Shooting the sequence

I tried to convey my first thoughts and ideas in the shooting of the film, however this proved testing as the conditions and situations prior to the film affected my intentions greatly. Firstly when i went to the field I had planned to use I discovered that the long, meadow like grass had been mown away, which i personally felt took away from the atmosphere I had planned on creating. I used the field i had intended to use despite the changes to the look of the setting, as I preferred the surrounding area in comparison to other locations i looked at after discovering the change at the original field. Another complication was to do with the colour design for the sequence. The weather conditions on the day set to film were not as bright as i had expected, meaning that the colouring at lighting of the scene will be a lot duller than I had planned. This however is not a massive loss as on reflection I feel that this dull lighting will bring my production the generic social realism style of gloomy-ness as I was swaying to a more art house styling of my production much like Lynne Ramsey rather than Ken loach. The final hindering of the film was that my Brother who was set to play one of the lead characters (one of the two lead boys) became ill during the week previous to the Sunday we were going to film. This made me unsure whether filming could go on or whether i would be able to find a stand-in in time. Luckily my brother regained some energy ready for filming nevertheless he was not of full health meaning he didn’t seem as energetic and juvenile as I wanted him to seem in the scene, slightly taking away from the narrative and mood of the film.

planning

I have formed the logistics for my production. i have two 15 year old males to play my lead characters, this fits the age range perfectly for the social realist genre. One is my younger brother ben and the other his best friend JJ is feel the use of actual best friends will help create the sense of friendship in the lead characters as the boys will appear comfortable around each other as they should. The character of the girl is going to be played by my friend Abi , although this role is short i have taken inspiration from Lynne Ramsey and used all familar actors for my production , i hope this will give it the more personal affect and give me the feel and atmostphere i have intention of creating. i have planned to set out at about 2-3 in the afternoon as i feel this is the perfect time for shooting to create the intended effect as this time of day is bright yet shadowy. i need this bright low sun lighting to make the situation seem happier , to establish my initial equilibrium, this also being a time of the day where the light is stark the tunnel scene where the boys find the girl will be more affective.



Time managment
Thursday - assess the field i have made plans to use for filming.
Sunday- Filming day 2 o' clock meeting at field , scene set in this time frame so from then onwards will be a realistic time.

Sunday afternoon is arranged to meet to film , the time frame set is apropriate for lighting and fits around the actors avalible time.








these are 2 examples of my story board, one from the very begining and one from near the end. in the examples i have chosen to use a range of shots, these are as follows:
-wide angled pan
-longshot
-medium close up
-medium longshot
-closeup

i think with a vary of shots i have chosen to use the sequence should be effective in creating the narrative at a very early stage.

Analysis of the opening of a film

I have chosen to produce a social realist piece for my project; I feel this with my available resources and personal preference will be a logical choice for my project. I have chosen to analysis ‘This is England’, this is a new age take on social realism which has had great success with not only the specialist film audience but also a more mainstream audience through its catchy sound track and its close representation of the skin head culture and the national front movement. I think the target audience for the film would originally be more film literate audiences with a specific preference for social realism and other directors work such as Loach. There is the recognisable presentation of political movements and situations of the era in the very beginning showing a montage of clips from the time in which the film is set, these include shots of Margaret Thatcher, the Falkland's War, skinhead culture and riots throughout England. There is also the character role of Shaun, a young man caught in a situation which he is not in control of with only the desire to better himself, which is particularly typical to British social realism and the British new wave. I find this typical character role interesting and I feel that with the content I have chosen this will evoke the empathy I want the film to convey, however I think I am going to experiment with having more than one main character, even if they will both be from the same background and the same age. The location of the film is key in building a social realist genre. The film is set in a working class area, which is a very strong narrative convention as the genre is nearly almost in the point of view of a working class character role which allows the director to work around very controversial and hard hitting social and political issues. The introduction of Shaun is very interesting as there is initially a shot of a photograph and the reinforcement of the year shown in text no screen. The shot of the photograph is extremely important in creating a narrative expectation for the audience, especially a more intellectual audience as they will recognise this a enigma code and be intrigued by its initial unapparent connexion to the narrative. We of course then realise its extremely important as the situations Shaun experiences are almost brought on by the death of his father (the man in the photograph) The opening of ‘This is England’ has made me realise the sheer amount of footage I will need to create impact in the very few minutes of the beginning of the film. I will need to set up narrative expectation which is going to be relevant to the issues of the time I’m setting my production in, the present day. I also want to try and create a enigma code some where within the 2 minutes; although this will prove to be difficult I would like to include one to reach a more sophistication audience as this is one which true social realist pieces should interest.






My audience will be of C1-C2 on the Jincars scale, aged 18 onwards maybe ended at the late middle age group as the content of the genre may prove too explicit and challenging for a much older audience, just as it would for a younger audience. My audience I assume will be aspirers as the images of the working class and their troubles provoke ambition to better yourself. I think they will also be individuals or non-conformists as the genre is not typically mainstream. This will also target my film at more film literate audiences as they will go and seek more serious and realism based films instead of generic mainstream genres. Although I imagine the audience not to be of a working class area or occupation, I feel there is a possibility that they would come from this sort of background as these events and situations of the film will evoke emotion and as I said possibly creating a relation to the characters. The audience however I would imagine to be well educated and intellectual to have a preference for the social realist genre. I think my target audience would spend a lot of their free time watching films or reading a broad sheet newspaper, newspapers such as the guardian which includes a less mainstream section of reviews for film, art and literature. On the other end of the scale for my audience I think younger audiences may be interested in productions in this genre if they have an awareness of film or study film at a higher education level.








Synopsis

Two young best friends Ben and JJ are average teenagers, half way between childhood and adulthood they strive for acceptance by those around them, leading them to act out. The Sunday when their worlds get turned upside down was a day like any other day, boredom stricken they adventure out into the back fields of their council estate, tearing up the scenery around them and messing around as boys their age should. This is when they discover the corpse of a girl they recognise from the estate. They’re naivety shattered they realise she has overdosed thus capturing they’re attention into the highly dangerous drug scene of the area and emerging them into it before they can even realise.