Research- Teenage film genre

The teen genre is a film genre that is aimed at teenagers and their particular interests. These topics include coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents and high school emenies, crushes, best friends , individuality and alienation. Often many serious issues from life are presented by filmakers as glossy and sterotyped. This genre is set in high schools as the audience it is targeted at are usually high school age. Sexual themes are also very common as are nudity and crude forms of humour and slapstick moments.
The commonly used sterotyped characters include:

• The jock or footballer
• The princess or the plastic
• The geek
• The rebel
• The outcast or misfit
• The average girl or boy
• The girl next door

These listed above are examples of all the steroypical high school cliques. Conventions of a teen film genre depend on the cultural context, but however they do always seem to include proms or beach parties, underage drinking, use of illegal substances, all night raves, high school parties , loosing a characters virginity, social groups, first time relationships, and the latest american music and pop culture around at the time.

examples of teen films are:

• Dude? wheres my car?
• Never been kissed
• Mean girls
• The girl next door
• American pie series
• slap her...shes french
• new york minute
• Dirty deeds
• The dukes of hazard
• Charlie Bartlett
• Juno
• John Tucker must die
• Sex Drive
• 17 again
• house party
• Van Wilder

Research- Romantic Comedy

Romantic comedies tend to include a man and a women both leading regular lifestyles, both working and socialising. They come together romantically, but later we see arguments and obsticles that pull them apart. But later we see them reunite. This is acheived through funny moments that involve both characters. As an audience you can see that they belong together but they cannot see it for themselves. A good example of a romantic comedy is "The Proposal", this stars Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, who are both well-known for their brilliant comedy roles. In this film the man and women are not romantically linked. They work together and the women is the boss at a business firm in New York. Sandra and Ryan's characters do not get along, but have a very humour relationship that shows to the audience they have a spark between them. They are not romantically involved because they simply dont like eachother in the beginning, this may be because of job pressures and strain from other factors in their own personal life. Later they come together and pretend to get married, as Sandra Bullock's character may ahve to get deported from New York back to Canada if she does not have a strong reason for staying. This would cause her to loose her job and therfore power. So she sees Ryan Reynolds as an easy target employee who would go along with her lie because he is intimidated by her power as a business women. Later they go through ups and downs, and they start finding eachother attractive after spending time together. This leads to many funny moments. We as an audience start to see that sometimes initial oppsites can attract. Both characters become comfortable around eachother and they begin to fall in love, but dont let eachother know at first. Then they fall out and Sandra's character gets on a plane home to admit that they are not really getting married and she planned it all along. But however as she leaves Ryan's character realises he has fallen for his bossy manager. She also feels the same and they end up giving into their feelings for eachother. The reunite at the end and plan a real wedding. This film has many funny and light hearted scenes that can be enjoyed by a male and female audience. The comedy scenes and romance is very strong in this film and this was what made is so enjoyable to watch.

Romantic Comedies appealed to us as a group as we like to watch romantic comedies. Many romantic comedies include sterotypical love stories and the ups and downs that go along with that. Many romantic comedies use simialr actors and actresses in their movies. We noticed that Jennifer Aniston has appeared in many romantic comedies these include:

Hes just not that into you
Marley & me
Picture Perfect

Romantic comedy films are very light-hearted and have funny storylines. They also include true loves overcoming obsticles so that they can be together, but along the way they have troubles which are humourous.

Friends- popular sitcom which includes many actors and actresses that have now been recognised in many comedies since this well-known and loved sitcom series. The cast includes Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Matt Le Blanc, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow. These comedy show is a tv series, but we are loooking at movie romantic comedies.
We noticed that the character Jennifer Aniston plays in Friends is very similar to some characters she has played in films years later. This is something called type cast when a actor or actress is defined by the character an audience sees them portray, and they almost become the characterin other films.

some other romantic comedy films are:

Shes all that
50 first dates
what a girl wants
wedding crashers
Its a boy girl thing
Shes the man
Wimbledon
just friends
My super-ex girlfriend
My best friends girl
picture this

Jerry maguire
my best friends wedding
Bruce Almighty
Knocked up
The devil wears prada
Hitch
Meet the Fockers
Sex and the City (film)
Theirs something about mary
Confessions of a shopaholic
The ugly truth
I love you man
Valentine's day

A Cinderella Story- Repertoire of Elements

The repertoire of elements in a film are all the signs that hep the audience recongnise what type of film it is. This includes the narrative, which is the typical story plots a teenage movie would follow, settings or typical location that suits the stories, Iconography which is all the visual signs we see as an audience.
Below i have listed the repertoire of elements for "A Cinderella Story":

Narrative:
Teenagers struggling with their socail life and trying to find out who they are and what they want from the future. Hilary duffs character is living rich with a her step mother and sisters that use her for their daily chores. She lives in the attic and feels unwanted ever since her dad died. But later after confiding her feelings to an unknown teenage love on school internet chat rooms she finds that she wants more from life and ends up meeting her true love, but as storys always go, true loves path never runs smoothly. Both Austin and Sam want to attend the same University called 'Princeton'.

