Film 4 Ideologies

Looking For Eric:

We can see how Film 4 ideologies are represented in looking for Eric through the Representation of Places. The film is set in great Manchester. Here we can see the worst of Britain through the gang violence, drug lords and racism. Through the representation of characters, we can see another Film 4 ideology which is the domestic hardships of working class Britons. This is displayed through Eric Bishops working class job and his small flat he lives in. The fact that he also considered suicide at one point shows the lowest of Britain. He is working class which is a common ideology in Film 4 movies.Again it has a typical Film 4 storyline as Eric is trying to get his family back together. Although most Film 4  endings are sad, this one ends on a happy note as the family are back together and the threat is removed.


Submarine:
















Submarine follows a typical Film 4 story line as Oliver Tate is desperately tying to reconnect his mother and father again. The use of unknown actors also represents the Film 4 ideologies. The main characters, Oliver Tate's whole family leads mundane lives. Real life locations are used in Britain - typical of Film 4 ideologies. Whole British cast is used. Usually Film 4 endings are sad and ambiguous, yet Submarine seems to have a happy and satisfying ending for Oliver Tate.

Four Lions:

We can see the worst of Britain in four lions due to the racism in the movies. Also the main characters are terrorists which again represents the violence in Britain. Many controversial themes such as race, violence and genocide. These are all dark and gritty themes although the movie features a lot of comedy. The ending follows the typical Film 4 ideology of a sad ending as they kill themselves along with innocent people.Unknown actors are used - again a common ideology of Film 4. Most of the movie was filmed in Sheffield  which shows the British cultural references. The film also celebrates the mundane, failure and mediocrity of the Muslim bombers.


The Inbetweeners Moive:
The Inebtweeners movie does not really follow the typical Film 4 ideologies. For example, there's not really any racism moments in the movies, no dark an gritty themes in which Film 4 are familiar with, the comedy does not really offend any culture or ethnicity and the endings aren't really sad.; I believe failure is not celebrated either. I think that the Inbetweeners movies more or less follows Hollywood ideologies as opposed to Film 4.

Hunger:
Hunger happen to contain quite a few Film 4 ideologies. We can see in the trailer that politics is talked about. This is big in Film 4 films. We are also given a lot hints of violence  the police with weapons and the main character with scars and bruises. The theme seems so be dark as he is having a hunger strike in order to fight against the government  which means he is damaging himself. It could also be connoted that the government are corrupted which is familiar with Film 4. Although Hunger contains Film 4 ideologies, a big star Michael Fassbender is cast as the main actor, which doesn't really happen in Film 4 movies as they usually use untrained actors.

Attack The Block:
Attack the block shows the typical Film 4 ideologies. It is set in London, representing the London estates. Most of the cast is all British which again is popular with Film 4. The dialect used is also very typical of Film 4 as is is all British slang meaning people in other countries will not really use it. British references are used through video games - Fifa which is one of the biggest games in the U.K Also grime music which is very popular in the U.K is used - all British cultural references typical of Film 4.

Continuity Exercise Evaluation Part 1:

For this project I had to use different shot types and filming techniques such as 180 Degree rule, rule of thirds and match on action. This is how I represented each technique in the video.



Rule of Thirds:

As you can see I used the rule of thirds as my eyes are on the top line of the grid.

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                           

                       Match On Action:
Here we can see how I used Match on Action in my filming. As you can see in the first screen shot, I have opened the door a little bit, which then continues on to the second screen shot. In the second shot, we can see that the door is opened to the point at which it was in the previous shot. This is an example of Match On Action. This also avoids the continuity error.

180 Degree Rule
Here we can see how I adapted the 180 degree rule in my filming. I done this by keeping Spencer and I in the same side of the screen in each shot. This shows how I stuck to the rule, thus not confusing the audience. Again this also prevents any continuity error.

Shot Reverse Shot:
Below we can see how I used shot/reverse shot. In the first show we see me on the camera through Spencer's point of view. Then in the second shot we see it reverse to Spencer on the camera through my point of view, and then lastly a shot back to me. 

Challenges During Production:

The main challenge I faced during production was lack of time. As Spencer and I entered the course late, we had very little time to film out shots, making us at a disadvantage. Another challenge during production was making sure there was no one disturbing us during the filming. For example we had to make sure there was no one making noise during the filming of people messing around. If I filmed again I would have changed the time that we filmed to a time where there was less people around. 

Challenges During Post Production:

The only problem I faced when editing was merging two shots together.There were two shots in which I was at different positions, so I had to add a clock or a time filler in the middle to show that time had passed and was why I was in a different position in the second shot as opposed to the first.

Strengths:
I think a great strength of my work was the narrative. I really believe that the short narrative of my film was really unique. I think another strength of my work was that the edit workshop went smoothly and quickly. I believe this was due to the fact that I had used the older version of I Movie before making it easier to use this time round and I had also done editing before, meaning I wasted less time.I think the research also was a plus as the teachers provided us with enough information and the Internet also helped us out.

Weaknesses:
I think the main weakness for me was lack of time. I think this rushed my a lot of my work, such as the planning stage and filming which was crucial in this project.

Improvements:
If I was to conduct this project again I would definitely give myself more time to plan and film and think of extra shots I could use to improve my work. I would also maybe add more transitions and effects too as it could make it more interesting to watch and more professional.

Continuity Exercise Evaluation Part 2:

The scenario we were asked to work to was;
A character opens a door, crosses a room and sits down in a chair opposite another character, which whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

The key media language skills we were trying to demonstrate was the knowledge and understanding of shots such as match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. Other aims of the project was to create suspense and interest through the settings and performance of the actors.

                                                                   

180 Degree Rule:
There is an imaginary 180 degree line between the two characters/objects in the scene. The line (or axis) keeps the camera on one end of the line in every shot, meaning the same character will always be on one particular side, therefore not confusing the audience.

Shot Reverse Shot: 
Shot Reverse Shot is when one character is shown looking at another character, and then is is reversed and shows the second character looking at the first.

Match On Action:
Match On Action is an editing technique in continuity editing when one shot cuts to another displaying the action of the thing in the first shot.




I worked with Spencer to plan and film the scene and I found that this was a good grouping as we both had very creative ideas and we got straight to the work without no interruptions.

I used my creativity to develop the scenario as I thought we went with a different idea to everyone else's  We could have came up with the typical narrative which everyone uses but we decided to try something different and unique which I believe made us stand out from the others. The narrative of our short movie was I was a police officer interrogating Spencer as he had supposedly committed a crime, which no one else did which made is unique.


Story Board:

I think the Story Board was extremely helpful as we planned it all on there first. The story board also helped us to keep concentration and remember what shots and order we were going in. I kept every single shot in the story board, although I decided to merge two shots together as it was not necessary to have them separately.

Finished Continuity Exercise