Institution

We have decided to create a British romantic comedy. Working Title Films are a production company famous for making films such as Bridget Jones, Notting Hill and Love Actually, which are all British romantic comedies. We have researched their company and found out who they are and what they do. What we found was that in total they have made 109 films since 1984. Several of these being the most popular British films up to now. Their biggest hits to date are:

Four Weddings and a Funeral




Notting Hill




Love Actually





Lauren, Grace and Luke

Preliminary Task

Actors: Grace and Luke

Directed by: Lauren and Gemma

This is our first attempt of an opening sequence it went well but we have realised some things that we need to take into account when we are making our own opening sequence.

The plot of this opening sequence was a job interview where the interviewee was very nervous and scared about the job. We also used a number of different shots such as long shots close ups extreme close ups and medium shots. we need to improve on our shots were to short and we needed to have more footage. We have also stuck to the 180 degree rule and the point of interest making the opening sequence more realistic and believable 

Overall our first opening sequence was a success but for our main task we will need to improve on some mistakes we made.

Luke Gemma Grace.

Characters

To the left I have drawn the two characters in our opening sequence. Here are some of our first initial ideas of what the characters would be like, we jotted these down at the begining so we are able to expand from there:

Male Character (Luke's characteristics): a 'neat freak', glasses, room nice and tidy, hair pushed to the side, geeky, everything organsied, suit & tie
I think that these are stereotypical functions of what someone would describe a 'geek' to be. With our sequence we wanted to make it clear what type of personalities out characters are meant to be portraying to make it easier for the audience to understand. This is why we have made it obvious who the character is meant to be, with Luke we have done this through costume (suit), mise en scene(tidy room), and the characters actions and movements (smug look).

Female Character (Gemma's characteristics): messy room, quite scruffy appearance, dressed in random clothes, tights & socks with shoes etc, clothes thrown around the room, messy hair, loud music

Lauren

Target Audience and Genre

Target Audience:
The tagert audience that we have choosen for our opening sequence is mainly aimed at teenagers and young adults, mainly woman will be interested in our opening sequence but males will also be attracted to this opening sequence. After researching the BFI Handbook 2005 this is what i discovered.
Regular cinemagoers 2003
7+ 25%
7 to 14 38%
15-34 41.5%
35+ 14%

As you can see the most popular age group that are regular to the cinemas is people aged 15-34 we are going to aim our opening sequnce at this age group because it could potentially have the most interest from the public.

Genre:

The genre that we have choosen for our opening sequence is romantic comedy. This genre is popular at the moment and will appeal to a wide range of people. It will have the conventions of funny moments but is based on romance. There are always typical conventions to a romantic comdey an example of this is 50 First Dates starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrimore where the man falls in love with the girl of "his dreams" who he has never met, he runs in to troubles in trying to make her fall in love with him and along the way there are many mess ups and comical situations that he has to deal with. Like all romantic comdeies there is a happy ending and they both end up falling in love and live happily ever after. 50 First Dates is very similar to other recently relseased romantic comedies and is alot similar to what we are trying to achieve, it's funny and exciting but also emotional for the audience when the two people iinvolved end up falling for one another. Our opening sequence will be slightly different to other romantic comedies because the two main characters are opposites and are not the kind of couple you would expect to see together in a snese they could be seen as binary opposites. The boy in our opening sequence is more like a girl and visa versa the girl is a bit like a boy as if they have changed personalities, where as in most romantic comedies the couple don't at first realise they have the same things in common but it turns out they do.


Luke

Romantic Comedy Top 20 Box Office

These Box Office figures show that mainly all the Top 20 Romantic Comedies are made in the late 1990s and early 2000's!

Romantic comedies are very popular and light hearted so everybody will like them. There wont be anyone that can say they don't like a romantic comedies because they attract everyone. Its the sort of film that you go and see on a date or with the girls.

At the moment at the box office there are over 50% of the films are romantic comedies with films such as bride wars.

