Ideas on our title

Some of the ideas for our title before we came up with 'Opposites':

• The not so perfect life of Aiden
• That kid called Aiden
• The Twist
• That stereotypical teen film
• Crushin'
• Crush
• Aiden Next Door  (AND)

We decided to use the name 'Opposites' as the name gives the audience an insight to the narrative. This is because the main character Aiden likes a girl who are very different to each other.

Settings

This will be a long/mid shot of Aiden and Tom walking out of shot and Kate and Jessica walking in. There are lockers around and doors to classrooms which clearly shows school environment which is very stereotypical to see in the teen angst genre. 

A high angle will be used here when Tom and Aiden are first introduced. The shot will be of them walking down the stairs and will be behind them. This further shows the school environment.

This extreme long shot/long shot will be used to show the boys (extras) playing football on the field. They will just be in the background and adds more realism to the school environment.

A long shot from the side will be Kate and Jessica walking.

This long shot will also show the boys playing football on the field.

Right at the beginning, after the title appears, this establishing shot will be shown. This sets the scene and clearly shows the audience that the setting of the film is in a school. We used this as it is easily accessible and is very stereotypical for films under the teen angst genre.

Ttiles and Names

The name of our film opening is 'Opposites'. We found that many Teen Angst films use shorter names and we decided to use this common theme. It is also simplistic and a few things can be inferred from the title, which is why we think it is effective. When the name of our opening sequence comes onto the screen, the font will be in Sans-Serif. This is because having a title in Sans-Serif makes adds character to the font and doesn't make it boring or too serious. This is also key because our film is aimed to be light-hearted so these tie in together very well.

This is what we plan will be in the opening scene, when all of the credits are appearing:

• Aiden unzips his school bag - A credit will be revealed in the bag. He will put into his bag some regular, typical school items such as books, pens, food etc.
• We see him getting his keys and the football. The shot of Aiden getting a football will be slightly emphasised, as the football is a key part in the plot towards the end of our film opening.
• Aiden leaves his house through the front door.
• There is a mid shot of his car. He opens the boot - Credit revealed - and puts his bag inside.
• He then closes the boot and the number plate is clearly visible - Credit on the number plate.
• A shot of the door handle - Credit on the door handle.
• A point of view shot from Aiden's perspective on the steering wheel - Credit curved around the steering wheel.
• The key in the ignition.
• A low angle shot first showing the car's back wheel, and then driving off - Credit left behind as the car drives away.
• The camera panning up to the sky which reveals the title - 'Opposites'
• Panning back down and shows an establishing shot of the school which is where it will be set - also a use of an ellipsis.

Film Company Logo

We chose the name Tomorrow Productions because the target audience are younger people and young people are always looking to the future in contrast to older people who may look back a lot. The word 'Tomorrow' clearly shows this.

Our initial idea was to call the company 'Tomorrow Studios' but we decided to use 'Tomorrow Productions' as we felt the word 'Productions' means that the company produces films.

The image of our logo is a cinema screen, which is white and the title is on the screen, in black. Black writing on a white background makes the logo clearly visible and shows simplicity. The image in our logo are the red seats and a cinema screen which is very stereotypical to see in a cinema.

Planning of Characters

Aiden - Main character

We decided to use a male as the leading role because based on our research, there were few films with a male as the leading role in the Teen Angst genre. The films that we found where there was a male lead role were: 17 Again, John Tucker Must Die and Superbad.

Aiden is a stereotypical popular boy who gets all of the attention and is also seen as a 'leader' type of character in his group of 'lads'. He is popular because he is seen by everyone as cool and funny. Aiden dresses in smart/casual clothing. which is stereotypical for a boy of his age. He also has a love interest, however she is an unpopular girl and his friends make fun of him because they think of it as weird how a popular boy likes an unpopular girl. This is also why the title is called 'Opposites'.

Kate - Aiden's love interest

Kate is your stereotypical not so popular girl character. She is quiet, shy, doesn't have many friends and feels as if she is invisible. She is Aiden's love interest however they do not interact with each other until the football hits her. She will also wear smart/casual clothing however they will be quite plain as she doesn't really care too much about what she wears.

