1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF A REAL
MEDIA PRODUCT.
2. First of all, a convention means something you expect within a film from a
specific genre.
The plot of a teen film usually focuses on teenagers:
• Falling in love
• Relationships/Friendships
• Rebellion
• Conflict with parents
• Drugs/ Alcohol / Sex
• Coming of Age
Teen films usually have high school characters and are also generally based in
High School.
WHAT ARE THE CONVENTIONS
OF A TEEN FILM OPENING?
3. The codes and conventions of a teen film can vary depending on the different
subject areas but common topics that we see in teen films are:
Proms
School life
Parties and raves
Bullying
Social groups/"Cliques"
Sexual themes
Crude humour
CONVENTIONS OF A TEEN FILM
4. In teen films, it is essential that camera work is used correctly because it could
be used to portray a certain character a certain way.
For example, a close up could show the emotions a character is feeling in a
film. If they are getting bullied a close up would show that they are feeling sad
and it allows you to empathise with the character more
CAMERA WORK
5. From ‘The Lizzie McGuire Movie’ our group really liked the opening scene
when Lizzie was getting ready for High School. We particularly liked the scene
where she opened her cupboard to decide which clothes to where.
HOW WE USED CAMERA WORK
We borrowed this idea and used the same camera shot in Cassie’s scene as
she is very girly and showing her opening the cupboard would show that
she has lots of clothes and she cares about her appearance.
We used a professional camera to film our media project
7. EDITING
In Teen films, editing is the main stage in how the whole film gets put together. It is
important that editing is used correctly to make a movie seem seamless. An example of
making a movie appear seamless would be through the use of match cuts.
Editing is also used for:
• Adding music in the background
• Change the pace of the scenes – e.g – fast/ slow paced
• Creating credits/titles
• Trimming scenes
• Adding transitions
• Using ‘split screens – putting 3 different scenes in one shot
• Adjusting sound levels
An example we used in editing would be the use of split screens. We thought that it was
the perfect way to show that the characters were going to connect later on in the film
8. Although this idea of split screens is not taken from a teen movie, it is taken from a teen show
called ‘Lizzie McGuire’ who eventually made a movie called ‘ The Lizzie McGuire Movie’. I
liked this idea because it shows the three characters in the episode all on a phonecall to show
they are connecting with eachother which is exactly what I wanted to do with our movie to
show that our characters, Maya, Cassie and Trevor were about to connect in College.
9. Here is our film opening from Trapped where we borrowed the idea of split screens to
show the different characters.
10. MISE EN SCENE
Mise en scene was one of our main aspects to focus on in filming as it included 3 different characters,
therefore presenting them differently depended on the mise en scene of each character.
For Maya (lonely girl) – We used unfashionable, plain clothing to show that she is someone who has no
friends therefore does not care about her appearance to impress anybody. We also used a diary as a prop
for Maya so it shows that she has a book of feelings that she hides away as she has no one to speak to.
Finally, we also showed Maya sitting on the toilet seat which emphaises that she has no friends and that
is the only place she could go.
For Cassie (Popular Girl) – We showed her wearing fashionable clothing to show she cares a lot about
her appearance. We also used a hairdryer as a prop to also show that she takes her time in the morning
to look good for college. Finally, we showed her cupboard which also indicates that she has a passion for
fashion by deciding what to wear and chucking her clothes everywhere.
For Trevor (Bad Boy) – We used cigarette packets to emphasise his bad habbits as a bad boy. We also
used designer clothing to show that badboys also care about their appearance to impress girls.
11. From the movie, ‘Lemonade
Mouth’ we borrowed the idea of
Olivia’s lonely character sitting in
the cleaners cupboard
Here we borrowed the same idea
in our film opening where Maya
sits on the toilet seat and writes in
her diary during lunchtimes.
12. SOUND
Finally, sound plays an important part in a movie as it can be used to represent characters and scenes.
I feel that we have used sound effectively because we used different sounds for different parts of our opening.
For Trevor – We used an urban soundtrack from Creative Commons as it needed to be copyright free and we felt
that the sound represented his character very well as it was upbeat and contained swearing.
For Cassie – We used ‘Beyonce – Crazy in Love as it is a popular song loved by many females and we wanted to use
this as a song she was listening to whilst she was getting ready in her bedroom.
For Maya- we used a voiceover which was presented as her thoughts whilst she was writing in her diary. We thought
this was effective because we would get a real insight of her personal feelings towards starting college.
Overall soundtrack – we used a general soundtrack with an urban twist to flow through the entire opening as we
thought that it would keep our target audience entertained instead of watching some of the scenes in silence. We
put this soundtrack behind the voiceover also but we lowered the sound so that we could still hear Maya’s thoughts.
Finally, we also put a soundtrack in the distribution and production ident which also gave a real film opening feel to
our ident.
13. We used the idea of using a well known
song for Cassie’s scenes from ‘The Lizzie
McGuire Movie’ as she also gets ready
listening to the song ‘The Tide Is High’.
We used the song ‘Beyonce – Crazy In
Love’ to be the song playing whilst Cassie
was getting ready because it is also a well
known song, especially for girls.
14. Order of Titles in an opening sequence
of an independent movie:
1. Distribution Ident
2. Production Ident
3. Title
4. Cast / Stars
5. Casting
6. Music Supervisor
7. Costume
8. Production Designer
9. Director of Photography
10. Writer/Director
In our opening sequence, we challenged the order of titles as we put the title of the
movie in at the end of the opening which we thought was effective as it already
foreshadows what will happen later on in the movie which is that the 3 characters get
trapped in the lift. I think that the title of our movie would linger on for longer if it was
presented at the end because it seems more dramatic.
15. Overall, I think we used the conventions of
a teen film well as we represented our
characters well through Mise en Scene and
sound to show the differences between
them. I also like how we did use split
screens to show the different characters are
connected in some way which was to be
found out later on in the film.
