Audience Montage

Our film is targeted at teenage girls 15-19. By carrying out target audience research we were able to discover what people expected to see in chick flick. We have also created a montage to visually display what kind of topics we think our target audience are interested in so we can relate to their interests as much as possible in our opening sequence.

Dexter

When Eric Anderson was producing the American TV series ‘Dexter’ he knew he had a character that was split in a way between ‘normal and violent’. He wanted a name that would mirror the characters personality. He discovered that the name ‘Dexter’ looked similar both right way up and upside down.

Even though the opening sequence of Dexter seems to be the daily routine of a man getting ready for the day, it’s packed full of violent references. Dexter’s life revolves around death and blood. He is a blood splatter expert at work, and a mass murdered in his spare time therefore the opening sequence is showing that everything about his life has violent reference to them. In a way the close ups symbolise that know one can ever really see the full picture which mirrors his personality because everyone is oblivious to his alter ego.

The slicing of the meat for his breakfast all have murderous connotations along with the slicing with the sharp knife and the splatter of tabasco sauce.

Even to the way he gets dressed, pulling his shoes laces through the holes with such force gives a strangulation kind of reference. The micro pause when he pulls his top over his face so you can make out the structure of his features gives them impression of suffocation. And yet after all this previous imagery of violence he leaves the house presented as completely ‘normal’ looking man. The shot of the key leaving the lock in the door I think is a strong example of the saying ‘’you never know what’s behind closed doors’’ as this mirrors his personality perfectly. The open sequence is accompanied by very jaunty menacing music which best describes Dexter’s personality.

Genre Analysis

The Devil Wears Prada


The title sequence of 'The Devil Wear Prada' is about 4 minutes long, with no narrative over voice, or any dialogue from the characters. The techniques of the continuity editing however allow us to follow the early morning routine of four different women. All dressing differently yet having a very strong fashion orientated link, all except for one therefore the narrative theories are revealed mostly through the different female characters. It is interesting however that the clothing the film shows is very sexy looking lingerie very 

residual ideology that woman are sexual objects. Contrasting again with Anne Hathaway's character is portrayed to be the 'ugly duckling' because she doesn't take such pride time and care about her appearance. This is a typical convention of a girl 'chick flick' film.

The contrasting mise-en-scene shows three high fashion New York women preparing for a day at work, compared to that of the more armature role of Anne Hathaway. It makes you wonder why she is involved in such an industry yet is so different, as she would be considered to be in the same ‘high class’ occupation. This creates an enigma just as Bart uses in his narrative theory. to the story because you wonder why she is involved in such an industry yet is so different, as she would be considered to be in the same ‘high class’ occupation. The opening sequence is filmed in New York city using apartments of rich women with walk in wardrobes and thousands of shoes, all aspects which are a little over the top however would appeal to the target audience.

Close ups of the face emphasise the application of makeup, this not only relates to the target audience but contrasts against the ‘none caring’ more grungy looking character of Anne Hathaway who quickly grabs her chap stick before she exits the house. 

The shots are very close up of the woman getting dressed; in a way for a girly film it sexualises women in a large way. Even when the make-up shots are used it shows extreme close ups of a characters lips quite a sexual more intimate part of the face. Even thought this film is a chick flick therefore its target audience are predominately females, they have almost adapted to the 'male-gaze' showing off very sexual parts of the female body. This is a very residual ideology, showing women as objects, without them looking 'perfect' they have nothing else to offer. And the audience watching this film are almost condoning this view male view of women. On the other hand other audiences could see this as a very emergent idea. Woman enjoy wearing nice clothes, spending time and effort on their appearance, leaving all males out of it because this is very much a female orientated film something that males don't have anything to do with. Taking males out if it shows women still like to dress up and take a keen interest in fashion without just doing it for men. It could be seen as a very strong independent view of the modern day woman.

