4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Digital cameras: In our group we were very fortunate to have Charlea, who is also a photography student and therefore had a very good camera we could use. We all took this as a great opportunity to take plenty of photos on set. Both as evidence of our filming and in preparation to get the best shot possible for our poster. We also took photographs to show elements such as mis en scene, for example photos of the seagulls and the different locations on the beach we could have used but chose not to. (examples below).
We were generally pleased with our rushes because we had quite a high quantity and a large variation of shots to choose from. However in some of our more essential shots (the conversation between the two characters), we had obviously forgot to set the white balance, therefore the colour saturation and lighting were distorted and highly noticeable. To overcome this we first attempted to repair the damage made, but when that proved unsuccessful we edited the storyboard to fit around using different shots, this was only possible due to our quantity of rushes.
We aimed for continuity in our editing as it is a social realism we wanted the audience to be able to relate to the recognisable locations and be able to get involved in the characters journey without distraction. We tried our hardest to be as detailed and precise as possible with our editing. However, I feel that because we had watched our film so many times we were missing little details and in places our broke continuity. For example we were so distracted by repairing the sound in our shot –reverse-shot conversation part that we failed to notice some mistakes. In one particular part a couple walk past behind the elderly man and then when it goes to the young boy they have disappeared. Also in terms of the traffic behind them a red double-decker bus is driving past behind the elderly man, and again has disappeared by the time we see the younger boy without a significant enough time lapse. We worked hard to ensure we stuck to the 180° rule, by reminding ourselves of it whilst filming and discussing how it would look in post production, this we succeed in. In terms of sound we also used non – diegetic sound in recording an acoustic guitar to go over the action towards the end of our film. I feel that this helped to pick up the pace that was lost when we had to get rid of the conversation and replace it with a voiceover, as in places the viewer may start to get bored.
What have you learned from your Audience feedback?
We have attempted to get audience feedback from our film by doing various private viewings of it to our peers. We have also posted it on our blog and facebook site and asked for feedback on the following: mis en scene, camera work, editing, and if it sticks to the social realism genre. We also plan on showing our Media studies class and doing having our peers rate it out of five and leave comments. So far all feedback has been generally positive; however we are yet to develop our conclusive evidence.
Here are some of the comments from our Facebook page.
Georgia Hannan I thought it was brilliant guys. I loved all of it, the voice over was so good. I loved all the diagetic beach sounds and thought the editing was just amazing, you can tell how much work you guys have put into it and you should all be super proud of yourselves. If I had to say one bad point, it would only be that befor...e reading the description I wasnt too sure what was going on - as in I didnt understand that he had run away from home. But thats likely to just be me, other than that I thought the film went together perfectly, the scenes seemed to follow each other so well. Sorry I cant give you more media language, but it really was great girls, xxxx
We also used our facebook site in terms of initial research. For example the following comment gave us the idea for the shot used in our film. Where the main character is sitting on a bus stop.
RemoveNicole Jepson You could have a really nice shot of him going and sitting at a bus stop (maybe a shot from the other side of the road would look good) and he looks like hes waiting for a bus but then you have a bunch of jump cuts showing all the different busses going passt him and hes not getting on.. because he doesnt know where to ...go perhaps. and then after a few buses have passed (idealy hes sitting alone at this point) he gets up looking real sad and walks off shot. awh bless him lol good luck. xxxSee more
01 February at 14:44 · Comment ·UnlikeLike · View feedback (4)Hide feedback (4) · ReportYou and Charlea Ann Riceannpea like this..Jess Garman Thank you Nicole, that was such an awesome comment it has its own post on our blog! xx 06 February at 09:09 · .Nicole Jepson oh yes xD 06 February at 09:49 ·
I did a several private screenings of our film to peers and family members in order to get more feedback.
The general comments were positive. However our main negative feedback was that
Could not follow the voiceover the whole way through
Did not know who the Grandad character was, and why he was being shown before he came in, confused him with the boys dad.
The pace being too slow
Did not approve of the use of the word 'Shit' said by a young boy.
We also put our film on youtube hoping for comments however did not recieve any.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?
Above are copies of our final review and poster. Which have also been posted earlier on the blog.
In terms of the poster as a group we worked well. As one of our group members (Charlea) is a photography student with a very nice camera. We took hundreds of photos on the day and chose together the best ones to upload to the blog. We found the best photo by asking our peers and teachers to take a vote on the best ones. Charlea is particuarly good at photoshop, however as we wanted the work to be shared out fairly we each had a go at our own posters. We decided on Charleas poster and all made changes to it together to get it to the right standard. In terms of if we were going to release our film we feel our poster would work well, as earlier research into social realism posters shows similarities.
We did our review for Little White Lies magazine. We wrote it by reading lots of other reviews and copying not only the language style, but the unique design style of their articles. For example, each month they have a themed issue of a certain film. Which is refered to by the front cover and unique doodles refrencing that film throughout.
Enitially we were going to make our film the cover film. However being realistic as ours is in a short film format and not feature length we made up a film called 'SALT WATER', so our doodles could have a slight refrence to the seaside in our film.
Above is a copy of a previous cover of LWL magazine.
