Q2. How does media product represent particular social groups?

Originally we had aimed our film to be a romantic drama, so that would tackle a slightly more mature age group (18+). However, we decided to manipulate certain factors of our film along the way, which eventually started forming a slightly "comical" effect to the film. These factors were things such as Jane's character; aloof, clumsy and quirky. We felt it would be better to create a much more comical film to appeal to a slightly younger audience (females in their late teens/young adult stages) given the resources and time we had available.

The target audience our film opening is now aimed at is female teenagers and young adults. This social group would be described as feminine, ambitious and fun-loving. They look up to a role model who is successfull in life and can easily balance a relationship, their job and still look fantastic. A good example of a character like this is Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City.



There are a number of characters in existing films that are very similar to our main protagonist.

Anne Hathaway's character, Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada lives a life that our protagonist can only dream of. However, there is a transformation of her character as in the beginning she was sloppy and clumsy but she is eventually manipulated into a fashionable and more corporate kind of person. Andy has had dreams of being a journalist, just like the protagonist of our film has dreams to live a more exciting and carefree life.

Although our media product is a film opening, there is a TV programme in Canada called "Being Erica" which follows the life of a early-30-something woman who is sent back in time by her therapist to learn from mistakes she's made in the past and apply the learnt lessons to her present life. The concept of this show has a "supernatural" aspect to it, just like "Turning Point" has supernatural aspects such as the alternative realities. Both Erica and Jane have similar qualities. Although they are both dressed fairly well, they are clumsy in their actions.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products? (i.e. of filming openings)

Commonly in British romantic comedies, they have been consistent in sarcastic humour and irony, thus reflecting British humour. However, in the media product I had created with my group, we had tried to aim for something that can be associated globally, along with very British aspects; location, dialogue, etc.

The story of the film follows the life of a ambitious young woman, Jane, who wishes to live her life with more free-will and get out of the rut of her daily boring life. The film explores two alternate realities and how the slightest change can change destiny. The establishing shot of the Big Ben in London clearly defines an obvious setting; London. Establishing shots have been commonly used in rom-com genres and even romantic films such as The Notebook and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. The lighting in the shot may symbolize "hope" or "new beginnings", as it appears as if the sun is rising in the shot. The montage of shots at the beginning prepare us for the "unveiling" of our main character.

We first see Jane appearing out of the tube station, and as she ascends the steps, it is almost like it symbolizes her climbing the career ladder or social ladder. This may represent many "modern" and indepedent women in society who like to be at the top of everything they plan to achieve in life. The aspirations of Jane could be almost idolistic to the teenage and young-adult audience.


(click through for bigger picture *applies to all)



The title of the film very much reflects what the film is about; the "turning point" of the little actions we perform in day to day lives. Our protagonist, however, receives a huge turning point when she forgets her bag, and the alternate lives reflect how things would have ended up from that action.

The placement of the title appears around four-fifths into the opening sequence.



The title is put in this position as the rewind is triggered to indicated when the "turning point" has happened. The font of the title is very quirky, and pink to reflect the target audience for this film; teens and young adults.



The location is vital for any film, as it can reflect a character's life. The first part of the opening sequence is set in central London or more specifically; Oxford Street. We can immediately tell from The London Eye that it is set in London and Oxford Street further confirms that. As it is commonly known, London has a very busy atmosphere, both in fashion and business aspects, which are probably the two sides of our protagonist. The bottom to screencaps show the protagonist's home location. The bedroom is very normal with feminine aspects such as the pink curtains and floral bedsheets. The outside of her home is also very suburban, which may reflect a "boring" or "ordinary" lifestyle.



There is a distinct difference in costume in the opening sequence. When we see Jane, our character, in Oxford Street, you can see she is smartly dressed yet with obvious hints of fashion. The dark scarf adds class to her character, and works well with the black blazer. The neatly tied side-plaited hair also looks sleek and very feminine at the same time.



