The Wish list is a film under the genre of drama and is under the sub-genres life story, emotional drama, inspirational and message movie. Our film opening was influenced my other similar drama films such as My Sister's Keeper, The Fault In Our Stars, Sophie's Choice and The Notebook. After watching these films openings, me and my group were able to find out the conventions of a drama film opening and used the conventions to create our film opening for The Wish List.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
The conventions for a drama film opening are the following:
- A storyline that presents a real life situation with realistic settings, stories and characters.
- A film that portrays a journey that a character has been on in their past or in the present day.
A storyline that is dramatic and emotionally moves the audience when watching the film. Also, something with intense social interaction.
However, the conventions for a drama film opening scene are soft, calm music in the background, simple credits in serious, clear fonts, voice over of the main character speaking about their life, the title of the film shows up on the screen near the middle of the opening scene and the opening scenes are not packed with different clip. They are calm opening scenes. In our opening scene we have suggested the genre of drama though the use of the voice over of Sophia talking about how she is feeling and about life. This suggests that the film is under the genre of drama as it informs us that in this film she is the centre of attention and who the film is about. Also, when the voice over plays, Sophia is introduced so it becomes clear to the audience that she is the one speaking. In the background of the opening scene, me and my group decided to place a emotional, soft to reflect the emotion that is in the voice over. This suggests that the film my be an emotional drama film. This is once again made clear by the scene of Sophia walking into the doctors, which informs the audience that something is wrong with her an that is maybe serious. Therefore, suggests that the film is under the sub genre of emotional drama. The fact that at the beginning of the opening scene only Sophia is introduced informs the audience and makes it clear that the film is under the drama sub genre of life story a only Sophia is introduce.
In the opening of My Sister's Keeper, the main character is one her own and then the voice over of her begins. The voice over is her talking about her life making it evident that it is about something that has happened to her to show the genre of drama. This is similar to our media product as we introduced Sophia and then her voice over began to make it evident that she is the one speaking and that the film is about her life story. We also made it evident that the film is about something that has happened to her by the use of flash backs and the photo album pictures. In the opening scene of My Sister's Keeper the music is soft and calm conforming to the drama opening scene convention. In our media products opening scene the music is emotional and soft. It isn't very calm though as it gets a bit dramatic towards the end but we wanted this as it goes well with the rush of emotions and memories going through Sophia's mind. As we want this the music doesn't really conform to the drama opening scene convention of having calm, soft music. Instead it challenges it.
The title of the film
The title of drama films either come up like a normal title or has its on screen to show its importance. The Notebook title comes on screen like a normal title during the opening scene. Me and my group liked the was that this kept the opening scene flowing rather than cutting it. We didn't like the way that The Fault In Our Stars title cut the opening scene. In our media product we placed the title near the beginning of the opening as a normal title but placed it near the middle of the screen and made it bigger rather than having it as a normal title like The Notebook has done.
The setting of the film is in the modern day in town called Chelmsford. Most of the film opening is set during the day approximately near mid day and one location is set in the evening. We used different locations for each of the flash backs to resemble different events that have happened in Sophia's life. This makes our media product resemble life story as the flash backs show Sophia at different ages. The Fault In Our Stars has done this in the opening scene by having Hazel and Augustus together but in different parts of their time together. The locations in our media product are realistic places rather than being in space, which means that the audience can relate to the locations that Sophia and her friends have been to and become more intrigued with the film. In our media product we have used a natural location (the sea side) that would appeal to the audience as they are always is drama films and natural settings are to do with nature, which is all about life. This links to our media products as it is all about life. The rest of the opening scene is set in Sophia's house in the present day and in the past. This resembles a family setting, which links to the genre drama as drama films traditionally have families in then some way or another. The Notebook uses family and natural settings in the opening scene.