Jessica - Kate's best friend

Jessica is Kate's best friend and she is also unpopular. Her only friend is Kate and they are very like each other and do everything together. She also wears typical smart/casual clothing.

Tom - Aiden's friend

Tom is Aiden's friend/ 'wingman'. Similar to Aiden, he is also popular as he is apart of a big friends group of boys ('Lads'). Tom also thinks that liking an unpopular girl is strange.

Each of the characters are 17 years old.

Starting plan for script

OPPOSITES

Characters: Aiden, Kate, Jessica, Tom and extras

 

Scene 1:  

Location – Aiden’s house/Driveway – morning

Aiden is getting ready- getting his books (he opens his bag and there’s a credit, he collects his books and there’s a credit on there too) and keys- he’s tired. He walks out of the house and onto the driveway, he opens the boot (which will reveal a credit) and puts his bag inside. He opens the door to his car (there’s a credit on the door handle) , he gets in (there’s a credit on the steering wheel) he starts the engine and drives off, (there’s a credit under the tire) the camera pans up to the sky and reveals the name of the film. The camera then pans down and shows a shot of the school (Ellipsis)

There is no dialogue in the first scene

·         A shot of Aiden’s phone we see him press play on Bad Reputation by Joan Jett

·         Aiden unzips his bag

·         He puts typical school related items in his bag- books, drink, football, crisps?

·         We see him getting his keys and football

·         Aiden leaves the house through his front door

·         He opens the boot and puts his bag inside

·         He shuts the boot- and we see the number plate

·         A shot of the door handle

·         A POV shot of the steering wheel

·         The key in the ignition

·         Shot of the wheel

·         We see the car drive away

·         A shot of the sky revealing the title, Opposites

 

Scene 2:

Location – the school & corridors

Multiple shots of Kate and Aiden – we see them walking around the school (Aiden first, then Kate.) with their friends – general buzz of school life heard – voiceover from Aiden and Kate showing their personalities.  

·         Following the last shot the camera pans down to reveal the school  - LOUD BELL & which fades MUSIC TO FIREBALL BY PITBULL

Voiceover from Aiden:

Hi I’m Aiden. I’m 17 and I’m in my second year of sixth form. (Screen freezes) I’m the popular one. (The popular one appears on the screen.)  It’s the same record every day. Eat, sleep, sixth form, repeat. And occasionally the odd game of football. It’s not easy being the popular one, there’s certain expectations you need on your cv.  1. Dress nice. Good clothes are essential. 2. Be funny. Nobody will care if you can’t make them laugh.  And 3. Have a girlfriend. You need to have constant gossip 24/7 otherwise your celebrity status wont exist. I’d say I have 1&2 down but I still need to get no.3. I’ve seen all the girls here, and none of them interest me. Boring, bossy, b***h. This is my mate Tom!(Aiden sees Tom and chucks the football to him) Tom goes to catch the football (screen freezes – the wingman appears on the screen) Aka my wingman.

 

(As Aiden leaves the voiceover changes to Kate)

 

Voiceover from Kate:

I’m Kate I’m 17 and also in the second year of sixth form. (screen freezes) I’m  the unpopular one. (The unpopular one appears on the screen.) No one knows who I am to be honest. I’m the invisible one without an opinion. At the moment life’s on a loop. Eat, sleep, sixth form, repeat.  Nothing ever happens here. The same faces, same gossip, same bitches. All the girls are clones. Contoured and highlighted.  The only person who would notice if I went missing is Jessica. (Close up on Jessica – (screen freezes – the best friend appears on the screen) She’s been my best friend since primary school.

Scene 3:

Location – the field

 We see Kate and Jessica walking to the sixth form building - there talking. The camera switches to the boys playing football on the field. Kate and Jessica walk past and football hits Kate in the head.

Jessica: What do you have next?

Kate: Media, what do you have?

Shot of the boys playing football- they make the goals out of their bags

Jessica: Law. How long till first period?

