Anaylysis of Representation in 'The Selfish Giant'

Regional Identity

This film is set in Bradford located in the north of England during post industrialisation. In the opening minutes of the film we see the director use a lot of wide shots to help convey the setting for example in this screenshot we can see all the shops are closed down which connotes that this area is dangerous and crime is a regular occurrence here and it also connotes that this are is poor and these shops have gone out of business. Graffiti is also denoted on the walls which connotes there is a lot of petty crime here and not enough funds or infrastructure for the council to remove this litter. The representation this gives to the people of Bradford is that they are poor and have to resort to crime.

Another representation given to Bradford through this screenshot is that they are gypsy or gypsy like. In this screenshot it is denoted that a man is riding a horse and in the scene we can see him racing another horse while other people are betting on the outcome. Gyspys are stereotyped to do this a lot and so it is connoted that these people are gypsy or "wanna be pikey" which kitten is called in the film.

Age

In this film Arbor and Swifty earn money to help provide for their family and they both have taken it upon themselves to care for their families especially Arbor who has no father at home and has tried to take that role himself as we even see him console his mother when she is upset. This connotes the incredibly maturity these 2 have for such a young age.

We are reminded of just how young these 2 actually are when we see them in school and become just normal kids.

The adults in this film all look to be damaged and weak and not able to provide for themselves or their families. The character price drop is the failing man archetype and we see him having to feed his kids cold beans and selling his furniture to get by.

The older generation take advantage of Arbor and Swifty as he makes them do dangerous jobs and he reaps most of the rewards and even in one scene takes away some of their earning claiming it's for taxes.

Disability

Arbor has an aggressive for of ADHD and we can tell that Arbor has some sort of anger problem from the first scene where it is denoted that he is under his bed hitting against the wooden boards connoting that he is angry and this how he takes out his anger ,another example we can see is in the screenshot above which comes from the scene of when he is aggressive towards his mother because she is not appreciating the work he did for the money. In this society seen in the film mental illness is not something that can be cured and should only be masked with pills never fully curing him and only making him acceptable for society for a brief amount time when he is outside of his house.

Another character with a mental illness is Mrs.Swift who is suffering from depression but it is never dealt with and hidden from the public as it is seen as something to be ashamed of. Both mental illnesses in this film are never truly dealt with and just swept under the rug and the director makes a point of never properly dealing with it to anchor the point that in this era and region mental illness is something that is meant to be shameful and should be kept hidden.

Social Class

Social Class is a big part of the story in the selfish giant and we can see how big a difference there is between underclass and working class and the different levels of class in these two classes. Even though most of the people int his film are working or underclass there is still a level of hierarchy between these people.

An example of this is that Arbor is excluded from other people at school and bullied because he is ranked at a lower level of working class than the rest of the people at his school. 

As well as that there is a battle between middle and the working class as we see Arbor's mother in an argument with the teacher at the school. He speaks to her with a very demeaning and patronising tone which suggests he feels he is of a much higher intellect and he needs to speak to her like a child for her to understand.

Gender

I feel that women in this film are unfairly represented as weak and most of the female characters in this film are very two dimensional and there is not much depth shown in the characters. In this film we never see the women work and kids as young as Arbor and Swifty need to work to support for their families. We can see how dependent the women are on men as Mrs' Swift does not even have her own name and is only known as the wife of Mr. Swift. Arbor's mother in this Michelle Fenton has had 2 kids drop out of school and one of them is in prison, this shows that she may not be an entirely adequate mother. We can see that the father of Arbor and his brother is not around which makes it harder for Michelle to be a good mother but does this mean the film is suggesting that without men, women are powerless.

Men in this film even though they are working and bring money to the homes they are still seen as inadequate, price drop is an example of this and he is denoted to be a man who cannot provide for his family as his made to feed them cold beans and sell their furniture to survive this connotes that he is the failing man archetype

Sexuality

The culture in this film are denoted to use the word gay as an insult which connotes that they are homophobic and that being gay is a bad thing. We can see this when Arbor's brother calls Swifty and Arbor gay and that they use it as a word to insult each other.

Ethnicity

The majority of characters in this film are white and from where the film is set. Most of the characters in this film are denoted to be underclass and violent people connoting that all people from this area and/or race are like this. Whereas the only other character of a different race is the kid sitting next to Arbor at school.

In this screenshot we can see Arbor is messing about and not concentrating on his work but on the other hand the person sitting next to him who seems to be from Asian decent is working hard and keeping his head down, separating himself from distractions.

