Question 2

Evaluation Question 2 – How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence likewise to many other opening sequences only has a direct focus of a main character. Our character is called Emma Jenkins and has an ambition of becoming a world famous dancer, despite keeping it a complete secret from all her family. Especially her mum in whom we don’t see in the opening sequence but wants her to focus on her education rather than ‘dancing’. As the story progresses we see the Mum is a secondary character, her sister and school associates. Therefore we represented our social group as young vulnerable teenaged female who has ambitions in life but gets held back a lot due the environment in which she is in.

In the case of the film 'Goal' 2003, which is about a young boy called Santiago Nunez in which has an ambition for playing football which he quotes ‘is all he has ever dreamed of’ to play for one of the biggest football clubs in the world .Santiago is brought up in the rough streets of Mexico with his Grandma, Little brother and his Dad. His mother passed when he was young leaving a part of him missing throughout the duration of the film we can clearly evidently see this by the kissing of his chain to emphasise eternity. Meanwhile his dad doesn’t want him to become a footballer he wants him to become a carpenter such as his profession, until one day Santiago is spotted by a local school game by a scout from Newcastle FC in which the story will similarly portrayed as a positive outcome in which we tried to show this in the opening sequence of our film ‘Let’s Dance’ in which the two characters are very alike. Likewise can be similarly demonstrated in both genders

This lead on to our character profile;

·         Any ethnic background female                                              

·         An isolated child very alone most of the time

·         Very open-minded despite criticism

·         Psychologically strained her mother treats her different towards her older sister. Her older sister often laughs at her as she has seen her dance before in which concluding was not very convinced that she has any talent. Leading on to the constant tension of Emma alert and looking around to see if anyone is coming up the stairs. The rest of the families bedrooms are downstairs to show she is isolated and that they don’t care about her that much hence why she has a colourful bedroom to keep her happy.

·         Magazines are her entertainment hence her only way of interaction and up to date news she can relate to. Her source of inspiration as it enables her to look at other people in her same position and how they dealt with a situation similar to Emma’s

·         Leading on she came obsessed with dancing due from an early age it just clicked with Emma mainly because it allowed her to come out of her own comfort zone and express who she is through her moves. Dedication has also been her strong point mainly because once she has learnt something Emma is the type of person to instantly want to further and better herself as it allows her to improve which should foreshadow success.

·         Occupation- Emma currently goes to school but doesn’t like it. She constantly dreams all day about dancing adding to her lack of concentration in which she feels that if she fails school then maybe her family will allow her to do as she pleases. We see that she is a school or education based through the props in which we use such as folders, calculators, books etc. This adds more realism and also more common affairs to the audience in which these kinds of things always happen in every day to day life without parents mainly knowing what goes on in their children’s head.

Our main protagonist Emma is fuelled by her neglectful mother and sister and just wants them to believe in her as she feels left apart from most of the relations. We see throughout the opening sequence her desire and practice in order for her to get better and better without the family knowing. The character constantly is looking behind her to see if anyone is watching as she is paranoid as she doesn’t want her parents to find out. Also the use of the prop of the ballet shoes are hidden under her bed, a good hiding place to emphasise the comparison of Emma that she is always hidden in the family and the only time when the shoes are brought out is occasionally which can portray Emma’s role in the family. Another comparison to another character is 'Billy Elliot' where in the film we see that his family are all poor and his dad wants Billy to become a boxer as his father wanted him to go far in life and become the ‘big hotshot’ in school from his dad’s experience. Later did he find out that Billy didn’t like boxing until one day in which he found a poster in the gym about Ballet dancing. He was very reluctant at first in case people at school would call him ‘gay’ and a ‘wimp’ and make fun of him. He went to these lessons until his father found out and stopped it etc. 'Billy Elliot' also teaches our character many different ways in which he was in the same position in Emma and how he dealt with them connecting with the audience through his dance skills. He also taught us that if you favour a certain hobby persevere within it and see where it may take you, which is applicable to our character.

The cast in the opening sequence were essential to what the character was going to be portrayed as in which Rachel chose Emma (Jess Kamanda)  in which I think that we successfully mastered the characteristics through Mise en scene etc. We needed to show a very isolated girl whom has an ambition in which we needed a normal girl to be very quiet and fragile through her facial expressions and body language in which in the opening sequence Jess masters her character.

