My Audience

Production Log 10

From the Vox Pops I saw that people felt that many different kinds of ethnicities and religions have been falsely portrayed in the media like; Muslims, black people, women, Indians and teenagers this has developed my idea as I can see that with my I can try to sway some of these incorrect representations of people like teenagers, Muslims and Indians by using them in my film and not using the stereotypical view that has been placed upon them. The main goal in my film was to show what real Muslim people are like but due to the research I am now aware of how many different groups of people are misrepresented in films and I will be able to use these to help develop my film.

When asked about what themes they felt were underdeveloped in film some of the answers I got were; rape, domestic violence, racism, female genital mutilation, bullying, self harm and homosexuality. This has given me a wide range of themes I can use for my film and will match the BSR genre of creating challenging films for audiences and using themes which are normally put to the side and not talked about. My film was already about Racism and this has given me confidence as I know I'm making a film about something which will push some boundaries.

From the question what do you think of our idea people told me a few positives but one was that they liked the main character was able to come good this said to me they a story people may like in films is about redemption, trying to change their ways and that having a protagonist to root for helps makes the film more enjoyable. This has developed my idea as now I want to try and make the main character's story more about how he is changing his ways and possibly see him convert to Islam and still have his group of friends trying to stop him.

From that same question an issue that arised was that it was unclear why these boys are so racist to begin with and what causes the main character to change his ways. I was always going to show what makes the character change his ways but I didn't think to show why he originally he and his group of friends hold so much hate towards muslim. I will add this in and an idea I had was when the leader of the group is beating him up he may angrily state that his father died protecting the U.k from people like him and he may wear army gear to connote that his father was in the army and that he wants to follow in his footsteps.

The question which asked what film ideas people had of their own resulted in many people giving ideas that focused on people being trapped in their current situation for instance the girl with the abusive boyfriend, the boy who wants to come out to his family. This suggested that people enjoy films about someone who is trapped in a current situation and their journey on how they escape, from this I concluded that I should make my film include this idea and have one of the major plot points in my film about how the white boy wants to change his ways but his group of friends try everything to stop him and even kill the Muslim boy to prevent this.

Data Presentation

Question: Have you ever watched film like This is England, Ill Manors or Adulthood (BSR Films)

• Almost all of the people asked watched Adulthood and other films like that so it is obvious that the plot of that particular film appealed to a wide audience

Question 2: What do you think of our idea?

• People liked that it talked about Racism and how it was relevant to current events
• They liked that the main character was able to see the error of his ways and become good
• An issue with it was that it was unclear why there was this hatred towards the Muslims and also what causes the main character to change his ways

Question 3: Do you have any ideas for your own BSR film?

• Rich white boy wants to become part of a gang and inevitably ends up in trouble
• A girl wants to be a public speaker but her abusive boyfriend does not allow this
• A boy comes out to his family but his family are not accepting
• A man's girlfriend gets kidnapped by a gang and he has to try and get her back
• A black man who is cautious of white people due to their history begins to see how they've changed

Question 4: What issues or themes in films do you think are underdeveloped?

• Rape
• Domestic Violence
• Female Genital Mutilation
• Racism
• Bullying
• Self Harm
• Homosexuality

Question 5: What groups of people would you like to see represented in a different way?

• Muslims as they are not all terrorists and aren't as abusive or violence as the media portrays
• Women
• People with disabilities
• Teenagers (not as violent or narrow minded as portrayed)
• Indian (not as 'fresh' stereotypical views, intelligent)
• Black People (not as aggressive or violent as seen and should be seen as more intelligent)

Vox Pops

Our Vox Pops Video

Production Log 9

A shooting script is used in the production of a film and includes shot types, shot angles, description of action, equipment needed, SFX, music, lighting, actors and shot movement. It needs all these things so that someone else could use the shooting script and make a scene which looks to how it was originally intended by the creator.