I feel that we worked well as a group as we utilised our own personal talents and shared out the workload equally. For example Charlea is very hands on with practical work, and is a photography student. We used her camera to take stills on the day and her eye for detail has helped us create a professional looking poster. Hollie is very good at research and planning, for example she drew up the storyboard and made the appropriate changes to it. We ensured we discussed and made every decision together, no matter how small.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For the media studies A2 qualification we were asked to create, research, plan, film and edit a five minute social realism film. Our first step was to research the genre of social realism itself, as our understanding of it is essential. We used the blog as our main tool to keep updating ourselves and each other with any progress. I felt that this was a key tool in our communication, and that is part of the reason we got on so well as a group.
Through extensive research into the social realism genre and general British films it was not hard to become inspired. The short comedy film by Jim Field Smith called ‘Goodbye to the Normals’ gave us our original idea of a young boy running away from home.
Mike Leigh , Andrea Arnold , Shane Meadows , Ken Loach , Danny Boyle, Damien O’Donnell , ¬¬ WHAT? Social realism conventions include: • Recognisable locations (usually inner city or working class areas.) Such as Fish tank ), was filmed on an Essex council estate. • Reflects social / political issues. Current or in recent times. Such as This is England set in 1983, , showing the racist views of the far right politics of the time of the English Nationalists. , • Gritty style of film making • Usually made with a low budget. , • Usually focus’ on characters with a British working class background. • Often shot to the North of England, areas such as Manchester. • Often unconventional approaches to film making. (Such as often acting can be improvised, such as Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky). • Mostly Diagetic sound • Continuity editing , • Detailed Mis en scene. For example costume representing current fashions of the time, place and situation. For example in Andrea Arnolds Wasp the main character wearing pyjamas in the street with no shoes on. Less likely for that to happen in a more affluent area. • Relatively un-known actors / actress
• Begins with a state of equilibrium • Followed by a disruption • Then either a repair or an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption returning to the equilibrium
For example Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy Go Lucky’ it begins with a very slow pace, which is fairly consistent throughout besides at moments of disruption towards the middle end. Andrea Arnold’s ‘Wasp’, however, begins with a fast pace and remains a tension the entire way through. As our film is only five minutes long we preferred the slower pace, as it was more suited to our storyline and doesn’t leave the audience with too many unanswered questions at the end.
In terms of representation our main character is a working class, young white male, around the age of eleven. We needed to take into consideration stereotypes that already exisit and if we are going to re-enforce them or go against them.
In terms of costume he perhaps does re-enforce the stereotype of a ‘hooded teen’. Wearing a ‘New York Yankees’ hoodie, with un-matching ‘le coq sportif’ tracksuit bottoms, even with details as small as his laces being untied gives messages to the audience of him being untidy. However contradictory to this within the dialogue he is being more mature, and the audience is positioned to empathize with his decision to run away. The second character the audience is introduced to is an older more middle class looking man, wearing smart casual attire, with grey trousers and slicked back grey hair, he is around the age of sixty five. The fact that the audience is positioned to see him as an authoritative figure and someone to be looked up to by the young boy perhaps says to the audience that a higher age and social class is something to be respected, more so than the other characters.
Stephen Daldrys’ short film ‘Eight’ helped inspire us as although the boy is younger than the one we used they are both dealing with issues surrounding family life at home, such as divorce. Divorce is becoming more and more apparent in modern day Britain therefore we felt it was relevant. As the writer of the script I found it difficult to try and see it from a young males’ point of view. In order to overcome this I spoke to some young males who had been through a similar thing, and asked them if what I had written sounded too mature or cheesy. I still do not feel entirely confident with what I wrote for the voiceover as I had a relatively short amount of time in which to write it. However I do feel that I did the best I could to try and relate. And the feedback I got was generally positive.
Stephen Daldrys Eight also inspired us as it is a young boy finding an escape from his home life on a public beach.
Here is a copy of the final script used 'We used to go to the beach all the time. Me, mum and dad. Do they even remember? We used to spend every Saturday on the beach, eating chips. And when it was cold I’d complain and want to go home. Well… I’d never complain now.
If we were all here. Together. Haven’t seen dad in ages now. Mum says I’m the ‘man of the house’ That means I’M in charge So I can do what I want And if I wanna go to the beach for the rest of my life. I will!
Everyone thinks mums new baby is SO cute They used to think I was cute. Not now, the way I see it mum can take care of that little brat herself. All it ever does is scream eat and shit!
Mum wont tell me why dad left. She just cries all the time now, its boring. Better than hearing her and dad screaming at each other like before I suppose. Dad wont tell me why he left Just did Haven’t seen him since Hope he comes back soon If not that’s not fair that he gets to leave and I don’t!
Saw Grandad at the beach. He says its time to step up and take care of mum and sis. And that dads just gone away for a bit, so not to worry. And that I can’t live on the beach because I’ll get eaten by “the sea monster!” - Yeah Grandad, I’m not three anymore! He says he is very proud of me, and if I ever need anyone to talk to he’s here for me. Wish I could live with him and Grandma instead. There’d be an endless supply of biscuits!
So… Where to now?'
