As Art Director in the team of four, I was responsible for creating the overall look of each scene, including location, costume and mise-en-sene. In the following evaluation, I will focus on the impact of this art direction on the overall piece.
Social-realist drama, as the name suggests, needs to look realistic. To achieve this effect, I searched for costumes that were not only right for the setting, but also looked as though they belong to the characters themselves. The props were selected to look natural and as though they had been there for a long time. Above all I found locations that looked commonplace and a good fit with the background of the characters. It was important that the scenes looked completely natural with neither props nor mise-en-sene looking as though they were placed there. We avoided shots that looked contrived, neat or balanced… life for these characters isn’t like that. The work of Shane Meadows (This is England 2006) and (Twenty Four-Seven 1997) influenced me to try and depict the social classes without any romantic frills or interpretations. We tried to ensure that their backgrounds were simply reflected in the surroundings conveyed in the shots.
The look and feel I was going for were inspired somewhat by these shots from Shane Meadows (This is England 2006) and (Somers Town 2008), as I felt they really captured what I had in mind. The setting and costumes had the working class feel I wanted. The subtle attention to detail in costume was particularly important. It was scruffy and varied but still had the semblance of an unstated, commonly understood uniform adopted throughout by the characters. It is clear from this shot that these aspects crossed over into our own sequence.
The story reflects the social ambitions of a group of lads. Their roots needed to be clear from the council estate locations and everything that this stereotype conveys about money, education, employment and the working class.
These photographs of the location, were trying to capture the essence of the characters rough surroundings. And go further in developing the narrative, the characters now have a background or environment that resembles their character and gives reasons for why they commit crime and form a gang.
However it was important to use the costumes to convey their desire to rise above their lot. Jeans and jackets rather than hoodies and trackies!
Working with the team, it was important to ensure that the other aspects of the production were in sync. True, the team wrote in the enigmatic and well-to-do character of Johnny to bring contrast to the plot and avoid an over-simplistic social statement. However, the names given and the dialogue used by the cast, the upbeat and cocky music written for the piece and the diegetic sound that prevailed all had to fit together to convey the same sentiment of confident confrontation. Above all, the direction kept the lads moving, striving and focused on a better future.
From the outset, it became clear that uniformity in costume was not going to work. They shared common ambitions and a sense of acceptable dress, but they were individuals with their own particular point of view on life. A switch to “similar but not uniform” became our revised approach. As well as these planned changes, we had also to deal with the unforeseen technical and budgetary constrains of amateur filmmaking. Some re-shoot locations were difficult to find and cut in afterwards!
My intention for the artistic direction was that it should go un-noticed! A realistic looking scene should be just that… realistic. It should not look as though it was carefully selected and constructed, even if it was. In this way, it is possible for the art direction to contribute to the overall impact of the piece. Props, mise-en sene and costumes send clear messages but should never take on a prominence in the viewer’s eye.
The piece conveyed what we intended quite well. However, a bigger budget and more technical know-how and experience would undoubtedly bring the images in our mind’s eye more visible to the audience. For example, a professional cast or at least a make-up artist could perhaps have portrayed the class backgrounds more clearly and with characters looking a little less clean-cut and well scrubbed!
The opening sequence of a social relist drama, depicting four adolescences, the opeining sequence imposines the idea of a objective in the film, spoken in the voice over “we ain’t gonna be here for long”. Its shows their life in a grimy, realistic way as they try to scrape a living and survive in an urban jungle.Throughout the role of the project I undertook the role of being the Cinematographer. Throughout the project we wanted to develop a bond between the four individuals established in the short film; Duds, Trigg, Mick and Johnny, through the imagery and set location we wanted to present the idea that they had chosen to be together through circumstance not due to friendship. This was established by framing the characters and incorporating the location into their lifestyle. Most noticeable in the tunnel scene, this shot shows the group, placed in a clear order, in a aggressive way. Once again enforced by the location, the scope as well shows them to be distance from each other. In addition as each character is lit up by sunlight as they leave the tunnel, it enforces the hierarchal theme.
The genre was chosen as it is the most suited to our original idea, and the surrounding area was perfect. And on a personal level it was one of our group’s favourite genres. The genre was developed through the sequence, showcases real people in a very real environment, in addition the costumes were not particularly flash and were more suited to the working class which are most prominent in that particular genre. Ideas for costumes where taken from a variety of British cult cinema; This is England (Shane Medows, 2004), the iconic dress sense; checked shirts; dark jeans where interpreted into are film, furthermore films like Kidulthood (Menhaj Juda 2006) influenced the misc-en-scene.
