Research: Certificates and ratings

We have decided our film will be a 15 for the following reasons:

• Our target audience are aged 16-17 therefore it could not be anything higher than a 15 because they would not be able to watch it
• It will contain frequent strong language, as the opening shows as the girl says "for f*** sake Mum"
• The theme of alcoholism is explored throughout the film, which may not be suitable for younger viewers



Research: Distribution Companies

When looking at creating a social realism film we needed to look into distribution companies that are available. I have done research into two different ones.




DreamWorks- owned by Viacom
Founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen

Mainly focus on cartoon personifications of animals
A large Hollywood company with a huge profit





Film4- owned by Channel Four
Started in 1982
Supports independent film makers
Fund about 20 films each year
Based in the UK and Ireland

Research: Iconic Social Realism Directors

Research: Target Audience

Who are our target audience?

We've decided that we want our target audience to be 16-17 year old females. This is because we are all of this age and believe it is important to be able to relate to the audience. Therefore as we are this age have a good idea what will appeal to them.

Secondary Research

This is a questionnaire I found which helps us to understand the audiences of Social Realism films

Audience and British Social Realism films from Amymedia123

From this I have learned that our target audience (16-18 year olds) are not likely to watch a social realism films. Therefore it is important that we consider the Blumler and Katz theory of identifying with the characters, and making sure that what we put into the film will appeal to them.

Primary Research

In light of this I conducted an interview to help us with certain decisions about our film, making sure that it will interest our target audience.

Findings

Question 2 Which elements of a film opening lead you to keep watching?- Responses showed that we need to establish an event but not reveal all of the information to keep them interested.

Question 3 What issues do you feel are relevant to your age group?- This helped us decide on the idea of alcohol

Question 4 Which gender would you prefer a lead role to be?- Using the unanimous female vote, we are going to use a girl as a lead.

Question 5 Do you like films where you can relate to the characters?- All said yes. This can be explained using the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Teenagers like characters they can relate to as they can identify with them:

• finding reinforcement for personal values
• finding models of behaviour
• identifying with valued other (in the media)
• gaining insight into one's self

In other words, they can take how a character deals with a situation, and use it in their own lives, and because of this we are using a girl the same age as them.

Question 6 Would a night time setting add a mysterious feel?- We had mixed results for this question, they all believed it would make it more mysterious however they also used the word "creepy", so we have to be careful not to make it look like a horror film.

Question 7- What sort of person do you think this girl is? We were very happy with the responses we got for this question. The girl in the picture is Mia, the lead in the British Social Realism film 'Fish Tank'. She was the inspiration for the lead in our film and so we were happy that they identified her as a lower class, troubled teenager, as we wish our lead to wear a similar costume, as the mise-en-scene clearly has good signifiers.

Reserach: Kidulthood 9 Frame Analysis

I have chosen to do a 9 Frame Analysis on the film Kidulthood's opening as it is social realism, which means I can study the conventions and how it uses enigma codes to get hints as to how our opening should be.

Below is a prezi presentation of my analysis of Kidulthood film opening in 9 frames. But before you take a look at it here are some quick information on this film:

-It follows the life's of many teenagers who attend the same school, showing the troubles such as violence, drugs, sex and alcohol that face the different social and ethnic groups in a rough area
-The film is rated 15, due its sexual and violent nature.
-It is distributed by revolver entertainment
-The film was actually shot in the principle areas (adds to realism)

Prezi:


Further Analysis:

Mise-en-scene= The general colour scheme is grey and dull which makes it look quite gritty. This gives it a more realism feel and compliments the run-down look of the metal cages on the edge of the playground, and the poorly kept grass. This shows further that the area is rough and not a very happy place to live in.

Editing= The editing used almost gives the effect of a CCTV camera, with blurring jump cuts together, panning across the playground zooming in to focus on the different characters and social groups. With the trouble and crime going on in the area the CCTV is quite appropriate and fitting. This effect also adds to the realism of the film.

Camera= There is a varied use of longshots to close-ups, panning and focusing again creating the effect of the realistic CCTV. Also the close-up of the drill highlights the importance of it and makes it more dramatic.

Sound= The film opening uses both non-diegetic and diegetic sound. The non-diegetic sound being a stereotypical 'grimy' urban track, and the diegetic being shouting, laughing, and dialogue. The music sets the pace which is quite fast but slows down when dialogue is used to make it more dramatic.

