Research - Teen Film - Blogging Task 20

Not Another Teen Movie

Plot: Story takes place at John Hughes High School, where a bet is made with Austin who seems to be a blonde guy who is full of himself that the jock, known as Jake Wyler, can change an ugly girl Janey Briggs into a beautiful girl to be prom queen before prom. However, two obstacles stand in Jake’s way to prevent this from happening one of which happens to be his devilish sister, Catherine who has a reputation for being the meanest girl in the school and Priscilla, the so called annoying cheerleader who was also Jake Wyler’s ex-girlfriend.

Aside from the main the characters there are other characterization that the film contains such as Areola, the naked foreign exchange student, Les the beautiful weirdo, Malik, the black guy, desperate virgins, Amanda Becker who is considered the perfect girl, Ricky, Jeney Briggs’ obsessive best friend and last but not least Sadie the OLD undercover reporter.

Cast

Chyler Leigh – Jeney Briggs

Chris Evans – Jake Wyler

Jaime Pressly – Priscilla

Eric Christian Olsen – Austin

Mia Kirshner – Catherine Wyler

Deon Richmond – Malik

Eric Jungmann – Ricky Lipman

Ron Lester – Reffie Ray

Cody McMains – Mitch Briggs

Sam Huntington – Ox

JoAnna Garcia Swisher – Sandy Sue (as Joanna Garcia)

Lacy Chabert – Amanda Becker

Samm Levine – Bruce

Cerina Vincent – Areola

Beverly Polcyn – Sadie Agatha Johnson

 

Country: USA

Release Date: 14 December 2001 (USA)

Filming Locations: Rae’s Restaurant, 2901 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, Clifornia, USA

Box Office:

Budget:  $16, 000,000

Opening Weekend: $120, 447 (Netherlands) (7 June 2002)

Gross: £1, 696, 327 (UK) (14 June 2002)

 

Genre: Teen Movie, Comedy,

Themes: love, lust, bullying, teens, humor

Target Audience: the audience that this teen movie is aimed towards is slightly older people such as those in their late teens around 19/20 as there is much which goes on throughout the film such as common high school problems. In addition the film contains slightly mature content which may not be suitable for younger audiences.

Stereotypes:

Jake Wyler ‘jock’ this is someone who is all about sports and is a person

Janey Briggs ‘ugly girl’ looks horrible and doesn’t look beautiful

Austin ‘Cocky blond’ guy makes Jake take the bet

Catherine ‘evil’ sister and meanest girl in school

Priscilla ‘annoying’ cheerleader

Areola ‘foreign’ exchange student

Les ‘beautiful’ weirdo

Malik ‘token’ black guy

Desperate virgins

Amanda Becker ‘perfect’ girl

Ricky ‘obsessive’ best friend

Sadie ‘old’ reporter lady 

 

 

Research - Title Sequence - Youth Drama - Bloggig Task 15

Title Sequence: Fish Tank

 

Genre: Teen Drama

 

Sub-genre: Youth Drama

Camera: close ups are mainly of Mia who is the main character, it also shows when she is pacing back and forth which shows hesitation and indecisiveness. Medium close up is used when she is in the room showing her being trapped reinforcing the idea she is a small fish in an empty tank. Another close up is used when she looks frustrated and argues with the chavs.

Editing: Jump cut is used when she makes the change from in a small room to her walking outside, and the use of this jump cut shows her frustration as something that happens in an instant. A series of match cuts are used when she throws stones on her friends window to get her attention.

Sound: You can hear very heavy breathing at the beginning which comes from the main character as she is the one in a room which only emphasises the fact that she is in a small room by herself. The dialogue that is used is quite explicit as she uses it which shows how angry and frustrated that she is.

Mise-en-scene: Props which are used is her phone which she uses to call her friend, which you can hear the voicemail which makes her quite angry. Another prop is quite significant is stones which she uses, which shows how angry she is using something as a stone to get someone’s attention.

Research - Sub-genre Conventions - Blogging Task 13 & 14

1.       Semantic: the way the film looks – MICRO

2.       Syntactic: the stories the films tell - MACRO

MACRO conventions

-          Who produces it, director, producer

-          Who is the audience?, who is it aimed at?, what themes may attract people?

-          Cast, what is the plot? Characters (what characterization is evident in the film?)

-          In what way will the story be told, what perspective? Flashbacks? Beginning?

