Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After a lot of research into our chosen genre, we found many generic conventions, which we would need to include in our film opening in order for it to be a successful romantic comedy.

In nearly all romantic comedies, there are two main characters; a male and a female. These characters are often introduced immediately, so that the audience gains an idea of the type of storyline the film will have.

They are usually seen in a basic and comfortable setting, such as their living area, which makes them relatable to the general audience.

Here I have taken two screenshots of the first 15 seconds of our film opening. You cans see that we have introduced the main characters (a male and female) and they are both in their bedrooms. This follows the general opening of a romantic comedy and automatically sets the film up for the audience

Another common feature of a rom-com opening is happy, upbeat music playing throughout and the lyrics sometimes even relate to the story. We decided to use the song Three Summers by In Blue Skies. As an independent company we could not afford to pay for rights to any songs by any well known, signed artists. So, we thought we would use music from an unknown band who we knew, who would be willing to let us use their music for free, as it would also act as free promotion for them.

This song was suitable for this opening because it is very upbeat and creates a nice, happy atmosphere, which is great for a romantic comedy, as it is meant to bring happiness and be enjoyed.

Also, the lyric ‘I was a better man’ fits our films plot, as Richard becomes a horrible guy when he decides to play the girl by sending his twin brother to dates with her, while he did other things. And his brother, Chris, is actually the ‘better man’, which Tallulah eventually realizes and ends up with him.

Here is the song we used part of:

The main humour in a romantic comedy usually arises from the complications the characters face. The opening of our film shows that there will be some obstacles to overcome, so the audience has an idea of what might happen in the plot later on. These are:

The name of the film; ‘Double Trouble’, which obviously hints to there being ‘trouble’ and the audience can expect complications to arise. The fact that there are two similar people, both ready for the same situation.

The use of the twins also makes our film fall in to one of the 6 main rom-com types: ‘The Imposter’.

This is where a character pretends to be someone they’re not. Our character Richard gets his twin brother to pretend that he is Richard, in order to date Tallulah.  So we are able to fall into a very successful category, so we know that our type of film is the type to be successful and received well.

The name and the complication of twins add the humour to the piece, which indicates which sub genre our film is. If we had used a plain title, that just hinted towards romance and only seen one boy and a girl then the opening would have leant the film to be seen as just a romance. Similarly, If we had just included the twins in the opening, joking around with each other as they both got ready, then the film would have been seen as just a comedy. So, we incorporated both of these ideas together, in order to get across to the audience that is actually a sub genre of both romance and comedy, rather than just one of those main genres.

 Our research into the genre, when planning our opening, gave us knowledge on what was commonly included in title sequences, such as:

1.     An introduction to the main characters
2.     Narrative sequence/ montage (which follows short events which are related to the rest of the film)
3.     Music/a voiceover
4.     Titles of actors appearing as their character appears

1. 

 On the left, there are screen shots from our opening, where you are instantly introduced to the main characters.

On the right are screenshots from  popular rom-coms; Maid in Manhattan and Easy A.

You can see that these opening also introduced main characters, although, as they’re mainly aimed at females, they introduced only the female, in the opening, so that tit is relatable to their target audience. As ours is aimed at men, we introduced the men, mainly, so it is relatable to our target audience.

2. 

In our opening we have a montage of the main characters getting ready for a date. Here we see the two males both getting ready, in the same outfit, and only one girl. This hints to the rest of the story, with there being two guys playing one girl. The end of the opening, when thy are at the restaurant table, continues and that is how the film starts, so like the common ‘Narrative Sequence’, the events in the opening have lead up to what happens in the rest of the film. Also, we get to see the main characters houses/bedrooms, which sets the scene for where a lot of the rest of the film will take place.

Here are some screenshots, again, from Easy A and Maid In Manhattan. Both have used a montage in their title sequence, as we have, showing that it Is a popular and successful method of opening a film. Easy A’s opening shows some main characters and also gives the main setting of a high school. Maid in Manhattan also uses a montage to establish setting, showing that it is set in New York. These are both similar to our opening, as we introduced main characters and established setting.

3. Easy A’ title sequence includes a voice over, to set up the storyline. Maid In Manhattan uses light music over their opening. We decided to use music for ours, as our opening goes directly I to the main film, so we needed something to signify that the film had officially started. The fade out of the music and the start of speech would make this clear. This is also how the Maid in Manhattan opening goes into the main film. 

4. Similarly to sequences such as Easy A, we decide to make the main actors titles appear on screen as their characters did.

We also considered our genre and other similar media products when planning costume, editing and camera.

For our costumes we used basic costumes, stereotypical to the characters gender. This made it clear what type of character they were and in most rom-com opening, the characters are in casual clothes. Also, as an independent company we could not afford anything other than basic costumes and props.

As most opening sequences seemed to use a montage, we also used a montage, which included a variety of shots. Panning was most common in sequences we had seen, so we used panning quite a few times

For editing, we kept it basic. The use of montage meant that not much editing was need, mostly just simple cuts. We used basic titles, as that was what most other romantic comedies used and there is usually no need for special effects in our genre, however, we did need to edit so that our actor, Sam, appeared to be a twin.