whole film analysis - p.s i love you

today i have finally completed the last of my whole film analyse's, and foudn the same codes and conventions apply with this film as with all the others.

whole film analysis - the sweetest thing

I have also just completed another whole film analysis of 'The Sweetest Thing'. It was easy to do as it also had a linear narrative structure and had certain character types very similar to the other romantic comedy i analysed.

I have noticed so far that they all contain similar things, such as the same non diegetic sound to set the scene everytime the genre is presented, such as a romance scene

From looking at the films also i have also picked upon the fact that it is always the woman that is stranded with the character type as a princess, the one who needs help or is left on her own.

I am going to look at one more full film now, which is p.s i love you or Juno.

First whole film opening - the holiday

today i did my first film opening which was 'The Holiday' everything about this film i love. I have found out what the generic codes are, the narrative structure and much more which was really helpful for me to find out, as im doing a romantic comedy myself.

I enjoy finding out the different character types and finding out which ones are really needed in this type of genre, such as a hero, villain and princess. These three are always brought up throughout. From this film i have found out that there are certain types of narrative structure in this particular film it was linear as the story followed a basic straight forward storyline including no flashbacks etc.

Looking over 5 film openings

From looking over the 5 film openings i have decided on what type of character i want in my opening. I want a really dominant female overruling all the men and getting her own way with everything. Not a typical dumb, pretty blonde. The setting has to be beautiful and the woman has to be well known, i will share my ideas with the rest of the group and also see what they think and combine our ideas however i think this would work good and appeal to my target audience of young teenage females.

The men however have to stay good looking!!!

10 things i hate about you!

The last and final film opening is 10 things i hate about you, i liked what it contained in the first bit of the opening however it isn't very engaging as it looks quite plain and boring like nothing is going on, and it doesn't give any clues or an insight into what might happen next.

I wrote about how the audience are drawn in but i found this hard because i couldn't find a specific thing that could draw them in except for the idyllic setting it is based in. This film needs mroe bright colours and more events happening for it to be gripping.

One major thing i liked with this opening however, is we have another strong female!!
exactly like the one from 'the holiday' i am really liking the idea of having a really strong female in my opening and the male being seen as weak, as i know this will appeal to my target audience as i have aimed them at females of my age group and if i enjoyed females being the dominating character in a film then they should too!! :-)

50 first dates

the next analysis of film openings i did was 50 first dates, and really didn't like the way it portrayed the genre of romantic comedy. it has all different women being made to look really dumb and the man amde to look clever. I dont believe a film like this would appeal to my range of audience, i prefer 'The Holiday' so far as it portrays women the way i think they should be portrayed.

My analysis was hard to do as i really didn't understand women had to be put across so negatively, however i have gathered more ideas from watching this and now i know what type of things i need to put in it and things i need to avoid. I have noticed from doing these first 4 analyses that they are all set int he modern day with young people, sometimes students or people in late teens early 20's, these are ideal films to look at for the target audience i have chosen.

The holiday continued

i have now finished my analysis of this film and so far it is defiately my favourite! it contans all the stock codes and conventions i would love to have in mine! the woman is really feisty with high status and the man has low staus! its great!

I like the way she is so patronising to him as well, asking quesitons about why he cheated on her, this is really good as all women ask millions of questions in real life about these types of things, so i think it is a really good film for young women and teenagers to relate to, the domestics that they wish they could face up to

really liked this opening

The Holiday!

I have just watched and analysed 'The Holiday' opening. I really like this film as it makes me feel happy at the end and the way Cameron Diaz plays such a strong character by booting the man out of her house! which is rarley seen in a rom com, i love the fact it is differetn and the men are made to look weak and the women really strong characters.

From analysing i have also noticed that it also doesn't have any non dietetic sounds in it, al the music is parellel to what is going on in the scene.

I really like this film opening and would love to do my own film like this! think it really states what a romantic comedy should be about, women being strong, and because our target audience is young females i see this feature as being important to put in ours :)

Hitch

I have started analysing hitch in lesson today. It was really hard to analyse as it was really confusing, although it contains the same elements that the sweetest thing did, such as, a voice over of the main character being the narrator and hearing this gives you an insight into who he is. It also has non dietetic music over it setting the asmostphere.

