Evalutation-PART 8

In my preliminary exercise I felt good parts of my work were;

The use of music throughout the piece which makes certain scenes calm and relaxed while other scenes more energetic and fast paced.

The smoothness of the camera movement in the present dialogue scenes worked really well while the flashbacks give more energy and adrenaline with the speed of the pans and match on action.

The use of pop culture and video game references/sound effects I think played well with the flashbacks and hopefully allowed certain audience members to connote that in our hero's flashbacks he imagines those noises as a way of inputting parts of his subconscious for example: he felt his stair fall was like a "Street Fighter" K.O. (Yes a very deep meaning behind what people may see as a few cheap gags.)

The use of the 180 degree rule.

The chase scene (,although short,) i felt gave a quick energy bump in the story.

In addition to these points that I had previously made now looking back I think that our organisation was very good because we were able to film all of our scenes that we had wanted to film and we had enough time to spare that we were able to re film segments of the piece with ease, not feeling stressed that we didn't have time to finish. I think the editing was very good because the piece flowed well and didn't feel like there were any drastic cuts. I also think we used our equipment well and creatively with our long tracking shot of our actor.

The less successful aspects of that exercise I would say were the acting which I felt let the piece down  and limited us to being able to show the characters exchanging dialogue. The sound also let the scene down but it did allow us to give the piece some more creativity by replacing certain parts with video game sound effects and other pop culture references.

I improved on the areas of acting by during the casting process, getting actors who were like their characters and either had experience in acting or had experiences in what the characters are supposed to do such as boxing, refereeing. I believe that putting greater interest and effort in the casting gave more believable acting and added realism to the entire piece especially with the dialogue scenes. In my British Social Realist film I believe that my editing had been improved drastically creatively but had fallen flat on the execution, for example I used much more interesting editing techniques but they were not done to the standard that they should have or could have been done to. Due to my knowledge of my technology (like the mini DV camera) I was able to film scenes at a faster rate and to a better standard then I had once been able to, for instance the long tracking shot in "The Register" was not as steady and took longer to film than the long tracking shot in "Queen Khan".  I also found that during the filming of the end of my opening when the music begins to play due to the fact I had already had experience editing footage to music I was able to edit at a nice fast speed that was much quicker than I would have been able to when doing "The Register", also I didn't have to go out and re film shots for the scenes with music because I had learnt to film more footage than I might need because there may come a point when my original footage doesn't last long enough.

Evalutation-Part 7

Key decisions I made during pre-production and carried on through to my production were that when it came to equipment and the technology I would use I knew I would only film with a Mini DV camera and would not go HD because I wanted my footage have a amateur,documentary like cinematography to make the audience feel like they're a part of the experience while also echoing the documentary that my opening was inspired by. I decided to make the audience feel like a spectator in the film that I would use a tripod in very few shots to maintain the feeling that the audience is a spectator however during production I felt that the lack of steady shots made the opening feel too amateur and not how I had originally imagined so I used less handheld camera work then I had originally planned to but to keep the feeling of the audience being spectators I would often balance the camera on things in the environment or just leave it on the floor because my shots were still steady, they still gave off the documentary feel I wanted and still managed to make the audience feel as if they were a spectator. I used the Mini DV Panasonic camera throughout my production when filming but only used my tripod for a shot where Noor Khan skips and the camera is at an extreme close up , a shot where Noor is skipping and the camera is positioned just out of the room in which she skips, shots of our actress Ellie King sparring and most of the extreme close ups on characters in the gym. I used the tripod for these shots because it allowed the camera to focus on the actors without the camera shaking and it the sound quality was better because you didn't hear the sound of my fingers muffling the mic on the camera. Other than my tripod and Mini DV Panasonic camera I used a handheld Steady cam rig so I could get a nice smooth long tracking shot of Noor and Hashaem walking. I used this over doing it handheld because when it was handheld the camera movement was unsteady and didn't look like professional enough where as the steady cam had the right balance between amateur/documentary while still looking professional.

In my post production I experimented with Garage Band to create an appropriate soundtrack but after feedback from my colleagues and target audience I decided to follow what they requested and got in touch with a British Asian teenager who goes by the stage name "Fly" to put a song together which had to be in fashion with popular music today that would interest my target audience, I believe this proved much more effective and saved me time on having to create my own music which wasn't as good as the music Fly composed. For editing I used Imovie throughout post-production because I already had experience with it from doing my preliminary exercise.

Areas of my production with technology that were less successful were my use of the mic on my Mini DV Panasonic camera which constantly had my sound quality jumping in post production because I hadn't used a proper microphone to go out and record a wild track so I had to resort to using unused footage and trying to form a wild track from it. From this experience I have learnt to have a microphone on hand when filming to pick up dialogue better but also to create wild tracks in production so in post I have a variety of audio tracks to use when editing my work.

Evaluation-Part 6

Evaluation-Part 4

Evaluation- Part 3

Evaulation Media Part 3

Evaluation-Part 2

Evaluation Of "Queen Khan" Opening

THE BRIEF


The brief I was working towards was as follows "You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year old."


We chose the title "Queen Khan" because it would instantly attract our target audience because of it's relation to the boxer Amir Khan who's nickname is "King Khan" which also lets the audience connote aspects of boxing. We also felt this title worked well because it consisted of the main characters name while also being traditional to British Social Films because it was short like titles such as "Trainspotting" and "Harry Brown".

In addition to the meaning of the title we also chose the title after getting feedback from our target audience who preferred that title over our other working title "The Girl Boxer" which we considered using because of it has connections to the true story of Ambreen Sadiq which was inspiration for our film.


