Soundtrack And Other Music Ideas

I have been going through a lot of music on CD's and on YouTube to find a song or tune that will fit in my scene nicely and also reflect the theme of my opening sequence. I have found a few songs on YouTube that I am considering using in my opening scene.

Alter Ego by Clique Girls

Alter Ego is about a girl that has two sides to her personality, much like the character in my opening sequence.This song is called Alter Ego which is the name of my film opening sequence, which automatically reflects the theme of the scene. the song is performed by girls as well which both the audience and the characters can relate to. The song lyrics mirror the actions of the opening scene I want to create as well.

Bad Girls by M.I.A

I feel like this song represents the second identity of my main character. As the song is called 'Bad Girls' and the second identity of the character potentially has a 'bad' personality. Again it is sung by a a girl which could reflect the voice of the character.

Rock Star by Prima J

This song is about two girls who think every other girl is jealous of them.This song could show of the shallowness of the main character as the song 'Rock Star' is all about how other girls are jealous of them. This would highlight the characters second personality well, especially for the scene that will be shot in the high school.

When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls

This song sort of shows of a second identity within itself as they are singing about what they want to do when they grow up. The songs message could hint what the main character wants to be or what she thinks she is instead of what people really see her as, which is a cruel and lonely person.

What The Hell by Avril Lavigne

This song is about a girl who has been good her whole life and decides one day that she is done being good so turns into a stereotypical 'bad girl'. This song could reflect well on the main character as perhaps the audience can think that she created a second identity in the first place because she was generally nice all the time and was fed up with being like that all the time.

All these songs I feel would be good in my opening scene as they all tell a story of a different side to them, just like the character in my film. They are all also sung by women and the main character in my film is female and my main target audience is also female, therefore I think that it makes it more relatable.

What Sparked The Idea For 'Alter Ego'?

This idea has sparked through watching many teen movies and gathering alternate ideas from every one, which helped me craft my idea for a teen comedy opening sequence.
The main films that were very useful in this process...



Hannah Montana The Movie:
Hannah Montana the movie is about one girl called Miley Stewart who lives a double life as a teenage pop star. Miley is a regular seventeen year old girl who comes from Tennessee but moved to Hollywood to peruse her career as a singer. However Miley wanted to keep her true identity hidden from the world so decided to create a fake identity of a girl called Hannah Montana. Miley sports a blonde wig and a different fashion sense to pull of the Hannah Montana double life. I the end of the film Miley finds the struggle to keep a second identity too much to handle and comes out that she is really Miley Stewart while performing on stage as Hannah Montana.
How I will adapt this...
I am adapting this idea by setting my scene in a British high school/ middle class British house, instead of a big fancy Hollywood lay out. I am also changing the scenario of the second identity to 'braty mean high school girl' instead of 'secret pop star'. I am making the 'family' side to the girl over the top nice and posh, whereas Miley is more casual and really just being Miley.


Btatz The Movie:
Bratz the movie is about four girls who start high school together in a big , new school. They are best friends who all share an interest in fashion. They are stereotypical 'new girls' who come into the school and break the high school 'rules' by spending time with each other around school instead of their 'cliques'. The main character i this film that helped with my opening sequence idea was the character Jade (top, right, with the gum). Jade is the perfect daughter with the good grades and sensible fashion sense in her parents eyes, but you soon learn that as soon as jades parents drop her of at school, she changes clothes, hair and personality.
How I will adapt this...
Despite Jades second identity when she is around her friends, she remains a nice girl through all of it. I am adapting this by making my character mean and spiteful to people when she is at school and her friend and a nice girl when she is around her family. I wanted to do this as I want a major contrast between the two identities in my opening to make the scene all the more interesting.

Scary Movie:
In Scary Movie, the film that takes the mickey out of the scary film 'Scream', there is a high school character called Buffy Gilmore. She is another character that has a second identity. Her first appearance is when she is with her father who is dropping her of at school. Buffy wears a long yellow dress and ties her hair back with flowery clips. She acts all sweet around her dad and when she walks up to her friends. However when her father drives of she takes her long yellow dress off and replaces it with a short skirt and crop top, she also takes the flower clips out of her hair and throws them to the ground. Buffy turns into a cruel and manipulative girl around school when she is with her friends, along with her secret boyfriend.

