The typical target audience of a coming of age teen film is teenagers, ages 12 to 18. Producers cater to this audience because the film displays topics and events they relate to as they are at the stage of their lives where they are coming into adulthood. The iconography in the coming of age subgenre is important because by using typical teenage items and belongings it establishes the age of the character. This appeals to the target audience by allowing them to relate to the characters in the film and could possibly compare themselves to the characters on screen.
Producers of coming of age films cater to teenagers because they enjoy watching coming of age films. Particularly female teenagers, because coming of age films usually have a romantic aspect to them for the female audience. Coming of age films contain themes the target audience will enjoy, like music or sports. The themes of a coming of age film appeal to the audience's interests and passions and make viewers want to watch the movie.
The protagonist of the film usually has a personality and style the audience can relate to. When I think of characters that have relatable personality and style the audience can relate to, I think of Maya and Anna from the show Pen15. They are two awkward and cringey teenage girls set in the year 2000 going through middle school. Though it is primarily about tweens and not teenagers, I still feel like their personalities represent the awkwardness and cringe-worthy experiences of youth.
When making this film opening, I was hoping my target audience would be teen girls, ages 12 to 18, and adults looking to reminisce on their youth and wanting to feel nostalgic. The love from adults for coming of age films comes mainly from nostalgia. No matter the time or culture the film is set in, the themes of hope, rebellion, and self-discovery are universal and relatable. Adults see parts of themselves in the characters on screen. Whether its a awkward teenager or a young adult, viewers can relate to the characters' personalities or experiences.
In my film opening, I want it to be the kind of film that can be enjoyed at the current age and can be looked back on when the teen girls get older and become women. I want the film to remind them of the unsurety and hopefulness of youth. I am going to do this by highlighting the contrasting personalities of Alejandra and Arianna. Alejandra's impulsivity will contrast with Arianna's anxiety and represent both sides of teenager's emotional spectrum, allowing a broader audience to be able to relate to the characters.
Hi! My name is Jocelyn Villa and my group members are Sophia Espinosa and Gabriella Offredi. For our portfolio we decided to do a film opening. It took a while, but we decided on the coming-of-age teen subgenre. We chose this subgenre because its a genre we understood and could relate too the most. The story being focused on teenage girls makes the planning process much simpler because we have first-hand experience and information about teenage girls' emotions and experiences.
Story Elements
I imagined that target audience of our film/film openings would be fellow teenage girls (ages 14-19) or young female adults that have already experienced teenage girlhood and want to reminisce (ages 20-35). I think that since the film/film openings is primarily focused on the teenage girlhood experience, teen girls would want to watch this movie to have relatable representation to their lives and young female adults would want to watch this film/film openings because they feel nostalgic and want to reminisce about their teen years.
The plan for Alejandra and Arianna is for them to be in their senior year of highschool, since Alejandra will have her license and the plot of the girls skipping school ties in to the stereotype of seniors not caring about school because they are about to graduate. Arianna is going to be the more rational of the duo while Alejandra will be more impulsive with her choices and decisions. I see their dynamic almost like Ferris Bueller and Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller's Day Off(1986). Ferris is confident and impulsive while Cameron is anxious and pessimistic. The girls will have an "opposites attract" friendship, similar to their's.
Technological Elements
Me and my groupmates have no prior experience with professional cameras, to my knowledge. Sophia has experience with her own personal projects using secon-hand cameras. My teacher will be supplying cameras to us to use for the film opening. Using a professional camera makes me a little nervous, but I think once I get the hang of it, I will be okay. I will be editing the film opening with Premier Pro, that is supplied to students for free and we used Premier Pro to edit a practice project in class so I am not as nervous about that aspect of technology. I am glad that I have never edited on any other software so learning to use Premier Pro was easy because I did not need to relearn any techniques or tools.
I am hoping, once it is time to film, that my teacher will give us a lesson on how to use the camera and how to upload the footage from the camera to Premier Pro for editing. If she doesn't that is something I will have to research on my own. For the microphones we will use I am unsure of why kind we need to get. Sophia has friends in the TV class that have experience with cameras and microphones so she will ask them which one would be best for us to get.
I think I will offer myself up to buying the microphones if it comes to it, with permission from my parents. I will have to wait for what Sophia's friends say. My next planning step, I think, is creating moodboards for the scenes and the characters to get a deeper understanding of their spirit and the aesthetic for the sets we are going to use.