Our opening sequence opened the character of Noor Khan preparing herself to face off against a rival boxer for a chance at an ABA fight. We decided to not use the stylised approach of the opening occurring in reverse order because although interesting and engaging it didn't give the audience enough time to see Hashaem and hear him speak to Noor. That opening gave little time for the two characters to engage and show how much of an importance Hashaem is where as the opening we did use gave him a larger presence in the opening.

Our opening has a non-linear narrative with scenes occuring after the majority of the film because we wanted to get our audience asking questions about how the characters have ended up where they are,what's the importance of this fight, what is the relationship between to the characters. The non-linear was useful because with the addition of the editing style it gave the feeling of how Noor and Hashaem were in their mind sets, with more erratic jump cuts used with Noor while Hashaem had close ups and long shots to show his focus and intensity.

My opening explored themes of British Social Realist films by immediately making the theme of aspiration present with the Muhammed Ali quote being played over the character Noor Khan training, the thheme of dysfunctional families was also put into play with the dialogue exchange between Noor and Hashaem before she gets into the ring; during this exchange it should also be noted that to conform to British Social Realist films the characters use Urdu phrases to add realism.

Queen Khan

Production Log- Week 10 AKA No Tuxedo Zak

Queen Khan Feedback

Positive aspects of the opening: Timing of the Muhammed Ali quote was timed well enough that the audience had time to read it all and it's transition on and off seemed to be received well by the audience.

The audience liked the match on action cuts of Noor skipping because they felt the "rhythm" of the skipping and also like the sound bridge between the Ali quote and the opening shot.

The handheld camera work not being constantly still was well received.

Use of existing locations and using real extras.

Real sound of radio instead of a soundtrack.


Negative Aspects: Muhammed Ali quote was too small and the audience struggled to read it clearly on an average Apple Mac screen.

The amount of match on action cuts of Noor skipping seemed a bit repetitive and that it could be trimmed down.

Wasn't obvious that Hashaem was interested in the boxing and the boxers boxing style and was instead interpreted as him being bored by the boxing.

Music from radio station jumped from the cuts in the editing.

Not enough shots in the jump cut scenes around the one minute mark.

Props and costumes in the mise en scene like the glasses and shoes removed the emphasism on Noor.

Diegetic sound didn't match in shots.

Improvements to be made: The Muhammed Ali quote proved to be difficult for audience members to read so I'm going to redo the quote in "Fireworks" because I had the max font size available in iMovieHD and they were unable to read it so instead i'm going to do it in "Fireworks" so it'll be easier for the audience to read.

Trim down the length of Noors skipping but keeping in the "rhythm" of her skipping to keep the audiences attention.

Attempt having the character Shani look at his watch so he there is more motive for him walking away, also a cut away adds more camera techniques. Try it out, if it dosn't work then take it out and find another and more effective way of implementing a cutaway shot.

Make it more obvious that Hashaem is interested in the boxing by using camera techniques that highlight the boxers abilities and/or style.

Create a wildtrack of a radiostation or music from speakers because it was well received that the radio was playing while filming but while editing the sound was cut up, a wildtrack will give the same effect but will be easier to manipulate in the editing.

More shots in the jump cut sequence, there should be a shot every 2 seconds or so.

Removing the glasses and shoes from the mise en scene. I'll keep the boxing equipment and Noor's jacket in the shot to show and highlight that this is her changing room but the shoes and glasses that didn't belong to her will be removed. The camera will focus more on Noor in shots and try to eliminate props and costumes in the mise en scene that take away emphasis on her.

Record a wildtrack so the diegtic sound matches better.

Production Log- Week 9 AKA The Victorian Tuxedo Zak

Feedback- Queen Khan draft edit

Queen Khan Draft edit

Production Log- Week 8 AKA The Worst Week & Soundtrack Sample

soundtrack sample:

Production Log- Week 7

Faulty filming equipment!

My HTC Wildfire has decided to play difficult with me and won't let me upload my video log, ill re-record it tomorrow and post it on the blog before 8. Sorry for any inconvenience
-Tuxedo Zak

[spot the synergy  ;)]

Production Schedule

Queen Khan production schedule

Tré Mckenzie's Media Blog: 5 part narritive Structure

Tré Mckenzie's Media Blog: 5 part narritive Structure: "5 Part Narrative"

Shooting Script

Queen Khan shooting script

Production Log- Week 6 (AKA THE BIRTH OF TUXEDO ZAK!)

Opening Sequence Treatment

Title: Queen Khan

The title denotes that the story will be of a muslim female and possibly a boxing character because Khan is a muslim surname and the title Queen is only given to women. The boxing relation comes from the boxing names King Khan. The title is conventional for a British Social Realist film because it's short and named after a character.

It appeals to my target audience by having a name of the muslim character and relates to an asian celebrity that my target audience my idolise like Amir Khan.

Target Audience:

My target audience is a lower/working class audience of British Asian male and females from 16-24 years. The film will appeal to them because the majority of the characters are Asian and within that age gap.

The themes the film deals with will also appeal to them because they're things that're common with this target audience such as peer pressure, aspiration, identity, religious stress, racism and gendre issues to name a few.

The film is inspired by an already existing documentry so it should already have an audience that it can appeal to:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ambreen-the-girl-boxer

Technology: I will use handheld camera work and a mini DV to realise my production in addition to using flip cameras because of their small size and picture quality they're easy to manouvere in tight spaces and are easy to use on existing publci locations.

The few limitations there are don't affect my production badly because the poor picture quality gives a more documentary cinematography I would like.

The fact it picks up all sound may be seen as negative but in my opening there's very little sound other than the characters heart beat and the music so it's not much of a problem and I see the fact it picks up sound as a posotive because it helps increase verisimilitude.

Representations:

The protagonist is Noor Khan and the antogonist and rival are Salim Khan(Noor's father)and Joey Simpson. We can apply Propps character types to my characters although some subvert to the typical stereotypical version of that character type or are a mix of several like Hashaem.

