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.