Monday, 13 May 2013

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


Overall what was successful about your preliminary task ?


     

Creativity- The scenario that I had to work to was a character opens a door, crosses a room and sits down in a chair opposite another character, then the character will make a few exchanges of conversation/dialogue. My scenario that me and my partner worked to was an smoking addict and a councillor.The smoking addict had an appointment to see her councillor in a polyclinic. Our idea which we had adapted from the brief was unique and creative as our locations that we recorded in where out of the box as typically everyone shoots their task in school but me and my partner wanted to be different by having one of our locations being at Loxford Polyclinic in Barking, my partners house in Goodmayes and the school Chadwell Heath Academy. At 0:12 you see the Polyclinic. 

Digital Technology- We had used a digital camera to shoot the task, we were able to make sure we had used all the appropriate media camera language in our task such as rules of thirds, 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. This was very successful as we had included all of these key media language skills into our task. A strength of our exercise was that we were able to included all the shots we needed at 0:24 we show a match on action 





 rule of thirds at 0:43.

Rules of third in opening sequence 

Planning- 
On the film I was making, I worked with Jaya, our group was successful as we both had good skills including acting to bring to this project, we had individual skills which we could make use of in the film, such operating the camera and directing. We developed the scenario by thinking of a unique idea, instead of a commonly used one. To bring us to this idea we brain stormed ideas onto a piece of paper and decided which one would be more realistic to shoot within a given time period and how we can include the key media language skills into it. In class we had also watched videos on YouTube which showed us the rules of third or a match on action etc 

 For part of our research we had created storyboards which was quite useful as it was a guide to how and what shots we would film. It reminded us how to film the shots and the positioning of the camera if it should be pan or tilt. As we filmed we changed around a couple of shots, for example the long shot we change to an establishing shot and we also added shots in, for example we added a over shoulder shot so that we can see the opposite person's reaction. As well as that we added close ups, so you could see the persons facial expression or a specific part of someone this gives you information of the person maybe feeling. We used a variety of shots including high angle, low angle, establishing shot and so on. The storyboard was basically a draft and we could find areas of our film which we would improve or drop. 



The parts that were unsuccessful of this task was that I wasn't able to increase my knowledge of editing on Imovie I feel as if I didn't get properly demonstrated to edit and I had never edited before so it was all new whilst on the other hand it was familiar to my peers. Our time management during the production was weak as we had forgotten to take the camera home for the weekend so we had only little time to shoot everything to a certain standard before the deadline. I feel that because my editing skills were not sharp that if they were the task would of been more better. The acting I wasn't too proud of but I feel in my open sequence that the acting has improved. 

I have developed my skills through out the main coursework as I have been able to edit more efficiently as I have gained experience from doing this exercise. There is a contrast in editing and acting between our film, acting is important as it enhances the verisimilitude. By doing editing exercises I have developed my editing skills and i don't find it too complicated anymore. 


My targets for the next year would be to be able to manage time more better instead of leaving all my work to the last minute and to be able to edit more precisely if I do anymore editing exercises and develop on my media language skills.  




Thursday, 9 May 2013

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


In our film we had represented the working class as conforming to typical stereo types that shows how the working class are portrayed the younger generation of the working class. The characters in our film are teenagers we had used dominant ideologies of them such as being rebellious and having an attitude as Jade in our film is represented of having an attitude this was established through a shot reverse shot which consisted of dialogue she says ' you know what I don't need this' she doesn't answer the question and responds as if she is not bothered as most teenagers are. 

Our film only shows two females and one male, the two females Jade and Becca who you see towards the ending of the open sequence is denoted as strong at first and with an attitude but as the film progresses we see that she is not strong but vulnerable and weak as she is abused as it is implicated she is abused violently by her boyfriend Dan. Again here we conformed to dominant stereotypes of women being weak and less dominant in comparison to males. 


Mise en scene- Through the conventional mise en scene of a British Social Realism film were able to represent the social groups of the working class and teenagers. The costumes that the characters wore were cheap, not glamourous and plain as denoted. This connotes to the audience that they may not be able to afford more extravagant clothes as they don't possess the money afford better clothes. The colours of the costumes are black which is a miserable dark colour which could connote to the audience that the characters are hiding something. We had also used conventional locations that would be used for a BSR setting, are opening sequence was set in Forest Gate in an estate which is quiet iconic as in BSR an estate is a home for one of the characters in films such as 'Kidulthood' and 'Fish Tank', where the main characters live. 









