The Bling Ring

The  Bling Ring

The film opening was convectional as their are flash forwards at the start of the end of the movie and the teenagers stealing goods from a celebrities house. In addition ,the montage title sequence foreshadows what happens in the movie ,for example the shots of high heels , Facebook ,Pariz Hilton and jewelery gives the audience an idea of the movie being a burglary by young people linked to celebrities.This shown through mise en scene ; plastic bags with objects and a note pad with 'Evidence'.

This movie focuses on fame ,money and drugs , we see a shot at the start 
where Lindsay Lohan is arrested from drugs , which leads to the teenagers in the movie doing the same things as they are so focused on what celebrities are doing . Most teenagers are also obsessed and  want an inside look into the real life of these celebrities.

The Bling Ring is  based on  true events of  burglaries at Paris Hilton; Lindsay Lohan; Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr; Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox; Rachel Bilson; and Audrina Patridge homes.

Here is a short interview with  Paris Hilton sharing her opinion of the movie and her thought of the burglary :

The title of the movie and title sequences is  bright yellow in a dom diagonal font ,giving a stylish , modern ,friendly and casual look.
Throughout the movie heavy,loud,pop and hip hop/rap  music is played which stereotypes  their bad behavior and popularity. In the opening of 'The Bling Ring' Crown on the ground by Sleigh Bells is played.

The film followed conventions in terms of location ,characters ,story line and binary oppositions.
The location shown in the opening of 'The Bling Ring ' are a kitchen, bedroom and a school ,these are typical settings for teenagers to be at the start of a movie .We can also stereotype the characters in the movie by how they look for example the celebrities are wealthy ,beautiful people with perfect hair and body shape ,where as the teenagers are seen as ordinary teenagers ,however they want the glamours life.

 Rich VS Poor 

 The teenagers are shown wearing sober coloured clothes ; jeans, jackets and hoodies .Whereas the 'millionaire' Paris Hilton is wearing top designers and diamonds.



Teen VS Authority 

The teenagers are always in authority by the police ,parents and teachers.

Reflection Post about my BLOG

So far in media studies I personally think that I am up to date with all of my work that we have been asked to do. I try to make my points very clear with what I am talking about and I think that I've contributed and worked very hard into thinking further about teen movies and how we could possibly make our own one a hit. Me and my group made sure that we learn a lot through the lessons to secure ourselves a very good, entertaining teen movie. What I think I am doing well is using images and videos to illustrate my point and idea to my audience. For example, if I talk about a specific movie I get a picture of their posters they market on the web and post it and use visuals to basically bring my point across to the audience e.g. they use a lot of pink to illustrate the idea of a princess etc. However, I realised that I tend to be brief sometimes about a point I'm trying to make and I think that should change and it will in the future. Something else I could improve on is to use a lot more media terminology as I didn't use many so far which I would try my very best to keep up with as this needs to change. Furthermore, although I think I am up to date with everything I don't think that my voice has been heard entirely. I don't think my voice came through to my audience very much and therefore want to change that. I want to give my work a lot of detail and to analyse what I'm writing about and use giffs to make it more 'alive', engaging and interesting to read and look at and hopefully through all the improvements I need to make, my voice would he heard.

Conventions - The Bling Ring

In class today we watched a the film The Bling Ring,which is a biographic teen movie based on a crime spree which a group of teens committed in LA, on Lindsay Lohan,Paris Hilton,Orlando Bloom and others.The films opening went against the conventions of a teen film, this is because at the beginning of The Bling Ring, the viewer is shown a clip from later on in the film,which then changes to a montage of the clip,pictures of shoes and videos of celebrities.I think this made it particularly more interesting because the viewer immediately becomes hooked.

The Movie focuses on three things which are involved in a lot of teen films,money,drugs and fame.The teens in the film are driven by keeping up with the latest fashion which is shown by the celebrities.The characters were even influenced to take drugs as some celebrities have been arrested for like Lindsay Lohan,there is a shot of her being arrested in the montage.There are not a lot of the popular teen film stereotypes used in this film, this may be because it is a biography,however characters like Rebecca could be described as similar to the popular girl in school which all the other girls want to be friends with;the character Marc could be perceived to be the one with no who always seeks acceptance.

