Audience Research

For my audience research I conducted a survey on Survey Monkey and emailed out the survey to family and friends to answer. The survey asked various questions about film such as 'whats your favorite?' 'What was the best teen comedy?' 

I found from my research that the best teen comedy voted for was Mean Girls with American Pie not far behind. The most common favorite genre of film voted for was comedy and the the least favorite genre appeared to be musical as it got the least amount of votes. 

I also asked people why they liked that specific genre and the most common answers were 'Its funny and light heart ed', 'I'm always up for a laugh', 'It makes me happy when i'm sad and even more happy when i'm already in a good mood'.

I also asked people what their favorite film of 2015 was, I found that it was tied between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World. When I did more research into these films I found they both had a lot in common. For example, they are both based on a sci-fi, fictional topic (Dinosaurs and space), they are both action films and they both smashed the box office when they were released. Jurassic World is currently the third film int the world that is smashing the box office and Star Wars in currently number one. However one thing I found a bit baffling was that the most popular genre was comedy yet the 2015 comedy films were hardy touched for best film of 2015.

Take my survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/summary/on50OZVwLnh4x1DNbzwIkT_2Bz05Z_2FVmuQRd_2FzHL71e2U_3D

Equipment Used

Equiment Used

Equipment used media from elihusseinxx

Costume And Props

Costume and Props

Costume and props media from elihusseinxx

Why High School?

From my research I found that 93% of teen comedy films are set in high school this is probably becuase there is not another place where you could find more teenagers, each with a different story to tell and that is the starting point of making a teen movie. If the teen comedy or film is not set in a high school, its set during the holidays of a high school break (Cruel Intentions, High School Musical 2). Or they are set at another education pace such as a university or somewhere whwere the teenagers are on work experience (Leagally Blonde, Pitch Perfect).

I have created a short movie monatge that contains clips from various teen comedy that highlight the best moments from teen comedys set in high school. From this clip it makes it clear as to why teen comedys prefer to stay in school as even though it sounds bland, teenagers make their own fun and it can be the most hilarious of places. Even the nerds who get picked on realise that school was a blast in the end and seem to have a laugh about it, which the teenagers in this clip demonstrate.

MORE THEORIES!!

The Male Gaze Theory

The male gaze is a concept conceived by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film critic. It refers to the way the visual arts are structured around a macsuline viewer. Mulvey came up with the theory that for years men have been observing women, the women watch the men observe them and gradually mould into what the men want to see, as women grow to love the attention and love being admired. This means showing more skin, dressing in a particular way and ajusting certain body language. Mulvey believes this is an art and has developed over centuries with the influene of sirens symbolising the art of seduction. 

In teen movies, the most common reason why the male gaze is used is to attract the heartthrob of the film. An art the new girl learnes to steal the heart of the boy she likes. For example in 'Legally Blonde' Resse Witherspoon's character Elle, teaches her arguably less attractive friend to do a 'bend and snap' as she tells us that from her experience it has a "95% chance of a dinner invitation". This line tells the audience that Elle has watched men observe her and through this has picked up things they like and used it to her advantage.

Another reason why the male gaze might be put into teen movies, is because the main target audience for teen comedies are females. Therefore by putting in scenes of women who are dressing or saying things that males find attractive, could draw in a bigger target audience by getting more males to watch the film.

I made a short video containing various clips from teen comedys that include the male gaze.

Reasons For Casting

There is really only one character in my opening sequence, I decided to this as after watching various openings to other teen movies and through my research, the majority only introduce the main character and minor characters in the opening. It was a convention. I decided to introduce the lead female character (Sydney) in the opening who I cast Alice Turner to portray.

I cast Alice to play Sydney as she is a terrific actress who is also a big fan of teen comedy films so she knows exactly how to perfect the role of Sydney. 

Alice has a pretty face that is potentially similar to other lead females in teen films, such as Lindsey Lohan when she was in Mean Girls. I stuck to the convention of making her pretty and also making her Caucasian, as most female leads in teen movies are Caucasian. 

However I did decide to challenge one convention of teen movies as I didn't want to copy other films too much and stick to all conventions. I rebelled against the stereotypical convention of making the lead popular girl blonde. The predictable thing to do in a teen film that has become so predictable it is now a convention, is make the lead girl have blonde hair. I decided to break that convention and make Sydney have brunette hair to add a twist to my film and flip the stereotype. 

Alice is also the perfect age, she is sixteen which is the same age of Sydney in the film. I thought that by having an actress who is the same age would be essential as they are more likely to portray the role better. Because Alice was the same age, she was able to relate to the character more which makes Sydney more believable and realistic. The age also helps physically with the character as Alice looks like she is sixteen and this adds to the realism of the film. If I cast a 12 or 20 year old they would just not look the part which would be a big problem for the film and would take away some of the realism.