The costumes of the characters are modern, smart and casual. We chose this style of clothing as we wanted the characters in our media product to look older and represent their ages. The flash back where Sophia is about ten years old with her friends at her birthday party they are all wearing graphic t-shirts. We did this to create a more childish representation. The main four characters including Sophia are wearing clothes that represent their personality. Sophia mostly wears a denim jacket, t-shirt and a skirt which makes us believe that she a is tomboy. However, her friend Kaitlyn is wearing a leather jacket, a blouse and jeans which suggests that she is a elegant female. The boys are wearing jackets, t-shirts and jeans which suggests that they are layed back, ordinary twenty year old boys. In If I Stay, the main characters Mia and Adam are wearing casual clothes. Mia wears clothes that suggests that she is an ordinary girl but when she is in acoma, she wears a pale outfit with a white top which suggests that she is innocent and pure. Adam wears black leather jacket and graphic t-shirts that mostly are related to past bands. This makes it clear to us that he is rebellious and is interested in rock band music. The main prop in our media opening is the photo album. This suggests the sub genre life story as it shows us pictures of Sophia in the past. We brought donuts to use in one of the scenes to make the flash back to look like an iconic scene as
The story line of our media product is a twenty year old girl called Sophia has a normal life. She is surrounded by friends and family, is in university and is enjoying life. until, she is told by her doctor after having tests done that she has got cancer. Sophia realises that she has done nothing with her life and creates a bucket list, which her friends help her complete before her life ends. Also, a series of events such as a love interest will happen along the way. The opening of our media product sets up the storyline by introducing Sophia straight away. This makes it evident that Sophia is the main character.
The title of drama films either come up like a normal title or has its on screen to show its importance. The Notebook title comes on screen like a normal title during the opening scene. Me and my group liked the was that this kept the opening scene flowing rather than cutting it. We didn't like the way that The Fault In Our Stars title cut the opening scene. In our media product we placed the title near the beginning of the opening as a normal title but placed it near the middle of the screen and made it bigger rather than having it as a normal title like The Notebook has done.
The title of our media product is The Wish List. We made this the film title as it is a short snappy name which is easy to remember and because it informs the audience that the film is to do with someones life as a wish list is created by someone about the wishes that they want to come true in their life time, relating to the sub genre life story. Drama film titles do not reveal much about what the film is about, for example, the title The Notebook does not reveal that the film is a romantic drama film. As ours describes one parts of the film, it does not reveal that Sophia has a life threatening illness and that she may not survive.
How are the characters are introduced?
In our media product, Sophia is introduced straight away informing that she is the main character and who the life story is about. Through the use of the photo album, we introduced Sophia by showing her life from being a baby to her gradually growing up into a child. By the use of the photos, this makes the sub genre of life story become clear as it shows Sophia's life which is what a life story is about. Sophia is also introduced in our media product through her flash backs. This also makes the sub genre of life story clear as it is showing us her life. Sophia's friends are introduced through the flashbacks. This shows that they are important characters but are not as important as Sophia as they are not presented at the beginning of the opening scene.
Our media product introduces the main character and the important people in the main characters life similarly to The Fault In Our Stars. In The Fault In Our Stars opening scene Hazel is introduced straight away which makes it clear to us that she is the main character and who the drama film is about. Then the second main character who is an important person in her life is introduced in her flash backs. This shows that Augustus is an important character in the film and suggest that he is a an important I the story line of the film.
Title font and style
The title font and style for drama films under the sub genre of life story and emotional drama have serious, clear, plain titles that reflect that the film isn't a comedy or a rom com but a film that has a serious story line. Our media product uses this convention just like My Sister's Keeper. In our media product we have used the font called Adobe Caslon Pro as it is a simple, serious font that reflects the seriousness of our products story line. We have gone with the classic white colour text against the background as it stands out from the objects in the scenes. We decided to use a serif font as it look fancy like posh hand writing in a diary, which is what we wanted to come across as the film is about Sophia's life. So we wanted it to resemble the neat hand writing in a diary.
Setting/location
The setting of the film is in the modern day in town called Chelmsford. Most of the film opening is set during the day approximately near mid day and one location is set in the evening. We used different locations for each of the flash backs to resemble different events that have happened in Sophia's life. This makes our media product resemble life story as the flash backs show Sophia at different ages. The Fault In Our Stars has done this in the opening scene by having Hazel and Augustus together but in different parts of their time together. The locations in our media product are realistic places rather than being in space, which means that the audience can relate to the locations that Sophia and her friends have been to and become more intrigued with the film. In our media product we have used a natural location (the sea side) that would appeal to the audience as they are always is drama films and natural settings are to do with nature, which is all about life. This links to our media products as it is all about life. The rest of the opening scene is set in Sophia's house in the present day and in the past. This resembles a family setting, which links to the genre drama as drama films traditionally have families in then some way or another. The Notebook uses family and natural settings in the opening scene.
