R+P Post 10: Reflections so far and looking ahead

What went well:

• We worked well as a group to collate our research and also plan an opening that we have all had an input in.
• We have managed to come up with an opening sequence idea which meets the demands of the brief.
• We have researched many other movies which are of a similar genre to our film to draw inspiration from and study the conventions of a film opening. 
• We all stuck to the rules and all contributed equally.

Looking ahead:

• We will create an animatic which will help us with the timing of the shots.
• Then a storyboard which is a visual representation of our opening sequence where we can also see the different camera movements and framing
• We will then go on to create a shootboard and then a test shoot followed by a rough cut to help us see further improvements that need to be made in order to make this project a success.
• We will also continue to work efficiently and cooperate with each other to make this a success. 

R+P Post 9:Our Script

As a group we have decided that the best way to script our film opening would be with a voiceover as it will anchor what the visual video is saying and emphasise the fact that he's going on his first date and at the same time reveal a bit more about him to the audience.

Voiceover First Draft:

Hi, I’m Guy. I’ve been single for the past 19 years, which is my whole life.

I’m so unlucky… it seems nothing ever goes my way
But… last month, I met the girl of my dreams. We met online and today I’m finally going on a date! Me! Going on a date! My first ever date!

The last time I tried talking to a girl, she completely ignored my presence.
It’s awkward because that’s the closest I’ve ever got to a girl who isn’t my mum.

For the first time in my life, I feel like my luck is changing.

I’ve got to try my hardest to get this right, that means no talking about games, science or chess.
I’m wearing my best shirt, styling my hair and putting on my best aftershave.
I’m even wearing a tie.

Anyway, got to go! Don’t wanna be late.

We weren't particularly happy with this voiceover as it didn't extend all the way until the end and also it didn't really fit in with the shots so we got on with writing a second draft. 

Voiceover Second Draft: 

Hi I'm Guy, or as my friends call me, 'Starlord'.

I've been single for a very long time, well basically my whole life but today I've got a blind date and it's all gonna change!

I'm a really interesting person; I like so many different things like Call of Dity, Halo, Runescape and apparently cold showers. 

Others may think I'm a bit weird but I just like to think I'm out there. I have a unique style which I feel makes me quite the catch.

I like to impress, so as you can tell, I work out. 

I like to take a lot of care with my hair. To be honest, if my date doesn't like my hair, I think she's gonna have to go. 

I'm going all out for this girl, so I need to smell even greater than usual.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm already lat, so I better go and turn on the charm for thus lucky girl.

Bye!

We weren't satisfied with this voiceover script either as we felt it didn't really portray our character the way we wanted him to be portrayed. He comes across as a bit cocky and arrogant. We are really struggling at this point so we decided to ask Chris, our media technician for some help and inspiration. 

This is what we came up with as our third and final draft, with the help of Chris:

This is a story about a guy. 

A guy called Guy

And that guy is me. 

Bear in mind that the guy you're looking at is a very different guy to guy I am now and that this Guy is a guy who doesn't really know what he wants. 

Except a girlfriend. I always wanted one of those. 

One of my friends set me up on a blind date. 

However, good old Guy didn't always have the best luck...

But then he was the kind of guy that preferred shorts in the winter and chose to wear a Hawaiian shirt because it showed character. 

He was the kind of guy who looked in a mirror and knew he looked hot...

And you know, he really did believe that a litre of aftershave complimented that hair style. 

Problem is, he wasn't, I wasn't some ordinary Guy. 

I was Guy. 

Looking back, I probably shouldn't have stopped every five minutes to indulge my obsessions... but beating the tenth wave of zombies that day really did help my gamer score. 

*cough*

So this is me, on my first date

And not one person stopped to tell me, 'Guy, you look like a muppet.'

We are much more satisfied with this voiceover script as it matches with our shots and will help the audience gain a much better impression of Guy, and who he is as a person. 

