Loation Reccie

Location one:

Location two:

This is the outside of the house where we will be seeing the car pull up and one of our main characters enter. We choose this location because we think that it will help present the status of him. Our main character being a successful business man, his house will show that he has a lot of money and lives in a fairly large home. As you can see everything is well kept so it shows that there is care taken in the appearance of the home. We also see that an extention has been added on showing that they have money to extend and make a house bigger and better for themselves. This location and the one above would be very easy for us  because it is both of our houses. The outside of Zahras house and the Inside of my house. Using our own houses makes it very easy because we have access to it 24/7 meaning we can film on weekends also we are not limited to any time in a specific area and are able to re-film as much as we like till we get the shot how we want it.

Location Three:

 This will be one of the locations that we shoot it, it will be the corridoor leading to his office. It wont really be seen that much but it is still a very important. This is because although we are only having a close up of his feet walking to the office it is good to keep it in the same coridoor because it keeps everything looking the same for us and keeps everything continous throughout. Also this coridoor looks like it would be in the working enviroment of a big office because the halls are quite wide and everything looks really plain yet developed. This will be easy for us because it is located in our school so we have easy access to it whenever we want.

This location is one of the most important we use because it helps establish out main character as a person. The office shows his high status and how he is at the top of his career. Showing that he has his own office gives us the idea that yes he is a ver busy/ hardowrking man who probably spends loads of time in the office. We use the office for one of our important shots which shows time passing and folders building up over time showing the work load pilling up and how he can't keep up because he is taking way ore than he can handle. There will be certain items on the desk that will be help tell us a little about the character for example we are going to have a photo frame on the desk with the main character and his wife to show that he is married and to try and portray a happy relationship to the audience so they imediatly think that there is no family troubles at home. But then later on in the opneing sequence we learn as an audience that there are a lot of familiy struggles and that everyone has another side to them. This location is perfect for us to use because firstly it is located in our school we have very easy access to it whenever because we have go to school Monday-Friday so we are able to access it whenever we want.

Call Sheet

Production Shedule

Shooting Script

Conventions of an opening sequence!

Production Log 3

What have you learned about opening sequences and title devices?

What I have learned this week about opening sequences and title devices are that they vary very much depending on what they are about. Opening sequences usually include graphics and some movement from certain characters but mainly the main character. They could also be used to establish the location the film is set out in. I have seen this a lot in many opening sequences and I think when it is done right it can be done very effectivly. Establishing the location helps gives the audeince an idea where the film is set and also can help give you a clue what the film, is about for example if a film is set in the city, you are obviously going to be showing places from around the city but you could also show specific thing within the city which link in with the film again helping to get a brief idea about what the film is about. A hollywood film that we looked at in lesson which does this is "Drive".

The film drive is a good example of using establishing the location in an opening sequence because throughout all we see is him driving in his car around the city and then stopping of at his house juust to drop off his bag and tehn going out back for a drive. This clearly puts across to us that the film is about him driving around. The film is set in the 80's and we can clearly see that from firstly the car he is in, they style of that is something that was popular in the 80's. We can also see this by the music played, the music played has an effect on the us and helps set the mood for the film. And when it comes to the graphics it has an 80's feel to is also the colours of the text stands out and is very neon and bright and is very bold to us because it stands out against a dull and dark background so it emphasis the title credits.

What I have also learned about opening sequences are that not much is given away to us, they show us just enough to engage the audience but not give to much away, and especially with British social realism they sometimes keep the opening very exciting and fast paced to make you want too watch on and see what happens. But sometimes that is quite the opposite and they sometimes just use animations or simple shots to show give an idea of what the film is about whilst the opening credits are comign on screen.

Click here to see the opening sequence for An Edcuation (0:00 - 2:30)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt6eCyPpOpc

This is another opening sequence we looked at during lesson. It has more animation in it but it also has a very professional look to it and the grpahics sued with it work very well. It was help distributed by sony which explains the good quality although it is a bbc film. The animations used help show the girls everyday life and what they learn about in school, the music played also helps suggest the era it is set in and some of the classes shown help show that also because they show some of an older classes like ballroom dancing which we don't learn now.

