Case Study

British Social Realism – Institution, Audience and

Treatment

Target Audience

Target Audience :
-British
-Females
-Age 16-50
-Disabled people
-Working Class
-Chadwell Heath residents

Are target audience, will revolve around British audience. Mainly aged between 16 - 50 because the age group can relate to the problems conveyed in the film, and mainly female due to a female being the main character and girls could relate to her we can tell this after looking at the exit polls for Fish Tank which revolves around a female, most of the people they surveyed were females. This could also appeal to audience that have a disability and the struggle to over come the prejudice within society. Our target audience could also be from the area eg. London, due to the audience relating back to the landmarks and locations in the film. Are target audience are also people that watch social realistic films due to them liking the genre. Are target audience can also evolve around working class people due to our production based around working class life, so the audience can relate to it.

Narrative

Are film is about a struggle to regain her life back after being very sporty and having her future ahead of her, due to her having her back broken by jealous thugs, the film is how she try’s to fit in with society and face the problems and prejudice that comes with being disabled.

The start of our opening sequence, is the main character with her friends coming out of school. We then see her playing football, then it cuts back to present day of her being in a bed sit and a wheelchair next to her, it then cuts back to her playing football and we see a group of girls approach her, we then cut to credits and in the background noise we hear screaming. The rest of the opening scene we see her getting dressed, (starting her normal day) and the credits role.
The conventions that we will be based around will be aspiration were the main character wants to achieve something in her life despite having a disability.

Technology

We will use technology to make are production realistic by filming in hd, we do this by using a hd video recorder, this will the production have more clarity and make for a more enjoyable film. We will also use a tripod so when we film we can get suitable heights so the audience can relate to the characters views.
We will also use a editing applications to edit the production of our film, we will also be using the music application so we can make are own music so we can avoid copyright.

Title

The name of our production is still being decided but i am thinking about having “Struggle” has the title of the film. This connotes the theme of the film due to the main character having to struggle with her disability.
The title relates the the conventions of a British social realism film, because struggle connotes the convention of aspiration. This title will appeal to the audience due to them being enticed because they will wont to know what the struggle is about and how the main character will over come the problems they face.

Representations

The main character of our film is a young white girl, we think this would be a good main character like in fish tank, I think this works well as it is quite unusual to be following a young girl in her life.  She will be who the film is mostly focused on and will also be the protagonist of our storyline. We are also introduced to our main characters best friend as they come out of school together during the first few minutes of the film, she is also a good character. Also during the opening sequence the audience will have a quick meeting with the antagonist of the film when she has the fight with our main character, which sets up our story. This character is also white and female. At the beginning of my film there are no obvious Propp character types but after the accident that occurs our main character, could be seen as pitiable as pathetic and is also used for atmosphere. The characters in my film may challenge the typical stereotype of a young, white girl as being calm, quite a good girl because in my film they have attitude and the protagonist beats up my antagonist, putting her in hospital, defeating the good girl stereotype.

Conventions

My film will slightly conform to the British social realism genre. Firstly, by having a young white female as my main character, like in fish tank, goes against the grain as it is quite unusual. Also the situation, young, white girls fighting and putting people in hospital is conforming to the British social realism genre as it shows the real life of working class, instead of looking at them through ‘rose tinted glasses’. In the opening scene we see two of the protagonists leaving a school, which e assume them to be a part of as there are wearing the uniform, this shows them to be working class and be at a public school, which is typical of a British social realism to focus on working and under class rather than middle class. A hybrid element of my British social realism genre would be the gangster violence theme but with a twist as it would be girl gangs instead of typical boy gangs.

Style and Iconography

My camera work will create an effect on the audience as i aim to do it as a documentary, following my main characters life and the struggles she goes through to try and achieve her dream after being knocked back, and more importantly finding her attacker. They used this technique in fish tank, following around Mia, which I think worked really well and was quite affective in the feeling it gave the audience towards her. Due to my film be a British social realism film, i will use little editing as this is one of the conventions. Editing I use may only be little like fading in and out of black and also the use of graphics ie, titles and typography. This will effect the audience as they will feel more involved in the film as there is no make believe editing that attracts away from the story and makes you feel like you are watching the film and not a part of it. The costumes in my film will be very simple and nothing fancy, this is to add emphasis on the genre of the film and the people and area that it is filmed in. British social realist films focus on the working class so I will sue simple costumes and props, so that it does not look like a Hollywood film with big fancy costumes and props. In terms of sound and music, the audience will only here diagetic sound and music, and also possibly a theme tune, but that will be all. This will add to the emphasis on it being real life and so that the audience can connect to the characters in the film without being distracted.

Institution

The production company, being a British, independent film company, limits my film making. It will affect the amount of money i can spend on my film, the cast of the film and also my filming locations. This is because the company itself does not have a lot money to give me to fund my film. This could affect the distribution of my film as i will not have a lot of money to be sending my film around to a lot of cinemas as i do not want to risk loosing money by it not being viewed due to its content, as it only appeals to a niche audience. Therefore it will be best to just distribute it for home exhibition, ie dvd’s and internet. Also i will not have the funds to advertise my film properly and create as much audience awareness as i need for my film to do well in a cinema, meaning that it will be more successful in home exhibition. My film will most likely have home exhibition. It will be home release and viewed on DVD, or can also be viewed using New Media Technology on a laptop, iPod or phone using the internet or downloading it from a website. It will not be seen in a cinema as cinemas are for a main stream audience and British social realism films appeal to a niche audience because of the content and the themes and issues they deal with within their films.

