Project Log Week 3:

What have you learnt about opening sequences and title sequences?
I have learn that different British Social Realism movies display their titles in their opening sequences in various ways. For example, Shaun Of The Dead displays their titles roughly about three to four minutes into the movie (apart from the institutional logos and information which is displayed in the beginning). They have a prologue at the beginning and then show the movie title, cast information and more institutional information. I have also learnt that there are some movies which have the titles right at the beginning and all the titles are finished with in the first 30 seconds and also shown over animation only. I have also learn that the most important members of the movie production and cast or the highest paid members are always shown at the first in the credits.

How will this inform your production?
This will inform my production as I now know various methods of adding the credits to my opening sequences. For example, I could have prologue at the beginning before I have my credits or I could have them discretely on the side. This will also inform me as know what order that the credits will go in.

What methods might you use in the opening and why?
A method I would use is by adding the credits on the side or the corners of my opening sequence discretely. I think this is the best way to include the credits as most British Social Realism movies do it in this way. I will also have the credits rolling while the main narrative is playing. I think I will use this method as I saw a prologue method being used in Shaun Of The Dead and I think it wasted too much time and took too long to get to the main credits which is why I will have the title credit at the beginning. 

Locations:

1 - Hackney

A location I would use to film my opening scene would be Hackney. This is a conventional area to  British Social Realism and the themes it contains. This is because Hackney has one of the highest Crime Rates in all of England. It is also not one of the prettiest places to  be either, and contains a lot of estates which is very common in British Social Realism movies. It also has a history of violent riots - again linking in with crime and violence. 

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2 - Brixton

The second location I would consider using to film the opening sequence of my British Social Realism movie is Brixton. This is because again it holds one of the highest crime rates in England. Brixton is also very well known for being a rough place, populates with violent youths and also a lot of sexual assaults take place there. Again it has been involved in many riots and is also a place of poverty - all essential to British Social realism movies as it is meant to bring out the 'worst in Britain.'

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3 - Peckham


The third location I would consider using to film the opening sequence of my British Social Realism movie is Pekham. Peckham is well known for its Estates and flats. Pekham is also an area associated with 'chavs.' Peckham also has a high rate of violence and robberies and the estates are also very rough. The drug offences are also four times higher then average in England. Peckham is also known for its gang violence and youth deaths, which makes it an ideal place to shoot the opening sequence for my British Social Realism movie.

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4 - Croydon

The fourth location I would consider using to film the opening sequence of my British Social Realism movie is Croydon. Croydon is a very very rough place with lots of gang violence occurring especially between rival gangs during the night time. Croydon is also known for its drunks at pubs at nights which usually turns into fights. Croydon also has a high crime rate as well as a high death rate by gangs and drugs. There is also often sexual assault occurring in Croydon and also another target of the riots. It pretty much explores every theme that is contained in British Social Realism movies which makes it an idea place to shoot for an opening  sequence for my film. 

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Opening Sequence Timeline:

How BSR themes are used:

Violence


The theme is established when you see Jay walking behind Sam with an aggressive posture. When we see this we instantly know that there is going to be violence, even before it has started. Also this is when the main protagonist and antagonist meet each other which is another sign that violence is going to occur and how it is established.

This theme in the scene is portrayed in a very negative light due to the face that they are both punching and inuring each other with blood on display. Also the fact that Jay has a gun makes it a life or death situation which portrays violence in this scene as very, very serious.

I may want to explore this theme in my film, although I do not think I would make it as serious by not including weapons but still include the theme as it is one of the main themes in British Social Realism movies.

Sex

The theme is established when you see Jay getting a condom and having sex with Claire.

The theme is portrayed in a positive light in this scene. This is because in this scene it seems like a cool thing to do and we can see that Sam and Claire are both enjoying the situation and Trife and Moony do not really seem bothered about it.

I may want to explore little parts of this theme as it comes up in every British Social Realism movies.


Drugs 

The theme is established by the location of the scene. We see the characters walking into a 'weed room' where weed plants are being grown and when the boy in the white vest is smoking the weed.

The them is portrayed as a cool thing to do in this scene. This is because we can see the characters having a good time and even dancing a little when they are smoking the weed displaying they are enjoying themselves and having a fun time.

I will explore this theme in my opening sequence as drugs is a big situation in England and is contained in almost every British Social Realism movie. For example, I can have one of the characters being a drug dealer or doing drugs themselves.


Poverty

The theme of poverty is established when we see the older woman selling herself in order to raise enough money for a train fair.

The theme of Poverty is portrayed in a negative light as we see how desperate Kelly actually is as she has to result to prostitution to raise enough money to buy a train fair which is not very expensive.Poverty is portrayed as scary, sort of as it forces you to do bad things due to the lack of funding.

I will explore this theme in my film by setting my film in places in England which do not have a lot of money. For example places with estates which could represent the poverty issues in parts of England.


Petty Crime



The theme of Petty Crime is established as we see Tyrone. the main antagonist robbing Kenneth - the protagonist and his friends of the drugs and trainers and belongings. As they are getting robbed, it is distinguished as petty crime.

