Research; Poll.

We created a survey on misterpoll.com about the personality of our protagonist. The results which came back are that our aduience expects our trailer to represent our character as tough and aggressive.

In order to reach our audience expectations we will try and portray this personality through our protagnoist's acting, costume and careful planning of shots.

Homelessness Documentary

As part of our research into the issue of homelessness i look on YouTube for related documentaries about those who have been or are currently homeless themselves. I came across this short interview with a teenage boy who ran away from home and lived on the streets;

One particular part of the interview which i thought was of great value to own teaser trailer was when he talks about the homelessness had on him;

“I used to sleep a bench … all I did was just wander about not speaking to anyone, just wandering about, not doing anything, not looking after myself. I was filthy, I was dirty, I was ill. I was always coughing and sneezing and I was really thin”

The result of ill health could be incorporated into our coursework by having a few shots of our protagonist coughing to represent the illness he has encountered living on the streets. We always need to ensure that the actress we use should be thin to make it seem authentic that she has been homeless for a long period of time.

However, another part of the documentary I thought was very interesting was when he talks about other homeless people he made friends with while living on the streets;

“The misconception of homeless people is just down and out. Just really really dirty, have nothing to say, alcoholics, druggies, drug addicts. But they weren’t, these people were lovely people”

When creating the spider diagram about homelessness I feel we stuck to closely to the modern stereotype and outsiders point of view of homeless people. After hearing about people struggling with the issue from a person who has faced homelessness themselves, it has made us realise that in order to create a true social realist film we need to do further research into what living on the streets is like from a homeless person's point of view.

Ken Loach

As part of research into British drama, I looked further into one of the genre's most iconic directors; Ken Loach. Currently on YouTube, users are able to watch some of Ken Loach's films in full length for free as well as view exclusive trailers and interviews with the director. Here is a shot of the YouTube channel;

Via this website I chose to watch Cathy Come Home which is a social realism film directed by Loach based on the issue of homelessness. It tells the story of Cathy who is constantly moving from place to place to a find a home because she lost her own. Although the movie never depicts her actually living on the streets like how we would like our own teaser to do, here are some shots which I thought were still effective;

I found the lighting in this effective as it makes it appear as if Cathy is all alone is the dark. This represents her loneliness and the struggle with the dark period in her life as she seems have hit rock bottom in the film. This is also shown through the look of unhappiness on her face. Also the high positioning of her collar shows how cold she is.

By positioning the characters in the bottom left of the shot it makes the building appear bigger and over whelming. This may represents how overwhelming it is to afford a property in 1960s Britain. The building also appears run down and old because of the boarded up window and door. This presents that even if the couple in the bottom were to finally own a home their life may not be necessarily better.

I particularly like the background to this shot as it brilliantly captures the slum environment Cathy and her children have been forced to live in. It is also very effective when in comparison to the high quality look of her coat as this demonstrates how homelessness can happen to any class of person instead of it being typically the working class.

This shot highlights the isolation of Cathy's character. This is done through positioning her in the centre with nobody around apart from her children. This creates empty space within the shot which adds to the isolated atmosphere. Also the isolation is enhanced because of the use of a high angle shot which makes the audience look down on her from a distance.

By looking at Cathy Comes Home I have discovered some interesting shots which could be incorporated in our own teaser trailer. I have enjoyed Ken Loach's style of directing as he uses lots of short but significant scenes within his films to represent along time passing by but whilst sustaining the audience's attention. We should consider this in our own teaser trailer as we found as a group social realism is quite slow paced but the use of several short shot will make it seem quicker.

Promotional Package; AdULTHOOD website analysis

A webpage is a crucial part of the full promotional package for our teaser trailer. Therefore, I looked into iconic British drama films and their websites.
Below is AdULTHOOD's website.

Having analysed the website, it seems that the use of colour is used as a tool to catch the eye of the viewer. The cast are also the main focus of the page, which may be because it is a sequel to kidulthood and the cast are now iconic in their own right. However, the film for our trailer will not be a sequel to a well know film so perhaps it may be necessary to give more information about our cast if they are on the homepage.

Promotional Package; Magazine Cover

As part of our research for the promotional package I looked into existing magazine covers as a source of inspiration when it comes to possibly making our own for our teaser trailer.