Title Sequence: Breakfast Club

Genre: Teen Drama

Sub-genre: High School Drama

Plot:

-          High school detention, Saturday

-          Five students who are nothing like each other, opposites, contrasts  

-          All typical high school stereotypes, in every type of school

-          Question to audience (Why they are at detention on SATURDAY?) (What could they have done?) (What happened?)

-          Starts at what people would expect at the end, ambiguous

Storyline in order:

-          Differing personalities/traits/ideas brings forth strife

-          Stories of how they ended up in detention is told and written on paper about themselves  

-          Students VS Teacher, constant conflict due to teacher being very arrogant, treating them as lesser beings

-          Nothing good will happen with each other, much too different yet that difference leads them to become friends rather than enemies. Plot twist  

Characters introduced as:

-          Brain – nothing more than a person who only possesses intellect and nothing more

-          Princess – cares about herself

-          Athlete –cares about sports, nothing else

-          Criminal –only steals, nothing more than a thief, steals moment she walk in the room 

-          Basket case –mad, uncontrollable

All the characters are presented in a fairly negative way, as they are stripped of all they humanity by replacing names with mere words showcasing their personalities, dehumanizes them to a significant extent.

Camera – Wide shots are used shows all the students as the a whole, which may show how similar they are despite differing personalities. Close ups are used to show each of the characters as individuals which also shows the expressions on their faces. Longshots were used on basket case when he throws his tantrums which show the depth of his rage showing how far he will go such as when he climbs up the staircase and close up are used when he pretends are shows his fight/argument with his dad. Close up and low angle shot is used on the teacher to present him being superior and how angry/scary he can be.

Editing – Jump cuts and match cuts are used throughout, especially when they are arguing with each other so the camera follows their arguments as they are full of intensity.

Sound – Guitar, band, and funk music is used to set the casual mood for Saturday detention. A bass pad is used when basket case is crawling through the vents which matches him as it is very deep and repetitive like a heartbeat which may give of the feeling  of danger and mischief. The dialogue that is used throughout is a mixture of explicit specially for basket case as he is a crazy mad person, a jerk who throws tantrums. The other dialogue used for the other characters is calm and controlled but some people voice sounds worried for example Brain.

Mise-en-scene – Paper is one of the props that is used given out by the teacher, when he asks them to write a 1000 word essay about themselves. Another prop/s is their lunches as it brings up quite a bit of discussion. School lights are used to show each of the students clearly, highlighting the fact they are in school on a Saturday. The body language they use is quite different from one another as they have different personalities. Princess is calm and composed and acts normal, which is the same for athlete. Princess wears a nice dress and nice leather jacket which only emphasises her personality. Whereas athlete wears a vacity jacket showing his love of sports however his body language changes specially when he stands up against basket case. Brain’s body language is very timid showing he doesn’t want to get in trouble and want to get pulled into their arguments and stays out of it. C       riminal is very restricted by sitting very closed in showing her desire of not opening up to everyone else. Basket case is very dynamic specially when he throws his tantrums and starts arguing with everyone else.  

Research - Analysing Similarites and Differences for High School Drama & Youth Drama Titles

Titles Similarities and Differences

High School Drama

Film companies

Distribution companies

Producers

Title

Main Actor

Actors

Co-starring by

Music by

Casting by

Costume designer

Edited by

Production designer

Executive producer

Produced by

Written/directed by

 

Youth Drama

Film companies

Distribution companies

Main Actor

Actors

Executive Producer

Producer

Writer/director

Title

There are various similarities and differences when it comes to high school dramas and youth drama films one of which happens to be that both types of films start and end with film/distribution companies at the beginning and producer and director at the end. However the difference is that for high school drama there is more people involved a much larger crew/cast whereas youth dramas do not. This is due to the majority of high school drama being produced by American film companies hence the reason more people are involved as they will have a much larger budget and more access to stars, actors and equipment. British film companies can only make a few high school dramas as many people would be required to make it a success. While the majority of high school dramas are American produced, the majority of youth dramas are British produced hence the reason there are so few titles as they don’t have access like others do and not to mention a big cast and crew may not be required for what they are creating.

Another similarity that will remain the same is that the main actor and the other actors would always come after the film companies and distribution companies as they are people that are in the film therefore they must be introduced at the beginning. However, a difference that will always remain is the title as it varies from film to film because it is from the directors perspective since they may choose to have it in the middle or at the end or anywhere else as they want it at a specific point to create an effect.

Research - What are sub-genres of Teen Drama films?

