Conventions Used:
Opening Credits:
Production and Distribution Companies:
Establishment of genre:
The first and most obvious convention of a film opening sequence is its opening credits which show the many members of the production team. Through research and general knowledge, I was able to understand the order of the film credits and how they reflect on the order of importance and hierarchy. The most common layout of the opening credits is shown as:
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The film's studio producer
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The production company
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A (Producer’s Name) Production.
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A (director’s name) film
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The main actors
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Film's Title
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Other featured actors
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Casting by.
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Production team (casting, costume, music, production of photography.)
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Producer, produced by, and executive producers.
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The writer(s)
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Director.
Placement of the titles is also important. In our opening sequence, we placed them in the corners of the screen while the film was playing. This is the main placement option for a huge variety of films. However, some credits may be shown on a black background meaning the titles are placed in the direct centre of the screen, for example "The Breakfast Club, a popular coming of age film, uses large credits on a black background. But as coming-of-age films developed, titles have more commonly been shown with the film. The titles are usually placed out of the way of the main focus (the film) due to the fact that the film is not meant to be blocked or obstructed by titles. Therefore, the titles are placed in view without being a complete distraction.
Through studying/analysing many coming-of-age movie opening sequences, I am able to confidently pick out common conventions that I have used in my opening sequence.
After looking into some major producer and distributor companies, we decided to settle on using Paramount. This is because most Paramount films are aimed at a young audience of teens (with a few exceptions), which is the same demographic/target audience that we are attempting to appeal to with our film. Despite most coming-of-age films being filmed on low budgets or only being released in certain countries, we still decided to stick with Paramount because Paramount has produced some very popular and well known films, for example, Clueless, Mean Girls and The Lovely Bones. These films have done very well, earning large profits and getting plenty of praise. While the film's success is not entirely caused by the producers and distributors, the producers and distributors push the film forward, attempting to "hype" up the film. We believe a distribution company such as paramount has a lot of power and would be able to do this while distributing the film on a large scale.
Another convention in a coming-of-age opening sequence is revealing the genre and subtly implying parts of the narrative. This can be shown in many ways, the main way is by using the Mise En Scene. In most coming-of-age films, this is shown either with props/setting, costume and characters. For example, "Almost Famous" has several shots of props and setting. From the several shots of props we can gather information about the character and hints at the narrative and genre. The shots of the setting reveal who the main protagonist is - showing it is coming-of-age as the protagonist is a teenager. We have incorporated similar ideas into our film. For example, we used props such as textbooks and school work to give information on our character, we used a clean but clearly teenage room to establish the age of our protagonist, therefore hinting at the genre.