The cinematographer had to be adapted throughout the filming most noticeably because of the location, having to adapt camera angles and movement patters to suit the set location. Also the research that accompanied the production, featured several short clips of fight and movement scenes that were incorporated into the final idea. Most noticeable the application of the high and back camera angle featured in the toilet scene, used in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), elements of this scene were incorporated into are sequence. Filming time and locations were also modified, originally the film was going to be shot in Cambridge. Due to light fading some scenes had to be shot in the dark, this actually benefitted the idea that what the individual is doing is wrong. Due to the large amounts of feedback, this has benefitted the overall production of the film. Furthermore another complication to filming, was I had play the role of Duds, disabling me to see what the shot actually looks like, from the camera perspective, thus making it very hard to change angles, and camera movement positions whilst recording, being completely depended on another person no in that particular shot to take control of the camera. Furthermore the story board had to be modified to fit with location and the resources we had. Originally a shot of Trigg being racist towards a foreign shop keeper was going to be included however we were denied access to film in that particular shop, largely influenced by a very similar scene in This is England (Shane Medows, 2004), a short video has been added to present the idea. The story board also had to be shortened to fit in with the production that of two minutes.
The short youtube video, showcases where influences on the misc-en-scenecame from.
The picture above, shows the camera angle, used and modified into our production.
Successes throughout the sequence were, most noticeable, the sound. The sound track including the voice over and music theme were praised as being fitting with the genre and the accompanying macro elements; editing, art direction and cinematography. The plus parts on the cinematography where that the framing enforced the group bond, having the group together and using muted non-diegetic sound, shows the viewer a unheard conversation, building tension and added depth to the individuals. Subsequently the camera work in fitted with the location and genre, example of this being the head high and wide camera shot, often showing the location and characters in a wide, barren way. However there were some bad points. One being the actual picture was not bright enough during the shot with Tirgg spray painting and therefore you couldn’t see what was happening. This was easily rectified by increasing the brightness and contrast of the shot. There were also some shots that were unnecessary long and once edited down wouldn’t actually effect the overall production, one main shot being the shot were Duds is kicking the guy in the toilet, the kicking could be edited down and would keep the tempo up, as it was in the beginning of the film. However there has been some limitations due to technical skill, examples of these being not having the ability to create a tracking shot, that would be level and follow the group as they walked, much like in the opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs (1992). Overall the sequence has been good.
We decided that we would choose British Social Realism as our genre. Social realism in films is 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 genre are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the ‘daily grind’.
This genre helped influenced the decisions we made as a group, for example, most social realism is set in working class areas, this was good as we had a lot of access to council estates and run down areas that are stereo-typical in many films of that genre.
My specific role in the creation of our product was ‘Sound Designer’ this meant I was in charge of all sound, for example, Diegetic/non-Diegetic sounds, voiceovers and Soundtracks. I started by researching other social realism films like ‘Reservoir dogs’ (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), ‘This Is England’ (Shane Meadows, 2006), ‘Kidulthood’ (MenhajHuda, 2006) and ‘Sexy Beast’ (Jonathan Glazer, 2000). ‘Sexy beast’ was one of the films that influenced me the most; it is a highly stylised film with many sounds that affiliate with the Social Realism Genre. Also Shane Meadows used a Voice over in the opening of the film, this voice over was so stylised and did a lot to show the audience what genre the film was in. I used these ideas in my own work and managed to reflect the genre through them. After researching these films it came apparent that they all focused around the same kind of soundtrack, this soundtrack was a mixture between ‘pop’ music and ‘jazz’. I noticed that these soundtracks gave the scenes a certain emphasis that wouldn’t have been achieved by using different genres of music. I discussed how I wanted the sequence to look, and decided that we wanted an opening scene similar to that of ‘Reservoir dogs’ (Quentin Tarantino, 1992). Our opening scene would introduce each character and have a cut scene of them doing ‘what they do best’. Then I started writing my soundtrack.
I used an up-tempo drumbeat and jazzy trumpet loop to add to the effect of the genre. Then I added some bass rhythm that added a darker atmosphere to the product. This worked very well as we were able to edit the product so when the bass rhythm started, the cut scenes started, this added a certain professional atmosphere to the product, which was what I aimed for from the beginning. I also had to work on the sound for some of the shots, for example there are a few shots that benefited because of the Diegetic sound: Cars passing by, water running and footsteps, all of these sounds added an effect to the sequence that, even if they are not noticeable, bring the sequence closer to the intended genre. Finally we decided that we wanted a voiceover to introduce the characters, we added a voiceover using the built in sound recorder on the camera, after this I had to adjust the levels of the soundtrack and the voiceover so that either one didn’t over-power the other.
As I was the ‘Sound Director’ for our project I had to work closely with all of the other group members. Specifically the Editor and Cinematographer, first of all whilst out filming. I had to picture what mood the soundtrack presents, in turn this made me give my input to the cinematographer about what camera angles and shots would reflect the genre. Secondly whilst filming I had to listen to the sound around us and think would our sequence benefit from this. I had to work very closely with the editor, as we both wanted the soundtrack to run smoothly with the edited sequence, we achieved this by cutting both the sequence and the soundtrack to make them sync correctly.
Whilst creating my soundtrack I thought about how I wanted the audience to respond to my piece. I wanted them to feel what genre the film was set in; I wanted the audience to respond to the micro aspects that I added to make the sequence of a higher standard, for example, the Diegetic sounds.