THE BLING RING

The Bling Ring had a conventional sort of opening apart from some non conventional things that you would see in teen films. For the title sequence we had a photomontage of different things like; Facebook, the news, shots of shoes, jewellery, the key characters etc. From this we can already tell what kind of movie we will see. You also get the idea thatthis is a teenage film because of thw setting, which is in a high school, and the kind of music that they play, which is modern and what teenagers listen to.

The film followed the conventional terms of a teenage film by the location, tyoe of characters, sound area of the film, story line and the binary opposition that you usually see in a teenage movie. The location was in a school like i said before and so we immediately that this is about something to do with school and the teenagers inside.
 

The characters of a teen film are usually popular, beautifuly people and then you have different stereotypical groups. In this film you do have the beautiful, rich people but there isn't a very high school kind of movie but more about teenagers that do ilegal things. The music goes with the idea of a teenage movie because you hear a lot of modern music that teenagers listen to.

The story fits in with the idea of a teen movie because the story line to Bling Ring is teens that do drugs, parties and going to clubs. These teenagers do what normal teenagers do and a little bit more because of all the drugs they do as well as steal.

There arE teenage binary oppositions that you can associate with different teen movies that you see in The Bling Ring.

TEEN VS AUTHORITY

 

RICH VS POOR

 

Reflection Post

I believe I have been putting a lot of effort into my Media course work . I have been blogging every week and have kept up to date with my blogging checklist and posted work  before its deadline.
I have always contributed with group blog posts and have a strong individual voice when analysing my work. I have embedded and print screened videos, trailers and images on to my blog related to the work given for evidence and analysis.However I believe I should used more variety of technology such as slide show or photo shops.

Overall I think  my group and I have progressed a lot .

Reflecton Post

I think that my group and I have been up to date with our posts that we have to put up as well as the extra posts that we have been told to do. For myself I think I should add more posts about what we are going to do for our teen opening and put up ideas for what we can do. 

We are entirely up to date with the checklist for our blogs and we are showing clear progression on our blogs because we are now starting to order our blogs in logical order so people who view our blog would be able to understand how our journey is happening. 

Everyone in our group has been able to contribute in all our posts as well be able to blog on their own and get their own ideas. I feel that my voice is being heard and all ideas are being accounted for. I think we all need to do extra blogs about teen movie ideas that we can base our teen opening on. 

Apart from that everything is good and underway.

Reflection blog

Apart from the vimeo videos, I am up to date with the blog posts, although I have only stuck to the mandatory number of blogs. I would like to upload some storyboard sketches, and some other ideas I have for the teen film. I am also going to upload more reviews of films that I watch, even if they are not teen films just so that I have something to compare them with. I am happy with the different medias that I have used but would like to include different styles like gifs, vlogs and photo bucket. I don't think that my voice comes through much, but I would like to change that by doing the things that I stated above.

Not another teen movie stereotypes

The popular ‘attractive’ , ‘vain’ cheerleaders  from  High School  ,followed by Priscilla ,walk with confidence around the school as they run the school and are seen to be more important than everybody else  ; they have much more superiority than all the other groups in the school . This is shown immediately through mise en scene and gestures. The three popular girls are stereotypically seen as ‘bimbos’ and ‘perfect’ as they are all slim ,with straight long hair wearing tightly coloured clothes to show off their figure to grab males attention. They are also shown wearing very girly and glamorous clothing; pink belly tops that shows a lot of skin and high heels .Priscilla being the leader of the group is shown wearing a pink vest top with pink fluff, where as her followers are wearing slightly more covered clothing , as if they were trapped and controlled at by her at all times, which may cause them to feel uncomfortable in situations and not equal with others.

STORY LINES, OPENINGS AND BINARY OPPOSITIONS

Binary Oppositions are two different ways/styles against each other which help create a story line in a film. In Teen films (most films) you are able to see these binary oppositions in the opening. There is a whole range of binary oppositions that relate to teen movies such as typical ones like authority vs teenagers etc. The binary oppositions are there to set an atmosphere about what the movie entails.