When it comes to titles I have learned that you need to use what links in with your film and you cannot use something which is irrelavant otherwise it will just not look good. A lot of through should be put into your titles because it is something that is going to keep re appearing over and over again and if they don't look good the audience can sense that something is off and it will also give your film a bad look to it whilst they are watching.

How will this inform your production?

 This will inform my performance by firstly from watching all these other succesful opening sequences I will take ideas that has worked for them and try re-use tehm so they would work for me. I will try to make sure that everything is checked and make sure that the titles I use are correct and also everything is good visually. When creating my titles I will take into consideration what hte film is about and if the title font suits it, where I present the title on the page, what animations I use or effects used on the title e.g. fade in, fade out etc.

 

What methods might you use in an opening and why?

 The methods that I would use are add animation to my opening sequence. I think it adds a nice feel to it and depending on the genre can really relate to the film. Animation makes it look better sometimes and just makes it that much better. Another method I may use is have some of it as establishing a location because I think it helps the audience understand where everything is set and also gives you an idea of the surroundings and how some of the characters live.

Here are some pictures me and my partner Zahra took. What we were trying to show where British representations. In the first image you can see a young girl in a very rusty environment, surrounded by a lot of old equipment. We tryed to capture her in a surrounding which she is not use too. As you acn see from the image her cllothes show that she is well of because she is very wel dressed and up to date with fashion. But then what we were trying to apture was her coming here to think because its the only place where she can be alone and think. We decided to have the gate open so it looks like we are looking in, I think this is a good effect because it changes the way we look at the image. Also the body language the way she is leaning on the wall for support.

    In this second image we tried to capture normal school boys working, making good use of there time. We took the picture in the study room so it shows that they are not in lesson but are still willing to do work in there free time. The picture shows three boys instead of one to show the enthusiasm plus they all look very into their work also they are all of asian ethnicity so it shows some othr race than the dominant white Also the picture shows how well off they are because they each haev a computer to themselves and you can see more in the picture iswell.                 

Production Log 5

What have been the key issues with pre-production this week?

The main issues with pre-production this week is that mainly coming to a main conclusion with our final idea. Zahra and myseld had come up with so many ideas that we couldn't decide on which one was best for us. We encountred some problems with out idea when it came to who we would use to play the role our main characters because we needed somone who looked very mature and someone who we knew is very reliable and who we won't bother to take out of their studies. In the end we found the perfect people to play the three characters. We decided finally that we would use Ashley Joseph, Iqra Tauqir and Saif Mane.

Another problem that we countred was that we had issues when we were discusing how we would shoot it and who's car we would use and how we would shoot it to make it look realistic. In the end we decided that we would use Zahra's dads car an film it in a way which we would cut out the parts where we would transition and make it in the end all flow together and work.

What decisions did you make about about the issues and why?

As I said above what we did was we came up with a solution for everything. We found someones car to use and we planned out exactly how we would film each part having loads of options to choose from we decided to film it both ways of our two possible options and then when it comes to editing we would try it with the two different filming of it and then see which one flows better and what looks better in the end. We planned to film outside the school because the road outside is perfect to film on and we are able to film on it at many diffrent angles to get what we want. Also when it came to finding the right people to play the roles we needed  

Treatment

Treatment

Title

The title of our film is 'Suffocation' This relates to the fact that Laila who is our main chacter is suffering from domestic violence and is trapped in a relatioship which she doesnt want to be in. She is lonley and aspiring for someone to wlak to she cannot take the fact she is all alone as her parents have disowned her, her isolation and bordem makes her into an emotional werck. I think that this titile is conventional as it expresses the emotion of a real peroson and what she is suffering anf British Social Relaism films aim to portay the mundane realsim and the injustice of what she is suffering from.I think this is very appealing to our traget audeince as it is very attention grabbing and our traget audience need a title which standout to them also i think the title portays a sence of enigma which is a very important convention of British Social Realism Films.