R+P Post 8: Our Opening Sequence Idea

Our opening sequence is shown through a routine where we see Guy getting ready for his date.

The alarm clock goes off at 7:00am and we see Guy get out of bed and walk to his bathroom. However, when preparing for a shower he turns the water on too cold and we can hear him scream. We then see him skip excitedly out of the bathroom to choose his date outfit which turns out to be hideously ugly. He also styles his hair in a really unattractive manner although he seems to think he looks amazing which we can tell from the compliments that he's paying himself through the dialogue. He walks out of the bathroom and does a little dance which further emphasises his cheeriness and how excited he is for this date.

He then manages to spill coffee down himself and onto his shirt. However, he doesn't have time to change as he's almost late so he has no choice but to run out the house looking like an absolute mess. We then see him running up hills and around bends until he finally reaches his date, Bella, who's waiting for him outside the restaurant. Bella takes one look at Guy and the audience also sees what he looks like from her viewpoint, a total and utter mess. She then makes an excuse to leave and she leaves Guy who looks distraught which will be emphasised with the close up of his face.

The majority of the opening sequence will be shot in Guy's house, mainly his bedroom as we watch him get ready for his date with some scenes towards the end of the opening sequence being set outside.

We are aiming to maintain the continuity of our sequence by using things like eye-line matches, cross cutting, shot reverse shots when Bella and Guy first meet and have a conversation and also point of view shots where we see Guy through Bella's eyes.


Our titles will be overlayed over the action similar to other films such as 'She's the Man'. However, our titles will not be as prominent as they will just be in simple white text so as not to draw any attention away from the action of the shot. Our film title, 'The Life of Guy' won't be overlayed but will be on a separate shot at the end of the opening sequence and the ditributor and production company will have a separate shot at the beginning as well.



The music will be quite upbeat and positive which juxtaposes the action and sticks to our theme of light hearted rom-com. This is similar to other films such as 'Superbad' which starts off with very happy upbeat music.

R+P Post 7: Our film's title and plot outline

We have decided to name the title of our film 'The Life of Guy'

We feel like this really emphasises what our film is about and it's sort of comical as it's based off of the film 'The Life of Pi' but about our main character, Guy, instead.

Our film is essentially about a really unlucky, nerdy, 19 year old guy named Guy who is socially awkward and doesn't fit in. In the beginning of the film we are introduced to his character as he gets ready for a first date with a girl he met online. However, this goes horribly wrong and the girl, Bella, ends up running away from him. During the middle section of the film, we see him trying to get over his rejection and also a bit about his Uni life and how he doesn't fit in until he meets this girl, who becomes his best friend. She teaches him how to fit in and what he can and can't do on a date and basically trains him to be socially accepted. Eventually, by the end of the film this does happen and he finds himself surrounded by friends and even has a girlfriend.  His luck changes.



Our film follows two main narrative theories. One of them is Todorov's theory about the narrative structure of the film where he says that the film starts with an equilibrium then there is a disequilibrium (disruption) and then by the end of the film there will be a new equilibrium. In 'The Life of Guy' the first equilibrium is the life that Guy's used to, basically being socially awkward and a gaming geek who doesn't fit in. The disequilibrium would be when he meets his girl best friend who pushes him past his comfort zone and does various things to change the lifestyle that he is used to. The new equilibrium would then be Guy as a changed man. He has friends, he's no longer socially awkward and he also manages to get a girlfriend!

The second theory that our film follows is Levi Strauss's binary opposites theory which refers to related terms or concepts which are opposite in meaning. In our film there are many binary opposites such as cool vs geek, socially accepted vs socially awkward, stylish vs shabby and so on. These binary opposites help to drive the story and are important in a narrative.

R+P Post 6: Our chosen genre and how we plan to connote this

Our chosen genre is rom-com.

