Media coursework

2. My media product: The Culture
Clash
The media product I have created is a
opening scene which consists of a
maximum of two minutes.
My opening scene is a romantic comedy set in King
Cross about a student called Olamide who is studying at
Westminster Kingsway College. Exams are approaching and a
Jamaican girl called Shamica in his class catches his eye.
Olamide is anxious about introducing her to his parents as
coming from a Nigerian home, they expect him to come home
with a potential wife who is also Nigerian so it is unlikely they’d
warm to the idea of him having a Jamaican girlfriend.
The title of the opening scene
‘The Culture Clash’

3. What inspired my media
product?
As a group we chose a Nigerians vs.
Jamaican theme as the conflict between
both countries is often brought up
amongst our age group which is a
common form of “banter” we share.
You tubers such as ThatDudeMcFly also
played a big part in swaying us to choose
this theme as he portrayed the conflict
between Nigerian vs. Jamaicans in a
comical way which we found funny.
From my research of opening scenes, we
also came up with the idea of adding
romance in the middle of this humorous
conflict which will add even more laughter
to the film. Also widening our audience as
it has a bit of comedy and romance.

4. Conventions of a opening
scene
Opening scenes consist of a production/studio company logo, genre, titles,
topics and themes, establishing the genre, introducing the characters,
events/actions, sound (theme music/non-diegetic sounds, narrations, and
enigma which helps to create tension and question in the opening scene.
In my opening scene, it opens with ‘The Culture Clash’ title. This title reveals the
name of the film and is also self explanatory so it tells the audience that it’s
about a clash between cultures. I think, at first, the opening scene makes it
seem as if the film is a comedy rather than a romantic comedy until
Olamide’s girlfriend Shamica is mentioned. All four main characters are
revealed in the opening scene. Initially, we were only going to introduce
three of four main characters but then there wouldn’t of been enough shown
in the opening scene to keep our target audience interested. We didn’t use
any theme music but we opened the scene with dialogue and we added
music to use as the ringtone. There wasn’t any narration in our opening
scene, instead there was dialogue between characters so it wasn’t needed.

5. Convention examples
Titles/
cast/credits
Genre: romantic
comedy

6. Camera
In the opening scene, we didn’t use many shots but they still got the point
across effectively. A cut away shot of Shamica’s phone was used to show
where the audience where the noise was coming from and to also show that
this is the cause of the disruption. A mid shot of Shamica in slow motion is
then used to show that the phone belongs to her, show her emotions and
reveal to the audience where it all goes down hill as this scene reveals she’s
Jamaican which isn’t a ideal candidate to be Olamide’s potential wife in his
parents opinion. This shot of his parents reveals shows their reaction to
what had just happened and this shot reveals that they aren’t pleased at all.

7. Sound
We didn’t use any sound throughout
the opening scene apart from the
song (Spice - so mi like it) we used
as Shamica’s ringtone. The tempo
of the music disturbs the calm,
tranquil scene of everyone praying
at the dinner table. The climax of
the film is when this ringtone begins
to play and not only does it get a
reaction from Olamide’s parents but
it also startled the audience as they
weren’t expecting it.

8. Mise–en-scene
Mise-en-scene includes acting, location, lighting and costume. We
chose dim lighting which focused in the light in the centre of the
table as that is where the thing which would cause havoc would be,
as well as show the characters sitting around it. Olamide’s parents
acting as ‘typical’ African parents. The mother wore a head wrap
which is what most female African mothers wear whilst the father
had a pop belly, wore glasses and continued stroke his beard and
this is what African fathers typically look like. Olamide and Shamica
were presented as average teenagers as they dressed causally; it
was crucial that we did this so that the audience could relate to the
film. We chose to disguise our classroom as a dinning room as it
was most convenient and looked the most realistic.

9. Editing
To edit the opening scene of The Culture Clash we used a software
called Premiere Pro. A shot of the movie title ‘The Culture Clash’
was created using text and changing the background to a bold
colour which brought out the text. Scenes were then put together in
chronological order. When it came to the shot of the phone, the
song was then added to the scene to make it seem as if it was
playing from the phone. We also chose to do this as the music
could be enhanced more and clearer. We chose the slow motion
effect when Shamica was answering the phone and for the scene of
the parent’s reaction. We also made the scene of the parent’s
scene black and white to show that this is a classic example of
African’s reaction to a typical Jamaican.