall (1977)
- Les Miserables (2012)
The Princess Bride (1987)

Rated 8.0/10

- Shrek (2001)
- Stardust (2007)
- The Notebook (2004)
- Tangled (2010)
- Superman 2 (2006)
- Days Of Heaven (1978)
- Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The type of audience that The Fault In Our Stars attracts:

“The Fault in Our Stars” will attract viewers not only from its major target audience of young people, but also adult audiences who will be more concerned with the cancer theme.

It is mainly the two leading actors who carry this film on their shoulders, and luckily so, for at the end of the day, what we remember from this film is not the effect of the death of a loved one or how cancer ruins lives, but how falling in love is one of the most wonderful and meaningful experiences in life, no matter how long it lasts. 

The type of audience that The Notebook attracts:

Bland and sentimental, The Notebook is old-fashioned filmmaking aimed at an old-fashioned audience. However this movie is still a heart warming romance that may attract a younger audience. Because of it's adult actors and adult storyline, this movie will attract teenagers from 17 onwards rather than 10 or 11 year olds like The Fault In Our Stars would as older people will be able to understand the story with a lot more appreciation than a child.

Secondary Research - Developing My Film Opening Through The Genre

To establish the genre of my film, I am including many key characteristics to convey my film as being a romance. 

Hazel Grace - The Fault In Our Stars.
Georgia Nicolson - Angus, Thongs
and Perfect Snogging

I shall be using a female character called Ameerah as my main character so that the whole movie will be based around her life, her love life and her choices she chooses within the film. Many romance movies are based around a female as being the lead character. The films that inspired me for this are The Fault In Our Stars and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. 

The main prop that I'll be including in my film opening is a diary with polaroid pictures. Ameerah will look through this diary and stumble across pictures of her and her ex Noah, the camera will zoom into these pictures and flashbacks will play. This will establish the genre as being a romantic movie because a couple is introduced in the first two minutes, which means this is an important feature throughout the rest of the film.

The setting that my film opening is based in is Ameerah's bedroom, the kitchen, and flashbacks of previous events where the setting will be in a restaurant and a winter walk.

A positive Christmas jingle will be playing in the backgroud of this film opening to enhance the love story. Horror, Thriller and action movies would not play this type of music. This music will be playing throughout the whole film opening, perhaps stopping when Ameerah discovers the Christmas card.

Mia - Princess Diaries.
Anna - Pitch Perfect.
Samantha - A Cinderella Story.

Costume is a key feature in a romance movie. It can tell the difference between a teenager or a mature adult. In teenage romance movies, the costume the main character is clothed in is usually pretty casual items of atire. This means I will most likely be dressing my main character up in cosy jumpers and leggings or skinny jeans. These girls to the left are also the main characters, all female.

Illustrated Media Timeline

History of film and genre - Romance

Until 1927, motion pictures for films were produced without sound. This era is referred to as the silent era of film. To enhance the viewers' experience, silent films were commonly accompanied by live musicians in an orchestra, a theatre organ, and sometimes sound effects and even commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist. There was a non-commercial attempt to combine the motion picture with a combination of slides and synchronize the resulting moving picture with audio. The film included hand-painted slides as well as other previously used techniques. Simultaneously playing the audio while the film was being played with a projector was required. This monumental production, released in 1915, was entitled "The Photo-Drama of Creation" and lasted eight hours.The year 1900 conveniently marks the emergence of the first motion pictures that can be considered as 'films' - at this point, film-makers begin to introduce basic editing techniques and film narrative.

Romance films are love stories, or affairs of the heart that center on passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of the main characters (usually a leading man and lady), and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus. Oftentimes, lovers in screen romances (often romantic dramas) face obstacles and the hazards of hardship, finances, physical illness, racial or social class status, occupation, psychological restraints, or family that threaten to break their union and attainment of love. As in all romantic relationships, tensions of day-to-day life, temptations (of infidelity), and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films.

In mid-June 2002, the AFI selected America's "100 Greatest Love Stories" - these 100 films were "the complex, cinematic tales of the heart that have become an abiding part of American film history.

The Earliest Romance Films:

    

The beautiful actress Corinne Griffith starred as a destitute, wide-eyed, and naive showgirl in Milestone's silent romantic comedy The Garden of Eden (1928).

• The Lon Chaney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) - a tragic tale of love between a deformed bellringer named Quasimodo and gypsy dancer Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller). 



Alexandre Dumas' famous story of a Parisian courtesan, Camille (1915), with Clara Kimball Young, was remade in the silent era in 1917 (with Theda Bara), in 1921 (with Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino), and in 1927 (with Norma Talmadge).



D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) was subtitled, "Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages," and in one of its four stories featured unrequited love between animal skin-wearing, onion-eating Mountain Girl (Constance Talmadge) and Babylonian Prince Belshazzar (Alfred Paget).