Expressionism- The lighting in the opening sequence is low key and artificial as we were inside this lighting worked best with the situation. This lighting reflects the mood and atmosphere of our film and the characters the lighting was low key and the characters are miserable because they live a sad mundane life. The lighting is low key throughout our production, the low light showed shadows and therefore this made the situation more dramatic and created enigma and mystery this gave of a very negative representation. In contrast tob high key bright light which gives of an positive representation of the characters and situation. In addition to this the lighting can also reflect British weather of being cold rainy and miserable as it typically is it reinforces the dominant ideology of rubbish British weather. The colour design we had used was grey and dull to represent British peoples life, no success just failures. 



Sound- The sound in our film represented the working class as the diegetic sound was very important to portray  our themes to the audience they were able to understand what is happening through the noise from behind the door the audience can connote what is happening that Jade is being abused by her boyfriend, Jade was crying out in pain and saying 'No !'. Through the dialogue at 0:51 in our film the audience can establish the relationship between Jade and Dan, through the shot reverse shot we were able to see who is the most dominant character in the relationship. This represented teenagers as being agressive and angry. The soundtrack in our film was originally composed to enhance the emotional tone for the film, as depressing and sad which could connote to the audience something bad may happen, however the soundtrack does not build up to any key moments in the film to give not give anything away. We had also used synchronous sound whilst becca is banging on the door to create verisimilitude. 

Editing-  We had decided to use continuity editing to enhance the verisimilitude as the themes that are established in our film our serious and realistic the continuity editing was vital it would make the situation more accurat and believable. We had used a jump cut in our film at 1:50 to speed up time and to show the character has a confused state of mind. Also we had used a dissolve as a transition to show the next scene and to show that the day is over, a match on action was used at the end and this also showed the contrast between the two areas, which strengthened the verisimilitude which most BSR use. We had also used cross-cutting to build up tension and show suspense. 

Camera- We had used a range of shots, mide shots, close ups which represented each characters mood, for instance we had used a close up on Becca's face, from her expression we could tell that she was upset and scared and confused also it could implicate that she was depressed as most teenagers are at this age she was troubled. We had used a tilt to on Becca to show the characters position and her body language which could connote the audience how she is feeling. We had used a hand held postion for the camera to create a rough jerky look and a sense of disorientation. At the start of the film we see Jade walking up the stairs to the flat this was a high angle shot to present Jade as weak and vulnerable as she actually is in the film. 

Typography- Our film contained a lot of graphics which consists of the cast and crew, we had looking at some BSR credits and tried to apply the right amount or a rough amount of credits that they had. For the film Tyrannosaur they had all the actors names in order of their role in the film, which is what we had done for our production. We had followed the conventions of BSR films and included the production companies first and then the director. 
the protagonist
In Bullet Boy they had done the same idea of the actors who play the most important role at the start. 







Monday, 6 May 2013

What impact did the media institution Film4 have on each production stage and why?

Evaluation- Who would be the audience for your product?

Evaluation- Brief

What breif were you working to?
The brief that I was working to was that I had been approached by Film 4 to produce a British Social Realism film aimed at British 16-24 year olds. Me and my partner had to produce the first 2 minutes of the film so the opening sequenece, we had to use music, graphics and editing to the conventions of BSR genres and we had to reflect their ethos. In addition to this we had to meet the Film 4s audeince which are niche and satisfy their expectations. Lastly as BSR films have low budgets we then had to apply this to our films and keep cost low all the matrial used in the filmed must be original with excpetion of stock sound effects.

