Continuity Task 2

Film Opening Evaluation - Q5

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Film Still 1.

The postman here, and the houses surrounding him, makes this picture typically British. By filming this we have, hopefully, attracted the audience in terms of that they can relate to it.

Film Still 2.

In this film still our character is going through photographs before she leaves her house. People can relate to this in the sense that everyone at some time or another has reminisced over past events.




Film Still 3.




We attract the audience here by showing everything in the character's point of view as she runs - the hectic, jagged way the wall has been filmed as she runs past it gives an insight into the way the character is feeling.




Film Still 4.

This is the end of our opening sequence. The character is biking away and leads the audience to question where she might go next - it leaves them in suspense. Our aim in doing this was to attract the audience into watching more.

Film Certificates - 18

'18' – Suitable only for adults

No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.

In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC's public consultations, at '18' the BBFC's guideline concerns will not normally override the wish that adults should be free to chose their own entertainment, within the law. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:

* where material or treatment appears to the Board to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – e.g. any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which is likely to promote the activity. The Board may also intervene with portrayals of sexual violence which might, e.g. eroticise or endorse sexual assault.
* the more explicit images of sexual activity – unless they can be exceptionally justified by context and the work is not a 'sex work' as defined below.

In the case of videos and DVDs, which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent. For the same reason, and because of the different way in which they are experienced, the Board may take a more precautionary approach in the case of those digital games which are covered by the Video Recordings Act.
Sex Education at ‘18’

Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safe sex and health, exceptions to the normal constraints on explicit images may be made in the public interest. Such explicit detail must be kept to the minimum necessary to illustrate the educational or instructional points being made.
Sex Works at ‘18’

Sex works are works, normally on video or DVD, whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing material which may be simulated are generally passed ‘18’, while sex works containing clear images of real sex are confined to the ‘R18’ category.

Film Certificates - 15

'15' – Suitable only for 15 years and over

No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video or DVD.
Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (eg 'fuck'). But the strongest terms (eg 'cunt') will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.
Violence

Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
Imitable techniques

Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

Film Certificates - 12A/12

12A – Suitable for 12 years and over. No-one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. No-one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video or DVD. Responsibility for allowing under-12s to view lies with the accompanying or supervising adult.
Theme

Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.
Language

The use of strong language (eg 'fuck') must be infrequent. Racist abuse is also of particular concern.
Nudity

Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.
Sex

Sexual activity may be implied. Sex references may reflect what is likely to be familiar to most adolescents but should not go beyond what is suitable for them.
Violence

Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated.
Imitable techniques

Dangerous techniques (eg combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Horror

Sustained moderate threat and menace are permitted. Occasional gory moments only.
Drugs

Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or instructional.

UK FILM COUCIL

Today we are looking at Q3 of the film opening evaluation:

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We have looked at the UK Film Council and found that they have two types of funding - the premiere fund, which provides £8 million a year to finance production of popular, mainstream films, for example Stormbreaker, Severance, Miss Potter and Becoming Jane, and the The New Cinema Fund, which releases £5 million a year to innovative film-makers, helping to back movies like Red Road, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, This is England and London to Brighton.

The New Cinema Fund - What we're looking for

* Fresh, original and dynamic work in any style or genre
* Diversity and innovation
* New and cutting edge filmmaking talent
* Films from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers
* Films from across the UK
* Scripts that have been substantially developed
* Films with a secured UK theatrical or high profile digital release – or clear potential to do so

Similarities between our character and characters in other British Social Realist films

We feel that the character in our film was similar to the girl fifth from the left in this photo - Vicky McClure in This Is England. Her don't-give-a-shit attitude resembled that of the girl in our film opening and McClure, or 'Lol' as she was named in 'This Is England' is level headed and realizes when a problem needs to be fixed. Our character may not have been level headed but she recognized that she had a problem and needed to sort it out.

Our Final cut....

This is our final cut. We ran out of time with our editing and had to chuck on some music and end title, so its not the best it could be....

Evaluation Rough

Media Studies - Opening sequence evaluation

For our media task, my group and I produced the opening sequence to a British social realism film. The end result wasn’t as good as we had hoped it to be but overall I feel we did well.

In terms of using the conventions of British social realist films, I think we succeeded. To find the conventions of realist dramas we looked online and also looked at films such as ‘This Is England’ and ‘Trainspotting’. We found that the films usually included everyday, working class characters and involved a struggle of some sort. They were also quite gritty and the filming techniques were mostly basic – no special effects seemed to be used. This improved the film type objective to represent ‘real life’.

