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Notting Hill Trailer

Notting Hill Trailer

 Notting Hill is a romantic comedy that consists of many stereotypes shown in romantic comedies. In the trailer we see that there is the woman and man who meet by accident and end up falling in love, this is very stereotypically in a romantic film and we then meet the best friend of the man who is in the film to make people laugh. The fact he isn't very well educated, shown when he eats mayonnaise believing it is yoghurt shows us he isn't very well educated but to the audience this is funny. The target audience is women between 13-18 year old girls and potentially older.In a romantic comedy there is stereotypically a couple who don't have the same status in society, in Notting Hill this happens between the two main characters. The women in Notting Hill she is an high end actress who is well known where as he works in a little shop and is basically a nobody. By using the two characters who live very different lives but fall in love it shows the audience that anyone can fall in love and money and fame shouldn't come in between being with the person you love. Notting Hill has similar characteristics as The Notebook, with that comes a rich girl and poor boy too. They show this in many films to draw in a big audience of women and to make them feel better about who they have fallen in love with.





target audience of romantic comedies

Target audience of romantic comedies

The target audience for romantic comedies is women, ages between 13-18 and potentially older because many women enjoy romantic comedies as they can compare their lives to the film and it helps them to make them feel better about the fact they haven't fallen in love and yet in an relationship. It is also due to the fact the comedy in the film is humour based at this age and therefore stereotypically the masculine men wont find it funny and would not understand or enjoy the film because it isn't aimed at them and they cannot compare it to their lives as they would rather watch a film that has more of a different humour and to be based more of a masculine side so they can aspire to be like the characters in the film or to compare their lives to make them feel better about themselves.  Traditionally less serious film fans go to Romantic Comedies this is due to the fact that romantic comedies are more laid back and consist of less seriousness than other films therefore its an easy genre for people to go see without having to see many other if any romantic comedies.

Conventions of a romantic comedy

Conventions of a romantic comedy

• There is always two lovers who are wrong for each other
• An innocent guy who is quiet but loves the main character (ends up with her).
• Always consists of a happy ending.
• It is aimed at a female audience.
• The girl has to choose between innocent guy and the guy who isn’t right for her.
•  The friend- funny, wacky and weird but makes the audience laugh.
• A couple go their separate ways due to a heated discussion or disagreement but they always end up being reunited together in the end.
• Stereotypically the couple are a man and woman.
• The audience enjoy them as it makes them overcome their insecurities and believe in love again.
• Many consist of the age of early 30’s as they believe their time is running out to fall in love and have children so therefore they watch this to make themselves believe again that they will fall in love.
• There is always a near miss, two characters go to kiss but are always interrupted, example- by the interfering mother.
• There is normally always an interfering mother and a useless but caring about his daughter and therefore always tries to calmly sort the problems whereas the mother being over protective would cause more problems than helping.
• Normally a fight between the two love rivals,
• Can be set around a work place where there is a chance of meeting someone
• They try to make everyone believe that your life is not complete until you are in love and are with someone.

Dark Knight evaluation

The opening scene of Dark Knight

In the opening scene of 'dark knight' the first shot is of a city high rise on a sunny day, this leads the audience to believe that it is a regular day. The establishing shot creates the setting for the opening scene, however we then quickly learn from the gun shots who the antagonists are.

The close up of, who we learn is the joker that starts as a mid shot into a close shot suggests to the audience that he is an outsider and that his mask is his hidden identity where he can become someone else. Until we continue this clip we do not realise as an audience that his mask is almost the same as the make up he wears. This makes the audience feel he isn't confident without it and that he relies on his masks and make up to become someone he wants to be, that he feels out of place and hides away under the mask and make up. if the joker was to be innocent people would then feel sorry for him over this however, because he robs a bank and keeps people hostile, as part of the audience we don't feel sympathise with him.

When the bank robbery is taking place they use over the shoulder shots so as the audience we can experience and sympathise with the hostages.

James Bond Skyfall

James Bond Skyfall opening scene

In the opening scene of James Bond Sky fall, they use many camera shots to show that this is an action/spy film. It begins with a medium shot of the back of James Bond having to quickly get down to get under the bridge as he is on a moving train. This makes us already have so many questions. We then straight away cut from that straight to into the train with James Bond acting as if its just an normal daily activity. This is when we are first introduced to the main character, James Bond.
 We then see next to the train a car speeding round a corner quickly trying to catch up with the train this makes us have more questions these including...

Why is James Bond on the train?

Why is the car chasing the train?

Is James Bond going too save someone?

Is someone in the train a danger to people?

Who is in the car?

However the suspense makes the audience want to carry on watching to see whether the next bit of the film goes the way we believe it too.

It then goes to a shot of James Bond on top of the train fighting someone, because James Bond is well known we already know he is a hero therefore we question who the other man is.

