as media-
RECOVERY
Voiceover
Throughout my research I have came across many films that use a voice over as a way to develop a narrative. For example 'The Breakfast Club', 'Ferris Buellers Day Off' and 'The Sandlot'. They are in these cases to add a personal feel and add a pace to the opening to keep a younger audience engaged. We used a voiceover for these reasons but also to make the plot clear and simple to avoid confusion as our opening had two storylines appearing at once. To immerse the audience, it is important to use these techniques and it is clear from research that I was most drawn to the films which used a voiceover as a relationship between the characters and audience is revealed.
Camera Movement
As the coming of age genre is seen to deal with more personal and real life issues, the camera shots are often basic and restricted. In Juno and the Submarine opening, many close ups are used to establish and tell the audience who the protagonist and focus on the important items in the narrative. For example in Submarine several long shots are used to show the landscape and start to build a setting in the audiences mind. Our opening mainly consists closes ups and shots of the scenery to add tension and build a setting to a similar effect to 'Submarine'. Furthermore, from my research I have learnt the genre focuses on human interests like emotions. Close ups allow the facial expressions and emotion of the characters to be clearly portrayed. This helps to create empathy and build an important relationship with the viewer. Lastly, coming of age films are often low budget so there is no need to use ridiculous action shots like a birds eye view for the film to succeed in immersing its audience.
Narrative
Coming of age films show emotion and issues that younger people can face and help people become aware of these problems, our opening does this. In 'Perks Of Being A Wallflower' a character has been subject to abuse which affects his personality. We wanted to do something similar and make a narrative which is personal and shows the protagonist overcoming his major issues. The enigma code of our opening is why the protagonist is traumatised or whether he will overcome his problems. This follows the conventions of a coming of age film as it is personal and shows a journey of a young character. The film 'Juno' also shows a protagonists journey through problems and struggles.
Dialogue
We have used no dialogue in our opening to again build tension and an atmosphere. 'Submarine' also does not use dialogue in the opening to show the characters independence and possible loneliness. We wanted to challenge the convention in a similar way to show how mental health may affect people and possibly the audience may relate to the issue. Dialogue is used a lot in coming of age openings as they often show social groups of friends or the location is a school, for example Mean Girls, so our opening is rather unique is that way.
Here are a few shots which show the camera work used. The 3 on the left show a match on action, therefore the angles and focus of the shot are in different places to add tempo to the sequence.