Welcome to my blog!

I have decided to record a podcast for youtube in order to reflect on my AS coursework.

Final Cut

The soundtrack recorded and performed by the music teacher at my school, James Reilly.

EVAL Q1a - Conventions

The purpose of a film openings is to hook an audience. This is particularly important when watching film through the mediums of video on demand and television, which trends of convergence are leading more and more people to do.

So the opening should set out the themes of the film and introduce the main characters and possibly settings. 

LENGTH

It can be varied in length, for example  12 minutes with James Bond films, however it will usually not exceed 7-8 minutes, and will be between 2 and 5 minutes, with sometimes it being even less, but I never encountered a film opening 

Lengths of film openings:

• Legend - 01'43
• The Danish Girl - 01'39/02'18
• The Infidel - 04'01, titles still carry on afterwards
• Blade Runner - 04'31/06'55
• Psycho - 06'20
• Tyrannosaur - 02'56
• Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence - 03'02

My film opening is not allowed to exceed more than just under three minutes, so I ha

Length of adult rom-coms

Bridget Jones's Diary -  4'00
Love Actually - 2'49/7'00

Length of teen films

• Pretty In Pink - 03'57 
• Submarine - 01'51/05'03 (opening music has ended by then, but then a prologue is added on, quasi creating two film openings)
• 10 Things I Hate About You - 02'01/04'58 - Opening music stops, but titles carry on, you could say this starts the movie's plot as the first love story is started, the lack is made known (Propp)

Transition into main film

TYRANNOSAUR
Non-diegetic sound has stopped, leaving diegetic sound, as the camera cuts to a different location with different sound.

MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE

After the title sequence played out as the protagonist is escorted by guards the non-diegetic sound fades out as the scene cuts to their intended location, and just as the music ends the diegetic sound of militiary commands are heard.

PSYCHO

As the camera fades into the main film, the music also fades.


NARRATIVE ENIGMA:

I wanted their to be a final tease that could make people want to watch the rest of my film, with them questioning, "Whose hand is that?". . The music also fades while it is in the first scene of the main film.The film would go on further using narrative enigma, with shots of the mother getting ready to leave to return to her daughter. 

Conventions of the protagonist

In order to create conflict, the protagonist will either be an outsider, or be rebelling against an establishment or norm.

• The Infidel - A Muslim who finds out about his Jewish heritage. He struggles to identify with his the Jewish community while feeling more and more isolated from his Muslim roots
• Psycho - She turns into the Other, is on the run from the authorities.
• Legend - Crime lords, above the law
• The Danish Girl - a transexual at a time when it was considered madness, Ellie meets superstition and bigotry in her journey to. Also the artists are portrayed as isolated and different from normal society
• This Is England - Shaun doesn't feel integrated in his school at all, is bullied, which is why he turns to the skinhead community and soon is so overcome with happiness by finding friends
• Tyrannosaur - The protagonist tries to be civilised put can't help to lash out at society

ROM-COM & TEEN FILMS

• Bridget Jones's Baby - Embarrasses herself infant of everyone, and is the only one in the family not to have gotten married yet.
• Submarine - The opening extreme longshots add to the feeling of isolation
• Pretty In Pink - The protagonist is the binary of her wealthier classmates
• 10 Things I Hate About You - Kat is named the Shrew by everyone,  and at the start of the film is avoided by her whole school that she sees as shallow and defendant misogynist institution, she goes against her gender norms.
• Heathers - Veronica tries to go along with the Heather's clique and follow their rules, but is frustrated by this as the plot develops (main influence on Rachel's feeling of not fitting in with other girls, along with Mean Girls, but portrayed a bit more down to earth)

Secondary character 

also feeling some degree of otherness, in the romance story this can be seen as making the perfect match 

• Bridget Jones's Baby - Mark Darcy is seen by everyone as a sombre and emotionless bore
• Pretty In Pink - Blane McDonough doesn't feel quite right with his peers, questions their "rules"
• Submarine - As Oliver puts it, Jordana is "moderately unpopular"
• 10 Things I Hate About You - Patrick Verona is also feared by most, and is close to Kat's unpopularity,
• Heathers - In this case Jason turns out to be even more of a darker character than Veronica

Teen's Relationship with Parents

The idea of a parent gone long gone is a common trope that I have seen in teen films such as Pretty In Pink. They will even have died sometimes such as in The Edge Of Seventeen, when the protagonist is 13. 

