Twilight (also fantasy)
Starts with main logo, fades into dimly lit forest with deer calmly drinking water, hearing some leaves rustle, deer looks alarmed, music picks up – more dramatic, suspense, chasing deer through forest, closing in on deer, a figure comes out and catches deer but we do not see who it is. Fade to sunny desert, sun spots on the camera. Music changes to slower pace. All score. Main character looking unhappy, tracking shot where she walks towards the camera, straight cut to her with her mum. Step dad shutting car door, trying to rush them to leave saying they have “a plane to catch”. Main character smiles weakly. Mother says she’ll miss her. Throughout is a voice over of the main character saying for the first part about something deep and meaningful – death. After the fade she is talking about leaving to live with her father in a new town. Long shots and mid shots of the characters. Two shot where mother and main character hug. Close up of main character showing emotions. Dialogue exchanged is quieter than the voice over. They all get in the car and a song begins to play – upbeat, guitar, lyrics. Shots of them in the car. Plane going up, sound effects of the plane. Movement shots of the surroundings. At 2 minutes the title comes up of the logo presenting (“Summit entertainment presents”), overlaid, move up to sky, fade through white to another area, movement through fog, snowy mountains – another area. Title of film centre screen, custom font, opening credits end with title at about 2:12. Tracking shot of car going across the bridge. Camera moving from right to left, ahead of car from outside window, voice over of main character as music fades down to lower volume, car driving down various roads, long shot of the house as the car pulls up outside. Mid shot of main character getting out the car and looking up at the house, back to long shot of characters getting bags out the car. Music has almost faded out completely at 3:25.
Director: Catherin Hardwicke
Stars: Robbert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner
Kristen Stewert (main character) – mostly in teen films – Twilight series – New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn as well as The Runaways which was based on a biography (drama, music) First significant role in The Safety of objects (drama).
Robbert Pattinson – main male role. Appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was older children/teen (fantasy, adventure). Was also in Water for Elephants and Remember me (both romance, dramas)
Based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer
The Last Song (also family)
Main logo. Dramatic piano music, close ups of glass, orange lighting, liquid dripping, shot of a fire in a building from the inside, long shot of inside building of the fire – small explotion, building falling apart, two firemen dragging out a body, lyrics in the song, sound effects of the parts of the building falling down, fire crackling, people talking on radios, windows smashing, water being sprayed. Red lights flashing. Camera moving up of silhouettes of the three people who came out of the building. Fade to black. Straight cut from black to next scene of tracking shot – car driving down a road. Text showing with enlarged translucent shadow behind bold white text of the main logo presenting (“touchstone pictures presents”), same song playing, long shot of the car driving down the road with lead actress’ name in text, bottom right of the screen same as before. Shot of main character from outside the window of the car, different view from the front. Tracking shot of the car going across the bridge, title of the film (“The Last Song”) appearing as before. Main character looking out the window, winding the window down to reveal face, (“an offspring entertainment production”) POV shot from inside the car of surroundings, tracking shot again of car with another name appearing at top left of the screen, another tracking shot involving more scenery in new location. No sound effects. Mid shot of main character from outside the car. Music fades out to sound as if it’s coming from the main character’s headphones. Sound effects of the car, mid shot of burnt building with workers. First line spoken with three shot of characters inside the car from outside the windscreen. Magnified POV from the car shot of burnt down building. Another name shown bottom left of the screen, close up of main character looking at the building with indifferent expression, opening credits end at about 1:50. Long shot of the area.
Director: Julie Anne Robinson
Main stars: Miley Cyrus, Liam Hensworth
Based on novel by Nicholas Sparks
Remember me
Main logo – zooms out to see full logo, black background fades to see white and green flashes – a train moving. Title fades in with letters spread far apart, appears on right side of the screen and moves to the centre, showing “remember” in all caps, the letters ‘r’, ‘e’, ‘e’, ‘b’, ‘e’ and ‘r’ fade out leaving the ‘me’. Dramatic piano music in the background. Sound effects of a train fade in, two figures are visible – a woman and a girl – mid shot. Straight cut to long shot where the train goes past and the two are standing on a platform at night. Small text and bottom centre screen of the location and date (broklyn, new york. 1991). Music fades out and the girl is looking frustrated. They seem to be talking but it is not audible over the sound effects. Long shot from the side as they are looking for a train. Long shot down the platform with two guys looking their way. Long shot of the girl with her mother with the guy’s legs on the left side of the shot from the waist down – low angle shot. Back to shot of down the platform one of the guys walks towards the girl and her mother, mother brings the girl towards her protectively, guy walks past and down some stairs, close up of mother looking around. She looks down the platform and exclaims that the train is coming. Long shot of the two on the platform, men walks past the camera, back of him is in the shot, camera comes slightly towards the woman and the girl. Long shot of the other man coming back up the stairs. Mother looks around anxiously. Long shot of the man getting out a gun, sound effects of the train coming up to the platform. The two men are walking towards the females, tracking shot following the man who just got out a gun, woman pulling the girl behind her, camera moving towards the woman on both sides – both sides where the men are coming towards her. Train going past with loud sound effects of the train, dialogue of the men telling the woman to give them her purse, close ups of men shouting in her face, close up of girl looking scared behind her mother, constant camera movement around the group, men get on the train, sounds of train stops, diegetic sound of someone on a speaker, camera moves around the woman’s face, doors close, shot of woman staring at the men, men staring at the woman, ding of the doors about to open, doors open and one of the men is holding up a gun, mid shot of woman getting shot, shot of her falling backwards and the girls expression, exclamation of “no!”, long shot of the woman on the ground, sound effects of the doors closing on the train, girl crying sounds of despair and pain, crying, yelling “mum” over and over. Sound effects of train moving away, mid shot of the girl crying, tracking shot of the men looking at her through the door as the train moves away. Train is used as a passage of time, camera moves around so directly looking at the train, police officer walks into the shot from the right of the screen, follows him to the stairs to see another man walking up the stairs. Shot from behind him walking up the stairs, sad tune being played in the background, camera stays at the stairs, long shot of the platform with officials around, on the floor is a white sheet over what has to be a body. Low angle shot of the man looking down at the body, can see his hand lifting the sheet. Close up of a ring on the ground, he picks it up, straight cut to him standing up with everything else but him out of focus, can see the blurry figure of the girl coming towards him, girl cries “daddy!”, he picks her up, camera moves around them, tracking shot of him walking towards the camera with the girl in his arms, shot from behind them as he walks down the stairs, fade to black. Ends at 4:16.
