Our Production Logo

Our Production Company name is 'Skyward Studios'. The name was chosen to suggest that the company is always improving and 'heading for the sky'. We wanted to use the sky in our logo as this fitted our name, and we also knew that we wanted a star, because this fits with the idea of the sky. This can be seen in our original logo plan.

 The blue in the logo is bright and positive, and will draw people's attention to it. The gold writing connotes high quality and the serif font suggests the creativity that the company aims to demonstrate. In addition, we used a star to connote fame and success as well as the 'stars' in our productions. Although we liked this logo, we found that it was far too pixelated when we came to putting it into our film. Therefore, we had to redesign our logo.

 

Although we wanted to keep it fairly similar, it was decided that we would change the images on the logo to avoid it being too pixelated, as this would look unprofessional. Our final logo was very similar and we kept the key characteristics such as the gold serif writing and the blue background. 

Script

The original script for our opening scene was:

Megan: (to Hazel’s phone)

                *I’m sorry*

                *I miss you*

                *I didn’t mean to*

                *If I could go back and change things then I would*

Mum: (to Megan’s phone)

                *GUESS WHAT!*

Megan: (to Mum’s phone)

                *What?*

Mum: (to Megan’s phone)

*I’M PREGNANT!*

Teacher:  Excuse, me, um, new girl, what is your name?

Megan: It’s Megan

Teacher: Well I don’t know what the rules at your old school Megan, but here we don’t go on our phones in class

Megan: Sorry Miss

We did not use this exact script, although we followed the general idea of it. We decided to let the actors choose the exact wording of their dialogue to make the acting seem as natural as possible.

Characters

Our main character is called Megan, however we originally considered the names Jessica, Claudia and Lucy. We wanted to find a typically girly name that fitted the teen angst genre. 

Megan cares a lot about her appearance, which is stereotypical of a teenage girl and is seen in many teen angst films such as Poppy in Wild Child. She wears a lot of red, to connote danger. She has a secret, which is that she was involved in a car crash that killed her best friend Hazel. Although she wasn't at fault in the crash, she was the one who had convinced Hazel to go out in the car with her, meaning that she feels at fault. Megan spends 17 years of her life as an only child, but on her first day at her new school, she receives a text from her Mum who tells her that she is pregnant, meaning that Megan will have a younger brother or sister in the near future. Megan is starting a new school, which is another convention of teen angst films (e.g. Poppy in Wild Child, Cady in Mean Girls and Annabelle in St Trinian's). A few days in to starting her new school, she befriends Ellie. She is played by Ella Thwaites. 

 

Ellie becomes Megan's best friend throughout the duration of the film. We chose the name Ellie because it sounds very friendly. The character is very accepting and understanding and quickly befriends Megan when she sees that she is lonely, despite laughing at her and walking into her deliberately at the beginning. Although Ellie and Megan argue when Ellie finds out Megan's secret, the reconcile when Ellie realises how awful Megan feels and how sorry she is. Like Megan, Ellie cares about her appearance like a stereotypical teenage girl. Ellie is dating Aaron in the film, but breaks up with him when she discovers that he is bullying Megan. She is played by Georgia Hayes.

We chose the name 'James' because it is a common male name. James is seen pushing Megan over at the beginning of the title sequence, which immediately suggests that he is causing to cause problems for Megan throughout the film and connotes that he isn't a nice character who cares about other people. James is the main bully in the film, and starts and spreads all the rumours about Megan. Usually, the main male character in a teen angst film is a love interest throughout the film, for example in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Georgia's main focus is Robbie. We decided to break this convention and only have James admit his feelings for Megan at the end of the film. However, Megan rejects him because he spent so long bullying her. James is played by Sean Kaitano.

Aaron, James' best friend was another character who bullied Megan. Once again, we chose the name Aaron because it is a common male name. He is dating Ellie but she breaks up with him because of the way he treated Megan. He is a stereotypical teenage boy, with interests in his appearance and sport. He is played by Joe Fraser.