Now that the characters have been cast, it is time to work on the first draft of the script. Me and the group already had an idea of how we wanted the film opening to start. We all agreed that the beginning of the film opening would show Alejandra (Gabriella) waking up to a loud alarm clock and she would try and fail to shut it off and resort to ripping the alarm clock out of the wall.
The film opening would continue with Alejandra getting ready for school and calling Arianna (Jocelyn) to let her know she is on the way to pick her up. Since we already had the plot idea and the progression of the film opening figured out, I helped figure out which camera movements, shots, and angles would look best and seem more fitting for the scene.
First Draft of Script:
In the script, we wanted the close friendship between Alejandra and Arianna to be established immediately and made clear to the audience. So we thought that my character, Arianna, calling Alejandra "Ale" when talking to Arianna on the phone while getting ready is an easy way to make their close relationship obvious and clear to the audience.
We wanted the film opening to be light-hearted and a little silly. The inclusion of Alejandra's disheveled state, her ripping the alarm clock out of the wall, and Arianna saying "You're still in your pajamas aren't you?" with the reveal of Alejandra in her pajamas as she laughs embarrassedly clearly expresses the comedic aspect of the coming of age genre.
The rest of the film opening and the scenes will be probably focused on the Alejandra and Arianna and Alejandra's car. We planned for the girls to grab some breakfast probably at a local Starbucks location and then they would drive to school. I pitched the idea that the last scene after the girls decide to skip school is a shot of the car driving away in a static shot so that the scene does not have too much finality but shows the audience that more events are going to occur after the cut.
The next step is to gather the props needed for the scenes. This would include an alarm clock, blush, a backpack, and I am assuming the food/drinks from Starbucks would be included. We are going to have to think more on how to shoot the getting breakfast scene. I will also have to find an empty spot in my schedule to figure out when to film since we have to film inside Gaby and Sophia's house. We cannot use my actual house as Arianna's because I don't live close enough so Sophia's house will be used as Arianna's house. I also have to figure out what outfit I can wear that will encapsulate the 2000s era and the aesthetic the teen girls had at the time.
Me and my group have decided the plot of the film opening, so now we had to figure out who will be acting as the characters. It was decided that Me and another one of my group members, Gabriella, will be acting in the film opening. My other groupmate, Sophia Espinosa, will be acting as a director and telling us what she wants from us to make the film opening best align with the subgenre and convey the spirit of our characters to the audience. She had the idea for me and Gaby to act in the film opening to make the film more authentic and make the characters more relatable to the audience. Sophia believed that having us as the actresses would make making the script easier because she knows us pretty well and she can model the characters after our personalities. She told me and Gaby that our lack of acting experience would tie in to the awkward personalities of a teenager.
Alejandra's actress - Gabriella Offredi
Arianna's actress - Jocelyn Villa
Gabriella Offredi will be playing the role of Alejandra. I, Jocelyn Villa, will be playing the role of Arianna. The actresses being the same age as the characters helps relate the characters to the audience. I imagined that the target audience of the film/film opening will be teenage girls and young women. The characters and actresses being the same age and the characters having similar personalities to me and Gaby will make it easier for us to get into character and emulate the experience of being teenager and a teenage girl. My other groupmate, Sophia Espinosa, will be acting as a director and telling us what she wants from us to make the film opening best align with the subgenre and convey the spirit of our characters to the audience.
Now that the actors have been cast, the next thing we have to work on is the first draft script of the film opening and figuring out the dialogue. I am wondering if we could work in some slang vocabulary from the 2000s ear into the dialogue. I figured that if the characters are teenage girls living in the 2000s, they would fully understand the language and references from that era. I discussed the idea with Sophia and we are working on finding words that we can work into the script that don't make the language feel unnatural and over-the-top.
In my next post, I will be talking about the script for the film opening!
Color theory in film is the purposeful use of color palettes, combinations, and contrasts to tell a story and get a reaction from the audience. The basic principles of color theory in film are: hue, saturation, contrast, and harmony. Hue is the color itself, saturation is the intensity of the color, contrast is light and dark, and harmony is how colors work together. Color theory in film shows how these principles combine to get a emotional and psychological impact that supports the plot of the film.
Color theory in film turns color into more than just for aesthetics but into a tool for storytelling. To execute color theory correctly, film makers have to understand the meanings behind colors and how to use them to their advantage. Film makers need to know how to use warm colors like red and orange to represent passion, energy, or danger and how to use cool colors like blue and green can represent calm, sadness, or nature. They also need to know how to use complementary colors to create tension and represent relationships between characters and how to use analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel) to create harmony in the scene.
