Social Realism Opening Scenes: first opinions thoughts and feelings.

I have chosen three different social realism openings to films which I am going to analyze and take notes on before going into detail on the title, lighting, characters, location and sound.

1) The first clip I am going to look at is the opening scene from Trainspotting. I haven't actually seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made on it.

Notes:

 Music - straight away
introduced to what appears to be main character straight away (also narrates) RENTON
chase scene - in trouble?
stereotypically quite rough looking, ear piercing, dirty looking clothes, shaved head
'fucking'
hit by a car - reckless
'choose..' repeated, emphasis, advising the audience
repeatedly swearing
contradictory 'choose health' while smoking
drugs, alcohol
rhetorical question. 'why would I want to do a thing like that?'
'Who needs reasons when you're got heroine?' VERY clearly a drug addict

2) The second clip I am going to look at is the opening scene from Fish Tank. Again I haven't seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made.

The clip is quite a long clip and as we have been assigned to do around a 2 minute clip I am going to focus  on the first  2:30 minutes of it as that is the main focus, to research how social realism films are usually opened. Also after the first 2 and a half minutes, the sense becomes less of an opening scene and so I feel its almost irreverent to the research I am looking at at the moment.

Notes:

Production logos-  4 (background music) quite simple
Title is shown straight away!! Plain background, background noises
Heavy breathing- unhealthy?
Main character? straight away - bad pronunciation.
view of the town, showing where it is sent
'ring me back bitch' rude, blunt
stereotypically rough or 'chavy'- strong accent, scruffy, hoop earrings, tracksuit
chucking stones - no respect for others property
lots of swearing!! (in front of children - gives the impression of not caring)

3) The final clip I am going to look at for the moment is the opening scene from Submarine. Like both of the other films I haven't seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made. I think it is better to not have seen the clips as this is also practice for my exam when I have to analyze a clip from a TV drama which I will have most likely not seen before.

Notes:

Production Logo - 2 (some with music, some without) simple
Sets scene straight away, panning across room S L O W L Y
Flickers from one to another, scene to opening credits again repeatedly
messy room, teens?
seagulls in the background noise, suggests its by the sea
narration as the camera pans on to a boy (introduces himself)
the boy looks lonely
sudden, quick zoom on boy, in time with the clock ticking
music, quite gentle or reinforces the sense on loneliness
lots of landscapes, by the sea...romantic?

These were my first thoughts on the clips which I wrote down while watching each of them through twice. Over the next few days I will be making further notes and a more detailed analysis.

Genre: Social Realism (Chosen Genre)

For my course work, I am going in a group with Scarlet Ryan and Mollie Green and together we are going to produce a short clip of two minutes with the genre of Social Realism. We all chose this together having decided this was the best genre to go with for what we wanted to do and with the ideas that we had. Its also very cheap to make, there is no need for extravagant location, props and costume. Also the actors have to be non professional, realistic and believable and this is easy to achieve, especially in this genre and often extras in social realism films are filmed in real life, everyday locations with people still going about there everyday business in the background.

Social realism is a film that focuses on the different issues that represent the modern society.

Typical social realism conventions:

-Has a very realistic settings, is very believable.
-Has realistic events and situations
-Believable and skillful filming technique
-Economic hardship
-Life issues e.g. Broken families, bullying, mental disorders, drugs, drink, relationships, unemployment etc.
-Gritty style
-Not studio filmed- Social realism films are filmed on actual, real life locations which helps make the film seem more realistic and rateable.
-Wide shots- To show what is going on and setting the scene. (Showing location)
-Semi improvised scripts- This is done in order to achieve realistic dialogue.
-Humour and seriousness
-Unknown actors- its cheaper as social realism films tend to have small budgets. Also adds reality to the film, as an audience we can build our own judgements on the characters as they know nothing about them.

Genre: Thriller

After action, the next genre I want to focus on and investigate further into is Thrillers.

Gritty, anxiety, rousing, adrenaline-rushing.

Thriller is a genre that uses a lot of suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. The phase ‘on the edge of your seat’ as it builds to the climax of the film, works perfectly for this genre. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of fright, worry, uncertainty and surprise. Films of this genre tend to be very adrenaline-rushing, quite fast paced and quite often villain-driven plot

A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the plot of the film. Plot twists, and cliff-hangers are used regularly to reinforce the sudden emotional rush which the film is aiming for.

Sub Genres:

-psychological thrillers
-crime thrillers
-erotic thrillers
-mystery thrillers.

In thrillers there are often a lot of hybrids and here are some examples which I found online: 
(http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html)

• action- or adventure- thrillers
• sci-fi thrillers (such as Alien (1979))
• crime-caper thrillers (such as The French Connection (1971))
• western-thrillers (such as High Noon (1952))
• film-noir thrillers (such as Double Indemnity (1944))
• even romantic comedy-thrillers (such as Safety Last (1923))

Genre: Action

Before choosing a specific film genre to focus on and then produce, we are looking at three different film genres to look at and research, to develop a wider understanding about them, so we are then able to make our own clips as realistic as possible.

The first genre I looked at was ACTION which I researched with Scarlet before producing a presentation with her which we then showed to the class.

This is our Prezi Presentation.

Film Genres & Sub Genres

Film genre? A style or 'type' of film.

What are the main film genres out there?!
-Action
-Adventure
-Comedy
-Crime
-Drama
-Epics
-Horror
-Musicals
-Science-Fiction
-War
-Western
-Romance
-Thrillers
-Social Realism

Sub genre? Identifiable sub-classes within the larger film genre, with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas and iconography.

