The social groups represented in the opening are average teenage girls aged 16-18. The main character is depicted as a normal, nice teenage girl so that the target audience can relate to her. Including an average girl that viewers can identify with helps them feel empathy for her when she experiences sadness from being dumped, encouraging them to continue watching. Questionnaires with the target audience found they preferred to see everyday teenage girls rather than stereotypical popular characters.

1. Media Evaluation-
Question 1
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Nicole wilding
Lauren Davies
Sharni O’Sullivan

2. Titles
• The titles are on screen with the film playing behind, the reason for this is because if the scene is too long
for example the scene where she is walking home, the viewer may get bored so by adding the titles it
doesn’t make the scene feel as long as your reading the titles. However we’ve made sure the titles aren't
too long to read as if they concentrating reading it all they may miss out what's going on in the opening so
they might not get what happens later on.
• The titles we’ve used are placed at the bottom so not much of screen is covered from the titles and you
can still see what’s going on. We’ve also made sure the size of the font is big and clear to read so the
viewers can clearly read it without straining there eyes.
• We’ve set the titles on a transition which makes the titles look less boring and more fun rather than them
just being sat there. The length of the transitions had to be done properly as we didn’t want them on for
too long but on the other hand didn’t want them on too quick so the audience couldn’t read it in time, so
we decided to put the titles on for roughly 4 seconds which is plenty of time for the audience to read
them.
• The colours used for the title on our film are bright colourful girly colours like pinks turquoises and lime
greens, by using this particular colours people watching the opening will no that its going to be a romance
or romantic comedy straight away. As for example if we was to use the colour red it could mean two
different them being love or death which could confuse the audience in what genre the film actually is.
The font used is a bold curly font which again looks feminine so the viewers know what the film is going to
lead to.

3. Music
• The reason we chose the crush background music was because it sounds like a very happy bouncy song
which helps to show the genre of the film, it also helps the audience to understand that the main
character is in a very happy mood.
• I think it was a good idea to use music at the beginning while the titles are on because it helps it to be
more interesting and stops it from being boring while the viewer waits for the film to begin. It also makes
it seem like the titles aren't staying on screen for to long because you have something to listen to and your
not just sat looking at a quiet screen.
• We made it so the music fades in at the beginning to it doesn't just quickly jump to the song, because this
would make the film seem rushed and wouldn't look as professional as it would if the song slowly came
on, it also fades out at the end of the song so it doesn't suddenly just cut out, by doing this it shows the
viewer that something is going to happen and it makes them start watching properly.
• The music we used to put over the top of the main character walking, is a non-diegetic sound mainly
because we didn't need any diegetic sound as its only the opening and there isn't anything really
happening so there was no need for any other type of sound.

4. Dialogue
• In our opening we decided to include a small amount of dialogue, by including this it gives a good
introduction to the characters and opens up the story to the film nicely, the two teenagers are talking
about their plans, by doing this it would cause the audience to want to know what happens next. This
dialogue gives the audience a chance to get to know the characters and helps them get attached to
them, this is an important factor for what happens later in the opening (the girl getting dumped, when this
happens we want the viewer to feel sad for the girl, making them want to watch on). However in the film
we didn’t want to include to much dialogue because this would be boring for the person watching the
opening for example, in our film if we just included two people talking about themselves for the full two
minutes this wouldn’t be appealing at all.
• From the research that we carried out on previous romantic comedies we noticed that there wasn’t really
any dialogue included into the opening, just a little bit of a conversation mentioning the main characters
names etc, it was mainly music our film does have music playing through out when there isn’t any diegetic
sound. So by including dialogue it automatically made our romantic comedy different from others.
Enigma – What makes the viewer want to watch on
• A break up is the biggest cliff hanger in the opening two minutes, this part should be what makes the
viewer want to continue watching the film simply because they feel sorry about what has happened to
her.

5. Shots/Angles - movements
• Scene 1: in the café with a friend
• Over the shoulder shot
• Shot reverse shot between the two friends
• Two shot
• Scene 2: main character walking home
• Close up (to show her face – emotion happy
• Wide angle to show she’s walking
• Scene 3: main character outside house
• Close up of turn the key in the door
• Match on action of her walking in the door showing both sides
• Scene 4: main character in house
• Close up of boyfriends photo
• Close up of her phone with a new message
• Close up of her opening the message from her boyfriend saying “your dumped”
• Pan shot from the TV to her on the sofa
• Close up of her face showing sad emotion
• Wide angle of her showing what she’s wearing and doing