From the shooting script exercise I learnt that to make an effective shooting script you need to make it clear what you need in the scene from the beginning like what actors are in the shot where you want them to stand, and what props are visible in the shot, it is also important that you keep consistency within the script as the shooting script we used kept swapping character and actor's names in the description of action making it very confusing what to do. I also learnt that if you have a good shooting script with everything planned out you can record a scene in a much faster time than you would if you didn't and this will be useful to me when making my film as there are time constraints

The strengths of my task is that we followed the scripts camera shots and types resulting in a wide range of shots. The weaknesses were that the piece did not have continuity, the actors did not stay in character and the mise en scene did not suit the piece.

What I learnt about narrative last week was about linear and non linear narrative, restricted and omniscience narrative and Mckee's narrative structure.

A linear narrative is where the story is shown chronologically this is a convention of most films, non linear narrative is when a film shows you parts from different times during the piece an example of this is Trainspotting and Goodfellas where the opening shows a part that happens later in the film.

A restricted narrative is a narrative that shows it from only one person's perspective and everything that character knows and only that character the audience knows an omniscient narrative is one from many perspective to try and give the audience as much information as possible and may know more than characters in the film. Not many films use restricted narrative but almost all use a omniscient narrative.

Mckee's Narrative for our BSR Idea

Production Log 7

This week we were given time to complete any work we're missing and make improvements on posts we feel are necessary this was good for me as I was behind on some blog posts. In our other lessons we focused on creating ideas that are a little bit outside of the box and used posts from post secrets and created an idea from it.

The next thing we did was to create a CD cover using random names and images from websites, for the band name we clicked on the random article button on Wikipedia and saw the page was entitled 'Gregory of Cantino' and so that was our band name. We then had find a random quote for our album name and so went on a quotes website and thought of a number in our head and chose which ever one fit in that position, the quote was "nobody wants to read". The next step in this was to go on pintrest and find a random image for our CD cover when we did this we find an image of an owl and combined all 3 to create the album cover.

With the postsecret posts we were to find 3 posts and create a 25 word synopsis of a potential BSR film we could make out of it and made a blog post about it. The 3 posts I chose had these captions. ""I'm afraid the reason he doesn't like me is because we're not the same ethnicities", "I fantasize about the apology I know I'll never get" and  "I wish my dad would realize my mum is a bitch". From these posts I was able to make a 25 word synopsis of a BSR film for them. I chose theses posts because they had elements of conventional BSR themes in them like racism and domestic violence. The apology post had a lot of potential as it was left to my imagination to figure out what had been done to that person that they wanted an apology for and what was so bad that they could never forgive the person and reject the apology.

Treatment

Narrative:

Brief Synopsis: The film follows the lives of two friends living in a racist run down area, who are segregated by issues of race and discrimination.

Opening Sequence Synopsis: The first scene is group of white boys omitting racist comments and  intolerance to a Muslim boy of the same age, who lives in the local area we then  go on to establish that one of the white boys begins to change his racist ways, which differs from his friends, and starts a close friendship with the Muslim boy, and he learns that the boy is genuinely nice and the white boy reforms his ways.

The film will use a omniscient narrative and have a it from the perspective of different characters but the main character will be the white boy trying to change his ways. It will also follows the perspective of the muslim boy and the group of white boys more specifically the leader. There will be no narrator as it is not a typical convnetion for most BSR films as it takes away from the realism of it and will affect the verisimilitudinous of the piece. It will follow a linear structure as most BSR films do.

Our film will use many opening sequence conventions and will introduce characters, themes, setting and narrative. It will have engaging music and be a smash mouth opening to keep the audience interested and make them want to watch the rest.

Conventions:

We want to recreate the colour pallete used in fish tank

The conventions that we will use are: themes of violence, racism, discrimination, friendship and childhood, which will be subtly hinted throughout to go along with the typical BSR conventions. We will use Super Imposed Graphics to show actors names, production companies and film crew, which are a typical opening sequence convention and are found in every film. Also in this sequence we will use natural lighting to further establish and reinforce the themes which connote realism, so natural low key lighting establishes violence as dark li
ghting connotes danger, which is a key aspect to uncover in our opening sequence. Also in this sequence we will use a blue colour pallet, which connotes the realism and harsh nature of the film, like the pallet in Fish Tank.