Kate: Um (looks at her phone) 3 minutes

Shot of boys playing football – someone scores a goal – shouting and celebrations       

Aiden kicks the ball to Tom but he misses 

Music cuts out fast when Aiden kicks football – silence –

Slow motion of the other players faces as they realise what’s going to happen

And the football hits Kate in the head

There’s a shot of the footballers laughing/shocked – Aiden feels guilty and walks over to help Kate

Kates on the floor rubbing her head

Aiden: are you ok?

we see Kate ignore him and get up.

 

Sound and Music Planning

We have decided to included the sound 'Bad Reputation' by Joan Jett. This song is very upbeat. We choose this song because it is rebellious, this represents teenagers, therefore the audience may be able to relate. It also gives the audience an insight on the characters behaviour/personality. This song is going to play at the beginning, therefore the audience has insight that the film will be light-hearted and upbeat.

 

We will be adding non-diegetic sound of a car engine turning on and the car wheeling screeching, when driving away, this will emphasise that the boy can drive and is traveling, it will add suspense, as the audience wants to know where the protagonist is headed.

 

A non-diegetic bell will be added when the title appears. This helps with the ellipsis as the bell shows him driving away and then the next shot is of the school, the bell helps show the passing of time. The bell also lets the audience suggest that the setting of the film will be in a high school, this setting is very stereotypical for teen angst films.

 

The second song we decided to use in the opening sequence is 'Fireball' by Pitball, this song is also upbeat and fun, the song is quite comedic and helps to add the humour to the scene.

 

We will be including two voiceovers. This will be by the main character 'Aiden and his love interest (later in the film) 'Kate'. This will helps the audience understand their personalities. We decided to also give 'Kate' a voiceover because this shows her opinion other than just the main character.

With the two songs - 'Bad Reputation' and 'Fireball', these songs are quite upbeat and light hearted/calm and 'Fireball' is quite humorous. Based on my research into other Teen Angst films, such as Easy A and Superbad, the music in both of those films are also upbeat and quite chilled out. Superbad also contains quite humorous music which is why we decided to implement this into our opening sequence.

EDIT: Due to copyright we had to change our two songs to different music which was copyright free. The songs that we used still follow the theme of being upbeat and light hearted.

Risk Assessment for Teen Angst Task

Risk -	Probability/Level (Out of 5)-	How to avoid -
Dropping the camera	3	Keep the strap on your wrist or neck at all times.
Slipping over	2	Be more cautious on wet days and watch your step.
Football hit head too hard	1	Don’t throw the ball with much force.
Car	2	Be careful when filming around it e.g. Under the tire
Playing football	2	Don’t slip over, kick it too hard and be careful in wet conditions
Filming near roads	2	Don’t go too near roads while filming things

 

Feedback on our Teen Angst pitch

After our pitch we got some feedback from our class

They said:

·         They liked the fact that our protagonist was a male

·         They liked our transition shots – where the titles come up

·         They liked our production company and logo

 They said we could improve:

·         On how detailed our plot is

·         How the opening starts

·         Which sort of shots we use

Our production company and logo went down very well they liked

·         That the background was a cinema

·         The red stereotypical chairs

·         That our logo appeared on the screen

·         That the font stands out

Teen Angst Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CNGM9IkWLQ

 

Teen Angst Film Titles Annotation

Wild Child - Wild means destructive, reckless and out of control. Because it says child, the immediate thing that comes to your head is a teenager, because they fit the criteria of being 'wild'.

Mean Girls - 'Mean Girls' are a group of people in schools, alongside many other groups. This shows the audience that the film is in a school and involves teenagers. They are usually a group that are not liked by people, meaning there will be conflict/clashing opinions/arguments which stereotypically happens in teenagers lives.

16 Candles - Candles suggests that it is somebody's birthday, and 16 shows that it is someone's 16th birthday. Usually with someone's birthday, a party comes along with it. Partying is stereotypical for teenagers around that age. With many teenagers in the same place at the same time, similar to schools, there is likely to be arguments/conflict and possibly embarrassment.

Superbad - This title can be seen as juxtaposing in a way. This is because the word 'super' is generally used in a positive way, but having 'bad' after it gives it a completely contrasting meaning - This being someone being very bad/mischievous.

A lot of these titles have 'negative' words in them, such as bad, mean and wild. This could show the negatives that teenagers deal with and portrays these in Teen Angst films.