How I will adapt this...
Buffy is the closest character to the one I would like to create as she is ' goody, goody' with her father yet a brat when she is with her friends around school. Buffy does swear a lot throughout the film which is something that I am going to leave out in my sequence.

She's The Man:
Shes the man is based on Shakespeare's famous play 'Twelfth Night'. Viola just wants to play Football but there is one problem her schools woman's football team was cancelled so Viola must find a new way to continue to play football. Lucky for Viola, her twin brother Sebastian is secretly moving to London for 6 weeks to try and get a record deal and he is suppose to be joining a new school called 'Illeryiya' and try out for the football team. Viola decides to give herself a makeover and go to her brothers new school dressed as him. She creates a second identity as her brother to play football. She falls in love with the other footballer as he helps her improve her football skills however still thinking she is a boy. In the end Viola reveals her true identity in the middle of a football game and her brother Sebastian also introduces himself into this scene at this point.


How I will adapt this...
Violas second identity is as her brother, the second identity of my character will still be a female. I am keeping the gender of the second identity the same. The setting is set in the Illeryia high school, I am keeping the setting similar to the film as it is set in school.

Watching all these teen movies built the idea for my opening sequence, hopefully I will be able to communicate the same themes over to my audience as well as these other films have.

Creating My Ultimate Popular Girl.

In order to build the ultimate mean girl for my teen comedy, I watched other teen movies and listed the main features that made the mean girl popular. I have done lots of character buiding into my mean girl and have decided I would want her to have all these features. All the popular girls tend to have similar hobbys, attitudes and terminology. I have picked out some of the main ones.

 The Slow Motion Walk

The popular girls usually have a moment near the beginning of the film where they walk in slow motion to make them look glamarous and of high importance. From the clip you can also see how different people react to her. Most boys seem to have a crush on her, putting them in a trance when she looks at them. Most girls look at her with hatred which might also be jealousy. Very few girls seem to idolize her. That is what I wanted to bring to the character of Sydney, she walks around as if everyone loves her when in fact there are many different perspectives of her. Yet she seems to be blind to that fact.

I wanted Sydney to gave a personality similar to Regina George from mean girls. Sly, manipulative, nice to your face but a bitch behind your back. I thought that by making Sydney have these personality traits, it would make the climax of the film even more dramatic, especially with all the 'lies' and 'behind your back' talk she would be doing. As an audience, I also feel that people find Regina funny and cruel at the same time, this makes the audience feel slightly confused about her character and thats the reaction I want from my audience.

From the clip you can see that Regina has a serious yet funny personality that people can't help but laugh at. Regina creates a storm in a teacup about any situation and I think thats what makes her character so complex and quite confusing at times. On the other hand its amusing to watch and her baffling personality makes the film enjoyable. That is the feel I wanted to bring to Sydney's character. She doent realise she is being over dramatic about things which makes her character even more sympathetic which is the feeling the audience should be feeling by the climax.

Most popular girls tend to have an interest in singing or dancing or another form of art. They do tend to be good at it though, they are rarely not talented. The idea of being able to sing or act is commonly assosiated with fame. This is suggesting that they are like the local celebrities in the area or of the school. This makes people look up to them more and make them seem more powerful, popular and sometimes wealthy.

In the clip above you can see that Meradith from Bratz The Movie, is talented and can put on a show yet her song choice makes it obvious to the audience that she is shallow, self centered and spoiled. 

Annotations

"Don't you be jealous"- This indicated that she thinks people are jealous of her and teases them by saying this.

"You know Madonna ain't got nothing on me"- She is comparing herself to celebrities, indicating to the audience that she thinks she is in fact a celebrity herself as she has put herself on their level. They are preferably singers, "Madonna, Mariah, Christina, Beyonce",trying to prove to people that she can sing better than them. She is also aiming to be more beautiful and have more star quality than them too.

"(Don't blame her), I'm so beautiful"- She clearly thinks that she is gods gift and the most perfect person on the planet.