Gemma

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The Devil Wears Prada - Opening Scene

Here we have found the story boards for The Devil Wears Prada opening scene. We should find this useful because we would like to use similar techniques used in some of the shots. For example in shots 9&10 they are extreme close ups of someone applying lipstick. We would be using something similar to this in the end product. Also the shots where we see her pulling her tights on (shots 20-23) would be useful to look at for when we film Gemma getting ready. The main character in this film is Anne Hathway who has similar characteristics to Gemma in our opening sequence. The contrast between her and the other more sophisticated women is something which we also find useful because we would like to portray a similar story line.

Lauren and Grace

Below is the link where you can watch the opening scene:

http://www.tonkinstudio.com/tonkinstudio_menu_08/media_with_storyboards_art/the_devil_wears_prada

Functions of an Opening sequence

As we are making an opening sequence we have studied the main conventions therefore our opening sequence must include the following things:

• To establish time and place; usually with establishing shots and also some times with the use of narrative devices such as voice over, dialogue or captions
• To re assure the audience by demonstrating the conventions of the chosen genre eg. locations, characters, mise en scene etc.
• Setting up audience expectations eg. in the plot, style/ media language
• Introducing an establishing characters usually the main character/s 
• Usually sets up many enigmas to keep the audience hooked so they would like to watch the rest of the film
• To set up the initial equilibrium that will be disrupted later
• Introduces any themes or motifs linking to the ideologies in the film

Luke, Lauren, Gemma and Grace

Prologue

Here we are going to outline what is about to happen in our opening sequence. We have decided to create a romantic comedy on the basis of two binary opposites eventually falling in love. The idea was for them to be getting ready for a blind date with each other, the two don't realise that they only live a small distance from one another. We are going to cross cut between the two characters showing them doing their every day routine .
The events shall happen in this order:

• Starts with Gemma rummaging through her draws to find clothes for the day
• Close ups on Gemma applying her make up, choosing her clothing, putting on her shoes etc. Doing all the typical things a girl would.
• Gemma then sends a text to her mystery male which then fades out onto Luke's mobile (her mystery male/blind date)
• We then follow Luke around his room whilst he gets ready, the audience should be able to recognise the two opposite characters by what they are doing and how they are getting ready. 
• We begin cross cutting when they are both exiting their houses.
• The opening sequence ends with both characters slamming their front door shut at the same time.
• During the opening sequence there is non diegetic music played parallel to the characters movements. 

Luke, Gemma and Lauren

Analysis of Opening Scenes

The film begins with Damien Rice’s song ‘The Blowers Daughter’ then the title on the film rolls across the screen in big bold letters, capturing the audiences attention. The title is red which could connote love as this is one colour associated with the word, the colour could also represent danger which could represent how romance stories never end well. The shot then fades into a long shot of what looks like a busy city street. The mise en scene in this scene are the people and how they are all dressed rather drab, the greys and blacks seem to merge together. I would stereotype them all as being business men/women. However in the crowd our eyes are drawn to one particular character. She has fiery red hair and is dressed quirky breaking the boundaries of what everybody else is dressed like. The audience automatically know that she is one of the main characters in the film and as she gets closer the shot then cuts to the opposite direction. The audience notice nothing peculiar as all we see is the same bland colours and people. After cutting to her and back we notice a male figure coming closer dressed similarly to everybody else. I notice that the opening scene is filmed in slow motion which creates a dreamy, surreally romantic atmosphere which then links to the characters which seem to be walking closer to each other. As the characters get nearer the shot changes to a medium shot, then a headshot of the man smiling to the woman. The smile then fades away to a distressed face making the audience want to know what has happened. We hear screeches screams and the slow motion stops to keep up the pace. We get a high angle shot which pans down on the woman lying in the road with the taxi behind her showing the audience that she has been hit. There is then a low angle shot of the mans face which changes to a high angle as he touches her shoulder showing that he is now the more dominant, stronger role. She turns her head round so the audience know she is okay and the mood is lifted. I think this clip is a good example of what we are trying to achieve. It shows two opposite characters in an everyday environment yet still let the audience know that they are or will be romantically linked.
Lauren

First Blog

We are aiming to make an opening sequence to a Romantic/Comedy film. The film would focus on two opposite characters and how they are destined to be together. Our opening sequence would consist of the audience being introduced to these two characters and being shown the differences in their personality.

Lauren, Gemma and Grace