We challenge typical representations of Muslims because we feel there are representations of real life muslims that aren't explored enough or realisticly in cinema.

Narrative:
We see the character of Noor Khan during a ten count in a boxing match. The scene occurs in reverse order with flashbacks to past events in the characters life that are explored later in the film.

We include key characters in the opening to show  how the characters are at the end of the film at the beginning to get the audience emotionally invested in their characters development over the course of the film.

Conventions of British Social Realist films we are going to use are the use of diagetic sound to increase verisimilitude.

Conventions:

We will use conventions such as crime, aspiration and bad father figures because we believe that they're large aspects of society at the moment and allow this film to become something as model for people to use who want to improve their lives much like the main character does by experiecing and over coming things our audience may have.

Hybrid elements are it's a semi biographical film and sport film which mean that we try to reference real life events and have certain scenes which conform to their genres such as training montages.

Style & Iconography:

Longtakes and  jump cuts are used because they'll grab the audiences attention in addition to having the scene occur in reverse order which makes the audience pay more attention to better undestand what's occurring.

The use of flashbacks in my editing is going to benefit me because it makes my audience question what's going on and begin to wonder why the characters are how they are, this allows me to make my audience become more emotionally invested sooner by showing them what their futures will be like.

The music will play a large role in my opening because of the absence of sound. The music will have cues to show certain dramatic and emotional scenes to enhance the emotions I want it to give off. The music will also benefit visual signifiers by making them more obvious to the audience with subtle changes in pace or pitch.

Institution:
Film4 affected my production by making me take a more stylistic approach because they like to use new ways of film making so it made me alter my linear narrative to a non-linear narrative.

Analysis Of Comments

Title:

From the comments we have decided to go with title "Queen Khan" because our peers and ourselves thought it had a better relation with the film and it also gives a hint about what the film will be about. This is also because of previous famous Asian boxers , people will assume the film is about a male which adds to the controversy.

The name 'Khan' translates into the word king, this controversial title will appeal to our target audience because they will want to find out more about the ' Queen of kings'

One Page Treatment

Queen Khan

"Noor Khan is on the rocky road to boxing success fighting both her Muslim family and community to lay her hands on her boxing glory dream."- Kuma On A Cloud Pictures

Our target audience is a British Asian audience of both males and females aging from the range of 16-24, although that is our target audience we're also attempting to make the film appeal to fans of British Social realist cinema in addition to people interested in biographical films and boxing.


To appeal to our British Asian audience we have characters and locations which will be familiar to the audience.


We also have story elements and events in the story which hopefully our audience can relate to; Muslim girls not supposed to be showing skin, conforming or rejecting to the idea of wearing a head scarf. We would like to use language that our British Asian audience will be familiar because it will add to the verisimilitude and will help our target audience relate to the characters easier.


Locations we see in the film that the Asian community may be familiar with include the family going to their relatives houses and going to the mosque.


We also have chosen that for exterior shots such as when Noor goes to the shops with her older brother Hashaem we decided that we will film in existing locations that have a high population of Asian citizens such as Ilford because it adds to the realism.


We have also targeted this audience because the themes of aspiration, pressure from older siblings and parents is something that is very common within the age group of our target audience. Our two primary protagonists Noor and Hashaem both represent a gender of our target audience and the characters ages will appeal to the target audience because they're in the same age range- Noor is 17, Hashaem is 23.


The film was inspired by the real life story of amateur youth female Muslim boxer Ambreen Sadiq so the story will appeal to fans of biographical films because it is largely based on real life events of an actual person.


The film will appeal to boxing fans because the film not just shows life like boxing fights along with an accurate portrayal of how it feels to be an actual boxer in a fight but it lets the audience see what happens behind closed doors for boxers in addition to struggles they have to endure while preparing for fights.


The film will try and explore aspects of boxing not usually seen in films like what happens in training camps and how a typical day off for a boxer works; what they do,eat and think while not training or fighting.


Boxing films don't often explore boxing from a female perspective so I think boxing through the eyes of a female protagonist will not just appeal to male boxing fans but also female boxing fans.

Outline of Film:

*The film begins with Noor  on the floor of a boxing ring during the most important fight of her life; a title fight for female boxers in her age and weight division between her and her rival Joey Simpson. Occurring in reverse order we see how Noor was brought to the floor while being introduced to key characters and seeing key moments of the film that include these characters.

*The film then returns to the past-three months before the actual fight.

*Noor Khan is an amateur female muslim boxer who is trained by her British Dominican trainer Anthony Clarke.

*Noor's older brother Hashaem is released from a two year sentence for GBH early for good behaviour and has returned home to try and sort things out with his family and try to become a better brother to his sister by supporting her.

*Noor takes a week off school after her mother gives birth to her younger brother and becomes sick. During this time her father and brother beging to argue more frequently because Hashaem supports Noor in boxing and her father Salim does not.

*When Noor goes back to school her best friend Rav (a sikh teenager) tells her that most of her muslim friends are trying to avoid her because their parents don't want them related to such a "rebellious child".These friends include Noor's close Mariam who is constantly avoiding Noor.

*During a training session with Anthony Noor finds out that she's won a spot on a female amateur youth Great Britain boxer trainging camp. she accepts after her brother and Hashaem advise this.

*Hashaem and Salim argue again with the arguement turning into a small fight because Salim believes Hashaem undermines him as an authority figure.

*Noor goes to the training camp and is in constant conflict  between the boxing ambassador and trainer Zoe because of Noor's headstrong attitude. The conflict isn't helped by another girl at the camp Angela who is constantly trying to provoke Noor into a fight.

*During a sparring warm up Noor and Angela's warm up gets out of hand and becomes a fight after Noor seems to get the upper hand Noor is pulled off by Zoe who begins to punish Noor.

