And now the end is near....

And so I've reached, my final blog postttttt.

I'd like to congratulate my good friend Mitchell on us both reaching the end of this brilliant task.


Sing it Frank....

Evaluation: Part 8; Preliminary Task

Looking back at our preliminary task, it's hard to believe that it was done so long ago.




This is my evaluation of the preliminary task

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The preliminary task was invaluable. We learnt a lot of rules that we applied in our final production.

The 180 degree rule: We needed this in our first scene between Jamie and the teacher. At one point we had shot some footage over the shoulder, we then went to film the two shot but crossed the 180 degree line, we noticed this after reviewing the footage on the camcorder on set. We then re-filmed with the 180 degree rule in mind. This is something we also did in our preliminary task for a two shot, where we had to completely rearrange the set in order to observe the 180 degree rule and maintain continuity and therefore verisimilitude.

The rule of thirds: We observed the rule of thirds mainly in the scene between Jamie and his teacher, though it was observed throughout the opening sequence as you can see in the two screenshots below. This basic composition rule helped our overall finish, giving it professional qualities.

Screenshot from our evaluation

It was good to use the HD camcorder in a test run before the real production, as this was our time for finding out how to get around the device and test how well it captured different lighting and sound. I think our task was successful creative wise, it had a strong simple theme of humour and general high jinx. Post production was a big part of the task too, it's amazing how different the first draft is to the final.




Looking at the differences between the initial draft and final the main improved is the audio. From seeing this I made sure that special attention was paid to the audio in our BSR production. The song used underneath the voiceover is a track a friend of mine, Reece Alexander, produced, he goes by the name of "ReeceA". When we wrote out our treatment I instantly thought of this track as it fits the pace and feel of the themes and the voiceover fits well over it. With the massive bonus that I have full permission to use it as he's completely independent.




The weak point of our preliminary task was the missing footage, which we replaced with this clip:

This ruined the continuity of our task. We remembered this mishap when we were recording our BSR production and was sure to not only film each shot at least three times but to check the footage on set and tick off each shot on the list.





We kept the same flare and creativity that we put in to our preliminary task, maintaining the pace and excitement. I believe that as much as the pieces are completely different they do reflect similar styles and moods.

Evaluation: Task 7; Technologies

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Evaluation: Task 6; Attracting/Addressing our audience

Our YouTube video for audience feedback

Evaluation: Task 5; Representation of social groups

Representation of groups was something we spent a lot of time planning in Pre-production.

Also the body language and composition of this shot enforces the subversion of stereotypical authority. 

We wanted to both use and subvert stereotypes. In the first scene between the teacher and Jamie we explore the theme of authority, the points that the teacher is making are valid to the insinuated life choices Jamie is making, however with jamie arguing back to the teacher we subvert the stereotype that this authority figure is in fact in power and control. The voiceover furthers this subversion as Jamie challenges the stereotype of the typical "9to5" routined lifestyle. And then the title is brought in to focus at the end "Who are the real wasters here?" to again subvert the social ideology that people who take drugs and live to party are of the worst social group.

Apart from the teacher at the start of the opening sequence this stage dancer is the only other female shown in the production. We chose to conform to Laura Mulvey's theory of "The Male Gaze" which states that women are shown in media products as something for males to look at. Her provocative dancing and minimal costume anchors this connotation.

The meeting scenes show Jamie and his friends as a gang, the graffiti behind them and iconic connotations of stairwells anchor the connotation of these friends being a "gang", conforming to the stereotype of gang culture within urban youth groups. However this initial representation isn't carried on as there is no violence shown, or any other stereotypical "gang" behaviour. In fact the representation we wanted to created for the raving group is that they were just young boys who were only in the pursuit of a good time.

However, this shot at 1:45 of a raver in a bunny mask is quite menacing and could be seen as intimidating to the viewer, signifying that some members of the society are pursuing different things. Although this could be read by the target audience as fun and it could be viewed as a guy just having a laugh and means no harm. This second reading is the one we were going for which was successful from feedback we received from our target audience.

The editing in the first scene between the teacher and Jamie is slow and basic continuity editing, we did this gives the scene verisimilitude. The slow cuts, basic straight on angles, over the shoulder and two shots signify the mundane, boring mood of school life from the perspective of Jamie. This then changes when we meets his friends, the cuts are fast, with jump cuts to insinuate the fast paced, thrill with no fill lifestyle of Jamie and his friends. There is a jump cut (shown above) where Jamie takes a pill, we see the pill go in, this jumps to him drinking, then jumps to shaky footage of a rave. These fast cuts again signify the fast pace of the ravers life and connote the action of the drugs he's taking.