As soon the opening sequence begins our own composed non-diegetic soundtrack plays subtly in the background so that it doesn't take the auidience away from action in the film, this meets the BSR codes and conventions as the style of the music enhanced an emotional tone for the film. It was used to suit the characters feelings and emotions as it was depressing and low key. The music didn't give anything away about what would happen in the next scene, it wouldn't build up to a climax. We had met the brief as our music gives an emotional tone to the film and uses the music conventions of BSR films such as in Tyrannosaur (2011)in the opening sequence at 0:24. Most BSR films music suits the characters and settings, they characters would be associated with the certain type of music its what they may listen to. For instance the film Kidulthood (2006) the non diegetic soundtrack and the diegetic music would be music that the characters are familiar with. At 1:05:21 the music the non diegetic music that starts paying explains my point about the music suiting the characters and urban locations for kidulthood. In addition to this in the opening sequence of This is England (2008) the song that was played was by a popular band in that era called Toots & The Maytals, at 0:05 in this would be the type of music that the characters listen to, well the good skin heads.

Our film establishes BSR themes such as poverty specifically at 0:13-0:17 into our opening sequence,
where we see one of the chraracters Jade walking up the stairs to her flat.
 Through the conventional mise en scence in this scene the audience can establish the theme of poverty and that our film is based on people of the working class as BSR films tend to represent and refer to the working class. The audience denote the planks of wood that covers the window at the corner which may be acting as curtain to cover the light or to secure the window, and the carpet is aslo very dirty which represents the unvarnished look that BSR keep to, such as in 'Fish Tank' or 'Looking For Eric'. Through the costumes our characters wear also implicate poverty as they are cheap and not glamourous. Dan wears a black jumper with black tracksuit bottoms and Jade wears black tracksuit bottoms with a black top. Our film also establishes the theme of domestic violence at 1:02 in the opening sequence as Dan follows Jade out of the kitchen in an aggressive way and he grabs her which makes the audience instantly aware of the violence and forces her into the bedroom.


The theme was portrayed in an angry way as Dan is angry at Jade, this scene was dramatic so it grabs the audiences attention. BSR establish domestic violence theme in a more voilent uncomfortable way to create enigma and give the active audience an uncomfortable reaction such as in 'Nil by Mouth" (1997). At 2:06 we see Ray throw an object at his wife Val this connotes to the audience that the argument the couple are having may lead to violence as it actually does that. For this scene they had chosen not show the violence so you can hear it which creates enigma and the active audience then can imagine what is happening.

This is in comparison to our film where you actually cannot see the violence you see implications of the abuse but not what is happening such as hearing the Jade cry out in pain see this specifically at 1:21. This relates to BSR niche audiences as they are active so they create their own mental image of our domestic violent scene as you cannot denote anything in reference to the brief we satisfied the niche audiences expectations. Our themes contrast from the way BSR films have established their themes as for instance the way we represented domestic abuse was not as hard hitting and powerful as Nil by Mouth which actually shows Ray actions Val. Where as in our film we don't show any of the characters. However in both films Nil by Mouth and our film Unexpected they both show a girl who witnesses the event but cannot do anything about the situation Becca in our film listens to what is happening and becomes powerless.

The BSR genre that we had reflected in our film from their ethos was to use unknown characters that can relate to the struggles of British life poverty which is common in the working class life. Our film is a kitchen sink drama as it shows the hardship British life through our themes we portray poverty, domestic violence and being powerless as social realism uses this genre they either use urban dramas or kitchen sink dramas such as 'Bullet Boy' (2004) which is about a family involved in crime in east London which is a urban area. Our film is located in Forest Gate which is also an urban area. All the sound effects in the film matches the BSR conventions as they are original material which keep cost at a low level as all BSR have low budgets.

Explain the title and what happens in your opening sequence? 

In our open sequence we see Jade and Dan who are boyfriend and girlfriend living in a run down flat, Jade is coming into the flat from going out somewhere and she goes into the kitchen to talk to Dan who gets angry and physical with her in a violent way. We then see Becca the protagonist come out and try to get into the room but she cannot she endures the sound of her best friend being abused and cannot do anything about it. Our opening sequence sets up the rest of our film as we establish the themes of the film and understand the content which it consist of we can identify the situations of the characters however in our film Becca then becomes influenced by the violence that she witnesses and starts to use it against her boyfriend Callum who we see later in the film. We also had an smash mouth opening to really grab the audiences attention such as in 'London To Brighton' She then becomes the dominant figure in the relationship when typically BSR films always use the man to be the abuser but for our film we have flipped the domestic violence world around. Our title refers to the plot of our film, it is called 'Unexpected' because stereo typically the male figure always abuses the female in the relationship but we have turned it around challenged the dominant ideology to an emergent ideology. The film reveals what you wouldn't expect hence why it is called 'Unexpected'. This then relates to title as the female being an dominant character and the male being vulnerable, which is not common in BSR films. Our treatment shows the narrative of the story.

