Planning for Teen Film Project

As a group we have had various ideas brainstorming ideas for our teen film project and we have narrowed it down to one main idea which will allow the audience to realise the key conventions of the opening of a teen film.

As a group our idea was generated around four main stereotypical characters who are the Jock, Nerd, The Princess and the Criminal. These characters are using a method called the 'travelling and arriving' sequence. Although all four characters are walking to school, they have different styles, paces, attitudes and physicality which are all distinctive and represent their different stereotypes. For example the 'nerd' will be walking at a fast pace and and constantly checking his time in order to be an hour early to school.




Mise en scene 
Mise-en-scene is important in showing the difference in the stereotypes and characters. For example, a nerd would be clear that a character was a nerd if s/he was wearing glasses, had a running nose and was quite petite in size. On the other hand, if a character was wearing all black and was quite big in size, it would be clear that they were some sort of criminal.

Also, lighting is important as, using the examples of the nerd and the criminal, there would be minimal lighting on the nerd to show that he is unimportant and in no position of power however the criminal would have bright lighting on him to show that he is the one to look out for.

In addition, body language & gesture is important in portraying the difference in character. The criminal would be upright and have smug facial expressions, but the nerd would be hunched over and avoiding eye contact.

Sound
In our teen sequence opening, we could use parallel sound for certain characters, such as the criminal, to show that they are important however for other characters, eg, the nerd, contrapuntal sound could be used to show that they are comical and not taken seriously.



Camera
In this teen film we look to have a range of meaningful and key shots in order to establish the teen film, furthermore use camera work in order to portray the characters in certain ways. So for example the 'nerd' would have a high angled shot to show that he is isolated and he is small in society.

Editing
Due to editing in our idea of our teen film, we brainstormed ideas such as :

• Match cuts 
• Cross cutting
• im going to add more later