6. Mise en Scene
• Setting
- The setting to the opening of our film is simple, it opens with two friends talking in a cafe at school, this sets the scene and confirms that the characters in
the movie are teenagers. Making the film a little more simple for audience to understand
- Then it cuts to a scene where one of the girls is walking home
- Finally we see the girl at home
• Costume
- We tried to keep the costumes in the film as relatable as possible. In the first two setting the two girls are seen wearing very light colours, dressed nicely
and girls. These colours make the both the girls come across as being happy and friendly.
- Then in the last scene, after the girl gets dumped, we see the girl dressed in all black, by using black this makes the contrast between the first scenes more
effective (when she was dressed in bright girly colours) and helps get across the feeling that she is sad.
Lighting:
- In the first scenes we want to get across the fact that the girl is happy, we used very bright lighting, on more then one occasion we see the sun on the girls
face (by doing this it makes the girl appeal to be more natural and from the questionnaires that we handed we found that the majority of people that
watched romantic comedies would rather see someone that they could relate to), because the lighting is very bright this emphasising the happiness
that we want to be displayed.
- Yet after the girl gets dumped and the costume has been changed (the girl being dressed in black) the lighting in the film changes to being a little darker.
By doing this affect it shows that the girl is sad, making the over all look better because then the audience should feel some emotion when they see
this happening to her, causing them to want to watch on.
• Make up:
- Make up in the film is an important factor because this will help the audience understand what kind of person she is because stereotypically if the person
is wearing very little make up then she is a natural person that is nice and friendly. In our film the girls make up is perfect, we tried to get the
message across that she is a fresh and happy person.
- Then in the next scenes (after she gets dumped) her make up is ruined, she has dark eyes making the look of her being sad even more obvious. Yet this
does add a little humour to the scene.
• Expression:
- On all of the main expressions that we wanted getting across to the audience there is a close up on the person for example when she gets dumped we
wanted to audience to see that she was sad and when she was happy we did close ups to show this. By doing this it helps the audience get attached
to the main character.
• Props:
- By adding props it makes the film seem more realistic and interesting we used, ice cream, a mobile phone, keys, a picture and a TV. Without using these
props our film wouldn’t work as well.

7. Conventions
• What sort of text did you look at to learn these conventions?
To get a rough idea of the different styled text used in romantic comedies we watched a vary
of romantic comedies on DVD. By doing this it gave us a clear understanding and a good idea
of the text we were going to use in our opening.
• How have you used them in opening?
We’ve used the conventions in our films by including appropriate text which relates to
romantic comedies that you usually see. We’ve also included dialogue, background music and
different camera shots and angles.
Including titles, dialogue and background music, different camera shots and angles

8. Sound and editing
Sound
• In this film we didn't have much diegetic sound because it was the opening so it didn't have
much talking in it because we were mainly trying to introduce some of the characters and
trying to get the storyline across. We did have the sounds of the television and the sound of a
text message we did this so it is easier for the viewers to understand what's going on because if
there was no sound and there was a shot of the TV or a phone they might get a bit confused.
Editing
• When editing we had to make sure that it was done properly so when we played it back there
was no scenes that jumped. So we had to make sure each shot flowed in to the next scene. We
used match on action to make it look more effective while she was walking through the
door, for example if we didn't use it there would only be a shot of her back while she walks
through the door, however because we did you get to see her going through the door, then
another shot from the other side of the door so you can see her in the house. In the middle of
the film we used an ellipsis that goes from the main character getting a text message, with a
black screen lasting for about 4 seconds saying ‘2 hours later...’ then there's another scene
where she's watching an old film with ice cream. I think this is really effective because it builds
up a tension and makes them want to see what's going to happen next.

9. Media Evaluation-
Question 2
How does your product represent particular social groups?
Nicole wilding
Lauren Davies
Sharni O’Sullivan

10. What types of people are in the opening/social
groups?
• The types of people that are in the opening I would say are your normal average teenage girl. The reason
why I have chosen this type of social group is so other people watching the opening can relate to what’s
actually going on. For example if I was to use your average popular, blonde, head of the cheerleading team
girl which is seen in a lot of teenage romantic comedy films, it wouldn’t make my opening very different as
this has been done a lot of times before. The age group that I have used in my film is between 16-18 years
of age as when I handed out my questionnaires this was the most popular answer given back, which I think
this works well as if I want teenage girls to relate in this, I wouldn’t put in a 12 or 22 year old girl in the
opening as they wouldn’t connect in the same way as if it were someone their own age.
• By including the normal, average, nice type of girl in my opening I want the audience to be attached to the
girl and for them to feel sorry for her when she gets dumped. I also want the audience to relate to her if
they have ever gone through the same as what she did.
What types of people are in the group/ social
group?
When designing the film I wanted to make it as realistic and relatable as possible and for this to work the characters I
choose to include had to be average teenage girls, because this is the type of audience that are more likely the watch
this genre of film (romantic comedy, if sound out this information from watching previous romantic comedies and seeing
what type of style the characters are). The types of characters in my film are normal 16 year old teenage girls that are
nice, friendly and welcoming. When I was trying to decide what types of characters to include I handed around
questionnaires to the target audience only, to see what type people they would like to see, and the main majority of
answers I got back about this question where that they would prefer to see an average teenage girl. This is because if
you make the girl like that the target audience (16-18) will be able to relate to the girl.
From included girls like this it will help the audience get attracted to the characters meaning that they will feel sad when
she feels said and feel happy when she’s happy (depending on the type of music that is being included into the film also
depends on how the audiences emotions are effected). Because of this it will be more likely that the audience will want
to watch on through the film because of what they see happening to her. In my two minute opening the girl gets
dumped, when this happens the audience the audience should feel sadness meaning this should encourage the audience
to watch on.