In BSR films the title of their films connote to the audience the main plot of the film as our film did, in films such as 'Fish Tank' it shows Mia being trapped and struggling to escape hence the title Fish Tank as your are trapped. However some films such as 'Trainspotting' may not have any relevance to the film it may have a deep meaning which will make the active audience question it and interpret their own meanings where as our film titles meaning is quiet obvious.



Production Log 9

For this week me and my partner had started to put all scenes together for our film, we had face an important issue that I our ending could be improved on the last week of production we had gone down to Forest Gate again to do last minute shooting in the estate flat which involved us shooting with our protagonist. We basically shot when Becca was outside the room banging on the door an extended it longer and we also included various angles that we could shoot becca from.
Another last minute issue we had to sort out was putting the diegetic sound over the credits which would make it more effective as the credits lasted long we wanted to make the audience feel they haven't been take away from the film. In addition to this me and my partner were given a voice recorder so we could record sounds of Jade being abused this strengthened the verisimilitude so we were glad we were given this advice from our mentor. Another issue we had to address was the credits, we had to add more credits into the film as our sequence was not long enough we had did this but i still regret not making the film long enough to use credits that appear on the scene with the character instead of appearing separately.

We had taken all audience feedback into account, improving our acting, which we had achieved, creating music that matched the film we had achieved, we had also included all the continuity editing to make the film flow. If you look at the draft and contrast it to the actual film you will see the difference in acting an editing and the sound and mise en scene.

Draft she is laughing not realistic 

Real opening sequence she is serious and not laughing as this is an important theme that we are representing. 

Production Log 8

This week we had received all the feedback from our drafts and began to take into account what our peers had responded. Most of the feedback was that are actors were rubbish and that the story line did not make any sense, also we had no continuity editing such as match on action, eye-line match etc which was vital to make the film more realistic and to increase the verisimilitude as BSR tend do. This was also very important as our themes have to come across serious and harsh and extreme as these were comments made by our target audience from our Vox pop.

Me and partner had carried on with creating the graphics and getting them ready to put onto IMovie once our sequence is completed. We had to change the graphics as we had changed the cast members and add the the jobs that the different crew members undertook. An important feedback we had received from our teacher and mentor was that the mum did not look like a mum so we had to then think of ways to change that issue. We had also continued with composing the soundtrack and creating various pieces of music that would match perfectly with our production.

We had altered the shooting script and treatment and narrative shape our new storyline, of still consisting of the smash mouth opening but later on into the sequence, we were able to recreate new ideas and think through all the shots we would include and we would achieve them. Me and partner had brainstormed ideas that would make the production more better such we tried out a number of shots between one another at different angles to see if there would a possibility of using that shot or angle in our film.



Production Log 7

For this week we started filming our opening sequence but this was only a draft that was due in the following week so we could recievie constructed criticism and strengths of our film from our peers and our teacher. We had gone down to Forest Gate to film for our opening sequence however everything did not go according to plan, because we had never seen the flat before we were restricted to the certain shots we could as the flat was small and compact we could not achieve some of our shots we wanted, such as the smash mouth opening.

This was useful as we got pointed into the right direction to improve on our work. A key issue for our production was that when we had edited our film we decided to change the actors, some of the storyline and the shots we would use in the film. We had anticipated in consisting of a smash mouth opening in our film by having a close up and a low angle so you can just see the feet of the mother and father fighting. However once we had editing our draft into a full 2minute film it was terrible and we changed nearly everything except location and our protagonist Becca. We had to face a decision wether or not to replace our protagonist because she was not taking the acting seriously, the music was also a key issue as it didn't match the film very well as we had anticipated to be so therefore that we would have to compose a whole new soundtrack for the film.