We are highlighting the comedic aspect of the film by taking quite sad situations and making them light hearted and funny so that the audience can laugh at it as opposed to dwell on the actual situation. For example, we have a bit at the end of our opening where Bella rejects Guy and then he pulls a really sad face which we will show using a close up shot. This is bound to make the audience laugh as we can understand why Bella has rejected him (from his state) but he can't see or understand the reason. Also Guy's positive mental attitude in the beginning of the film opposed to everything that goes wrong is also bound to make the audience laugh. This is quite a typical genre convention as many other rom-com's such as 'John Tucker Must Die' and 'The Inbetweeners 2' show how quite a serious situation can be shown in a comedic way to make the audience laugh.


Our main character is also a really unstable, socially awkward, nerdy guy which is used in many rom-com's to get the audience to laugh at someone else's misfortunes. We got this idea from a film called 'Bridget Jones' Diary' where there is also a character who is really quite unlucky.




The romantic aspect of the film will be clearly shown within the opening as we see Guy getting ready for his very first date. Since this might not be clear with just the action it will be cemented using the voiceover where we he will physically mention the fact that he's getting ready for his date. There will also be other romantic factors throughout such as him getting a girlfriend by the end of the film and other couples around the campus.

R+P Post 5: How we plan to attract/address our target audience

Our core target audience are fans of rom-com. We plan to attract our core audience by:

• the light-hearted take on quite a sad and typical situation
• the story line is quite relatable as many of our audiences will have experienced the excitement of going on your first date and the nervousness you feel before it
• the comedy aspects of the opening sequence such as our main character being quite unlucky when it comes to most things in life.

Since we want to attract both the female and male audiences we chose to make our main character a male so that when males come to see the film they get a sense of relief that they're not like him and they can laugh at his misfortunes. The females are most likely to feel sympathetic towards Guy as that is a stereotypical nature that we associate with women. This is similar to the film '22 Jump Street' as both the main characters are male and the film has a equal viewing from both men and women.

The film is also set mainly in a uni campus which will also be relatable to students and young adults as they are aware of the surroundings and how the social groups of a campus usually work. The opening sequence of the film is mainly set in Guy's bedroom so again there is another appeal to the male audience as there are loads of games around and the typical blue bedroom. 

R+P Post 4: Representations of social groups in our opening sequence

Since our film will be set on a University campus, one of the focal social groups we will be representing is the students.

Students are usually portrayed in most films as being very casual, not particularly high class with a part time job and low wages.

However, since the term 'student' encompasses a huge variety of people there is usually a break down in the social groups, e.g: the nerds, the popular people, the sporty people, the gaming community and so on.

For example, in the film 'Superbad' the two main characters Seth and Evans are nerds who get an invite to a party thrown by someone popular in exchange for them providing the alcohol. Here we have the nerds being stereotypically represented as unpopular and they're basically being used by the popular kids.

Another influence we have used is not a film but an American sitcom called 'Big Bang Theory'. This sitcom is based around four male friends who are all pretty much nerds but as the series and episodes progress they all get girlfriends (apart from Raj) and we really get to know them for who they are as a person and they gain audience empathy as the episodes progress. This is similar to what we wish to achieve in our film.


In our opening sequence our main character falls in the category of being a nerd and also being a part of the gaming community. In the beginning he is represented in a really negative way as he really can't do anything right and he's reached the age of 19 without ever dating a girl, which to many people seems crazy. However, as the story develops the audience really get an insight into his personality as opposed to what he looks like on the outside.

We really want to emphasise the fact that he's a nerd by the costumes that he will be wearing. We have chosen for him to wear round geeky glasses, really bad unfashionable clothes e.g. a floral shirt or 3/4 length trousers in the winter.

For example, in the 'Inbetweeners' film there are also four friends who are geeks and desperate to get into the 'cool' group and be accepted by everyone. However, this isn't always the case as throughout the film we see them trying and failing. The way they dress (shorts, football shirt, print shirt) is also emphasising that they're a social outcast and nerdy. This is what we wish to achieve with our film as well.