Genre Research

To get a clearer idea of what genre is and how to create it, we were given cameras to try and capture "genre shots." This image is depicting the genre of high school comedy.

The shot is a medium long shot which means that the characters stance is clear but also the blue sky and streak of sunlight is obvious behind her.
This creates a positive mise-en-scene which is important for a comedy, as the aim of the image is not to be scary or claustrophic or intense but upbeat, cheery and quirky. The natural light from the bottom left hand side puts the character slightly in shadow which adds to the shadiness of the characters intentions but also  streaks across the screen  and lights the image up which again gives the poster a bubbly and sunny feel.
The model has a confident expression on her face as she stares almost cockily into the camera. Her body language connotes someone sure of themeselves, or someone who has (or at least thinks they have) swagger with the crossed arms and the direct address to the camera.
The character would be the bully character in the film. The low angle makes her character seem dominant and in control and the quirky angle also suits the style of the shot as a comedy genre shot.
The shot is also a very crisp shot which again is straightforward and unchallenging. This is because with comedy images audiences don't want to have to think too hard to work out what the image means or is depicting.

I noticed the blue sky and bright sunlight outside in the quad and wanted to use the benches out there to do something. I decided someone standing on the bench from a low angle against the sky with strong light coming in from the right would be quite a striking image. At first I was going for a superhero type shot but the shot worked much better as a comedy shot especially with the characters pose and expression.

If I could improve this image or do it again I would cut the two buildings from the side and just have plain blue sky and maybey have the character leaning menacingly towards the camera a bit more. I would have tried to achieve these effects but we were quite tight timewise so I only had time for one shot.

This could be useful for our final film as I would quite like to do either an action or a comedy opening.