Mad Max opening scene

Mad Max

In the opening scene of Mad Max so many indications show us that it is an action film, these including guns, a car chase, the long road that joins up and many more. By showing this in the opening scene it shows the audience what the rest of the film shall be like and what to expect, this is good because it draws in the stereotypically audience but may also attract the less obvious because of the fact the opening scene suggests what the whole film shall be like so therefore anyone who is offended or just is not interested in this genre would then not watch the rest. When the car is being chased they use silence to create suspense. This keeps the audience interested and intrigued as too what may happen next...
They then use camera shots to show us how close or far the cars are apart, by doing this it makes the audience then become concerned for the characters as they do not know what shall happen when the cars catch up with each other.
The main question we want to know is who is the villain and who is the hero in Mad Max as from the opening scene this isn't obvious so therefore we want to carry on watching to find out. As an audience we also have many other questions, including....
Why is there a car chase?
Who are the people in the cars?
Does everyone survive?
What happened before this?
What happens next?



Why aren't they wearing shoes?
Are they poor?
What year was this film based on?
and many more.....
This makes the audience want to continue watching to see whether or not their predications are correct or not and if their questions get answered or not.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist

The Exorcist instantly begins with pathetic fallacy as the sky is pitch black, setting the mood and atmosphere for the rest of the film. The beginning of the film begins in Northern Iraq with a little kid running around many men digging into a hot desert environment. This suggests to us the young child is running either towards or away from something, however because this is a horror film the audience would believe the child is running from something. It could also link too the fact that in the rest of the film the young girl cannot escape the maze which sets the feelings and atmosphere for the rest of the film. When the young child is running they use an high angle shot to make the child look small and innocent and to make them seem as if they are worried or scared as to what may happen next.

The music at beginning begins quickly creepily to set the mood of the film but then goes to the Islamic call for prayers possibly suggesting that even religion cannot help the bound to occur. Religion has become a big part of todays society so therefore to make the audience believe that religion cannot help in these circumstances makes them want to carry on watching to see whether or not religion ends up being useful in this film as for many religious people their lives evolve around religion.

Scary movie opening scene

Scary Movie opening scene

In the opening scene of Scary Movie they use an establishing shot to show us where the setting shall be, in this scene it shows us the house which suggests that because as the audience we know this is a comedy but jokes about horror films so therefore show the stereotypes of a horror film but in a funny way therefore we presume that it will take place in the house. They then use a close up on the cooking popcorn to suggest that an event shall occur around the popcorn.

Mise en scene is used to show the phone being used as without the phone the opening scene wouldn't work as it revolves around the phone as a creepy man keeps calling it but without it the film would be cut very short as the person would have to come straight

The Omen evaluation of the opening scene

The Omen

I felt that the Omen was a very good horror film to evaluate the opening scene too however I could only find the whole film so evaluated the first 7 minutes of it.

In the opening scene of The Omen it begins with music, this music is mysterious and creepy and this makes the audience question what is going on and why the music is so mysterious. It also plays on the audiences mind because they are trying to work out why this is playing. When introducing the titles we see a black cross with a little boy at the end of it, surrounded by a red background, suggesting the horror shall be about a little boy.

After the titles men start singing in a deep voice. One of the main characters is in a car when around him outside it is gloomy and raining, this creates a down and depressing effect and with the man looking stressed in the car it makes the audience want to know why he is feeling down.




In the opening scene, sound is important into playing with the audiences mind and to make us question what is to happen next. in the film they use the cars tooting and the sound of the rain hitting against the car and then into complete silence apart from the radio and then a creepy voice says ''The child is dead. He breathed for a moment. Then he breathed no more. The child is dead. Dead. The child is dead" this makes the audience have many questions as to what has just happened, who this child is, and why this man is being told this.




The next scene the man from the car goes into what looks like a church, from this we learn his baby has died. However stereotypically we know not to trust Nuns in a horror film, this is because stereotypically in films when nuns appear, so does a problem. The death of the man losing his son results in him lying to his wife and pretending their baby is fine as there is another baby also just been born but the baby's mother died during giving birth. Because we know this is a horror film we question why this child has such significance into the film and what is to happen next for the couple and their child.

Conventions of an action film

What stereotypically happens in an action film...

• In an action film most commonly two men don't want to go on the assignment, then towards the end of the film the person who stayed behind will come out of no where to save the day. However this man shall eventually normally die.
• Another convention of an action film is that, normally several larger men who are seen as 'strong' and 'powerful' will then lose against a not so 'strong and powerful' man.
• In action films woman can be portrayed as two different types, there shall be the needy and vulnerable woman and there shall be the woman who more often than not, win against the strong men. In most action films a woman is always likely to get punched.

• Another normal thing to happen in a horror film is an emergency surgery has to take place, these can be because of a fall from a great height, torture or lots of rappelling. The person who is normally injured then has to quickly help themselves so that about 5 minutes later they can carry on fighting or helping someone else.