We also used the last line "So... Where to now" as our tag line for the poster.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Through extensive research into the social realism genre and general British films it was not hard to become inspired. The short comedy film by Jim Field Smith called ‘Goodbye to the Normals’ gave us our original idea of a young boy running away from home. As we felt this idea was simple enough to use Todorovs’ narrative structure theory • Begins with a state of equilibrium • Followed by a disruption • Then either a repair or an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption returning to the equilibrium
For example Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy Go Lucky’ it begins with a very slow pace, which is fairly consistent throughout besides at moments of disruption towards the middle end. Andrea Arnold’s ‘Wasp’, however, begins with a fast pace and remains a tension the entire way through. As our film is only five minutes long we preferred the slower pace, as it was more suited to our storyline and doesn’t leave the audience with too many unanswered questions at the end.
In terms of representation our main character is a working class, young white male, around the age of eleven. We needed to take into consideration stereotypes that already exisit and if we are going to re-enforce them or go against them.
In terms of costume he perhaps does re-enforce the stereotype of a ‘hooded teen’. Wearing a ‘New York Yankees’ hoodie, with un-matching ‘le coq sportif’ tracksuit bottoms, even with details as small as his laces being untied gives messages to the audience of him being untidy. However contradictory to this within the dialogue he is being more mature, and the audience is positioned to empathize with his decision to run away. The second character the audience is introduced to is an older more middle class looking man, wearing smart casual attire, with grey trousers and slicked back grey hair, he is around the age of sixty five. The fact that the audience is positioned to see him as an authoritative figure and someone to be looked up to by the young boy perhaps says to the audience that a higher age and social class is something to be respected, more so than the other characters.
Stephen Daldrys’ short film ‘Eight’ helped inspire us as although the boy is younger than the one we used they are both dealing with issues surrounding family life at home, such as divorce. Divorce is becoming more and more apparent in modern day Britain therefore we felt it was relevant. As the writer of the script I found it difficult to try and see it from a young males’ point of view. In order to overcome this I spoke to some young males who had been through a similar thing, and asked them if what I had written sounded too mature or cheesy. I still do not feel entirely confident with what I wrote for the voiceover as I had a relatively short amount of time in which to write it. However I do feel that I did the best I could to try and relate. And the feedback I got was generally positive.
Here is a copy of the final script used 'We used to go to the beach all the time. Me, mum and dad. Do they even remember? We used to spend every Saturday on the beach, eating chips. And when it was cold I’d complain and want to go home. Well… I’d never complain now.
If we were all here. Together. Haven’t seen dad in ages now. Mum says I’m the ‘man of the house’ That means I’M in charge So I can do what I want And if I wanna go to the beach for the rest of my life. I will!
Everyone thinks mums new baby is SO cute They used to think I was cute. Not now, the way I see it mum can take care of that little brat herself. All it ever does is scream eat and shit!
Mum wont tell me why dad left. She just cries all the time now, its boring. Better than hearing her and dad screaming at each other like before I suppose. Dad wont tell me why he left Just did Haven’t seen him since Hope he comes back soon If not that’s not fair that he gets to leave and I don’t!
Saw Grandad at the beach. He says its time to step up and take care of mum and sis. And that dads just gone away for a bit, so not to worry. And that I can’t live on the beach because I’ll get eaten by “the sea monster!” - Yeah Grandad, I’m not three anymore! He says he is very proud of me, and if I ever need anyone to talk to he’s here for me. Wish I could live with him and Grandma instead. There’d be an endless supply of biscuits!
So… Where to now?'
We also used the last line "So... Where to now" as our tag line for the poster.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We have attempted to get audience feedback from our film by doing various private viewings of it to our peers. We have also posted it on our blog and facebook site and asked for feedback on the following: mis en scene, camera work, editing, and if it sticks to the social realism genre. We also plan on showing our Media studies class and doing having our peers rate it out of five and leave comments. So far all feedback has been generally positive; however we are yet to develop our conclusive evidence.
Here are some of the comments from our Facebook page.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Digital cameras: In our group we were very fortunate to have Charlea, who is also a photography student and therefore had a very good camera we could use. We all took this as a great opportunity to take plenty of photos on set. Both as evidence of our filming and in preparation to get the best shot possible for our poster. We also took photographs to show elements such as mis en scene, for example photos of the seagulls and the different locations on the beach we could have used but chose not to. (examples below).
How successfully have you used digital technology? In my advanced portfolio I have learnt many new areas and skills since my foundation…. The main one-----Final Cut Pro. (In my foundation portfolio we used a combination of both). (Our main one being I movie).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxwHP3Ogakg Using Final Cut Pro has broadened my editing skills, with a more advanced programme. (In our last production Imovie had alot more limitation on what we were able to do, so when we switched to Final cut pro we were able to sort out the continuity and lighting errors I had before in my foundation portfolio) Learnt how to sort out contrast and lighting differences within the scenes (Created continuity errors because of the back lighting, I didn't know how to do this in my foundation which meant it would get darker and lighter throughout the film.) Used the brightness and contrast tool bar in the video effects section.
Another thing---using Final Cut Pro-----voice-over and import non-diegetic sound.(This is something I did not use in my foundation portfolio, which meant that i learnt alot from the process and am now capable of adding non-diegetic sound tracks into films) I’ve learnt how to produce different styles of films and not just having diegetic sound, I've also learnt to create a sound bridge so the clips run into each other smoothly, and also have non-diegetic sound as the main drive for the story.
I developed my skills in transitions between the shots-----The transitions were rough in the foundation portfolio-----didn’t run as smoothly as they should have----Only uses straight cuts, this caused continuity errors, we also didn't include an establishing shot in out foundation for a more restricted narration).
In my advanced----(The transitions)----they run a lot smoother----add to the action that is happening---mix of cross-dissolve and straight cuts. We also included an establishing shot so the audience could really take in the setting of the film, we still managed to include restricted narration. The cross-dissolve added to the action as it made time pass alot slower)
Also----(Developing skills further)-----learnt to sound bridge. (The sound clip of the cars was repeated throughout the film causing the scenes to link together).
In the advanced portfolio I was able to increase my blogging skills.
Videos/Video Bars (This was something i was unable to do in my foundation portfolio, so having them in the blog now and also the web links means that my group can productively research, quicker and easier) Web links. (having them inside the actual text, means i can support the message i am trying to get across to the targeted demographic, it also means the group will be able to get feedback a lot faster and more direct). Put pictures into to actual blog text instead of adding them as a gadget. (Successful in making my work neater and more organised). (In the foundation portfolio i was unable to put the pictures with the text, the only way i could do it was by adding them as separate gadgets at the bottom on the screen. This meant that our pictures looked random and disconnected because they were not directly linked to the text)
Equipment --Reflector (We used this to reflect shadows off our actors faces, In my foundation we only used a Red heads and defusers, being outside we were unable to do that. So the reflector is a new skill i have picked up as last year i didn't even know what it was let alone how to use it) --Still Camera (This year the amount of photo's we have compared to last year, you wouldn't have even thought we brought a stills along with us, I've learnt it's a good way of documenting your progress. --Video Camera --Big torch (I have not used this in my foundation, so learning how to control the dimness and also how to angle it for best lighting proved really useful, even though we did have some lighting errors. --Dolly--(None of our group had ever used a dolly before so we were all able to experiment with different angles and different effects we wanted, we realised that a smoother surface would work better. --Tripod (In my foundation we were not given a tripod so we had trouble with hand head shakiness, and finding the perfect angle, we had to improve a lot with books, tables and projectors, so learning how to fully use a tripod to angle our shots was really useful.
How creative is your work? Film Narrative Our film narrative is creative as it has taken a serious subject matter and added comical moments into it to lighten the load on the audience. Also the fact that we have included a voice over means the audience can really connect with the character. It has a creative touch, because we added in a non-diagetic sound-track at the end for an emotional and effective ending. For our Mise en scene we used a naturalistic social realism setting of a seafront and a bench (Brighton).
We used it in a creative way as we wanted visually stunning shots, like the one we have of the pier and our lead Sam throwing stones into the water. http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=276450286849(0.33) (The pier is silhouetted in the background and has created a beautiful scene).
We also experimented with extreme close-ups, to add to impact of what the voice over was saying. We thought this added a creative touch, as it was a convention of social realism that was saw a lot. (our one) One example would be Wasp (2003) by Andrea Arnold, they used an extreme close-up to emphasis a conversation between Natalie Press and Danny Dyer. In our piece we included some original work by adding in the non-diagetic sound track, we noticed in most social realism films the sound is mainly diagetic. We thought it made our piece slightly original. We used an acoustic guitar to add rawness to the sound, and recorded it through a Dictaphone, which meant it added a realism essence to the track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7A-kN70gXU (3:41)
How effective do you think your role was in research and planning? Research and planning For our research and planning I looked into the permission we needed to use the sea front at Brighton, if we did not have it then we could have been breaking the law. I looked into other social realism film, like Eight by Stephen Daldry (1998). They also have a young boy as the main character. Also another thing they used the same as us was a voice over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4p2Y8qx-bk This input into the research meant that when our sound first went wrong we were able to look back on the research and get the idea of then voice over.
http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/ For our review In the style of Little White Lies (LWL) --Had to look the same as the magazine --writing had to sound the same (the one on the site is a different layout) Little white Lies design --The magazine is known for it's design work --They have a feature cover whose artwork is carried throughout the magazine --Photo has to be right size --Boxes had to appear random but were in a set order We agreed as a group that we wanted artwork underneath our text to make the review more interesting for our intended demographic. Firstly we wanted out film to be the main theme for the review, then we realised the main film covers review had a different layout. We came up with The Salt-Water edition, so we had more of a reason for the sea goal being part of the text. (Our one)
When it came to our poster I feel my research and ideas helped a lot as I did mock ups and also looked for other posters we could use. Being the main designer and knowing the soft wear meant it was able to include all that is needed into the film and also be able to fit it with our colour scheme
For our planning we needed to get permission to someone under the age of sixteen. This meant we had to get the parents to sign a contract saying it was ok to use Sam in our film. This also meant we had to explain what we were using him for and arrange times and date of filming so his parents were fully aware where he was. We arranged a meeting between our groups and actors and agreed the best time for all would be the Monday of half term.
Before we concluded that date we also had to take into consideration the weather, this meant researching the forecasts, this also added to the reason we chose the Monday. (If I had not looked into the forecast we may have had to cancel the shoot, due to heavy rain).
Describe what you were trying to achieve as a group in post production Post Production In post production we were tried to achieve lots of match on actions and a variety of shots. This was achieved by Extreme close up’s-----hands going into pockets Extreme long shots of Roy (The Grandad) on the bench with the book---you can see fully what we have achieved.
