Our opening sequence focuses on the representation of 3 main social groups using Mise en scene, the soundtrack and the characters themselves. Our main character Little Blue was created to be a typical protagonist for the fantasy genre, main characters in the genre are commonly younger hero’s, children when faced with the magical world become the hero’s through their actions. This is also a effective idea when trying to reach out to and attract younger audiences. A child character allows them to relate better to the character then they would to an adult. Such as Chihiro from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, a young girl who is thrust unknowingly into the spirit world and has to do all she can to save her parents.
Or Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, who stumbles through a wardrobe into the world of Narnia, and joins the fight to save it from the White Witch.
Two characters who were an inspiration to the design and creation of Little Blue in our film.
Little Blue, otherwise know as Lucy Mill’s was born to love, and feels nothing is more important than the happiness of her loved ones.
She’s mixed race and British.
She was born 15th of September 1999, making her the young age of 10.
She absolutely loves her daily life at school, her classmates, teachers and joy of learning everyday.
Her only fear is being lost or alone.
One of the things she enjoys is her vast collection of stories, she loves nothing more than to become lost in her own fantasy world, a trait we found common in films were realism and fantasy collide, with the heroine dreaming for a fairy tale rather than there own. We also used this aspect of her to portray her innocent and imaginative nature to the audience, its easy for her to lose herself in a make believe world when her reality is much less appealing to her. The use of props in throughout the opening sequence is purely to emphasize this character and themes, her toys, colors and books are all to present her character and how these many objects are her world.
This clearly shows her as a representation of a stereotypical social group of a young girl, fairy tale loving, for instance the stacks of books shown in her room and Cinderella placed open on the desk suggesting her constant reading of these books and her taste for fantasy over other genres. This behavior however can also help to suggest her want for escapism, she longs for a strong relationship with her sister to complete her family. Family issues is something that can likely relate to a lot of children today, because of this we attempt to present a good moral for our audience, as many fairy tales and folklore do and encourage siblings of any kind to care for each other. Just as Chihiro and Lucy did whatever they could to protect the ones they love, Little Blue does all she can to unite herself and her sister.
The Stepsister is also a second example of a representation, Her social group being jealous sibling and teenager, not only keeping to our moral objective but to the classic conventions of a fairy tale story, however we did challenge this theme with the sisters redemption, and rather than her as the spoilt child she is the neglected one therefore fuelling the reasons for her actions. This in addition can be compared to Edwards’s character from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe who initially abandons his siblings to help the White witch, however he see’s the mistake his made and returns to help them.
The parents as characters are have minor roles throughout our film. However there representations are important for the audience to understand and relate to the family as a whole. The mother, from her apron and causal costume can be easily depicted as the traditional housewife, a role still common in today’s families. This also helps to emphasize on her loving and mummy cuddling personality when seen with Little Blue. Her treatment of Little Blue compared to her Stepsister is because if Little Blue being the youngest. The Father also is representative of a common role, the bread winner, working father in the city.
Because of the hints of the neglection the parents show we didn’t want to portray them as the villains, which is why the stepsister only blames Little Blue for this. We felt for our film’s morals and to relate to the audience better we shown the parents in positive lights.
With Little Blue they are seen as perfect and devoted parents, such as is represented in the photo frame with her positions next to her. Although this gives Little Blue main attention the parents still on occasions throughout the story attempt to guide the stepsister and do not show any signs of resentment to her. Using the photo we wanted to show two perspectives of the Stepsisters distance from the family, the parents objective in giving Little Blue more attention is to encourage independence in the stepsister as she grows older, something parents watching the film are likely to understand and relate to.
Casting was a relatively easy process, we knew we needed a younger girl to play Little Blue, who would be the only cast member appearing in the opening other than the cast in the photo frame. However I already had in mind who to cast, I knew we would need a small, shorter girl and we could use the means necessary to make them look the appropriate age. After asking our cast member Jessica Porter if she would be willing to appear in our film she had no issue with it and excepted the offer happily, I’m glad we were able to recruit a particular individual rather than hold auditions as the part is very short and we felt it would be unnecessary to hold auditions if we could recruit for ourselves. The parents in the photo were played by her real parents which prevented any issues casting the parents, and the Stepsister in the photo was played by someone we again recruited ourselves, she was a good choice for the part as she looks the appropriate age of the character and her ethnicity is a realistic fit with the rest of the family.
The position of frame in the photo was an important task, we needed to make sure the parents leaned toward Little Blue and she attracted center attention. Notice also how Little Blue herself isn’t in the exact frame centre, as if she doesn’t wish to demand the most attention, but the effect of her standing forward from them, and her parents either side of her still creates the same result, leaving the Stepsister isolated to the side. This was used to give the audience a clear suggestion of the relationship of the family, and of the two main characters. All costume and body language was arranged before the picture was taken, Little Blue was dressed in clothing typical of a 10 year old, with her signature blue colors. The mother and father are dressed in typical day to day attire, presenting the average family with the mother wearing an apron for housework and the father in smart clothing for work. A stereotypical family image. The Stepsister was placed in normal clothing for her age also. In addition as Little Blue walks into the frame during the sequence her signature blue coat is worn to once again emphasize the use of blue linked to her character.
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