Target Audience, USP, Settings and Locations

The target audience for our film is Females aged between 13-18. This is because girls usually enjoy watching teen angst more as they can relate to the situations and also get enjoyment out of how the characters in the film react to and deal with the problems the encounter. We thought the age was appropriate because they are the people who are experiencing the problems and situations within the film but in their own life. Many of the features within the film that will attract teenage girls are; Admiring boys, arguments, and that it is seen from a girls perspective with lots of features of a typical girls life.

Our unique selling point is that we are low budget, independent, British production company and so this is reflected in the film by the British social realism, whereas films like Clueless, High School musical and Mean Girls are all set in America on a high budget so can everything look more expensive and the school look setting and props look realistic due to the high budget. The British social realism means that the British Audience can relate to the film more as the situations will be accurate to their life. Also the different social groups in the film will be accurate to what they have experienced more than an American based film.

The main settings in our film will be in school, at the main characters house and in the school car park. Later on in the film a party scene is also included but this will not be included in the opening although we may include party invites to help foreshadow later events. We chose the school setting since the story line is about a new girl joining her new school and the audience are very familiar with this setting. We will film this at our school which includes locations such as lockers which connotes school settings. Also the front of the school which will show it is in a school.

Title Sequence Idea

This is the idea we presented to the others in our class. We used the idea of getting ready for the characters first day at school and meeting the other main characters as this instantly tells the audience what the story will be about. Easy A is one film that instantly gets into the school setting while the title sequence continues and you also see some of the characters. 

Character Ideas

We plan on having 4 main social groups within the film. These are the popular girl group, the popular sporty boy group, the less popular girls and the clever, nerdy group. These groups are stereotypical of the teen agnst genre as the audience will usually fall into one of these groups and so can relate to them. This will enable them to enjoy and understand the film more.
Our main character, Maddison, will fall into the less popular, but nicer girl group. However she tries to fit in with the popular girls during the film as she thinks this will help her get closer to the popular boy. The less popular girl group are a nicer group who care about their education and work hard as well as having fun and enjoying themselves.
In comparison the popular group don't care about their grades and only care about how others perceive them. They want to be the centre of attention, are usually self centred and always expect people to look up at them. However in films that we have studied such as mean girls, the popular group of girls think everyone admires them but they are actually despised by everyone. This is usually evident in a film as the popular group often aren't as popular by the end due to an event that has happened. Our character in this role is called Amber and she is seeing Dylan. She feels like she is untouchable and that she is the most popular girl in the school. When the new girl (Maddison) joins the school she instantly makes sure she knows who she is by picking on her. Also The popular girls are stereotypically good looking.

The popular boy group are stereotypically sporty, popular and attractive. This group is important as the target audience are girls so they will enjoy the film if there is an attractive character. Sometimes a well-known, attractive character can persuade people to watch a film. Within the film the main character in this popular boy group is called Dylan. He is the cause for conflict between Maddison and Amber since they both like him. Again, girls can relate to this as they have experienced this in their life.

This is the slide from the presentation we did to the class with our initials ideas

Research into Teen Angst films

Most teen angst films are school related as this is the place that teenagers form relationships with their peers, whether it is hatred, love or friendship. They also spend lots of time there and the majority of their teenage years are focused on school. The films are usually set in high schools as this the age group of the target audience (12- 18). This is because the target audience can relate to this location and the feelings for the above reasons. Some examples that I have seen this in are:



The main characters in teen agnst film are girls. This is because they are stereotypically the gender that faces more problems emotionally and mentally that the target audience of girls can relate to. However there is usually a love interest that is a boy. He is stereotypically good looking and girls can relate to this aswell. There are usually two main social groups of girls. There are the 'good looking, popular, bitchy girls' such as the three girls in the mean girls picture above and the 'innocent, less popular, nerdy girls' such as in the easy a picture.


In studying other films in the teen angst genre there were a few title conventions I noticed. These include pink/stereotypically girly colours, different sized letters and the majority of them were in sans serif font. The pink colours are stereotypical of the young female gender and so would connote that this is the main target audience for the film or the film is a teen angst. The different sized letters included in the titles could connote uncertainty and confusion which is how the characters could be feeling about the situations in the film. The sans serif font connotes that the film is relaxed and not a serious film. It indicates that the genre is friendly and relatable. Back grounds are also stereotypically pink for these same reasons.

Basic Narrative Idea!

•       Madison is new student at sixth form who becomes friendly with a group nice, average girls who care about their school grades.

•       The popular good looking male is involved with the main girl in the popular girl group and they are seeing each other. However he slowly starts to become interested in the new girl. 

•       Madison leaves her group of friends to join the popular, mean girl group to become closer to Dylan and changes to be popular, two faced, self absorbed and treats everyone who isn't popular like they are less important.

•       Madison is invited to the popular girl's house party where she finds herself with Dylan and they kiss.

•       The popular girls catch them and are unhappy and so turn everyone against Madison.

•       Dylan starts to ignore her and act like it was a mistake when they kissed in order to stay with the mean girl. He remains popular as he is scared of being hated.

•       Madison becomes hated and isolated and so returns to her old group of friends realising they're her true friends.

•       Dylan finally leaves the mean popular group to be with Madison as he feels this will make him happier and she forgives him.

•       In the end the popular girls are seen by the rest of the school for what they really are, horrible and self-centred. Madison and Dylan are happy together.

Initial Ideas

These are some of the notes that we made during lessons while brain storming ideas, including the narrative, character ideas, title sequence and ideas for company logos. These were the first ideas we had thought of and so we hope to expand on these and implement better ideas as well as thinking further into the process and coming up with titles, shots and and a script.