This trope  was also often used as a narrative device for troubled teenagers in Skins.

In this case, here's an example of a mother having left the family, and the father ignoring the daughter (in this case however there are too brothers whome the father does give some attention)  1:15 to 1:58 for the exchange of dialogue which anchors this issue. 

Conventions of the antagonist

Binary Opposition:

• The Infidel - Liberal vs Conservative Muslims
• The Danish Girl - Cisgender vs Transgender
• Blade Runner - Humans vs Replicants (Creator vs Creations)
• Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence - Prison Guards vs Prisoners
• Pretty In Pink - upper-class, well-dressed vs middle/working class vintage clothing
• 10 Things I Hate About You - The Beautiful People vs The Outsiders

They will often be standing for values that can be seen as fake

• The Infidel - Arshad Al-Masri turns out to be the ultimate con, pretending to be a conservative muslim when he is hiding from his past as a disgraced singer
• The Danish Girl - The values that the transphobic society tries to uphold naturally seem cold and heartless and attract the audience's antipathy, particular at the death of the anatagonist. 

VOICEOVERS

Voiceovers are often used to anchor the protagonist. However, this is not always the case. In Legend, it is mainly a story about the Krays, Frances is the secondary protagonist, and more of a commentator. In The Breakfast Club, while Brian's character is the one the audience is made most to sympathise with, it is more of an ensemble group of characters. 

But my film opening challenges the convention of only having the protagonist doing the voiceover, like in Manhattan, Bridget Jones's Diary, Submarine, The Edge Of Seventeen,  and has more than one character, in the case of About A Boy where we have two protagonists, they both do the voiceovers. In this case there are three voiceovers. I did this wanting to confuse the audience a bit at who they should sympathise with, and how they should follow. 

INTERTEXTUALITY

• Pretty In Pink: Father in bed and neglectful (increased here to alcoholic and video game addict), pulling up stockings and putting on earrings
• The Devil Wears Prada - putting on stockings
• Trick R Treat - Mistaken Wave, Goth Look, Humiliated by Jock
• About A Boy - monologue
• Submarine: panning shots and photos on wall, sound of beach and seagulls adapted for urban environment, trains, cars and city birds
• 10 Things I Hate About You: photos on wall
• Car, a trope of the popular boy I have seen in 10 Things I Hate About You & All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
• Wild Chid: zooming out
• Heathers + Mean Girls: Three popular girls whome in this case the protagonist tries to get a long with, here Rachel, but the girls aren't the main adversaries,
• Napoleon Dynamite: Diegetic titles and Bow wow wow soundtrack
• My Beautiful Laundrette, The Tall Guy: One of the few rom-coms with an Asian protagonist
• My Beautiful Laundrette + The Tall Guy: rare Western rom-coms with an Asian protagonist
• Some Like It Hot - Look of Tony Curtis template for Hugh

TV

Skins: The look of Frankie was the main template for the character of Billy as The Other, as well as getting up from her bed and dressing herself in her room.

• Sugar Rush: The basic storyline set-up of the first season is quite similar, plus a small detail to hint at sexuality: toothbrush on floor (masturbation)
• Orange Is The New Black: "Dream on Big Boo"
• Breaking Bad: The crossword-like titles

LITERATURE: SHAKESPEARE

Referencing Shakespeare was fitting as he is the grandfather of the romantic comedy (playlist of his plays categorised in that genre).

There have been several remakes of Shakespeare's plays set in modern times, both direct adaptations of the text and loose inspirations, most notably 10 Things I Hate About You. The first time, Cameron, part of the secondary love story, sees the girl of his affections, he quotes the character he is based on when in the same situation.

An even directer quote comes from the teacher 

00:30 - 00:46 - The quote of the sonnet.

I used it further to underline, the quirky otherness of the protagonist. 

Unintended Intertextuality 

• Pretty In Pink: Location near a trains
• This Is England: The protagonist is also getting out of bed.
• Simlarities with the slice of life genre, members of my audience who watch anime observed this, they have a different reading

Due to all these intertextual references, Roland Barthes would say that I am not the true author of my text. But neither are any of the people who contributed to the production of all the influences on my work. Barthes's landmark essay "Death of the Author", says that

"an author is not simply a "person" but a socially and historically constituted subject."