*Noor calls Hashaem to pick her up early from the camp calling it a waste of time.

*On the car ride home she finds out from Hashaem that their father has disowned Hashaem because he's a bad role model and is tearing this family apart with his violent nature and influence on Noor. He's now staying with Anthony and that she'll see less of him.

*When Noor gets home Salim tells her that she has to choose between her boxing and her family and that if she goes ahead with the fight she'll join Hashaem in being disowned.

*At school Noor tries talking to Mariam and her other friends and they tell her that they can't be friends anymore because their parents don't want them to be associated with her. When Noor tries telling them it's their choice to be friends with her Mariam says that she's a bad muslim for showing all her flesh in the ring.

*Noor bunks the rest of school and when Rav tries to console her after training she pushes him away. Noor and Anthony have a heart to heart where Noor says she feels alone and that everyone is just wanting her to give up or fail.

*Anthony calls Hashaem and at his flat says that Noor needs to support and that Hashaem needs to do all he can to support his younger sister.

*During the final week of training Hashaem gets a small minority of muslims from the asian community and Noor's school friends and teachers to come and her support her at her fight.

*Noor goes into her fight not knowing the support she'll receive and after a few knocks to the floor from both Joey Simpson and Noor it goes to judges decision.

*Noor wins by points and is given the title.

*Noor in an after fight interview says she hopes that this minority of muslims supporting her will grow and that she hopes her father will support her in the future.

DRAFT -shooting script

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=en&key=tU2kRBopyr7gYKKvsvH_bKg&hl=en#gid=0

Production Log- Week 5

Nowhere Boy Audience,Institution and Marketing Case Study

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AXal5pYYThfkZDdwa3ZxY18xeDhnZ3c0aGo&hl=en&authkey=CLuFgJkI

Production Log- Week 4

This week I have learnt about what conventions and themes appeal to my target audience, in addition I have also discovered what are the most popular forms of distribution available for me that will appeal to my target audience. I learnt that British Social Realist films are more likely to appeal if the film has some relevance to occurances in society at the time it's being made and if the film has realism to it such as the film being based or inspired by true events.

I have learnt that the institutions involved in the production of a british social realist film will try to target their film at a particular niche audience and have themes in their production that will appeal soley to that audience. The production company will also try to implement controversial themes that occur in current society so as to appeal to it's target audience and tackle subjects that most other films would be afraid to do. The production company will also try their best to use existing locations to avoid rising the budget of their picture because it's cheaper for them and adds to the verisimilitude to the film if they use an existing location, this is also why they tend to use unknown or not very well known actors because it's not a recognisable face they'll accept the film with more ease because the character could be an average person and not a celebrity.

This will inform my production by having a film that has themes that'll appeal to my target audience and will also most likely be inspired by true events. I will also use existing locations as much as possible and will use an unknown actors to increase the verisimilitude of my product.

Treatment Draft By Zak L. Gorman & Tre Mckenzie

Titles:
The two  titles that we are currently considering are as follows:

 

"Queen Khan" because it includes the title of the main characters last name while being a reference to the boxer Amir Khan's nickname. We believe it's effective because the title is short much like most British Social Realist films while because the title references Amir Khan it allows the audience to connote that there may be elements of boxing while telling the ethnicity,religion and gendre of the character for the audience. The title will appeal to our target audience of a British and Asian target audience by the reference to Amir Khan it has.

 

The other title is "The Girl Boxer" which we decided to use because it relates back to the documentry which our product is inspired by this means that we will already be appealing to an existing audience while also appealling to our new British and Asian target audience. However  we are still unsure about the title because it dosn't stand out as film for out target audience and sounds a bit bland and cliche. I would also have no trouble gaining the rights to use this title because the documentry is owned by channel 4 which owns film 4.

 

Target Audience:

Our target  audience is a male and female Asian British audience between the ages of 12-40, with interests in boxing,culture,religion and biographical films. The classes we have as our target audiences are the lower class and middle class, although we are not specifically trying to make the film appeal to the upper class we will not exclude them from our films audience but they will not be our primary target audience.

 

I believe my film will appeal to this target audience because the cast is a mixture of Asian and British actors which means the production will have characters that the audience can rellate to by ethnicity. The story and themes in the film such as the underdog stoory and the cuultural tensions and family dilemmas the film explore are something that everyione can relate to.

 

The representation that the characters are shown in will help the audience relate to the film because the characters will be typical of people that our target audience may have encountered such as over protective fathers and families that still have tradition family values such as the man providing for the women.

 Research I undertook showed me that an audience for British Social Realist films can gain a larger audience if the film is inspired by current events in society and/or if the film is based on a true story. This film will appeal to this target audience who're interested in British Social Realist films because the film deals with current things in society like immagration and racial tensions between different ethnic groups. The story is inspired by the story of  Ambreen Sadiq which gives the film some realism which will also appeal to the target  audience.   http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ambreen-the-girl-boxer/4od

 

Technology:

I'll use Mini DV cameras for the bulk of the shoot because it has been shown by directors like Danny Boyle to be an effective piece of technology in film  when shooting on location and when in locations that are hard to menouver around in. They're fast and cost effective which is also a large benefit. I will use mini DV's to show the state of mind and how the chjaracters are feeling. I will do this by filming in a cocumentry style in the boxing ring with the characters, being steady when the characters are alright and becoming sloppier and more amamteur thhe more danger the characters are in.

 

Mobile phones will be used to show the fights from the spectators in the crowds perspective.  This will be suitable because it lets the audience know that what we're seeing is from someone elses point of view and will tell them that this person is clearly not that important by the picture quality they are seeing.