Title: 

We are currently working  on a title to grab the audiences attention, and fit the film. The title will be typical of the BSR, genre, as it will be 1 or 2 simple words, and be powerful, giving subtle hints to the narrative.

Target Audience: 

Age- 16-24

Gender - Male

Interests -  Violent films, Political and Racial issues.

Location - East London // Hackney // Stratford & surrounding areas.

Ethnicity- White and Asian backgrounds

The target audience's other media consumption will include; TV, Social Media and The News.

Our film will appeal to them as it includes issues of race and hate crime which are found in everyday situations and be seen on the news and are political issues. The main characters in the films are aged between 16-18 so the target audience will be interested in watching the film as the characters are a similar age to them. This film will appeal to a male audience as most of the characters are male, and typically, males have an increased interest in violent topics. We have said most of our target audience would live around East London, as they would have a specific interest in the film if it was set in a place they are familiar with, and live near. Like, Gone Too Far, was set in Peckham, South East London, which appealed to teenagers who live in Peckham, and the surrounding areas because they recognize the locations used. 

The films that we'd say the Target Audience would watch include Ill Manors, Green Street,  Bullet Boy, The Football Factory, which are all films set in London, and include violence, hate crime, and racism. Also short films set in East London such as Tight Jeans and  Music that the target audience would listen to include London based rappers such as Giggs, Kano, Skepta & Sneakbo, which are typical Grime artists, which London based teens like. The film's uses and gratifications help the audience 'personally identitfy' as the target audience may identify with some of the characters in the sequence, connoting a successful sequence, drawing in the audience's attention.

Instiution:

The production company for our film will be Film 4 this means our film will have to conform to the usual conventions of Film 4 films and stick to their ethos. We are lucky to be backed by such a commissioner who are passionate about films, and helping young film makers kick-start their film making journeys, providing us with support. By having this production company on board, this means our film is going to be played at independent cinemas like the Picturehouse cinemas in Hackney, Greenwich, Stratford and Clapham, who exhibit other British Social Realist films like Gone Too Far. Our film would be shown on the Film 4 Channel and based on it's popularity and box office earnings, and may be shown on sister channel, Channel 4. Possible exhibition/premiering of the film at a London film festival, would open the film up to a new audience, attracting many other members of the public. Using new media technology and the fast growing online streaming services, I will show it on Netflix as many other BSR productions are shown on there like the This is England 86 series, Bullet Boy, Shifty and Sweet Sixteen. Possibly, an event held premiering the film, at the film festival could include local musicians and artists helping promote the film by making a special appearance. This could help promote the film, and also be a marketing technique that is inexpensive, as the budget is small.

The range of current British films on the UK & Ireland's Netflix accounts available to all users.

Style and Iconography:

We will use lots of wide and long shots to establish the derelict, run down setting of the film and accompany this with an establishing shot to further imply the idea of the deprived setting, in which the narrative takes place. This is a good use of these shots as the audience get to explore the setting through certain shot types. For the editing of the sequence, we will use straight cuts which will add to the sense of realism created by the film as transitions like fades could take away from the realism we will create. Also using fades in an opening sequence can connote that time has passed and as we will be using a linear narrative, so we don't want to mislead the audience into thinking time has passed, or there has been a significant change in setting/ location.We will use costumes as a visual signifier in this film to help connote to the audience the various ethnicity's and religious insights of the people explored this film for example, the Muslim character in this film when we see him for the first time he will be wearing the jubba/thobes as he is on his way to the mosque. This enforces the convention of the exploration of characters, and connotes he is a main character in the film. We will use music to help convey the tone of the film, such as a song with lyrics that link in with the storyline. Possibly a song on par with I Need Church by Professor Green, as he is a London based rapper, in which this songs lyrics are: ''And I'm tryna figure out who I favour, who, Made me do the things you made me do?'' - which could relate to our storyline as the the white boy who is with his friends is peer pressured into being racist to the Muslim boy. We will use the natural sound created during filming and not use any Foley sound as Foley sound takes away the realism, and we are trying to make the film as real and genuine for the audience as possible, as the situation our film entails is a common one, so it is only fair to reflect the reality of the situation through the filming and sound caught on camera whilst filming. The music we will use in our opening will be non-diegetic and be only audible by the audience as diegetic music is not a typical convention of British social realism. The typography we will be using will have to relate to the British social realism genre and our particular film, as our film is set in a run down deprived area we thought that we should use typography that has a similar style to some graffitti that you would see in those areas here is an example of one we had in mind.

Representation:

The key characters in this film are the Muslim boy and the white boy who decides to reform his ways and abandon the group of white friends who are not tolerant of the friendship. The protagonist of this film will be the white boy who decides to change his ways as it will be from his perspective as he tries to become a better person and stop the racism in the scene. The audience will be able to root for this character as they can see a good side to him and be on his side when begins to reform himself to an unprejudiced character. The antagonists of the film will be his former group of friends and more specifically the leader of this clique, who is the main person in the group who doesn't accept the Muslim boy, and who pushes his racist views on the remaining members, and the rest of the group conform to the peer pressure. I will be able to follow Propp's character types as there is a prominent villain character in this film who attempts to stop the protagonist. The helper could be the Muslim friend who helps the protagonist become a better person, who educates the reforming boy, to the ideology that Muslims are not bad people. Our film will challenge the stereotypical representation branded upon Muslims in Britain and show them for how they really are, in every day situations and British culture. I will also challenge those people in Britain who feel Britain should be a purely white country and to deport all of those who are not white and represent them to be closed minded. 

Technology:

The technology used in our production will be predominatly used in the filming and post-production stage of creating the opening sequence. We will use the cameras and tripods from our media department to film all of our footage we need. The quality of the cameras could be better, but my having a low quality and grainy picture, can connote the realism we are trying to capture. We will use iMovie on the iMacs to edit our footage and create the opening sequence, which enables us to add music, our chosen colour pallet, and add super imposed graphics, and other conventional BSR opening sequence conventions. If it was possible and unrealistic, we think that a helicopter with a camera on it, filming a birds eye, area view of the whole of London, and then zooming in to focus on the street where the film is first set, would be good to establish locations and make it a realistic opening sequence. Also in the production we will use real phones and gadgets to create realism, and real text messages being sent.

Production Log 8

To develop my BSR this week I looked at some of the common themes in BSR and picked out ones I thought which were most achievable as choosing a theme like parenthood would be difficult as we don't have many actors available who would fit that role and wouldn't be available during the times we would like to film. The main theme I chose for my film was Race as I live in a multicultural area and could use actors of different ethnicities to film, and it is an issue in current events due to things like UKIP's recent Rochester win which became a key influence for my BSR idea.

I wanted someone who had as much of an interest in media as I do and would work hard to make a great film opening and I feel I've chosen someone with these qualities. Teamwork is a large aspect in this production so I wanted someone who I was friends with but could also work well with, the person I chose to work with is very calm and I feel this is a strong quality in a partner as when we reach the deadline she will be able to think clearly and work just as well as she normally would.

I do not forsee any future issues with my partner and I hope that things will run smoothly and we make a good film together.

Production Log 6

This week I learnt about Opening Sequences and some of the conventions of opening sequences for example some conventions are; super imposed graphics to establish the credits and title, engaging music, minimal dialogue and to introduce themes, characters, setting and narrative.

This will impact my production as I know now what I want to include in my opening sequence and how it should be done. If I had not been in lesson this week I may have tried to create to much dialogue in my opening which would take away from my piece as that would only introduce characters and only go so far as to introduce narrative, themes or setting.