        * Someone will get a sharp blade go through them from behind 

• most often there will be a ninja fly through the air

• the hero will have a story of something that happened to him before which makes him want too win/solve the issue.
• * The villains are mainly either Russian, eastern European or Islamic people.

The Mechanic Evaluation

The Mechanic, would be seen as an action film because in the opening scene there was a brutal murder, a speed boat and a strong and powerful man against a weak man. We are introduced to a skinny weak guy who puts on goggles to get into the pool, by doing this the audience believes he is weak and vulnerable. However when we first begin watching the clip it starts off showing an expensive watch which shows he comes from a good back ground with lots of money so therefore the audience would believe he constantly has guards watching him. Too an extent he does, however the guards didn't realise when the man killed him which shows they are not as well paid otherwise they would have eyes on him at all times.

As the clip goes on the man see's a watch at the bottom of his pool and swims down for it, as he does this a face comes out of nowhere and a man grabs him, trying to strangle him.

When the man has been killed the camera pauses on a high angle shot of him floating in the water, this creates tension, it makes us feel as if we are looking down on him and it creates a sense of now he is dead he has lost more than his life he has lost his power and therefore he has become nothing in the space of about 3 minutes. Whereas, at the start they the clip with the man slamming the doors open, with the loud sound of them hitting the wall and they use a low camera angle to create power, that slowly fades to nothing.

The camera follows him as he swims down the pool to create a sense of worry, confusion and suspense as to what may happen next. By the use of the sound of the water and the heavy breathing the audience is aware something shall happen but it plays a game on the mind to question what may happen next. 

Throughout the clip we then learn that this was planned which makes us as the audience then have more questions about the rest of the film. As the audience we want to know the following:

who is the rich man who owns the house?

why is he being killed?

 who killed him?

how long has this been planned?

why was the plan originally made?

why does the mysterious man keep on checking his watch?

 who is on the boat?

Is the person on the boat part of the plan to kill the man?

However from this just being the first 5 minutes of the film it is a very gripping way to start and because as the audience we have so many questions which makes us want to persue with the film to see what happens next and if it is as good as the first 5 minutes.

Ride along 2 evaluation

In the opening scene of Ride along 2, they introduce the characters and show the audience what time of film this shall be. By doing this they attract more of an audience in because people want to know what is going to happen next. it involves a car chase which attracts a young audience, especially boys as stereotypically boys/men between the age of 15-29 are into action films. The opening scene introduces two cops which shows to the audience that they are most likely to be main characters and important in the film, they show their significance by using close up camera shots on them. They also use other camera shots including a two shot to show that the two cops are close and that their friendship shall be important throughout the film.






In the opening scene we learn that Kevin Hart will be playing one of the main characters in the film, this suggests to the audience that it will not be a serious film because Kevin Hart is a comedian. Therefore this will draw in more of an audience who are looking for an action filled film but with laughter throughout.

Research and Planning Targets

Make sure you add all the evidence of your genre projects so far - and consider adding to your posts when you learn new approaches and terminology in your G322 classes. 

conventions of horror films

what stereotypically not what to do in a horror film and who to avoid...

• Never answer the phone - It will not be who you expect
• Don't accept a ride from strangers- they aren't being friendly or nice
• Small children are evil- they may seem innocent but they aren't
• Never have any medical operation- you may end up with something missing or something extra
• Teens are usually spoiled brats who deserve to die- think they know everything until faced with death
• Rabbis rarely appear
• Require basements - what may be in the basement- always a good twist to the story line
• Bad idea to respond to a personal ad
• Bad idea to get in a elevator - will end up trapped
• Bad idea to sleep in horror films - people and fantasy objects come for you in your sleep
• Priests are generally well meaning - try to get rid of a curse
• Nuns are to be avoided
• Estate agents can never be trusted- try to give you a cursed house
• Work best in rural settings - creepy, scary and unknown as to what may happen
• Never purchase a dirty cheap house or apartment - have more than just insects in the house
• Living dead or the living undead zip past an open door or window but nobody sees them
• Never go into a dark room alone

horror target audience profile

Horror Target Audience Profile

The age between 15-29 people experience many different changes, such as leaving school going to college then uni, falling in love, getting married, having children etc. therefore to base them on this age is good because they have so much going on and therefore it could lead to bad circumstances.

They are normally aimed at groups of people these including first dates, couples and close friends as they aren’t really films people normally like to watch alone.

Horror films are normally aimed at the working class community this is due to the higher level  of satisfaction middle class individuals seek when watching a film.

Stereotypically men are more likely to enjoy the horror films because  they enjoy the thrill and stereotypically enjoy violence more whereas girls are more likely to be scared and therefore not enjoy it as the worry and scare over takes them.

Because of the age they have chosen them exploring what the world and life has to offer and then something bad captures the lives of young adults being the same age as the characters because they are more likely to be able to sympathise with them on their everyday life but to also be able to explore the problems people in horror films experience and that it isn’t likely to ever happen in real life.

Target Audience is young people, slightly more male than female, aged 15 to 29.