Enigma codes= The main enigma code of the opening, is the drill shot. This is because the audience is un-able to see what he is making this may trigger the audience to want to watch more. The  boy then goes on to hide it in the bin. This creates questions like, 'what is it?' 'why is he hiding it?' etc. Another enigma is the fact the hooded group is watching everyone looking suspicious, which makes everyone wonder 'what are they up too?' 'are they looking for someone?'. The middle class group who hand out the party invites also create an enigma code as a party where 'everyone invited' is not bound to go well, therefore we wonder what will happen at this party.

Aspects that I have learnt from this analysis and maybe useful to consider for our own film opening=
-A dark dull colour scheme will add to the realism
-Certificating at 15, would be suitable for concerning the social realism themes of violence, alcohol and sex
-Shoot in the real life areas to get full desired effect
-Look into the distributor Revolver Entertainment to see if it could be a suitable match for our film opening once made
-Non-diegetic music can be used to make things more dramatic and help highlight important bits which need to be considered in the opening
-Should use a vary of close-up and long shots, as this is creates the effect of some one watching or CCTV which adds realism

Research: Codes and Conventions of Social Realism films

The use of unknown actors- this helps to create the sense of verisimilitude because the audience see's the actors as ordinary people.
One main protagonist- The plot usually follows the story of one individual's life, looking at how they face problems and overcome adversities.
Most films use teenagers or young adults (13-20)- although this is not always the case with films such as 'Tyrannosaur' where the main character is in his 50's
Working class- I believe this is because the majority of audiences will be in or around this social class as it is seen as the most common, also they tend to have the most gritty story lines.
Set in council estates or 'run down' areas in suburban locations- this aids to the naturalistic approach. 'Fishtank', written and directed by Andrea Arnold, is a good example of this as Mia, the lead, lives on a council estate.
Wide shots- this is allows for a lot to be seen in one frame, mimicking that of what a person see's through their eyes, so again it helps give a naturalistic tone.
Location shooting (not a studio/film set)- this gives the illusion on real life and makes the film more convincing.
Explores at least more than one of topical themes- such as sex, money, divorce, alcoholism, prostitution, gangs, abusive realtionships, homosexuality, crime, drugs, poverty.

Research: Trainspotting

I watched Trainspotting, the 1996 film directed by Danny Boyle who describes it as a movie which reflects "the drive and energy of modern pop culture", for this reason I feel it fits into the Social Realism genre, despite the fact it is classed as a crime fiction or drama. Therefore I thought it would be good to study for inspiration.

 

Basic Synopsis
The film is set in 1980's Edinburgh, where Mark Renton, a heroin addict is trying to come clean. The story follows his struggle to wean himself off the stuff hit after hit. After nearly dying of an overdose, he moves to London and gets back on track owning his own flat. However he gets mixed up with his friends again and they make a dangerous heroin transaction, coming into a large amount of money. As the others sleep, Renton leaves with the money and then vows to live a stable, traditional life.




Codes and conventions- Does this film conform to the codes and conventions of Social Realism?

The use of unknown actors- this was Ewan McGregor's (Renton) 4th film, however this was his first big one, and this film was Kelly Macdonald's (Diane) debut.

One main protagonist- The plot follows the ups and downs of one character predominately (Renton).

Most films use teenagers or young adults (13-20)- The majority of the group were in their 20's, though Begbie looks older and more aged.

Working class- It is set in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh.

Set in council estates or 'run down' areas in suburban locations- Set in urban locations such as Edinburgh and London and Allison flat which is presumably on some sort of council estate.

Location shooting (not a studio/film set)- many location shots were used such as Princes Street which is a real street in Edinburgh.

Explores at least more than one of topical themes- the themes of drug use, substance abuse, sex, violence, money and urban poverty are illustrated

Does it break any?

• there are some unnatural scenes in the film, to show the effect of the drugs, so we could say that this is not abiding to the idea or verisimilitude.
• Some scene cuts in the film are not true to real life. For example, at the end of one scene Renton is seen jumping off a wall outside. It then cuts to a shot of him landing inside a building. This is not naturalistic.

Things that inspired us about this film:-

• The idea of portraying what is inside the heads of characters. (Our lead is drunk and so we like the idea of her hearing the memory of her mother shouting, which we can show through the sound of a muffling, echoed voice played over the score.)
• The use of voiceovers is something we could experiment with, to give a clear back story of the main character.



Research: Opening Credits

Film opening credits generally depend on the size of the production and the number of people involved in creating it. In research, an opening which contained a huge number of titles was Skyfall. Watching the video above it is evident that there was a very large team involved in producing it.