We had did not just have to think about our production but we had to hand in all our pre-production research and planning which consisted of our Vox pop, meet my audience, shooting script, call sheets, treatment, location recies and the narrative, these were very important as they were acting as a guide for us to stick to in order for our production to be successful.


Sunday, 17 March 2013

Production Log 6

For this week me and my partner have been working on the graphics and the soundtrack  for our opening sequence, we have been working on the post production issues. We went on livetype to familiarize ourselves with the different fonts and effects that we could use for the background and the texture that we could apply to represent the credits in our film. In addition to this me and my partner were not fully satisfied with the fonts on live type so we went on a different website called 'Dafont' which we found the graphics we could use for our film. 


We used the font from Dafont for our title. 
















The second issue that me and partner covered this week was the soundtrack for our film, we had created three soundtracks and out of that we will choose only one. The style of music we went for was depressing but fast tempo and loud to match the smash mouth opening at the beginning, the most important aspect we considered while creating and developing our music was how it will show continuity and how it will reflect the moods of the characters and the situations in the film. We have involved different types of instruments in the soundtrack to make it exciting and different, we had listened to soundtracks from British Social Realism films such as 'Trainspotting as that film has a smash mouth opening we paid close attention to the music they used in that and the pace, pitch and tempo as this is key to continuity. 



Monday, 11 March 2013

Production Log 5

The key issues for my pre-production work this week has been completing it via the deadline. I have also learnt how to use a new type of technology called 'Prezi' that can help my overall grade for use of technology in my coursework. I used prezi to carry out the treatment on, so it looks interesting and different instead of just typing it on Blogger. This week we have also decided on our narrative of our film and produced shooting scripts, call sheets a production schedule and location recies. We used a template from McKees classical narrative to produce our own one. This consisted of the Expostion, Protagonists which is where you get to know the protagonist. After that would be the Agents of change, Antagonists, which where change appears in the protagonists life. Conflict complication which is where the issue develops then after that elaboration which is where all the other events come into the story and after that would be climax and resolution which is where the character overcomes the conflict. The we also did a coda which ends the story, clearly. In addition to this me and partner had created a vox pop on BSR which we asked a series of questions on BSR films and the themes portrayed and their views on the situations shown in the film.

The issues in our film, we decided on was because of how a large amount of British social realism films typically possess these themes in their films, we establish the theme of domestic violence as portrayed in 'Nil by Mouth'. The film kidulthood shows themes of drugs and childhood issues which we will demonstrate in our film. Our whole idea of what the opening sequence will contain changed as me and partner thought that our original idea was too typical and common to use as we wanted a unique storyline to appeal to our target audience. For our narrative we have decided to use an linear narrative as they are generally most frequently used in BSR films, it adds to the verisimilitude. In addition to that we are using an restricted narrative as it is easier to use and thats what BSR films consist of. 







Location Reccies

Forest Gate





Council Estate



         We decided on using the council estate because it is a common living area for someone to typically live in within a British Social Realist film whilst being of a working class character. For example: In Fish Tank and Adulthood, their living environments are in Council estate buildings. This tends to connote that they live in rough environment and this could reflect upon the character's representations as people in Britain.



When viewing characters living within a Council Estate building, we connote that they are unable to provide properly for themselves. It lives up to the stereotypes of the working class living within council estates. The general public associate the working class with unprivileged life. The colour of a typical estate tend to use dull colours which creates an unvarnished atmosphere if used within a scene of a British socal realism film. In addition to this the colour is signifiacnt  as it reflects upon the characters negative miserable lives whilst living in Britain. This associates with the BSR ideology of a mundane life. As Beccas representation as a protagonist character is represented as a violent disturbed being revealing her lving area to of an estate it helps to introduce her to the auidience of a person as the film begins. 



Small House
We will be using a small house in Forest Gate within the end of the opening sequence. Moving from the appearance given of Becca's home a coucil estate moving to the second location of Callum's house, It reveals a difference with the living styles which both of them live in due to Callum having a slightly better living environment. This causes the opening sequence to become very effective when representing working class representations of the characters due to the relation of poverty being a very common theme within British Social Realist films. This house will be very suitable for my video due to Callum's house offering an escape from Becca's estate from all the problems that she goes through in her life. We will only be revealing the outside of the house's appearance so that whilst watching the opening sequence, the audience are still unaware of the house's image inside. This creates a sense of mystery due to us not being able to know whether the characters have anything to hide; whether this is relating to drugs, cigarettets. or maybe just a distumpled home.








