Day 1 of filming

This is a screen grab from the first day of filming. Overall, it was a successful shooting day and we managed to get half of our most complicated scene covered. We encountered several problems for example lighting. At first the lighting was perfect - we had natural day light as well as the artificial lighting but when it got late and darker, we lost all ambient light. Seeing as we only had one lamp that was on the right hand side, it put the scene off balance by lighting up only half of our scene. When shooting side shots from the left hand side we had no light and we couldn't see ADEELs face. This became a problem as we were often using shot reverse shots so we needed to overcome this. I put a daylight lamp a few meters away from ADEEL so it wouldn't light him up too much. This gave the right amount of light that was needed to be able to see ADEEL.

This shot in particular was my favourite. I set up the scene by placing props on a table to make it seem like they had been sitting there for a while. This was done by placing bottles, ash trays, keys, wallets to make it seem as natural as possible. I got the actors to 'live' in the space for a while before i filmed so they could familiarise themselves with the set hence forth being more realistic and natural. Fortunately we had a lot of space to move around giving us the opportunity to use various shots.

In terms of sound we used a mirantz and a boom mic. This was ideal for our style of filming because we're using a lot fast action shots meaning the boom is able to move around and follow the action.

My Film Poster

Inspired by Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth film poster, i chose to use the same technique of having a large empty space between the character in the foreground and the text beneath it. This technique represents isolation and shows the character's loneliness. In terms of content, i chose to use the tree in the background to show where he is - on a common - and as you can see the tree isn't close which exposes us to a large area of the common which suggests he's alone as we can't see anyone else. This is shown through the blank space between him and the tree. The character's expression is also important in representing emotion. I chose to compose his body positioning in this way to show he's clearly distressed as he holds his head in his hands and his positioning on the bench isolates him as he's chose to sit by himself. Keeping the text simple gives the viewer nothing else to be attracted to apart from the character. Using a brightly coloured or fancy text would neglect the emotion of depression within the poster and give it a sense of happiness which isn't would we're aiming for.

Composition is a key role in conforming to a particular film genre. I positioned our character slightly off centre to represent some sort unevenness. It puts the viewer on edge as we don't know why he's not centered but it represents his lack of power. I chose not to use a tag line because i felt it would take away isolation and make it seem more fictional. I've gone for the 'real' approach by using a shot from the film - This makes the image seem like a possible situation because of the lack of photoshop elements. I made a clear seperation between the text and the main focus which creates a dynamic tension focusing entirely on the character and the title. I was considering re-sizing the character to make him smaller which would make him even more powerless but i feel it works having him this size.

Nil By Mouth film poster

Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth film poster is a main influence in relation to our own poster. The elements within the poster conform to the genre of social realism of using bleak colours and lack in special effects. From looking at the image its self, it's clear that no layering in photoshop has been done because this is a shot from the film. I feel this is the best way to represent realism because of it's level of how real the situation is - its possible to recreate this scene without using photoshop or special effects.

I chose this poster because Nil By Mouth shares the same target audience as our film. By aiming at the same audience, we can use similar elements in our own poster. The simple text and colours is what we've taken from this poster because it's supposed to be aethstetically pleasing and be able to appeal to a wide audience. By using a standard text, dull colour and a still from the film implies the seriousness of the film. This poster isn't trying to glamourise the film because of its content. Its setting expectations for the audience of social realism which represents real situations. The minimalist style is used because it wants the audience to feel isolated through a lack of content. 

Colours are used to represent the emotions of the film. Dark dull colours represent the depression and even with the orange is drained and bleak. This could be used to represent the hope of the characters leading a depressed life.

The credits and information at the bottom are significantly seperate from the image it's self leaving a black hole in the middle. This makes the viewers feel isolated because there's not much visual content apart from a blank space and even when we view the image its only supported by black and white. Theres no unecessary text involved for example a tag line. By using a still from the film, it gives the audience an early insight into the film and from this particular shot the audience can immediatly tell how the film was shot and expectations are set in terms of visual content.

Analysis of our presentation

Personally, i feel that our presentation was good. Our group managed to cover most aspects of the pre-production of our film showing the audience the steps we've taken in order to have successful, useful research. By using a Prezi, we were able to smoothly present our work, making it as visual as possible and appealing to the eye. Prezi gives you enough space to move freely around the presentation which prevents it from being a slow, akward process. I feel to improve our presentation, we could have gone into more detail into each part of the production. I don't feel like we went into enough detail on cast and we failed to present a shooting schedule which is an important part in pre-production. Personally, i could have improved the quality of our presentation by pitching the plot in more depth than i did, i only briefly outlined what the plot is without including character background etc. In the production process, i've been in control of the script and storyboard. When writing the script, i had ensure it was identical to the storyboard in terms of dialoug. Overall, i feel that our presentation was good and we successfully pitched our idea's and pre-production to the audience.

Soundtrack and music

Our choice of music is important aspect of our representation of characters in certain scenes. Music that suits our genre and we feel will represent certain emotions in scenes are from genres such as hip hop and reggae. In chronological order:
Fu-schnickens - True Fuschnick
this songs use is because of it's urban style that's going to represent our character after he's left homeless. It shows signs of depression because of it's mellow old school beat.
Foreign Beggars - Hold on (remix)
This song represents the emotion in the scene after the attack. The build up works with the lead up to the argument and after it's happened the fast paced beat controls ALEXs emotion and fairly represents how he's feeling.