Hazel was Megan's best friend, however she died in the car crash. Megan blames herself for Hazel's death, despite not actually causing the car crash. This was because Megan had persuaded Hazel to get in the car with her so they could go out rather than staying in. Megan is seen texting Hazel's phone in the first scene, saying 'I miss you' and 'I'm sorry', which shows the remorse the Megan feels towards the death of her best friend. Although Hazel isn't a common name for teenage girls, we decided to use it because we thought it fitted with the unusual and unrelatable events that occur. She does not appear in the main sections of the film, only in flashbacks and dreams.

Lisa is Megan's mum, who is pregnant throughout the film. She reveals this fact to Megan in the first scene as she texts her. She has remarried, meaning that the unborn baby will be Megan's half sister. We chose the name Lisa because it is a common name of that generation. 

Miss Scott is one of Megan's teacher, featured in the first scene. Although they have a disagreement in the first scene, Miss Scott ends up being one of Megan's favourite teachers. Consequently, Megan ends up confessing her secret to her. Miss Scott supports Megan as she tries to move on with her life.

Movie Plot

The movie focuses on a girl called Megan, joining a new school with a big secret. At first most people think she is odd so ignore her, but after a while rumours begin to spread. She befriends the popular Ellie, who does her best to defend her to those saying nasty things.  In the first scene, Megan finds out that her Mum is pregnant which makes her feel unwanted at home - her mum and step-dad are focusing on the bump. As Megan never wants to disclose why she left her old school, people find her odd and suspicious. Consequently, people make up rumours about why she left and she starts to get bullied. 

Megan eventually admits to her teacher Miss Scott that she was involved in a car crash that killed her best friend. Aaron overhears her confession and tells Ellie and James. While Ellie argues with Megan about it, James tells everyone about what he has heard. Ellie forgives Megan as she explains exactly what happened. Megan had convinced Hazel to go out with her when she just wanted to stay in, and while they were out in the car, they were involved in a crash. Ellie breaks up with Aaron.

In an assembly, Megan talks about the crash and how devastated and guilty she feels, and her classmates begin to understand what happened. James admits to Megan that he likes her and asks her to be his girlfriend, but she rejects him because of how he had treated her.

Settings in our film

Almost all our film is set in a secondary school, therefore we felt that it was important to represent this in our title sequence and opening scene. After researching the representation of schools in teen angst films, we decided to use a locker to connote a school environment, and a classroom to do the same. We decided to set our film in a 'high school' because this would be relevant to our demographic of 15-20 year olds. This audience will either still be in school or will have only left recently, making it relatable. Our first shot is in a corridor with lockers, which is a stereotypical prop in a secondary school, so this immediately sets the scene and informs the viewer of where the film is set. Lockers are seen in teen angst films such as Juno.

We filmed some of our title sequence in our common room. We wanted to show groups of students grouped together, like in Mean Girls in the cafeteria. Although this room may not be immediately recognisable as part of a school, this is suggested by the tables and chairs, as well as the iconography on the walls.

Classrooms are another recognisable feature of schools, because all schools have them, so this was another setting we used to represent the location of the film. When researching teen angst settings, I found that both Mean Girls and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging had scenes in a classroom. This is clearly a classroom due to the layout of the table and chairs, as well as the whiteboard. 

Target Audience and USP

Originally, we decided that our target audience should be around 12-20 year old females, which is the typical target audience for a teen angst film. However due to some dark themes within the film (the main character causing a car crash which consequently lead to her best friend’s death), we decided that the film certificate would be 15, meaning our target audience would be 15-20 year old females instead. This decision came from feedback from our classmates after we pitched our idea to them. Although this would perhaps limit the amount of people who would see the film, it is important that the film is only viewed by those it is appropriate for. 

Our USP is the fact that our target audience is different to other teen angst films, as the certification is a 15. 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' is rated a 12, as is Wild Child, Mean Girls and Juno, which shows that the stereotypical target audience for films of this genre is 12-20.

Risk Assessment

Risk:	Method to overcome this:
Ella could get hurt when Sean pushes her over	Ensure that Sean  is careful when he knocks into her and that Ella is in full control of her fall over.
The camera fall during filming.	Make sure that the tripod and camera are secure at all times.
A crew member could trip over the dolly during tracking shots.	Make sure that everyone looks exactly where they are going when near the dolly.
When manoeuvring the dolly, a crew member could lose control of it. It may hit a wall or another crew member.	Be very careful with the dolly and make sure a second crew member is on standby in case someone loses control of the dolly.