Production Schedule

We decided to film our opening during the week around after school time due to the fact that we needed the correct lighting to create verisimilitude, as the part where Emma is walking to the train station, and the scene in the station itself are set around the time when school finishes (3.00pm - 4.00pm.) We arranged the dates around our lead actress as she attends a different school to us, so we had to work around the times she was available for, meaning Wednesday and Monday after school.

Storyboard

Our storyboard is useful in the planning stage of our coursework as it allows us to visualise our opening and establish the right shots for the right moments in the sequence. We will use this as a guide when it comes to filming our opening. There may be changes in the production stage but we will use this as a base for our filming.

Preliminary Task

I was absent for the lesson we had for our preliminary task, but the rest of my group filled me in on the research and the process that went into producing it. We had to film a sequence of a character walking through a door and sitting down to engage in conversation with another character. We included a variety of shots and movement to add variety to the camera work, such as a close up shot on the handle of the door and a pan movement across the room. We aimed for the sequence to look as professional as possible. In the research before beginning the task, my group found a helpful video on YouTube to help with the process and explained the 180 degree rule well.
180 Degree Rule Video
After the sequence had been shot, we used iMovie to edit the clips together and polish the short piece so that it looked sharp and clear.

Scripting our opening

This is our final script for our opening:

Characters

CHARACTERS:

Protagonist: Emma Turner

Love Interest (Hero): Harry Ryder

Father: Steve Turner

Steve is Emma's step-father who turned to alcoholism after losing his wife (Emma's mother) and shuts Emma out because she reminds him too much of her mother.

Dispatcher: Tiff Lawson (and Harry)

Tiff is a girl at Emma's school who she shares a similar home situation with, they barely know each other until their counselor (Jo) gets them to talk to each other and discuss their problems at school and at home. Tiff is an average girl at school, who has a lot of friends and is never really alone, but she relates to Emma in a way that none of her friends understand. They eventually become friends, and Tiff (as well as Harry) convinces Emma to make a change in her life.

Helper: Jo

Jo is Emma's counselor at school, who she shares her home and school problems with confidentially. She is compassionate, helpful, kind and determined, giving good advice to Emma and Tiff.

Our Idea

A 17 year old outcast girl meets a mysterious boy at a train station, and as they become closer, he helps her to reconcile with her grieving stepfather.

FILM NARRATIVE:
Equilibrium: 
Emma is an outcast who has no friends and a lonely school and home situation. Her mother passed away so she lives with her step-father.
Disruption:
She goes to the train station after school one day, where she meets Harry. They talk for hours and miss the last train, so he walks her home. Before they get to the house she stops him and makes her own way from there, arousing suspicion from Harry. They do not see each other again for weeks, and have no way of communicating.
Recognition:
They finally see each other again and get to know each other better. Harry finds out that Emma's step-father is an alcoholic and shuts her out because Emma's counselor, Jo, checks up on her.
Attempt to Repair:
Harry is angry and convinces Emma to stand up to her step-father. He opens up to Emma, talking about being an orphan, and tells her that he does not have a family so she has to hold on to what she has left, and try to make things better herself. She confronts him but he breaks down, leading her to find out that he has just been grieving the loss of her mother all along, and has shut her out because she reminds him too much of her. They reconcile.
New Equilibrium:
Emma and her Steve now have a better relationship, and she introduces him to Harry, whom he approves of. The counselor begins monthly check-ups at the house as Emma says things improved, and Steve takes a shine to her. Steve gives up alcohol, with the help of Emma, Harry and Jo.

