RESEARCH: BIFA

I have been interested in the nominations within the BIFA. In particular, the film American Honey that I was introduced to from a study day trip I went on to the BFI on 2nd November.

BIFA 

I am predominantly interested in American Honey because it had a budget of £2.7M which is relatively cheap to make. It featured a lot of unknown actors except for Shea Labeouf. The actors were young which defined our generation so I was able to relate to it more.
I first viewed this film at BFI and I found out that American Honey counted as a British film because of its British director and the cast and the key organizations involved. Andrea Arnold (director) is also well known for producing Fishtank (2009) which had a budget of only £1.3M. Compared to the Star Wars budgets of £230M. American Honeys films key themes involve the youth and hedonism and love and betrayal. These are themes and issues not usually covered by mainstream cinema. Moreover, there were no expensive sets as it was all shot on location. Part of the social realism of urban youth is that the camera work was all handheld so it gave us a sense of cinema verité which exposes the truth and reality of cinema.

In both production values and budget our film has very similar qualities to American Honey, we will also be shooting on location and have unknowns in our film. The themes we share are youth, love and realism.

PLANNING: INTERVIEWING OUR CHARACTERS

OPEN SOURCE HERE

We have decided to interview the younger sibling, older sibling and the mother to get a more in depth look into the characters and why they are in the positions that they're in. Pen Densham who is an Oscar nominated film maker and author of the book 'Riding The Alligator'. In one of the chapters of the book, he writes about how you should think up questions to ask your character, similar to a questionnaire in order to open up your own understanding on what your character may be like. 

Interview - younger sibling

Exchange in whatsapp messages between Emily and her friend. 

'Are you alright' Friend

'Yeah' Emily

'Hows your mum doing?'

'She is fine, why wouldn't she be?

'Well your sisters gone Emily, shes not coming back. You need to accept death sooner or later' 'always here to talk'

'I don't need to talk, i am with my sister'

'What?'

'I am sitting next to my sister now'

'You have to let it go some day'  

Interview - mother (Mrs Hodgson)

In her house on the sofa with a journalist interviewing her

'Nice to meet you Mrs Hodgson, we would just like to ask you a few questions concerning your eldest daughter, Cara.' The journalist

Mother agrees by nodding her head calmly

'Thank you, I understanding this may be hard but I want to get a deeper understanding on what happened to Cara'

The mother continues to have a blank face. 

'Is it true you had an argument with Cara the night she went out'

'I don't see why this concerns you, its none of your business'

'I understand Mrs Hodgson'

'Would do describe yourself as a liberal mother'

'I would say i was fair and i was always very generous towards Cara' 

'I have heard some rumors that Cara witnessed a crime the night she went missing'

'Yes she did witness a crime but that question is irrelevant' 'I believe Cara is gone and shes not coming back'

PLANNING: INTERVIEW WITH EMILY

Following on from what we learnt from the article 'Getting to know our characters' we decided to do our interview with Emily, who is the youngest daughter,  via whatsapp messages. The messages show her having a conversation with one of her close friends. The friend is trying to help her and get through to her, however Emily is quite resistant and in denial.

PLANNING: TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

Frank Ash is a creative consultant for BBC films, he teaches the importance of creative techniques with filming to film crews across and beyond the BBC. I found out that the main factor of identification is through the 'top line' and 'big question'.

TOP LINE : A young girl can't cope with the death of her older sister. The audience don't realize the older child is dead until near the end of the film opening as it is through the eyes of the younger sister. Once the audience find out that the older sister is actually dead, the younger child also comes to terms with it. However, as she leaves the room that she was imagining being in with her sister her phone rings and the audience gets a big shock.

BIG QUESTION : Will the young child ever find out the truth about their sibling? Is the eldest child dead or alive?

THE BUSINESS OF FILM

1.3

In the UK, the BFI and its predecessor the UK Film Council, have published a number of reports on the economic and cultural value of film. Studies have shown that film contributed £3.67 billion to the UK economy. This is because films have become increasingly popular with people as they are a good leisure activity and also can carry powerful messages for the audience, helping them reflect on themselves.

This chart shows how the screen industries generated over £6 billion for the UK economy.









 1.6
 Film plays a massive part in the economy.
The graph below shows the amount of money spent in the UK on the production of feature films over the last 20 years.

