SOCIAL REALISM FILMS - Films that are associated with real life situations featuring everyday working class people who suffer in their daily grind.
This week in class , we were introduced to the concept of 'British Social Realism' films and what was needed to make them successful.We were given a chance to look at some past work from a previous year so we could interpret how this genre of film should be presented.
After watching the previous year's work ,I picked up on the typical features I would need.
Polysemic title- A title with more than one meaning.
Gritty graphics and titles with no background - This was seen to be very common with BSR films.
Somber music - This added to the unhappy mood that was to be portrayed.
Lowkey and blue correction lighting - BSR films are gritty and pessimistic and don't usually have happy endings , so the lighting needs to reflect this.
Unvarnished editing
From the introduction to this topic , I also discovered that actors would not be famous in BSR films and instead, be everyday people or unknown actors to add to the realism of the film and so the audience could find more personal identity with the characters if they were played by your average person rather than a high payed hollywood actor/actress.
I am looking forward to learning more about the brief and working with this particular genre of film as it represents the everyday British lifestyle and could be used to portray a message.
Below are some BSR films that I have found and will be watching in the next few days.
Today I will be evaluating my own work on 'The encounter' by analyzing the planning , production and editing processes I had faced.
Rule of thirds
I have made sure to keep the actors eyes 1/3 of screen to give their facial expression and language more focused.
Match on action
The match on action was much easier to film than anticipated. I filmed the actor walking into the room twice. Once from one side of the door and the second from inside the room on the other side of the door. This was then edited to make it look like you could see the actor walking into a room , it shows a shot from behind , the actor making her way through the door and then once into the room. This was a good example of continuity editing as it was clear with no transitions or not jumpy editing present.
During production there were very few problems , but there was still some things that could of made filming and editing much easier. In a more technical approach , the tripod wasn't always at the right height for filming as we wanted to originally include a birds eye view shot , but this was difficult to do so , so we cut this out. The lighting of the drama studio was often too lowkey and dark in certain angles , so we had to make the lighting more brighter but this often took away the mood of the setting, but we overcame this by using the studio lighting rather than artificial room lighting.
The biggest problem was the 180 degree rule breaking, during editing we had realized the rule had been broken.We tried to re-film but the person who played the interviewer was not able to re-film due to their own schedule, so the 180 degree was therefore broken, so If I had the chance to re-film I would shoot the 180 degree rule again. In my opinion, breaking this rule may have theoretically given me a disadvantage but in real life film industries, not all plans work out , and I have made a good job of editing regardless and did the best I could in my situation , so although this may have been a problem I had faced, I had learn alot from it and it has given me an insight on how filming and editing problems can easily occur but can just as easily be concealed.
Post-production was personally my favorite part of creating 'The encounter' as I enjoy editing, but if I was to edit again , I would of used more of the footage I had.I was very adamant on making my work short and to the point but I could of edited in more shots to add to the story line.
I would rather re-film these parts because I felt like the parts I didn't use were not put in because they could of been made better, for example , the interviewer was meant to throw her chair , but the chair was out of shot too quickly which was too hard to edit smoothly for continuity without looking like the camera was out of place, so if I had the chance to work on this again , I would re-film this and also re edit it.
One of my overall strengths of my work , is my creativity.My theme and my ideas were much different than the others in my class which made my work stand out more.I was creative with my props ,such as creating the newspaper article myself, using fake blood and making an outfit for Sally.
Another strength I had was with my digital technology because the cameras were very efficient to use and the iMacs had iMovie already installed so editing was sleek.Logistically I needed different lighting than the average natural and artificial and low-key type, so it was my idea to use the studio lights for colour ,such as red, to give our finished work an edge and set a much darker mood. This made my location a strength as it was easy to work with and had all the necessary equipment such as the blocks and curtains and studio lights.
Here is my first version of "The encounter". I have decided to post my first draft to show you my progress as I edit , I still have yet to complete my editing but here is a preview :-
During filming we also had to include shot
reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action and rule of
thirds. It was very difficult to film these as it was our first
time to attempt this. I used the shot reverse shot for a conversation
between the antagonist and the interviewer.This was quite easy to film as all
of these shots were mid shots and the camera was placed in one place. So
filming was successful. The match on action was very difficult as we decided to
put that at the beginning of the footage of the interviewer opening the door,
hopefully, during the editing we will get the match on action shot in sync. Throughout
the whole footage we had to include rule of thirds, this was rather simple as
we just made sure the eyes were 1/3 of the screen and the horizon 2/3 of the
screen. The 180 degree rule was the toughest ,but after trying a few times we
got there. Overall, we got four of these shots and they are the main ones
to make our footage successful.
Although I have yet to finish editing, so far I have really enjoyed working on my footage as iMovie is easy to use and there was no trouble uploading my footage onto to the Mac computers. There was however, an issue with some of the lighting being too lowkey for some shots, but I overcame this by editing the contrast and exposure. I have yet to add my 180 degrees rule and music , which I look forward to adding on.
This week we have been planning our short snippet to edit using different types of editing techniques and shots. We first planned our idea and then drew a storyboard to show how we will shoot our small scene.
Our aim is to produce a 30-60 second video of a character walking into a room , sitting down and having a conversation. We are allowed to have our own twist with this , so me and my partner have decided to go for something unique - a horror theme. We are going to use low key lighting to create a dark mood and we are going to use different camera shots to show a pace of action.