Here are a few movies which show binary oppositions:

Romeo and Juliet:

This movie has binary oppositions that you can notice straight awat such as the two families against each other; Montague vs Capulet. we see this is the mise en scene. Montagues have a yellow car and the Capulets have blue one. 

The cars are two distinct colours to show the huge differences between the households. The number plate also has the beginning letters of the family names (Cap/Mon). 

Other binary oppositions that Romeo and Juliet have are:

• Casual vs Sophisticated (the way they're dressed)
• Religious Iconology vs Secular
• Cow Boy vs Punk
• Comedic vs Serious
• Brave and Scared

These are all shown just in the beginning opening of the film which help anticipate about what the movie might be about.

Storyline ,Openings and Binary Oppositions

Storyline ,Openings and Binary Oppositions

Binary Oppositions is a pair of opposites , which powerfully forms and establish conflict which helps creates  a story line in a film. In Teen films you are able to see these binary oppositions in the opening.

In today's lessons we watched four different openings of teen movies with different story lines which were ; Ferris Buellers day off, 10 things I hate about you , Romeo and Juliet and Princess diaries .
I compared the different binary oppositions at the start of each opening of the film  to see the effects it gives to the movie . By watching these opening I have noticed that one side of the binary pair is always seen by  a particular society or culture as more valued over the over .

In Romeo and Juliet several binary oppositions are used to show the differences between the Montague's and Capulet's in the movie . The story line set up in the opening scene shows the Montague's and Capulet's fighting in a petrol station ,they are perceived as yellow vs blue , the Capulet's are  Latin Americans and the Montague's are White Americans.We can also see the binary oppositions (Montague's and Capulet's) immediately  through mise en scene and sound .
                       

                       Punk VS Cowboy 
                       
The Montagues arrive at the petrol station with a yellow convertible car.They are identified by music ; diagetic sound coming from the car stereo such as  heavy bass , rock /hip hop music is used when the camera faces  the Montagues , which shows their crazy and comical character.On the other hand  when the capulets arrive to the petrol station the camera pans to Tybalts and back down to his boot. The Cuban heels represents self respect and the use of Non - Diagetic sound such as Western music shows Tybalt's importance as a Capulet and control over the situation.                                                                        

           Casual  VS Sophisticated 

 The Montagues wear bright , bold ,loose and unbuttoned  Hawaiian T-shirts and chains which shows that the Montagues are casual ,relaxed  and  that they are not as high classed compared to the Capulets Whereas the Capulets were dressed very formally wearing black blazers which implies seriousness , a red vest  with a picture of Mary and leather trousers. This proves that the Capulet's are wealthy ,religious and power compared to the Montagues.

 

      Yellow VS Blue

The two distinct colours represent the difference between both house holds , this is showed clearly to the audience by the number plates on each car showing the first three letters of the families name.
The montagues car is bright yellow which suggest peace , happiness and adolescence ,where as the Capulets windoes are faded and the car is navy which creates mystery and sophistication.

Storylines, Openings+ Binary Oppositions

Princess Diaries use various ways to establish the binary oppositions in the opening scene. They introduce the characters which means we could straight away establish the relationship between the main character and another character just by seeing how they get along with each other. Through the opening one of the main binary oppositions we have are mainly popularity vs non popularity. The main character Mia is so to say 'invisible' to her school mates and classified as unpopular and not very appealing in the way she looks however, we have the popular group of girls that are the opposite which are very pretty and girls who immediately get attention if they're in your presence. Here it is obvious that another binary opposition we have is 'beautiful girls vs ugly girls'. Another thing you would notice in a high school is that typically the popular and non popular girls don't get along with each other and this is exactly what occurs in the movie which establishes conflict between the two separate category of girls. Without binary oppositions it wouldn't bring the movie forward with interest and engagement as it shows us what the main differences are. Usually when popular girls get attention from the crowd, they are extremely confident in their surroundings as they're used to being noticed however, the unpopular girls would be fearing more with how people will mock them if they're openly exposed in a situation for e.g. stand in front of a classroom and speak as they consider themselves as not important to the society. This therefore establishes the binary oppositions with confidence vs nervous. Lastly, the last binary opposition I found in Princess Diaries is 'royalty vs non royal'. The grandma of the main character is the Queen which we could therefore see the difference between popular girls in a high school and a queen that is responsible for the whole country they live in themselves.

