Key Concepts Of Our Narrative - Frankie and Ella

Representation:
In our film we will be representing age, as our narrative features a young girl and her parents. We will be attempting to portray a traditional representation, as we want to emphasis the traditional elements of the Christmas season. However, our film also features modern representations, as at the end of the narrative, the young girl finds out that father Christmas isn't real. Overall, our film highlights the traditional feel of Christmas and the build up to Christmas day, and then shows a modern twist on the 'perfect christmas'.

Genre:
Our short film resists being put into a genre category, however it does have elements of social realism. We will attempt to portray this through different features of mise en scene; for example, the costumes that we plan to use will be realistic to the characters (see costume post). Furthermore, we will be using camera shots such as close up's to show our characters, and long shots to establish our location, all to highlight the realism of our narrative. I think that the realistic nature of our film will make it more appealing, as it allows the audience to connect with the characters and the story, as it is believable.

Audience:
The target audience for our short film will be a range of different ages, as older people will be able to relate to the parent characters, however younger children (aged 10+) can relate to the young girl. Although young children will not be able to watch the film as they will still believe in Father Christmas and our narrative may upset them.

Narrative:
Our narrative will be linear, to keep the plot clear and easy to understand, as there is a lot going on. You can apply Todorov's theory to our narrative, as there is an equilibrium, when the girl is looking forward to Christmas and enjoying the festive season, then the disruption when she see's her mother and father Christmas exchanging a kiss and a watch, but finally a new equilibrium, as she see's the watch on her father, and realises that it was her dad all along. Levi Strauss narrative theory can also be applied as our film shows binary oppositions, as the mother and also the father are considered 'good', however father christmas becomes to be considered 'evil' as he is seen kissing the mum, but then we find out that father christmas and the father are the same so they are both considered to be 'good' again.

Media Language:
We plan to use tracking shots and long shots to show the setting of a homely, christmassy house. One interesting technique we plan to use, is filming from behind an advent calender, and filming the young girl from inside it. We will be using a filter over the lights to create a warmer tone, therefore emphasising the Christmas feel.