Production Company logo ideas

These are two ideas that we have had for our production company logo. The first connotes progression but also that the film we produce are not boring as the film strip is not just in a straight line but goes up and down. The film strip has stars on it which connotes that we produce good quality films. The effect of the film strip is that it shows we are a low budget production company as it is old equipment as opposed to modern cameras and filming techniques. The fact it is called 'Star Productions connotes good quality and excellence. The yellow font connotes happiness and contrasts against the black of the film strip.
The other idea mainly reflects the British Social realism of our film, this is done by having many recognisable land marks from London as the main image. The fact that it is all in black and white reflects the simplicity of the company and also that is a low budget film. Again the font reflects the simplicity of the company and how low budget it is. 

We are going to look to try to combine the two logo ideas we have to have it reflect the British Social Realism but also the quality of our of films. This will be done by trying to combine the stars with the Second logo. However this may not work and we could end up coming up with a new idea completely or just keeping one of these two original ideas.

Teen Angst Mood-board

 

This is a moodboard for the teen angst genre of film. It includes films such as High School Musical, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Mean Girls, Hairspray and Juno. These images are stereotypical of the teen angst genre, as the films are usually based around teenage girls who have a love interest and are faced with a situation or problem that they eventually overcome. The films try to portray the stereotypical life's of teenagers of that time. Billy Elliot and Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a counter type of the teen angst genre as far as the main character is a male.

Production Company logo research

The words '20th century fox television' is in capital letters and is also in the form of a statue. There are also spotlights which help show it is very important along with the above mentioned. Also the height of the monument implies that they are considered one of the big five when it comes to production companies. The statue is a golden colour which has the connotative effect of suggesting they are the best. Examples of their films include; Ice Age, Dodge-ball, Garfield, The day after tomorrow and The Simpsons movie.

The boy is on the moon fishing, above the clouds. This connotes that he could be dreaming and that he is in a special place which suggests that the films they produce could be very special and like fairy-tales. Also the fact he is on the moon could connote that the films are 'out of this world'. The text is all in capitals and in a sans serif font. This connotes they are a serious company. Examples of movies include; Shrek, Madagascar, Kung-fu panda and Over the hedge.

The logo is very plain as it only has the word 'Film' on a red background. However the white lines resemble the shape of a '4'. As the word 'Film' is the main focus of the logo it tells the audience that they do focus on films and not television. Some big films they have produced or co-produced are; 12 Years a slave, 127 hours, Slum-dog Millionaire and This is England.

The 'Warp Films' logo denotes the shape of the world. This connotes that warp films are or aim to be globally recognised. Also the name of the company is going through the middle of the 'world' which connotes that the aim to be a part of everyone's life. The colour is black and white which connotes that the company are basic or simple. The text is at a slight angle suggesting progress and that they are successful. Some films they have produced or co-produced are; This is England, Submarine and Donkey Punch.

The name 'Take Two' connotes that they aren't perfect and it might take a while or 'two' to get it right. Also there are two t's that stand for the initials of the companies name and these are made out of film reels which automatically connotes they are a film production company. The whole logo is on a positive slant going upwards. This connotes progress and that they are moving forwards successfully and positively

Easy A title sequence analysis

0:09 - "Screen Gems, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company." - Is in the middle of the screen, sans serif font, blue text, only text on screen.

0:15 - "Screen Gems Presents" - Only text on screen so it is important, middle-left of the screen, all in capitals and so is important, "Screen Gems" is bigger, blue font.

0:24 - "An Olive Bridge Entertainment Production" - sans serif font, white colour which contrasts with the background and is different to the previous titles, top of the screen, not much else to look at on the screen so audience will pay attention to it.

0:30 - "A Will Guck Film" - Name is bigger than the other text, sans serif font, white font which shows this and the title before are both different to the first two titles.

0:35 - "Easy A" - Main title, mixed serif and sans serif font, white and red font, the 'A' is serif font which looks more like a girls handwriting relating to the characters, shoes in tree on the screen showing mischief/rebellious characters/plot, hear the bell from a school connoting a school setting, previous shot was of "Ojai North High School" setting the scene.

0:45-1:41 - Cast names - Tracking shot/establishing shot/point of view shot around the front of the shot showing the names which are integrated within the scene which shows they are probably the actors names, and spread throughout the shot, all in white, sans serif font and all same size showing they are all relevant to each other, voice-over at the same time beginning to set the story up,

1:44 - "And Emma Stone" - White font, sans serif font, title is on same level as character displayed in the shot which shows it is probably her, both on floor showing she is perceived as less important by other characters and not socially important, although she is the main character as it is her doing the voice-over and is the last cast title.

2:20 - "Casting By Lisa Miller Katz csa" - lower on the screen shows less importance than the first few titles, sans serif font, 
2:31 - "Costume Designer Mynka Draper" - white text, sans serif font, to the side of the screen as less importance than what is happening on the screen which is a conversation.
2:45 - "Music Supervisor Wende Crowley" - white text, sans serif font,to the side of the screen as less important than the content on the screen.
2:50 - "Edited By Susan Littenburg" - White text, sans serif font, bottom of the screen so it is still easily seen but does not distract the attention away from the story.
2:57 - "Production Designer Marcia Hinds" - White text, sans serif font, bottom of screen, same shot as before as it is a shot reverse shot.
3:10 - "Director of Photography Michael Grady"- White text, sans serif font, bottom of screen so less important and out of the way of the story, at an angle to keep audiences attention still on titles as well as the story.
3:36 - "Produced by Zanne Devine, Will Gluck" White text, sans serif font, placed on a sign in the background, keeps the title sequence interesting and allows audience to pay attention to the conversation on the screen.
3:51 - "Written By Bert V. Royal" - White text, sans serif font, placed more in the middle of the screen as it is seen as an important role.