We also wanted to achieve the effect of time passing by and a slow pass to the film. This was achieved by using a cross dissolves to combine both scenes together, and give the effect of time slowing going by. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscIRsH6UcU (Not an amazing example)
We wanted to contrast the faster pass action of Roy with the slower action of Sam; this was achieved by using straight cuts for Roy’s sections and mainly cross dissolves for Sam. (The best example being the Match on Action we have.(This showed both the contracting passes of each character).
We wanted to make the audience really relate to Sam, so the use of just having his voice on his shots, and the use of close up really helped to achieve this. Cutting from a distance and getting closer as the speech got deeper, meant the audience has real sympathy and understanding for him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7A-kN70gXU (1:33-1:55)
We used many conventions of Social Realism in our piece. Example---(one of the main ones) an urban setting and naturalistic lighting. This is present in Happy-Go-Lucky Also in Trainspotting These are two famous examples of social realism.
Lighting We wanted to maintain natural lighting throughout---so most of it was from the sun---- we did use the torch and also reflector----to remove shadow. (Because we had looked into the forecast we got the perfect lighting, it was slightly overcast, but not too sunny).
How did you use, develop adapt the conventions for real media products?
We noticed that the story-line was never over complicated and a lot depended on the shoots used. This is what we decided to create with ours, a simple and shot effective piece. In goodbye to the Normals it was mainly about the shot reverse shot between the characters.
In ours we have a shot reverse shot--- show a discussion between the characters and their relationship. In ours we do have a voice over and no actual speech until the end when Roy says goodbye----it is different in Goodbye to the Normals and they use diagetic sound.
We wanted naturalistic speech in ours as most social realism films do, so we asked Sam to say some things for the voice over and gave him the rough idea of what we needed in it. This meant we have slight stumbling and also naturalistic laughter, this adds to the realistic conventions of the film. What have you learnt from audience feedback? Audience Feedback… For Audience feedback on our intended audience we created a Facebook feed, this meant we were able to appeal directly to our intended audience and gain their feedback. http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=276450286849
We used idea’s like in the film for the bus stop, we also tried out different recommended techniques, this is what encouraged us to peruse the voice over.
For the poster we conducted a poster vote, we asked people to say which ideas they preferred and what colours they thought would work, we also asked about titling and what they would improve on throughout the production. The audience feedback we gained helped us immensely in improving our film and posters to create our piece, Chips.
Errors --Continuity (a bus half goes past the scene then disappears) --Location (we would use two of them next time) --Dolly (was very rough) --Script (we should have given it to our actors sooner then when we were on the train) --Brightness and contrast (would have worked on sorting out the back lighting and white balance)
If I had the chance to do it again I would --Use a different location so that we didn't get the noise from the traffic --I would make sure the white balance was set for EVERY new angle we set up and did --Spend more time developing the non-diegetic soundtrack --Bring a smooth surface for the dolly to roll on --Also use the HD ready camera for a better image --Last but not least, spend more time in production refining the details, e.g. continuity errors and also sound errors.
Overall I feel we have a good product that tests the social realism format, and also contains strong elements of it to. I could not have done it without my team, we worked really hard and really well together, and I feel all the hours we put in have paid off.
1. in what ways does your media product use; develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Genre:
Our film was of the genre Social realism which is incorporated into many of today’s films such as Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy go Lucky’ however there are also cross overs in genre which create new hybrids such as Social realism and Comedy such as in the case of Helen Fielding’ ‘Bridget Jones Diary’.
Our film took inspiration from the short ‘Goodbye to the Normals’ which is a comedy. However, our film was strictly social realism and nothing else as we wanted to address the very serious issue of divorce an d its affect on young people. Also real life is not often comedic and full of whitty one liners that would never truly happen and so we wanted to keep it as true to life as possible.
Social Realism is a characterised by many different things, such as:
• Artistic movement.
• Expressed in film.
• Depicts social and racial injustice.
• Economic hardship.
• Unvarnished pictures of life's struggles.
• Often depicts working class activities as heroic and celebrates the mundane aspects of life.
The film ‘Chips' that we created conforms to this idea as the boy is very average and working class. He is trying to come to terms with the fact that his father has left and he must grow up without a father. His mother has also just had a new baby and so he feels very neglected and alone.
One good example of how the boy longs for a father and normal family is when he is playing his videogame at the bus stop and his inner monologue states that he hopes his father will come back soon. His voice is quiet and he almost sounds like he is about to cry. This shows to the viewer that he is refusing to believe that his father will not return and is very distraught at the prospect of giving up hope.
The film uses conventions of a typical social realist film much like other social realism films such as ‘Happy Go Lucky' which involve people just going about their daily business and trying to deal with obstacles in life. The camera work portrays this well as it uses a slow pace of cuts to make it look more natural. Much like Ken Loach's 'Looking for Eric' ( http://www.sbs.com.au/films/movie/3392/Looking-for-Eric) where the slow pace of cuts suggests the mundane and repetitive nature of life in a routine of work and home life that is not really going anywhere. Our film plays on this slow pace to create a sorrowful and melancholy atmosphere that the viewer can relate to in everyday life.
Narrative:
• Most films begin with equilibrium, a calm period.
• Then agents of disruption cause a period of unsettlement.
• This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end.