 The spend of domestic UK films has been fairly constant over the 20 years and the UK makes many independant films that are clearly British such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Pride' that have done well.
Another important factor of film production is tourism. This is when people visit a place that was featured in a film of TV programme. Film induced tourism is worth around £840 million pounds, so this is very important to the economy.
Film is regarded as very important and high profile in the creative industries.
Film is still doing extremely well in the UK even though American films take most of the money at the box office. UK independent films took only 16% of the UK box office takings in 2014. There is no large British film production or distribution company based in the UK, whereas in America there is.
Threats that could diminish the importance to the UK film industry is the use of piracy DVDs. Recent research suggests that almost 30% of the UK population has taken part of some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying fake DVDs. This costs the UK film industries about £500m a year.
1.8
The UK has a very supportive funding system, this means that their films tend to travel well. The BFI train up filmmakers, producers and the cast who are able to move comfortablely between independent and studio film making and also between UK and international film making. This shows us that they have a very healthy training system as a lot of the British films end up in the Oscars and BAFTAs.
1.10&1.11

 

The term 'value chain' in the film industry describes a series of steps which are used to show how the spark that brought the film maker to make his or her film right up until the end of the commercial life for the film.
This image shows the main stages of the film value chain. 





This image displays the 'film value chain'. This highlights the different stages in the creation and consumption of an independent film. The 'development' stage is getting the film idea and script before it goes to the market. The 'finance' stage is when the film is financed on its own terms and in its own way. In the world of independent film, finance is the most difficult stage.

The 'production' stage is in some ways the simplest part of the chain. It is a very established industrial process that is divided into the 'pre production' and 'post production'. Distribution is the process by which the film goes out to theatre chains, cinemas, broadcasters and video shops. Finally, exploration is when the consumers actually experience the film, this is mainly done through the cinema. However, films are being consumed more in different ways with the growing importance of digital technologies.

TWITTER

This is my Twitter account.

At the beginning of the term we were asked to create a Twitter account and follow people and institutions that were relevant to our media work. Some of the things I follow include 'Screen International', 'Sony' and 'Film London'. By having a Twitter account it has enabled me to keep up to date with what is going on in the world of media, moreover it helps me with my ideas and getting inspiration. According to Alan Rusbridger 'Its a highly effective way of spreading ideas, information and content'. Twitter would also be an effective place to market my film opening as it is often 'where things happen first'. There are so many users that are able to re-tweet and like posts that your work would just get spread around, all the while you would be gaining more followers who had an interested in your ideas.


CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY TWITTER

ANALYSIS: DEADPOOL

Deadpool was made in 2016 and directed by Tim Miller. It is a mainstream American superhero film, however it is clear from the beginning of the film that it is a comedy as the subtitles are being mocked. For example, the characters are named as 'a hot chick', 'a moody teen', 'a British villain' and the film being presented as 'some douchbag's film', clearly telling the audience what they already believe about the people in this film and who worked on it. This makes the film very lighthearted and also draws you in because it is different from every other film. Very early on in the opening of the film we see that the production company is Twentieth Century Fox in association with Marvel. This credit is being presented in white, bold text and in the background is a man screening with wounds to his face, this shows the audience that it is an action film as well as comedy.

The mise-en-scene of the opening of the film is either frozen in time and the camera is going round the car filming what is going on, or its as if the camera is going so fast around the scene that everything around it seems to be going incredibly slow. The camera pans around the air-borne car capturing the absolute carnage inside of itand captures all the bodies inside of it. The camera also captures a magazine with Ryan Gosling on the front cover with the caption 'sexist man alive!' who is playing the character of Deadpool in this film, making it very humorous. 

All diegetic sound is cut off in the opening sequence and is replaced by a very calm, classical song which completely contrasts with the destruction that is going on around them. This highlights the comical factor of the film and making it very entertaining.
In conclusion,


THE TITLE SEQUENCE OPENS HERE

ANALYSIS: MARC RIBOUD

This photo is called, 'The ultimate confrontation: The flower and the bayonet'. The girl in the picture is a woman named Jan Rose Kasmir, who at the time was an American high school student. Riboud was taking part with other anti-war activists while he took this picture of Kasmir. For me, this photo symbolises peace and innocence as all that the girl is holding up is a flower which is something very delicate and non violent. She has a look of forgiveness in her eyes. Kasmir is not shown to be aggressive or using force even though she is stood up to many men who are portrayed as having more power than her. The army men all have the same expression on their face, looking straight through her and all dressed in the same uniform which in a way makes them almost robot-like. Moreover, the uniform that they are in is all black which is very plain and sinister with a hard helmet on too. This contrast completely to how the woman is shown as she is unique and on her own, dressed in light cloths carrying a symbol of peace. On a denotative level, this photo only offers us a young girl holding up a flower to a group of men holding weapons. However, on a connotative level the flower shows delicacy, forgiveness and the girl symbolisis hope.