The site where I read this quote goes on further to connect it to Marxist theory, saying that history taketh the man, not as Hegel said man taketh the history. This is part of a movement rejecting Enlightenment, which put man (patriarchic society) at the centre of everything, instead of God as in the Middle Ages. It is another criticism of human arrogance.

The auteur theory can also be applied. I myself have experienced how many people have contributed to the final cut, feedback from my teacher and audience, Ms Thomas setting up the art studio with all the high-quality paintings drawn by students (prosumer) the elements of Billy's room that Hannah already had, some moments of spontaneous improvisation from the cast, like the bottom-slapping between Hugh and Dillon.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

Propp's 7 characters:

• The Hero. In the fairytales Propp analysed they were nearly always male, here Billy is the heroine
• The Villain - Hugh
• The False Hero - Hugh fulfils both functions
• The Princess - Rachel
• The Helper - Jake
• The Donor - Not present 
• The Dispatcher - Not present
• The Father - Billy's father, however as hinted in the narrative the mother also will play an important role

Carl Jung's anima and animus:

• The father - any authority figure. The father has no real authority here. Any teachers of authority are yet to appear
• The child - This represents the future, becoming, rebirth, the promise of new beginnings
• Mana or spiritual power - The hero figure,
• The maiden - Representing purity or innocence and naiveté Rachel
• The wise old man - Not present
• The trickster - Always causing trouble for the hero. 

The troubled youth who feels like an outsider can be traced back to James Dean, his character in 1955's Rebel Without A Cause is the archetype for the teenage Other.

Also the bad boy characteristics of Hugh can be traced back to Marlon Brando in 1953's The Wild One.

Ideas That Didn't Make It

• The Sound of Music/Bridget Jones’s Diary: The Edge Of Reason parody, kissing waking up like in Sugar Rush (but without masturbating) to maybe dog licking face like in Ali G Indahouse (that bit would have been problematic due to Hannah having no dog)
• Disabled best friend like awkward friend Heathers wanted protagonist not to be with, Rachel would have ignored her to appear cool to Hugh. Though it would have been too much. 

EVAL Q1b - Representations

REPRESENTATION

The Media Students book on representation:

it emphasises that, however realistic media images seem, they never simply present the world direct. They are always a construction, a re-presentation, rather than a transparent window onto the real- It prompts the question: how do groups, or situations, get routinely represented in the media? This relates to the world of political representatives: people who "stand in" for us - as union of school reps, or our representatives in Parliament. 

(To take this further, even if we lived in a utopian society where every politician had the whole population's best interests at heart and could turn this into 100% efficiency practically, they would still only ever represent the population, not truly present it)- 

It signals the way some media re-present certain images

This is very similiar to Stuart Hall's theory of representation, which he gave (so to apply that directly here, his presentation isn't truly presented through this Youtube video, only represented).  

So however realistic and how hard I tried to achieve verismilitude with my characters and . That is also why one can for instance exaggerate some characters, as it never a true presentation of the world, even the most skilled social realistic directors can't achieve this.

AGE

My primary target audience are teenagers, so the characters are all teenagers. Representations of adults in my opening sequence are negative. The three secretaries and female teacher are gullible enough to fall for Hugh's charms and the teacher even gives in to bribery.

If my film carried on I would make sure not all teachers are represented negatively as either gullible or ignorant. But in order to create a real focus I would add some teachers that are putting pressure on homework.

None of the teenagers are doing work, this is a quite realistic portrayal of teenage activity I have experienced in my own school.

GENDER

The Bechdel Test

Here the feminist media critic Anita Sarkisian looking at recent films and highlighting that the majority of films are still influenced by a patriarchic society. It is not clear what the other girls are talking about when Rachel feels she doesn't fit, but it could be gossiping over boys, it looks like very stereotypical girl chat. But throughout the main film as Billy and Rachel would be talking a lot about their relationship, so particular through the break of heteronormativity the Bechdel Test would be broken.

The Cinderella Syndrome

That women are in need of men. 

Reflects that sometimes teenagers just go into relationships out of loneliness, and the feeling of needing attention.