• This is the simplest form of narrative and is sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative.
• It uses Tordorov’s Theory as it has a simple and clear beginning, middle and end.
Our film does not really use this narrative, the period of equilibrium is present throughout as there is nothing to cause a disruption and the state of upset with his father has been continual throughout the film. This is done in many social realist films because a disruption to daily life doesn’t often occur in the same way that a feature thriller film would depict it and often in life things do not all get resolved in time for a happy ending. Our short film uses restricted narration for the entire film to help create tension and mystery. The viewers are only able to see what the character sees and so are unaware of the things that are happening outside of his thoughts and feelings. The restricted narration also helps the viewer to relate to the main character and empathize with him as it is clear that these events are very distressing. This worked really well as it enabled the viewer to connect with our character as well as the themes and issues surrounding our film. We decided not to use the classic narrative in our film as real life does not really have a clear cut beginning, middle and end. Many of life's problems do not resolved in a heroic and timely manner and struggles with the every day are often ongoing. In this respect we decided not to use Tordorov's narrative as it did not fit in with the social realism context of our film. We were trying to make it as true to real life as possible and I feel using a different narrative structure helped us to achieve this.
Representation:
.Our film piece, I believe, was very creative as we did not have much time to tell an entire story.
. The film is a certificate 12A, I feel this is a worthy certificate as its content is suitable for any age group apart from the use of one profanity. However i do feel that this film targets an older and more film literate audience as they will be know the genre and its conventions better.
.It kept to the structure of a social realist narrative very well and the story line of a young boy who has run away from a broken family is one that most people of many ages can relate to. people can relate to this as 50% of all marriages end in divorce today and therefore many people will have been affected by this issue. In this way many of the younger generation will understand how isolating it can feel to be separated from one parent especially if the other parent has become romantically involved with someone else and our film portrays this angst very well due to the use of a monologue.
.The mise en scene of the piece was fairly simple as the characters were in everyday dress; however, we managed to use this in a creative way. Such as, the untied shoe laces on the young boy which suggest immaturity and a sense of not being able to look after him even though he claims to be just fine by himself.
. the location was important as it is a typically British setting of Brighton beach. A location recognisable to many and it sets the viewer firmly in the action of an every day British seaside town.
Although, we have tried to be original in our work, it has taken on many of the qualities of the film ‘Eight’ which was unintentional. It is clear that this short gave inspiration to all of the group as well as drawing on our own experiences of ‘running away’ as a child. Even though I feel our theme was very creative as its theme is easily relatable and it brings the issue of the affects of divorce on young children to the attention of the viewer.
It could be argued that the film in not creative in its editing. This may be because of the social realist aspect to the film which meant that special effects could not be used. Therefore, in the context of social realism I think that the film is creative in its editing as the use of the voice over and titling are very creative and yet fit very well in the boundaries of a social realist narrative, this could be due to the amount of research and planning put in to the film.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?
Poster:
The poster of the piece works really well in a social realism genre; it is very similar to the poster of Andrea Arnold's 2009 film ‘Fish Tank’ which also falls into the same category.
The poster itself is immediately recognisable as social realism with its recognisable settings and fairly average character. Unlike thriller or other genres the character does not appear to have any supernatural heroism about him and the setting is rather ordinary.
• The boy is looking upwards in the poster; the low angle of the shot makes him look important and also gives the impression of a hero even if his victories are only over the mundane.
• The boy takes up most of the picture, showing that he is the main character.
• The setting in the background shows a little of the beach which tells the viewer that the film takes place at a seaside town. The location is easily recognisable and relatable to the viewer in this respect and gives the viewer a need to see what is going to happen.
• The rest of the space is clear skies giving ample room for the title and reviews.
• The colour scheme is not overly complex: blues, greens and greys are used for the text as they matched the colours on the boys costume and really tied the poster together.
• The font used for the title was a rather childlike scribble as they boy is young; it works well as he is the one whose thoughts the viewer hears and relate too.
• The rest of the fonts are plain so that the reader can see them from a distance and gauge whether to see the film or not.
• The reviews by the Guardian and the Independent news papers are of the category ABC1 and so will target most of our middle class target audience. The reviews by such people will make the viewers want to watch the film as they will respect the views of these sophisticated critics.
Over all the context of the poster reinforces the idea of social realism and works very well with the other aspects of our package.
Review:
The review for our film took inspiration from Little White lies magazine:
www.littlewhitelies.co.uk This is a specialist magazine for people who are really fanatical about film.
- Each issue is themed around a particular film which is indicated through the front cover, this inspires the editorial content and design of the issue.
- The magazine reviews and writes about blockbuster films and smaller independent films. Also it discusses music, art, pop culture and politics and how they affect films.
- Mainly male audience, specialist magazine for film buffs. 20+ magazine.
- Key Aspects of the review: Picture in top right, screen shot from film, over 3 or 4 columns, Title 2 colours black on white or reverse, release date and director in boxes in 2 different colours (orange and yellow) Tripartite ranking evaluation system; enjoyment, anticipation and retrospect at the end of the article. First line is always in bold (bold first), author of the piece in bold, page number and little symbol that links to feature film.
- Language: film language and theory, references to film sources and language, evaluative comments, complex language, academic referencing, plot description
Our review sticks very well to this guideline as it uses:
• Seagull doodles much like the doodle in the ‘Where the Wild Things are’ issue. This ties into the film as the seagulls play an important role in representing the freedom which the young boy does not have.
