Eval Q2 (Prezi)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

My press can be accessed by pressing this link.... ( Prezi )

Eval Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in modern society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes such as money, drugs, prostitution and sex are quite usual in modern contemporary social realist films as well as class, religion and political views. These themes are very popular today but not all were involved in the early social realism storylines and films.

Common Conventions of Social realism films:

• Use of unknown, teenage actors - 'The sixteen' and 'This is England' all have main characters that support the social realist genre because they are between these ages. The actors could be anyone which makes it realistic.
• Social class - this is a very important form and convention as most social realist films deal with the working class like 'Billy Elliot' and 'This is England'.
• The locations - social realism film are usually set around a council estate or run down areas of different cities, but also can be a nice neighbourhood.
•  Usually a social realism film deals with issues like drugs, sex, poverty, prostitution, homosexuality, alcoholism and crime. Social realism films usually involve political views and religious views e.g 'This is England' and the hatred for Maggie Thatcher.
• Semi Improvised scripts - Sometimes directors such as Ken Loach use semi-improvised scripts to make the film have a more realistic feel and dialogue. He used this in the film Kes' and 'Sweet Sixteen' 

 

Location Shooting-
By using locations rather than the studio, it makes the film seem more true to real life for the audience to watch. An example of this is in 'Fish Tank' as it uses an actual council estate within the film. British social realism films are filmed on actual, real life locations such as parks and council estates and not in made up sets in studios such as Hollywood Studios. Our film opening uses this convention as our entire footage was shot in real life locations. Our locations included a council estate in Ben Rhydding, a dark bridge in Burley and Ilkley Cemetery.

Dark bridge in Burley

Council estate Ben Rhydding

Non-professional Actors-

 British Social Realism films use non-professional or unknown actors as it adds to the realistic look. Also, many British Social Realism films cannot afford popular, Hollywood actors to be in their films as the budget is usually quite low. For example, Katie Jarvis (main character in Fish Tank) was spotted in a train station arguing with her boyfriend. In this aspect our film definitely applies to this convention as our actors have no acting experience or training. 

Social class-

In a social realism film, the social class of the characters are usually working class living in working class environments. For example ill Manors was filmed in a lower, working class area of London. Our film matches this common convention as our  central protagonist is a working class teenager. Certain stereotypical working class activities take place in social realist films such as drug use, violence etc.. Our film contains this common convention. Contrastingly, Our film goes against the common convention of social class too a certain extent. Our other central protagonist is in fact upper class which is unusual to see in a social realism film. You often see wealthy but bad men in social realism films such as ill manors and top boy, but they aren't used in the way our upper class man is used.

Soundtrack-

With regards to the music that overplays our shots, it follows to conventions of a social realism film. Stereotypically, I have matched the genre of music to the social class of each protagonist. The opening starts with a slow piano song which is in fact the instrumental of 'to build a home' - this slow paced piano can be associated with upset and empathy, and also piano can be stereotypically seen as an upper class sound. I then mixed a 'grime like' beat into the piano. Grime is stereotypically seen as a lower class genre of music, as it originates from lower class areas. The beat introduced attempts to present a grime types of feel when overplaying Kieran's scenario. In many social realism films grime music is a huge part of them. Within social realism films we often witness gang violence and the culture that surrounds this. Grime/rap music is a part of this culture and is uses very regularly in these types of films that are set in this date. For example Ill Manors' whole soundtrack is created by Plan B (famous rap artist), Kidulthood and Adulthood use a lot of rap/grime. Our soundtrack also consists of slower music (piano) which is also used vastly in social realism films such as Tyrannosaur. Tyrannosaur is a sad, moving film and the music in it matches that them. Which is what we set out to do in our film. So in terms of music, I feel that our film opening matches this convention.

Titles-

With regards to titles our film follows the conventions of social realism. This is due to the simplicity of the titles being in a plain white font. These titles also follow the conventions of a documentary which from the off set places emphasis on the 'realism' element of the film as the film is trying to provide a realistic interpretation on the working class and middle class lifestyles within Britain. The titles use however a nice transition to allow a sense of professionalism and fluency within the opening of the film.