OPENING:
Creation of Enigma:
We are not told anything about Harry's character; his name or his past. Not much about Emma's past is revealed either, all we know is how she feels, but no facts about her, which allows the audience to connect with her thoughts and feelings as opposed to her lifestyle or facts about her.
Introduction to characters:
A voice-over introduces Emma, establishing a connection with the audience as she is lonely and outcast. She is the first character introduced, showing how she is the protagonist and automatically putting the audience on her side.
The introduction to Harry is from Emma's point of view, him being shown how she would see him. This would allow the audience to feel the same way about him as she does, in a sense that they are less likely to dislike his character.
Setting up plot:
Conventional girl meets boy narrative, implying that the two will get involved in a romantic relationship. They are both quite secretive characters at first, suggesting that details about them and their past will be revealed later on in the plot.
Pace and Rhythm:
The pace is quite steady as Emma is introduced, showing how her life is routine and boring. Pace speeds up as she makes her journey to the station and meets Harry, giving the impression that there is new excitement in her life and things are going to change.
Mood and Tone:
Non-diegetic music- acoustic/soft but tuneful music to introduce the characters and the plot. Music fades as Emma meets Harry, showing that her world stops for a moment, and that moment is important in the story.

Brainstorm of Ideas for Opening of a Teen Romance Drama

Before we decided on our idea, we composed mind-maps on our chosen genre and possible ideas for a film. I tried to think of conventional plot-lines and characters for our film. For example, I thought that the protagonist could be female, as in our research the majority of our target said they would prefer a female protagonist as it would be more relatable. For the protagonist to be easily identifiable with, I thought it would be a good idea to make her an outcast of some kind, whether it be that she does not belong, that she has some problems or that she just feels invisible; It would make her vulnerable and unsure of herself, which many teenagers can relate with. It also leaves room for character development where she can become stronger and happier. For the love interest, it would be best to make him mildly good-looking as, with a female majority among our target audience, it would be easier for them to connect with the protagonist if they also feel a small attraction to the love interest. We would make him a non-popular character, as arrogance and over-confidence often found in typical "jock" characters is not very attractive, so we could make our make lead funny, witty, intelligent and strong, but also impulsive, defensive and confrontational - which would make him protective and give him some qualities to show that he, too, is not perfect. This would give more depth to his character and make him seem more real, creating verisimilitude. As well as the lovers, it is conventional to have adult characters such as parents, guardians and teachers, as well as doctors, counselors and therapists.

My ideas for the plot had to be conventional, so I stuck to the typical 'girl meets boy' structure. One revolves around the love interest being new at the protagonist's school, him showing her how to come out of her shell and live her life. This would attract audiences, especially female, as they would like the idea of someone coming along and having a romantic impact on a character's life, at the same time as helping them be a better person. A lot of teen romance dramas follow the idea that the boy and girl are 'kindred spirits' or make each other better so I though it was best if the characters were similar in particular aspects of their lives, whether they are both outcasts or runaways, so that they have something big to connect them to enable an instant friendship and romantic interest.

Documentary - Teen Romance Drama

For our documentary, we allocated each person a role and a part of the documentary to do. Chlaryse spoke about the genre and its history, I worked on the codes and conventions of a teen romance drama opening, looking at different openings from films such as 'The Art of Getting By' and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. Katie and Becky looked at the target audience and created a mood-board, as well as conducting audience research and collecting data.
Once we had all created our separate sections of the documentary, we put them together on iMovie, and started the editing process. For our titles we used stop motion; taking separate pictures and putting them all together at a quick speed to give it an animated effect. We used the same font and white background for the subtitles, except for the genre section where we unintentionally reverted it back to the original font. For our background sound we chose light, tuneful music with a soft instrumental so that it did not distract from what was being said, but it gave it a teen feel, as these types of "indie" songs are commonly associated with teen romance dramas such as 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'.
We are pleased with our overall product as it gives the right effect and relates nicely to the genre we are trying to portray, but if we were to improve on it, we would make the font consistent and make sure each section has similar colouring and lighting as some sections were darker than others. Also, we would make the music a decent volume so it does not overlap the dialogue, and we would try to improve the quality of camera, as it went out of focus at some points.

Interviews -> Voxpops

We pulled together the interviews that we conducted, consisting of the same questions, and edited them together to make voxpops of the answers. By putting the answers together, it is easier to collect the information and see how similar/different the answers were. We used this to aid our research into what the target audience want and do not want in a teen romance drama, and to help us with ideas for our opening.

We interviewed a 16 and a 18 year old girl: