The document discusses how the filmmaker's media product fits within and challenges conventions of the "chick flick" genre. It establishes that chick flicks typically feature teenage female protagonists and focus on their friendships, fashion, and romantic relationships. The filmmaker aims to appeal to a female audience through similar characters, settings, costumes, music and themes. However, their film challenges conventions by focusing solely on the relationship between two female friends, without a romantic male character, and uses jump cuts in editing rather than a normal pace.

1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of existing media products?

2.  The genre of my film is romantic
comedy or chick flick. Since they are
highly budgeted films so I chose
Hollywood as my institution because it
has produced more chick flicks than
any other institution. Whereas
Paramount Pictures is my media
institution since it has produced a few
top grossing romantic comedies or
chick flicks. Some of the romantic
comedies produced by Paramount
Pictures include : Runaway bride
(1999), What women want (2000),
How to lose a guy in 10 days (2003),
The prince and me (2004), Mean
Girls (2004), Elizabeth town (2005),
She’s out of my league (2010), No
Strings attached (2011). Runaway
bride is one of the highest grossing
romantic comedy film of all time, the
film had grossed $309,457,509
worldwide.

3.  Where as chick flicks
produced by other media
institutions include ‘A
Cinderella Story’, ‘Wild
Child’, ‘The Prince &
Me’, ‘The Sisterhood of the
travelling pants’ , ‘Mean
Girls’ etc. Mean Girls
grossed over $129 million
worldwide. It talks about
the kind of teenage drama
that a teenage girl goes
through. “From Prada to
Nada” is also another popular
chick flick in which a
comparison is shown between
a nerd and chick. Hence, my
film shares similarities with it.

4.  The genre Chick flick mainly dealing
with love and romance and designed to
appeal to a largely female target
audience. Although many types of films
may be directed toward the female gender,
"chick flick" is typically used only in
reference to films that are heavy with
emotion or contain themes that are
relationship-based (although not
necessarily romantic as many other
themes may be present).They are typically
perky, upbeat, modern, and post-feminist
in tone, although some movies do have
sad and dramatic elements as well.
Generally, A chick flick is a film designed
to appeal to women, typically young
women and teenage girls. Some frequent
elements of chick flicks include having a
female protagonist, thematic use of the
color pink , and romance and/or dating
based storylines. The female characters in
a chick flick are usually strong women
who overcome adversity to reach their
goals.

5.  My film “Inversely
proportional” also targets
female audience by showing a
comparison between two
completely opposite friends who
share a strong bond of
friendship. My film follows a set
of codes and conventions which
every chick flick does. I made
use of all the elements of the mis
en scene e.g.
Settings, Props, Costume, Lig
hting, Sound and Editing
techniques to help my
audience recognize the genre of
my film and differentiate
between the characters.

6.  The mis en scene used in the film
will depict everything as very
fresh, bubbly and girly. Every object
in the film will be very cute, pretty
and glamorous. For Instance, in the
film “From Prada to Nada” some
of the scenes of the chick (Mary) are
shot in shops whereas the scenes of
the nerd (Nora) are shot in a library.
Even the main location of the film
“Mean Girls” is a high school which
shows that the film is aimed at
teenagers. Similarly in my
film, “Inversely Proportional”, the
location of scene 2 is a shopping
mall which signifies that the genre
of my film is chick flick because
chicks love shopping.
And, since scene 1 shows a nerd, it
is shot in a study room.

7.  The Props used in chick flicks
also represents the interests of
the character. These props may
include
photographs, magazines, smart
phones, make up etc. A good
example of this is “Mean Girls”.
The chicks in such films are
usually shown trying out
clothes, sunglasses or other stuff
e.g. Mary in “From Prada to
Nada”.
Even in my film, Flora (chick) is
seen using her make up in the
mall. She even has a smart
phone.
My character Flora (chick) is also
shown trying clothes in a shop.

8.  Other than that, Nora (nerd)
in “From Prada to Nada” is
shown surrounded by books
always even when is outside.
Just like that, Bella (nerd) in
my film is working on her
book in the first scene. There
are a lot of books, novels,
papers and files on her study
table. Bella is even reading
the novel in the mall.
This will help the audience to
understand the nature and
interests of the character.

9.  In a chick flick, the kind of
clothes worn by the chick will
always be branded, bright,
very trendy and up-to-date
with all the latest fashion
trends. She must be seen
wearing a lot of makeup.
For instance, the clothes of
the girls in “Mean Girls” and
Mary in “From Prada to
Nada” suggest that they are
chicks.
But the nerd would be
wearing casual clothes and
must be simple. Like Nora in
“From Prada to Nada” wears
casual clothes and glasses.

10.  The chick (Flora) in my film is
seen wearing a funky sleeveless
top with a jacket over it. She is
wearing heels, jewelry, a lot of
makeup and is carrying a
branded bag as well which
clearly suggests that she is a
chick. She is even fixing her
lipgloss in one of the scenes;
hence she cares a lot about her
looks.
On the other hand, the nerd
(Bella) is seen in a simple and
casual dress with no makeup
and jewelry. She seems to be
least bothered about her looks.
The glasses she is wearing is a
symbol of her being a nerd as
well.

11.  The Characters shown in the film will
always be young girls, mostly teenagers.
This is so because the target audience
of the chick flick genre is the teenaged
age group of the female audience. The
characters can only be relatable to the
female audience if they are female as
well. Therefore, the characters will have
stories that the audience will enjoy.
Usually, the characters go to school and
have all female friends. The
relationship between these friends is
given a lot of attention, showing
scenes, in which the friends do each
other’s make-over’s, go shopping
together and discuss each other’s
problems, as any ordinary group of
friends would.
The film “Sisterhood of the
travelling pants” also highlights the
bond of friendship where all the girls
share a strong bond of friendship and
goes for shopping together.

12.  Even in “Mean Girls”,
Cady’s friends are shown
doing her makeover.
The two sisters in “From
Prada to Nada” also
discuss their problems
with each other despite
being completely different.
This is what my film
exactly highlights.

13.  The editing used in chick flicks is
usually very fast, and hence this is
what I’ve done in my film as well.
The background music used is
very cheerful, fast-paced and
fun, mostly using the pop-rock
genre of music as that is preferred
by the majority of teenagers. Such
music is used to create a sense of
youth and excitement, also creating
a fresh and bubbly atmosphere. It
would be the kind of music that the
audience would want to listen to
regularly. The music used in my film
“California Gurls (Instrumental)
by Katy Perry” is an upbeat, happy
and modern tune with pop
influences.
Such music is also used in “From
Prada to Nada” and “Mean Girls”.

14.  The Title of my film has
also been made
according the female
audience. Once
again, depicting the
image of
fun, bubbly, and bright
youth, but, being very
girly at the same time (as
the color pink and is
always associated with
females).

15. CHALLENGES

16.  Usually in a chick, there is
a guy . And one of the girls
fall in love with him , be it
a chick or a nerd. The plot
then revolves around their
love story and the problem
they encounter in their
relationship. Examples of
such chick flicks include,
“Mean Girls”, “From
Prada to Nada” and
“Sisterhood of the
travelling pants”.

17.  My film challenges this
convention by not having a
guy in it. The plot solely
revolves around two girls and
their friendship instead of a
guy and girl’s love story and
the problems in their
relationship. This proves that
a chick flick can be made
without a guy and this will
appeal the audience since
there are hardly any chick
flicks which doesn’t have a
guy in it so this will be a
completely different and new
thing for the audience.

18.  Apart from that my film
challenges another
convention in the editing
process i.e. through the use
of jump cuts. Usually chick
flicks doesn’t use jump
cuts and have a normal
pace but I’ve used jump
cuts in my film to increase
its pace and it actually goes
with my film, especially
the fast music.