The people seen in this film are viewed as worse than Pikey's in Kitten's eyes as he is called a want to be pikey meaning that he feels that he is inferior to Pikeys and wants to be one. Generally travellers are viewed negatively by the public so the fact that he wants to be one connotes that he has a very negative view on himself and the people around him.

Asessement of Previous Classes Films

This week we also looked at past students work and was asked to grade it using the mark scheme given to us, this helped us to get an understanding of what our final product should look like and also what the exam board are looking for in the film to give top marks. From looking at past students work it showed me that editing is very important in this and especially sound editing as students lost marks for the music being too loud and making it hard to hear what characters were saying.

We were shown 7 intros and had to write down what we felt the strengths and weaknesses of the peice were and then asked to give a final grade out of 60.

To help us grade the pieces we were given a mark scheme, particular things which the mark scheme mention to loom out for when grading are to see whether the material is appropriate for the target audience, if it has used titles appropriately, does it sound use sound images and editing appropriately, camera language and is there a clear story established with the help of editing.

South Paw

South Paw is a film about a boy who has to choose between his faith and his love of boxing. The strengths of this film I felt was the music as it had the right beat and sound to what we saw on-screen. There was a clear setting established in this film with the use of long shots, an example of this can be seen in this screenshot of the film.

From this screenshot we can denote that this character lives in a run down and derelict town. Another strength of this piece was that it used conventions which are commonly used in British Social Realism films, it dealt with ethnicity and faith and had a young male lead who could have be the lost boy archetype. South Paw was a good title to use for this film as it is short and gives the audience a vague understanding of what the film is about, boxing. The weaknesses of this film I felt was that the plot was not established very well and had to be told what the plot was to understanding what this intro was about. The camera language in this film did not have much variety or creativity as it was mostly long and mid shots. Overall I gave this film 40 marks but the mark it was actually given was 34, even though this may seem close these marks are in different level groups

Drained

Drained is about an abusive relationship between a girl and her boss.  The strengths of this piece I felt was that there was a clear plot established as you can see it is an abusive relationship in this screenshot.

The setting was established quite well with the use of different locations seen as the audience follow the character on her way to work. An issue with this opening is the mise-en-scene as the actors chosen do not accurately portray the characters in this film and the costume the boss character wears does not suit his character as the weak but aggressive man. 

Damaged Goods

Damaged Goods is a film about the daily life of a prostitute living in a run down town in London, the title of this film works very well as it is short and relevant to the story.  The plot of this film was clearly established and it uses the graphics correctly. This film follows the conventions normally seen in BSR films as it is a story about a prostitute.

 A drawback of this film was that it was too repetitive, the music was repetitive, the music used was repetitive and the same shots were used too frequently. This was done on purpose to try and establish that this is this characters daily life and she has to do this over and over again but I felt it could have been done in a more engaging way. The lighting for some shots was too dark which is a problem which would fall under mise-en-scene and it made it difficult to see what was going on in this film. Overall I gave this film 46 marks but the actual mark it got was 57 which is only 3 marks away from the full marks.

Suffocation

Suffocation is a film about a man who works hard but is ignorant to his wife's needs and about how she deals with that. The graphics used in this film is one of the things that stand out as we see it is cleverly used like the credits are placed upon the books and folders and the title we see an animation of it being squeezed referencing the title 'suffocation' but a problem with this is that it takes away from the realism of it as the audience then are taken out of the film to think about how the use of graphics where as in films especially BSR films they should try and make you feel as if the movie is real and to be living it.

After this first scene of him in the office I feel that the film starts to go down hill as nothing much happens after that and the rest of the opening sequence is of the wife just walking around cleaning up and then staring at some bottles of alcohol. I felt that this film opening wasn't exactly a BSR film as the characters in this film are connoted to be middle class from the car they have, to the the clothes they wear and they house they live in. Most BSR films focus on working or underclass characters and so this film does not follow the conventions of a normal BSR film. Overall I gave this film 36 but the actual mark this film got was 42.

Maze

Maze's opening sequence is about a girl who has been abused by her boyfriend and has decided to leave the area to try and get away from him. The music in the opening sequence helps establish the plot but even though it does this well I think it doesn't work with the film as it seems to up beat.It also is too loud and it makes it hard for us to hear what the girl is saying. I felt it had a good range of shots and had a clear plot. The mise-en-scene for this worked really well and you can see that the students put a lot of thought into it. For example you can see the bruises and the blood on the girls face and the clothes they are wearing like hoodies which you would commonly see in a BSR film.