Evaluation: Part 4; Textural Analysis

Our YouTube video with textural analysis commentary
 

Evaluation: Part 3; Film4

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Evaluation: Part 2; Target Audience

This is our YouTube video for the evaluation of our target audience

Evaluation: Task 1; Overview of the brief

For this coursework we had to make a two minute opening sequence to a fictional British social realism film with titles for Film4, aimed at a British Audience of 16-24 year olds.

       The title we chose was "Wasters". We decided this would be the most appropriate and fitting title as it connotes a waste of life, youth and potential, however this title is ironic and provocative as at the end Jamie asks the audience the question to think "Who are the real wasters here?" as in the stereotypical 9to5 workers against the squatting, care free ravers. The 9to5 workers view is signified in the opening sequence with Jamie's teacher saying Jamie's throwing his school career away when he then justifies this with the voiceover picking out aspects of the teachers life "worrying about bills and what colour you're gonna paint the kitchen, dreaming your dreams" and then saying that he's living his dreams.

Like we stated in our treatment, our opening sequence explores gritty rave culture- shown in the fast paced cuts of real rave footage

 Drug abuse - shown in the meeting scene where drugs are handled, speed is racked up and a pill is taken.

and Anti-authority where Jamie is arguing with his teacher

These themes are common to the BSR genre. These themes are all true to life, with no high concept, they just explore everyday working class life with no glamour.

Evaluation: Permission for use of the song

The E-Mail from ReeceA giving us full permission to use "Censorsh*t"

Our final Production "Wasters"

The end product!

Production: Call Sheet 4

Open publication - Free publishing - More call sheet

Production: Call sheet 3

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Production: Call sheet 2

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Production: Call sheet 1

Open publication - Free publishing - More call sheet

Pre-Production: Storyboard

The storyboard for the rest of our sequence, following on from the shooting script.

Production: Shooting Script for first scene.

This is our shooting script for the first scene of our opening sequence. After this is a montage of shots and titles which we have storyboarded.

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Production: Production Log Week 6 + Recci

This week we were focusing on the shooting script and production schedule. We've pretty much got every mapped out now. Fairly confident with all the decisions made but we're leaving room for change in certain places, depending on some limitations on shots, such as lighting, noise etc.

We had a look at some possible shooting locations too, such as this stairway. The lighting was really good here. As apposed to the alley we were initially going to film in, but the lighting was too bad.

Getiing everyone together at the same time is going to be a pain as everyone has college/work commitments and most of them are just plain lazy!

This is a picture we found online of a rave that happened in Holborn. The thing I like about this picture is the levels everyones at. There are people literally covering the walls and it really communicates the anti-authority aspect and feel of raving.

Pre-Production: Production Log Week 5

This week we have been focusing on the monologue that will run throughout our opening sequence. Sorting out the direction of the monologue has been the key problem... Deciding whether to have Jamie walking through his life or a night out but then to have him focused on talking about his life or pointing out the flaws in the teachers and the general 9to5 routine.

One scene we looked at was the monologue from Made In Britain.

In this monologue Trevor directs his speech at authority.

                                                             Another we looked at was in Kes.

In this speech that Billy delivers to the class, he talks about his ambitions and hopes, that he won't have to go into mining later on in life. And talks passionately about his falcon, which has been his hobby.

We're taking aspects of these two monologues and merging them with the inspiration we had prior from watching the opening to trainspotting.  

Pre-Production: Production Log 4

Really looked in to target audiences this week and got some really good research down in the form of Vox Pox. Luckily our results matched up with what we'd planned so far, after analysing our Vox Pox we were happy to write up our treatment in confidence that we were targeting the right audience.

The institutions that are involved in making BSR films are all targeted to roughly the same audience. So our production company being Film4, we'll be sticking to their ethos and ideologies.

This week we also picked a soundtrack to play underneath our main monologue. It's going to be a track by my friend Reece (ReeceA) who makes his own deep house modestep music. He's started a label with a friend called HLFPIN and they've given me full permission to use their track on our production.

It could possibly be this track called "Censorsh*it"

"Censorsh*t" by -Ree¢e∆ -