Setting and location:
The settings or location are high schools, as we see all different types of teenagers and how they are coping with the demands of high school and trying to find out there place in the school. This settign of a high school suits the film well as they are teenagers leaving for university, they want to follow their own career choices, but find their lives have already been mapped out for them by their demanding families. Sam Montgomery is used as a slave and a personal waitress for the step mother and step sisters, and Austin Ames "Prince charming" is being bossed around by his dad into taking over his fathers car business, which is not what he wants, as he too wants to go away to University. As they both wants to go away from home to University.

Generic Iconography:
The Iconography in this movie is quite easy to noitce, for example the step mother and sisters are portaying a money oriented faimly that have plastic surgery and wear pink clothing and have fake hair and nails. We noticed from their that Sam "Cinderella" doesnt fit into their world as she is very natural looking and doesnt want to foolow her step mother. We notice an instant divide between them because of their visual looks and the language they use. For example the step mother has a bad attitude to education as she bins Sams Univeristy acception letter, because she wants to keep her at home cleaning, rather than being successful and move out of the house. Also Sam is more deep in her personality than the step faimly she lives with, they just care about looks and money, whereas Sam just wants freedom and universty. Sam also drives around in an old bagger car that looks rusty, and her step mother drives a car that looks expensive. This visually shows how unfair her life is and how she is not really like them.

A Cinderella Story- Original Soundtrack

Below are all the songs on the movie soundtrack and album. Hilary Duff recorded many songs with her sister on the album soundtrack, and some are taken from her own album. We wanted to look at the soundtrack for this movie as it is very modern and the genre is what our film suited. However we decided in the edn that our chosen music would have to appeal to a male and female audience, whereas alot of this music is particualy girly and american. We wanted to chose our soundtrack by a artist from the UK.

Our Lips Are Sealed" - Hilary Duff and Haylie Duff
"Anywhere But Here" - Hilary Duff Taken from Hilary's album Metamorphosis
"The Best Day of My Life" - Jesse McCartney
"Girl Can Rock" - Hilary Duff
"Now You Know" - Hilary Duff Originally sung in the movie by Kara DioGuardi
"One in This World" - Haylie Duff
"Crash World" - Hilary Duff
"To Make You Feel My Love" - Josh Kelley
"Sympathy" - the Goo Goo Dolls
"Friend" - Kaitlyn
"Beautiful Soul" (Cinderella mix) - Jesse McCartney
"I'll Be" - Edwin McCain
"Fallen" - Mya
"First Day of the Rest of Our Lives" - MxPx
"Metamorphosis" (live) - Hilary Duff (Target bonus track)

Songs Not Included in the Soundtrack, But Are in the Movie:

"Hear You Me (May Angels Lead You In)" - Jimmy Eat World
"Falling For You" - Busted
"I'm Your Angel" - Celine Dion
"Rescue Me" - Fontella Bass
"Going Out With A Bang" - G-Sleep
"Never Gonna Stop" - Johannah Halvorsen
"Tear The Roof Off" - Lo (feat. Misery III)
"I Need Your Loving" - Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford
"Coming Right Back" - Soul Partol
"Stolen Kisses" - The Peak Show
"Hit The Decks" - Cirrus
"Where Ur At" - 1200 Techniques
"Straight Laid Out" - Cirrus
"I Met A Girl" - Wheat

A Cinderella Story - Research

Below is a detailed description of the storyline of the film:

Cinderella never had it this bad. Cinderella story is a twisted and hilarious update of the classic fairy tale, with main character high school senior Sam Montgomery as “Cinderella” . She lives at the beck and call of her self obsessed step mother Fiona and her wicked or ugly step-sisters, who treat her more like a servant than a member of the family. This is the reality version of the fairytale, the fairytale has been cleverly updated asthough they are a dysfunctional family with everyday problems. Although Sam has more to deal with than the average teenager. Her step mother is very plastic looking she has long fake blonde hair and always dresses outrageously in hot pinks. The step- sisters are twins who are typical teenagers who argue and fight, but they always seem to stick together when it comes to battling with Sam “Cinderella”.
With her sights set on attending Princeton, Sam finds her dull social life boring yet complicated, when she chats to her prince charming online. But when her anonymous emailer turns out to be her high school’s popular guy Austin Ames, which she couldn’t believe, so she ran away leaving him and while running away she drops her mobile phone, this is quite an interesting update to the fairytale, as in the original Cinderella drops her shoe and this film shows her leaving her mobile phone.
Fearing rejection if her secret is revealed, Sam dodges Austin's efforts to discover the identity of his princess. Will Sam let fear hold her back, or will she find the courage to be herself and claim the life she's always wanted? Her chance at happily ever after depends on it.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Clifford Werber Production, in association with Dylan Sellers Productions.
Directed by Mark Rosman, A Cinderella Story is written by Leigh Dunlap and produced by Clifford Werber, Alyssa Goodman, Hunt Lowry and Dylan Sellers.