Cinematography
Cinematography color theory is how directors and film makers use color to focus the audience's attention and create mood and support the plot of the film. Color theory cinematography is the purposeful use of lighting and color to get the desired effect that supports the story. Cinematographers apply color theory in many stages of production. In pre-production, they make color palettes that match the themes within the story and emotional arcs. While filming, they use colored lighting and practical elements that establish their color scheme. Postproduction, cinematographers fine tune the final look to change the mood and visual impact of the footage.
Examples
Wes Anderson's color theory shows how to use pastel colors with symmetrical compositions to create a whimsical, "dollhouse-like" world that feels nostalgic and perfect. Anderson's films always have a specific color palette that becomes a signature for him. Anderson uses color to set up the tone of the film and reinforce the essence he created in his fictional worlds.
Vittorio Storaro's color theory comes from a more psychological approach using specific cues that carry a symbolic meaning in the film. Storaro's films give emotional meaning to colors. Red meaning passion and life force, blue meaning spirituality and contemplation, and green meaning nature and growth. He uses color to create visual stories on a subconscious level.
For my film opening, I think it would be best to incorporate complementary colors in the scenes with the 2 main characters to further represent the relationship and the deep friendship they have. I think overall, throughout the whole film opening, analogous and warm colors should be used to create harmony in the scenes and give a joyful and warm feeling to the film opening.
The film opens to a black screen, and a drawing animation of the word "Autumn" is shown. The black screen then fades out into a long shot that shows a large house with a girl standing looking at a chair. The "autumn" animation is "erased" and there is a straight up to a closer long shot of the girl drinking from a jug still looking at the chair. There is another straight cut to a close up of the girl and a voice over, from the girl the audience is seeing, begins. Stating, "it started with a chair," cueing non-diegetic music and a flashback.
Using a straight cut, a two shot is used showing legs, in standard focus, and underwear falling to the floor with a shirtless man sitting in the chair the girl was looking at earlier. A push in camera movement is used when the legs in the foreground begin to walk toward the man sitting in the chair. There is a straight cut revealing the girl from the beginning, whose legs were shown earlier in the scene. She moves closer to the camera, resulting in a close-up shot. A straight cut is used to show an extreme close up of the girl's lips as she leans close to whisper in the man's ear, moving behind his head, only allowing the audience to see his lips and her ear that he is whispering in. The scene straight cuts to a close up and over the shoulder shot from behind the man as she leans in closer to him.
The flashback ends with the sound of a dog barking, cueing the flashback to end. There is an over the shoulder shot from behind the dog looking at the girl as she snaps back to reality and stops thinking about the flashback. There is a cut reverse cut from the girl and the dog we now know is "Banana" as she tells him to stop barking. A voice over begins again from the girl and cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the girl looking at the chair. There is a straight cut to a close of the girl drinking from the jug of "Sunny D". Non-diegetic music starts up again cueing a cut to the girl walking down the sidewalk using a panning camera movement that turns into a trucking movement once she is in the center of the frame. As the girl walks past a tree, the scene turns into an animation style, the same as the "Autumn" animation shown at the beginning of the opening. This starts opening credits and title cards featuring animations of the girl and her surroundings.
The film emphasizing the chair before the voiceover said, "it started with a chair.", subtly tells the audience that the chair is important to the plot/ to the girl staring at the chair. The flashback scene is filled with close ups and orange and yellow lighting. The combination of closeups and orange and yellow lighting give the scene a very intimate and memory-like feeling to the audience. The bluntness of the girl telling Banana to "shut his freaking gob" gives the audience insight to the girl as a character and her personality. The voice over being from the girl lets the audience know that she is the main protagonist of the maybe and leads the audience to assume that the girl is Juno. The animation sequence of the opening credits and title card gives the film a lighthearted and playful feeling.
The Perks of a Wallflower (2012) Analysis
I could not find a 2-minute video clip showing the opening sequence of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so I will just use the 10-minute video and stop at 2 minutes. Unlike Juno, where the opening credits are shown later on in the film's opening, The Perks of Being a Wallflower shows the opening credits immediately at the start of the film. The film opens up with the opening credits in front of a black screen with the sound of a typewriter in the background, tying in with the font of the opening credits that looks like it was typed on a typewriter. Non-diegetic acoustic music begins with the display of the title card.