In my film I would like to use a smash mouth opening as I feel it engages the audience while still being introducing all the key elements. In Goodfellas they used a non-linear start but for my production I think I should use a linear start as I haven't got the whole film entirely planned out and only know the basis of what it's going to be about so a linear start would be easier. This week I learned that engaging music is a convention of most opening sequences like Trainspotting and I have decided to use engaging music for my film as it could work well with my smash mouth opening.

Post Secret-Creating an Idea from Post Secrets Postcards

"I'm afraid that the reason he doesn't like me is because we're not the same ethnicities"

Story of an Asian girl living in Cornwall and discrimination she receives because of her race.

"I fantasize about the apology I know I'll never get"

An orphaned girl living in poverty turns 18 and searches for her father who she just found out is still alive.

"I wish my dad would realize my mum is a bitch"

Follows the life of a girl wit an abusive mother and a father who is ignorant of it.

From Fact to Fiction Researching Stories for BSR

The first story I found was about 2 friends who were friends since the age of 8 years old as they were both war time evacuees and by the time they were 17 would go shooting together until one day one of the friends die and the article was about the guilt the man still felt 60 years on-wards.The themes this film would include would be isolation due to the loss of the friend and the crippling guilt he felt, childhood as the 2 friends grew up together, religion as he may rely on it for comfort and even drug abuse as he may have used it to forget the pain he feels. The location could be the countryside as they went hunting for turkey but it should be set near a railway track as that is where the friend died, the era would be the 1950's as that is when it really happened and would make the experience for the audience more enjoyable as a lot of BSR films are set in their current era. The protagonist of the film would be the friend who lived. A possible storyline could be that we see the friend suffering with incredible guilt and the depression he feels from it with flashback of their friendship and the night that led to the death. Until one day he returns to his home town and finds a bucket list of everything the friend wanted to do and completes it for him and how he learns to cope with the guilt and move on.

Another story I found was about the story of a 9 year old and how his house was raided by 3 men wielding weapons who killed his father and threatened to kill him and other members of his family and he still suffers from nightmares and post traumatic stress disorder. A possible storyline I could create from this is when he is grown up the 3 men have been let out of prison and it follows the story of his tale of revenge as he hunts down the men. The possible themes this could cover are revenge, violence, childhood, corruption of youth and mental illness. The location it could be set in is areas of poverty as this might be where the men live after being released from prison and the era would be modern era as that is where it happened.

The third story I found is was on the BBC New Website and was about the poor conditions children suffer in state run homes. The story would follow the lives of these children and their attempts to escape following a similar story to Oliver Twist. The protagonist would be one kid who leads the other kids and organises the escape, the setting would be here in the U.K as it is BSR and not in Greece and modern day. The themes in this film would be poverty, childhood, corruption of youth and aspiration and escape, This story is obviously slightly different from the actual story and the only reasons the children were kept in such poor conditions was because there was not enough funds to provide better living standards and the carers in the report seem to be good people, I would change this and make the carers the antagonist and taking the funding given to them on themselves and only a little bit for the kds to barely surive.

BSR Themes

In this blog post I will be talking about some of the themes seen in BSR with examples and how the representation those films give about it, i will then use that example and talk about a way i could possibly fit it into my film.

Poverty

In this scene we can denote that an audition is being held here in an abandoned run down warehouse denoting that the theme in this film is poverty. The clothes denoted in this scene look to be very basic cheap clothes and things like blue jeans and polo shirts this helps connote to the audience that the theme is poverty. This scene does not represent poverty in a negative way and gives it a positive life with a comedic undertone and allows the audience to laugh at the ways they try to get money by setting up a striptease act with a group of men who aren't particularly attractive and wouldn't make a good show but are still determined to try. In my film I would explore it in a more serious way ad my film is going to be a BSR film but this is hybrid between comedy and BSR. I would choose a location that was run down as this connotes poverty to the audience without needing to establish it through dialogue or other means.

