Graces media studies

Over the past few weeks, we created a lip sync battle video for children in need!! Whilst creating the video we realised how important organisation is, to get everyone free at the right time, to have all the props and the right amount of cameras to get all the shots we needed. It also helped to get used to filming and the shots which were more effective.

A couple of weeks ago we visited the warner bro's studio and had a tour of Harry Potter. It was really interesting to see how they created everything and how effort went into every single costume, prop and scene, which I was surprised to learn how long it really took. Whilst we were there we had a short lesson, learning about target audience of films, advertisement and budgets of many of the harry potter films. What I was most surprised to learn was that the majority of films are aimed at men ages 12-24, including romance films, which I would not have expected. Because of learning this fact about target audience, Lauren and I will try aim our film opening at men from this age range. This is partly why we are including a large amount of crime and action within our film opening. Here is a short video of some clips and photos we took throughout our trip!

In our most recent lesson, Lauren and I did a film treatment explaining our film plot, demographics, psychographics and key characters. It also helped us to develop our ideas on our film opening and get a better view on how we would like it to turn out.

Romantic crime is not a common genre therefore it is not as popular, so there are not as many movies within the genre. However romance and crime separately have a larger history. Romance   Romance movies are probably some of the most popular films and they can be subcategorised with comedy and action too, therefore appealing to a larger target audience of women and men.  Romance films narrative revolve around love between the two protagonists. The first Romantic movie was said to be called 'The may Irwin kiss', which apparently lasted an approximate of 18 seconds and was created by Thomas Edison in New Jersey. Romance films can be subcategorised into a few different genres including: Romantic drama- Titanic  Chick flick- Mean girls  Romantic comedy- When harry met sally  Romantic thriller- sleeping with the enemy Romantic action/ crime- Mr and Mrs smith  The most famous historical romance movies include Titanic, Gone with the wi...

1. Car accelerating noise- In many crime films in particular, high speed car chases take place and accelerating noises are used. This usually takes place in built up cities to get a good sense of speed. 2. Background talking- In cities and crowded areas where a lot of romantic crimes take place background noise is used to make it seem busy. 3. Gun shots- In many crime movies guns shots are very common especially when action is taking place. 4. Rain- More commonly in romance movies the sound of rain or thunderstorms are common to create a certain atmosphere. 5. Car noises- A lot of romantic crimes take place in cities so its common to hear car horns and beeping, as well as the sound of cars generally being driven.

Lauren and I initially wanted to base our film opening on Mr and Mrs Smith, however over the weekend I watched the film Focus again. From watching this we decided we wanted to base our film opening on the pick pocketing scene, because its an interesting scene but also a  range of shots can be used, including an establishing shot which it a key convention in in romantic crime movies.

Since looking at different film genres Lauren and I became most interested in the romantic crime/action genre. Although its not that common Mr and Mrs Smith, The tourist and Focus were in this genre, all of which I find really interesting. Our Main idea was that we would base our film opening on a scene from Mr and Mrs Smith, which involves both the idea of romance but also action. The scene we were most interested in looking at, is where they are both, individually, talking about marriage to their friends whilst carrying out separate lives as spies. However, I would also like to look at other scenes in Focus and Mr and Mrs Smith to get some more ideas which may be better for our film opening.