Summarizing My Final Opening Sequence Idea

Using Taylor Swifts Mirror Idea For My Opening Sequence.

I really like the clip in Taylor Swift's 'You belong with me video' where Taylor dresses up in different costumes and accessories to mimic the different types of people you find in a typical high school. She then does a funny dance around her room using her hairbrush as a microphone while the boy she has a crush on watches through his bedroom window.

I wanted to add an element similar to this into my opening sequence for various reasons. The behavior of dancing silly in front of a mirror shows the the young and immature side of teenagers. Teenagers are obsessed with being older and being accepted as a mature adult. Therefore leading to them masking their childlike habits such as dancing in front of a mirror with a hairbrush as a microphone. I thought this was important to show in my sequence as I want my target audience, which are teenagers, to see that they are not the only ones who act silly and that it is okay to still hold onto that more youthful side.

Another reason why this is ideal to add into my opening sequence is because it foreshadows the films story line. Sydney is dressed up as different characters, whom you would typically see in a high school. The audience could view it as Sydney trying to find her true self when she looks into the mirror. The way Sydney changes so fast into the next character could symbolize her not liking any of those characters therefore quickly getting rid of them. One of the characters she dressed up as could of been her true self, Sydney looking at her true self directly in  the mirror. Yet she doesn't like that person or tries to hide her, forcing her to change quickly. This element could tell the story in a nutshell, weather the audience notice it or not. 

Using '16 Wishes' Nose Peel Idea

In the film '16 Wishes', the main character 'Abby' portrayed bt Debby Ryan is introduced waking up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday. She wears a nose peel on her face throughout the night to help reduce her spots.

I really liked this idea as it highlights teenage imperfections. In most teenage movies, all the girls are obsessed with looking perfect and they make other girls think that they just wake up looking perfect without any work. In my film I wanted to challange that convention and actually show the popular girl with imperfections and how she fixes them. Teenage imperfection has been showed in various teenage films, one example being mean girls. Regina George finds herself gaining a lot of weight by eating cereal bars that she thinks is helping her loose weight. However this is an imperfection she is blind to and believes all the fat is just "water weight". My character Sydney is not in denial about her spots and dances around her room wearing her nose peel. Furthermore most of the teenage imperfections in teen films are on the inside, like the girls personality. Their persoanlity flaws are always recognised in the end though and it is clear to everyone that they were there from the beggining. Sydney does have persoanlity flaws also but I also wanted to show other types of imperfections that are common but denied. Physical imperfections, such as spots and weight, are not alwasy so clear and often ignored to portray a 'perfect' teenage figure that the director wants the audience to admire. But I want to challage this convention and portray Sydney with more than one type of imperfection and show of what everyone wants to hide. 

Rough Edit And First Look At 'Alter Ego'

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

This is my preliminary video. Our task was to film a sequence in which a person walks through a door and exchanges dialogue with another person. I chose to write a dialouge for two friends that havents seen each other in a long time and they plan to catch up.

My first attempt at filming was very poor though.

 Firstly, I used my iphone 6 to film the preliminary instead of a camcorder or DSLR camera. This resulted in bad quality picture and a small screen, which makes the experience of the video unenjoyable for viewers. I had not done research into recording and therefore assumd that my phone recorder would turn out the same quality. This also lead to a wobbley picture which is annoying for veiwers trying to watch the video.

Secondly, the whole video was all in one shot. This means there was no editing involved and that resulted in a lousy video. Different shots were included in the video such as the over the shoulder shot and close up however they were not edited into the video and this made it hard for audiences to identify them as that particular camera shot or angle. Because of the phone recorder I was unable to adjust the frame in time and that resuted in unwanted close ups and the actors being cut out of the picture at some points.

Thirdly, no lighting or microphone was used. This means that the sound was low quality. As you can hear, the actors dialouge is fuzzy and at times you are unable to hear it. Some of this is down to the surround sound and white noise that was in the filming location. At the time, a lot of people were in the room and having their own conversations therefore making it hard to hear the actors speak as their speech was getting flooded by the surround sound. The lighting was not atrosious yet it could of been improved on with something like a reflector. The lighting does not mirror what is happening in the video at all which doesnt help communictae the videos story. 

The location was a fairly good one as it is in a school filled with students. The two actors see each other for the first time in ages and start talking. I think the location of a school was fairly good for this particular story. The make up and costume also fitted with the story as they are dressed like sixth formers and wearing mininmal make up which makes them fit in well with the school.