Evaluation of our use of Genre Conventions

Opening Sequence

Still Shots

Genre Enables Audiences to Make Predictions

• Starting from the end result only leaves the audience to wonder how this result happened
• Persuades audience to find out more.
• Audience feedback made accurate predictions, with one or two interesting takes - so we must have established our genres clearly enough for this to happen.
• We feel as though the mix of genres has been conveyed well.
• Importance of how characters end up there, not what the ending is

Title - 1

• Similar font and extras to posters of ‘Quadrophenia’.

• Emphasises the type of band ‘Nostalgia’ is – whilst also emphasising the time change.
• Suits the part of our ‘coming of age’ genre

Credits - 2

• Matches the title
• Appears with zooms on brick walls/garage doors
• As ours is based in the 80’s focusing on a rock band, the credits needed to be lively as music-based films follow the style of the videos of their band type at times.

Characters - 3, 4

• Coming of Age films generally use characters in their teens as this is when rebellious stages tend to occur

Perks of Being a Wallflower

• Also teenage years are creative as you decide what you want to do in the future
• This is shown through our choice 3 teenagers pursuing dreams to become a famous band
• Through their success it can be seen that they were previously of middle class as opposed to working class through the equipment they must have had to form the band
• There are normally two sides to the characters portrayed in order to show contrast through the events of the film
• The flashback shows the innocent side to our characters whilst the opening shows the downfall

Mise-en-scéne - 5, 6

• Coming of Age films have been popular through all decades
• Our film is set in the 80’s therefore our mise-en-scéne had to emphasise this  
• Our casting choices would be, hypothetically, as our genre relies on having a sense of verisimilitude, the audience has to relate to the characters
• The clothing, props, and make-up (for the sister), portrays the 80’s setting through the bright colours and the prop of a satchel bag [5]
• The setting is simple and rough as streets in the 80’s would not have been particularly polished and modernised - also this kind of setting suits the social realism element of our genre as in "This is England".  [5]

This is England mise-en-scene

• The opening setting was in a house that has not been overly modernised since the 80’s which helps create the theme we intended, although you do not see a lot of the house
• Therefore, our two news reporters were cast wearing 80’s style ties and suits, and the actual news broadcast had the 80’s BBC logo edited in with the overall simple layout in order to create the 80’s atmosphere we needed [6]
• An essential prop to our piece was the photo frame seen in the first scene as it portrays the contrast between how the sister changed, further shown through the news report in the background announcing her suspected overdose - photos are often used to show happier times in the past in our genre.
  
  

Camera Work - 7, 8, 9

• The very start of our piece is a close up of one of the main characters because we wanted our audience to automatically identify him as being important - this is a convention of opening sequences 
• Through our audience feedback, this appeared to work
• A zoom into the photo frame, ending with a close up, identifies, again, another main character: the sister [7]
• We needed these close-ups so often because our genre relies on the audience’s connection with the characters
• We filmed the brother from many different angles, from the side, a high angle [8], the rule of thirds etc. in order to emphasise his importance and his emotions  - the closeness is a feature of the social realism genre which has a warts and all approach to filming its actors - they are not overly polished or airbrushed.

Actors from Green Street

• In the flashback we used panning, [9], to create more screen time for Sam, the best friend of the brother, as this identifies his crucial role too - also a longer shot distance more common of film openings as this is where the story actually begins.
• However, our camera work choices did not have a crucial role to the genre we chose, they were simple and not too extravagant because our piece is supposed to be overall a type of transparent editing to create the verismilitude needed for the genre, so the audience isn’t meant to be aware of the camera as it helps keeps engaged with the action and the characters

Editing - 10

• We use fade-ins and outs to move the piece along as we don’t want to give unnecessary information away in the first 2 minutes
• We also use a lot of sound perspective in the first scene, by altering the way the audience would hear the news report, because we want the audience to feel as though they are in Harry’s position, not watching the television
• However, cross-cutting was occasionally essential, particularly with the fan of Ruby’s
• We needed other forms of mise-en-scéne because you do not see a lot of the house itself
• The main editing technique used in the flashback scene is shot/reverse shot because Ruby and Sam are having a conversation for the majority of it which is a crucial part of the opening because Ruby is supposed to have some feelings for Sam therefore we need to see both of their facial expressions separately

Reverse shot to show feelings, Perks of Being a Wallflower

Sound - 11, 12

• Both of our scenes juxtapose to each other, which is shown mainly through the sound In the first scene, there is no music, only the diegetic sound perspective of the news report which emphasises the intensity of the events within it
• However, to contrast this, there is loud, 80’s style, non-diegetic music as soon as the flashback appears  - popular music is often used in the coming of age genre as it is associated with youth
• This is to highlight how the fame of the band changed their lives from being so upbeat to being miserable
• The dialogue is also essential to our piece, but particularly in the flashback scene, as it shows the relationship between Ruby and Sam
• The silence used in the opening is essential in creating the emotional atmosphere of her brother's mood