SEXUALITY

Hugh

As he is the antagonist I wanted to really stereotype him. My main influence was Hugh Grant's characters from the Working Title films, who turned into more negatively after playing the hopeless romantic in Four Weddings & A Funeral and Notting Hill, as womanisers/slacker/upper middle class/"intellectual" Daniel Cleaver and Will Freeman, with Will Freeman's opening voiceover about having little compassion for "other people's ratings falling" (opening scene is not available on YouTube) being intertextualised in Hugh's voiceover.

The first 45 seconds of this clip demonstrate very well the character traits of Freeman, that simply in theory make him very unlikeable but the humor his charming and impression of self-flawlessness make him likeable to the audience, that I wanted to integrate into the character of Hugh. 

Another influence from Skins, the one countertype being that he is bisexual.

This is similiar to how Rachel would probably would end it officially with Hugh after finding out that he plays around. 

Applying Freud

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud introduced the term "innate bisexuality", saying humans are all bisexual by default, but are conditioned through psychological development (enforced by what many now call a heteronormative society).

Through hinting the character of the posh jock's bisexuality, and starting a narrative of the protagonist, Billy, wanting to try and optimistically see if Rachel can be interested in the same gender, it creates a narrative which makes audiences think more flexibly about sexuality. 

As Billy and Jake's friendship grows, they would maybe try out to see if they open to expanding their monosexual orientation. This goes hand in hand with my original idea I got from Twelfth Night, where the characters find themselves attracted to both genders.

Sexuality Expressed

A lot of the examples of rom-coms and some teen films address sexuality, not very graphically, but is shown on a minimal basis. The toothbrush is a signifier of. This is also an element of realism, hinting at teenage exploration of sexuality. 

ETHNICITY

A Western film with an Asian protagonist isn't rare, but they are still vastly outnumbered by  films with Caucasian protagonists.  

ABILITY/DISABILITY

No major disabled characters represented, only shortsightedness through the students wearing glasses.

CLASS/STATUS

Billy 

middle class to upper middle class, living on mother's money.. Money can't buy you happiness

Rachel 

lower middle class to working class. Could be an orphan, or also extremely neglected by her parents. 

Hugh 

one of the richest students, upper middle class to upper class

Jake

working class, outsider in a rich school.

other students

middle class

REGIONAL IDENTITY

Billy - Chinese-American

Rachel - Northern English

Hugh - Southern English

Jake - Northern Irish. I haven't anchored the nationality yet but in order to create more diversity he would be of that nationality. British films of Working Title such as Johny English and Wild Child show when representing the UK, they do sometimes include Scotland and Wales, also positively represented (if very brief, still underlining that England is the norm and still reinforcing anglocentrism  If I had emphasised too strongly it could have bordered on racist, similar to the over-Italian stereotyped portrayal of the restaurant chef in Bridget Jones's Baby.

Other Students - From a quick glance one can see they are not all Caucasian, however there are a lot of nationalities that won't be apparent.

Adapting To Society

A message I wanted to strongly send is that being different isn't a bad thing, and that Billy trying to fit in by taking off her lipstick shows how useless it is. So soon later in the main film she will have put the make-up back on.  There is a trope in films such as The Proposal of a not good-looking, shy, geeky protagonist being turned into a "beautiful swan" through haircut. As highlighted in the top 10 videos by MsMojo this originates from the fairytale Cinderella where the Great Fairy Godmother turns the aforementioned "empowered protagonist" into a beautiful girl with a dress. 

In Skins the goth character of Rich also undergoes this process, when he is given a haircut to shorten his hair into a Beatle-like (in the early 60s this was considered a radical/rebellious look). And throughout the whole next (and last) season, Rich has no objections to this haircut, as well generally not listening to Goth music. A similar narrative was used for a character, Frankie, who had her hair grow longer in the second season, and this was also when her possible bisexuality stopped being explored.

This a trope I even saw in a recent German hit teen film, Fack ju Göhte, where the sister who in this case is being dragged into suicidal actions by a friend is given a makeover by a prostitute 

So there is message in this trope that one will eventually be made more glamorous and normal if one changes one's look to fit into mainstream images. 
So similar to how in Bridget Jone's Diary Bridget accepts that she is slightly overweight but that she can still be happy with herself as a person, Billy and Jake learn throughout the film that they can be outsiders and be happy with their individual quirks.