Main Cast:

Hilary Duff
Chad Michael Murray
Jennifer Coolidge
Regina King


Genre:
This is more than just a Cinderella story as Sam is not just doing all this for her self, but also for her friends at the diner. They hate her Step mum just as much as Sam does. It is a romantic comedy for teens and adults. Teens will enjoy the love story and the theme of a non-popular girl finding her way. It's best described as "cute" because it doesn't make you crack up laughing, or cry, as it is just a cute and innocent storyline. I know there are many versions of the Cinderella story, but this is one of my favorites because it is realistic and placed into the present time period. There is no magic in this. Everything could really happen which will make it even more enjoyable for young girls and teens to watch.

helpful sources:
http://www2.warnerbros.com/acinderellastory/index.html
http://www.viewpoints.com/A-Cinderella-Story-review-1d7b1

Distributors Information

Distributors

A film distributor is an organization which puts money into the production for marketing purposes and to make sure of the screenings of it. Marketing involves the creation of the adverts for the film whether it be for magazine, newspaper, posters, television advertisements, trailers etc. They must also arrange adapted media for foreign countries, this means subtitles in order for all audiences to have an understanding. It is up to the distributor to convince the exhibitor of the success of the showing and the profit which will be made. Once arranged it is then decided the amount of gross ticket sales to be paid to the distributor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Film_Distributors

In the United Kingdom unlike Hollywood many films are independent or co-dependent productions. Hollywood studio outputs are made to be sent all around the world where as the majority of UK films are not. Canal and Image UK are two of the right holders in Britain presently.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/researchers/distribution/british.html

It is clear to see that the British film industry has increased massively over the past few recent years to thriving £3.3 billion industry that has thousands of small companies behind it.

http://www.psi.org.uk/news/pressrelease.asp?news_item_id=34

For our film “Miss-Fit” we noted all the films we had researched and the distributors behind them and they were:

· Mean girls – Summit Entertainment
· Not anther teen movie- Columbia
· Cinderella story – Warner Brothers
· White chicks – Columbia and Revolution
· Miss Congeniality – Warner Brother
· The Proposal – Touchstone Pictures
· The ugly truth – Columbia and Lakeshore Entertainment
· The princess diaries – Walt Disney Pictures

By looking at the list above Columbia and Warner Brother are two distribution companies that are popular among movies in the market. We chose Columbia for the reason of our film is a high school based comedy teen movie. Similar to ours is “Not another teen movie”, which a successful movie was showing us that Columbia understand the best methods of distribution for media like our production.

Distribution Company

Distribution Company- Columbia

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution company. It forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.
Columbia Pictures is one of the leading film companies in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.
In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that same year it launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola divested Columbia, which merged with Tri-Star. After a brief period of independence, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989.

Distribution Company logo

Distribution Company logo

Columbia's logo, a lady carrying a torch and draped in the American flag (representing Columbia, a personification of the United States), has gone through five major revisions.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98u8GRcnPm8

Major U.S. film studio. It originated in 1920 when brothers Jack and Harry Cohn formed a company with Joe Brandt to produce short films and low-budget westerns. It became Columbia Pictures in 1924. Harry Cohn, who served as president and head of production from 1932 until his death in 1958, was the driving force behind its success. The studio produced the 1930s films of Frank Capra and many other successful films, including All the King's Men (1949),

Time Plan-Point of View

14th September

To begin filming we started with our strongest idea of the mean girl and sidekick walking down a corridor. Danielle and I were filming. As I was about to be filmed, I worked the camera. This involved using the dolly and moving backwards with the girls. Another shot needed was travelling up them while walking; the dolly made it easy to do.

In the same corridor my character had to walk in the opposite direction. It was difficult getting the shot of me walking into the two girls. It was because we needed to get a reaction shot clearly, to solve this Danielle took the camera off the dolly and stood at the side of the corridor; at the point of impact. It took all day to finish as the bell rang or people were messing around in the back round. Also Suzy and Grace kept laughing; reasons for this were incidents such as getting hit in the face with sunglasses.