There was a good use of location and settings as we follow the character from where she lives all the way to the train station and can see a lot of different settings this helps establish the genre of this film and where it's set. There was a wide rnage of camera shots which helped keep the film interesting for the audience. The mark I gave this film was 45 but the actual score it got was 56.

Analysis of mise-en-scene in This is England

This Is England Mise-en-Scene

In this scene the character Shaun has walked into a shop and demanded 100 packets of cigarettes and various alcoholic beverages when the shop owner refuses Shaun starts to act aggressive and then his friends come in and steals from the shop.  

Production Design

Time Code (0:02)

 From this screenshot we can denote that the character is wearing a blazer and a checkered shirt this connotes to the audience that this film is set in the 80's as this was the style back then and you wouldn't see many people wearing something like this now especially kids as young as the character shown. This costume shows this character wants to be a mod and be part of the revived mod movement. The representation this has on the character is that he wants the U.K to devolve back to the mid-1960's connoting that he may want England to become like what it was before where coloured people did not have the same rights meaning that he could be racist and that a main theme of this film is racism. This displays the BSR genre as a type of film which likes to confront issues and particular race.

Lighting

Time Code (0:27)

In this scene the shop keeper is chasing Shaun we can denote that the lighting used is natural which adds to the sense of realism created by this film connoting that this film is real and.  BSR conventionally use natural lighting for this reason. The representation this gives of the BSR genre is that it is trying to use it's film to represent real life and wants the audience ti understand that the issues dealt with in this film are issues that need to be dealt with in real life.

Actors

Time Code (0:006)

The actor Thomas Turgoose chosen to play Shaun in this film had never had any acting experience before this film and was chosen because he is very similar to the character in this film. Choosing him to play Shaun adds to the realism of this film as it is showing that people like this truly exist and that this film is an accurate interpretation of real life. The actor looks like a normal person and not the kind of person we conventionally see in films creating the illusion for the audience that this film is real.

Colour

(0:48)

In this screenshot Combo has called the other people to come into the shop. We can denote the colour is changed is that they have increased the saturation to bring out the colours better, this denotes that the film is set in the past as earlier films had brighter colours than they do now. The representation this gives about the characters is that they are from the 80's.

Era

Time Code (1:12)

In this part of the scene the group are stealing things from the shop, they sweets you can see them stealing are denoted to be stealing sweets which you would no longer see sold in corner shops in the modern day this connotes to the audience that this film was set in the past. From what the character is wearing we can denote that he is wearing that ripped blue jeans and the man behind the one carrying the sweets is wearing a leather jacket this connotes to the audience that this film is set in 80's.

In my film I am going to use natural lighting as it is a convention of BSR films and it adds a greater sense of realism to the film.  The era my film is going to be set in is the modern era as this makes it easier for me as I don't need to find specific props and can just use what is there and don't need to use particular locations as I can just use my local ones. This will make my production design. I would prefer to use Actors who are similar to the characters I have created but there is a very limited sample for what actors I can use so it may just be easier to use base the characters around particular people I know and use them as actors.  In my film I'm going to use a blue/grey tint as this makes the film look darker and more bleak.

Production Log Week 1

This week we began preparation for our new piece of coursework which is to make a 2 minute introduction to a British social realism film, this week was used to give us an understanding of what the BSR genre of film is and what the particular conventions of one are. We briefly talked about example of some BSR films like This is England and Fish Tank and what the general plot for these films are.

This week we also looked at past students work and was asked to grade it using the mark scheme given to us, this helped us to get an understanding of what our final product should look like and also what the exam board are looking for in the film to give top marks. From looking at past students work it showed me that editing is very important in this and especially sound editing as students lost marks for the music being too loud and making it hard to hear what characters were saying.

We were shown 7 intros and had to write down what we felt the strengths and weaknesses of the peice were and then asked to give a final grade out of 60.

To help us grade the pieces we were given a mark scheme, particular things which the mark scheme mention to loom out for when grading are to see whether the material is appropriate for the target audience, if it has used titles appropriately, does it sound use sound images and editing appropriately, camera language and is there a clear story established with the help of editing.

This week we also looked at Mise-en-scene which includes; production design, lighting, actors, colour design and era and way to remember this is P.L.A.C.E. 

Product design: This is the props, setting and costumes in a film. In most BSR films the filming in done on location and is normally set where it's filmed the costumes people wear are normal clothes that the actors might wear everyday.

Lighting: There are 3 types of lighting which is artificial natural and ambient in most BSR films natural lighting is used to establish the realism of the film.

Actors:  This form of mise-en-scene focuses on what kind of person was cast and why

Colour Design: Focuses on the hue the film is on most BSR films normally have a blue tint

Era: When was it set and how is it conveyed in the film what can we see that tells us it's from this era.