STALKING

A criticism of romantic comedies is that they portray the search for love no matter how unrealistic it looks, which goes into complaints about stalking.  

Your favorite rom-com is actually super creepy par thewashingtonpost

I hadn't thought of stalking when setting out the narrative, but in retrospect one could read it as her stalking a person who evidently has no interest her, and at the moment might not even biologically be capable of having emotionally.

EVAL Q2a - Audiences

Theorists such as Stuart Hall take away the idea that texts only have one, fixed meaning, that is the aim of ideology. Texts are polysemic, and the interpretations made by audiences are as valid as that makers of the text. So in order

JOHN HARTLEY quoted in Ien Ang's "Desperately Seeking The Audience" , talking specifically about television, but it can and has been applied to other media industries.

“Institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but - crucially, for them - to talk to them as well; they need to not only represent audiences but to enter into relation with them” 

Here is an example of overwhelmly negative audience feedback, for Alex Cox's film Sid &Nancy (from my teacher's ProdEval blog)

- I feel this film was totally evil.- Makes me uncomfortable but doesn't answer any questions. Where is the character growth?- A degrading, revolting film. There was nothing anyone could relate to. The characters were so inhuman.- The script is deplorable. The look of the film syrprised me for its apparent amateurism. The choice of shots were [sic] totally boring - there were no dolly shots or anything even subtly soothing.- The Americans are depicted as ridiculous. 

The film's box office further anchors its limited and niche marketable ability to audiences (primary audience will have been fans of Sid Vicious punk, as well music specialists/historians)

My media product isn't targeted at a niche audience. Films centred on LGBT+ characters often are, and there are multiple distributors: 

TARGET AUDIENCE

PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE

14-19 year olds, a long with lesbian and bisexual women of the same age as well as up to all other ages.

SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE

Anyone who stumbles on this film by chance. When asking my coursemate Evie Gibbons on why she watched Submarine, she said she found a link to it online and was intrigued by the fact the film was called Submarine. The reactions I got to my title CrossWord were widely varied, but all brought up interesting connotations, so I hope that it might make it more appealing to a potential wide audience

RECEPTION THEORY

Stuart Hall said that it is wrong to say the makers of a media text have the true reading of the text, the readings of audiences are just as valid. It is ideology that tries to fix one meaning. So Hall set out three types of reading and audience has in relation to the intended reading by the producers of the text

THREE TYPES OF READINGS

Preferred/Dominant Reading - The reading encoded by the makers is recognised and accepted by the audience

My work: The representations of LGBT characters goes well with marketing the film to a mainstream audience.

Negotiated/Contested Reading - Some of the intended meaning is accepted/understood, but there are still objections to it by the audience

My work: There are some interesting representations in this text, it has positive intentions/messages, but the characters are still portrayed very stereotypically.

Oppositional/Rejected Reading - The reading encoded by the makers of the text is completely rejected, for personal/ethical reasons, or a complete different social background.

My work: My text is not at all empowering to LGBT+ people. The fact that all the characters can't be non-heterosexual shows how we live in a heteronormative society, or the represenation of the protagonist is extremely homophobic

EVAL Q2b - Distribution

IS MY FILM DATED?

My cousin Will Holmes said that it would not be a mainstream film today, but rather in the 1990s. So with the 1980s being the golden age of teen romantic comedies and other teen/high school films, the 1990s will have expanded that, but by the 21st century, mainstream young adult fiction has developed into fantasy, sci-fi and dystopias: Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, all having massive intellectual property with secured audience. The rest of the box office hits are with adults

The Media Students Book states that a media production can be outlined in six stages.

These can be simplified in the film industry into the film cycle There are three steps: Production, Distribution and Exhibition. This is all followed by the audience's consumption. When a film is produced, the money needs not just for the production but for the marketing so that an audience can be targeted. Often a film cannot go ahead without guarantee of a production. 

