Project Log - Week 4

Lesson 1: This lesson was spent finishing off a task that was set last week - Sound Analysis Of an Opening Sequence. I had to pick a British Social Realist film and explain what the sounds connote about the characters, the narrative and what relevance/ how does it appeal to the British target audience. I chose to analyse Trainspotting because the sounds used were unique and gave many hints to the audience about the characters disposition and what the narrative may be about. For example, there is a voice over of Renton. He uses foul language, like 'fucxing', which connotes his character s being wild and rebellious. Furthermore, he talks in a strong northern British accent, therefore the audience can relate to him and understand him, since they too are British. Lastly, the voice over gives the audience the back story and makes them feel more comfortable with Renton. Also, they will take more of a liking in him and side with him, since he is given a lot of talking time, establishing his dominance in the film.

Task - Sound Analysis Of an Opening Sequence: Trainspotting

Lesson 2: The lesson focused around audience research for British Social Realism films. I was introduced to four ways in which you can collect your research.

Focus groups: This is a form of group interview, where pre- determined discussion points/topics are presented, along with stimulus e.g. Clips. From this you get peoples opinions and thoughts towards the points.



Audience feedback: Feedback given back from the audience. Its designed to gain further knowledge on the media text and what the target audience dislike/like about it. So, you can then later alter your media text to their specifications, because you are trying to impress and appeal to them.

Questionnaires: Pre-determined questions, designed to get a better understanding of what your target audience want.

Vox pops: This is a random way of collecting data. You go out on the streets and randomly ask questions. From this your more likely to get raw and truthful answers.

Next, I learnt there were different techniques you can use to get good answers. One is asking open questions, which means asking broader questions e.g. Why do you like this film?, from asking questions like this you gain longer responses. Another way is asking closed questions, which are designed to get specific answers e.g. do you like films?.

Now using what I have learnt, as a class we listed what things do we want to find out about our potential audience. This is what we came up with:

- What do British Social Realism films do they like?

- Why do they like the films they have chosen?(Use and gratification, conventions)

- What do they think of my ideas?

- What potential ideas do they have?

Me and my partner then was given the task to gain 
research of what our target audience of teenagers liked. We chose to do a vox pop because it allowed us to interact with out audience first hand and really understand what they liked and did not like. In order to collect our data, we thought of open questions that really filtered out our target audiences thoughts and opinions. Below is the questions we asked.

Q1) " British Social Realism are films that tend to highlight the negative everyday scenarios of working class Brits and they celebrate the failure of these people in the most explicit way possible. "

1a) Have you seen any films of this genre? 

1b) What do you like about these films?

1c) How do they appeal to you?

Q2)

2a) Which theme are you most interested in and why?

2b) Do any of these themes personally relate you?

Q3)

 

3a) Would you go and see this films, if so why?

3b) What interested you about it?

Q4)

4a) These our ideas for a British Social Realism films, we are going to produce:

- A boy has a disability of dyslexia. Living in poverty with no support or love, can he achieve his dreams of being an author?

- A girl moves from Jamaica to a white majority area. She's a talented runner that dreams to compete in big competitions but is held back by racism.

- A girl gets pregnant and wants to run away from her abusive boyfriend, in order to protect her baby.

4b) Which one do you prefer and why?

Q5) How would you improve the idea you chose?

I believe these questions will bring our target audiences opinions and help me and my partner manipulate our ideas to their demands and likes.

Task - Audience Research: Vox pop

Lesson 3: Today i started the lesson by understanding the brief and what it instructs me to do. When i am making my opening sequence, i have to make sure that it is two minutes, of the genre British Social Realism, must contain copyright free music, must appeal to 16-24. Moreover, the institution i am making my film for, is Film 4, therefore it must include unknown actors, contain subject matters that would occur in the real world and lastly, it should fulfil the ethos of Film 4, by celebrating the mundane mediocrity and failure of British society. I also learnt that British Social Realist films are very ambiguous and has an ending open to different interpretations. Moreover it became evident they produce high concept films. These are films that have a simple narrative, that can be described under 25 words. The image below is of an article published by BBC. It showed how the UK film council where awarding money to young scriptwriters that could pitch a horror or comedy film under 25 words or less.

Then we was given the task of producing our own high concept film narrative and pitch them to our teacher. Mine was "Tom is the odd one out. He has a dream but obstacles are in the way, in the form of his dysfunctional family". My teacher gave feedback on how I could improve my idea, she suggested I either expand on how the family are dysfunctional or either state what Tom aspires to be. Next I was introduced to my task - the Treatment. I learnt what my treatment should include. It should contain the following:

- Title: With explanations of connotations

- Identify T.A: With the appeal it will have and include primary, as well as secondary research.

- Technology: How will it be used and why that technology is suitable.

- Representation: Characters, stereotypes and ideologies.

- Narrative: Summary of opening sequence with conventions (Todorv's Theory)

- Conventions: How will they keep/subvert with explanations ( sound, credits, graphics etc)

- Style & Iconography: effects of camera work/editing, use of costume and props

- Institutions: Who would produce/distribute/exhibit this film? Why?. Also, How have you reflected film 4's ethos in your idea?

Task - Treatment 

Lesson 4: This lesson was spent going around the school and filming our vox pop for me and my partners audience research. Once this was done, it was uploaded onto iMovie, ready to edit for next lesson.

Task - Audience Research

What have you learnt about your target audience?

Doing the vox pop has really highlighted the lack of knowledge 16-24 year olds have of British Social Realism films. On a positive note, films that were high of gang culture were very popular, for example, 4321 and Kidulthood. However, they did not know it was a British Social Realism film and also they did not know of traditional films such as Trainspotting and Kes. In addition, I also learnt that my target audience of 16-24 want to see themes such as racism, teen pregnancy, drugs, escape/aspiration etc because they feel its a true representation of society and its very interesting to watch from a different perspective and get lost in the movie. It also became evident they wanted characters to be around their age, so its easy to relate, since that's why films like Adulthood which consisted of teenagers attracted them.

What have you learnt about the institutions in the production of social realist films?

I have learnt that social realist films are produced by independent companies such as Film 4. Due to being financially restricted and not having that big Hollywood budget it drives them to be very creative. So that's why they don't have the sellability factor of known actors and exotic locations. However the lack of sellability is counter balanced by their ethos of producing films that have meaning, by touching on controversial subject matters, for instance Four Lions deals with religion and terrorism. It makes the audience think and opens their eyes to the harsh truth of the world we live in.

How will this inform your production?

In my production I will live up to the brief expectations of being typical to social realism. I will do this by popular techniques such as a smash mouth opening. Moreover, I may use handheld shots to add to the dullness of the situation and I will use a variety of shots to express the setting and characters facial/body expressions in order to establish the themes I want to get across. For examples if I want to highlight poverty, I will use plenty of wide shots and establishing shots in order to shows the locations of council estates which the audience will associate with poverty. Lastly, I will try to inform the audiences feedback into my work, for instance they gave me feedback on my opening sequence idea and I will take that into consideration in order for it to appeal to them more.