 Limitations of this technology are that the picture quality won't be as good as that of a HD camera because I won't be filming on HD because i  don't feel confident enough editing on that  software.

 

Representations:

The key characters in my film are the female lead boxer who is the protagonist.

The lead characters brother and sister who act as her emotional support and link to her negative family members who do not approve of her boxing.

Her trainier/coach who will act as a surrogate father figure.

Her father and mother who act as blocker character types.

The rival boxer and her coach will be the villains as they're the primary antogonists that our lead character has to face off against although her family can be interpreted as the real villains.

 

My film will subvert to some of the typical representations of social groups so that it appeals to the target audience but will also subvert from some because this product is inspired by a real life story it should still be accurate to the real life story that it is based upon.

 

Narrative-Brief:

The lead female character who is currently going to be called Noor Khan will compete againsty a rival boxer currently called Jo Simpson to win the national amateur champion title for her age and weight division. The character will only have the support of her brother,sister,coach and uncle as she fights the toughest 30 minutes of  her life all the while having the pressure of her community,parents and exterior family looking down and turning their back on her.

 

Narrative- More detail:

The entire film from the moment Khan enters the location her fight is in will occur in real time.

The story begings with a standard linear narrative focusing on Khan trying to prepare herself in in her final week of  training to fight Jo simpson for the ABA title of their weighrt and gendre division. While training her father and mother begin to heavily pressure her to give up boxing.

Her older brother Adil  has recently been released from prison for GBH so is looked down upon by his community and parents and this has a further negative impact  on peoples reactions to his muslim younge sister being a boxer as he is encouraging her to do it. The film explores the racism, family tensions and stress that Khan has to go through  to build up to her fight  while only having her brother and surrogate father figure coach for support. . The film will end with Khan winning her fight and gaining the respect of her community as we see her community openly cheering for her at there homes and in the audience. The film wil close with Khan in an after fight interview hoping her family will support her further in her career now her community does.

 

The films real ltime segment/scenes will make up either half or a third of the film.

 

* The character of Adil will be a negative male character who shows support for the character Khan even if he isn't the best role model. This is a typical charactter type of British Social Realist film so it should appeal to the target audience.

 

* The coach "Keith" will play a large role in the film being a surrogate father figure and possible better role model than Khan's brother Adil. He will be the catalyst behind getting Khan and Adils Uncle to support her and give her uncle the idea to get more muslims and members of the asian community to support her.

 

Conventions:

I'll use social realist conventions such as negative male role models and surrogate father figures to show the struggle that the lead character had to endure to make her victory seem all the more speecial.

I will use conventions like lack of a soundtrack because it'll kkeep the audience in the realm of the film and add to the verisimilituude.

I will subvert  from conventions like a heavily implied sad ambigious ending and instead will have a largely happy and positive ending but that is left ambigious about whether her family supported her to let the audience have something to ponder on.

 

Hybrid elements I will employ will be the biographical aspect by drawing inspiratiion of real life events that happened to Ambreen Sadiq. Other hybrid elements will be the boxing movie conventions such as a possible montage training sceene and the character reaching a point where it looks like that they may lose but ultimately succeed. However I may leave this out because it may take away the realism.

 

Style & Iconography:

I will use extensive long takes and manipulate camera movements to both make the audience feel one with the character but to also express the characters emotions and physical stabilityduring scenes which both occur in the ring/traing and with her famiily.

 

I'll employ a shellshock effect during the boxing scenes so that when Khan is hit depending on the vacinity she's in to the camera and the force of the punch the camera will have a jump cut which will shift to a shot with a slight zoom to show impact  while the camera work gets more amateur and sloppier, i would use  a shell shock sound effect  to show that the characters hearing has dirsorientated; using a hight pitch one note to get louder and the other sounds would get quieter.

 

I will use costumes and props as visual cues. for example if there is a of Khan and her father arguing I would frame the shot so the boxing gloves and religious painting are between the two characters as they argue to show their significence.

 

Institution:

The production company in my brief has impacted the type of film i intend to make by making my film an underdog story because it'll appeal more to an audience who like Film 4's body of work.

The produiction company also impacted my film by the themes that it would tackle because I wanted to tackle themes that most films would be afraid to tackle but Film 4 would allow me to.

 

The distribution will effect the film because it'll only be able to have a limited release world wide because film 4 have to produce many other films.  It'll most likely the film would only be released in the UK, USA and Pakistan because of the characters and themes won't appeal to a completely global audience and the themes are tailored to a very specific niche audience.

My film would be exhibited in few cinemas across the UK and would be released for home video exhibition by Film 4 in large stores across the Uk like HMV and would be available to order online at websites like PLAY.COM because of their ability to allow the product to be distributed over sea. The film would also have a television premiere on Film $ and channel 4 because it would cost nothing to distribute because it's owned by Channel 4 and would allow word of mouth to spread on the product.

Production Log- Week 3

This week i have learnt about narrative structures such as linear and non-linear narrative structures.  Linear narrative structures are very common in British Social Realist films because they show what's happening on screen as it occurs and is a more realist narrative approach. Non-linear narrative structures are often uncommon in British Social Realist films because they don't show the events as they occur and are sometimes shown out of context which can be confusing for the audience, they also require more focus on the audiences part. An example of a film with a linear narrative structure is "Four Lions" while Christopher Nolans "Memento" has a non-linear narrative structure.

A device used in narrative structure is a coda which is used by filmmakers to give extra information about a film. Codas can be found before a film starts or after the credits of a film. They can often give back story key or supporting characters if put before the film starts and when put after the credits of a film they tend to explain what has happened to a character. Another device we saw was flashbacks which are often used to show characters past or past events that have affected the story, this device allows backstory for the film to be built up. The flashback device was used in the film "Chariots Of Fire" to open the film.



