We decided to create an opening that met with the conventions of the 'Chick Flick' genre, naming our film, 'One Step at a Time', which is the same title as the song we used in our opening sequence, because we thought the song subject was appropriate to the topic of our film. Genre recognition is vital to the success of the film, because it enables the marketing and distribution aspect will be able to identify the audience they need to sell their film to, giving the product more of a chance of success. Over the course of producing this opening, my digital technological skills have vastly improved; I have learnt how to use a Macbook Pro efficiently and quickly, which means that I can transfer footage from the camera to the laptop in a matter of minutes. These skills have aided me in the editing stages of the coursework, because it means that I am able to arrive at my finished product in a shorter amount of time, as I have worked quickly, due to the knowledge I have of the software. Knowing how to add sound effects and visual effects such as transitions and titles have added quality to the film through using iMovie, and these technologies enabled us to produce a piece quickly and to a good standard of footage quality. This program comes as a part of an Apple computer package, which means that everyone can be a media producer now, and the term given to them is known as 'prosumers'.
The opening focuses only on the main character, a teenage girl named Isla. The mise-en-scene in the opening sequence consists of Isla's room, which is decorated with pink and silver wallpaper, pink and purple bed covers, with features on clothes, jewellery, shoes and cuddly toys. Isla wears pink and red pyjamas at the beginning of the opening, because it commences with the character being woken up by her alarm; she then changes into a blue dress with a black blazer, after getting showered. The lighting is quite romantic and dreamy, as the room is dim, but with a pink tint. The character then pulls up a blind in front of the window, which sheds some light into the room and seems to brighten her mood, lifting the atmosphere. The camera shots focus on the character's face mostly, in order for the audience to identify and concentrate on her. This course encourages you to be original; we’re given boundaries, but these are more helpful in the planning and editing process because we have to get our aims across in a strict time period. These restrictions aided us on making decisions because we were not given an unlimited amount of time.
Our opening to our film falls under the genre known as 'Chick Flick', therefore during the research and planning period we watched many films representing young female characters in the romantic comedy genre, such as; ‘Mean Girls’, ‘Twilight’, ‘The Prince & Me’, ‘Valentine’s Day’, ‘Pretty Woman’, and ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. We found that these films included the similar conventions; the films Mean Girls and Twilight both begin with the main characters' first day at their new school. The Twilight character, Bella, doesn’t want to enter new territory, or meet new people, and our character, Isla, begrudgingly begins to get ready for her first day at a new school. All these main characters have histories of where they came from before their new school: in 'Mean Girls', Kady came from Africa where she was home-schooled, therefore she had had no interaction with typical American teenagers. Furthermore in Twilight, Bella leaves her home in Phoenix (where it is sunny and hot) to live in Forks, where it rains most of the time, therefore there's hardly any sun.
In our product, Isla moves from one area of the country to another, leaving her romantic interest behind, and we thought this would make the story more interesting because she could then meet someone in her new town who would also prove himself to be the romantic interest, placing the girl in a difficult position. This would fulfil the fantasy element of the genre, as the character will have more than one male after her. Also, she is in the position of the outsider due to her new surroundings, so the audience will want to 'root' for her. In our first draft we followed most of the conventions of the chick flick genre, such as the high school setting and the romantic interest, however this time around we have followed all the conventions of the genre, in order for our film as a whole to be more effective in suggesting the genre to the viewing audience. For instance, our opening now consists of Isla in her bedroom during various stages of getting ready to go to her new school, interspersed with shots of props such as her shoes, jewellery, and cuddly toys. There is much more emphasis on visual aspects rather than dialogue. We followed the stereotype of a teenage girl , because it provides as a short cut for the filmmakers, as the audience are able to build up their idea of the character in a short amount of time. Her bedroom is pink and purple, the lighting is quite romantic- it’s dim in the beginning because it is early in the morning, but when she pulls up the blinds, light is let into the room so as to brighten the sequence and match the upbeat song which we added in post-production. We did not include any other characters other than the main one in our new opening, so that the audience can concentrate and engage with the character, before any major developments occur in the story. Planning was much more organised, with our storyboards being much more detailed, and this aided us in the filming process because we knew exactly which shots we were going to film, saving us time and enabling us to work quickly and efficiently.
During post-production we added the song ‘One Step At A Time’ by Jordin Sparks to the sequence, because it is a hopeful and motivational song which went well with the character’s current situation, as she is about to embark on her first say at a new school where she does not know anyone. I thought this song was very apt and we eventually named the film after the song, in an attempt to send a positive message to our target audience (teenage and adult females) with a positive role model as our main character, because she is someone who is going to have to come out of herself and connect with the new people in her life. It is a pop song, which is going to appeal to the younger members of a chick flick audience. She and the audience are in the same position, as they both have not yet met the people who are about to come into the character's life, and this way the audience can identify with the character even more. As for the marketing and distribution of our film, we thought the way in which Paramount Pictures marketed the film ‘Cloverfield’ was very effective. Their first teaser trailer did not include any credits, or even the name of the film itself, and this created the opportunity for the viewer to have to actively seek this information, talking to others about it on the way, through friends, family, social- networking sites and Youtube. A widget competition was also created to aid the marketing of the film; the consumer had to paste the widget onto their social networking site page, sharing it with their friends, who would then have to paste the widget onto their page, and so on until atlas ten friends had the widget. This created awareness through word-of-mouth, and the prizes for this competition included tickets to a preview screening of the film, a video camera, and a digital camera. We followed this example of using social sites and Youtube, because it is an easy way to gain audience feedback on our product.
Overall, our film opening 'One Step at a Time' meets with the conventions of the 'Chick Flick' genre, using the stereotype of the typical teenage girl, and focussing just on the main character and her property, in order for the audience to quickly create their own image of her in the 2 minute period that we were given. I thought this product was successful in conveying the genre, with it also remaining interesting, because even though the story is only being introduced in this sequence, the audience's attention is held. Furthermore, I was able to edit the piece much more quickly, with the camera shots being much more effective in their framing and position, because we learnt to tell the story visually, using the technologies available to us.