Week 4

Week 4

This week we have learnt that are target audience, will revolve around British audience. Mainly aged between 16 - 50 because the age group can relate to the problems conveyed in the film, and mainly female due to a female being the main character and girls could relate to her. This could also appeal to audience that have a disability and the struggle to over come the prejudice within society. Our target audience could also be from the area eg. London, due to the audience relating back to the landmarks and locations in the film. Are target audience are also people that watch social realistic films due to them liking the genre. Are target audience can also evolve around working class people due to our production based around working class life, so the audience can relate to it.

I have also learnt this week the institutions that make a social realist film, there are many production involved in social realistic films due to limited funds, they have to have multiple production companies to increase the budget. This is many due to many social realism films being made my independent film companies.

Many institutions use real life setting in there production so it is more realistic for example Fish Tank when the setting of the flat was real, instead of Hollywood where they use fake lighting and scenery.

All that i have learnt this week has informed me that my production must be filmed in real setting so the audience can relate to the film .

Conventions Of Opening Sequence

British Conventions in an Opening Scene

Media Log Week 3

This week we have learnt the structures of a film and the device's they use. We learnt four main structures, the first structure is open narrative, this is when the film is left open for a sequel or left on a cliff hanger an example of this is the film "Kick Ass" because the villains son is shown to be wanting revenge.


Another narrative is closed, this is when the film film ends and we know that every thing has been resolved an example of this is "wedding crashers" when we see them in the future and we know the ending of the film.


The third narrative is restricted, this is when the story is lead from one persons point of view an example of this is "Spiderman" where to story is narrated by the main character and the film follows his life.


The last narrative is omniscient, is is a narrative that is from more than one persons point of view an example of this is the film "Vantage point" that film has views from different characters based around a particular event.

What we have learnt this week has imformed me that i will open narrative based around the fact that my film is meant to be social realsism and in real life story's dont end they, continue.

Anatation Of Harry Brown

Institutional credits in opening sequences

I found out from this task, that opening credits can be very long, two minutes in total which is to lengthy because our opening scene is two minutes, and we wouldn't want to waste our whole scene on just credits. Another thing i have learnt is that the producer and directer are always shown first in the credits then the actors.. I also learnt a job within the film that where shown in the credits such as Director of photography which means "A cinematographer, is one photographing with a motion picture camera(the art and science of which is known as cinematography). The title is generally equivalent to director of photography (DP), used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image."
In my own production i will be using "director" and "starring roles" and "film editor", because the roles in the film are very simple and i wouldn't want to put in needless roles.

Presentation 1

This week we learnt about the social realism conventions and codes, the conventions include themes, represenations of gender, class and ethnicity. The conventions such as the representations relate to the audience alot because them convetions are based around the realism of everyday life. I have also learnt that many social realism films are set around a theme, that follow the representations of class. An example of this is the film Fish tank that is based around class.
Learning about the conventions about social realism it has informed me that my production will have to involve an element of some realism, and after this week i will know how to apply this into my production.
Texts that have influenced me is lock stock and two smocking barrels which shows the representations of a white british working class men that turn to criminality.



I will conform to the foundations of the conventions in a social realism.

Conventions Of British Social Realism

Convention
Themes - This is used in social realism to center a topic around a film which often centers around the theme. An example of this is Bullet Boy the theme of the film was gang culture., and soo the film had to base the story around him and the gang he was envolved in.



Representation of Gender
Shows how the generation has changed in gender roles and also shows the differences between males and females and how they are portrayed in the society they live in.An example of this is looking for eric, the men are shown to be lazy, at the start of the film the main character had a negative portrayal of him, because they show him to be stuck in a rut.



Representation of Ethnicity

Stereotypical in what ethnicitys wear and socialise. This convention also shows tension between cultures. An example of this is east is east, where they show the stereotypical view of the asians becuase the white girl says, "I like curry" stating that all asians eat curry they also show how one of the asian boys trys to fit in with the white community becuase he wants them to call him tony. It also shows a negative view of  a asian relationship.





Representation of Class
This convention normally relates around working class and under class this is because its a gritty view of real british life. They normallt set it around council estates and often involves crime and drugs. An example of this is the film Fish tank which envolves a very stereotypical view on working class.

Week 1

At the start of our coursework we looked through the mark scheme and saw what we would have to include and what we would have to achieve to gain top marks which is a level four. When we looked through the mark scheme we saw how that there was not much distance between getting a level four and a level one, it was just down to the amount of detial you put in into the work. This has taught me that i must put alot of detail into my work so i can achieve a level four.
We also looked at past candiates papers and looked at one person that got an A in there coursework and one that got a D looking at these candiates i could tell that detail was just the reason why candiate two achieved a A. Lookiing at candiates two's production and his planing was very claer and orginised, i will emulate this to my production and planning. An example of this is his evaluation.




As for candiate one i will try and avoid not fully explianing myself as is shown in this video were he jsut doesnt have enough detail in his vlog.

Continuety Editing

This Is England
Shane meadows




Snatch
Guy Ritchie




Lock Stock and Two smocking Barrels
Guy Ritchie



28 Days Later
Danny Boyle