This task has helped inform my production because I am now taking into account the style of narrative and if I may use a coda in my production. I now know what will appeal more to my target audience and how I can challenge my audience with an interesting and innovative viewing experience.

In my own production I may use a non-linear narrative structure because I can use flashbacks to further develop the characters by showing their past. Another idea that I find interesting is the idea that perhaps I can use a linear narrative structure to the extreme, I could do the film entirely in real time which could grab the audiences attention and  their focus like it would if it was non-linear while still being easy to follow because it all occurs in the correct order.

Timeline Of British Social Realism

1950

 

An iconic British social realist film is the film "Back In Anger" the typical social realist themes present in this film are the themes of characters who live in poverty which the audience connote from the fact the characters live in an attic. We see stereotypical views of relationships of people of the characters social class of the era the film was made by having the male character being the dominat person in the relationship who runs the household, while the female character is shown as a stereotypical housewife who much cook,clean and tend to her family. 

 

 

1960

  

In the 1960's the British Social Realist film "Kes" was released. At the time of "Kes" being released in 1969 England had won the world cup three years prior so the conventions of lower class people in poor living locations was present in the film while employing aspects of current society like football into the plot to appeal to the films target audience. To further express the British Social Realist stereotypes the film depicted a character who comes from a poor background as having no P.E kit to play Football in which resulted in bullying from his friends, this is put in the film because the target audience can show empathy for the character which is something British Social Realist films have long tried to do.

 

 

 

1970

   

1979 saw the release of the British Social Realist film "Quadraphenia" which depicted themes and conventions not often explored as in depth as "Quadraphenia" did such as strained father and son relationships. A character in the films father is an alcoholic which in turn shows the audience the now very common theme in British Social Realist films- addiction. This appeals to a British Social Realist audience because it lets the audience see things that they knew occured in society even though they may not have actually experienced it , this is not however always the case as some members of their audience may watch the film because they can relate to what the characters go through.

 

 

1980

 

The ITV Television play "Made In Britain"(1982) starring now Hollywood actor Tim Roth was released which dealt with the themes of anarchy,violence and racism. The film exploited the up rise of anarchy that young people were the subjects and participants. This once again benefitted the British Social Realist target audience because at the time these were all things that were being increasingly more common at that point in society. The issues of racism that were explored at the time was a risky subject to tackle but the production never the less tackled it so because of the fact it appealled to the target audience and opened peoples eyes to the people that were effecting others with their racism. The themes in this production are now very common with British Social Realist audiences.

 

1990

 

In 1997 Gary Oldman directed the film "Nil By Mouth", a film that further depicted domestic violence and physical abuse in relationships. The film allowed an audience to see the jealousy of a womans husband and how it poisoned their relationship. These themes appealed to the British Social Realist audience because it let the audience see and witness things that most films would shy away from but that British Social Realist films wouldn't. The film depicted the abuse exactly as how it would occur. Realistic and brutally. This camera techniques  used handheld camera work which had been previously seen in productions such as "Made In Britain", this appealed to the audience because it had already become associated with British social realist films.

 

  

Analysing Sound In Harry Brown

Production Log- Week Two

I have learnt that in the British Social Realist genre that the codes and conventions of the genre are very important in relation to the target audience. Most social films have themes and codes like people being victims of violence and living in poverty or themes and codes similar so that their films can stay popular to their target audience. The target audience seem to enjoy things that are in line with what they're going through in current society or things that they hear of but don't neccersarily experience themselves e.g homosexuality,racism, addiction,gangcrime. Conventions that make an opening scene of British Social Realism appeal to it's target audience are the music,sound,editing,locations/story setting, character stereotypes and narrtative. British Social Realism films seem to start from the very beginning setting a very realistic tone and try to give the audience an idea of what the characters and locations are like in as short amount of time as possible.

This has informed my production now because I now know of the things that I should include in my opening that will appeal to my audience. This has informed of narrative structures I can use to appeal to my target audience in addition to knowing that perhaps I should limit my use of foley sound as most British Social Realist films try to avoid foley sound. I now feel after this research that I feel comfortable that in my production i will now be able to use the right conventions and themes that would appeal to my target audience.

Texts that I found particularly influential were "Harry Brown"," Bullet Boy"," Bronson" and "Trainspotting". I found these films interesting because they all focus on similar and different aspects of British Social Realist themes like gang crime,gun crime,prison life and drug addiction although all the films have similar themes and conventions they each show the themes and conventions in their own unique way, which has influenced me by challenging me to take a theme and try and show it in a distinct way unfamiliar to any other films that have tried to do it.

I will conform to certain conventions of the British Social Realist genre such as focusing primarily on peopel in bad situations like those of the characters in "Harry Brown", "Bullet Boy" and "Trainspotting". However I would also like to subvert from the typical conventions and try to take an approach that is not typical of a British Social Realist film, for example I would like to show people in bad situations, for example say a person suffering from a drug addiciton which is rather typical of a British Social Realist film but take a slightly more unique approach and have the character be a person of higher social class and allow the audience to go on a journey with this character as we see what problems they encounter as they tackle their addiction while being of higher society and how this affects their status and reputation.

Analysing British Social Realism: Generic Conventions

BRONSON

Masculinity & Male Dominance:

The character Bronson's physique and how he obtains it; by exercising vigorously and fighting the prison guards are all key points in this theme of masculinity. The exercising and the speed and force at which the audience exercises allows the audience to connote that this character is a powerful typical masculine force which most men who're interested in British Social Realist films will aspire to be like. The location of the prison lets the audience denote power and strength which are other things commonly associated with masculinity. The colors red and black are very primitive and give the scene an animalistic vibe, this is further enhanced with the colors denoting power which relates back to the theme of masculinity.

