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.