Character Profile

For this task we created character profiles for our two protagonists Kathryn Winfield and Jodie Smith 

Name: Kathryn Winfield

Age: 15

Hometown: London

Class: Upper class

Relationship status: Single

Current family: Mother, father

Other close relationships: None

School: St Bonaventure's

Dress style: well groomed, sophisticated, organized

Religion: Catholic

Attitude towards Religion: Strong, strict

Hobbies: horse riding, hunting, ballet

Favourite sports: Lacrosse, hockey

Favourite food:

Sense of humour: It’s hard to make her laugh

Temper: quite a high temper, especially when things don’t go how the usually go

Consideration for others: doesn’t think much of anyone else of a lower class than herself as she was brought up this way

How other people see her: a bit stuck up, teachers pet

Opinion of herself: thinks very highly of herself because she is well dressed and polite, brought up being told she is the best of the best at pretty much everything

Ambitions: top grades, best job there is, make lots of money (at least this is what her mother and father have pressured her into wanting)

Most important thing to know about this character: she may be rich etc. but she is in fact very lonely

Will the audience like or dislike this character, and why?: at first they may decide to dislike her because of her background and the fact that she’s a posh stuck up girl, which is the stereotype for the “villain” in these types of films

Name: Jodie Smith

Age: 15

Hometown: London

Class: Working class

Relationship status: Single

Current family: Mother, father, 2 brothers, 2 sisters

Other close relationships: None

School: St Bonaventure's

Dress style: casual, scruffy, laid-back

Religion: Catholic

Attitude towards religion: relaxed

Hobbies: drawing, playing the piano, writing

Favourite sports: none

Favourite food: chocolate biscuits

Sense of humour: finds typical funny things funny

Temper: quite a low temper, she tends to let things go and take the blame when things go wrong

Consideration for others: respects others because she knows everyone has their own background story (as she has been through a lot and understands people easily)

How other people see her: she comes across as the “weird girl” to the popular kids because she has no friends, lots of people know about her strange/crazy family and how she doesn’t have much money – which shows through the clothes she wears, her uniform has many holes in.

Opinion of him/herself: she thinks very low of herself because she has been treated like this her entire school life by others in her year

Other traits, especially those to be brought out in story:

Ambitions: just to get through school and get a decent job to be able to provide for her family at home

Most important thing to know about this character: like Kathryn, she is very lonely

Will the audience like or dislike this character, and why?: they are more likely to become found of Jodie than Kathryn because many teenagers can relate to the problems that she faces and therefore sympathize for her.

Audience Profile

For this task I created a presentation to show who would watch our film for example I researched who we will target as our primary audience and our secondary audience for our coming of age film.




Learning Comment:
From completing this task I have learnt that our primary audience will be females aged 14-19. We will target people from the teenage social group as that is who most coming of age films are aimed at.  We will represent our teenage characters and audience as equal within society

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task I filmed a short conversation between two people. I used filming techniques such as Match On Action (cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's actions) and the 180 degrees rule (two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right 'relationship' to one another.)





Learning Comment
Completing this task has helped me learn a few techniques that will help make our own coming of age opening sequence look more professional. Another thing that completing this task will help with when it comes to filming our own, is to begin recording before we begin the scene to make sure that all the speech and action within the scene is filmed.

Narrative Structure

Learning Comment:
From completing this task I have found that the majority of the 'coming-of-age' films follow the same codes and conventions such as introducing the protagonist within the first few shots of the opening sequence. Another popular code and convention is that other characters, not just the protagonist are shown within the first moments of the opening sequence. In both 'Boyhood' and 'Sixteen Candles' the disruption of the equilibrium is unclear and not mentioned in the opening sequence of either film. In contrast the 'Wild Child' disruption of the equilibrium is shown within the first shots of the opening sequence. This will help me when creating my own so that the codes and conventions will allow my film to be identified as a 'coming-of-age' film.

Boyhood opening sequence:




Sixteen Candles Opening Sequence:

Representation In Film

For this task I analysed how the audience for 21 Jump Street and Clueless were represented through mise-en-scene, camera angles, the editing sound, etc.

Representation In Films 


Learning Comment:
From researching these two opening sequences and how they represent their teenage target audience and characters, I have discovered that they follow the typical codes and conventions for a coming of age film by subtly representing them through mise-en-scene's use of bright, strong colours and music that is fast paced and upbeat. The teenage social group is shown as weak and vulnerable in both opening sequences through the use of high camera angles. The social group of teenagers are represented as being quite energetic and restless, this is represented through the editing between shots as they were fast and energetic, they featured a lot of tracking shots and cuts between shots.