Pre-Production: Treatment

"Troubled teenager finds a new world in the UK rave scene. Falls too far in to get back up, but would he even want to?"

Title

TBC

Target Audience

Age: 16-24.

Gender: 80% Male. 20% Female.

Interests: Raving, Electronic dance music, Partying, Fashion, Graffiti/Street art, MC-ing, DJ-ing.

Other Media Consumption: Films, Social networking sites, Blogs, YouTube, Magazines (Dazed&Confused, Wonderland, VICE).

Class: Working & Middle.

The themes and representations of our film will appeal to our target audience (TA) through Uses & Gratifications (U&G) theory of Personal Identity, by seeing the rave culture and how it's represented on screen one would be able to relate it to their own life and their representations of the people involved, therefore setting up comparisons of a fairly controversial lifestyle. The film could also relate to personal, second hand experiences they might of had (friends taking the same route of our protagonist). This then links to U&G theory of Social Relationships as one might watch the film to imitate relationships they don't, but would like to have in real life and also as a conversation matter between their peers. 

      The narrative of the film will appeal to our target audience

      The main USP of our film is that it provides an insight into a controversial culture that isn't commonly explored. Our film therefore appeals to our TA through U&G theory Surveillance/Information as one could watch the film to weigh up the risks of getting in to the raving lifestyle, or to simply gain an insight in to what it's like.

Technology

For our production we will be using a HD camcorder for the majority of the filming and an iPhone 4 for the POV rave footage. The HD camcorders will better the finish and overall style of our production, however they are devices that only one of us has used and so our experience is limited and so learning how to use these to a proficient standard will be time consuming 

     For our post production we will be using Final Cut Express® as our primary editing software, this will give us the tools necessary to advance our style of editing as we feel that we would be limited using iMovie. The limitations of this is that neither of us can use the software to a proficient standard as of yet and so will be learning as we go along, which therefore will again be quite time consuming. 

Representations

Our Protagonist, Jamie Petch, is a 17 year old male from the suburbs of London. He is introduced to the scene through an older friend, Jack Adams who used to live local.

We feel that Propp's character types aren't applicable to our storyline. This is a theory mainly explored in high concept, mainstream, Hollywood films. However we will use Goffman's character theory theory:

1. The bit player (minor character whose specific background the audience is not aware of) - This will be Jack Adam's older brother who warms Jamie about getting out of the rave scene, we don't even learn his name but he is key to the turn of the film.
2. The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages) - This will be Barry McDermot. He just never seems to be down, portraying a positive image on drugs. It seems like nothing effects him in a negative way, always cracking jokes and making people laugh
3. The deuteragonist (secondary character) - We feel that Jack Adams best suits this character type rather than Propp's "antagonist" label, because Jack doesn't intentionally drag Jamie down. He doesn't purposely clash or obscure Jamies goals and in his death motivates Jamie to turn his life around.

Our film will intially subvert the typical representations of squatter/raver community as the first half of the film shows the highs and positives of this lifestyle and the people involved. However this representation changes around mid way in the film where Jamie, after Jacks death, want's to get out but receives no help from his supposed 'friends'. This shows the stereotypical representation of the afore said group being selfish and detached.


Narrative

Our film follows a teenage boy from the outskirts of London as he falls into the squat party/rave lifestyle and goes off the rails. He thinks everything's going great but doesn't realise that all the securities of his old life are slipping through his fingers. When he loses one of his best mates to a drug overdose, reality kicks back in and he realises he wants his old life back, but it's too late. 

Our opening sequence starts off with Jamie's teacher confronting him about his recent slant in effort, attendace and overall wellbeing/appearance. This sparks a speech from a seemingly quiet Jamie, this monolgue then continues as a voiceover for the rest of the sequence, the things he talks about are shown in seperate footage through crosscutting. For example when talking about the raves themself, real footage shot using 'free camera' technique is shown.

The camera movement will be minimal to connote the lack of funds for a typical BSR film and this will add to the realistic representation of the subjects and topics explored. Our rave footage will be shaky, this is an idea we got from the opening sequence of 'Cathy Come Home' (1964, Ken Loach) where a similiar technique is used when Cathy and her friend are walking down the street.

     Our opening sequence will use real life, urban, locations, which will signify the gritty, true to life, working class environments. This is a major convention of the BSR genre. Used also for budget restrictions.

    We will be introducing the themes instead of the plot of the film. Also we will be including titles for instiutional comapanys, actors and key crew. There will be use of super imposed graphics and engaging music.

Conventions

There will be a big focus on costume; One, because this will be a realistic representation of the raving culture and Two, because these costumes are ones we have to hand and therefore will keep the budget low.
Our main themes are drugs, niche music and coming of age. These are key themes of the BSR genre, therefore we are conforming to the BSR conventions through the inclusion of said themes. The first half of our film could be seen as slightly high concept (showing the high points of the culture, this is only done to create a more shocking contrast when everything falls apart in the second half of the film. This then conforms to the grity tone of BSR films. This could be seen as a hybrid element, which we take on as part of our USP.


Style & Iconography

We will use minimal camerawork when showing Jamie in his normal day to day life. We will be communicating the mundane, slow pace of his life with stationary shots and abstract/canted angles. But when showing the rave scenes we will use the 'shaky/free camera' technique. This will connote how busy and hectic this scene is and excite the audience, leaving them waiting for the weekend in the film, along side jamie.
    
Again with editing we will use very simple editing techniques through Jamie's school week, lots of continuity editing to connote the realistic movements of his day to day life. Long takes will be included in these sections too along with long shot reverse shots. However at the rave scenes lots of jump cuts will be used to connote the intoxication and we will experiment with the effects of 'seeing double' to further this too.

We will be using typical raving costume, this is available to us through friends. Props will be drugs (not real) to signify that the main theme of drugs in the film. There will also be alcohol and possibly condoms to connote the underage sex which was asked for in our Vox Pox.

The main sound will be a monologue from Jamie over the top of a fairly calm but upbeat electronic track made by a friend of mine, who's given be full permission to use it. The monologue will walk the audience through the positive aspects of the culture, slating anything that goes against it. We also may use some sound from footage we have from real raves, depending on what we can get permission for.



Institution

The production company being Film4, means that we will have to abide by certain ideologies to maintain the company's ethos. Given this we will be producing a gritty, true to life BSR film. Which is based around working class people in urban areas dealing with everyday struggles which on a wider scale aren't really that significant.

We would go with 'Dogwoof Indie' as the distributors of our film. They are a London based company who we believe would be interested in our film for the themes and ideologies explored. Whereas a bigger, more mainstream company would be solely focused on making a profit.

We would enter our film in to festivals: Sundance, Cannes, Raindance... Hopefully we would then pick up a contract for a string of art houses. As for home exhibition we would have it put up on LoveFilm, Apple, YouTube Rentals and Film4OD. These are easily accessible and cheap for each party, reaching a wide audience for a little budget. These New Media Technology mediums of home exhibitionwould appeal to our 16-24 year old target audience as computers are part of their everyday lives.