(This soundtrack inspired me in the way the artist uses bass together with drums and other instruments)
(This is the soundtrack from ‘Reservoir dogs’ (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), this gave me lots of inspiration as it harbors many aspects that i added, for example, drums, bass, up-tempo, jazzy)
On the whole most of the feedback that I received about my micro feature was positive, it showed me that the effort I put into making it had shown off. There were a couple of negative comments about my feature too, for example, someone said that the volume levels needed to be adjusted a bit more, just to add that professional feel. I agreed with this comment and will use it in my future work.
I believe that my technical skill helped me very much with my micro-feature. I have been using music software for about a year now, which helped me as it gave me more knowledge in what I had to focus on. My Technical skill enabled me to make creative choices confidently and efficiently.
Our film extract is a hybrid genre of a British Social Realist drama, a stylised urban drama about youth and sub-culture. There are some strong conventions of this genre that helped us to make decisions during the editing process, so that our opening sequence would contain these conventions.
For example, the character introduction where there is a still image, then the character's name comes up and there are visual and oral explanation about the character. These have been used in other urban youth dramas such as Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996) and Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000).
The narrative itself contains conventions of the genre. Within our group I worked strongly with the cinematographer and the sound editor. I discussed the shots and the order of shots with the cinematographer, so that we both had a clear idea of how the shots were going to look and how they would be consequently edited. I also had to work with the sound editor so that the sound was edited well with the shots. The sound editor made sure the soundtrack fitted with the shots, so that our sequence would fit together.
To develop the narrative through editing, I made sure that the shots ran smoothly, for example putting the shot of the four boys walking through the tunnel first and then one by one going through each character and explaining their personalities. I believe that putting the tunnel shot first gives the audience a beginning idea of the characters and they can begin to get a feel of what sort of film it is.
Throughout the editing process my ideas were changed because we didn't get a few of the shots we wanted to. For example, we wanted a shot similar to the one in Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), with a profile perspective of the characters. Because of problems when we were filming, we didn't get this shot so we had to change our ideas. I also experimented with Final Cut itself and managed to use a slow-motion tool to slow down the shot where the characters are walking past some garages towards the camera. I believe that this gives a good effect and it makes the audience realise the film is about them. For this sequence, I wanted the audience to recognise that it was a gritty urban drama and because of this recognition I wanted them to enjoy the sequence as if they were confused about the genre, they wouldn't enjoy it. Editing would help the audience understand, because if the shots weren't in the right order and the appropriate effects weren't used, it wouldn't fit into the sub-genre.
The feedback we received has helped us greatly with our final touches to our sequence. We received a lot of positive feedback so this made us feel reassured and happy with our sequence, knowing that others felt that it fit in with the sub-genre and that it was a good representation of the sub-genre. However, we got some feedback about the sound levels so we changed this, to make sure the soundtrack and the voice-over worked well together and that the volume changed appropriately, depending on whether the voice-over or the soundtrack was the main bit of sound in that particular part of the sequence. We also got some feedback on a shot of a broken fly-tipped sofa that was an irrelevant shot. At first we believed it would be good to keep this shot as it represented the grimey town we filmed in and it would give a good sense of mood and atmosphere but the camerawork was not professional so we removed the shot. A lot of people also commented on the shot of the boy doing graffiti, saying it was too dark to see, so we changed the brightness. Finally, people also believed the shot of the posh boy was too long, so we put some shots of the other boys on their own in the middle of this shot, representing and showing that the posh boy wasn't really in the group at all. Overall, there wasn't a major amount of technical skill needed to produce this sequence as the sub-genre doesn't use amazing special effects and can be clearly demonstrated by the real settings, props and costumes. I believe I developed my skills throughout, just by experimenting with Final Cut with the creation of slow motion and freeze frames.
If we did this project again I would film close-up shots of the characters, because it would help with the sub-genre and the mood and the atmosphere of the opening sequence and it would also help demonstrate my editing abilities.
The sequence of are film, is the opening shot of a social relist drama. Social relist drama, is a portrayal of real life, with all its difficulties, realistic locations and characters. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. The genre also encapsulates the life of the location, race or beliefs of the characters throughout the film. It also reflects predominantly on the class system, using locations, accents and dress sense used predominantly by the working class.Other social relist dramas of the modern age are television programmes such as “Skins” (2007). Are sequence will fit in with the genre because of the locations, the customs, the acting, the editing and the cinematography. My role is that of the cinematographer, I hope to film in a way that will make the sequence seem almost simple, raw and harsh. The framing and filming techniques that are typical in the genre are often character building and really build up the character into a believable person you can empathises with. Featuring close ups and single shots of the character portraying the individuals thoughts and feelings. Throughout the genre the camera is almost made to feel like another person, showcasing the raw and sometimes funny and loveable life of a select bunch of adolescences. I hope to achieve this via our two minute sequence. The camera shots will range from long shots containing all the characters, to single shots showing only one or two characters. I will also try and include the camera as much as possible, making the camera shots either point of view or in the centre of the action, trying to include the person watching it as much as possible. Hopefully the camera work will benefit the editing, art direction and sound track as much as possible.
gh editing, I made sure that the shots ran smoothly, for example putting the shot of the four boys walking through the tunnel first and then one by one going through each character and explaining their personalities. I believe that putting the tunnel shot first gives the audience a beginning idea of the characters and they can begin to get a feel of what sort of film it is.