In '10 things I hate about you' is another typical teen movie where the mis en scene is usually based in a high school. 

Storylines, openings and binary oppositions

Teen films incorporate numerous different binary oppositions, and the best moment to get all of these into focus is in the introduction before the film focuses onto narrower aspects. We studied binary oppositions in 4 different films, and each of these films used over 5 in the opening 5-7 minutes.

10 Things I Hate About You
The first film we looked at was 10 Things I Hate About You y Jill Gunger. The first binary oppositions are apparent from 1:03, when the older sister drives up next to the group of popular girls. The binary oppositions just from this clip are:

• Pop music vs grunge/punk
• clean vs greasy
• happy vs moody
• bright colours vs black
• nice convertible vs old car

When Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets introduced there is an immediate change with how he expected teachers to behave and how the headmistress was behaving. Then, when the person comes to meet him, he describes the different group types, the coffee drinkers, the beautiful people, the Rastas, the Ivy Leaguers and the cowboys.

Ferris Buellers Day Off

Ferris' naughty nature creates vast amounts of binary oppositions. There is the difference between reality and his lies:

sibling rivalry: 

school and home:

GENRE AND CONVENTION

Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way. Some teen films appeal to young males while others appeal to young females.

The most common sub-genres in teen films are:

• romance
• comedy
• thriller
• horror
• tragedy
• drama
• psychological
• geeky
• fantasy

etc.

Most teen films are set in educational places such as high schools and Universities. By doing this it relates to teenagers because they set it someplace they know very well. In quirky films you have the usual Hot/popular person and then the geek who then becomes the hero in the end. In romanatic comedies it is always the guy who goes for the girl of his dreams and that mostly happens when they're at school. Basically, they have very generic plots that are easy to guess the outcome of.

TASK 2

17 AGAIN

17 again in s a rom-com teen film about a man who turns into a teenager again and tries to make things better but gets put off track and the ending is what all teen movies usually have, a happy ending.

This movie usually  for audiences between the ages 13-18 probably because it doesn't have a very big story line that would interest adults. I think it can be both for male and female because it involves comedy scenes and not many romantic scenes and when there is you usually have some comedic phrases.

It mostly appeals to females because of the protagonist Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) and how good looking he is to girls in the age group 13-18. I think males would like this movies for the simple reason that it is a good movie and has a decent story line.

The setting is mostly a high school which we see a lot and two other houses which big scenes happen in. Us as teenagers are able to relate to the high school scene and trying to become popular as Mike O'Donnell tries to do. 

JUNO

This film is a very unusual movie because it doesn't only have romance and comedy in it but it shows the life of what a pregnant teenager endures. It is a film about a girl called Juno (Ellen Page) who gets pregnant by her so-called boyfriend Paulie (Michael Cera). She goes through the pregnancy mostly alone but in the end e comes back to her.

I think that the age ranger for this movie might be 15-19 of both male and female. I think that both genders are appealed to this movie because it doesn't show just the view of what the female is going through but also the male. Pregnancy is also another thing that teenagers fear these days which makes this movie a sort of insight getting pregnant might be like.

there isn't a main actor or actress that attract the audience to watch movie but for the story line that the movie has. Teenagers can sort of relate to the feelings of the characters. It is set in various locations but again you have high school being one of the main places which the movie happens in and you see how Juno gets treated because of being pregnant and how that affects Paulie. 

REMEMBER ME

Remember Me is a tragic romance and is in the genre of romantic teen films. It is about two students meeting and falling in love with each other but throughout the way they encounter things that should make them break up but in the end they stay together but their lives are full of death and tragedies that we see through the movie. This doesn't have the happy ending that most teens films have.

This movie would attract the age group of probably 15-20 year olds because of the story line and now heart breaking it is. Most female viewers would feel like they connect to this movie because of how the characters portray themselves. Not many males would see this movie at their own free will because it's too 'lovey dovey' for them.

The setting is not in high school and is more about how they lead and live their lives together and apart which is why it attracts a higher age group. This movie is still a teen film but a tragic teen film