ACTION

Highly energetic, big budget, physical stunts, fight scenes, escapes, races against time.

Sub genres: -sky
                    -espionage
                    -political thrillers
                    -martial arts
                    -races against time
                    -James Bond? Could be argued that it's a sub genre in itself...
ADVENTURE

Exciting stories, new experiences, exotic locations.

Sub genres: -swashbucklers
                    -serialized films
                    -historical epics
                    -expedition films
                    -treasure hunts
                    -disaster films
                    -strange mysteries

COMEDY 

Light-hearted plot, deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter.

Sub genres: -slapsticks
                    -screwballs
                    -parodies
                    -romantic comedies
                    -spoofs
                    -black comedy
                    -satirical comedy

CRIME

Sinister actions.

Sub genres: -gangster films
                    -detective films
                    -film noir
                    -mysteries
                    -serial killer films
                    -suspense films
                    -thrillers
                    -courtroom dramas

DRAMA

Serious, plot driven, portraying realistic characters.

Sub genres: -melodramas
                    -romance
                    -biographical films
                    -'adult' films
                    -sports films
                    -road movies
                    -'guy' films

EPICS

Historical, imagined events, mythical.

Sub genres: -historical dramas
                    -costume dramas
                    -war films
                    -medieval romps
                    -period pictures
                    -adventure films
                    -religious films

HORROR

Designed to frighten, invoke hidden/worst fears.

Sub genres: -slasher
                    -science fiction
                    -supernatural
                    -teen terror
                    -serial killers
                    -satanic
                    -monsters

MUSICALS

Cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines.

Sub genres: -Broadway musicals
                    -musical comedies
                    -concert film
                    -performance films
                    -music biography

SCIENCE-FICTION

Unnatural, futuristic films.

Sub genres: -visionary
                    -horrific
                    -graphic novels
                    -medical miseries
                    -devil machines
                    -mad science
                    -space invaders

WAR FILMS

War?

Sub genres: -war drama
                    -military operations
                    -anti-war films
                    -POW stories
                    -military training

WESTERNS

Sub genres: -epic westerns
                    -the 'singing cowboy'
                    -the 'spaghetti' westerns
                    -contemporary westerns
                    -revisionist westerns
                    -comedy westerns
                    -'post-apocalyptic'


Sometimes films can go into and has conventions of more than one film genre. This is called a 'Hybrid'.

Scarlet & Etty's preliminary task & evaluation

This is our final edit of our video: very dramatic ;)

Evaluation!

After a lot of hard work we have finally finished filming and editing our preliminary task and it is ready for you to watch! Overall I am happy with the final clip however we had some difficulty getting it ready to be shown.

-We had a lot of technical difficulty, getting the clips from the camera on to the school macs and whenever we were finally able to get them on and downloading it, the next day when we went back to it everything had gone. However we worked our way around this problem by doing all of the editing from home that way we were sure that our work was safe.

-We had slight difficulty finding suitable music and whenever we did we were unable to download it. However after searching for many hourswe finally found something we were happy with.

-Finding time to film was also quite a challenge because the actors were only able to film together at certain times and sometimes it was when Scarlet and I couldn't do. To avoid this happening, we decided to film after school instead that way we all had a unlimited time and weren't in the way of any other classes that needed to use the mobiles. Also during frees we filmed the actors doing their separate bits as it didn't matter that not both of the actors were there at once

-Some of the transitions between the clips are not as smooth as we would have liked them to have been. Next time, to improve the transitions we need to leave space at the end of everything we film so we can edit the appropriate timings and possibly fade them into each other?



Also: Just a quick thank you to George Collins and Luke Sheilds for being our actors. Great job guys!

Permission to use the outside mobiles at school for our location.

To get permission to use one of the outdoor mobiles at school we had to contact Mr Cook. We emailed him asking for permission and instead of emailing back he arranged for us to have a small conversation later that day about the conditions and rules we had to follow to be able to use a mobile. 

On Wednesday the 1st of October Scarlet and I filmed were granted permission and filmed in the mobiles. 

Thank you again Mr Cook!

(This is the email conversation we had with him, asking for permission).

Preliminary Task: Script

Script:

[Detective exits the building through automatic doors, while holding an envelope and walks casually along the road. Inmate is sitting on a chair at a desk, in a separate room, struggling with his hands, handcuffed behind his back. Detective unlocks door and walks into the room where the inmate is sat.]

[Detective chucks envelope onto desk and the insides fall across the table.]

Inmate [arrogantly with disbelief]: Are you joking? We’ve been over this. How many times do I have to tell you? I didn’t do it! Panning up from envelope. MCU

Detective [calmly]: I know. Over shoulder shot (facing detective) Low angle.

Inmate [leans closer, getting louder while talking]: You’re not listening! You need to believe me. This guy is still out there. I’m telling you the truth! High angle over the shoulder shot (facing inmate)

  

Detective: No you’re not listening Over shoulder shot (facing detective) Low angle.

Inmate [defeated]: But I’m innocent. High angle over the shoulder shot (facing inmate)

Detective: I know Over shoulder shot (facing detective) Low angle.

Inmate: Wait, what do you mean? MLS moves from behind to the side of inmate.

Detective [sinister smile]: You’re free to go… Close up, zooming slightly.

Birds eye view of detective un-cuffing inmate, fades into black.