The establishng shot in the Grease title sequence is a close up of a radio and a voiceover which briefly introduces what the film is going to be about. The whole clip is in cartoon which adds to the fun of it and shows the genre of the film which is a musical romantic comedy. It doesnt have a narrative as such but briefly introduces the characters while showing the names of the actors which will lead on to the film. The choice of the upbeat fast tempo music 'Grease is the word' taken from the film fits in with the film and the narrative of the film while also giving the audience a taster of the music to come.
It starts showing the back of a boy waking up into a long shot of the room which is messy like a typical boys bedroom, this will appeal to the target audeince of teenagers and young adults as they will be able to relate to this. He walks to the bathroom and throws everything on the floor which shows he doesn't care again like a typical teenage boy. The toothpaste he squeeezes then becomes the title of the film 'Grease'. This is a good way of using mise en scene to add the title to the clip as it keeps it interesting for the audience as it isn't just typed over the top.
This then cuts into the character Danny looking into a mirror with the actors name appearing at the side of him. The title sequence uses mise en scene in different ways throughout to show the characters and actors names which is what we want to achieve in our title sequence. This makes it original and it doesn't become boring for the audience. There are quick cuts between different short sinppets from scenes in the film but in cartoon giving the audience a quick look into what the film will be about.
The audience are then introduced to a female teenage character, showing her neat clean room which is in contrast to the boys one shown earlier. This suggests to the audience a relationship may happen between between these two characters in the film. It briefly shows the audience what each character is like and their personalities before watching the main film. The pace of the cuts, often being fast cuts, fits in with the music with a different short snippet being shown on a different beat of the music. This keeps it exciting for the audience as it doesn't focus on one thing for too long.
Throughout the title sequence the male characters seem to expereince bad luck while the females have good luck. This will appeal to the target audience as it shows they are typical teenagers like the audience. Luck and fortune is something we want to establish in our title sequence. Cuts to different billboards with names on are shown while the music becomes faster paced and then fading out to an end.
Target audience - teenagers
Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love,
rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. Often these
normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped
or trivialized way. Some teen films appeal to young males while others
appeal to young females.
Films in this genre are often set in high schools, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes are also common, as are crude forms of humor.
Codes and conventions:
Codes and conventions of teen films vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties and all-night raves, losing one's virginity, relationships, social groups and cliques, and American pop-culture.
The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include:
The Jock/Cheerleader e.g Grease
School Diva e.g Sharpay in High School Musical
The Geek/Nerd
The Rebel
The Misfit, or The Outcast
The Average Girl/Boy (the boy/girl next door)e.g Lizzie McGuire in The Lizzie McGuire Movie
The New Girl/Boy e.g Gabriella in High School Musical
The Loner
The Band Geek
Apart from the characters there are many other codes and conventions
of teen film. These films are often set in or around high schools as
this allows for many different social cliques to be shown. This is
different in hybrid teen films, but for the classic romantic comedy teen
film this is almost always the case.
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_film Genre - comedy
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour.
These films are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies
are generally light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences. The comedy genre often humorously exaggerates situations, ways of speaking, or the action and characters.
Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending.
Taken from: wikipedia
Comedy Conventions: Settings:
Dependent on the type of comedy
Generic places: Brightplaces, towns, cities, well populated areas
,.
Teen comedy:Highschools, small townse.g The Lizzie McGuire Movie is based in a high school.
Technical Code:
Camera is very natural and goes along with the characters. Can do high shots to capture the whole environment.
Medium shots the catch all the characters expressions.
Editing sounds to add humour.
Iconography:
Bright colours, blue and yellow are often used.
Lighting is often bright. shot during day time.
Character types:
idiots, very stupid, very accident prone.
Smart people, socially awkward.
Regular people, accidents occur around them. They can be sarcastic.
E.g The Inbetweeners movie has four main characters who are very stupid and accident prone. They often find themselves in bad situations which is comical to watch for the audience.
We would like to use the general narrative of this in our own sequence.
The main character, Lizzie McGuire, has a cartoon version who
continuously experiences bad luck and misfortune. Fortune is going to be
the main theme in our sequence. The music in this sequence is also very
relevant and appeals to the target audience which is what we would like
to do with the music in our sequence.
Grease
In this title sequence we liked the variation in which the
names and titles were shown. There was a mixture of text written over
the top and text within the storyline. We would also like to use a
variation like this as it would keep the audience interested and
entertained.
Napolean Dynamite
We particularly liked the different uses of mise en
scene to display the names and titles in this title sequence. This is
something we want to show in our sequence to make it unique so the
titles aren't just text written over the top.
It starts showing the back of a boy waking up into a long shot of the room which is messy like a typical boys bedroom, this will appeal to the target audeince of teenagers and young adults as they will be able to relate to this. He walks to the bathroom and throws everything on the floor which shows he doesn't care again like a typical teenage boy. The toothpaste he squeeezes then becomes the title of the film 'Grease'. This is a good way of using mise en scene to add the title to the clip as it keeps it interesting for the audience as it isn't just typed over the top.