There is a fade into a shot of what looks to be inside a tunnel or under a bridge with yellow and green lights, while also showing the road, with more opening credits displayed on the screen. This shot causes the audience to assume that the camera is attached to a car or vehicle of some kind. There is a straight cut to the camera showing only directly under the bridge instead of showing the rear POV of the vehicle where you can see the street along with the underside of the tunnel/bridge. There is another straight cut only displaying the side of the tunnel with the yellow lights flying by in a blur, showing the audience that the vehicle the camera is attached to is going very fast.
There is a panning camera movement to the opposite side of the tunnel and slightly down. This movement tells a lot to the audience because it causes the audience to wonder if that movement is from the POV of a person or if the movement was just a creative decision. There is a straight cut to a POV shot of the rear end of the car looking back at the exit of the tunnel. With another straight cut, the shot now changes to looking up at the underside of a large bridge with streetlights passing by. Another straight cut shows a POV shot of the rear end of the car and then a pan up movement to fade into black as the non-diegetic music fades out. The reoccurring cuts of the inside of the tunnel and the surroundings lets the audience subtly know that that tunnel and that area will be a part of an important moment in the film.
There is a fade into a panning movement, and a pull-out movement shows the reflection of a boy, that seems to be writing something, in the window he is sitting in front of. A voice over begins from the boy we see where he is reading a letter he is currently writing to his friend. There is a pull-out movement to reveal more of the boy and his surroundings. The audience can now see that he is sitting at a desk in his room. The voiceover reveals the timid and awkward way the boy speaks, giving the reader insight into his personality and his character. The rest of the boy's surroundings are dimly lit, and there is a bright overhead light above him. This adds emphasis to him and lets the audience know he is the voice in the voiceover and the main protagonist of the film.
I think that going the Juno route by having some more character centric scenes with the opening credits would be more fitting for the path we are looking to take with the film opening. I want our film opening to be lighthearted and bright like Juno and not serious and dark like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In the next post, I will be doing research on color theory in film. See you in the next post!
Me and my group have decided the title of our film opening will be "Beautiful Life", trying to capture the feeling of girlhood and freedom girls feel by being a girl or being feminine. We have figured out the logistics of what we are going to film and what the plot of the film opening will be. We also discussed the color of our title card will be but have not settled on anything. I wanted to do research about title sequences and the title card of a coming-of-age teen movie.
Title Sequences
A title sequence is a montage in film that presents the title of the movie, key production members, cast members, while using visuals and sound. The title sequence and opening credits are not the same. A title sequence is specifically designed to set the mood of the movie and often show narrative context. Opening credits are the list of cast and crew that helped make the film. Title sequences are typically short and usually appear in the exposition or beginning of the movie. The title sequence may include aspects that give the audience clues about the narrative of the movie. Sound is an important convention in film openings. Sound is typically included with non-diegetic music that sets up a specific mood for the scene. We are not allowed to use copy-righted music, so I am not sure how we will include sound into our film's opening. A voice over from a character in the film is also used in title sequences, so that is also an option to consider.
Font/Color
As I said before, me and my group were discussing the name and color of film opening. We did not, however, talk about what font we would like in our title card and opening credits. We talked about using a baby or pastel yellow, similar to the first 2 swatches of yellow in the picture below. I think it really captures the feeling we are going for for this film opening.
My group and I did not discuss what font we would like our title card to be yet. I was thinking of using a cursive font for the title card to give the movie a "girly" and feminine feeling since our film opening will be centered around girlhood. A font similar to the one below is what I had in mind, just in pastel yellow color.
I was also considering using a more childish font to capture the feeling of child-like and innocent girlhood the film opening is about. A font similar to the one below is exactly what I was thinking. I think the pastel yellow would be perfect with the childish font and the stars.
For the opening credits, I am unsure if they should be the same font as the title card. If we decide on the first title card option, I think this font would compliment it nicely.
I am caught between two options for the second more childish title card font. I think both of these give off the same feeling I am going for but I am unsure of which one fits better. I will have to talk about it with my group and hear their thoughts before making a decision.
Moodboard
This mood board I made, I think, perfectly captures the aesthetic of the film opening. I found images that showed friend duos from the 2000s, since that is the setting the film opening will be set in. I also tried to find images that represented freedom, joy, and adventure. Me and my group decided that the plot of the film opening will be a friend carpooling to school with another friend and deciding once they get to school, they want to be impulsive and rebel by ditching school and going on an adventure.
In my next post, I will be analysing 2 film openings of coming of age teen movies. See you in the next post!