Target Audience

Our target audience for this production is in the age range of 16-24 so our aim to produce something exciting and thrilling which will catch the attention of our young audience. We are targeting towards both male and female for this production so we must alter our ideas to include themes and topics which will engage both male and female, whose interests would be socializing with friends, going to the cinema, eating out with friends their other media consumption wold be for example Twitter, Face book and would watch channels such as comedy central, Itv, channel 4, sky 1. 

These are very mainstream channels which mainly show fictional shows and programs which have nothing to do with real life and are heavily influenced by comedy. So the fact that we are producing an British Social Realist opening sequence for this target group would mean that we would have to familiarize them with the concept of British Social Realism and how this genre of film show the hardships and mundane realism of life and is often called a kitchen sink drama However the fact that our target is audience are mainly middle class students who live in England they will be familiar with the working class situations as they do see people suffering from problems such as dysfunctional families, petty crime, corruption of youth.. Etc.

This is the reason why chose to do a focus group for our primary research as we are able to hear the audience’s voice. Here is my primary research into the target audience which also explains our brief film idea.

We also carried out some secondary research into the target audience for British Social Realism films. 

This secondary research is conducted on the target audience for this production we are making and it gives quite a positive response towards British Social Realism films, this shows that the target audience would be interested in films which show reality compared to Hollywood films which show unrealistic and mostly fictional story lines. It will make it easier to create a British Social Realism film knowing that our target audience is able to relate to the situations shows despite our audience being middle class there are certain situations which a lot of teenagers go through which are all similar However this means that our target audience would mainly be interpreted in the themes such as: corruption of youth, petty crime, drugs, alcohol and dysfunctional families.

Our film idea is based on the idea of domestic violence despite this theme being something which our target audience is not familiar with when we described our idea to our focus group they really liked the idea, this draws attention to the fact that they are interested in shocking and realistic events. Despite the issue being very sensitive the focus group understood that many people go through though issues such as domestic violence. Also there are not many British Social Realist films in today's day as they mostly focus on the corruption of youth I think the fact this is a new and interesting theme attached with a sensitive issue it will catch the attention of many young adults and teenagers this is what would the unique selling point for our film. Having a unique selling point is very important as it is what makes your work stand out.

There is more research into British Social Realism Films looking at the UK film council exit poles where people leave comments on what they thought about the film. This can be very useful when looking at what a particular audience want from a film, and it is a useful tool for film makers as they can take out what a target audience likes from a particular film and enhance it so it meets the requirements for the audience. For example in the British Social Realist Film Tyrannosaurs there were many reasons for why they liked the film and the fact that only 7% of the audience went to see the film due to word of mouth means that it is very difficult for British Social Realism films to distribute as there is a niche particular audience who like watching British Social Realism as we can see from the 53% figure. As in our brief we are asked to create a film for 16-24 year olds we have to really find themes which interest this age group due to the fact most of the audience within this age group do not find British Social Realism interesting.

However here in the film Shifty 31% of the audience watched the film due to the fact that the story appealed to them meaning the topics were interesting and intriguing to watch and find out about, this is what we are aiming for in our British Social Realism  Here in Shifty the main themes were, crime, violence, drugs and isolation. There are themes which will all interest a younger audience so we need to use a couple of these themes in order to attract a younger audience as these themes are something which they are able to relate to in everyday life.

Technology

The technology which Rianne and I will be using in the production will be mainly an HD camera, tripod and an Apple mac with the program called I-movie which will be used to edit the footage. As this is a British Social Realism film, normally the company's which produce these films are independent companies who do not have a lot of money to spend on the production of the film so simple filming techniques and use of a HD camera will be match up to the conventions of a British Social Realist film . to make our opening sequence look realistic we will have to use hand held camera shots however we have to keep to the conventions of a BSR film meaning that despite having hand held shots we have to have good control use of the camera and use a variety of shots to keep the audience engaged. 