Target Audience-

Social realism target audiences can vary dependant on the plot of the film, protagonists, region, etc... But films that we feel are similar to ours have a primary target audience of males from the age of 15-30 (which is the same as ours) - this target audience is a common convention of social realism films. Our secondary audience consists of females and people of 50+. Females may be attracted to our film due to the use of emotion and people over the age of 50 may be appealed due to the use of an older protagonist (people can relate). Some social realism films such as Tyrannosaur may attract a female and older audience due to the same reasons ours might do. 

Audience Feedback - Rough Cut 3

This is another clip of audience feedback from our secondary audience of female over the age of 40. This once again helped us identify how we could improve our opening to appeal to a wider audience.

Audience Feedback - Rough Cut 1

This is audience feedback of our first rough cut from my mother who is aged 50+. She is part of our secondary audience and helped us identify how we could improve our opening from a secondary audience point of view.

Audience Feedback - Rough Cut 2

This video of audience feedback is Milo' father who is aged 50+ which is in fact our secondary audience. This clip allows us to identify any anomalies with our opening and helps progress to create a finalised product. Gives us an insight into our secondary audiences opinion.

Audience Feedback - Final Cut

This is our primary audience in terms of age (15-30) watching and evaluating our film opening.

Film Influences (COMPLETE!!!)

Target Audience and BBFC rating

Target Audience:

For our film opening, we have identified our primary target market will be males of the age of 15+. This is also based on the fact that the two main protagonists are male. The 2 central protaganists are of different age with different personal issues which may address different audiences as they can relate to these problems.  Recent research shows that '15-24 year olds made up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience, at 31%.' This is beneficial towards the possible success of our film. 
A wide range of genres appealed to women, whereas men were drawn to films with a strong action element. The film contains thug-like behaviour and violence which attraction male attention. Despite this, a secondary target audience of females may be attracted based on the emotional theme related to the older protagonist. The age range for our target audience is 15-30.

Age-
Normally in a social realist film the age rating is 15 and above. The is primarily because the target audience they are trying to promote their film too, is an older audience. They tend to aim for an older target audience due to the untypical storylines that youths wouldn't particularly appreciate or understand. There is also the point that there is usually heavy amount of violence, sex, drugs etc... that adults wouldn't want their children seeing. And so the rating legally has to be a 15. Another aspect of age is the use of teenage characters. This is shown in 'This is England', 'Ill manors' and 'Billy Elliot' for examples. This use of a teenage cast appeal to a teenage audience as they can relate to certain characters and understand the characters. Although in some cases films are rated 18 so teenagers cant watch it e.g 'This is England'.

Gender-
Gender is another important aspect as a social realism film must try to attract both a female and male audience. Films often do this by creating feel and emotion. For example, Tyrannosaur uses a predominantly violent male protagonist which promotes the film to men but also adds romance to promote a female audience too. This can be very beneficial to the success of a film as it opens up the amount of people going to see the film.

BBFC Rating:

For our film opening, we have decided to rate our film a 15. This is based on the fact it contains violence, drug use and discriminate language or behaviour. This means that No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age. This enables us to add features relating to our genre of social realism. 

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

•   strong violence

•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').

•   portrayals of sexual activity

•   strong verbal references to sex

•   sexual nudity

•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

•   discriminatory language or behaviour

•   drug taking

Music - Influences

As a group, we came to the conclusion that music and sound was a large factor of our film opening. This is due to little amount of dialect in comparison to the mood. It is vital that the mood is portrayed within our music as it isn't done within dialect. With our finalised music, we managed to create a remix of the song "build a home" using garageband. Due to our differ in characters, the music was difficult to contrast to fit the setting. Many social realism films use grime and rap music for their soundtracks such as ill Manors, top boy, kidulthood, adulthood etc... Being a social realism film also, we decided to try and follow this convention by introducing a grime-like beat. We also used a slow piano instrumental ('to build a home') to create empathy towards Michael (protagonist). Social realism films also use slow, empathetic music to create an emotional setting. (Example - Tyrannosuar). Garageband was the software used to create our music. During this process of using garageband, I became a lot more comfortable with the software.

'To Build A Home' - cinematic orchestra 

Social Realism (Conventions and History)

Conventions:

Social realism is a film genre which focuses on giving the audience a true indication of what life is like. Film makers such as Shane Meadows, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Social realism films may include drugs, violence, crime etc...