 John Hartley , in his Key Concepts in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (3rd edition), gave a definition of two forms of distribution:
 - broadcasting, which is "continuous, with a content of linear narratives, and distributed from one to many"
-  datacasting, which is "the distribution, or streaming, of digital data""allows for interactive services (such as the internet), data which you might request on demand (such as weather reports or stock quotes) or pay-per-view subscriptions to giant audio-visual archives, e.g: "Ti-Vo".
(since then many more platforms have been introduced)

With the impact of digitisation, a film that wants to only distribute itself through broadcasting, by the norms of a cinematic release and a screening on one of the main, public TV channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4), will be severely limiting itself. This is something the film companies.

FORMS OF DISTRIBUTION

CINEMATIC

• Wide Release
• Limited Release

ONLINE LEGAL STREAMERS

• Netflix
• Amazon
• iTunes

ILLEGAL ONLINE STREAMERS

• bit.torrent
• putlocker.is
• kinox.to
• watch-series.eu

Monopoly of the Big Six

These count as the Big Six. They are all owned by multimedia conglomerates, they don't just distribute films but are responsible for TV, publishing, video games, and even theme parks as can be seen below. Three have indie/arthouse subsidiaries as well.

• Walt Disney Studios (owned by the Walt Disney Company)
• Universal Pictures (owned by NBC-Universal, which is owned by Comcast)
• Warner Bros. (owned by Time Warner)
• Sony Pictures Motion Group (owned by multinational company Sony) 
• Paramount Pictures (owned by Viacom)
• 20th Century Fox (owned by 21st Century Fox). Rupert Murdoch owns Fox among other newspapers and TV networks. He is an example of a media mogul 

Vertical Integration

When a company controls all three cycles of production, distribution and exhibition. 
The film companies used to hold much more power as they also owned cinema chains, but the court case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. U.S. 131 in 1948 made the companies sell their theaters and thereby illegal for them to own cinema chains which until then had given them an immense monopoly.
However, with the impact of convergence and digitisation, cinema isn't the only medium for audiences to consume films. So the example of NBC-Universal, it's subsidiaries such as Working Title and Focus Features produce films (and television more and more now), they are distributed by Universal Studios, NBC-Universal's film branch, they will cover the marketing costs. Then the final part of the film cycle, exhibition, is handled on the NBC channel. 

Horizontal Integration

Similar to a symbiotic connection between species, where both provide benefits for each other through their cooperation. 

EXAMPLES

AVATAR
produced by 20th Century Fox, whjch is owned by Rupert Murdoch. His newspapers get exclusive access to the film, it's mentioned multiple times in The Sun and The Times. This benefits Avatar by getting promotion but also these newspapers as they have a popular story to cover which they have been given primary access to.
Then as the release window ends, Sky Movies 3D broadcasts the world TV premiere.

CASINO ROYALE
Multiple product placement by Sony, who owns all the production companies. This is part of the benefit the Bond films get for being made, and Sony markets its brand throughout the production.

LEGEND
Duffy sings and acts in it. Her record labels are owned by Universal Music Group, the music subsidiary of NBC-Universal. She is benefitting from appearing in the film as audiences of a crime film would not all be fans of her music, so she is expanding her audience. At the same she is promoting the film through the release of her song, as can be seen in the Spotify sight. 

My film, similar to Warp, would have one of its companies, Cosmic Heat Productions, be owned by an indie record label, Cosmic Heat Records. James Reilly would be one of their artists, benefitting the film through his niche audience maybe wanting to watch CrossWord, but arguably benefitting more from promoting his music to a potentially wider audience as it is quite commercial.