Empire Magazine;The Incredible Hulk

Time Out London; Twilight

Total Film; The Dark Knight

Storyboard; First Draft

We have created a lose structure for our inital storyboard. This is the first draft which will change as we develop our ideas.

We plan on developing these orignal ideas as our research and audience knowledge increases.

The storyboarding begins ..

As a starting point and a source of inspiration for our initial storyboard, we started with creating a mind map on the issue of homelessness;

Points in red = physical connotations of homelessness

Points in green = typical results of being homeless

Points in purple = feelings of a typical homeless person

Points in dark blue = characteristics of a typical homeless person 

By constructing this we came up with a list of ideas for shots that we shoul like in our teaser trailer;

Preferable Shots (In no particular order)
- establishing shots of buildings in London
- wide shot of protagonist stood still with people walking around them. Shot then sped up to show passing of time
- high angle shot protagonist in a corner with knees to their chest
- close up of pigeons eating
- Shot of protagonist eating scrap of food
- quick shots of tramps, rubbish bins, graffiti, and general grime
- shot of protagonist sleeping rough
- high angle tracking shot of protagonist running
- shot of protagonist being held at the throat
- shot of protagonist stealing purse
- high angle POV shot from pedestrian seeing her beg
- POV shot from protagonist walking through a crowd
- shots of protagonist kicking bin bags to show frustration
- close up of crying protagonist
- close up crumpled big issue
- shots of protagonist drinking/drunk with blurred editing
- shots of written words on cardboard sheets

Our next step in the storyboarding process is to put these shots in a preferred order and draw it onto a storyboard template

Audience Research: Survey

We have created a survey as a form of audience research so we can make our film more specific to our audiences needs and expectations. We would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to answer to the survey;

CLICK ME FOR SURVEY

Please vote in our poll

PWe created a poll on misterpoll.com and would be really greatful if you could click on the link and vote, it would really help us with research for the personality of our main character.

http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/501404

Deconstruction of Fish Tank poster.

Location

These pictures are of an abadoned house which we could possibly use for out teaser trailer. The location has a lot of dark, damp, old and dirty rooms. This is a possibly choice for our character when she trys to find somewhere to stay.

Website Deconstruction; Fish Tank.

In the top right hand corner of the webpage the film title is displayed. It looks like it is written on a poster that has ripped edges and has been stuck on her wall, this could represent Mia as young teenage girls are known for having posters stuck on their walls. Having the title written in blue contrasts with the pink background and makes it stand out to the audience. It also stands out as it is written in capital letters and is in the top left hand of the page which immediately draws the audiences attention to it. The date is written underneath in a colour that also contrasts against the pink back ground and the ‘25 JANUARY’ has also been highlighted bold. The white piece of paper that has been paper clipped to the poster represents all the things on it being important and things to remember, it contains links to bebo, twitter, myspace and facebook. Having links to social websites allows fans to follow the film and its characters. It has a little black tab underneath with a link to turn the music on or off, the music is a song from the film which is repeated when Mia is dancing, running or getting into trouble. It has two links at the top which allows you to join up to receiving news about the film and Mia, this is good for the audience as fans can receive news about new films etc and tell people about it which could increase popularity and the number of followers. If you click on the big ‘FISH TANK’ it is a link to a page which tells you about the film and reviews from the artificial eye.

The background of the website is a key shot from the film of Mia looking out the window, it shows the character in great depth and makes the audience think about what is on her mind. In the bottom left of the webpage it has the trailer, this allows the audience to watch the trailer as many times as they want and it may gain popularity for the film. It has an option to close the trailer if people don’t want to watch it, it then appears as a tab next to the music one. This webpage has scroll bars at the bottom and left of the page, I found this unusual for a website as they normally contain links to pages instead of fitting it all onto one page.

At the top of the page it has links to different pages about the film. This is a good thing as it allows the audience to research different areas of the film. ‘About the film’ this tab is good as it allows the audience to find out about the film and if they want to see it. ‘DVD’ this allows the audience to see a picture of what the DVD looks like and it tells you what date it is out on and the special features the DVD has, it also tells you where you can order it from. ‘MEDIA’ this contains two different trailers and a gallery of images from the film. Each different link at the top has a different back ground, but they are all key shots from the film. When you clink on ‘PRESS’ it opens another webpage which allows you to read different reviews from the audience, magazines and books. It is good for the audience to see the reviews as it could encourage more people to watch it. ‘CINEMAS’ allows you to see what cinema it is playing at, when its playing and for how long. ‘MEET MIA’ this link allows you to watch interviews and read articles about Mia, this allows the audience to get to know Mia (Kate Jarvis) personally. ‘DOWNLOADS’ this allows you to download wallpapers of Mia. All these links are good to have on the website as it stands out to the audience and they are all clear to read and see and it allows the audience to get to know the film and Mia.

