Details of: Proposed Opening Sequence

1. AS Media Group 047Main Task Coursework Powerpoint Ben Nagle, Rachel Grizaard, Jon Stowell, Connor Nestor

2. Proposed Opening Sequence Our opening sequence will begin with a student (roughly aged 17) walking down a busy corridor. It will be a point-of-view shot and as he is walking he will be getting pushed and shoved. The idea behind this is that he is getting bullied; he is lost in a world that he does not feel he belongs. As he reaches the end of the corridor he will enter a classroom and sit at the front. Using a green screen, the other students in the class will be moving around in the background, laughing and joking, while he sits quietly at the front. This will continue for around 30 seconds. When this short scene is finished, the camera will cut to the ‘victim’ walking out of college. As he reaches the back entrance, there are a group of students and they begin the push him again. As he nears the road, the shoving will intensify and the whole sequence will climax when he stumbles into the road and gets hit by a passing car. As he rolls over the bonnet, the camera will cut to black, and the name of the film will appear in big letters, black on white. This film fits into our ‘Social Realism’ genre because it is set at college. Bullying is something that happens at every school and college, and people will relate what is happening in the film to real life. The audience, I think, will be intrigued by the opening because they will want to know what has happened to the boy (has he survived?) and what happens to the bullies (do they get away with it, or do they get caught?). Also, the audience will want to know the background of the story, such as: ‘How has it got to this point? Why is the boy getting bullied?’

3. Genre Target Audience: - We would say that our target audience is teenagers and young people in general. 13-19 years olds will understand the concept the best, as they go to school and college and experience what is happening first-hand. Research Methods: - We have written a questionnaire which asks what you would expect to see in a Social Realism, and bullying was a typical response. As a group, we chose a number of Social Realism films to study, such as ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels’. The first of which has a lot of bullying in it, and this confirms that that is one of the main conventions involved with this type of film. The second of our research films is centered around gang culture, and illegalities. Bullying is similar to this, as people get hurt.

4. Character Roles and Actions There is one main character in our opening sequence, and that is the ‘victim’ of bullying. He is not named in the opening sequence, you would find that out later on in the film. There are lots of other minor characters, and they will all play bullies or random students. They are typical to the social realism genre because they are all college students, and the genre usually refers to some sort of educational establishment. Our target audience will be attracted to the characters because they can relate to them. They are all the same age, and school/college life is something that they will be familiar with. We are going to confirm viewers preconceptions of what happens in the genre, as our film centres around bullying; this is common in social realism.

5. Settings and Locations Our opening sequence is set at a college, and I think that this is most definitely typical of the genre we have chosen. We move from a corridor to a classroom at the start (both of which will be recognisable to all viewers) and then to the entrance of the college, where the main character will be hit by a car. This last location is not typically associated with college, but as it is next to it, we felt it would be ok.

6. Key Scenes and Effects -Suspense We have created an element of suspense in our opening sequence when the character gets hit by the car. We are attempting to trigger questions in the audiences mind, such as: “Does he survive?” and “What has he done wrong to make this happen?” -Enigma We would also say that there is a kind of enigma involved, as you don’t know anything about any of the characters. They appear at the start of the film, and we do not establish names and characteristics in the first scene. This will leave the audience asking more questions. -Action There is an action part of our scene as well, when the ‘victim’ gets hit by a car at the end. He is getting bullied and pushed around before hand, and as this is violent it could also be classed as action.