Chick Flick research - Protagonists

As we have decided to make a chick flick/comedy style movie, i thought it would be good to do some research into other movies that are similar, so we know where we are going with ours, by looking at examples of protagonists from such films:

Cady Heron, Mean Girls

Cady is smart, but is easily influenced and has a desire to be popular. Embarrassing things often happen to her, for example falling into bins and turning up as a zombie bride to a Halloween party.

Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones' Diary

Bridget is an incredibly flawed character, who is overweight, clumsy, and very prone to messing things up. Embarrassing things also happen to her, for example crashing into a pig pen while filming for a news channel.

Olive Penderghast, Easy A

Olive also has a desire to be popular, costing her her reputation and her friends, similar to Mean Girls. Olive is witty and manages to rise above her bad reputation, based on rumors that weren't true anyway.

Marking Criteria

G321 Marking Criteria This is the marking criteria that we will have to meet for our film opening.

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Shots to be storyboarded

This is all of the shots that make up our movie that we need to storyboard as a group:

1. pictures presents..
2. alarm clock
3. alarm clock (shot is closer this time)
4. alarm clock (extreme close up of clock when the alarm goes off) arm reaches to turn it off
5. girl sits up (big hair, smudged make-up, hungover) shot freezes-voice over (meet...)
6. struggles with alarm clock
7. throws out window
8. clock flies out window
9. runs to window (oops..)
10. someone is lying on ground outside (hit by alarm clock)
11. shuts window (embarrassed, doesnt want to get caught)
12. looking in mirror (camera acts as mirror so she is looking into camera instead)
13. brushes hair (over shoulder shot) brush breaks (knotted hair)
14. (camera pans round so that window is in shot, girl unaware) person lying on ground attracts a crowd
15. hands opening wardrobe
16. pulls out different outfits and throws them behind
17. tries on outfit (camera zooms in)
18. (when camera zooms out she is in a different oufit) zooms in again
19. (zooms out) she is again in a different oufit (takes off top, throws, lands on camera, creates black out effect-perhaps some credits here or title may come up)
20. finds outfit (looks flustered) turns around skirt tucked into pants
21. feet running downstairs (point of view shot-camera held by actor)
22. (quick snappy shots) grabs bowl
23. grabs cereal
24. grabs juice (hear sound of cutlery as if getting spoon)
25. grabs bag
26. exits house (long distance shot)
27. close up of her face (discusted at cereal realises she has put juice in instead of milk) looks over at crowd surrounding injured person
28. shot of crowd
29. close up of girls face (shocked)
30. shot of alarm clock on floor and her feet, kicks it behind a bin
31. actor from crowd looks over
32. girl walks over, hands cereal to person in crowd scurries off in a hurry
33. confused face of by stander
34. shot of cereal floating in juice
35. long shot of girl walking down road
36. over shoulder head shot bus in distance drives past
37. bus pulls up
38. girl sitting on bus
39. starts to fall asleep hits head on seat in front
40. (shot of lips) tries to apply lipstick-accidentally draws over her cheek because the bus is moving
41. gets off bus
42. walks down road (point of view shot of feet)

Bloopers

This is what NOT to include in a prelim video!

Prelim for our group

this is our group preliminary video.

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is a period drama on ITV set in the 1910's. The storyline begins when the upper class Grantham family find out that their cousin and presumptive heir has died in the Titanic sinking. As the family have three girls they have to find the next male heir to the house and fortune, much to the annoyance of the eldest daughter, Mary. The series is brilliant for showing typical stereotypes, for example gender, disability, class and age, as the storyline is quite old fashioned. Here are some promotional images from the show:

 

As you can see, there is lots done with the mise en scene to represent the era, as well as the character's class, status and gender.

Proposal

this is our proposal for our film introduction idea.

Film Proposal

1. Is your idea PRACTICALLY possible to film? (no speeding trains, sea battles etc)

Everything is possible to film, as we have no special effects or things that would be too difficult to film.

2. Will it show off the strengths of EVERY member of your group?
We will all be in the opening at some point, and we will all have a go at shooting and editing. If we all find we have different strengths, then we'll play to them, but we'll try and make it as equal as possible.

3. Can it be storyboarded okay?
Yes, as there are many different scenes but only one or two things will happen in each scene so it will be easy to show on paper.

4. Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the time available?

Yes, we'll only need a day for shooting, and the editing should be ok in the space of time we have.

5. Can you get access/permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times?

Our idea may include a bus and/or a train, but as Valentina's dad is a bus driver we can probably use his bus. The train may just involve being on a platform, so that should also be possible. Otherwise it will just be in our houses or down streets, so there shouldn't be much of a problem there.

6. Would lighting/sound be an issue on location?

As we are not having much dialogue the sounds on location should not be an issue. Lighting will be a problem as we will do a lot of outdoor filming and the light may change throughout the day we film, but we will make sure we do as much of the outdoor filming in as short a time as possible so that this will not be an issue.

7. Are you going to include dialogue? If so, can you do it on location or will you need to add it later?

We have decided not to use dialogue but if necessary we may use a few phrases so that it fits in with the situation.

8. Who will be cast as your characters on screen? Are they reliable? Will continuity be an issue?
Only members of our group will be cast as the characters on screen so that we will not have to rely on others and continuity should not be an issue as we will be filming over one day.

9. Have you thought about style of credits and soundtrack?
We want the credits and the soundtrack to reflect the genre of the movie, so we may include some comedic effects for the credits.

Film genres

Last monday we looked at different genres of film that we could consider doing for our coursework project. These included:

Comedies

• Hot Fuzz
• Sean of The Dead
• Johnny English
• In the Loop
• Four Weddings and a Funeral

Alternative

• Juno
• 500 Days of Summer

Chick Flick

• Mean Girls
• Clueless
• Sex and the City

Period Drama

• Pride and Prejudice
• Sherlock Holmes

Action

• James Bond
• The Matrix
• Bourne Identity
• Sherlock Holmes

Documentary

• Supersize Me

Horror/Thriller

• Blair Witch
• Paranormal Activity
• Se7en

For my project, I would like to do something along the lines of an action/comedy style film (In the style of Hot Fuzz or Johnny English?) but I will talk to my group and we will decide.