The brief clearly states that we are to make a British Social Realist film for Film 4, therefore we must 'conform to the conventions of Social Realist genre'. I feel i have met this expectation as me and my partner made it evident who we were making the film for by showing the Film 4 logo. Also, we clearly portrayed the genre of British Social Realism through many ways, on of which is through the mise-en-scene. Our main character, Leah lives in a council flat, this location is conventional in British Social Realist films, as it connotes themes such as poverty and establishes the character a working class. An example is Wasp, as the main characters residence is also in a council flat.
The brief also stated that their should be a clear sense of 'graphical' and 'editing' style. I feel i have met this expectation as the graphics and editing were specifically chosen to have specific connotations. For instance, for our typography, we picked a style that visually looked like a maze, as it had gaps. In addition, i felt that we made the edit quite precise and made sure it followed and looked like a Social Realist film. For example we used continuity editing and we made sure that it cut at the right moment, so that the position of her hands were the same in the shot before and after the cut. Doing this meant the action was not disrupted and it grabbed the audiences attention at is was such an emotional scene, that was designed so that audience sympathise with Leah and side with her.
The brief states that our film should be aimed at 'British 16-24 year olds'. I feel that i have met this requirement as there are many cultural references, such us the London underground, which has more meaning to someone who lives in London. The iconic sign of the subway, would have more appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds, as they are most likely to use public transport, since they might not be of the legal age to drive and public transport is more affordable.
Furthermore, our character Leah, is in the age range of our target audience. So, the audience can personally identify to Leah as their is a mutual identification between character and audience. Lastly the brief states that 'all visual and audio material' must be original. I feel i have met this specification as the diegetic music played (0:15-1:48), is copyright free since my partners friend gave permission for us to use it - ( for further information about the music chosen can be found on this blog post - http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/music-for-opening-sequence.html)
Our opening sequence is entitled 'Maze'. The word as well as the style of typography relates to our narrative as it mirrors Leah's life, and highlights her desperation to escape from her abusive boyfriend in an attempt to create a more positive future for her baby. The title signifies how there is no escape because she is working class and she is unable to afford to escape as she cannot travel far enough due to limited money. A further connotation is that the confinement of a maze almost portrays the never ending cycle because she always finds her way back to the start of the maze and never finds her way out. The deep meaning the title holds, sets up the themes our narrative revolves around, which are; isolation, aspiration/escape, poverty, class and violence (domestic). We gained inspiration for our film title by looking at many other British social realism film titles and discussing what the connotations of each title were in relation to the content and themes. An example of a British social realism film that inspired our title was 'Fish Tank'. This title connotes that the main character/s may have big dreams, ambitions and aspire to be something great in life but are limited as to what they can be. Therefore, they cannot escape the environment they've been raised in as a fish tank is very small and enclosed. The fish would represent the main character/s and the fish tank would represent then environment in which they've been raised, connoting the environment is of working class and they are trapped within it due to limited resources.
We have used McKee's five part narrative theory to structure our narrative. So, the opening sequence begins with a smash mouth opening (exposition), which includes a series of fast paced shots of Leah destroying a letter and packing her belongings. Then she looks in the mirror and explores the damage done to her. Next she gets confronted by her neighbour but ignores her, she then hitches a ride on the bus to travel to the train station - (A detailed description of the narrative can be found on this blog post -http://kalkidanbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/whole-film-narrative.html). This technique of a non linear start and a smash mouth opening, set up the rest of the narrative as everything revolves around Leah and it is clear she is trying to run away from someone due to a problem (the agent of change), which is in the form of a letter. Therefore, the audience will have many enigma codes that will be answered as the film goes on through the
conflict complication, elaboration, climax/resolution and coda.
British Social Realism films take inspiration from the real world and apply it in their films as a theme. They do this to portray to the audience what life is really like. For example, in Fish Tank Mia aspires to be a dancer. However, her lifestyle restricts her from escaping and achieving her dreams. Her mother is a bad single parent that parties and doesn't care for her children. This has led to the children being corrupted as they smoke, alcohol and Mia experiences under age sex. So, this film deals with many themes, that occur in the real world, such as aspirations/ escape, corruption of youth, parenthood, class and many more. Me and my partner have taken this technique and have revolved our narrative around a real situation that occurred in the news. On the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17787243) a 16 year old girl suffered domestic abuse from her boyfriend. Using this as inspiration, we took this idea and developed it further through to use of three important themes in our narrative, which are; domestic abuse, escape/aspiration and isolation.
We looked at the theme domestic abuse, where you see Leah face bruised and battered. This was influenced by London to Brighton, where the smash mouth opening reveals the woman's swollen black eye, we thought it was an opportunity to raise enigma codes from the beginning since you only see the after effects and not what caused the abuse.
In our sequence we explored the theme of escape and aspiration through the mise-en-scene. Leah is on a moving bus going past a long row of council flats. The urban location of council estates represents poverty and being working class, so we had Leah look out the window during this shot, as it connoted how she is trying to escape this lifestyle. This was inspired by bullet boy, as he also looks out the car window and sees his home - the council flat.
Lastly, me and my partner explored the theme of isolation through the camera work. Leah ignores her neighbour and walks off in silence, so the long shot used, connotes how Leah is in a bad situation and is dealing with it by excluding herself from everyone else around her. This was inspired by Shifty, when the long shot of the male at the bus stop reinforces how lonely and isolated he is.
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