-Beth


21st September

It was annoying going down to Castle Community College’s astro turf due to the equipment. The tripod is easiest yet still heaviest to carry as it can go over the shoulder, but it still hurt. Unfortunately not many people were playing football, but we made it work by zooming in.

Apart from one of the footballers getting attached to the camera; it was a good day of filming. Suzy took charge of filming as to share it out over the entire project. Trying to film just the feet for one scene, actually kicking around the football was quick work. The thought behind filming the football academy was to portray Tom’s character “Rob” as a footballer himself. As all American chick flicks seem to have jocks and we thought we’d English it up.

The weather was really sunny and hot which keeps in with our films idea of being in the summer.

-Grace


28th September

Today we stayed at Walmer School to do as much filming with Tom as we could. We tried to get it done quickly as Tom is not in our group he needs to get on with his own work. The only reason we haven’t yet filmed him is because of him being busy. With me filming we chose a quiet corridor on the second floor to shoot another scene of Beth falling over but this time Tom helping her up. We used the dolly to show movement as if another character. As everyone was needed in filming except me, I filmed. Everything went smoothly; the only problem was the direction for people to leave on screen. That was sorted easily by using the idea of a lingering look making it so they leave separate ways.

We needed “Rob” in a scene with “Lilly” so that the audience see the connection. Suzy filmed in the common room, didn’t plan a close up but she did and it worked really well. The common room worked well as it was empty unlike the library and there were books. It rained, so it was good we needed no filming outside.

-Danielle


30th September

·Close up of alarm clock
·Beth falling out of bed
·Beth as “Lilly” getting ready in a mirror



12th October

Suzy pushing Beth by the lockers
Re shooting the second floor corridor with Tom, Suzy, Beth and Grace
Tom and friend in classroom


12th October

We had to get the bus to Danielle’s house, as she lives in Kingsdown. The rain didn’t help but at least the filming was all inside. I realised as soon as we got Danielle’s house how I had forgotten the tape at home! I couldn’t believe it, the filming needed to be done. Luckily I phoned home and my dad was able to drive down, and drop it off.

All the filming was of my character (the mean girl) “Chelsea” in her bedroom; which was actually Danielle’s. It was me pretending to be asleep, though I kept laughing because it was weird the others watching me in bed. Using different shots we did me going from getting up to getting ready in the mirror.

Grace was the camera woman today as we’ve been taking it in turns and she’d not done as much yet. It was funny as Grace had to stand on a stool to get an angle looking down; hard within the space but we managed.

After lunch we got the bus back to school except Danielle, got very wet along the way but at least we have done some filming.

Target Audience- 'Miss-Fit

Target Audience

Age: Teenagers

Gender: Female

Info: Chick flick is slang for a film designed to appeal to a female target audience. The term was first used in 1992. Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based (though not necessarily romantic).
The main purpose of a chick flick is to entertain the audience with humor, with a bit of romance. It usually focuses on teenage girl’s lifestyles, boys and gossip which are why the target audience is young/teenage women as they relate their lives with the characters lives.

Are film is a female dominated film

Target Audience

Target audience

The primary group of people something is aimed at is known as a target audience. It is an important in marketing and advertising to know who their target audience is and have a secure analysis on them; by knowing lots about the certain group, work can then be produced using techniques that appeal to the target audience. Information can be carried out by market research. If not enough is known about the audience then efforts put towards succeeding will become expensive as difficult with out the right knowledge. There are many categories media institutions have to consider and these are age group, gender, marital status (single people, married, ages and gender within those situations). Combinations also apply such as women between the ages of forty and fifty. Although other people within different categories who are not the main target audience, they may be interested, depending on personal taste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_audience

For our production of “Miss-Fit”, before making the film or even story boarding ideas, we decided on our target audience. This was done as to make it easier on ourselves when coming up with ideas for our teaser trailer. By knowing we were aiming at teenagers between the ages of twelve and nineteen, all which was created was in way that our age group would find appealing. Not only is our advert at the that age group but also bringing the category of female gender; making “Miss-Fit” having a combined target audience of female teenagers. This category could also be known as the social status of lower middle class, within this class are supervisory, junior managerial and professional. It was thought this best suited our target audience due to some being in the working industry. A study help between January -December of 2006 in Britain; indicates that the lower middle class has the largest number of people in that category from the ages fifteen plus.

Though “Miss-fit's” age group starts at twelve, there is no research to provide any information of below fifteen. Due to being the biggest out of all the classes, in the industry there is more chance of money being made as such a large audience range. A majority of lower middle class is woman at 7, 581 to 6,400 of men populating Britain. More females increase the chances of popularity if shown around the United Kingdom. The year before in 2005 Britain Lower middle class still dominated with more females to males with a total of 13,800; the totals of both 2005-06 highlights a slight increase over the year and if this continues in the future the larger “Miss- Fits” target audience will be.

