Prada Quality Research (pt.1)

“I try to stay out of the spotlight as much as humanly possible”

Ann Hathaway

I am going to try and be like Ann Hathaway in this blog post and work to stay out of the spotlight and instead focus on the title sequence from the film The Devil Wears Prada, directed by David Frankel. The Devil Wears Prada, was released in 2006 and is a dramedy that tells the story of a young woman who goes to work for the demanding editor-in-chief of a famous high fashion magazine. In reviewing the title sequence for this movie I hope to gain ideas on how our opening sequence should develop meaning and incorporate aspects like sound and camera angles.

The way this title sequence sets up the rest of the story is exquisite. With just three minutes the director was able to establish the main character, themes, conflicts, and setting that would be developed throughout the rest of the movie. This sequence could be analyzed for hours on end but for the purpose of time I will break down the key elements that I noticed really ‘made’ this title sequence over several blog posts.

Sound

This title sequence begins with soft ambient sounds of New York traffic and then loud upbeat poprock music begins right as the screen reveals the main character of the movie. This not only tells the audience who the main character is but also establishes an upbeat determined tone.

The music soundtrack also works in conjunction with what the audience is seeing on screen. As the lyrics say, “Suddenly I see” the camera shows a shot of each of the women applying mascara and eye makeup. This can be used to further establish the music and video as one cohesive unit. This cohesiveness creates a sense of normality and draws the viewer into the movie’s “world.” Personally, this creation of unity between music and onscreen action is one of my favorite aspects of film.

Another use of sound that helps make the movie seem more realistic is the use of diegetic on-screen sound. Instead of everything being drowned out by the music, sounds like teacups clinking, books being opened, children talking, and traffic can be heard over the music. If these sounds were not present the title sequence would resemble more of a music video. This is definitely something that we need to keep in mind when filming our title sequence since we do plan to incorporate music.

Genre Conventions

“I don’t have a favorite genre. I think ‘genre’ is a literary term. I don’t have a favorite kind or type of movie. I like the ones that are good.”

Tommy Lee Jones

As Tommy Lee Jones pointed out, a movie is more than its genre. At the end of the day it is the movie that the audience will learn to love, not its genre. Because of this, in the development of our movie, I want to ensure that the genre is chosen to fit the movie, not the other way around. This is why we chose a broad genre to allow the natural development of our film.

Drama comedies, often referred to as dramedies, are movies that fit in both the drama and comedy genre. Dramadies are an example of a genre hybrid, or a genre that mixes two separate genres and their narrative, thematic and aesthetic potentials.

In order to look up what conventions would be best to incorporate into our movie we needed to look at the conventions of movies from both the drama and comedy genre.

Comedy

Comedy genres are known for being energetic and are commonly centered around a theme of rebirth or renewal. Because of this, most comedies end in weddings or births. Another aspect of comedy is its absence of pain and emotional reactions, this is done to maintain a less serious and more ludicrous tone. Comedy movies are meant to invite the audience to “correct” the actions of the characters within the film and teach them to not to act stupid like the characters within the film.

Bellow is a list of devices comedy movies often employ:

  • Exaggeration
  • Incongruity
  • Surprise
  • Repetition
  • Wisecracks
  • Sarcasm

Drama

While aspects of comedy work hard to not be serious, aspects of drama do the exact opposite. Dramas show stories that present realistic characters in conflict with themselves, others, or a force of nature. Drama genres are known to show the reality of life and humanity, at its best, worst, and anywhere in between. Drama genre’s main themes include current issues, social problems and concerns of injustice.

Drama is one of the largest, most encompassing movie genres, however, below is a list of conventions that are often employed by movies within the drama genre.

  • Slow motion
  • Soliloquy (a solo speech by an actor that gives an insight into what they are thinking)
  • Narration
  • ‘Aside’ (when a character directly addresses the audience to comment within a scene)
  • Other characters commenting on action
  • Use of music to underscore drama

Resources:

“Dramatic Conventions – Drama Elements – GCSE Drama Revision – BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zqx3wmn/revision/6.

Dercksen, Daniel. “Genre and Genre Conventions.” The Writing Studio, 13 Nov. 2017, https://writingstudio.co.za/what-type-of-story-are-you-writing/

Genre


“I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want.”

Stanley Kubrik

In the process of determining what genre our title sequence should be I found that I am like Stanley Kubrik………in the sense that I do not know what I want. Fortunately, I was able to determine what I did not want so I began by making a list of genres and crossing off what I did not want. This is the original list:

ActionComedy DramaMusical
AdultCrimeMystery
AdventureDramaRomance
Avant-garde/
Experimental		EpicScience Fiction
Children’s FamilyFantasySpy Film
ComedyHistorical FilmThriller
WesternHorrorWar

Given the fact that our title sequence would be low budget, that my partner and I are both fairly new to editing, and we don’t have access to quality special effects I immediately crossed action, epic, science fiction and fantasy off the list.

My partner strongly dislikes horror and thrillers films, and I could not imagine doing a western, war, crime, or spy film without the use of guns, so I crossed those off the list.

Adult and children’s films would be difficult to film with just teen actors. And romance would be equally difficult and if not difficult, awkward. In order to film a musical, we would have to find actors who could both sing and dance. So, I crossed those of the list.

Historical and adventure films would require elaborate costumes and sets. Mystery would require a lot of extra planning, and we are both too new to film to try something experiemental, so I crossed those off of the list as well.

When I was done the list looked more like this:

  • Comedy
  • Drama
  • Comedy Drama

So my decision was clear, comedy drama. A perfect hybrid between a light hearted feel good genre like comedy and expression of real life and melancholy presented by the drama genre.

Resources:

“Genre – Comedy Drama.” AllMovie, www.allmovie.com/genre/comedy-drama-d531.

“Movie Genres.” AllMovie, www.allmovie.com/genres.

“Director Quotes (45 Quotes).” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/director.

Day One

“I stumbled into this business, I didn’t train for it. I yelled ‘Action!’ on my first two movies before the camera was turned on.”

John Hughes

Hello! I am Elizabeth but my friends call me Bess, so feel free to do the same. I am no John Hughes, but I too am untrained and have stumbled into this movie making business. With this blog I hope to show you how my team’s title sequence came to be. I will show you our decision-making process and how we dealt with the inevitable struggles faced along the way.

Yes my team! Or partner rather. I am working with Adaline, but I call her Addie because we have been good friends since the end of middle school. We plan to work together on every part of the movie if possible, instead of assigning specific jobs to one another, but this may change during the production process. If you would like to see her side of our creation process you can view her blog at https://adalinemediaproject.blogspot.com/.

When it came to what we wanted to do for our title sequence I turned to the movies that I loved most. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off directed by John Hughes was the first to come to mind. It was a feel-good movie that managed to make important statements about life in fun artistic ways. I loved the style created by the bright scenes, odd but original costuming, and frequent close ups that created a movie experience that was uniquely personal. I wanted to create a title sequence that drew people in, created a personal connection with the audience, and made them feel good, just like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  I began doing research into what genre would be best to convey this effect in our title sequence, and in my next few blog posts I hope to show how we came to choose our genre of comedy drama. 

Sources:

“John Hughes Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/authors/john-hughes-quotes.

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