Rough Cut Survey

After showing members of our target audience our rough cut, we were pleased to see that the majority or our audience scored our film opening either a 4 or 5 out of 5 for effectiveness, this gave us the confidence that our film opening appealed to our target audience.

All of our viewers thought that our film opening was aimed at teenage girls aged 14-18, which is our ideal target audience. Most viewers also thought that the choice of actors and setting was very effective and worked well with the storyline.

We interviewed a 17 year old viewer and asked the same survey questions, this is what she said:


A common topic that was mentioned was our choice of music which is used throughout the opening. Many said it was boring and repetitive and didn't feel like it suited the type of film. Taking this into consideration, we are going to research and find a much more appropriate piece of music.

Disney's Cinderella UPDATE

Over the past two months, Disney's Cinderella is becoming more and more talked about in the media as it is quickly approaching its release date (27th March 2015 in UK). The main key happenings are:

• Advance ticket sales outpace last year's 'Maleficent' 
• The luxury make up brand 'MAC' released a  17 piece collection inspired by Cinderella. All products are encased in powder blue packaging, with the iconic Cinderella logo and are named after Cinderella themed things. Such as:

1. 'Evil Step- Mother' eye pigment
2. Lipstick in the shade 'Royal Ball'
3. 'Stroke of Midnight' eyeshadow palette
4. Lipglass' in the shade 'Glass Slipper' and 'Happily Ever After'

Disney's choice of teaming up with a make up brand allows the film to entice a wider age range         of audience.

• The American dress company, Ashdon inc, announce their Disney Cinderella 'Forever  Enchanted' keepsake gown and prom dress collection with up to 50 different styles of dresses. Again, this is Disney creating a wider audience, reaching out to teenagers as prom tends to occur at 'high school'. 
• Finally, on 11th February, a second exclusive trailer was released in the US, piquing the audience's interests and making sure the film is still widely acknowledged in the media.

The fact that Disney are releasing synergy across many different forms, is creating a wider audience who wish to watch the film.

Advertising Disney's Cinderella 2015

The release of Disney's Cinderella is just two months away so I've looked into how Disney have advertised their new film to attract an audience.

The first official trailer made an appearance on 15th May 2014. This trailer was only a minute long and showed no footage from the film but instead, a glass slipper is slowly revealed. This gave a clue as the glass slipper is always associated with the Cinderella story.






The second official trailer contained footage of the film and was two and a half  minutes long. This was shown for the first time on 'Good Morning America' on 19th November 2014. However, two days before it was shown, a 15 second teaser-trailer was shown. This had a positive impact for Disney as over 5.6 million people watch Good Morning America everyday.

Disney also created an official poster, which was also released on 19th November 2014. The poster features Lily James who plays the role of Cinderella.

Within the first 24 hours of the official trailer being aired on TV and the poster being released the trailer had been viewed 4.2 million times on YouTube and 33 million times on Facebook. This is the highest amount of views Disney alone has ever had, except Marvel films.

Another official trailer was released on 1st January 2015.

Disney Cinderella 2015 UK Trailer

Whilst researching the Disney film set to come out, Cinderella, in 2015, we came across two trailers; one for the UK and one for the US. I have embedded the UK trailer which can be found on the Disney UK YouTube channel.

According to IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1661199/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt) the film is due to be released in UK cinemas on 27th March 2015. This film is a particularly interesting case study for us because, although it is an American film made by Disney, the filming locations are all in the UK and the actors are mostly British or Australian actors such as Helen Bonham - Carter (Harry Potter, The King's Speech), Cate Blanchett (The Hobbit) and Lily James (Downton Abbey) and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) - all hits in the USA as well as the UK.

We're going to be spending the next few months looking at how Disney markets and advertises this film to a UK audience. Today we looked at Twitter to see what atmosphere has been created about this film. The use of #Cinderella2015 is very common.

The first thing we noticed was #FrozenFever, this is a short film which will be shown before Cinderella on its first showing in the cinema. This creates synergy for the Disney brand.

BBC Media Trip

Us, year 12 media students, created a video of pictures and clips of what exciting things we saw and learnt:



Some of us got invited to be in the audience for the 'One Show' which was very exciting and we even got shown on live TV!

Our Film Opening So Far

After our exciting trip to the BBC, we came back with the footage we wanted for our film opening. We filmed out the window of the train, people walking down the platform at the station, a sign saying 'Welcome to Marylebone' and we filmed people passing us on the escalator.

This is a rough version of what we have filmed already. It still needs editing properly and more needs to be filmed but we wanted to ask family and friends for their opinions on what we have filmed already:

Chick Flick Target Audience

We got together a focus group of girls aged 14-18 and asked them the following questions:

• What is your favourite TV programme?
• Who are you favourite celebrities?
• What are your hobbies?
• Where do you shop?
• What form(s) of social media do you use?
• What are/is your favourite film(s)?
• Favourite genre/type of music?