• Blue, green and grey colour scheme throughout which the magazine does. This also works well with the poster as the colour scheme is similar on that.
• It uses sophisticated and emotive language which appeals to our target audience as we are targeting film buffs in their late teens and upwards. Mostly I believe this audience to be middle class as they often enjoy the artistic side of social realism films.
• It will appeal to our target audience in this way because the review is sophisticated and well written. The tripartite ranking system also offers a clue as to the film. This should entice the viewer as they will already have a love for social realist films and want to see ours due to its artistic and emotive nature.
Overall, the package works well as a whole as it reinforces the idea of social realism as well as enticing our target audience with well renowned critics with rave reviews and intelligent and well written reviews and comments. As our target audience is mainly a specialist film audience, the review written for little white lies magazine works exceedingly well and the screen shot from the film in the review, with its simple lines, characters, setting and natural lighting tell the viewer of the social realist nature and hopefully persuade them to watch the rest of the film.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From the audience feedback I have learned that the social realism genre does not appeal to all people. It is generally targeted at a more mature and intellectual audience who like the artistic side of film. Our film is targeted at an 18+ audience who enjoy and appreciate the artistic side of film and narrative. This is because most people in thier late teens and onwards can enjoy film on a deeper and more emotional level that children. They can relate key themes to thier own lives and can often understand the subtle metaphors in such films without taking them just at face value.
In our peer reviews we had more positive feedback from fellow film and media related students as they understood the genre better and could make constructive comments about camera work, editing, sound and mise en scene. Other students however who were not as media literate did not understand the concept of social realist films as they were more used to viewing high concept movies, which reinforces the idea that our film is for the specialist film market.
Most of the feedback that we got was on our social networking account at www.facebook.com From this we have deduced the following strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
- Good use of mise en scene
- Costume was good, especially the untied shoes on the young boy.
- Good use of straight lines to break up shots.
- Good framing of shot with little empty space.
- Excellent match on action.
- Excellent shot reverse shot.
- Simple yet effective story line.
- Nice use on monologue to tie story line together.
- Good characterisation with believable plot and characters.
- Kept to 180 degree rule.
- Good use of naturalistic sound and lighting.
Weaknesses:
- Camera tilts at end shot.
- Continuity problem in SRS as people are walking past in one shot then never come back out the other side.
- Too slowly paced.
- Confusion over monologue.
Although all of the weaknesses could have been avoided in some way, we feel the film should be quite slowly paced as it is social realism and real life is not like a high concept action movie and so this could not really be helped.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?
Research and planning:
During the research and planning stages of the film, my role was crucial as although my fellow team members were very good, I organised the making of mind maps and drew sketches to explain ideas of my own. Without the input of all members the film would not be at the stage it currently is as we all had talents of our own that we put to good use. For example, Charlea was very good at the technical side of things such as Photoshop and the development of our animatic. Jess mainly wrote the script for the piece as she does English and theatre studies so she could easily take our ideas and turn them into dialogue and I was very good at organising people into their roles and organising the blog as well as drawing the story board for our piece. I think that our combined efforts made the piece a success as we could all adapt to the challenges we faced and coped well under pressure such as, when the traffic noise stopped the dialogue from being heard, we change the script for a monologue of the boys thoughts which worked even better I think as our peers and teachers enjoyed it more. we used Final Cut Pro for our piece as its technology was far more advanced than Imovie. Last year I mainly used Imovie for my piece and only briefly touched on Final Cut for titling. This year I have become more competent with the software and I find it a much more enjoyable piece of software than Imovie. It can also perform better and gives a more professional look to the piece.
Use of Equipment:
Since the foundation portfolio I have learned many new skills, especially in the use of digital technology such as camera equipment and editing software.
In our film piece we used a variety of equipment to achieve our desired effect, such as:
• Camera
• Tripod • Torches
• Dolly
Each of these pieces of technology required learning how to operate them correctly as well as the health and safety aspects that go with the equipment. Some of the items were used previously in the foundation portfolio and so I could bring that experience forward and expand on it for my final piece.
For example, health and safety procedures that went with using this equipment were:
• Checking the electrical wires with the lighting.
• Saying ‘lights on’ before turning on the lighting, in order not to damage people’s eyes.
• Put up signs to warn other people that filming was happening in the area.
• Use of sandbags.
• Gloves.
Most of this was not new however, I feel as though I have expanded on my knowledge of lighting equipment as before it was shaky and obvious. The lighting in my final product was much smoother and naturalistic. Another key issue with lighting are that they are very hot and can burn very easily. We got around this by using sandbags on the light stands so that they would not tip over and also using gloves to protect ourselves.
Most of the other equipment’s health and safety precautions where all common sense and these where adhered to by all the members of the crew and the actors as well. This made the running of our filming go very smoothly with no safety issues occurring at all.
A better knowledge and understanding of the equipment through repeated use and trail and error helped the film to become a more artistic and believable piece overall. The skills used in the foundation portfolio have been vastly expanded upon and I have learned many new skills such as the use of editing software and the DVD writing software which I had never used before.
Editing: Final Cut Pro...