In the bottom right hand corner different quotes appear with different transitions. They are all good quote from reviews from magazines and newspapers. This is good for the audience to see as it allows them to read the good reviews and persuades them to see the film

Promotional Package; The Website

The website will be a key aspect of our promotional package especially as the interenet is the easiest way to reach a extremely large number of people, websites have to continually improve. This deconstruction will aid us in the design and layout of our website for our trailer.

I have deconstructed the homepage for the website of the film; Fish Tank.

Both myself, Thea, and Daisy desconstructed the website for the film Fish Tank. It was extremely useful to see different interpretations of the same website. This was useful for us to see how the homepage can have different effects on others.

Promotional Package; The Poster

As part of our promotional package for our own teaser trailer, we must create a poster to promote our own film. Below I deconstructed a few existing blockbuster film posters;

The Mummy Returns

Disaster Movie

This Is England

By deconstructing these posters it aided our coursework by breaking down what should be included in our post promotional poster and why.

Social Realism

Using the Internet, I looked further into the sub-genre of Social Realism. One website, www.filmstudies.suite101.com describes social realism as the

"representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist canon are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily grind"

Social realism has had a great influence on modern cinema and brought great directors of the British film industry such as Mike Leigh and Ken Loach;

Mike Leigh English writer and director of theatre and film. He is well-known for his films which do not begin with a script, but evolve from actors talking, improvising and creating characters.

Significant works; All of Nothing (2002), Happy-Go-Lucky (2009)

Ken Loach English film and television director known for his social realistic directing style. His films focus on social issues such as homelessness and labour rights.
Significant works; Cathy Come Home (1966), Riff-Raff (1990), Poor Cow (1967)

Ken Loach would be a useful director to look at as his work typically focuses on social realism issues. As our potential teaser trailer narrative will focus on the issue of homelessness, films such as Cathy Come Home would be beneficial to watch as it will influence and help develop ideas for our own coursework piece.

Narrative Theory

Narrative is the coherence given to a series of facts. Through narrative we connect events and make interpretations. We looked at narrative theory as a method of giving structure to our teaser trailer. Here are some of the theories we looked at;

Aristotle's Unities

A narrative should be created within a 'unity' of time, place and action. Therefore narrative should all take place in the same location, in real time and with all action moving towards a logical conclusion.

Freytag's Dramatic Structure

Narrative is broken down into a 5 part structure;
- Exposition (setting the scene)
- Rising Action (something happens)
- Climax
- Falling Action (clearing up)
- Catastrophe/Resolution

Levi - Strauss' Binary Opposition

Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. This can be between something simple such as two characters or more often functions at a ideological level eg. Good vs Evil

Syd Field's 3 Act Plot Structure

A typical Hollywood film can be separated into three dramatic sections/acts;
- The Setup
- The Confrontation
- The Resolution

Barthe's Enigma Code

the narrative will establish enigmas or mysteries as it goes along. essentially, the narrative functions to establish then solve these mysteries.

Todorov's Theory

Narrative begins with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause a disequilibrium. This is then followed by a state of renewed peace and this new equilibrium brings chaos to an end.

Vladmir Propp

Suggests that the characters take on the role of narrative 'spheres' of action or function;
- The Hero (restores the narrative equilibrium)
- The Villain (creates narrative disruption)
- The Donor (gives the hero something)
- The Helper (aids the hero)
- The Princess (character that needs to be saved)
- The Dispatcher (sends the hero on their task)
- The False Hero (appears to good but at the end is revealed as bad)

After looking at a wide range of narrative theories for different types of film we have decided that the theories which we can relate to our own narrative are Aristotles Unities, Todorov and Freytag's Dramatic Structure. This is because as our film idea focus' on one character's life and the series of events that happen to them. Therefore it is likely to have plenty of disequilibrium to equilibrium throughout the trailer whilst remaining in a short period of time in the same location (the streets of London).