The location of the opening title sequence is going to be set in London, outside Burlington Arcade.
The mise-en-scene of London will connote a romantic comedy through the use of props; there will be Christmas decorations and lights will suggest to the target audience that it's set near the Christmas holiday's. There may be snow as well as ice that could imply danger but safely used, will help the actor to fulfil her chosen role, i.e stereotypically clumsy. The lighting, depending on what time the sequence is filmed could be dark or light, but because of the chosen genre: romantic comedy it will most likely be in the day which will give the film a light-hearted feel as opposed to an evil one. The costume of the main character, will be 'white collar' attire. She's a business woman who is hardly seen, like a mystery philanthropist in the workplace or the CEO. To the audience this will portray the character as a ruthless woman but also shy as she doesn't let herself be seen face to face, only telephone.
Evelyn, is the name of the protagonist , she is a counter type in a romantic comedy. She isn't blond, beautiful, funny and bubbly, she is the opposite. She hides herself away from her work because of this. She wears kooky glasses, thick and 'nerd-like'. This implies to the audience that she is not the usual choice for a romantic comedy and could connote mystery, as to whether she finds love in the end. In the sequence, to keep the audience 'in the loop', there could be the use of verbal/symbolic codes that suggest to the reader that it's part of a romcom. For example at 0:00:00-0:00:10, there could be a soundtrack that is in unison with just her feet walking and then pan up but stops below the waist.
The Enigma codes of the movie will range from ' Who is the woman?' to ' Where is it set?' During the sequence the audience could be interested in where she works, if she has a partner and what she looks like. Using the Vladimir Propp theory, there is only the characters that match with the theory. Evelyn could be seen as the Princess, Jeff as the Hero and Evelyn's friends as the Donors. Using Todorov's theory these types of characters would fuel the Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and New Equilibrium:
Equilibrium-Evelyns happy with hiding herself until she decides to get plastic surgery. Until she meets a man who has also had plastic surgery.
Disequilibrium-They discover that they are the people they want to be, the life's not for them etc etc.
New Equilibrium- They decide to reverse the plastic surgery and live together as an ugly couple (again counter typing a generic version of a romantic comedy.
For this essay i scored 8/20, which is level 2.
Feedback:
There is a basic understanding of the representations of my characters. In order to push towards a level 3 you need to be able to talk about specific elements of mise-en-scene and technical/verbal/symbolic codes and conventions.
T- Ensure you include media language regularly.
T- Develop your analysis by extending your points. Consider how it effects an audience, WHY you have constructed that representation.
T- Consider wider representational issues ( race, gender, age, nationality etc)