When thinking about females between the ages of twelve-nineteen, it is thought that their characteristics themselves are usually making them self actualises and esteem seekers. Self actualises are people focused on relationships, want to be different and creative, wanting to explore change with little thought for others. Esteem seekers questionable sorts who are materialistic and aims for what typically is thought of as success. “Miss-Fit” satisfies all those people as it is what the film is about.

Audience individuals are most likely to be according to population class part of family units or students due to age “Miss-Fits” target audience. Secondary research suggests that in total 38.2% of the UK is populated by families or students making it a high percentage, increasing potential audience size.

We didn't really have to do any research on our target audience because we as team member are all in that group, and we are surrounded by similar people from day to day. Under the impression of if we like it and when telling friends about our ideas if they agree we believe to be on the right track. For thinking about the story line we considered what other films in the same genre do and techniques used. We researched the films “mean girls”, “Cinderella Story”, “Not Another Teen Movie”, “The Proposal”,” Miss Congeniality”, “White Chicks” and “The Ugly Truth”. It was apparent that all these successful films were either totally or partly from the point of view of a female main character. This suggests that the female audience are more likely to relate to the main character. All the films actually set in a high school and these films I felt aimed just at high school teenagers where as other like the “The Proposal” had a broader audience of all females. With this insight it was clear the storyline must be from a female point of view and set in a high school. This research showed us how nearly every story line in similar films are either man wants woman or woman wants man and the hurdles they have to overcome to get them. Due to such typical plots we felt it would be too different to stay with our chosen target audience to change that.

The adverts of the films researched were sort of repetitive in the method used on timing. Timing used in all where fast shots keeping in with their choice of music and slow ones when conveying the major plot of the movie. Music in all is modern, popular tracks that the age group would listen to. When with a larger target audience the films keep it modern but not a choice that was popular at one point as to not aim more at an age group then another.

“Miss-Fit” has a quick rhythm to it like all the films researched did except for the difference of them having slow moments, for when the audience discover the plot. As there will not be a lot of talking in “Miss-Fit” because in this case we feel actions speak louder than words; the only slow moments will be to indicate the plot of a character being in love with another character.

Also I believe that having the majority of our trailer in fast pace shows the confusion of choice of the main male character. Music chosen for the “Miss-Fit” trailer was at the start going to be a blend of three songs. Each song designed to suite each character e.g. the nerd to have a hopeful, quirky sound to it. It was first thought of characters to have their own sections within the advert introducing them. The idea came to an end when the song called “She's so lovely”- scouting for girls was put to the test, and went really well timing wise with the shots. It had also been changed for not to have separate grouped introductions but highlighting the difference between the two female characters and then the relationship each held the male lead.

For further research into what female teenagers between the ages of twelve and nineteen including some males prefer, we will show both trailers to a class of them and ask for feed back.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Name:

(Please tick/circle appropriate answer)

1. Are you male? or female?


2. Do you like chick flicks?

Yes No


3. Would you go with your partner to see a chick flick?

Yes No


4. Do you like films with comedy involved?

Yes No


5. Do you think chick flicks should be made in America?

Yes No


Why: - __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



6. In a storyline with two characters fighting over a love interest, do you prefer the two characters in competition to be:

2 x female 2 x male


Why: - __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is the questionnaire we created to find out what are target audience like.

Generic Iconography

Generic Iconography


A typical teenage comedy and chick flicks many iconic theme are used. They are always set in High School location, usually American teen films are set in a rich part of America like Los Angeles or Beverly Hills, because they are a very superficial location, which mirrors the idea of superficial teenagers. The time period for this genre is very modern day and contemporary in a money orientated society.


An iconic example of characters would be an American High School typically having cheerleaders, footballers and mascots, and like in all American teenage films the cheerleaders are always the pretty and popular girls and they tend to be very rich and have a high status within the School social chain, but they always seem to have a low IQ. For example in Mean Girls the popular bitchy character is played by Rachel McAdams, who was also a main character in The notebook, in which she played a girl that appeared similar to Regina George, rich and pretty, but it is set in a different time period. The Notebook and Mean Girls both where released in cinema during 2004, so Rachel Mc Adams would attract the teenage audience. Lindsay Lohan is another typical actress who has appeared in many teen comedies, like Freaky Friday, in which her roles in Mean girls and Freaky Friday was very likable. Another typical young actress that is linked with teen romance and comedies is Hilary Duff, who was a main character in A Cinderella Story.