Domestic Abuse

In this scene we can denote a husband or boyfriend being very aggressive to his partner accusing her of cheating on him very aggressively and in a threatening tone this connotes that the theme covered in this film is domestic violence. He also repeatedly insults her and swears at her aggressively again connoting to the audience that the theme covered here is domestic abuse which is accompanied by he then beating her savagely. In this domestic violence is shown in a very negative light and we can see that the man starts to beat her just for playing pool with another man and shows no real rational thought to it and that he is acting purely on emotion and particular the emotion of anger and jealousy.  In my film I may want to explore domestic abuse as it is a common theme in BSR and easily creates 2 of the character archetypes seen in BSR films like weak but aggressive man

Racism

In this scene we denote the character combo viciously beating the character milky because of his race, calling him the n word and saying that being a n word makes you a bad dad. We can denote that combo is jealous of Milly in this scene because he never had a family like that and says "You've got everything you have" through this we can connote that he feels as if Milky didn't deserve this family as he is black. The theme is represented in a very negative light as we see combo beat him up almost killing him all because he had a better growing up and because of his race. The character combo is shown to be narrow minded, quick tempered and aggressive connoting that all racists are similar to this. Another representation this gives about racists is from the character banjo and we can see him laughing as he holds down Shaun stopping him from getting in the way of the beating and him "we want some of this we want our bit" after combo has beaten milky unconscious so it gives the audience the understanding that they are sadistic too. The way I could explore it in my film is by having an outcast character who is a different race from most of the other people in the film and how they treat them differently to everyone else.

Isolation and Exclusion

In this scene Anita and me we can see that she is sent from one room to another and is the outsider of her family and they mock her for singing in a Birmingham accent and obviously doesn't have the same set of boundaries they do when she talks about how much she likes the song and when she reads the short story the rest of the family are shocked we can see this due to the series of close ups showing their shocked reactions. Another denotation I can make is that she has a different accent from everyone else in her family and this helps connotes to the audience that a theme in this BSR film is isolation and exclusion as she is very different from everyone else in her family. The way this theme is represented in the film is through a humorous manner and allows the audience to laugh at it just like in The Full Monty but it also presents in a manner that shows that the isolated person doesn't fully understand why they are isolated or even if they know they're different from the other people. In my film I may use it in a similar way I will explore racism and have a character of a different race than most other people in the film and what happens because of that.

Rebellion

In this scene we see the 2 boys dancing and playing around and one is wearing a tutu which is commonly associated with dance, they are having fun until one of the boy's dad arrives and obviously does not approve of what they're doing. The character Billy at first seems scared and is upset that his father has seen him but then he builds up the courage and starts dancing despite his fathers disapproval and looks at him straight in the eyes as he does so. The representation this films gives about rebellion is that is a courageous and bold thing to do and it can sometimes be the only way to show how important something is to you as we can see at the end of the clip the dad has been convinced and is willing to send his son to the dance school. A way I might explore this theme in my film is by linking it to the theme of escape and have a character refuse to stay stuck in the area they live and break out and achieve what they want.

Conventions of Institutional Credits in An Education

An Education Opening Sequence

In the opening sequence for this film the first few graphics are shown on a black background with a few animations accompanying it. After we see the title of the film we begin to see the film which is just to summarize what school life is like for most of these girls and shows what they do on a normal day, this is also accompanied by animation which depict educational things like graphs just to accompany the theme of school. In this opening sequence nothing crucial to the story happens and just sets the tone with the help of the up beat music. The locations we see used are places in the school and most of the costumes we see are school uniforms. The props used are all things you'd find in a school like textbooks and pens. 

In this title we can denote that there is a bookshelf and various books, this connotes to the audience that this film is based around the setting of a school, this is further enhanced as we can denote the title  reads 'An Education' which connotes that the plot of the film or the setting has something to do with school. In this screenshot we can denote that it is white writing on a black background which is similar to a chalkboard which teachers used to write on this further connotes that it is set at a school but also connotes that it is set in the past back when teachers wrote on blackboards.