Famous Screen Couples: Garbo and Gilbert:


Two of the earliest romantic (or quasi-erotic) screen couples in the silent era were the seductively-beautiful, beguiling and bewitching Greta Garbo and her handsome screen counterpart John Gilbert, two MGM stars who first appeared together in Flesh and the Devil (1926) with three artistically-lit extended sensual love scenes. Reportedly, they had Hollywood's first French (open-mouthed) kiss on screen in a shadowy garden scene, and the first-ever horizontal-position kisses in an American film. Garbo and Gilbert continued to carry on a passionate romance both on- and off-screen. They also went on to make a loose adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina titled Love (1927). The film's original title was changed from Heat, due to the awkward marketing that would have developed (Gilbert and Garbo in 'Heat'). Soon after, they were paired in MGM's melodramatic silent film A Woman of Affairs (1928), the story of a tragic love affair for a fallen woman. [Later, Garbo's three greatest romantic films were Queen Christina (1933), Camille (1936) with the luminous actress as a dying Parisian courtesan in love with a young nobleman (Robert Taylor), and Ninotchka (1939).

Romantic Pairings in the 80s:

The time-travel, fantasy-romance between a modern-day, self-hypnotized playwright (Christopher Reeve) and a beautiful turn-of-the-century actress (Jane Seymour) in Somewhere in Time (1980)

The ruinous, forbidden affair of a 19th century Victorian Englishwoman (Meryl Streep) with a French Lieutenant and a contemporary gentleman (Jeremy Irons) in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

The most unlikely bond between a stranded alien and a young boy (Henry Thomas) in Spielberg's E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - with ET's heart-warming promise at its finale: "I'll be right here."

The mysterious romance The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), with Nathalie Baye and Gerard Depardieu as a reunited couple who - after a period of war - may/may not be husband and wife.

The first ever romance movie

The Kiss (also known as The May Irwin Kiss, The Rice-Irwin Kiss and The Widow Jones) is an 1896, actuality, and was one of the first films ever shown commercially to the public. The film is around 47 seconds long, and depicts a re-enactment of the kiss between May Irwin and John Rice from the final scene of the stage musical, The Widow Jones.

The film was directed by William Heise for Thomas Edison. At the time Edison was working at the Black Maria studios in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1999 the short was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Story Construction

- For this task I worked with Danielle and Grace.

Idea 1 (Danielle)

Suppose she stumbled across photos of her fella with another woman, she then decides that she must take bitter sweet revenge.

My film begins showing the love between this young couple, when the next morning he claims to be off to work. She kisses him goodbye and continues with the domestic chores. While empty the pockets of their clothing, she discovers this one photo of her lover along with a more beautiful and attractive woman, with a pedant neckless hidden in his blazer pocket. She then must decide whether she would ignore she found the photo or whether she should get her own back.

My lead character's goal is to get revenge on her cheating, love rat of a boyfriend. She'll do discrete tasks to torment him mentally. 

Idea 2 (Grace)

The Leads Goal in my story is to discover if her Boyfriend is still alive or not. 

Suppose she receives a letter saying he might be dead and she decides to try and find out if this is true because if she doesn't her baby won't have a father. 

The film is about a women, who wants to find out if the letter she received about the possibility of her boyfriend being dead is actually telling the truth or if it is just a sick joke. She must discover if he really was killed in war or he is safe and coming home in time for christmas so that she can tell him she is pregnant and he can be a father to the baby. 

Idea 3 (Me - The one we went with)

My main character's goal among the story is to decide whether or not she should get back into contact with her ex boyfriend who she's still in love with, as there's something she needs to tell him that should only come from her. 

Suppose this happens, she must decide whether or not she puts herself through the pain of seeing him again.

My film is about Christmas 2014, a whole year later from when Holly and her boyfriend filled this season with magical memories last year. She stumbles across a page in her old diary where polaroids are scattered; polaroids of her and him. The more pictures she stares at, the more memories that come flooding back. These memories play on screen, and then the diary closes. Holly gets up, gets ready, rebuilds her confidence.

Class feedback

The male character has a terminal illness (the ex boyfriend)

He had previous illnesses that were minor and didn't tell her, so she thought he was cheating on her when really he was just going to doctors and hospital appointments so they broke up. He was weak and vulnerable and had no one so didn't save the relationship, he was confused, and she was stubborn.

She now has a new serious boyfriend.

But it's Christmas, and with Christmas come memories of her and her ex. She can't help wonder about how he is, so when she receives a christmas card from him her heart jumps in excitement. However, when she opens it her whole world turns upside down.

The christmas card reveals him having a terminal illness, the big C; cancer. She's in a dilemma of going to visit him or not. Does she now risk the trust of her new boyfriend? Does she risk feeling past attachments towards her ex? Or does she ignore what she read as though it isn't happening?

My new story idea

Genre: Romance.

Film Title: This Christmas.

