Thinking of a Concept

At first Jaimie and I decided to start off by making a brainstorm of our ideas. This way we were able to see which angle we were both coming frame and how we could incorporate our ideas together.

We first looked at the genre of the film. Jaimie wanted to make the film really dramatic and "artsy", however I was thinking that as most coming of age films have comedic elements in them that we should try and incorporate that into the opening sequence. This is because it allows the young audience to understand serious issues in a funny and entertaining way.

We then looked at the age certification of the film. As we wanted to attract a wider range of audience member we decided to certify the film as a 12. This way it will attract more people into watching the film s there is a wider age gap. It also meant that we would be able to try and incorporate comedy in more innocent way.

Next we started to look into characters, as then we could start to develop the rest of the ideas. We didn't want to have too many characters all at once. This is because we wanted to let the audience have a bigger insight into the life of the main character. We decided to introduce the main protagonist, who is a 17/18-year-old girl, who has just been accepted in to university. We decided that she should have a dual personality to set part of the narrative for the opening. We then thought we could introduce the mother of the main protagonist. This way it would show how the character acts at home. The last character we decided to introduce is the boyfriend. We thought that this would be a good idea as we could show the other side to the protagonist’s life. We don’t want to introduce him in a big way because then he could remain mysterious and keep the audience interested in what is to come. We also thought about introducing a couple of other characters, such as the best friend. However we wouldn’t have enough time to do this successfully or in the way we would like.

The narrative will be based on the personality and life of the main protagonist. As we said, we think that the main protagonist, who is a 17/18-year-old girl, who has just been accepted in to university, should have a dual personality. The other side to her should not be dark or alternative, but adventurous and curious so that it can lead her to make a decision. This could be about her life after school, and possibly how her boyfriend could be destructive and lead her to drop out of university even though she wants to go.

We thought about filming inside the main protagonist’s house for the opening sequence, specifically her bedroom. This is because a person’s room can reveal a lot about their personality. We want the room to replicate the character in a way so that she is organised but in a slightly chaotic way. They will live in a suburban house in a small town with a normal neighbourhood, which reflects the characters lifestyle. The room should be spacious, as a practical issue because then we will have lots of room to film from different camera angles. However as we are thinking of filming indoors we will try and use natural lighting, so to avoid the yellow glow that often comes with unnatural lighting.

As we have decided that the main protagonist will live in normal neighbourhood, in a normal family, we are going to say that the fashion will be pretty casual. This is because she is at home and not out partying. However we think that it should still be smart to show her class. We thought about how the boyfriend could wear typical brand for his peer group and for the time, such as Nike and other sports brands. The Mum should wear comfy clothing that is typically worn by Mums at the time, for example a fleece and jeans.

The audience for the opening sequence will be predominantly teenage girls, due to the age certificate, genre and narrative. They will be between the ages of 13 and 17.

We also started to think about the typography for the opening sequence. This is because it links in with the narrative and genre. The colour should be white to highlight the innocence and naivety of the main character.

Representation in the film will be mainly on teens and possibly teachers and family members, however we can’t show all this in the opening sequence. In this case it will focus on teen who are in a confusing stressful time and help them focus on issues that may arise.

 We think that an independent film distributor will be the most likely to work for this film. We were thinking of Film4 or Mr Mudd.