Production log 2

Hey everyone!

This week we got to watch the enthralling film 'The Selfish Giant' . Whilst watching the movie ,we analysed different areas that were represented to fit British social realism conventions.
We also looked at archetypes in BSR films such as;

• The lost boy
• The failing man
• The weak but aggressive man (bully)
• The downtrodden woman
• The saviour
• The follower
• The female with a conscience

This helped me think of ways I could explore storylines that fit the BSR genre through the characters and how my characters will be presented in my work.

So far, I am planning to use a teenage boy as the lost boy who is from an urban area which was inspired from the grisly estate from Fish tank , which is a BSR film I watched in my spare time. The follower could be the lost boy's bestfriend or brother and the failing man could be the father.When I think of how a bully would be denoted with certain wardrobe traits, I think of a drug-dealer.I still am currently planning further how my characters will be represented amongst the mise-en-scene.

In class we also got to discover different camera shots that we could use in our production, one shot I am interested in particular is DOF.

Depth of field

-Depth of field is used in both photography and filming. DOF is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear more sharp , for example if two people in my footage were having a conversation , I would apply more focus at the person closest to the camera and have the second person out of focus or vice versa.

What else did I focus on this week?

Location

This week I learnt how different locations were used to represent a characters social class as well as their regional identity.Most BSR films use run-down estates and broken building establishments to set the scene.

For my production work , I am thinking of having the establishing shot used first which will be a track around a dirty estate.

In BSR films ,the people who would be in the background were just ordinary people from the area which gave the audience some surveillance as to how these estates and urban areas are really like.This is something I will also consider when filming,instead of worrying about background noises and extra background characters,I will leave it natural to keep the realism and to really represent the location than having it fixed.

Influential Texts

My favourite British social realism film is Ill manors.The actors were just ordinary kids from the surrounding area and the settings and locations are not far from where I live.Ill manors is an inspirational film because it represents different characters of different ages suffering in their daily grind.The film was written by Ben Drew (Plan B) who isn't a professional hollywood director, he is actually from the East London area, so his experience and personal attributions really gave the film more heart. Ill manors tackles political and social struggles.If you are interested in this film , feel free to watch the music video from Plan B himself which summarises the film.

Further research

In class we learnt about different social realist codes and conventions , but I have done some further research on how particular film directors have given their films a gritty representation.These conventions I will use in my own production.Here is a list;

Aesthetic conventions

• Handheld camera - an almost documentary style- I will do this when filming around the location.
• Gritty settings - I will be using urban areas such as an estate or flat.
• Naturalistic lighting - To keep my work real, I will use natural lighting and no artifical lighting , but I will be using a blue overcolour to create a much more somber tone.
• Improvised elements to script - The dialogue between my actors will not be scripted and will be improvised. If  I film a conversation , I will film a few times to get different shots to keep my audience interested.

Functional conventions

• Real life issues tackled - I will create a beginning scenario in my production , because I am only working on a two minute clip, I will only hint at a storyline.
• Characters with depth - I want my audience to feel personal identity with my characters so I will ordinary people as BSR films hardly ever use hollywood actors.
• Usually have a political message - raising the concerns of the time - I am thinking of using actors around my age to represent the youth and how they are seen from a different perspective to link to the news we often see about riots and asbo behaviour today.