I like the way this film is set out at the beginning looking at the differetn selwection of woman as we as audience know that women are the focus of his real job and that adds humour.

The sweetest thing opening

I have just watched 'The Sweetest Thing' opening. i havent really gathered any ideas from it yet but there is non dietetic music in the background which i think will be good to use as it sets the atmosphere. the analysis was alright, maybe could of been more detailed but i couldn't really gather much from the this opening, hope the nest one will be better. Although i really liked the fact that i could relate with the main character.

Doing some research!!!!

Over the past couple of days i have been researching my 5 film openings for my analysis. It was a hard choice as i really couldn't narrow down my favourite films to 5!!!!
But finally i did, with my choices being Hitch, The Holiday, 10 things i hate about you, The Sweetest Thing and 50 First Dates. All these films are my all time favourites! I love romantic comedies and therefore this will help me loads on my actual filming as i have ideas with what i want in it.

From watching all of their openings it has given me so many ideas i can't wait to start the filming! I have noticed that the opening mainly consists of comedy not romance.

I have a vague idea of a little thing i would like in my opening, a voice over. I think it is really effective when a non dietegic sound such as the main person in the film being the narrator at the begginning really sets the scene for the audience, I haven't shared this idea with the rest of the group yet, not until the actual decidision on what we are doing.

I am now going to complete my 5 film analysis openings.

Power point

Today i did my power point, which consisted of who is my target audience,, what ideas have i obtained to create a successful product and what are your audience expectations and finally putting an audience profile onto it. 

I feel i benefited from this as it really narrowed down what i am going to do for my film and what i need to do to succeed with this. My favourite area for this is the audience profile, and imagining the type of person i want to watch my film which was:

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Favourite Genre: Romantic Comedy

Favourite type of film: British

Hobbies: Going out with friends

Favourite film: Bridget Jones

Favourite actress: Kate winslet

and this gave me lots of ideas in my head for a film as i am a female aged 17 i know exactly what i would want to see in a romcom, and therefore because my target audience is the same age and gender as me i know exactly what they would expect. Im glad i completed this PP and now i now where Im heading from here clearly in my head and i am feeling positive about the filming and the stock characters i need in it. 

Analysis

Yesterday we started our analysis which was successful, as we have concluded what film genre we want to choose and who our target audience will be. Gathered all our results together was successful as we had such a number of different things to work from, and had found out a lot of really goo information about people such as, "What role do you think males usually play?" and answers from this were really helpful for us.

We then came to the conclusion that we are going to do a romantic comedy aiming at girls aged between 15-19. which Im really pleased about as i can relate to everything that goes on with events in my own life. 

Questionnaire editing

When doing my draft questionnaire last week i started putting questions in which i found irrelevant such as, "Who would be your ideal character?", this wouldn't narrow my results down enough and therefore i got rid of this question and put in more relevant questions and actually thinking about what i really need for good results and what things i need to find out about what people like about films etc. 

I then handed out my questionnaire to people by handing 20 of them out to different people with a range of ages, some people being my family and others at college. I then gathered that questions such as, "what is your favourite genre?" 

horror

comedy

romantic comedy

thriller

westerns

musicals

were better ways of asking questions as they gave me most information as they wasn't open to discuss and they didn't have to discuss about it, there was just a straight answer. Another thing that happened when our group brought our questionnaires together was that we all found out we had similar questions and that if we went back we could of gathered totally different questions and therefore found out more information, not the same.

Questionnaire editing

Using the Blog

Hi Carlie

Firstly, well done for getting this baby up and running. Secondly, make sure you are using this to reflect on what you have done rather than simply posting lost of your research. It is essential during this unit that you reflec ton everything you do and consider why you are completing tasks and how they inform your practical work.

I am looking forward to being able to watch your wonderful work from afar.

questionaire

How old are you?
12-
12-15
15-18
18+

What are your interests?

What are your hobbies?

If you could make your own production or film which genre would you choose?

Romance

Horror

Thriller

Comedy

Romantic comedy

Westerns

Musicals


Is this your preferred genre of film? Why?


What is your past knowledge of this genre?


Which films present this?
What is your idea of a successful film? Does this film engage you all the way through?


What do expect to see at the opening of your preferred genre?


Do you prefer British or American films?

What gender do you think dominates a film?

What roles to you notice males usually play?

What roles do you notice women usually play?