Sub-genres of teen drama films

There are two different types of subgenres that teen drama films can be split into which is youth drama and high school drama which are fairly similar but there are subtle differences. There two categories uses codes and conventions which are same that has been used in past teen drama films however it is used in a different way which led to subgenres.

Youth drams focus mainly only the social dilemmas of the youth or young people which is mostly the main character being a male as there is more drama surrounding the main character even more so if it's a male however in the case of high school drama, the main character tends to be a girl but it can be either girl or boy. This difference may be a result of the fact in youth dramas a much harder story is told than compared to high school drama story.

High school dramas have been around a lot longer but have been fairly popular in the past in particular the 1970s, 80s and 90s with quite a number of variations however youth drama is fairly newer compared to high school dramas which are quite the rage with teen audiences as its very authentic and is a representation of youth unlike what high school dramas may show. In addition, it relates to teen audiences as it may be the struggles they typically go through.

Youth dramas may try to portray characters as rebellious or them being in conflict with one another similarly high school dramas focus on changes in characterization or conflict with different groups of people in school rather than focusing on one individual solely for conflict like youth dramas.

High school drama love to celebrate the idea of being young and one’s youth whereas in youth drama they show difficulties or problems that can be encountered while people are in their youth which shows that in youth drama it has a tendency to be biased by showing the negatives associated with youth. But in high school drama they show all sides to youth not just one.

Youth dramas have a tendency to focus on a youth’s personal experiences, which can often be daunting however in high school drama looks towards socialization of teens/young adults by institutions, schools or at home. High school dramas focuses mainly on one’s surroundings rather than one’s experiences like youth dramas do.

 

Research - Target Audience

Target Audience

 

Target audience refers to who a digital product may be aimed at and who they are tying to get to watch it in terms of age, gender or a specific social group.

 

It is useful to have a target audience as it can help a person create a film since it can give a producer an idea of what themes to include in a film as they can find out what themes that their target audience likes and reacts to. All of this can help them shape their film by knowing which gender or type of person it is for and if it is appropriate for the age they are targeting it towards.

 

According to surveys that have been conducted for teen dramas, the age group that mostly watches teen dramas tend to be around the age 10 or 20 yrs old which is quite surprising since I never expected some people would say people as young as 10 watching it however there are many who don’t follow the trend. Another common answer that was said is that females prefer teen movies over boys which may have to do with all drama and tensions evident in teen dramas.

One answer which was expected is that more people prefer American produced films over British ones as American ones include much work as they have quite a lot to play around with since they always tend to have a large budget unlike British film companies.

Three types of characters people enjoy seeing in teen dramas are princesses who shop and think about themselves, jocks who are arrogant and all about their strength and sports and last but not least nerds who dress very weirdly and focus on studies.

The type of setting people would often want to see is at school as that is where most teen dramas take place essentially  and where most of the drama in the film is evident however a small minority said that they would like to see the setting in the streets which may slightly lean away from teen movies and into either youth drama or high school drama.

The type of teen drama films people love watching are, Mean Girls, Teen Spirit, as the antagonist is very mean and makes the films more dramatic.

Other genres that people enjoy watching is either horror or comedy based as some enjoy a thriller while others enjoy being entertained through a lot of funny antics.

Research - Who makes title sequences?

Who makes title sequences?

 

There are various people that can make title sequences, which can be very elaborately made in order to create some sort of impact, which may be caused, by various effects and animations.  

One person who specializes in the creation of title sequences is Aaron Becker who is the designer & director for title sequences including the fact he is the founder Filmograph that was known as Becker Design.

There are many ways one person can gain ideas about title sequences, one of which is through education as when going through education it may teach you various aspects of your passion or related to it. Aaron Becker received a BFA in Visual Communication from Washington University in St. Louis which is mostly focused on how the media can be manipulated. However, above all else one would require experience which led to him working with Prologue Films in Los Angeles and Digital Kitchen in Chicago, which let him experience something different from what he was taught which then led to him founding Becker Design in 2010 which had changed into Filmogrpah in 2012. Through his journey he has gained much knowledge and experience which has helped him in terms of getting ideas to create title sequences for films such as Deception, Insidious, The Purge, and The Conjuring not to mention television titles for Bad Robot’s Alcatraz and HBO’s Clear History. Every person who makes title sequences makes it in their own special way as it is always from their point of view one example of Aaron’s way of making title sequences is his main-on-end title sequence, which was very iconic in the film Sinister which gained him a lot of publicity receiving Title Design Finalist at 2013 SXSW.