Interview with the rising indie musician, James Reilly

I: Salut, madams et monsieurs, maintenant nous chansons en anglais. Now we're switching to English. I am very pleased and excited to have today with me today a rising indie celebrité, James Reilly. He is at the moment visiting France, not in grand tours like Ed Sheeran, but to give small gigs to his devoted fans here. I am going to talk to him today about his new upcoming single, Lipstick, from his second album, "Us Vagabonds", which is also at the same time the soundtrack of a new upcoming film, CrossWord.
JR: Well it's just a great piece of film from a new talent. I was approached by Joe and Nira, and I was like, soundtrack for a film, woah. It seemed a bit daunting at first, but after they said I could do some covers, I thought, there's one classic I need to. Ans immediately there was one track that sprung to mind, I Want Candy, a version byfrom a classic indie cult, don't know if you've heard of it, Napoleon Dynamite?
I: Ah oui, the one with the funny hair? Who gets his friend to be prefect with some ace moves, formidable.
JR: Yeah, talk about a feelgood moment.
I: And this a sort of typical chick flick, romantic comedy, a teenie film.
JR: Well yeah it does fit that category, it's got a sort of 10 Things I Hate About You feel to it, as well as of the classic teen romance films of the 1980s, by the late John Hughes. You I do feel the down to earth teen film is making a come back in recent years Like last year we had The Edge Of Seventeen. Not a rom-com but one of the most well-written protagonists, great script. So it won't just be big budget fantasy/sci-fi blockbusters with kids as the main characters.
I: I unfortunately have yet to watch the film you just mentioned. But this film, it's not your typical boy meets girl, it's toutes les femmes, hein? (all girls, no?)
JR: Well there's more to it than that, all I can say watch it, the plot and its characters play out very nicely.
I: And did he issues this film talks about convince you into taking part? I mean I think this will be quite an important film for the LGBT+ community, because, sadly, it seems when Hollywood has a go with these issues it always ends dans le grand mort. Either they die tragically, or they're just a joke.
JR: But there you see, you call it an issue. What I like about the film is it doesn't treat it as big issues, its subtler than that. And yes, while I think a film like that is important with its choices of sexuality, I think it would be unfair to make a big drama out of it, to keep bringing it up. At the end of the day it's a rom-com like any other, bit a cheesiness, but come we love that. And I'd say it has a chance to make ya cry.
I: Ok, well can you reveal the other track you have covered.
JR: I won't reveal the exact track, but I can reveal the artist, a certain Starman, who has a special plâce here in France as well.
I: Ah, Monsieur Bowie? That does make me interested. But don't worry, I won't ask further.  So, we're now going to take un petit break before we get back to talking about what got   James into the music industry, but just to leave you without, watch out for the trailer of the film, and maybe in the future for it appearing on some screens here dans la France. And for some entertainment in the break and for those listeners maybe not familiar with James's work, we are going to play his first single, What Makes You Tick?.

Let's look at the top 20 films of 2016 to see the pattern of the film industry.

1. Rogue One - spin-off of a franchise with household names DISNEY, PG-13
2. Finding Dory - sequel to a children's animated classic DISNEY
3. Captain America: Civil War - an all-cast Marvel film, also some more IP due to being based on a well-known comic book story DISNEY Stars: Robert Downey Jr.
4. The Secret Life Of Pets - animated children's film UNIVERSAL
5. The Jungle Book - remake DISNEY
6. Deadpool - X-Men franchise, comic-book IP (but quite original take on the superhero format) FOX
7. Zootopia - animated children's film DISNEY
8. Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice - comic book franchise WARNER BROS.
9. Suicide Squad - franchise WARNER BROS.
10. Sing - animated children's film UNIVERSAL
11. Moana - animated children's film DISNEY
12. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them - spin-off with rising star Eddie Redmayne
      WARNER BROS.
13. Doctor Strange - other big MCU release this year, with Benedict Cumberbatch DISNEY
14. Jason Bourne - sequel in a franchise where previous lead star Matt Damon was not present FOX
15. Star Trek Beyond - third entry in a rebooted franchise
16. Hidden Figures - IP, based on New York Times No.1 bestseller and on real-life story
17. X-Men: Apocalypse - 8th Film in a Franchise FOX
18. Trolls - animated children's film and A-List star Justin Timberlake
19. La La Land - Ryan Gosling close to A-List star, LIONSGATE
20. Independence Day: Resurgence - franchise, 20 year come back. 

So the pattern is this: 

The box office is dominated by the franchise system, standalone, one-off films are making it less and less to the top. This puts forward a clear message: The film industry does not like originality. While several viewers seem to seek more originality in the film industry, the ticket sales demonstrate that the franchise system still pulls in a huge audience. Especially when the series has been quiet for a while, such as Star Wars, nostalgia plays a huge role in appeal. Like Bridget Jones's Baby and Trainspotting sequels after long gaps are becoming more and more frequent.

...