Costumes and props
The costumes of the characters are modern, smart and casual. We chose this style of clothing as we wanted the characters in our media product to look older and represent their ages. The flash back where Sophia is about ten years old with her friends at her birthday party they are all wearing graphic t-shirts. We did this to create a more childish representation. The main four characters including Sophia are wearing clothes that represent their personality. Sophia mostly wears a denim jacket, t-shirt and a skirt which makes us believe that she a is tomboy. However, her friend Kaitlyn is wearing a leather jacket, a blouse and jeans which suggests that she is a elegant female. The boys are wearing jackets, t-shirts and jeans which suggests that they are layed back, ordinary twenty year old boys. In If I Stay, the main characters Mia and Adam are wearing casual clothes. Mia wears clothes that suggests that she is an ordinary girl but when she is in acoma, she wears a pale outfit with a white top which suggests that she is innocent and pure. Adam wears black leather jacket and graphic t-shirts that mostly are related to past bands. This makes it clear to us that he is rebellious and is interested in rock band music. The main prop in our media opening is the photo album. This suggests the sub genre life story as it shows us pictures of Sophia in the past. We brought donuts to use in one of the scenes to make the flash back to look like an iconic scene as
Camera work and editing
The frames that we used in our media products opening scene are medium long shots, medium shots, close ups, extreme shots, long shots and tracking shots. We used the angles level. high, low and worms eye and the movements tilt down, pan right, pan left and tilt up. To join the clips together we used the transitions straight cut, flash dissolve and fade dissolve. We used the flash dissolve as it made the flash back clips look clearly different to the present day clips and it gave an interesting effect of Sophia flicking through memories in her head. We used the straight cut transition the most as we felt that it bed suited most of the clips and other transitions that we tried didn't look right. The pace of our media product is slow apart from the transition between the first too shots as the first shot changes to the second shot quickly. We edited the flash backs in the order that they are in to Sophia through her life -from a younger age to the age she is in the film. The special effect that we used is called the lens flare effect which creates spot lights on the shots which makes it look like the sun was shinning at the camera when filming. We liked this special effect and used it on the flash backs as it made the shots brighter in some areas. It also added a dream like effect to the memories and made the differentiation between past and present clear in our media products opening.
The frames that we used in our media products opening scene are medium long shots, medium shots, close ups, extreme shots, long shots and tracking shots. We used the angles level. high, low and worms eye and the movements tilt down, pan right, pan left and tilt up. To join the clips together we used the transitions straight cut, flash dissolve and fade dissolve. We used the flash dissolve as it made the flash back clips look clearly different to the present day clips and it gave an interesting effect of Sophia flicking through memories in her head. We used the straight cut transition the most as we felt that it bed suited most of the clips and other transitions that we tried didn't look right. The pace of our media product is slow apart from the transition between the first too shots as the first shot changes to the second shot quickly. We edited the flash backs in the order that they are in to Sophia through her life -from a younger age to the age she is in the film. The special effect that we used is called the lens flare effect which creates spot lights on the shots which makes it look like the sun was shinning at the camera when filming. We liked this special effect and used it on the flash backs as it made the shots brighter in some areas. It also added a dream like effect to the memories and made the differentiation between past and present clear in our media products opening.
Story and how the opening sets it up
The story line of our media product is a twenty year old girl called Sophia has a normal life. She is surrounded by friends and family, is in university and is enjoying life. until, she is told by her doctor after having tests done that she has got cancer. Sophia realises that she has done nothing with her life and creates a bucket list, which her friends help her complete before her life ends. Also, a series of events such as a love interest will happen along the way. The opening of our media product sets up the storyline by introducing Sophia straight away. This makes it evident that Sophia is the main character.
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