The typography of the institutional credits is very basic and quite small but for most of the credits they are single names and not accompanied with another name and they have a little animation with them too and so having a small and basic credit can draw attention to the animation so as to keep the audience engaged and interested in the film. The name of the actual company is larger than what their role in the film was as we can denote in this screenshot it shows BBC films larger than presents and has Endgame Entertainment in larger letters than in association with.

In this screenshot we can see that two of the production companies are shown here suggesting that they did not have as important a role in the film and may have only granted a smaller amount of funding to the film. We again see an animation in this to keep the audience interested as reading names of production companies isn't very exciting for the audience, however the animations all have some relevance to school or childhood like the hopscotch seen in this screenshot connoting what this film is going to be about.

In this screenshot we can denote that more than one name starts to appear this connotes that these are the supporting cast and not the main stars of the film.

In this screenshot we can denote that this is a film by Lone Scherfig connoting to the audience that he had the most of one of the most important roles in the film and may have been the director but contributed more to the production in other areas.

We again see the name Lone Sherfig this time denoting that he is the director, his name appearing twice demonstrates his importance in creating the film as well as that his name being the last credit shown further signifies this. The directorial role in a film is that they generally control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking.

In this screenshot we can denote that the names of the 3 executive producers are shown here connoting that they had equally important roles in the film. An executive producer is someone who represents the production company and deals with the budget and day to day production.

Production Log 5

This week for my research I learnt about the conventions of opening sequences especially sound  and titles. As for our film we are only making the opening we have to match the conventional style of opening in films and more specifically BSR films. We only have 1 and a half minutes for our opening so we need to use everything we can to try and establish and the themes are and what our main plot will be about. The use of titles will be very influential for us as we need a title that gives hints to the story but also follows the typical style of titles in BSR which is normally a short title relevant to the plot for example in Fish Tank they use the title to connote that she is trapped in her life and situation.

Sound in the opening will be an essential part of keeping the audience entertained for instance in the opening of This Is England they use an upbeat song but it also connotes what the film will be about as a lyric from the song is "stick it to the mister" which is talking about oppression reveals a clue about the film.

Production Log 4

This week I learnt about Title Devices and I saw how much the opening credits can set up a film like in An Education they used the idea of Blackboards to help establish that this is a film about school and as well as that is set in the past, they also used animation to help establish this.

 I learnt that in opening credits they normally use super imposed graphics to list the most important people in the film first like the producer, production company, director and actors and choose the order that they show the actor's name by the screen time they have.

In most BSR films the titles are not superimposed and An Education is an unconventional opening as it uses superimposed graphics and animation.

A list of the conventioanl order of credits in films goes like this but it is not accurate for every film as sometimes the director credit can appear earlier.

PRODUCTION COMPANY presents 

a NAME LASTNAME production 

a NAME LASTNAME film 
"TITLE" 
Lead Cast 
Supporting Cast 
Casting Director 
Music Composer 
Costume Designer 
Associate Producers 
Editor(s) 
Production Designer 
Director of Photography 
Executive Producer 
Producer 
Writer(s) 
Director 

This week I also learnt about some of the roles in films which i did not know before like

Production Company: They are responsible for the funding of the film and provide the equipment necessary needed.

Producer: They are representatives of the production company are organised the budget among other things.

This will impact my production as I know which order to put the credits in I also discovered that in BSR films some roles which are in normal films are missing like make up as they want it to be realistic as possible so I will purposely not include some role in my opening credits. Another convention of BSR credits I was unaware of that (word for it being on screen with the footage) and that they show the logos of the production companies first so this will change my production as I will make sure to include those things.From a lesson a few weeks back I learnt that I need to have the credits on for long enough so that the audience can read it as some of the past students work did not have it on for long enough. The text I will use will be simple  and big enough for the audience to read but not so much that it distracts the audience from the footage which will be playing alongside it.