The idea of male dominance is something that is often explored in and/or questioned in British Social Realist cinema. Films like "Bronson", "This Is England" and "Looking For Eric" all  deal with different aspects of masculinity and male dominance and are all British Social Realist films.

Violence:

The opening immediately uses violence to set the tone of the film and use it in a very realistic manner. The opening makes the audience feel more comfortable with some of the shocking fight scenes and more violent scenes later on in the film because the audience is already used to the violence because it's the first thing they see in the film. The violence is an essential backbone of the film because the film revolves around Bronson's struggle to become the most powerful and legendary man in his prison and uses violence as his way to get it. The violence is also used to show the personality of the characters because it gives the audience a chance to connote from the fighting style of Bronson and how he never gave up that he is a fighter and won't stop no matter what comes at him until he has what he desires.

The fact such graphic violence is used early appeals to it's audience because violence is often a common theme in these films while also grabbing audience members who're not familiar with films like this because of the documentary like approach the films have makes the violence graphic and draws the audience in. The violence is constantly shown with motives which is often a common theme in British social realist films. The motivated violence is not explained at the beginning of this opening so it gets the audience thinking about why the characters are behaving so violently and what their motives are which in turn make the audience want to know more and get them hooked. The motivated violence not being explained at the beginning lets the opening benefit greatly from this because now the audience will wonder how "Britain's most violent inmate" is the way he is and how he got there.

Aspiration:
"My name's Charles Bronson and all my life I've wanted to be famous."

The film explores how Bronson has dreamt of being the toughest and baddest prisoner in the United Kingdom and we see his aspiration slowly becoming a reality. The film uses his aspiration as the driving force behind the film and we see how this dream helped keep Bronson strong and achieve the things he has by the spark and flicker of this dream he aspired to get.

"I knew I was made for better things"

The theme of aspiration relates back to the target audience of people who watch British Social Realist Films because the audience members may also be in a situation in life they're not happy with and want to aspire to becoming something better and complete a goal they've been dreaming of like how Bronson has even if Bronson's dream is more extreme then what the audience may have in mind.

Mise-en-scene:The cinematography for the solitary confinement chamber that Bronson resides in is red with heavy shadows, this cinematography lets the audience connote danger and fear and in turn then results in the audience assuming that the character of Bronson is dangerous. The idea of a danger male character is often explored in British Social realist films as there is often a male character of negative imagery; Combo ,"This Is England", Begbie "Trainspotting".

The red and black lighting is part of the design of the solitary confinement chamber so it adds verisimilitude to the scene. The design of the solitary confinement chamber seems to appear like a cage that is holding the character Bronson prisoner, because Bronson is naked in this scene while in the solitary confinement chamber it makes the character appear like a caged beast which the audience can easily connote from the production design.

The idea of characters feeling caged in is very common in British Social Realist films with characters often appearing caged in by the environment they're surrounded in; Mia's estate in "Fish Tank" and the urban landscape that Trife in "Kidulthood" was a resident of. 

The costumes of the Prison Guards are the uniforms of Prison Guards in Britain during the 1970's and 1980's. In British Social Realist films the costumes are often existing clothing that is common in Britain, although the Prisoner Guard uniform is not common attire the costume accurately represent what British Prison Officers would wear and therefore adds realism and verisimilitude to the film that British Social Realist films often try to capture.

Camera: The camera is often left in a still position watching what occurs on screen and never moving within a shot. This makes the audience feel like a spectator. In British Social Realist films I have begun to notice that the camera work is either majorly hand held to make the film have a documentary like feel to it or it usually has a fixed camera most of the time that makes the audience feel like a spectator to the film. Both camera techniques help the audience feel like they're in the world of the film. The camera positioning in the shots is often done to mimic that of CCTV which adds to the realism of the film even though the picture quality of the camera never changes. The CCTV style layed out shots lets the film benefit from the feeling once again that audience is a spectator in the world of the film.

Editing: Fades are used to show large passings of time at the beginning of the opening, as the scene progresses jump cuts are used to also show passings of time but these passings of time are much shorter than those that should have occurred when fades are used. Cutaways are used to show more of the prison and that the guards are getting ready to subdue Bronson.

The cutaways also effectively show more of the location and make it more obvious that the current location is a prison by showing hallways. Just before the fight starts there are even more jump cuts, the audience can connote from the jump that this is possibly the state of mind the character Bronson is in.

Quick cuts were used when the fight began this allows the audience to denote speed and adrenaline pumping in the speed of the cuts while once Bronson is subdued the quick cuts stop to let the audience denote the speed and adrenaline that was once present before is no longer present.

The idea of making the audience feel the way the characters are feeling is common in British Social realist films because it makes the audience care about the characters and makes the audience more socially invested.Fades  were also used in "This Is England" to show Combo's frame of mind after injuring the character Milky.


"You Kill Me, You Kill Me And Kill me..."

Dialogue:The little dialogue there is in the opening comes from a short narration by the lead character Charles Bronson as he talks about how he believed he was destined for greater things. The narration is a bridge to a scene of Bronson gettng prepared to fight some Prison Guards, this short narration and bridge gives the audience the a small insight into what the story will be about before leading into a flashback. There is not much sound other than the soundtrack that is playing. This may sound negative but it is in fact done to it's advantage.

The lack of dialogue and major sound means that the audience has to pay even more attention so it grabs the audiences attention almost immediately. The music playing at first starts eerie and sinister which adds to the verisimilitude that the cinematography has already set however once Bronson begins attacking the Prison Guards the music heavily contrasts what you see on screen by the tone of the music, the dramatic irony almost represents how Bronson feels when he fights as the music retains it's chilling lyrics but takes a transition from dark and serious to a more upbeat tone.