There is no narrative over voice in the opening sequence instead very upbeat happy is ongoing throughout. The music artist is a woman called KT Tunstall and the song is called ‘Suddenly I See’. In some way this gives some  relation to the story line itself, even though one character of the characters we is certainly very different in her attitudes towards fashion and appearance she realises working in the fashion world is ‘where she wants to be’ ( a line from the song). This is a typical convention of a chick flick film, a woman singer of very 'girly' music. This once again deters males from the film because none are involved even music choice is that of a strong independent female artist.

 The overall mood of the opening sequence is very fresh upbeat typical of a chick flick. I don’t think there is a lot of intrigue in the opening titles yet chick flicks are normally relaxed quite ‘simple to follow’ story lines. The credits of the actresses appear on screen when the character does, in sophisticated easy to read font. Longer credits have been written in italics keeping up with the high level of fashion and beauty that the opening sequence has conjured up for the audience.

 Sex and The City

The second film i have chosen to anaylise the genre of, is the TV show turned film ‘Sex and The City’. Typically the show is known  for being being female orrianted following the lives of four women living in New York City.

The opening sequence starts of up in the clouds,

 a very girly angel start to the film typical of this type of genre.  The credit are all written with a sparkly diamond efect which would appeal to that of the target audience.  It the drops down into a birds eye view of New York starting off in a really georgrapghical view of the island, then it become washed in diamonds. This could symoblise the emergant role of women in modern days. The indepence of women spreading accross the world. It also prevents any male dominance within the film and the deimanonds represent making the world revolve around women.

There are many shots of buildings which follows the theme because we understand it is very much about New York City, considering its even in the title. It is all made to look very light and beautiful every piece of light sparkling like diamonds. In every aspect of a shot it makes the sequence look very female dominated. However some may see this a quite a residual idea, the fact that women are focused on fashion and beauty and looking good and dont really have much else to them. Seen as very blinkered uninterlectual people. 

There is  shot of a flock of birds flying up into the sky, this could represent the increase in women role within today’s society, the film is empowering women and focusing on their needs and expectations to try and please all areas of the female audience. 

All the while there is ‘Carrie’ who was the over voice narrator throughout the hit TV shows and so it is only logical that she narrates the opening sequence of this film. She describes the history of the city, that is when we have all the shots of the buildings and once the camera pans down it she is introducing that past and present situation of each of the character which are we discover are ‘her best friends’ the opening sequence does this to make sure an audience who didn’t watch the TV series still understand who the characters are and how they came to be here. 

Once again typical aspects of a chick flick are shown in this open sequence, fashion is one of its main attributes and we see how the characters have developed through years to become the glamorous, strong women that we now see. A close up shot of very over the top gold glittery shoes are shown of Carrie once again a strong conversion of the types of things you aspect to see within a chick flick, because it appeal to the target audience.

The music in the open sequence co insides with the on screen shots. The original song is 'Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys. Alicia keys the went on to make a cover version with her vocals replacing the verses that Jay Z originally raps. This once again is anouther typical example of female dominace within the film by excluding all male power.

Genre Mood board

We created this mood board to create the merge together all topic points of typical 'chick flicks'. This is to help our target audience understand what type of film we are planning on making and giving them an insight into what it will be about. 

First Ideas

We researched into many different types of genres but decided upon a chick flick, therefore the main target audience would be females of all ages. Originally we had two main ideas one which involved dance and the other including fashion. We decided upon the fashion idea because it seemed most practical to produce considering time and cost. We researched into the opening sequence of the the 2006 American film, 'The Devil Wears Prada'

From watching this opening sequence we found we really liked the idea of the the 4 women getting ready separately within different settings yet all linked up in to the time and interest. This idea is something we can relate to, we decided it would be easy to  construct a high standard of research from our target audience because many of our own friends are older teenage girls who this sequence would relate too. My partner for this project is Ashleigh Roberts, a peer within my Media AS class.

Opening Sequence - Juno

I  looked at a number of different opening sequence from films of various genres. I research closely into the opening sequence of the 2007 film Juno directed by Jason Reitman.