Realistically, the more people involved in a film the longer the credits. What we then did was to look at more film openings on artofthetitle.com to discover what names were mentioned in every film, as these would be the ones that a smaller, low budget film (alike our own) would need to use. These are the ones which we came up with.


-Distribution company
-Production company
-Name of main actor
-Co-actors
-Casting director
-Costume and Make-up
-Music
-Director of photography
-Editor
-Screenplay
-Producer
-Director


As seen from Skyfall in Hollywood films there are a lot of other roles which are mentioned to give people credit for their work. However in a smaller film only the key names must be mentioned as there are much less people involved in the creative process.

Music Inspiration

In order to create the desired music that we wanted we searched already existent tracks which would fit our opening. By doing this we could create a similar piece and be inspired. Below is my analysis of three tracks we looked at:



I like this track because it is emotional and moody and I think this will fit our opening well as it reflects what she is feeling. From this, we have decided to capture an emotional feel to our own opening like this track.



I like this track too as captures a similar feeling.




We loved this track as it captured an emotional and moody feel, this fits the best out of the three tracks and we are inspired by this very much!

Research: Camera Drunken Effects Research

After deciding that in the narrative our character will be drunk, we thought that it would be most effective to show this aspect particularly through the POV shots. To make these shots realistic and believable we thought that we could use or create some camera effects or editing techniques. I will be researching into our possible and best options that we could use in our film opening.

The first camera technique I looked into was the unsteadiness, this was to make everything seem disorientated and so that you can almost feel the effect of the stumbling. To test this out I have experimented different ways that you can make the shot unsteady using test shots. 

Technique one:
We waved the camera side to side when walking this worked well and could be a possible technique to use

The second camera technique was blurriness, this is also to add to the effect of disorientation and get the full effect of what it is like being drunk. When researching the ways I could get blurry shots on the internet I found out that to get the effect it was mostly created when editing. However, there is one way you could create it, which we could do luckily due to the type of camera we are going to use.

On iMovie there are a number of effects which you can use to get the blurry effect and they are listed below:

• If you slow down the video by quite a bit, it slightly blurs it naturally anyway. Slowing it down does at to the drunken effect as when drunk, reactions are slowed down so this is quite a realistic effect.
• The video effect 'glow' can be used. This blurs it reasonably well but also brightens it quite a bit, this almost makes it feel like a flashback which is not the desired look so this isn't probably the most suitable.
• The video effect 'romantic' can be used. This blurs it slightly but again brightens it up making it also seem like a flashback thus not the most suitable.

The most suitable techniques for our opening is the slowing down of the video.

Finally, after choosing technique 1 and the camera technique for the blurred effect to be most suitable I have used them together at the same time to see how easy and effective it is.

SUMMARY:
From this piece of research I have found out that:
-Technique number 1 was the best technique to get an unsteady look
-Having bright lights in the distance/background when doing technique number 2 adds to the drunken effect, in this case street lights and tail lights on cars would be good
-I think that combining the camera technique of waving the camera with the  slow-mo would be most effective.

Research: Costume, Props and Makeup

In order to succeed in our genre we need our mise-en-scene to be as realistic as possible and this in particularly includes costume, props and make up. To research into this I have studied and analysed these three things in the social realism film openings  that we have already have analysed previously in our initial research.

1. Costume:

This screenshot is from the film Fish Tank. As you can see she has a grey tracksuit on which is baggy and provides a hood to it, which she has up. She also has crystal white trainers on. This look is very youthful and gives off the impression she is a 'chav' and could be feared of.

This screenshot is from Kidulthood. As you can see they are wearing tracksuits with a cheap thin raincoat and baseball caps. This look is also very youthful and 'chavy'.







These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had some kind of casual tracksuit, baggy clothing, and a hood. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.


2. Props:

This screenshot shows one of the main character smoking a cigarette. This prop is used throughout and plays an important part in the realism as smoking is a widely popular activity.

This screenshot is from Fish Tank. As you can see the prop is alcohol. This plays a big part in the film and it also adds to the realism due to it being a popular thing for teenagers to do.









These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had either a cigarette, or alcohol in it. But overall it was mostly alcohol. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.


3.Make-up:


In this screenshot as you can see there is hardly any make-up. It is very bare and gives of the impression that she does not have enough money to glam herself up. It also may represent how troubled she is as she may have other things to worry about other than her looks.






In this screenshot the main character also has minimal make up on. She has a little bit of mascara on and maybe a bit of foundation. I think this naturalistic look is important as it portrays the struggle or the giving up on making yourself look presentable due to other issues over riding them, which would be needed to get across in social realism films.