Many of the characters are either intelligent or attractive and the intelligent girls are always recognised as the geeks and the social rejects. Some generic signifiers also include what the characters dress like, for example the popular girls wear shorts skirts and revealing tops that are usually red or pink. They would normally have long blonde hair and a sports car. In opposition to this the geeky girls would be known for her bad dress sense, glasses and tied up hair. Also the boys within teen movies are very iconic to the genre as they are always good looking, sporty and seem very shallow and vain, much like the pretty and popular girls, who are at the top of the School. The cheerleaders and footballers are almost meant to find each other as they would appear well suited and they desire each others qualities. But later as always the audience finds out that they are not always compatible and the typical stereotypes are challenged.

Also ironically in this film genre the popular girls and guys end up loosing power and status, which then effects the social chain within the school and we then see the popular girls world all apart.

The storyline of a typical teen film is based on relationships between girls and the survival of the teenagers within School. Mean girls was based on the battle of the fittest. The genre is also based on rivalry and revenge between the geeky, odd girls and the popular bitchy girls. The storyline in a teen romantic comedy are always quite girly and they always have happy endings, usually with the geeky girl ruling the school and the audience feeling that they can relate to that character.

A typical story situation a lot of the time is when the popular girl looses the guy and he then realises that he likes the geeky girl, especially after she gets a makeover. The geeky underdog girl then gets noticed because of her new appearance. Something that is a strong iconic feature in a teen romance comedy is the teenagers always having parties and attending School proms. Money and cars are iconic as these are things that teenagers aspire to have. The lifestyle of the teenagers within a movie look exciting and adventurous, which is nothing like a teenager’s lifestyle in reality.

We looked at many films to see if the signifiers are used in all teenage films. From watching teenage movies like Mean Girls we noticed some strong signifiers and paradigms that can easily be identified for this genre, for example the main “Mean” character Regina George had long blonde hair, dressed provocatively, is very rich and drives a sports car. In opposition to this the geeky Cady Heron an, outcast character who was home schooled wore baggy styled jeans, polo shirts and plain tops and long red hair and does not have a sporty car, just rides the School bus. Another stereotypical thing in this film was a gay character hanging around with the outcast new girl from Africa, this shows that socially the gay character fits in with the group that is typically full of outcasts.

Also another thing was when Cady gets involved with the “plastics”, which makes her more popular and she becomes noticed by the guys. When the girls ask the geeky girl to wear pink she has nothing pink but typically the gay character has many pink items and asks if the girl wants to borrow something. This shows that the gay character is being stereotyped into what is expected of a gay man, people assume that they love pink clothing and are very feminine, which this character is portraying. Also blonde girls in teenage movies tend to wear pink, short skirts and act like a bitch, but in reality this is not the case, but it is always used in teenage movies. But these types of characters start of on top, but end up being hated.

Some key signs in this genre are the popular bitchy girls owning the latest pink handbag and driving the best and fastest sports car. The boys are always sporty and live in a large home with a rich mum and dad, the girls all tend to wear “sluttish” outfits which makes them look sexual, confident and powerful.

The music in this type of genre is usually hip hop music or the latest tracks on the music channels. An example would be Missy Elliott music being used in mean girls. Also in A Cinderella story, Hilary Duff’s own music becomes apart of the movie, as it is a good chance to advertise her solo career, by creating the soundtrack.


The message usually in a teen film is that good people overcome evil and selfish people, and always be yourself because in the end people will appreciate who you are in the end.

Colour Chart for Logo

Colour chart for Logo

We have created a colour chart of a variety colours we had to choose from for are logo. We decided to choose a pink colour for the logo, as we feel that pink is a girly, fun colour which is a classic sign a chick flick film.

The colour we chose for are logo was baby pink. We chose baby pink as it shows the innocent’s of the geek but also the main colour for the 'bitchy girl'. We also added a bit of black to the logo to show how in control, evil and over powering 'Chelsea' is of 'Lily'(Geek). We also decided that if we were to use just black and white it wouldn’t have been very interesting or eye catching to the audience and also would highlight to the audience as a chick flick movie.


Popular girl

Colour-Red

We decided that the popular girl was going to wear a bright, 'hot' shade of red as it is considered to be sexual, seductive and angry which is the image we wanted to portray as the feelings she feels for the people around her. On the other hand, red is also known as the colour of love. We felt that it was a good idea to show two sides to 'Chelsea'. The love side is her vulnerable side which refers to her relationship with her boyfriend but in contrast the angry, seductive side is what she portrays to everyone else, like a hard front so she won’t get hurt. Finally, it also shows she is in control and wants to stand out as it is an eye catching colour.


Colour-Black

Additionally, we decided that the popular girl would wear black as this signifies mysterious, evil and darkness. This links to the angry side that she shows to everyone.

Colour-Purple

The colour purple represents hurt and pain coursing. The popular girl has to wear purple as it signifies the hurt and pain she is coursing to the geeky girl and the main guy.