In this cartoonist clip we see Juno walking down an empty street with no one else around, the colours are very bland and the illustrations undetailed. It makes us focus on the road ahead this could be some indication as to the type of person Juno is, very isolated and lonely. The road ahead of her could indicate a journey she’s about to face and when the road stop and it blends to the blue this could be a illustrational metaphor to show Juno is travelling into the unknown. There are production credits throughout the opening sequence, in very child like font, all displayed in various parts of the screen for instance in the clip the text is on the fence, a very child orientated way of displaying the writing almost something that you may see in a children’s book, to keep the child's attention.

This is a very bland screen shot, once again keeping within the illustration theme with a beige colour wash. In the shot Juno stands out as the main centre of focus due to the size of her she is in the foreground of the shot and by the bright colour jacket she is wearing. She is obviously meant to be looked at more closely in the shot. Yet in the background is a shop window with a sale sign on it, something which instinctively catches peoples attention, and the in the window are baby clothes and a teddy. Once again another strong indication to the child like theme the title sequence is following.

This clip also has many child like connotations, the way she looks like she’s playing a game, balancing on something with her arm stretched, typical behaviour of a child inventing their own games obvious to others around them. The setting for this scene is also in a park, all these indications are portraying a character that is still very young. She is walking on her own yet there are a group of joggers running past these highlights the contrast between their social group and her isolation to others.

This is a close up shot of Juno drinking a very large bottle of 'SunnyD'. It is obvious due to the size of the bottle that it is intended to be noticed which leave an enigma as to why she is drinking such a large amount, something that draws us into the main story line of the film. It also emphasises that fact she is still a child, 'SunnyD' is a typical kids drink.  Once again more credits are placed to the side of the illustration written in the same bold effect.

This illustration is taken from above, which gives wants to show the audience how small she actually is, which would be a reference to how young she is. The autumn leaves are falling which gives the audience some indication as to what season/weather the film is going to start off in. But also a more symbolic message could be portrayed the way the season is changing is almost like Juno having a change in her life, leaving the old and heading into something new.

Finally this last shot shows Juno leaving the illustrational fictional world back into reality. The cartoonist world representing her childhood and the real world representing her present situation. Almost as if in that opening sequence the audience felt like they followed Juno from childhood to adulthood.

The music used in this title sequence is very upbeat, catchy and once again very child like. The actual composer of the song is a man Barry Louis Polisar who is children’s entertainer. And the

Song is called "All I Want Is You". I don’t think the lyrics add much intrigue to the story but certain the bouncy up beat tempo of the songs grabs your attention right from the start.

Key Conventions

The key conventions of an opening sequences include... 

• The production company 
• The producers 
• Actors names 
• Introduction into the background or life of the main character
• Introduction of how the character came to be where they are
• Sets the time and place of the film
• Introduces the genre of the film
• Introduces any enigmas
• Non diegetic music
• Narrator

What is the point of an opening sequence?

The opening sequence of a film is used to establish many things. It publicises the main credits such as the production company,producer, director and main actors/actresses. It sets the narrative of the film which gives the audience and insight as to what the film is about. It sets the demeanor of the characters and the allows us understand  which role they play within the film. It secures the periodic time as to when the film was set, and also the setting and genre of the production. Setting/costumes/lighting all give us a indication as to what kind of genre the film is. There may also be flashbacks which allow the audience to understand a little history about the characters past before  which may be important into understanding the rest of the film. Both diegetic and non diegetic music can be used this helps identify genre and grabs our attention to the opening sequence showing the film is beginning. There could be an over voice narrating the scenes which is evident in the film 'Kick Ass'. The opening sequence could also start patterns in the types of editing and way of filming will continue throughout. Finally the mis-en scen incorporated with all the other commodities allows the film to really draw in our intrigue and attention.

I looked at a range of film openings such as: Brick, London to Brighton, Shifty and Kick Ass and found they included many key conventions.