Production Schedule

Call sheets


Shooting Script

Treatment

Monday, 4 March 2013

McKee's 'classic Narrative Structure'





Exposition - Protagonists

The film begins with Becca's friend, (Jade) walking into the kitchen of the council estate as Jade's boyfriend, (Dan) is awaiting there for her arrival. It sort of signifies the upbringing of a event which is going to occur. As this is happening, Becca is not seen yet but is sitting in her room within the flat.
Becca Wots- A female teenage 18 years old, who finds it hard to cope with all the problems that she goes through during her unvarnished British life. She occasionally skips school and sits alone somewhere away from her home to escape from everything in her life whilst smoking, taking drugs, and taking alcohol to help comfort her.
As Jade walks into the kitchen, Dan begins to create an argument due to the fact that Jade had left the house without letting anybody know. Jade reveals some attitude towards Dan which causes him to become very angry; resulting in domestic abuse being acted upon towards Jade which then causes the beginning scene to appear of a unvarnished atmosphere already as we begin to watch the film out of depression.

Agents Of Change - Antagonists
Callum Britway- Becca's Boyfriend. 
Unlike Becca, Callum is a genuine guy who cares a lot about Becca. Through all the aggressive violent actions expressed towards him from Becca, he still remains by her side due to his strong unconditional feelings of love towards her whilst having a very good understanding to how life has treated her. Callum has experienced the same issues that Becca is going through, which highlights his focused goal to help his girlfriend through her troubles. But unlike Becca, Callum's living styles are quite different to how she lives within a broken down flat/council estate whilst living in a nice big house. However it won't be easy as Callum faces many violent off putting obstacles that may challenge his love for Becca whilst being in the process of helping her.

Conflict - Complication
From the abusive experience that Becca witnesses from the actions created by friends, her mind  begins to collect in that influence of bad behavior given from Dan. We see how she experiences the domestic abuse that Dan has inflicted upon; Mainly being Dan being violent against Jade and how Jade's injuries has caused Becca to start to become like Dan and inflicts pain and ferocity towards others specifically her boyfriend. Becca decides to twist the world of domestic abuse into her own fingertips. Instead of the stereotypical issue of men beating up women, Becca decides to boost up the power of women and decides to fight for her rights in her world. However, this doesn't turn out to be a pretty picture with the actions she inflicts upon with others during the story.

Elaboration
While constantly living in her broken down council flat in an run down estate block walking around in depression and anger, she finds cocaine in the house which she notices Dan using and begins to smoke on that as an escape and cure for her problems. She does this to clear her mental state; to forget everything that is currently happening in her life and enjoys the feeling of doing it with pleasure she gets from taking it. Callum continuously gives Becca comforting advice regarding her behavior created due to the loss of her friend Jade who was horrifically abused by Dan. Callum sets out to take her many places to help address her dependency on drugs cocaine and her alcohol problems. He takes her to rehabilitation clinics but unfortunately Becca never follows through with that. He also tries taking her mind off everything that has happened to try and help her overcome all this madness. She refuses to go anywhere as she is very stubborn.  During these actions that Callum puts forward, Becca's friend Jade dies due to all the harsh injuries that Dan acted upon towards her. Henceforth, Becca still continues to be a very violent depressed person and Callum still chooses to persevere motivates the fact of making her life and behavior better. He talks to her about how Jade wouldn't be happy to be seeing her the way she is acting and that Becca should calm down and live life better by not inflicting what Dan inflicted towards Jade.