After the dream sequence we see an obvious change in costume when Jane wakes up from her dream. Her clothes are much more baggy as opposed to more fashionable nightwear. The colours are bright which still shows off Jane's vibrant character. Having one sock up and one sock down shows her untidy nature and probably shows hints of clumsiness. Also, the fact that her socks are stripy may show a comical nature in the character.

More editing

Worked through a little more editing today. We were informed that the deadline is fast approaching and we're trying our best to make the film look perfect with what time we have left. There's a good array of techniques used e.g. match-on-match, close up, establishing shot, continuity etc.

I personally believe that our sound layers sound great and work together really harmoniously! We applied "Material Girls" by Madonna which works a lot better than "Fashion" by Lady Gaga. It has that slight quirky feel to the film, to reflect the character of "Jane" the protagonist of our film.


We then applied "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine, and turns out it works perfectly with the sequence! We're really happy about this and all we've got left to do it apply an effect to the dream sequence and we're finished.

Next up, we need to start evaluating our project and begin with some screencaps.

Music decisions

At our time at the BFI in December, we learnt that music is a huge factor to the film-making stage.

It can illustrate a certain genre for the film, simply through light tinkering music or a full-on soundtrack.

However, since we are creating a film opening we need to be careful to transition of music very subtle in order to represent the opening to the right audience.

Here are some of our inital songs we chose for both the dream sequence and morning routine sequence:

- "Who's That Chick (ft. Rihanna)" by David Guetta [DREAM SEQUENCE]

We thought this song has a good beat and lyrics were appropriate enough to suit the character, but later we discovered the song would most probably not fit with the footage as the beat is slightly different to the pace of the sequence that we wanted to achieve.



- "What I Like About You" by Lillix [DREAM SEQUENCE OR MORNING ROUTINE]

This song was originally by The Romantics, and was covered by an early-millenium girl band, which made the song more appropriate for a "rom-com" genre. The song was also used in the Freaky Friday (starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis) soundtrack.



- "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by The Ting Tings [DREAM SEQUENCE]

This song has a really good beat at the start, it's not too fast and it's not too fast. It also has a "quirky" aspect to it, and The Ting Tings are well known for their indie pop and new wave music.



- "Fashion" by Lady Gaga [DREAM SEQUENCE]

This song is highly appropriate, as the dream sequence is set in Oxford Street, where the protagonist, (now decided to be named Jane), is around fashionable and well-known shops. However, the beginning doesn't match well with the opening of the dream sequence.



- "One Week of Danger" by The Virgins [DREAM SEQUENCE]

There are two versions of this song. One is their original studio version and the "UK Version" they created for their music video. In my personal opinion, I thought the UK version had a better beat and it would go well with the opening. However, the lyrics aren't very relative to the film but sometimes music doesn't have to be blatantly relative to the film.



- "Material Girl" by Madonna [DREAM SEQUENCE]

This song is popularly known as a "feel-good woman's song" and we thought it would be appropriate to aim for a song that is known by all ages. It is universally known for it's catchy lyrics, which of course, is very relative to our film opening.



- "Pencil Full of Lead" by Paolo Nutini [MORNING ROUTINE]

I think that this song would be great for a rushed morning routine due to it's quirky music (involving the saxophone and trumpets) and fast-paced lyrics to portray "confusion" and a rushed atmosphere.



- "The Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine [MORNING ROUTINE]

This song starts off slow and then gets faster. We thought this would be appropriate as the chorus can kick in when Jane realises she's late for work and the clips are put into "fast-forward mode" to portray how late she really is.

Editing

It has been a month into editing our film, and so far it has been going well. The clips we gathered seemed to work and fit together perfectly, allowing us to represent the plot of our film.

However, we did stumble across a few problems along the way. These include:

- Spending time on trying to find a way to preview the effects that would be applied to the clips.
- Split-screen ending was time-consuming.
- The positioning of sound was difficult to achieve, as layers clashed.
- Changing the audio levels.

We managed to overcome these problems eventually, and our film still flows well as originally planned.

The last few stages are still left:

- Last fiddling about with the sound effects/music
- Changing the audio levels
- Adding a "dream-like" effect to the dream sequence