First of all in our film opening we tried to film footage of everyday Britain. We include a postman, cyclists and a typical British bus. The camera also moves slowly up the road we filmed on, showing rows of what are mostly council houses. This introduced the emphasis on a working class setting – plus the historical period i.e. the buses. The ‘struggle’ we tried to incorporate was portrayed using a voiceover:

“I find it hard to say anything anymore. I can’t hold a conversation with anyone about anything unless it’s got something to do with what I knew 3 years ago – my mind hasn’t soaked up anything ever since. Maybe I’m ignorant, maybe I’m stupid. Maybe I’ve just plain and simple fucked up, but once you admit that, you’ve just accepted that you’re not going to get anywhere further than the mental age of 16. I’m dissatisfied and completely bored. I’m Jack in his shitty little box. It ends. The alcohol and drugs don’t come with the party anymore, the party comes with them. They’re the priority, the main factor. It was a laugh and it was a lesson. It was when we was very young.”

We hoped this would show that our character was battling with sorts of addictions and dissatisfaction in herself. We also film her packing clothes into a bag and leaving her house. We hear her father ask where she is going and she doesn’t answer, but runs away instead. This showed difficulties within her home life, too.

That particular part of the film leads us to another convention of opening sequences: encouraging the audience to ask questions. Our intentions were that the audience would question why she was leaving her home and where her journey would take her later in the film.

We don’t release much information about the character with our filming, but the voiceover we included lets people know about her lifestyle. She drinks, she takes drugs and is unsure what she is doing in life except that. I feel this character is representative of a social group that is almost unaccounted for – people who don’t really have any aims in life but intoxicate themselves to distract their mind from that very fact. The youths you see drinking on the street who people might call ‘yobs,’ however from an inside point of view, which we intended for the story to show – the social group we represent is titleless.

The kind of media our product would be distributed under would be film, perhaps an independent institution as it does not seem mainstream enough for any large institution; it’s certainly not a Hollywood film. We could also work on a low budget for the film because, as previously said, the filming we need to represent ‘real life’ is very basic.

This film could attract a large scope of people, first of all, generally adults and teenagers: the character could be someone a teenager resembles, or someone an adult used to resemble. But the audience does not have to find themselves in this character to be interested. Its documentary style could attract anyone who is interested in class issues or simply of the working class population in the country we live in, Britain.

We attract this audience with details like costume – lots of people can relate to a teenager in jeans and a jumper. Similarly, teenagers and adults alike can relate to home life struggles e.g. the hostility of the character towards her father. We also leave a sort of cliff-hanger with the question of what happens to the girl later in the story – we hoped this would encourage the audience to want to watch more.

In constructing the product, I feel I should have gotten more acquainted with the technologies of Final Cut. Besides the filming and ideas, we split the tasks of producing the film opening between the three of us when perhaps we should have been more equally involved in all aspects. I did become more skilled at producing a soundtrack but feel that this wasn’t proved to its potential in the end result. I liked the soundtrack I made and thought it to be well fitting to our theme but due to not using our time as well as we should have, the music was cut in bits where it shouldn’t have been.

Using two computers was also a flaw. Because of this, I wasn’t able to perfect the music in time with the film opening footage because I was estimating where each change in music should come in. I also underestimated how long the footage lasted and therefore made the soundtrack too short. Due to this, we had to copy and paste a lot of the music towards the end which only made it sound too repetitive and tedious.

If I were to do it again I would have suggested we finished all the titles and editing first so that I could have used the computer with the footage on it to improve the soundtrack timing. Working on the music first only made it more difficult because I assumed that the way we had laid out our footage would stay like that, when obviously we changed out minds more than once, hence the soundtrack had to change time and time over.

The camerawork also could have been improved. Most of it, after editing, was fine, but some parts still seemed a little bit jumpy, in particular a part where we filmed a graffitied wall. We tried to show that this is what the girl was running past when she left her house so we decided to film it hand held. This could have worked if we went slower, but we found that our hands are a lot less steady than they look while filming. The footage looked like we had been running but was way too jumpy and therefore looked random because none of the other footage was that hectic. Next time we’ll go slower or use a tripod.

Overall we didn’t do as well as we could have but I don’t think we strayed too far from our objective – I feel that it’s clear what kind of film it is. The only thing we lacked is more time, so next time we’ll manage our time more efficiently.

Class comments....

*Clips are a bit jumpy

*Get rid of camera noises

*Don't need zoom

*Titles

*Adjust timing

*Take away sound at beginning

*Take out black and bit

*Music is good, but needs editing

*Big issue man??

Very Rough Cut

We didn't have time to edit our footage which is really disappointing, so our rough cut is pretty basic. We also need edit the sound and add a voiceover. There is also a black and white bit which we need to remove...