Inspired Locations

We've been inspired by several films including those not of our genre, to use various locations that influence the atmosphere of what we're trying to portray. Scenes from films such as This is England and kids have given us the inspiration of using life like homes and real interiors as oppossed to designing sets to give the audience the notion of realism. The mise en scene plays a key role in these situations for example worn down sofa's and cusions give the domestically used effect. The way the shot is lit also plays a key role as it determines the atmosphere whether it's a warm, ambient scene or a cold, gloomy atmosphere. Choosing the right location is a crutial stage in representation of characters and how they're portrayed by the way they act in these locations.

We've looked at several locations are all still open for use such as estate blocks and the flats inside. These are perfect for our 'at home' scene as it represents our main characters background. We've also looked at different roads and streets for the 'leaving home' scene. While looking at these we had to take into account external factors such as how busy the road is, copyrights, lighting and others. For our last scene we wanted to use an urban landscape which represents a grim atmosphere so we've considered parts in and around South London.

Rough script of the fight scene

EXT.EVE.FRONT DOOR

(Bangs door) waits a for a moment (bangs door again while banging again ADEEL opens door)

Adeel: Wh-the f***, wh- what u doing man cool

Alex: It’s nothing man, its nothing safe (enters house and walks down hallway) What you been saying anyway man?

INT.EVE.FRONT ROOM

(Fades into 2-shot of the boys drinking, smoking having general conversation then…)

Alex: My dad was telling me (side close up of ALEX) how, there’s over 4 million non British citizens living in England…4 million, think about it…

( Foreign Beggars – Hold on remix gently comes in)

Adeel: C’mon man, shut u-

Alex: Think about it man…

Adeel: What, you don’t actually believe this shit do you?..

Alex: (ALEX goes silent)Think about it, 4 million that’s all im saying…

Adeel: Fam this ain’t you, your sounding like your dad

Alex: He’s right, he’s not racist, he’s a realist and he’s unemployed for wha-

Adeel: Nah nah nah nah your dads unemployed because he’s a lazy prick

Alex: What? Say that again

Adeel: Your dads a racist!

Alex: Who the f*** you talking to (stands up and try’s to grab ADEELs face, ADEEL hits his hand away) – (As beat drops ALEX brutally attacks ADEEL)

 - After the attack ALEX begins to realise what he’s done and regrets it. He grieves at his best friend as he lies on the floor helpless – He panics before running down the stairs and exiting the house.

I chose to script this scene seperately as it's invetibaly going to be the hardest to shoot.

Conventions of a Drama

The film genre Drama depends mostly on the development of realistic characters and the characters everyday expierences. Dramas often cover the often raised social issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, poverty, crime, racial issues and portrays how the characters face these or similar issues. Films in this genre often includes graphic scenes and scenes of violence and becomes extremely hard hitting to the audience. Very similiar to social realism, Drama's use similar filming techniques to portray characters and situations. They're similar when conforming to conventions by using mes en scene such as dramatic lighting, character persona(costume) and sound techniques - all of which are often dull. Well known dramas include The shawshank redemption, The God father, Citizen Kane and Forrest Gump. Films in this genre often includes graphic scenes and scenes of violence.

Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets. See also melodramas, epics (historical dramas), or romantic genres. Dramatic biographical films (or "biopics") are a major sub-genre, as are 'adult' films (with mature subject content).  - http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Analyse of a short film

The Red Balloon

Directed by Albert Lamorisse in 1956, The Red Balloon appealled to me because of Lamorisse' unique style of his period of time. He used cinematogrpahy techniques that were so original and techniques that had never been used  before. In particular i admire his use of long shots and the way he manipulates angles that conveys  the state of emotion the boy is at. I feel he chose the location well which gave him the space and different uses of angles to do these types of shots. Colour is used in a very delicate way as he uses it to portray certain acpects of the film for example the bleak colours contrast with the vibrant red of the balloon that connotes danger and threat from the other kids.
Sound and Audio is a big part of the film - he uses limited dialog only for parts where it seems necessary, in the other parts the movement from the red balloon represents the atmosphere and emotion. Sounds also used carefully in the sense that he uses small sound effects to represent a peaceful enviroment.
Although he uses the camera extremely well, one part that didn't appeal to me was a long take of the balloon as its falling and about to die. I felt lamorisse could have used techniques inside the mes en scene like lighting to represent the death of the balloon that could have influenced the emotion that the scene gives off in comparison to the ambient lighting.

Overall The Red Balloon is not only my favourite short film but one of my favourite films because of the way its shot and more importantly its originality that has inspired me.

What is a short film?

The term short film comes from the North American film industry in the early period of cinema. The film time varies dependent on its region for example in North America it's 20 - 40 minutes and in Europe its generally seen as a lot less than 15 minutes. Genre types of short films range from short animated clips, documentary's on a short subject, music videos, soundies and abstract short films. Short films are useful in creating emotions over a short amount of time through story telling. Heres a short film that relates to the social realism/drama genre https://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00bbmf2