Research of Film Openings - 4.3.2.1

R	The main characters in this film are four girls. The start of the film, show that the white British girl is vulnerable, as she is about to jump off a bridge. The black and American girl are then shown as strong as they are telling her what to do, and are in control, as they are pointing a gun at her. This is different to the dominant ideology in films that the white people are in control and that the black characters are usually sidekicks. The film then goes on to show different activities that the girls do in their free time. This shows the upper class girl having a piano lesson and then getting in to a car that has her own driver. This is the stereotypical view of an upper class person, as she is playing the piano which is usually classical music, which is usually linked to upper class, or well educated people. One character is shown smoking, which the majority of teens do nowadays. The other girls are shown doing various activities that the average 17-18 year old girls does, e.g. driving lessons, swimming.
A	I think that the audience film would be 15 – 24 year olds. I think this because it has mature themes, such as drugs, smoking, and it contains sexual themes, such as the homosexual girl wearing knickers saying “eat me” on. I also think that this would be aimed at girl as the four main characters are female. There is no character for a male to relate to or empathise for, so boys may not find this interesting. I think that this filmed is aimed at the British culture, as it is filmed in Britain. It will contain some aspects of British culture that other countries will not understand. However, they have used an American actress, Emma Roberts, to attract a teenage audience from America as they will feel that they can relate to her. Emma Roberts has been used as an American actress for other films, such as ‘Wild child’ so that these films will be big productions in both Britain and America.
Id	The main ideology of this film is along the lines of feminism. All of the main characters are female, which shows that the characters are strong enough to control a situation and are able to be in charge through out the film. There are no main male characters, this helps to emphasise the importance of the females in this film, again this relates to the audience this film attracts. One of the distributers of this film is ‘Unstoppable Entertainment’. This company was behind the films ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’. Both of these films are controversial and make the audience think, which is what 4.3.2.1.
L	The language of this film is very modern. It is how youths talk to each other at the moment; this again relates to the age of the audience and lets them relate to the characters. The camera shots of this film consist of lots of close ups of faces. This conveys that what they are saying, and the emotion of how they are saying is very important, as close ups are used to show emotion. It makes the beginning feel more intense, drawing the audience in to watch the rest of the film. The location of the film takes place in various places, but all are where teenagers tend to go, such as a café and swimming pool.
In	The main distributer of this film is ‘Universal Studios’, along side a lot of minor companies such as ‘Unstoppable entertainment’ and ‘Retro Juice’. The main company is part of an American conglomerate, because this is American it helps to advertise the film for an American audience, making the film multi-cultural. The minor companies are mostly British; this helps to advertise to a British audience. With both the American company and the British company, the film would benefit as it would get a greater income from both countries.
N	This film does not follow Todorov’s theory. He believes that most films follow the same timeline; there is equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium at the end. However this film starts at the middle of the of the film, so therefore it starts at the disequilibrium. The film then goes to the first equilibrium, completely going against this theory.
G	The genre of this film is a British, teen, gritty film. This means that it will contain stuff that is not shown in mainstream Hollywood productions, which tend to make a Romanticised picture of Britain. This film will probably focus on the bits of culture Hollywood leaves out of their films. The distributer ‘Unstoppable Entertainment’ usually makes films like this, ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’ are an example of this. This shows that this production company tend to make the same kind of film, which means that they will always attract the same type of audience.