As we were filming we had to use many camera techniques and different shots. These include:
Mid shot
Close up
Long shot
Extreme close ups
Track
Low angle
and many more...
Plot of the scene - A girl called sally who is suffering from a life threatening disease, then later on Sally made a deed with the devil for her sister’s soul and her baby.
This will really engage the horror audience as the narrative is really exiting and intense.
Storyboard -
My ideas were inspired by our horror trailers we worked on for the previous year for GCSE and the thriller movies I have been watching lately. I wanted to set a popular theme to follow and did some research that 'Deals with the Devil' has been something shot in several movies and shows before. It was easy to adapt to our brief because the scene needed little dialogue with some action.
PLANNING FOR PROPS, MUSIC AND LOCATION
We needed to create a newspaper article so we had planned to create it in powerpoint.
The music I chose had to fit the theme so I decided to try and go for something scary.
The clicking noise on the storyboard will present the clicking of a clock , highlighting how time is running out for Sally, this will provide tension for the audience and capture their attention as it suits the dark theme.
The location needed to have lowkey lighting so
we had thought of the drama room in school. We could use a red spotlight to
highlight the danger of Sally andwe could also used blackrostra blocksto create the table and chairs.
The drama room almost looked like jail witness room.
Unfortunately , to our dismay , summer is over ; however , we can still discuss our summer highlights.
Let's begin with Films!
I only got to watch one movie this summer which was "Dawn of the planet of the Apes" which has been placed as number 5 on this Summers top grossing films list.
With a short and simple summary , I would personally give this movie a solid 7/10. I enjoyed several aspects to this movie , but felt there was some room for improvements. Usually, films begin with a peaceful equilibriem , with some disruption leading to a resolution. Mark Bomback , the writer and director , followed a different narrative. The film started with a problem , with plenty of actions including resolutions and disruptions which contrasted with each other , leading to the film ending with a slightly sad tone. I found this film to be very emotional as Bomback makes you grow to like all the characters , and in the end , the Apes die anyway, infact , a grown man was crying in the cinema! I really enjoyed this movie as I love science fiction films in general , but I felt like the ending was too abrupt , especially as an audience we felt disappointed that the characters we liked ended up dying. The setting and lighting really set the somber yet warm mood to this movie and I would recommend others to watch it.
Did you watch any movies this Summer ?
SONGS
I am pretty sure you have heard the song 'Wiggle' by Jason Derulo. This song hit the internet pretty fast , people were filming vine videos of their own wiggle dance , as well as tweeting about it. The song is catchy and it has a fun concept to it , but , it doesn't fit the genre of music I listen to at all. It was spread across on social media sites which is how I even came to know about it. I'm not sure I even enjoy the song but it has become so popular and would be rated as one of the best summer songs of 2014 , I do like how the music video itself did kind of show the summer mood which did make it more appealing for the holidays.
I do have one question ...
How do you fit all that in them jeans?
TV SHOWS
Apart from watching trash tv re-runs such as 'Say yes to the dress' I did enjoy some of the new summer shows that had come out. One interesting show that was released was on MTV called 'Virgin territory' , now we all know this is kind of a touchy , and well...awkward subject to talk about, but the show was actually awesome to watch. The reality series was centred around random young adults who had yet to face their first sexual experience , it was funny to watch because it was really embarrassing for them , but it was also interesting to see how some peoples choices were often influenced by their background. Watching this was a good break from watching 'American horror story' because it was entirely different. If you haven't watched it , check out the trailer here.
WEBSITES
Considering I'm a teenager , the websites I go on are mostly social media sites. Instagram has been a great way for me to connect with my friends as we can upload pictures from the summer and see what everyone has been up to. I loved watching some peoples attempts at the ice bucket challenge which has been floating around lately , and it was great to see where people went on holiday.
STORIES IN THE NEWS
Most of the stories you'll find on the news , will be centered around world issues. Such as the whole debate between Europe and Ukraine.
"Europe, the feckless sanctioner of Russia; Ukraine the debt-ridden oligarchy in need of US aid to pay its gas bills to Russia. And what of Russia? Putin actually lost effective control of the whole country and has spun this defeat on the Street as somehow a victory over Obama in capturing his own port with masked Special Forces and probably ruining the Black Sea tourist trade in the process. Cry me a river! Sanctions have at least staved off an invasion that spared enough of a Presidential election that even Obama could claim a victory of sorts that the election was accomplished despite Russian provocations (but no invasion -- thank you, sanctions)! Meanwhile, just when Europe should be grateful that it has NATO and the EU to keep it from complete subservience to the same Russian gas pipeline that serves Kiev, its voters seemed to take out their economic frustrations on those same EU institutions. Spare us, at least for the summer."
The points above are from huffington post , which delivers their opinion with a sense of witty scorn. If you click here , you will read a much different approach to the news. This gives ethical issues such as this , turn into more of a debate , as not everyone agrees and different institutions have different approaches to such headlines. If we all agreed on a solution , then the news would be much simpler and there wouldn't be as much conflict. I do however, like how different institutions state their own opinion in a subtle way , whether its with unbiased articles or posts written with a certain tone. It allows us to register these issues and see them in a different light.
The news this summer was not really centered around Summer itself , which is something I would like to see next year!