Geeky girl

Colour- Light Pink

The geeky girl in our trailer wore light pink as it could be seen to represents her childlike attitude and the girly side that’s hidden within herself. It also represents how she is seen at school as childish.


Colour -White

Additionally, The geeky girl was wearing white as it represents how pure and innocent she is compared to the popular girl. It also represents how shy she is and fades into the background when she is at school.


Colour- Blue

We decided to put the Geeky Girl ‘Lily’ in to blue as it typically represents unhappiness which came across in her character in the trailer. Also, it represents the calm submissive state that she is generally in. Therefore, showing the gloomy place of her life she is in when she is alone.

Trailer Title Ideas

Title ideas


To create a title idea we decided to look at the characters themselves and we noticed a divide in the who main characters.

Our ideas are listed below:

Geek:
Glasses, books, passion to teach, obsessive with school, quiet, quirky, natural personality, awkward socially, real, outcast, smart, bore, nerdy, unfashionable and dull.


Popular bitch:
Busy social life, pretty, gobby, died fake blonde hair (generally), naive, dumb, materialistic, perfect, fake, leaders and their friends followers, vanity, bimbo, spoilt by parents, rich, girly, welcomed by all, desired, attractive in every sense, respected for the wrong reasons.


Title brainstorms :
Chosen title:
· Bimbos and Bores MISS-FIT
· Stand out
· Material Plastics
· Skin deep
· Fitting in
· The hot and the not!
· Leaders and followers
· Misfit
· Imperfect
· Pretty Real!

Miss-Fit -Character List, Location, Props

Character list:

Chelsea……….....Suzy Chapman (Popular leader)
Katrina…………..Grace Powell (Popular follower)
Lily………………..Beth Thompson (Geeky girl)
Rob………………..Tom Johnson (footballer)



Location and props:

Locations………..Walmer Science College
Football AstroTurf Castle Community College
Beth’s House
Danielle’s House


Props

(Chelsea)……………Pink skirts, jewellery, sunglasses, high heels, Handbags, princess tiara crown, make-up.

(Katrina)……………Purple and red tops, black trousers, bag
Make-up, sunglasses, white pump trainers and Jewellery.


(Lily)………………..Glasses, blue and grey clothing, black trousers, baggy t-shirts, school books and a big bag.

(Rob)………………..smart trousers, blue tops and jackets, trainers and jeans.

Script for 'Miss Fit Voice over

Miss-Fit Voice Over - Script



'High School has never been easy'

'Whether your popular……………………or not!!!!!'

'Some are leaders, some are followers!!!'

'Some are torn between two lovers!!!'

'You don’t have to fit in to stand out!'

'MISS FIT'

'Coming to a cinema near you!!!'

Repertoire of elements for Miss-fit

Repertoire of elements for Miss-fit

Settings- High school, football pitch

Narrative-Conflict between geek girl and mean girl. Mean girl going out with footballer main guy but he likes (secretly) geek and she likes him.


Characters- Geek, mean girl, footballer friend and follower friend

Directors- Beth, Suzy, Danielle and grace


Title- Miss-fit

Music- Scouting for girls- she’s so lovely

Mise-en-scene- High school, heels and skirts, costumes, love notes, footballer, bedrooms, books,
tiara’s. lockers and falling over.

Paradigms- High school, mean girls, geek girls, footballer main guy, follower friend, love, modern music, skimpy outfits.

Evaluation Question 1

In what way do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

There are many ways in which our media products use and develop existing forms of media. The media products we have created include a teaser trailer, magazine advertisement and a billboard poster. There are all types of media forms that we felt needed to be used in Order to promote and advertise our film to its target audience. Our teaser film trailer “Miss-Fit” is targeted at teenagers and pre-teens aged 12, and because of this we felt that these everyday media formats had to develop. Our trailer was created to tease our target audience as we have fast-paced editing and have used many clever generic signifies and iconic themes that teenagers will want to see. An example of this would be the characters being stereotyped by the way they look, as we have the popular girl Chelsea wearing revealing clothing in colours like reds and black that represent a devil or person with evil qualities and a bitchy personality.

Another iconic theme is the fact that we have used a School for our location. We also created a magazine advertisement, which we felt was a popular magazine that would get our film noticed as all our chosen media formats come together as a package.