• During our editing process we booked out our computer in advance to ensure that we would have access to the editing suite and have enough time to edit our piece the way we wanted and remembered to save work every five minutes.
• However, this was sometimes difficult as more people than last year wanted to use the Macs and so I had to be even more organised to get the editing time I needed.
• We decided to put our entire sequence into Final Cut Pro instead of I movie because we found our footage easier to manipulate.
• We also used final cut pro to lighten our images to give a more natural feel to the footage and to help build on the social realism genre.
• I feel that I have extended my knowledge of editing a great amount since last year and I am much more competent in using the software.
• The sound we used for Foley were gathered ourselves by recording the sounds of traffic and sea gulls, we also put some more ambient sounds such as wind and the sea using Garage Band.
• In the editing process there were a few things that could have been improved such as the seagulls scene which was a bit jolty as the tripod was on the beach and so it slipped in the pebbles, we had to use this shot as it was our only chance of getting the sea gulls where we wanted them and so we put in a fade to make it less noticeable.
• On the day of filming, however, filming time efficiently and produced all our rushes in one day.
• During editing we had to try to create continuity in the footage so that the viewer did not notice our cuts between shots.
• We had to keep to the 180 degree rule which we did very efficiently by always keeping the camera to the left side of the set. this is not necessarily always the case as the 180 degree rule can be broken but only if a camera is shown moving from one side of the shot to the other so that the change is clear in the mind of the viewer, we did not have to do this as none of our shots required this effect.
• We used fades effectively to show the passing of time. For example, during the sequence at the very beginning where there is the long shot of the sea and then a close up of the waves with a fade in between. This suggests to the viewer that a long time is passing for the character on the beach.
Post production:
During post production, we were trying to achieve the best we could to get a smooth pace of film with nearly unnoticeable cuts.
• Continuity was a big concern throughout the project as it is one of the most important aspects of any film. The match on action, for example, where the man takes his glasses out of his jacket and puts them on, is one of our favourite parts of our film where we demonstrated flawless continuity.
• We were also trying to create a film that would make the audience think about their own life experiences.
• During the planning and research I asked our media peer group if they had ever attempted to run away as a small child, nearly all of the class said that at one stage when they were very young they had attempted to do so for sometimes trivial reasons. The session was very interesting as the class reminisced about their experiences; it also gave me more inspiration for the piece which my group helped me to expand on. I believe that this group discussion helped the piece to be very entertaining for the viewer as well as making them think about the effects divorce can have on young children.
• Many of the people in our class have parents who are divorced and they thought it was a very difficult time for them.
• I think our film portrays this very well and means that many people can relate to the issues which I believe is what a social realism should intend to do.
• We tried to stick to our planning and research as well as the storyboard quite rigorously, we ended up being much more creative than we thought and we did not shy away from any ideas we had when filming our rushes. I feel this worked to our advantage as not only did we get all the footage we needed for the original story board we also filmed many other shots. For example, the seagull shot where Sam runs down the beach as they fly away was improvised on the day and worked really well. There was only one chance to do this shot and it worked very well and in the end we adapted our film to include it at the end. Even though we did not intend for this to happen, I found that being open minded with the storyboard really helped us to get as much usable rushes as possible as well as getting the best outcome possible.
Social Networking and Blogging:
I found blogging a very simple part of this task as we had used it before in the foundation portfolio. Although I do find it hard to write in such an informal style as I’m much more used to writing essays. I found I managed to make the most of this technology very well and usually posted at least one post a day to keep everything up to date and document what we had done that day. I found it very easy to upload pictures and videos to the blog as well as useful links to keep everything organised and in one place.
In order to gain viewer feedback on out piece as well as suggestions as to what to do with our poster and review we used the social networking site Facebook.
On the group there is both our animatic and final film as well as copies of both the ancillary tasks. This is where we received most of the peer review from which we then copied onto our blog.
As I had already got my own personal Facebook account, I did not feel as though I was under pressure to learn this new skill and I could utilise all the previous knowledge I had on the social networking site. Similarly our film can also be found at www.youtube.com which I found very easy to manipulate for what we were looking for.
Photoshop and Indesign: As part of our work we had to produce a poster and film review using Adobe photoshop and Indesign. Charlea has already learnt how to use this software as she does photography, however, I had never used it before now and so as practice we each had to copy a film magazine cover. I made a step by step guide which is viewable on the blog.
This demonstrated how I made a totalfilm magazine cover although in the real task I tried to produce a poster for our film. Collectively we judged each of our posters and decided that Charlea’s was the best. We used her poster for the final piece.
We also had to use Indesign to produce the review. Once again Charlea added the final touches to the review although we all decided on the colour scheme. I wrote the original review and then Jess and I tweaked it along with our teachers help to make it as good as possible.
I also drew cartoon seagulls to go in the background of the review, much like in Little White Lies ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ issue where childlike drawings of people and monsters were on every other page on average. Here is my original design for the review. >>>Here is the final review.<<<
We have encountered a major problem as our review would not print today or upload to the blog as the file was too large.. This could be disasterous as none of us can access the file over the easter holidays to upload it because none of our group have the software on our home Pcs... We hope that our teachers will understand this issue and allow us to upload it as soon as we get back into college and are able to compress the file Hollie x
We are "a match made in media heaven" - Andrew Mann, year 2 review day!
We are the bestest!!
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