There are a few limitations such as we cannot have big establishing shots due to the fact we do not have a crane, money or facilities to do this type of shot. 

 Representations

The key characters in our film include:

Laila: She is the victim in the story; she gets the abuse from the antagonist who is Adam. Laila is going to be shown as a well behaved, well-mannered lady. Being brought up in not the best of neighbourhood’s and coming from a lower class family. She retained all the manners of an upper class person always trying to better herself and working very hard in school to make herself a better person. Laila is always a caring person but a hopeless romantic falling in love with the successful business man not seeing him for what he really is changes her life but for the worst. Marrying up the social ladder she was not able to finish school and become what she wanted to be wasting her talents and immediately becoming a house wife to Adam. Although she keeps a job for herself and it may not be the best job but it helps shows her independence and how even though her husband makes a lot of money she is still able to work and earn for herself.

Adam: He is the antagonist in the film and the man who marry s Laila. He is the typical successful business man who works very hard to make a name for himself in the industry he works in. He works on women's cases and fighting for their freedom against abusive men, but this successful business man also has another side to him. Being such a powerful man and having a lot of people depending on him all the time he has forgotten about his own relationship with his wife and the pressures of work start to build up causing a breakdown in his relationship and causing him to be abusive towards her. Adam will be shown as a very suave business man with always a brief case in his left hand showing he is ready to work at any time. He seems so professional that you wouldn't think that it would cross his mind to beat his wife but that's not the case in this situation. Adam enjoys playing professionalism sports such as golf and likes to visit the top-end restaurants to din-out. 

Daniel: Daniel is the protagonist in our film. He is the sweet, kind-hear-ted guy that every girl would fall in love with. The hero to Laila's life he unlocks the happiness within her that has been hidden in the shadows for many years. Daniel earning quite a bit for himself working in journalism always find the time to go get a coffee in the morning at Laila's coffee shop in the morning before starting a hectic day at work. Daniel being a victim of heartbreak can sympathize with Laila's current situation although he has no clue of what’s going on till later on. He enjoys the simple things in life making time for all his friends unlike Adam and now that he has experienced everything he has wanted he is at the point in his life where he is just looking to find that one girl and starts to settle down with. 

Will your film subvert or challenge typical representations of any group in society?

Our film would challenge the typical representations of class and status by  firstly challenging the typical stereotype of upper class only marry upper class, or working class only marry working class. We see in our film someone marrying up for not just for money but because she was actually attracted to him and his ambition and drive in life, this was because coming from a working class and knowing the people they don't have the mind-state that they want to do something big with their life and make a name for themselves. So finding someone who does want to do that immediately attracted her to his personality.

Her parents giving up most of their money so she can go to very good school because she was very bright. Enabled her to meet Adam and then shortly after they fell in love with each other She then gave up all of her dreams just so she could be with him her being younger and him just about to start uni, she threw away all of her talents and wasted all of her parents money causing them to get very mad and then her parents feeling disrespected because she gives up everything for a boy at such a young age. Her parents then disown her and she's lives with him alone, not meeting his parents as they do not accept someone forms a working class background. As time goes on she learns that the man of her dreams was not Mr Right all along and how over time respect he once had for get slowly disintegrates till there is nothing left. Here we are challenging the fact that a man who is supposed to be well educated and having high morals falls to the bottom with the most shameful form of abuse.   

Narrative

A successful business man leads a double life; the pressures of work build up on him leading him to be an abusive husband.

Themes

Dysfunctional families

Isolation

Violence

Adultery

Abuse

Aspiration

How will you use the conventions of an opening sequence specifically those of the BSR genre?

Varity of shot types such as midshot, close ups.