The theme of Petty Crime can be portrayed in a positive and negative light arguably in this scene. This is because even though Tyrone is robbing people, he is getting free things which some people may see as being cool. On the other hand, Kenneth and his friends are the victims with their things taken away which displays the negative light of this theme in this scene.

I will explore this theme in my film as it is this happens in every British Social Realism movie and happens every day around England.

Project log week 2:

What have you learn about social realist codes and conventions in relation to audience?

I have learnt about the conventions of opening sequence clips by looking and opening sequences and analyse every bit of detail  For example, we had to each study a opening clip and create a timeline on it. We included how long each scene occurred for, what titles and how long they appeared on the screen for, cast names etc. As they were British social realist films, the audience being niece British, would be able to relate to the movies as they are set in Britain, the themes explored are real situations that happens in Britain.
How will this inform your productions?

This will inform my production as I now know what to include in my opening scene. I also now when to include it as timing is essential as I only have two minutes for my opening scene and I do not want to make it full of credits and I also do not want to make it with hardly and credits at all so I know I will need a balance. This has also helped me to learn how I will make my credits appear and how much dialogue or what soundtracks I will have in my opening scene.

What texts do you find particularly influential and why?

I looked at Shaun of The Dead and that influenced me. It influenced me as I liked the prologue to the story and also the way they incorporated the credits into the opening scene. It took a long time to get to the final credits, over two minutes but the way the credits showed up with random things happening in the background which added to the humour of it, but you cant really tell its a British social realist movie. I also looked at different newspaper articles showing real life stories which includes the themes and situations of British Social Realism. This has influenced me as I have gained ideas on what I can include in my opening scene and also the narrative and themes to include.

Will you conform to conventions or subvert them?

I will conform the conventions such as maybe having my opening scene containing a smash mouth opening, use minimal dialogue and maybe have a soundtrack playing quietly in the background as Shaun Of The Dead did. Although I may want to include having a smash mouth opening, I may want to subvert it as making an action scene right at the beginning may be difficult to create and may not pride the look I will be looking for and how i envisioned my opening scene.

Uses Of Themes In British Social Realism

What is the link between British Social Realism themes and the real world?
The link between British Social Realism themes and the real world is that they are both reality. They are both true and actually happen and draw inspiration form the real world. For example a 15 year old boy was arrested for murder of rival gang member in Jan 2013, this is very similar to the situation in Kidulthood where Sam kills Trife at the end of the moive. This represents how thsese themes happen in the real world.


What is unique about how themes are explored in British social realism films?
Themes in British Social Realsm make you feel a certain deffernt way to how they would be in for example, Hollywood movies. For example, people would enjoy watching all the killing and abuse in films like Expendables or The Godfather, but on the other hand if you saw the same thing happened in a film like Fish Tank, it would make you feel cautious and as if it can happen to you any time. I think this is due to the way British Social Realism movies are filmed. The camera style is very gritty and a lot of the time handheald - which makes it as real as possible.This may even get the audience to feel a little scared which makes the themes of British Social Realism very unique to others. It is as if it creates a certain effect on the audience which no others do.


Is there any themes which are essential to all British social realist films? What are they? Why are they essential?
The main themes which are essential to British social realist films and come up the most often are sex, violence, crime, drugs and drink. For example Kidulthood contained all of these themes, Fish Tank contained all these themes, This is England contained these themes and so on. I believe this is because theses are main ones that actually happen in real life, the rest of the themes arent as common in the real world. I think they are essential because without these themes, it would not be a British Social Realism film as the main themese will not be present which sets it apart from other movies. For example, Hollywood movies contain maybe one or two of these themes and sometimes even none. I also believe these are the most negative themes in comparison with the others, again displaying the worst of Britain. 

Project Log week 1:

Week 1:
What have you learn this week from looking at the mark scheme and peer assessing previous work?
I have learn exactly what I have to do to obtain the higher marks and get level 4. I have also learnt that not doing specific things will lead me to a level 1 and I want to be aiming for the highest possible mark. Peer assessing previous work has helped me to understand what exactly gets the top marks and what doesn't  For example, Battered and Bruised got the lowest marks, while Straight Edge got the top marks so I want to set straight edge as my working point and want to top that.

How Will This Inform your production?
This will inform my production as I now know what I must do do get higher marks and what I must not do. Again I can look at previous work and know what to include. I also know what I thought got higher marks  but didn't as I wrote my predicted marks of the previous work and the actual marks they got. This means I know if I was over marking or under marking which will help me in the production of my opening scene.


What will you try and emulate/avoid?
I will try and emulate the such as Wasters and Straight edge as the got the highest marks. I will emulate their techniques but I will want my concept to be original. For example, I liked the way Wasters included their credits, but I will want to make my own ones in a different way. I will try to avoid some of the things that battered and bruised used, such as making the intro too long and also including more variety of shots and camera angles in it. I will want to also include as many British social realism themes as I can in my opening scene to capture the focus of BSR movies and obtain maximum marks.