My lead story goal is to keep the audience guessing at the beginning what Ameerah, the main character, is going to do about this heartbreaking Christmas card she receives from her ex boyfriend; the first person she ever fell in love with and shared everything with for four years. They've been split up for nine months, and during this time period Ameerah found herself confiding in a fellow work partner at Costa. This work partner called Noah won over Ameerah five months ago, and they are now in a serious relationship. But is this relationship strong enough to ensure Ameerah doesn't fall in love with her ex Bruno a second time?

Background history: Christmas season is the one season that causes Ameerah to reminisce over memories of Christmas 2013, where she spent this time with Noah Bruno filled with smiles that caused aching cheek bones and laughter that makes your stomach hurt. It's now Christmas 2014, and with Christmas comes memories of her and Bruno. Nine months ago, Ameerah thought that he was cheating on her. He'd sneak off from College some afternoons without a reason and cancel on plans that him and Ameerah would make to "help his mum out in the cafe". These strange dissappearing acts meant that Ameerah went to look for Bruno one evening in his mum's cafe, only to find out that she'd told his mum he was spending the night with Ameerah herself. When she confronted Bruno discretely, hinting he's been lieing he'd just make up more lies. Ameerah made assumptions that he was cheating, so when she accused him of it his jaw dropped and he froze, baffled as to how she could think that of him after their four year relationship. Bruno was actually experiencing an extreme health issue. He'd got the awful big C and was visiting the doctors and hospital to be tested and injected. He wasn't in the right state of mind to defend himself when Ameerah accused him of doing something that he'd never dream of doing. From this point onwards their relationship began to crumble until Ameerah would stop being there for him when that was the one thing he really needed. But he never told her, so was Ameerhah right to accuse him? She then ignored him for the next week until deciding it was time to end their relationship as Bruno wouldn't tell her anything and she felt she could no longer trust him if he wasn't being honest. 

Until this day, 15th December, Ameerah and Bruno have not spoken for nine months, until now. He sends her a Christmas card with a message that has no relation to a "Merry Christmas" wish. Bruno tells her. After all this time, he tells her now that his cancer has become terminal, through a card. It was a pretty big christmas card with a lot of words and explanations that cause Ameerah's heart to drop. He tells her now when she has a new boyfriend. Will Ameerah now be there for Bruno, bearing in mind she still thinks that he was cheating? Does Bruno have enough time to explain everything to the one girl that he's ever truly loved? Will Ameerah risk losing her current boyfriend Noah when she now knows that she'll eventually lose Bruno anyway? Or will she spend whatever time she has left with him making this Christmas their best one yet? 

Protagonist

Gender: Female.
Age: 18.
Appearance: Thick dark long hair and dark brown eyes with fair skin and a bright smile.
Mannerisms: Very quirky and giggly
Background: Comes from a traditional family.
Personal life: Lives with her mum and baby brother. Her mum and dad split up so she only ever sees her father every now and then.
Private: She's food obsessed and loves writing little storires, also very creative.
Work life: Works in Costa but is studying to become a journalist.
Strength: Being warm hearted and friendly to everybody.
Weakness: She's very emotionally sensitive.
Name: Ameerah Miah.

Oppositional character: Noah.
The confidant: Her mum.

Existing film titles and my own title ideas - Romance

This has been a group task where I have worked with Danielle and Grace. 

Existing films:

- The Fault In Our Stars
- The Notebook
- The Vow
- Pretty Woman
- Love Actually 
- Definitely, maybe
- Dear John
- Princess Diaries
- The Best Of Me
- If I Stay
- About Time
- The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
- The Spectacular Now
- Angus thongs and perfect snogging
- Wild Child
- Stardust
- Dirty Dancing
- That Awkward Moment
- Love, Rosie
- She's The Man
- The Lucky One
- Warm Bodies
- One Day
- Romeo and Juliet
- Endless Love
- 500 days of summer
- Theres Something About Mary
- Midnight in Paris

Film title ideas:

- Last Christmas
- This Christmas
- One Season
- Second Chance
- If There's Somebody
- He's the one
- The Future Mrs 
- Three Two One
-  Steal My Heart
- Written in the future
- Autumn Leaves
- Him next door
- My turn

Planning My Genre

Romance

The Fault In Our Stars

This is one of my favourite films and one that I extremely admire. There's a deep meaningful story behind this movie and there's an aim for the end of it. The characters are relatable and specified for young audiences. I want my film opening to be aimed at a younger audience rather than adulthood.

Comedy

Happy Gilmore

This film contains a lot of witty comedy and amazing acting to enhance the comical performances. An audience would laugh at least once whilst watching this movie no matter how serious and negative that person many be. It's also a movie that can bring a family together for them all to watch as it's not aimed at one certain audience; it's family friendly.

Adventure

The Goonies

1. A band of young boys find a treasure map and embark on a magical adventure in The Goonies. The Goonies is a mainly Adventure film but it includes many sub-genres such as Action and Comedy. It's aimed at an audience of young children but also families. It's an old childhood of many current teenagers, however it's a movie with a genre that I'd probably struggle at fulfilling in my film opening.

My Film Opening Title Sequence