Here, I am going to discuss how the concept of genre was used to define and build my film opening.
My group and I decided to base the film on a mix of The Inbetweeners, and Gavin and Stacey. We chose this about 3 months in advance of writing the script. We also designed our company logo, Take 5 Productions, around this film.
The film is called, Our Holiday, and tells the story of 5 friends in education, struggling, to say the least! Albert, Jessica, Kel, Jason and Emily are all Year 12 teenagers who have just finished their first set of exams; so they decide to go on a spontaneous summer break abroad. Well that doesn't really turn out the way that they hoped, as Albert makes the decision to take his friends to Oxford - A place that he has been once before. There they meet people in Oxford, who are contradict the stereotypes that Oxfordians supposedly hold. Through a sea of hillarious parties, chortling trips and one very funny man, this film is the perfect film to see you through the summer.
NOW you REALLY want to see it eh? No? Okay.. let me explain some more.
From an ideological perspective, this film is to show the stereotypes of Essex habitants, and Oxford habitiants, and how they are supposedly from completely opposite ends of the social and cultural spectrum and how they are contrasted when the two come together and make friends.
However, there is an underlying theme throughout of love - and that can be added to the genre. So I guess the genre is a cross between Teenage Comedy and Romantic Comedy... so... RomTeen Comedy!
The film constantly reiterates the themes of power/control/friendship and love, and I wrote the whole film to play on these themes, to create comedy!
The use of binary oppositions is also used in this themes - as the steretypical opposites are brought together.
I hope that makes sense! If you haven't - check out the film opening! Get those views up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTqqZ1hR-gc
Nicely explained Harry, you definitely have me interested in watching! Perhaps worth daying a little more about how your film relates to the TV texts you mention (Gavin and Stacy, and The Inbetweeners) as these are TV dramas, whereas you are making a film. Are there any film texts from the Teen- Romcom genre that share conventions with The Holiday? The Inbetweeners had a film off-shoot I think- might be worth thinking about that too.
ReplyDeleteCan you say more about how the shots, camerawork, voiceover, characterisation, mise-en-scene etc. follow codes and conventions of the genre. This would be well worth a separate post.
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