Asking them these questions allowed us to piece together our stereotypical audience member for our chick flick opening. We created a poster to show the most common feedback we received:

Disney Prezi

My classmates and I created a Prezi all about Disney. We looked at the four most successful elements that make Disney; their media networks, consumer products, parks and resorts and studio entertainment.  Disney was founded in 1923 by Walt Disney and was the biggest film production company of the time, and still is. Its success is due to Disney keeping up with the newest of technology and providing entertainment for a wide range of audiences, it's not just for children anymore.

Finalised Storyline for Chick Flick Film Opening

As a group, we have all decided what our story line should be for our chick flick film opening. We are going to be filming the beginning half of the opening in a modern apartment which re-creates an office environment, which is our intention. We have been allocated two hours to film our opening and we start on Sunday. This part of the opening will be the intern walking into the office and then having her boss enter and demand her coffee. 

The introduction of the opening will be the protagonist (the intern) walking through the door, down the corridor and to the main office. We intend to film using a match on action angle when the intern is coming through the door and tracking when she is walking down the corridor. Throughout this half of the opening we hope to use cut aways and close ups of the props around the room e.g. magazines, laptop, clothes rail etc. In the background of the shot , we would like someone organising the clothes on the clothes rail to make it verisimilitude and give the 'office' a busy atmosphere.  

Once the intern sits down at the desk we will film using a mid-shot of her filing through the magazines on the table and stumbling across a letter with 'confidential' stamped on the envelope. We will then do an over the shoulder shot so we can see her opening the letter, in which the viewer can read 'Court Summons'. We will then quickly cut to a close up of her face which will show a look of shock and confusion of her face. As she goes to read more of the letter, we will hear her boss shout 'Samantha' in the background. The camera will cut quickly back to a mid shot where we see the intern struggling to stuff the letter back in the envelope before her boss appears in the office. The camera will change to a wide shot which will show the room and both the intern and boss walking into the office. As the boss walks in she will demand 'where is my coffee?' and slam the magazines she is holding onto the desk, after this has been said a close up of the intern's face will show the realisation that she forgot to get her boss' coffee.

The second part of the opening will be a wide shot of a busy street where we see Samantha running into shot and into a coffee shop. The camera will stay in the same position until we see her run out of the shop and out of shot carrying a cup of coffee. 

Inspirational Film Openings

I have researched chick flick film openings and continuing to look for a similar opening to the one I wish to film myself. One common feature which appears in most chick flick openings is a cut away shot between two narratives which builds up suspense.

Here is the Legally Blonde film opening:



The opening cuts between two different main people; Elle and her best friend. It starts with Elle brushing her hair in her very pink bed room. From the moment the clip starts you know it's a chick flick due to the pink girly environment. The upbeat song which is used in the background has inspired me to use one similar for my opening. I also like how you can hear the characters talking over the music.

Film Openings

Using this blogpost http://whatculture.com/film/the-importance-of-film-openings.php I have analysed the film openings to Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Adventures of Babysitting (1987).

These are the clips I analysed:






In Saturday Night Fever, the film starts with a panning shot of of Brooklyn, America and then jumps to a close shot of a train passing on the tracks. According to the blogpost written about film openings, this train represents John Travolta's emotional journey throughout the film. Travolta's character wishes to succeed in life and become well known, the only way he thinks he can do this is by winning a disco dance competition. By the end of the film he won first prize in the dance competition and has achieved his dream. The train symbolises his need to escape his dead-end life.

In the Adventures of Babysitting opening, it shows a young girl dancing in a stereotypical teenage girls bedroom (pink and floral) and lip syncing to a an upbeat song. The song used is called 'Then he kissed me' by the Crystals the lyrics of the song go well with the film and with her getting ready for her date.

The idea of the train has inspired my own chick flick film opening. I had the idea of having a girl in her early twenties, waiting at the train station for her usual commute into London to work at the 'Vogue Magazine' offices. I would have her holding lots of important folders and papers and dressed in smart fashionable clothing, to give off the impression that she has a very important job role. As she is sitting and waiting for her train I would use a point of  view shot (POV) of her flicking through a portfolio full of modelling shots. When she gets to London, I would film her walking into a modern office with lots of people around measuring models, clothes rails scattered around the room and Vogue magazine covers on the walls. I want to pan across the office so the viewer gets a feel of the ambience and I would also use a tracking shot to follow her walking over to the sofa with her papers. I would then have her strut through in a confident manner to make herself look important. However the twist would be that she is of no importance to the company, she is just an unpaid intern who runs around after the boss. But her dream is to be the boss of this company, a bit like John Travolta . Throughout this opening scene I would use a tune of an upbeat  catchy tune and then have it come to an abrupt end when the boss shouts something like "Where's my coffee?" The use of an upbeat piece of music was inspired by the opening scene of Adventures to Babysitting.