The methods I will use in the opening credits is to follow the traditional style of BSR films which is ; to put the institutional logos at the start and to put the credits so have the credits alongside the footage, to keep the text simple and easy to read and I will follow the conventional order of credits but may remove some credits completely and change the order if it is not needed for BSR films, for instance I will not have the supporting cast in the opening credits and would put them in the closing credits instead if this was a full film.

Conventions of An Opening Sequence in Goodfellas

 For this piece of coursework we have been asked to illustrate 9 of the conventions of an opening sequence which we can see in our chosen opening. I chose Goodfellas as it is a film that I have already seen so I can talk about what themes to expect and am able to know if they have used a non linear start or not, I also chose it because it uses many of the opening conventions typically seen.

The first convention I chose was that it uses super imposed graphics to tell us who the production company, director, actors, producers and writers are. In this screenshot taken at (0:03) we can denote that the first credit shown is for Warner Bros.this communicates to the audience that it is the production and it is typical for films to put the name of the production company first.

This opening sequence is great at creating enigma as it makes the audience ask who these 3 men are? Where are they driving to? Why is there a man in the trunk of their car and why did they just kill him? Enigmas have been used in this film to keep the audience interested and make them watch the rest of the film so that these questions can be answered. This particular screenshot taken at (1:30) shows the 3 characters. 

 This opening sequence uses a non-linear style as we can denote that in this screenshot taken at (1:35) is a character who appears later in the film alive and well so it creates expectation for the audience as to who this man is and what does he do that makes him the target of these 3 men. This works well with the enigmas created as it makes the audience ask further questions and makes them continue watching as they want to see what happens in the film that inevitably leads to this scene. 

In this screenshot taken at (1:49) the characters are established as we can hear the non diegetic voice over of this characters say "as far back as i can remember I've always wanted to be a gangster" connoting to the audience that these 3 men are gangsters answering one of the questions created but only partially. The representation this gives of the characters is quite a negative one as we now know they are gangsters and we could denote them stabbing and shooting a helpless man pleading for mercy giving them quite a violent and heartless representation. Although it creates quite a clear representation for his 2 acquaintances it does not give a clear representation of the main character as we don't see him hurt the man in the trunk whereas the other 2 characters did and we can denote quite a guilty look on his face which connotes that he may be different from them and might be good at heart. As well as that it is him narrating the film and it is from his perspective so he is the character that the audience will be rooting for. Him telling the audience that he's always wanted to be agangtser connotes to the audience that the genre of film is crime, the clothes worn which are suits further connote that this film isn't about petty crime and that it is high end crime.

As well as this film using super imposed graphics to establish the credits it also uses it to establish the setting which we see at (0:42) as it tell us the era and the location of the film. Using the graphics in this it doesn't establish the a representation the setting and lets the audience use their own stereotyped idea of New York in the 1970's when it was a city in decline and as crime soared.

As a convention in most opening sequences of a film there is minimal dialogue and this film followed that suit and there are only a few lines of dialogue which do not add to the story as we can see in this shot taken at (0:47) which shows that none of the characters are talking. The representation this gives about the characters is that they are not friends and are more business partners otherwise they would be more interactive with each other.

In this screenshot taken at (1:39) we can denote one of the characters aggressively and repeatedly stab the man in the boot with no remorse so this connotes to the audience that a theme in this film is going to be violence and gives the representation that this character is very violent and aggressive.

To further develop this idea of violence the film uses a smash mouth opening  at (1:37) which throws the audience right into the action and sets the tone of the film and is aided by the loud upbeat music which comes afterwards.

The upbeat style of the song at (2:04) engages the audience and establishes the setting further as it has a jazzy sound to it which is typically associated with New York and the lyrics "from rags to riches" connotes that this is a film about someone who went from nothing to being a successful gangster.