Costuming; looking at characters for inspiration.

We have looked at two key characters which we want our female to be like; Mia from fish tank and Whitney from eastenders. We chose these characters as we think they relate to our character the best, and think they come from the same social background that we want our character to be from.

Promotional Package; This is England Website

Part of the full promotional package is the website homepage. I have analysed the infamous British film 'This is England';

Having looked into the homepage, it seems that a key aspect is offering exclusive information, behind the scenes and competitions to those that use the webpage. Competitions are a good way of adding people to the fan database to send newsletters or promotional items so this would help to create a more professional feel to our website if we were to create these links. It was very user friendly and the design was simple yet effective. 

Research Plan 4th-8th October

 As part of our time management as a team, we decided to prepare a research plan to ensure we have all the necessary research done before we begin filming our teaser trailers. This will also help each member of the team keep up to date with their progress and contributions.

Below is the first research plan for the week commencing on the 4th October 2010.

Homelessness Moodboard and Shot Ideas

As a part of research into the issue of homelessness, I used various image sites on the internet to create a moodboard as a visual aid and source of inspiration for developing our story board;

The main image that kept appearing when looking for pictures to put on the moodboard was of a homeless person lying down or sitting on the floor. I feel this would be important to incorporate into our own teaser trailer as it is an image oftern associated with living on the streets.

I also looked at some of the images used in the moodboard more closely as they are very effective so I feel we should try and re create them in our coursework;

The use of the black and white effect on the image gives a melancholy look to the scene being portayed which emphasises the harsh reality of being homeless. The use of this effect also takes away depth to the image and therefore it becomes more plain and real. The blurred effect on the two pairs of legs gives movement to this still image to portray how the homeless person is being ignored by those walking past. Adding to this as the camera is positioned at his eye level, it makes the aduience feel as if they are being ignored too which creates empathy.

The positiong of the trolley which is facing the lake just like the homeless person is effective becasue it is as if the trolley is their companion. This suggest that the person is dependent on the trolley and the objects within it. I like the simplicity of this image becasue the lack of objects within it enahnces the loneliness of being homeless and how little a homeless person has in the world.

I feel we should try to recreate these two images in our own piece of coursework becasue of the impact and message they protray through being just one still image.  I feel they would great effect in our teaser trailer as they successfully capture the impact of homelessness on people which is what we want to portray in our film.

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