Teen Angst Ttile Sequence and Opening Scene- Initial Idea

The Task 

We was given a task in a group of four (me, Naomi, Jared and Ollie) to create a title sequence and an opening scene of a teenage angst film which could be established on any idea we wanted. The group together was in charge of planning, filming and editing the film. 

My initial idea was planned out with very little detail to get the outline of the storyline. I therefore did a brainstorm to produce my ideas either further.

Once we had planned out our film, we started to make a story board which enabled us to have a clear view of what we wanted to film, for how long, what type of shot and whether we were using non-diegetic or diegetic sound. The story board also allowed us to decide to use a voice over within our film and what could go in it. The next step was then writing a script out for the voice over. 

This voice over, was the original voice over I had written. I wrote this, before any filming was complete as this voice over was complete to explain the story line and what was going to be on screen as we planned the filming through a storyboard.

Once the filming was complete, the first voice over I had written didn't quite fit the filming as when filming bits had to be added and bits had to be cut out for the story to make sense. This voice over fitted better with the my film and was better with the explaination.

With the first draft, not turning out the way we wanted and looked more like a horror film. The decision of re filming and re planning everything happened. This time, with the lesson learn of not completing the voice over until the filming has done makes it easier to write the voice over to fit in with what has been filmed in case additions were included when filming. Therefore, once everything was filmed and edited, I then wrote the voice over to fit perfectly with the new and final love triangle film.

Love Triangle Audience Feedback

When we presented our first draft of 'Love Triangle', we received positive and negative feedback from an audience in order for us to go back and improve it to the best of  our ability for the final submission. However, our first draft was going to be filmed into two parts, the title sequence and the opening scene as they both filmed in different location, this meant the filming could be done separately. Therefore, I went and filmed the title sequence, once it was filmed and ready to edit, I didn't like how it had turned up. I started to edit it, thinking maybe it'll look better when put altogether. However once put together we got feedback such as;

-Miss Bacchus said; 'the shots are too dark therefore makes it look like a horror.'
-Laura Dawson said; 'the shots are on the screen for too long.'
-Aoife said; 'it was too short'

However, with the comment of it being too short, potentially it was only half of it, as we didn't end up filming the opening sequence as I didn't like what was already filmed. After I completed to edit it, it was viewed for an audience where we got positive and negative feedback.

Positive Feedback;

- Over the shoulder shot looked good
- Good mise-en-scene by using hair grips, pictures on the mirror, headphones and make up which are stereotypical for a teenage girl's bedroom
- Good up beat music
- good range of shots

Negative feedback;

- Lighting was too low key
-Include a voice over
- Titles need to be added
- Need transitions
- Shots are too long

With the decision of the title sequence not looking how I wanted it to, I decided to not film the opening scene and re film from scratch and with this feedback backed up my decision. Using the feedback given to me by people surrounding me and the audience, I created a new story board and re filmed everything considering everything I didn't for my first draft. I considered, the time of day to get high key lighting when Charlotte is in her house. I choose a day that wasn't bright for when we filmed the opening scene of Charlotte introducing the 'popular' group. This time I filmed everything in two days, therefore went and edited everything together.

Our First Draft

With the story board complete, we started to film. The title sequence was focused within my house in Charlotte's bedroom who is played by my little sister. With this easily accessible for me, I booked a camera and tripod from school and after school filmed the title sequence. When filming, I followed the story board to ensure that when it came to editing it would be rarely easy with everything filmed, I filmed everything for a little longer than what it said on the sheet, which ensured everything was filmed and nothing was missed out. I filmed up to shot 9 which were all the shots into my house and by the time I had finished filming it was dark outside so therefore I couldn't film the next part. The next day, when I came to edit, I just uploaded everything I filmed to see what it looked like. Once I uploaded everything in final cut pro, it all seemed dark and gloomy. I put the filming into order and cut everything out that wasn't needed. Once this was complete, we decided it looked more like a horror than a teenage angst film. Therefore, with this we decided to re film, with a total new idea. With this to plan, created us more work but our draft just didn't work.

Our characters

Within my film 'love Triangle', you have the popular group of girls, the popular group of boys and the least popular group of girls who are 2 years younger than the 'popular' boys and girls.
Within the popular girls group, you have Yasmin who is the main character, and her three best friends; Gemma, Emily and Lucy.