The costume is very important to the character, in which represents what the main character’s obsession is. The white T-shirt that may portray and highlight attention she has craved all through her childhood.  Also the black leggings in which she wore represents her life in which as we associate the colour ‘black’ with pain and darkness. Or it may also highlight that she is confused and lost as she may be dreaming. We would hope for the audience to have some sort of sympathy towards Emma and in which we felt when watching movies such as ‘Goal' and ‘Billy Elliot’ whether or not they would have been caught out or not due to the clever use of camera angles, movements, effects and the use of sound similarly would influence our attempt to duplicate this in our opening sequence

 The prop the ballet shoe were very vital to the opening sequence showing a battered up pair of ballet shoes as were given to her to childhood in which she treats preciously and hides them in unknown places to the audience, in which this may be the only thing someone has ever given to her which may make them special towards her. Also the shoes are run-down to show that her family don’t care about her that much in which she is an inequality in the whole family hence the fact that they are too small for her as she feels trapped that she cannot ask her mum for new shoes as it will give her obsession away .The body language/facial expressions and movement of Emma was very tender and fragile for things such as the prop again the Ballet shoes as it allowed her to be free, this is shown by the different camera angles varying from close ups, mid shots and many different angles to show the different ways that she can express herself within her room. Body language is shown in most of the opening scene. It is shown in most apparent in where towards the end of the scene when the sister is coming up the stairs she runs everywhere in panic and calmness about her. It presents to the audience as if it is almost routine for Emma in which may familiarise herself in these types of positions before etc. The last huff and puff also gives it away in which she may have done it before almost to say that was a ‘close one’ as she was in time with her sister coming up the stairs or she may just be really fast. The audience are put into her perspective in which the tempo of the mood and of the film changes every time when she is almost caught out effectively as the audience are always involved. After when he sister leaves the room she is still walking with soft steps in which she knows and also the audience know that he sister may be waiting any time to peak in which is commonly used in many different films etc. This is to inform the audience that the tension and tempo of the sequence has changed .The audience feel engaged in the story in which it is a common topic to relate to which is why we had chosen this type of genre because we had a lot of different elements to common activities.

The setting of our opening sequence was the media production room. Our main aim was to find a plain room and then would be collaged with props. We achieved this by posters in which a girl of this age would have for example music groups such as 'JLS', etc. However to add a common perspective of our target audience we needed to add props of which a girl of this age group would have in their room. These would be things such as school books etc, these are presented to the audience in the life that other people want to follow on in life in which he doesn’t have any relation to which is why they are pushed to the back of the tables etc. In comparison to the shoes that what she really wants in life are hidden and stuffed to the back of her bed. We collected a chest of draws and painted it flowery in order to add some sort of life in the character and also the music shows this as well. The chest of draws may also emphasise her character she is trying to become as she is trying to evolve into this dancer but is constantly belittled and that her dreams are artificial. Also the draw looks quite precious to emphasise the little precious things she has in her room. We neatly arranged everything over the chest of drawers and the table to emphasise that she is a one minded person and that she knows what she wants in as the equipment is all direct. It may also foreshadow that she just keeps everything structured as she doesn’t want her family always up in her room to discover what they may find?

The use of lighting didn’t occur to often in the sequence as we just tried to show a normal girl in a normal bedroom. However the lighting was very bright which foreshadowed that all the attention was to be focused on the main character as we felt the bedroom to be a calm and basic atmosphere. In comparison in the lighting in the first exterior shot were cloudy days almost adding pathetic fallacy to some extent as this then foreshadows something to encounter later in the sequence.

Throughout the opening sequence of 'Lets Dance' the character never gets caught out by her family in which we know this by our use of sound effects and music. In the first half of the opening sequence the music is very cheerful and bouncy which sets the mood in which the audience can clearly interact with the character. Then as she is practicing the music changes pace as it is more fast to emphasise how everything is moving so fast around her as she is practicing in a sense she is dazzled. Then as her sister alarms up the stairs reality is knocked back in her head as the music picks tempo even louder to call attention to the audience that something with the Emma’s mentality not correct may occur. The use of the camera angles and different directions such as the teddy bear shot with the bear in focus and Emma in the background blurred was used as an close up to emphasise a fantasy in Emma’s world. It is blurry to show that she is still searching as this dream has not yet become a reality. She is constantly engaged with this ballet obsession in which the audience can see through different type of camera angles etc. 

To conclude the representation of 'Let’s dance' and the character’s social role and group match the universal genre of an ‘Obsession’ through a range of Mise en scene elements in which the way we used them portrayed this to our audience and how they were used in other types of media in order to better our opening sequence