I want my character Sydney to have these traits, however not so exaggerated. But I defiantly want Sydney to be shallow for her alter ego side and I want the audience to see that she thinks she is better than everyone. I think that illustrating this through a catchy song would be an interesting way to go for a teen comedy.

Key Conventions In A Teen Comedy Opening

My Film Arc

Synopsis

• A teen comedy film about a girl who lives a double life which is dubbed as her 'alter ego'. Sydnie, a 17 year old girl in her last year of high school has the perfect life. She lives with her wealthy parents in their big house in London. At home, Sydnie is sweet, kind and caring but it soon becomes clear that its an act just to get what she wants out of her parents. When Sydnie is at school she is a completly different person. She is the most popular girl in school, she's mean, manipulative and an all round brat. Her friends dont know about her act at home and her parents dont know about her act at school. There is a 'new girl' called Jenny that has also joined for the last year and she becomes a rival to Sydnie as the new girl was the popular girl in her old school and wants to keep that position. One day at school Sydnie is in the toilets having a conversation with her mother over the phone. Jenny walks in and easdrops on the conversation and soon discovers Sydnies hidden side. Sydnie makes a deal with Jenny so that she wont spill her secret after Jenny threatens to expose her. However later on Jenny exposes Sydnies secret in front of the whole school showing them the conversation with her mother. Everyone looks at Sydnie as a joke and laught at her realising she wasnt as scary after all. Sydnies parents even find out and they ar e deeply dissapointed with her. Sydnie lays low for a while, focusing on her final exams. During this time Jenny has taken over as the popular but she is even more wicked than Sydnie. The school throw there end of year prom and to Sydnies suprise and Jennys fury, she is crowned prom Queen. She gets a chance to explain the truth to everyone and apologise for being horrible in the past. Sydnie leaves high school a completly new person who is kind, intelligent and down to earth.

Most films have five acts and conform to a narrative theory. I created a story pyramid for 'Alter Ego' explaining the five different acts and going through the main events of the story.

How To Regulate Films

I looked into the official BBFC website to find out how they reulate films into the appropriate film ratings.

In order to protect children and vulnerable adults from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film or video before deciding whether or not to view it, the BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released. This independent scrutiny prior to release ensures the highest possible level of protection and empowerment.

The BBFC watch films and videos all the way through and award an age rating and insight to each one. The BBFC reach an age rating by applying the standards and criteria contained in their Classification Guidelines.

The BBFC look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, and violence when making decisions. The theme of the work is also an important consideration. We also consider context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the potential audience.

The subjects that are considered when rating a movie:

1. Threat- (Supernatural, scary scenes, scary music, horror)
2. Violence- (Fights, guns, knives, killing, torture)
3. Discrimination- (Race, gender, religion, disability, sexuality)
4. Drugs- (Drug use, medicine, alcohol, smoking)
5. Imitable Behaviour- (Bullying, anti-social behaviour)
6. Language- (Swearing, multiple languages)
7. Sex- (Kissing, sex, mature themes)
8. Nudity- (Nudity)
9. Context- (Quality or expectation of the film)
10. Theme- (General story line)

What would my film be?

Looking at all the regulations that are considered when film rating, I can pick out about four subjects that would come up in my or any typical teenage film or comedy. In any teen film, there is always parties that include drinking, smoking and mild drug use. Imitable behaviour may also come up as there is always some conflict between characters such as mild bullying when it comes to the nerds or the mean girl generally being mean. There is always mild language in teen comedys, which is another subject that the BBFC would consider. Also kissing scenes and mature themes come up a lot in teen comedys or just comedys in general. 

I personally think my film would be rated a 12 because if these typical traits that come up in teen comedys.

For more BBFC information visit the website: http://www.bbfc.co.uk

Research Institutions That Might Produce, Distribute And Exhibit My Film

I have done detailed research into top film institutions trying to find out if they would produce, distribute or exhibit my teen comedy film 'Alter Ego'. I looked deep into what these film institutions most commonly produce and what age range they tend to target. I found that most of these institutions have quite a wide age range, producing and exhibiting children movies as well as adults. The reason for this is most likely because the more films they help produce the more money they are likely to receive as an end result of the films success.