The song that plays is "The Walker Brothers- The Electrician". The films use of existing music is very typical of British Social Realist films because they often use existing music rather than getting their own composer in, however sometimes they don't have a soundtrack at all.

Sub genre and how it's explored: The sub genre of the film is Biographical. They explore this by first having a narration by the character Charles Bronson on whom the film is named and based upon. The sub genre is further explored by having familiar locations with the character Bronson explored almost immediately in the opening such as the solitary confinement chamber. This gives the film historical accuracy that a biographical film would require. The film also has actor Tom Hardy adept the mannerism and appearance of Charles Bronson, this makes the film feel realistic and accurate to the real life events that involved Charles Bronson.

What impact has this research had on the development of your ideas?: This research has helped my development of my ideas because I have now began to consider the effectiveness of sound and what it can be used for. I've also realised that my actors will have to look like the characters they're playing and be believable because British Social realism films are all about realism if my actors don't appear like who they say they're playing for example a drug dealer or someone suffering from abuse  the film loses the element to draw the audience into the world which the film so heavily requires on. I must take into account the realism of the film from all areas whether that be location, actors it must seem real. I have also learnt that even though my film is British Social realism I can still be stylistic with my camera techniques and style of editing.

Institutional Information-Opening Sequence

I was tasked to draw out a timeline that would annotate all of the credits in the opening sequence in Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull". This did not just include annotating the credits but also the music and sound cues and also the actions of what was occurring on camera at the credit and sound cues. The clip lasted 2.29 seconds (not including the production company logos).

Jobs that I've made notes of to definitely include in my opening titles are; The director along with the "A *insert name* Production" because the audience need to know who has put the production together and it will also allow the director and production company to get more attention by other talented individuals and become more aware of by their target audience for future productions.

I would also like to have the credit "A Zak Gorman Picture" because it'll allow my audience to become familiar with my work and in the future when seeing future films by myself they will be able to link my previous work with my newer work.

I will also include a "consultant" credit because this will give my work some authenticity which will benefit my opening scene because it's a social realist film which if it had a consultant would make it seem more realistic and would therefore add to the verisimilitude of the film.

Producer would be a necessity for my opening along with the writer because producers can produce a wide range of work which lets the film appeal to multiple not just British social realist audience. The writer credit would have to be included because the audience may be familiar with the writers work and if they're not familiar with the writers work they in the future will now be familiar with the writers work and it helps exploit the writers work.

I will give the credits Casting, Visual Consultant and Editor because I think that these credits are significant enough to deserve a spot at the beginning of the film instead of the end. The roles of Editor and Casting could not make my production possible and so in turn deserve a position at the start of my opening credit sequence. Visual Consultant will be used because as I said before it adds to the authenticity of my production and will allow the audience to believe more in what is occurring on screen.

Acting credits will be used because it allows the audience to recognise familiar names of actors they may have heard of and will get the audience more interested in the film.

Director Of Photography: A cinematographer

Associate Producer: When  production companies are involved in a project, the head of the smaller company may be given the title of associate producer, and the head of the larger company is called the producer or executive producer. In this case, the associate producer is not so much an assistant as a junior associate.

Screenplay: A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing

 

Opening Sequence-Watchmen

 Watchmen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14vTrFyHO94

Mise-En-Scene: We can see costumes that give ideas of the era the story is set in by the costumes the characters wear and the locations they're in, the filmmakers also use iconic images from the last century and alter them slightly to allow the audipresent.

Add caption

ence to understand that this story is now set in an alternate world. Examples of this are the walking of the moon with the main character Doctor Manhattan being on the moon at the same time, the protestors being shot in the 60's after placing a daisy in the rifle of a gun, JFK shaking the hands of the character "Doctor Manhattan", the sailor kissing the women at the conclusion of WWII is altered to it being a women and the assassination of JFK is altered to having the character of "The Comedian"

These short 10 second or less scenes have costumes that replicate the clothing and locations of the iconic image to allow the audience to denote that this is an altered reality while being based still very similar of the real world universe.

 

Music, Sound And Dialogue:

 The soundtrack used for the scene employs a well known song by a well known music artist- "The Times They Are A Changing"- Bob Dylan. The songs lyrics speak of "the times are a changing", these lyrics foreshadow to story elements of the world changing while also implementing irony that the change is to an already existing that the characters of th film are unaware of. The music allows the audience to connote that the world is changing, this is enhanced with the images of Doctor Manhatten being able to walk on the moon and lesbien relationships being mainstream much earlier then they actually were. The sequence largely lacks sound effects other than the foley sound effects of the camera flashes, cheers,gasps and gunfire. These sound effects are used strategically in shots of the opening when something of importance has happened e.g the assassination of JFK.This allows the audience to remain interested and get the audiences attention when they may begin to lose focus. Dialogue is not heard often and is heard only to foreshadow to story elements for example when the character "Silk Spectre" screams at her husband "I WAS A HERO GODDAMIT!", because the audience has no idea how she was a hero or why they're arguing it keeps them interested and wanting to know more about the reason this argument may have started and what happened between the two characters after that scene.

Camera & Editing: The entire sequence is a large montage which allows the audience to get a large amount of information in one small sequence. The montage has lots of fades to black as transitions because it allows the audience to connote a passing of time, the passing of time tends to be linked with the timing of the fade- the longer the fade= the greater passing of time.The montage has extensive slow-motion to emphasise the scene, this gives the audience the ability to better analyse the shot and see things that would be impossible to see if played in real time. In addition to the slow motion there are also pans and zooms to emphasise things in the shot, for example on the moon the camera zooms into the visor of the astronaut to reveal Doctor Manhatten , there is also a tracking shot when the two lesbiens kiss at the end of WWII which then pans over to a photographer, this gives the shot an emersive feeling and makes that particular part of the sequence stand out as important because the audience were engaed as if they were there.