Mood Board

Napoleon Dynamite-9 key screen shots

These 9 shots show the titles in a very interesting way, they are represented through the use of food and other objects that relate to the film. The objects used also show that a school is involved with the movie, as you see a note pad , and also a typical school cafiteria lunch. This also gives you an insight to the age of people the film is going to be focussed on.
You see the face of "Napoleon" which shows you the type of person he is-geeky and strage. This theme is supported by the other strange things in these key shots. For example the eggs on th edge of the plate are very random as is Napoleon. Also what looks like a dragon creature drawn on the paper with the producers on it, shows that this isn't your average teenager. Its a very contravercial film, with dark humour and i think these key shots present this well. There are lots of colours in these shots. The colours are very pale (as in Napoleon) and very random (as in Napoleon)
As inspiration i would say that these shots give subtle hints to the story line, but without giving anything away. It sets in your mind the type of person that the film is going to be about.

United States Of Tara- Full Textual Analysis

Unites States of Tara is a different kind of family comedy, executively produced by Steven Speilberg, who is widely renowned for his wacky and wonderful creations. The 53 second opening title made by Jamie Caliri is done in the style of a cartoon pop up, i like this as its different and very eye catching.
The opening titles show a girl in three different outfits and lifestyles. We see a 50's housewife, a chain smoking tomboy biker and a temperamental teenage tart. The cinematography shows a lot of close ups and mid shots, but never revealing the girls face until the end shot which is a close up of her face emerging in ascension from a box shaped object, as though she is setting herself free from something, and releasing her feelings. The editing is continuous so each shot leads onto the next one. For example you see a green book saying "Tara" on the edge of it, it then opens and a pop up house appears on the page-it as though the book is Tara’s life and mind, and we are exploring it.
The music playing throughout the opening title is quite slow, yet the lyrics tell a story in themself. "Open up the sky, this mess is getting high" These lyrics support the concept of releasing something, and setting free. The beat gets faster when the housewife turns into the tomboy, and again when the tomboy turns into the teenager, and slows down during the in between shots.
The mise en scene in this piece is regularly changing. The house wife wears a red typical 1950's dress, with a bow at the back which you see a close up of and this shot is held for 5 seconds. She opens the oven to show a cake- supporting stereotypical idea that she is the perfect wife that stays at home all day, cooking and cleaning. There is then a sharp cut to the tomboy, by using the continuous editing (a beer bottle appears at the top of the cake) and this leads onto her on a motor bike, in biker clothes. She wears a denim outfit, which highly contrasts with the 50’s dress. The lighting darkens for this sequence, as if it is a dark side of the character. The last of the characters shown is a teenage girl, wearing quite chav like and slightly slutty clothing, with gold hoop earrings which are commonly connoted to be what a chav wears. We see a close up of her thong and a tattoo which is the letter (T) with a star symbol next to it. This shows us that this again is Tara, as are the other two girls. This leads onto the idea that this woman has multiple contrasting personalities. The teenager stands in the room with her back to the camera. If you look what is in the room there is Converse trainers hanging up, clothes all over the floor, a teddy bear and other typical teenage items all around the room.

The final shot shows a close up of the woman’s face which hasn’t been revealed until now. This establishes that she is the main character.
I think this opening title is the director’s hint to the audience of what the program is about. A woman named Tara with multiple personalities. The every final shot is a close up of her eyes opening, again supporting the fact that this program is all about her and her feelings.

Its as though she is trying to find her identity, by playing different characters in her life. Whether it is a mental condition or just a symbolic representation of her emotions and thoughts is only revealed by watching the program!

Up In The Air- Opening Title Breakdown

Remake Task-Vantage Point

Brief Outline of my romcom

A student and Teacher fall in love
They keep it a secret from their family and friends, and of course the school
Things get too much and they break up
Things are very awkward at school, as he still has to teach her.
She tells one of her friends about the affair she had with the teacher.
Eventually the whole school finds out, and the teacher gets taken to prison.
The girl then realises that she has fallen pregnant with his baby
She rushes off to the hospital and has the baby
She takes the baby into prison to visit the dad
They instantly fall back in love
He is released from prison and they live happily ever after with their child

Why did we choose Romantic Comedy?