Why none of the Big Six or other mini-major studios would not distribute my film:

• No A-List stars or actors well-known from other media, not in USA, UK or internationally
• Teen films especially rely on big stars to look up to, and either want IP (intellectual property)
• Non-heterosexual protagonists is not a complete taboo anymore, but films such as The Imitation Game, The Danish Girl, Freeheld are very serious films about past and present dangers LGBT+ characters face, and almost always end in the deaths of the protagonist. (though upcoming film 3 Generations dealing with a transgender protagonist might be an exception if it gets a mainstream reception)

TEEN ROM-COM CONTEXT 

Looking at the highest-grossing romantic comedy films, one can see that adult rom-coms are more dominant than teen rom-coms, as I already found out when I looked at Wild Child for my mock exam blog and how it was the only teen rom-com Working Title have produced while they have brought out a number of adult rom-coms, one of which is their most successful film and also their only franchise at the moment. Wild Child wasn't even given a theatrical/cinematic release due to not enough faith in the film's marketable potential.

In Falling In Love Again, [Theorist] claims that teen rom-coms can attract adult viewers due to nostalgia, giving examples such as....

However, that is evidently not the case for the main box office demographic. 

Adult characters give younger viewers sth to aspire to as well something to empathise for adult viewers. It is a common trait generally in audiences that they do not engage well with protagonists who are noticably younger than them, teenagers will often not be able to empathise well with child characters as it is often a past they wish to leave behind during that time and focus on "growing up". Just like the protagonist in 13 Going On 30 aspires to be mature in body and spirit, that is the main appeal the idealised, emotionally and physically mature adult protagonists have for (primarily) the audience demographic of their same gender. But also in the case of Bridget Jones

Also, one essentially important factor for the American market is hostility towards an unhappy ending, especially if it is in a genre that is seen as light-hearted. British films dealing with big social issues such as Billy Elliot and Slumdog Millionaire, which is usually off-putting for a mainstream international market, fared well at the box office due to their feel-good nature. This supports the ideal of the American Dream, giving the audience a protagonist who is the underdog in the narrative and beats all odds to achieve success, the escapism motive in the Uses and Gratifications Model.
While my film doesn't necessarily have to end with two girls, Billy and Rachel, coming together, I would definitely have it end with a feel-good moment despite no romantic ending, and have the antagonist, Hugh Curtis, be humiliated in the end to give both the protagonist and the audience a feeling of satisfaction , similar to Andrew Keenan's character in 10 Things I Hate About You.

The marketing strategy by giving the orange quote the largest billing next to the film, especially the words "feelgoused in this poster for Slumdog Millionaire demonstrates the pull factor of the feelgood narrative 

POSSIBLE US DISTRIBUTORS:

- A24 Films

Quote from the IMDb's Summer

"A24, the hottest indie studio around."

- Destination Pictures

POSSIBLE UK DISTRIBUTORS

- Film4

I however think it is more likely that while when going to film festivals and contacting indie distributors (which more and more is being done through digital means, such as Corrie Greenop did with Twitter), and get a limited release between 50 and 100 screens, I think if it gets any release it will be through straight-to-DVD and maybe Amazon Instant Video. I do feel it has a chance as I was thinking commercially when choosing an American protagonist, which will appeal to a US audience along with the stereotype of a posh-accent Englishman that has been seen multiple times through Hugh Grant's characters in Working Title, but also some positive representations of other UK regional areas which will be of benefit to appealing to wider UK audiences, especially teenagers of the regions I have represented.

Marketing

This is also how I would advertise and also give a direct link for purchase my film if a trailer was made.

Chances of Distribution

Depending on actors can also be varied, for example Zac Efron seemed to able to pull in audience with The Awkward Moment, however We Are Your Friends massively came in under on box office figures

POSSIBLE PRODUCT PLACEMENT?

The few phones that were seen were not shown in close-up to reveal the brand, so they were just accessories. 

Sequel?

Rom-Coms are not as often up for sequels such as the superhero genre nowadays or the horror genre for decades, exceptions do exist, but as the ending often is that the star-crossed lovers come together.
There are exceptions, like Bridget Jones, and it seems to be more teen rom-coms that do this, such as 10 Things I Hate About You, which only ran for one season though.

If there were a possibility for a sequel on TV or online, then as the audiences from 12-14 that the 12 rating encouraged will have gotten older, and I would make it more mature and also let it focus, thereby being a more niche audience.