Edit Workshop-Evaluation

180 Degree Rule

For the 180 degree rule I made sure to not cross the imaginary line running through the middle of the shot and keep all shots on one side of it. This meant all the shots had to be only on one side for example if we wanted to use 2 different 2 shots we had to make sure they were on both sides. If you cross the 180 degree rule it will confuse the audience as on the screen it will look like the 2 characters swapped positions. In my film the way we used the 180 degree rule was that we made sure to keep the camera on only one side of the table and only place the camera on the places allowed on the imaginary semicircle created.

Rule Of Thirds

In my film we used the rule of thirds to keep the audience engaged with the film as the eyes are a point of interest in a shot.

Match On Action

Match on action is an editing technique used to allow a scene to flow as the shots appear to carry on directly after the previous one has finished, in my film I used match on action to show a character opening and walking through a door. In the first shot we can see the character partially open the door and in the next shot we can see him carry on opening the door from that same position.

Challenges Faced During Production

During production the challenges we faced was that the room we wanted to use for filming sometimes had other people in there as it is used for conferences so some days we could not film using that room. Next time i would make sure we would use a room that wasn't used as frequently so we would have more time to film. Another challenge we faced was that for a large amount of the filming we only had 2 of the 3 people in our group as the third member had to go home for personal reasons. This made particular shots harder to film like tracking or panning shots as a result of this one shot which wanted to be a pan we had to make a still shot we can see it here.

 If we were to film again we would choose to film on days which suited the group best. In our storyboard we used a hammer to try and intimidate the hostage but when we actually filmed we did not have access to a hammer so we had to adjust the storyboard and instead try to make it so that the antagonist would intimidate him with threats, if i was to do this project again i would make it so that we could actually meet our idea.

As we can see in this picture of our storyboard a hammer is used to get the information out of the hostage but in the actual film we used no such hammer. This happened because I had not planned effectively and should have realized the limits of the project when planning.

Challenges Faced During Post-Production

During post production a challenge i faced was that the shots had very little continuity with each other and i felt didn't flow together as a film should if i were to edit again i would make sure the shots had better continuity. Another problem i faced was that we couldn't find any time to re-film as Charlie had an art deadline to meet and the one day he had time to film i forgot to bring the suit, so we couldn't re film. This meant i had to do whatever i could do in editing to try and make it flow better, thankfully we didn't break the 180 degree rule so the need to re-film was minimal.

Overall Strengths

The strengths of my piece were that we followed all rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule and we have good examples of match on action and shot reverse shot. I feel our idea was quite creative as we did something original with the brief given to us.

Overall Weaknesses

The weaknesses of my piece are that there is not much continuity between the shots as you can see the character jump from one area of the room to another with no shot showing him move there, the same works for body positions one shot he would be standing to the left the next he would be facing forward. Another weakness was that the lighting was not how i wanted it as the lights for the room we use were automatic meaning that you couldn't turn them off with a switch. When i had originally planned this film i wanted to use low key lighting to let the audience know that this film had a darker tone unfortunately because of the lighting in the room i was not able to do this.

In the first screen shot from the film The Godfather we can see they have used low key lighting effectively which establishes the tone of the film, from the screen shot we can see of my film we have not used low key lighting and used natural lighting, this gives a lighter tone than I hoped it would have been.

The acting in the film was another weakness but as we don't get graded on our acting so I'm not that worried.

I feel that i did not use the digital technology we had available to its full potential as I could have used iMovie more effectively for example because i would have preferred to have low key lighting i could have used iMovie to chance this but since i didn't have the  knowledge of how to do this i was unable to change it

Overall Improvements 

The overall improvements i would like to make to my work if i got to do it again would be to use better actors as even though our piece is not graded on the quality of acting, poor acting can take away from the overall quality leaving us with lower marks. As we can see in the screen shot I'm meant to look threatening, this does not happen and this actually takes away from the suspense created by the piece.

Another improvement i would make is to make sure that the film runs more smoothly as the final version you can see that the character jumps from certain positions to another this was because when we were filming we didn't film it in chronological order because the room we used was full of chairs and tables and to have the camera at a certain position required us moving all the tables and chairs so we instead just filmed all the shots that was going to be from one position together and then when we moved the camera we filmed all the shots that were going to be in that shot and so on. An example of this which you can see in my film is we see the character stand up and is still in mid movement when the shot is finished but in the next shot he is standing still and facing a different way.

Draft & Final Version for The Continuity Editing Exercise

Draft Version

Final Version