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE 3

This is my Art of the Title on the film 'Fury'. Throughout the opening of this film, there is a red filter over the images. This highlights to the audience that it is a very dramatic and tense film which also holds a lot of seriousness. The genre is also signalled through the dull, gloomy music that hovers in the background. Towards the beginning it is a piano with what sounds like wind chimes giving it an eerie sound. It then develops into the sound of drums and people chanting which creates a lot of tension. The titles are presented in the clip as white font in bold text which contrasts very well with the red and black in the background. There are a lot of flashing images and lights, this gives the audience the idea of a war scenario which means the audience is able to have more of an idea of what the film is going to be like. The credits all appear in the centre of the screen; this draws the audience’s attention to it more. The main title of the film ‘Fury’ appears half way through the opening sequence. It is in a much bigger text and in the colour red to make it stand out from the other credits. It is a Qed International Le Grisbi Crave Films production. The mise-en-scene of the film is set in the War. This is illustrated as it has my shots of weapons, army men, trenches and tanks. This film has a wide audience range but I feel it stands out most to young adults.

THE BUSINESS OF FILM ONLINE COURSE

During the half term, I used the website Futurelearn to gain more knowledge on my understanding of the film industry. By doing this course it shows I have interest in film, as well as it being extremely useful to me as it helped me with what is needed to produce a film and all the stages it requires.  
This course has helped me gain experience in how to start my own film opening as it gives you advise on how to market the film to a particular audience and the ways of selling a film.

                                                                                                           

RESEARCH: AUDIENCES

This is my Piktochart on audiences

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE 2

This is my Emaze presentation on GODZILLA

PLANNING: TRELLO

I have created a Trello which is a very useful organizational, online tool that will help me keep track of my work. I will update once a month or as I go along with my work.


Here is a screenshot of my Trello:

THE BRIEF

I am doing the video brief:

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE

I have selected an interesting film opening from The Art Of The Title and plan to analyse it here.

Art of the title

Starting off as a thriller novel, ‘Gone Girl’ was adapted into a film in 2014, the production companies are Regency Enterprises and TSG Entertainment. It is set in present day. Throughout the clip is a monotone, eerie sort of music which sets the scene and style of the film. As well as this, at the beginning there is a voice over of a man speaking in a low and slow voice somewhat making it darker. He talks about how he always thinks of his wife’s head and ‘cracking her lovely skull’. This makes it clear to the audience what type of film it is.

The two main characters’ names are presented right in the centre of the screen with a black background with their names in white. I feel this is done to create more of an impact and a lot more of the focus is drawn to the names. After that the title of the film appears ‘Gone Girl’ in white bold writing against the background of a harbor. As the background image becomes brighter and more in focus the title of the film fades out. After this, the other actors and people who helped out with making the film are presented in the bottom corners of the screen, for each new name there is a new scene/background. Each of these backgrounds are outside, rather gloomy and with no sign of people.

From the outset it is as though there is this murky grey filter on the image which gives the audience and idea of what the film will be like. It is set in suburban town in the USA, however also very depressing as the music track is very slow. There are not any people around and the only bit of talking was at the start which lasted around 10 seconds, however I feel it is very captivating.

I believe a way that the audience is drawn into the film is because it is set in the present so they may feel they can relate to it more. In addition, it is aesthetically pleasing as it has pictures of meadows and lakes and harbors but there is also a more eerie side as it has shots of abandoned shops and dark alleyways making it seem more interesting to the viewer.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

 Continuity task: filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180% rule.

With my group, I filmed and edited my preliminary exercise.

Patient Diagnosis

Whist making our short clip in my group of 3 about the hypochondriac patient, we wanted to make the build up to when he met the doctor as dramatic as possible.

In order to achieve this, we used many different shots, varying in close ups, long shots and towards the end we included some over the shoulder shots.

We incorporated two long shot/ full body shots in the shot film when the patient is on his way to meet the doctor.

One of the long shots was of the patient running up the stairs in urgency to get to the doctor and the second one was when the patient entered the room and strode over the room to sit next to the doctor.

The effect of these shots is to emphasize his distress as we are able to get his full body in, meaning we are able to study body language and facial expressions making it easier for the audience to understand how he is feeling. 

Another type of shot we included was close ups.

The close up that we had was of the patient’s feet and them running up the stairs, the camera had no other focus.

By having a close up of just the feet it shows us he is striving to get somewhere and that he has a clear aim/ goal. It should be the only thing that the audience is focused on as well as it is the only ting in the frame, in turn making it more captivating.

Our last shot was an over the shoulder shot.

This was used when the two were conversing and the possible outcomes the doctor had for the patient’s problems.

Over the shoulder was used as I believe it makes it a more interesting shot as you are still able to see both characters when they are taking to one another. As well as this, by having an over the shoulder shot, it is closer in on the face. This enables the camera to capture facial expressions the patient expresses when explain his illnesses and the reactions that the patient has when talking to the doctor and hearing what he has to say about it.