                   
These above are only a few of the examples of costumes I had found and analysed from the social realism film openings. All of the films I saw all had either natural or no makeup. Therefore, I think we need to consider these findings for our own film.
                                                                                                                              
                   

Summary:

Costume should be baggy, have a hood, or tracksuit if possible

Props used should be alcohol related

Make-up should be natural as possible

Research: Behaviour of a drunken person

 

The whole idea of our opening is for our character be drunk, therefore, we need to research into how a drunken person behaves as this is a hard to act realistically. To research into this successfully I have used the internet and asked our drama teacher to help me come up with some top tips on how to play a realistic drunk which our actress can follow when we brief her. To display these tips I have presented them in a prezi which is below: 

Reserach: Iconic Sound associated with Social Realism

Diegetic Sound

Police car sirens- as Social Realism deals with real life issues, arrests are likely to take place or similar situations, therefore sirens will be heard. Also, many are set in areas were the crime rates are higher (council estates) so police would be around more frequently.



Sounds of violence- Such as fighting sound effects or gun shots as this scene from 'Kidulthood' demonstrates, because many of the themes Social Realism films deal with involve violence including gangs, domestic abuse and prisons.

Swearing- As Social Realism deals with real life, obscene language is not filtered, it is as true to reality as possible as this the clip above also shows.



Busy streets- As we know from the codes and conventions, Social Realism films are commonly set in urban areas and cities therefore ambience like this is appropriate to set the scene.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Music of the time period- Social Realism films do not use specially made soundtracks, they use music from the setting of the film to make it more real. For example, 'This Is England', which is set in 1983, uses 'Come On Eileen' by Dexys Midnight Runners which won Best British Single at the Brits in the same year. So a Social Realism film in the modern day may use rap music or dubstep.

How is gender represented in the media?

How is gender represented in the media?

Gender is represented in a variety of ways. Over the years the way males and females have been presented to us through media has evolved in sync with our ever changing society. Women once seen as the housewife's and possessions of men who could not think for themselves, and men were the bread-winners who dominated.

We began by making a hierarchy of masculine and feminine people in the public eye. We found that the most feminine women were: - ditsy
                                                   - Blonde
                                                   - High maintenance
                                                  - pink
                                                  - dependant
                                                   - attractive
The least feminine women were: - independent
                                                    -masculine aesthetics e.g quite muscular
                                                    - dominance
                                                 

Here are some posters we made about this topic

                               

Research: Flashbacks

To add detail and make our film opening more interesting we want to include a flashback of our protagonist with her mum, having an argument. We want to include this to show a feature that has happened to cause the girls life to change.

Flashbacks are used in films to illustrate something that has happened in the past but illustrates something which has impacted the current state, to see how we could make an effective flashback I have researched in to others and how they are formed so that they are clearly separate from the main footage.

1. Change in sound, usually echoes.
2. Change in colour, faint or black and white.
3. Difference in speed, generally slower but sometimes faster.

Research: Social Realism Iconography

Moodboard

We decided to do a mood board as its an useful way to bring our ideas together, show what topics we could explore and what films we could look to in inspiration. Above is a photo of our finished mood board. 

SUMMARY:

• We can look into the topics of drugs, violence, alcohol, and smoking
• We may look at films like 'this is england' 'london to brighton' 'kes' etc

Research: Film Opening Timeline Analysis- Billy Elliot

 

Research: Social Realism Genre

Research: Typical features of a film opening

As our coursework is to shoot an opening for a film, we researched what makes a good filming opening, to find the essential things we needed to include in ours.

1. Film titles- there is usually a separate cut of the film title by itself to establish what it's called.
2. Establishing shot- this is important as it is an easy way to tell the audience where the film is set.
3. Voice overs- these are present as it is an effective way to inform the viewer of the situation, without characters having to say it.
4. Lots of cuts- this could be continuous editing or non-continuous and could be because a lot of information is needed to be put across to the audience.
5. Establishing location, era and character- this is important as it avoids confusion later on in the film.
6. Motif- this is where an aspect of the film title or film theme is featured. For example, in 'Back to the Future' the first shot is of a clock.
7.Credits- This can be of actors, the technical team etc. Only the main people as the full list appears. in the credits at the end of a film.
8. Clear finish- there is often a clear finish to the film opening, eg. a fade to black, or showing the film title. This allows the viewer to see that the film has now fully begun, and sets the opening aside from the rest of the film.
9. Music- Often there is minimal dialogue in the film opening, instead there is music, usually that reflects the genre of film.