We thought due to the location available, this would be an easy option.I think it will be really fun and interesting to direct. The mise en scene will be interesting to style, and I like the more upbeat music that goes into a romcoms opening title.

Romantic Comedies

A typical Romantic Comedy...

Audience is...
Aiming at ages 16-25
Targeted at mainly girl audience

Intention is...
To entertain, making the audience draw particular emotions ( cry, smile, laugh)

The plot is...
Light hearted, humourous, contraversial

The characters are ....
Classic Stereotype characters.
able to relate to the audience
For example: Stupid blonde, fat nerd, jock, the funny guy

The music is....
Catchy and light, such as...



The colours are...
Bright and BOLD

Typical Romcom Film Traits...

There is so many classic traits for a ROMCOM
The sterotypes of teenagers for example the dumb blond cheerleader, Butch bullys, Jocks, Clever Geeks. There is often a attractive couple but they cant be together due to some wild reason but in the end they end up falling in love and live happyly ever after.

Love is usually the base that the movie surrounds, filled with comedic moments. The answer is in the name!

Our Pitch...

The Filmhouse Production Company pitched to Mrs Black our idea for our latest release. The idea stems from the genre of Romcom but we have added a controversial twist to what can sometimes be a rather Repeated idea. Our Production Company (myself and Catriona), made a pitch to Mrs black about our lastest release. This film is aimed at a 16-25 mixed gender audience. Because of this we can afford to be rather controviersal and in this case edgy and up to date in the topics raised. The pitch was very succuesful because we came prepared, understood our target audience.

Shot Library

Jelly Baby Task

Our task was to create scenes using Jelly Babies to map out the scenes of the idea for a film that we have come up with. The genre we chose was Romantic Comedy, with our story focusing on a student and teachers relationship.

Shot 1- Here we chose to have a split screen, with both characters alone. This establishes that these are the main characters, and they are both single. One jelly baby is green and the other is orange. They are both in there own beds, one being blue which signifies the boy , the other pink to signify the girl.

Shot 2-This shot shows a classroom, in which the green baby is teaching the class, while the orange baby is actually in the class being taught. We thought this was an important shot to include because it lets you know that this isnt just an ordinary two people, its a teacher and a student. we added stars to the orange babies desk to show that she is obviously the teachers favourite student in the class, we also added in other background babies to represent class mates.

Shot 3-This shot shows both the green and orange baby in the same bed. We put this in to show that they have fallen in love, which is what the love hearts around them connote.

Shot4- This shot shows the break up of the couple. We chose a dramatic background with thunder and lighting flashing that connotes anger.

Shot 5-This shot is back in the classromm, but shows the orange baby totally ignoring the green baby with all of her class mates. We thought this was a good shot to use as it juxtaposes with shot 2 in the classroom, and shows how they have grown apart.

Shot 6- This shot shows the green baby locked up in prison. This is because the school find out about the relationship that went on between himself and the girl. We thought that the background worked really well with the green baby, making it almost seem as if it was his hands holding onto the bars!

Shot7- This shot signifies the girl realisiing that she is pregnant and rushing off to the hospitol. we thought that this was a important landmark in the film because it belongs to the green baby ,so decided to use this shot. We stuck half of another jelly baby to create the pregnant look.

Shot 8/9-She goes to visit him in prison with their baby as she feels as though the baby should meet its father. They instantly fall back in love. We just used the same scene as when he was first put in prison, but when they fall in love we added cut out love hearts to signify the love that they share :)

Shot 10- This is the happily ever after shot. We chose bright colourful backgrounds with rainbows and sun to connote happiness. He gets released from prison and they are now a happy little jelly family :) This is another landmark in the film, telling you how the story ends.

Prelim Task- At The Doctors

"Doctors" was our Premier Task, This allowed us to explore and experiment with the camera and learn what shots and angles worked.

Our Logo

I am working with Catriona Maccalister. We are called Filmhouse Productions and this is our logo.

Myself

Hello everyone! My name is Georgie Irvine and this is my AS level Media Blog. Enjoy!!