Director: Allen Coulter
Stars: Robbert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin
A Walk to Remember
Starts with main logo, shows 2 – lasts for 30 seconds with piano music – warner brother’s theme song. Opening credits against black background (“Warner bros. pictures present”, along with names of the lead roles), sounds of someone cheering in the background, catchy upbeat song, rock song. Text white – letters scatter outward before white flash of a transition, title as the last text, straight cut to shot of a car on a road at night. Teens getting out the cars, dialogue exchanged, camera movement as if you are part of the crowd, text appearing at bottom centre screen of more names, text still animates outwards the same as before. Same shot continues into a tracking shot as another car appears and comes towards the group, continues tracking the guy who gets out of the car, camera passes by a couple kissing. Shot goes to different characters as they speak but does not concentrate on every single piece of dialogue. Text of the casting is by, music supervisor. Another character enters in another car. Characters being aggressive towards each other but they shake it off. Text of who the music is by, who edited the film, production design, costume design, producers. Still the same shot as the characters start walking, camera follows them from in front. As they turn a corner the camera goes upwards behind a chain link fence. Sounds of them enjoying themselves, all in the shot walking away. Text in the centre - based on a novel. Shot ends at 2:37. Straight cut to shot of the water, text of who the screenplay is by. Characters walk into the shot from the left side of the screen. Text of who the producer is, who the director is. All the characters walk past. Straight cut to characters crowding around – low angle shot. Music fades out.
Director: Adam Shankman
Stars: Mandy Moore, Shane West
Teen Romance Dramas
Water for Elephants
Remember me
Romeo and Juliet (1996)
The Last Song
A Walk to Remember
Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse
Red Riding Hood
Dear John
Beastly
Letters to Juliet (also comedy)
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Directors
Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants)
Allen Coulter (mostly drama tv series, Remember Me)
Baz Luhrmann (romance dramas and dramas, Moulin Rouge!, Romeo and Juliet, Strictly Ballroom)
Julie Anne Robinson (mostly tv series – romance dramas, The Last Song)
Adam Shankman (A Walk to Remember)
Catherine Hardwicke (romance dramas, Thirteen, Red Riding Hood, Twilight)
Lasse Hallström (Dear John)
Daniel Barnz (Beastly)
Gary Winick (Letters to Juliet)
Twilight – main character is moving away to live with her dad even though she will miss her home, unsure if doing the right thing
The Last Song – main character seems to be unhappy, her brother talks about an unnamed action she did in the car but she claims that she ‘didn’t do it’ – criminal act suggested
Remember me – girl and her mother seem to be happy until the opening plays out and the girl’s mother is shot – reveals that the rest of the film will be dramatic/sad
A Walk to Remember – nothing bad seems to happen/has happened but some of the ways they each treat each other implies that something bad could happen i.e. aggressiveness one of the boys shows to a girl they were kissing
Many based off novels (Twilight series, The Last Song e.t.c). Romeo and Juliet based off the Shakespeare play. Main character is usually the girl, and she’s usually going through emotional turmoil – usually unhappy with her life in the beginning.
Conventions of a teen romance drama opening
- Logo of the main institution of the film which will last around 15-30 seconds which will be animated
- Main character is shown in the opening sequence – very early on in the film, but who they end up with at the end of the film may not be included this sequence at all.
- A voice over of the main character is frequently used which will explain about their life so far/what’s going on
- The main character is usually unhappy about their life or are going through emotional turmoil at the time, or the first scene will imply that something will happen later, or something will happen in the first scene e.g. the fire in The Last Song
- In the opening credits, the names actor/actress playing the main characters are shown as well as the director. Sometimes other names will show up such as producers, casting, costume e.t.c. In a more action oriented sequence like in Remember Me the title was simply shown – probably so that the audience are not distracted from the events taking place in the film by the text.
- Common shots – tracking, mid, long. Lots of camera movement is involved.
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