The representation of women is something we had to consider for our film genre. In general teen chick flicks and comedies have women that are very iconic and they are viewed in a very sexualities way. To reinforce the idea of women’s representation we had a brainstorm about the way we wanted our characters to look. For example Chelsea, who is the bitchy main girl has been stereotyped to look like a typical mean girl, this included short skirts, little handbags, straight long hair, make-up, popular with males within School and desired by the men sexually and desired by the girls as all they would all look up to her thinking she is perfect. In opposition to this the geeky character Lily, looks the opposite to Chelsea, as Lily’s character portrays innocence so we thought she would have to look more natural, not much make-up, hair tied back and glasses. This representations of women are easily recognised. Our film creates the idea that the pretty and popular girl is lacking personality and relatable qualities, whereas the geeky girl is full of personality and lacks the outside confidence and beauty. Our film represents three types of women, as Chelsea the popular girl is very confident, sexual, Lily the geeky girl is shy, timid on the surface but when you spend time with her you see she is a beautiful and fun person inside. The third type of women represented is a character called Katrina, who is a follower, she hangs around with the popular people, but she just has fun with them and wont even talk to the geeky girl because her best friend has a problem.


The magazine cover is only a visual picture of our main characters so we had to make sure our images and slogan used was eye catching and interesting for teenagers. We had to consider the magazine layout, so that our pictures on the front cover didn’t give the plot away, as many teenage movie posters make the film look predictable. We considered researching poster ideas from other teen movies, for example we looked at ‘Mean girls’ in detail and we noticed the colours and layout of the title and the placement of characters. A magazine advert generally would need to be on the right side of a magazine as people tend to notice the advertisement on the right hand side as it’s the first thing that you see when you turn the page.

Our poster tells a bit about each characters personality, as our geek character ‘Lily’ is facing sideways on the poster, looking over her shoulder, this signifires nerdy qualities like a lack of confidence and self-esteem and also she looks inferior to the main popular girl who is smiling in a sweet, yet bitchy was. She is also facing straight ahead, which shows body confidence, almost giving people eye-contact which signifies power, control and a lot of confidence! So from this already the clash of social groups is starting to show, even on the poster. This may intrigue teenagers to watch our film because people like to see a battle of good versus evil and good coming out on top in the end. Our film idea challenges general teenage film in the media as in many teenage films all the geeky characters are treated really badly and they have no friends, but the suddenly out of nowhere they get a make-over which makes then look pretty and then suddenly they are noticed. We felt that this sends out the wrong message to teenage girls mainly, because this message is only that pretty people are successful, which is wrong. We felt that this needed to be changed in our film we decided that our typical teenage film would not have the geeky girl getting a make-over, instead the geeky girl in our film is comfortable with her looks as she is, and is also friends with the most popular boy in School. So we have decided to challenge the idea that looks are everything. Our message in our teenage film is that looks don’t make a person who they are, as our slogan shows a convention of real media as on our poster and magazine advert is “You don’t have to fit in to stand out”.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and additional texts?


Our group feels that our main product and additional texts are an effective combination. The magazine cover and film poster markets is main product which is our film well. Just by looking at the magazine cover and film poster you can tell that it’s a girly chick flick film. This is effective as the poster and magazine cover can tell you what the film is about without giving too much or anything away.

Our poster and magazine cover are very similar. We have the same colour scheme in both the poster and the magazine cover. This is effective as you can tell there are both linked together with the same colour scheme. Our logo is the same on both too. This represents are film as it’s a consistent theme that the viewer can connect with. Therefore it’s a good way for viral marketing.

Our poster is very effective as it has bright colours that will catch your eye and make you look at the poster and remember it. This is effective as it helps get our film poster stuck in our mind, making you want to watch are film. Also are cheesy slogan is very catchy. It’s very simple and easy to remember. This helps market are film as when you say, hear or see the slogan the viewer can link it to our film.

On our poster the way we have positioned the main characters is very important and effective. Having Lily on the side of Rob at the back looking at him. Shows her secret love for him, but she is to shy to say anything to him. Also having Lily look down to the ground also shows that she is venerable and un-confident. Having Chelsea at the front on the other side of Rob shows she is in control, confident and the girl who is in a relationship with Rob. Having Rob at the front in the middle of Lily and Chelsea shows he’s in a love triangle with a big choice to make. Having Katrina at the back slightly behind Chelsea shows she is under Chelsea’s control and to afraid to stand up for herself. The positioning of the characters in the poster is very effective, as it shows you who’s in control and shows you and tells you about the characters and links to how there going to be in the film.

Also in our pictures that we have put on the magazine cover and poster shows a contrast in personalities between Lily and Chelsea and shows the contrast in personalities and sorts of people they are. Lily is dressed in the innocent white this shows she is pure, good and innocent like an angel. On the other hand Chelsea is dressed in black and red this shows she is sexual, confident and dark like a devil. There’s colours can represent good and evil Lily being good and Chelsea being evil. This is effective because its shows the contrast between the two characters it shows how different they are and what sort of people they are like. It also links to the film as it shows what the film is about with out saying anything or giving anything away.