Climax & Resolution
After all the struggles that Callum went through in trying to make Becca better, he gets in the way of Becca and her drug dealer and suffers the horrific circumstances whilst getting beaten up. This results in him being in a coma. Callum is on his death bed and for his dying wish he wishes Becca to stop and become a better person. Becca loses everything once her love dies she hits rock bottom. She finally sees how her habit has led to destruction and despair which has caused others around her to get hurt. This is what Becca uses to kick-start herself in a new direction and to get her life back on track due to this dramatic event making her change. She put's down the drugs and alcohol and the harsh domestic actions (what she claimed to be the only escape to her stress and depression) and begins to change into a better person from all that Callum has done. She still remains to be a little upset of how life has treated her, the lost of her best friend  and her boyfriend but she manages to contain within herself all the harsh violent actions that she used to act upon with other beings.

Coda
Towards the end, after being effected deeply with the devastating events of her best friends and boyfriends death, she turns her life towards the right direction. She manages to achieve a job working in a supermarket and earns enough money to purchase herself an apartment of her own where she is able to escape from everything and live by herself as a independent being. After putting her foot down to all these actions which Callum guided her towards, she manages to keep a smile on her face throughout that day and the rest of the days to come living in her clean apartment in Britain. With going through with all of these actions, she is satisfied to know that both Jade and Callum would be happy to know how she is living life positive, strong, and brave with any issue that comes across to her in her life and she will try her best to stay that way as long as possible because she knows that it is better that way for her own positive benefit.


Thursday, 28 February 2013

Meet My Audience

I have showed my audience for my open sequence, on powerpoint on this slide it shows my audiences interests and some hobbies. 
In addition to that I have a Vox-Pop of people who I asked a series of questions to in relation to British Social Realism and my opening sequence.
In my Vox-Pop the questions I asked in relation to British Social Realsim and my openeing sequence were;

1) Have you watched a BSR film ? Which one ? What did you Think of it ?
Many people who had answered this question had watched 'This is England', I believe it was four out of ten respondents that had said they had seen this film. one of the girls had thought that it was very disturbing and that it definitely shows a sense of bad communtity in England, it expolits parts that people have no idea about. Other respondents for This is England had said that it was a really good film, and shows how life is actaully like in England. Some people had said they had seen 'Four Lions' and their feedback was that it was very different to the genre that BRS follows however it does fill the ideology of showing films on sensitive topics such as Terroism. Another film that people had seen would be 'Fish Tank' they has said that it was good and it does show how people can be abused. Finally some people had said that they had seen Kidulthood and said that it was very alike to what appears in the news and that it was very good film.

2) Have you expereinced any stories which you are inspired by whilst watching a BSR film ?
All the participants in the vox-pop had responded by saying they haven't exprienced any stories within the BSR film. However they did reply that the experineces in the films are connected and related to the News, such as drugs, rape, murder, violence are all portrayed into BSR, I believe 4 out of 10 said that this.

3) The storyline for my film will be; a girl being abused by her boyfriend in a council estate being put on drugs and she is trying to find an escape. What are your thoughts on this ? Is it realistic enough to be a BSR film?
Some respondents had replied that it was a good storyline, however they had suggested some improvements and suggestions such as that we need to be careful not to exaggerate the situation or themes being displayed within the film, we have to be precise and make people believe that this is real and not a joke. One person has said that the storyline raises awarness to the audience and people. The majority of people had agreed with our storyline and just gave us some hints such as taking the themes serioulsy and to show a clear age gap maybe between the girl and her boyfriend.

4) What could I change or add to that?
One person had siggested that their should be a distingushed age gap between the girl and boy. and just to make sure we cover the themes effectively to present to the audience.

5) What kind of things would you expect to be viewing in a BSR film?
A load of people had replied by saying that they would expect to see violence and drugs maybe, racsim. Some of them said that they would expect to see gang crime and sex perhaps as they are usally typically portrayed in a BSR film.

6) What type of issues would you prefer to watch?
This answer that people had replied had been simmliar to the previous question, violence, abuse, foul language which is always in BSR films.

7) Do you feel it is imporatnat to relate to a BSR film?
One viewer had agreed with this by saying that if kids watch this, they may feel like they are not alone, not isolated that it happens to other people, its not just them in this situation. Any viewer said it is important as even if you are personally not experinecing these situations you can understand them and beware of these issues. Another person had said that it may inspire people to get out and make something of their lives and that there is a way to get out of this situation, you are not stuck init forever.