Social realistic films portray attitudes and life factorsoccurring at that period in time. They often representworking class characters living through a struggle andgenerally exhibit them as a protagonist. Often, thedirectors of social realistic films want to depict a typeof social injustice, such as: economic hardship,discrimination or political injustice. The main forms and conventions are; the use of unknown actors. This supports the social realism genre because the actors could be anyone which makes it realistic for the audience. Social class is a highly important convention of social realism films as most social realism films deal with the working class like Billy Elliot directed by Steven Daldry and This is England directed by Shane Weadows. The locations also link to this social class convention, as most locations are set in working class areas. Involving council estates, run down areas etc... Typically, a social realism films would deal with issues like drugs, sex, crime, poverty, prostituion and general criminal activity. In regards to age, the common convention for social realism films is to use young actors as their protagonists. For example, 'This is England', 'Kes', 'kidulthood', 'top boy' all use teenage protagonists.

Common Conventions of Social realism films:

• Use of unknown, teenage actors - 'The sixteen' and 'This is England' all have main characters that support the social realist genre because they are between these ages. The actors could be anyone which makes it realistic. 
• Social class - this is a very important form and convention as most social realist films deal with the working class like 'Billy Elliot' and 'This is England'. 
• The locations - social realism film are usually set around a council estate or run down areas of different cities, but also can be a nice neighbourhood.
•  Usually a social realism film deals with issues like drugs, sex, poverty, prostitution, homosexuality, alcoholism and crime. Social realism films usually involve political views and religious views e.g 'This is England' and the hatred for Maggie Thatcher. 
• Semi Improvised scripts - Sometimes directors such as Ken Loach use semi-improvised scripts to make the film have a more realistic feel and dialogue. He used this in the film Kes' and 'Sweet Sixteen' 

History:

Warp Films are a prime example of a production company that incorporate social realism into their films. Films such as This is England, Dead man's Shoes, Tyrannosaur, Four Lions,  all involve a working class setting. 

Film Influences

List of films under the social realist genre:
- Harry Brown
- Adulthood
- Kidulthood
- Anuvahood
- Bullet Boy
- Ill manors
- Tyrannosaur
- Kes
- This is England
- Fish tank
- Four Lions
- Top Boy (T.V Series)
- My brother the devil
- Dead mans shoes
- The guvanors

in terms of film influences for my specific film opening I have closely followed films 'Harry Brown' and 'The govanors'. Both of these films are different but similar. Both films contain 2 main characters and in both cases the protagonist is an older male who is at conflict with the antagonist whom is a younger male. This follows nicely to the idea of our story apart from the fact that the presumed antagonist and protagonist are ultimately life savers to each other, suggesting a good relationship between the two characters. Other films which have influenced my decision with the film is the hard hitting almost sinister nature of 'Ill manors' directed by Ben Drew (Plan B) I wanted to incorporate the  hard themes into my film.

Final Cut

This is our final cut of the opening 'Abridged' which includes all 3 of our company idents. We feel our completed final cut involves all possible improvements suggested by others and ourselves.

Abridged - Rough Cut No.4

Abridged - Rough Cut 5

With this version we have extended certain clips that we feel needed changing and added our main title at the end overplaying the time-lapse. We now need to add the company dents to create a final cut.

Abridged (Rough Cut) No.3 With Music

Abridged (Rough Cut) No.2

What we have added:

• cut away shots
• 
  

In this rough cut we have added rough cut away shots to create more fluency within the opening. Music is yet to be added to this rough cut. 

Abridged (Rough Cut) No.1

This rough cut consists of our bones to the film including basic shots involving the main characters. Looking at this rough cut, its evidently clear that cut away shots are required. This is to create fluency to the film and makes the viewer actually believe they are watching a film. These cut away shots also set the scene.

Production Diary - Podcast 2

Evidence of Time Management

We feel we have had a good use of communication between the group and cast. We have contacted each other through various ways (mainly text) which has enabled us to work efficiently and effectively. Our time management has been consisted throughout production as we have met deadlines. Due to the convenience of our central protagonist being my father, it was easy to communicate and organise dates. We have screenshotted evidence of this:

Messages with Louis

Messages with Milo

Group chat with both Milo and Louis

Google calendar was also used to remind myself of any upcoming filming dates.

Production Scheduele

First filming date - 09-01-16

Me and Louis - 24-01-16

Additional filming - 05-02-16