Final Film - Madison

This is the final film opening that we created.

Progression of the title

This was the original idea we had for the title of our film. We called it "The Kiss" as we thought it would connote the ideas about love that come up during the film and it tells the audience that love will have a strong influence throughout the film. 

These were the next two ideas we had for the title, we used the name of the main character as a simple title as it has the effect of staying in the memory of the audience as it is short and memorable. We also changed the colour of the title as we thought the white didn't connote anything suitable for the title. The purple colour connotes that it is targeted at girls since it is stereotyped to be a girly colour. It also connotes love and beauty and since these two things are very important in a girl's life and throughout our film, we thought it would be more successful. The colour is similar to that of Mean Girls. The font and colour is very similar to 27 Dresses which we thought worked well.

We decided the title also needed a symbol with it as this would help with synergy. We originally used the 'XO' as we thought it made the whole title look like a signature and so adds personal value to the movie. In the end, we decided to use a lipstick print as this is more relevant to our target audience. This is because girls in their teenage years, our target audience, use make up regularly because they care about their appearance. So by using the make lipstick symbol it not only connotes love, which foreshadows what will happen in the film, but also that girls care about how they look.  Mean Girls contains a title sequence where this symbol is used frequently so we took inspiration from this.

Feedback from initial ideas

Once we had filmed the footage and started to edit it, we had a chance to show the rest of the class and receive feedback in order to see what could be done to improve and expand on ideas we had. The following are what we received as feedback and we took these into account when making the final film opening.  

• Change the title name
• change title font and title image
• Add in the voiceover
• edit our voiceover by shortening it and include Madison's thoughts of joining a new school
• move/play around with different titles and transitions
• improve the music change so there is a less obvious fading in and out

Music

The music we called was a track called "Getting Acquainted". It is an upbeat track and is catchy which will put the audience into a good mood and so they will enjoy the movie more. Also our audience will enjoy this as they are into chart music and music can be a big part of their life.

Title and Connotations

This is the title for our film opening. We called it 'Madison'  because this is what the main character in the film is called and so it tells the audience that she will be very important in the film from the start. We made it so it was in a font similar to a girl's handwriting and in a purple colour. We did this because the handwriting font, connotes the genre of a teen angst and also engages the target audience as it tells them that it will be a film they will enjoy. The colour of the title connotes that the target audience is females between the ages of 13 and 18 as at this age they still enjoy this colour and it is stereotypically a colour that girls use. We added the effect of the pixie dust and turned it pink as we thought this would appeal to the audience as it connotes fairy tales, fantasy and excitement. Again this appeals more to girls than boys so attracts our target audience.

Fonts and titles/captions

The other titles that we used during the film opening were both pink and white. We used these two colours because of the things they connote. Pink connotes, love, beauty, kindness and compassion and so is a suitable colour to use as during our film, love has a strong influence on the story. All of the above connotations as stereotyped with females and so this targets and engages our target audience. The other parts of the titles were in white as this connotes, innocence, purity and goodness. This means white connotes positivity. Our target audience are young females and so are stereotypically innocent.
The fonts we used were similar to the main title as they looked like fancy handwriting. This is used because it looks like typical girly writing so they can relate to this. The font is a serif type of font so it is informal and more of a fun, laid back film.
The transitions of the titles varied throughout the film as this is fun way to introduce titles that can be boring and repetitive. Some of the transitions are, a swipe in and out from the sides, a swipe/fade from above, a reveal one letter at a time and a curtain effect. This keep our audience entertained and so they are more likely to enjoy and watch the film.

Risk Assessment

Type of Risk	Severity	How is it being addressed?
Falling/Tripping over	Moderate	When filming, walk and don’t run. Be careful.
Ice/ Slippery surface	Moderate	Don’t run; avoid filming outside in icy weather.
Trapping fingers in tripod	Mild	Handle the tripod correctly
Cars when filming in car park	High Moderate	Stay on the path when filming and walking
Football causing damage	Mild	Being sensible with football
Falling downstairs	Moderate	Walk and be careful when using stairs
Crashing the car when filming in the car	Severe	Drive only short distances and stick to speed limits. Don’t distract driver while filming