Leah Fowles-playing Yasmin 

Farah Khan-playing Gemma
















Lily Shepphard-playing Lucy

Charlie Marshall-playing Emily









 



Within the popular boy group, Blake is the main character who is in a relationship with Yasmin, Blake also has three best friends; Joe, Jake and Ben. With the boys characters, from our presentation we changed around the names depending on the characters that were available.

Harry Shipp-playing Blake

 








Harry McLachlan-playing Ben 











 



 Lee Smith-playing Jake







 






Jack Payne-playing Joe

Within the least popular group, there Charlotte who is centred main character from this social group, with her three best friends; Sophie, Katy and Courtney. 

Emily Prout-playing Charlotte

Tamica Fabray-Smith-playing Sophie 

Anna Templeman- playing Katy













Hannah Holton- playing Courtney

Our Film Title

Our film title, is called 'Love Triangle', our film is called this because of the metaphor or a love triangle between Charlotte, Blake and Yasmin. With the title so short and simple attracts the audience in to watching the film. We used the colour 'pinky purple' to associate with girls which connotes the target audience is teenagers. With the iconography of a love heart behind the font connotes the word 'Love' in the title and emphasis the film is about love.

Progression of the title for my film 'Love Triangle'

Once we had the name of our film 'Love Triangle', the next step was to make the title to be put into our film. When making the title, it needed to be linked in with the teenage angst genre, fit in with the film storyline and connect with the target audience of teenagers.

Our first idea, was a book, as it connotes teenagers as they go to school, the title was put on top of it in simple white serif font. The colour white was chosen as it was the best colour to put on top of the brown book.
However, although the book was a good idea as it does suggest teenagers and education, this wasn't the main element within our film.

 As we wasn't happy with the book idea, we then made another title, with it consisting of a pink triangle to connote with the title. A little red heart was put in the middle of the triangle used as a metaphor of the love is in the triangle, creating a 'Love Triangle'. As the colours red and pink were used, the font was made red as the heart in the middle was red, the colours made sense to make the title font red as well, so there was only two different colours on the title logo and not three. The colours pink and purple were used as they are stereotypically teenage girls favourite colours along with red being connoting love. We also tried a sans serif font to see if this was effective on the title, however, we felt that this was reflective enough on the storyline of the film. Although, the iconography on this was effective by using the metaphor to create title's name within images, we felt it wasn't effective on the title and storyline.

As the idea above didn't result in the way we wanted as it looked too complicated, we went back to a simple idea. This consisted of a simple heart was serif font on top.  We made the title in purple as it connotes teenage girls, the simple heart in the background represents love within the film. The font was serif, as it connotes teenagers and romance. Once this was completed, we didn't like this idea either, we felt it was too simple, and purple on top of purple didn't look right.





We then tried a complete new idea, we used a stick note as the background, as this connotes teenagers and they are constantly writing things down. We stuck with the heart in the background as this connotes the storyline of romance in our film. We changed the heart colour to a dark purple and took the inside of away, this was to make it more simple, however, with the outline of the heart a thick line was effective as it made it suitable for the romance as within the film the romance isn't complete. We then changed the font to a scribble serif font, we did this as it would link into how the characters were being introduced with a scribbly circle. We used the colour purple again, as this is effective and connotes teenagers. However, the font isn't as effective as the way it is when introducing the characters.

As we didn't like the font in serif white, in red serif, purple serif or the scribbly purple font, we then tried a new idea. We wasn't happy with the different styles of fonts we had created so far. Therefore focused on getting the best suitable font for our film. We then suggestsed out of all the colours we tested so far, purple was the most effective and reflected with our film as it connotes teenage girls. The serif font suggests romance and teenagers handwriting which still connotes school which is a setting within our film.



With the font decided, we then added it to the sticky note idea, as we thought this was reflective on teenagers. We also kept the heart with the thick outline as this connotes the romance within our film as it isn't all happy romance therefore the middle is missing by being used as a metaphor for the love within our film. The font was most effective by using the bold purple serif font on top of a yellow background which makes the title and colour stand out and appeal to the audience. The title alone will attract mostly female teenagers as romance is the genre they enjoy the most to watch however, boys can watch our film as its not just about romance it also has an educational message of bullying in it.

When coming to put our title on our film, we had to loose the stick note idea, as it didn't naturally fit into the setting. Therefore, we took the background of the sticky note away, and made the heart more of a light pink than purple as pink connotes romance more than purple. Also the purple stood out more on the bedside cabinet where the title was naturally fitted into in our film.