Monday, 25 February 2013

Production log 4

In week four I have learnt who my opening sequence would be specifically aimed at, the target audience for my film would be British people but mainly for the young people. The themes which appear the most and receive most attention from an audience would be films which involve: sex, violence, drugs, escapism/aspiration and distraught families. The institutions behind these British Social Realist films have the intention of aiming their films to include the unvarnished and negative side to British life. In addition to this the audience is niche as the content in their films are very powerful and intense, and gritty so they aim them at specific niche audiences. 




Film Four tend to aim their films at niche audiences, and in their films they represent and underline the emphasises on gritty rough mundane lifestyle of Britain. The film Tyrannosaur particularly focuses on showing violence and exposes situations British people may ace in everyday life, it shows components of rough unvarnished life. 
In my production I will make definite to make sure I show and expose the same content or of differences in my film, so this will suit the target audience more. Everything in the film I hope will represent British Social Realsim, and show awareness to the niche audiences, I will make sure the gritty and maladaptive atmosphere is shown.  





Analyzing sound in BSR.

I have done a sound analysis for Trainspotting, which I will present on here. 


BSR Visual style

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Production Log Three

Production Log Three

I have learnt this week on the conventions that British Social Realist films use and include in their opening sequences. The majority of BSR films tend to have a lot of institutional and production credits which go on for a while. I have also learnt that in opening sequences the actor who is the most important in the film or gets paid the most is displayed frist for the cast section, such as in High Fidelity you have the most important actor first John Cusack, the Jack Black the followed by actors who are not known as much, this film isn't a BSR Film though. This film for the opening credits gave a lot of information which had lasted for over 3 minutes and within this time you only see one character for a couple of seconds and then you go back to the credits. The opening sequence for this film also tells us what the film is about, its about music so the opening sequence is very music themed with records and music that people may recognise. So my film the credits could go with a certain theme and could associate with this theme. For example sex the credits could be red and portrayed in a certain font and style to connote the theme. 


I have also learnt that in opening sequences you have to create enigma to draw the audience in and make them think about the film and what is going to happen next. Sometimes the mystery in a film is better than showing then actually showing the action. We had watched a movie called From london To Brighton and the woman, the mum had got an black eye and we as an audience never knew how she had got that black eye, it left us in suspense. Another title device I could include in my opening sequence could be a smash mouth opening which puts the audience right in the middle of the action, the story line, immediately the audience are involved in the film. 





The institutions involved in BSR they tend to list the actors in order of appearance and film and the main character In which I will also follow this technique. There isn't much institutional information but There is however many crew credits which I may follow too. The instituions name tends to come up first and then the film which I will follow too. This could be that the audience can remember the institution and become more informed. 

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Locations for BSR opening Sequence.

Locations for British Social Realist opening sequence.

A location that would be possible to consider in the opening sequence could be Ilford lane. This would be a prime setting as it is multi cultural but it is dominated by a the Asian minority group. In addition to this the location is rough and busy, broken down area loud, has a lot of late night activities. It is unkept and the people there are not dressed in a glamourous style but normally wearing cheap clothes which would fit the ideology of BSR. This location isn't far and there are many places to shoot there which would be an advantage for shooting in the opening sequence. 


































Another location that would be good for the opening sequence would be WoodFood as there is an estate there which is most common in BSR films such as Kidulthood and Adulthood and Fish Tank,  they use estates as they associate youths with estates and council houses. Broadmead estate in WoodFord is great for shooting it looks rough, run down area, unkempt and it establishes the theme of poverty and isolation of being trapped. 
The colour palate is grey and dull which connotes a miserable life, dark and gloomy.












A further site which we could use would be Tottenham High Street, this was the riots were started and it would be a good location as there are lots of gang cultures in Tottenham and police which would connote a dangerous area and crime which is typically used in BSR. However this location is far and it may be hard commuting to this area. 












A fourth location which could be ideal would be Hackney Wick as this area is very run down and connotes poverty and the area's appearance is just ideal for this film sequence. The area looks neglected, deprived, poor and underprivileged which would reflect he BSR ideologies and the unknown characters used within the text. 
The areas look like a dump and does not occupy anyone. However again this location is far and will take long to get too however the area is key in using in the film.