Will not expose too much of the narrative

Create enigma throughout

Location where we are going 

Inside Rianne house

Outside my house

School corridors

People

Optional

Conventions

We will use the conventions of the BSR genre and conform to them by sticking with the typical themes that come up and keeping everything realistic and not far-fetched. Keeping it realistic stays within the British Social Realism genre, we will also. We would keep to the typical camera language using the basic shots such as close, mid and long shots and keeping some shots hand held to give a more rough effect to it but we would also subvert because we would use a tripod and get some more cleaner shots when we need it not sticking to the gritty theme throughout. We are going to use are own soundtrack that has been made for our work, using a piece of music which isn't mainstream helps stick to the conventions also we have little dialogue in out opening sequence, it's more based on out characters action throughout helping the buildup. We build up tension making the audience want to know what is going to happen next. Also locations we are going to use are local not going somewhere that looks like it wouldn't fit in with the theme of BSR. The characters we are using are non-professional and this keeps to BSR convention because by using non-professional characters they are kind of use to these situations and may even have real life experience which would get them to play the role better.Our hybrid elements that we are having in this are we have a little bit of romance, straying way from the typical themes of BSR but other than that there is nothing else. The romance element adds something extra to it giving it a unique twist but still again keeping it realistic. Because it does happen in everyday life and some people may be able to relate to it in certain situations. 

Style and Iconography

We will use simple but effective transitions and a vi arty of shots in order to keep the audience engaged into our work, due to the fact that British Social Realism films do not have a wide use of camera language and often keep transitions very simple we will have to use many shore carefully in order to conform to the conventions of a British Social Realism film opening. The editing will be mostly continuity editing as this type of editing creates a flow and looks very realistic when an audience watch the product. Also continuity editing is simple and reflects real life. As British Social Realism films aim to show the mundane realism of everyday life this form of editing is perfect to reflect the real world. Here an example of continuity editing work which Rianne and I have done to reflect the impacts of continuity editing to the audience. The props and costumes will be very important to our story line as it will reflect the type of character really is. For example Adam who is well off business man will be wearing a suit implying he is stuck up and very smart whereas Laila who is the sweet kind hearted housewife in our story will be wearing simple dresses reflecting per personality The props that we will mostly be using would vary from location to location due to the fact we have 3 distinct locations where we are shooting our opening sequence. Visual Signifiers will establish the class of the character and what type of back ground they come from, for example the house that our characters live in, will be well decorated however to show the pressures of daily life of the business man we will show heaps of folders to signify a big work load which he cannot manage implying to the audience his life is in a mess despite the exterior of his personality looking well off. Our soundtrack will fit well with the image playing on the screen we feel that it will catch the audience attention as it has a nice melody but at times of distress though the opening sequence or at a point when it is an surprise to the audience the soundtrack with match and also have a harsher tone to it in this way it is able to grab the audience's attention further.

Institution

The institution which we are making the film for is Film 4. Film 4 is an independent film company meaning they make low budget films they also known for making British Social Realist films that portray the mundane realism and the hardships of everyday life. Film 4 films are also often referred to as kitchen sink dramas where the audience watch people as if they were going about in everyday life. As making a film for film 4 this means we will have a low budget for our production as Film 4 is an independent company and they do not have money for big stars or big sets this why we must shoot our British Social Realism opening in our homes or locations such as down the high road to represent mundane realism. This also means that we will have to think about the distribution of our film. We need to create attractive posters which will grab people’s attention and also we will need to get the film into a film festival before its release due to the fact we do not have the budget for marketing like a Hollywood film. For example the film Fish Tank was shown at Canns films festival as a distribution technique and also so film makers can pick the film up and put it in their cinema. It also acts as a form of publicity. Our film is most likely to be released on home cinema and also available on the Film 4 website and also sites such as Netflix and Love film. These are all examples of new media technology.

 

Narrative

Exposition :

Our story starts off with introducing the characters to the audience. We begin to see the main character who is the antagonist in the film. His name is Adam, and he is a successful business man who has made quite a name for himself with him business. He works on cases for women which deals with abusive relationships towards females and fights for their rights against men. We start off the whole movie with him walking down a corridor entering his office and around his office we see all of his achievements he has collected as a reward for how hard he works and the success he has created for himself. But then we start to also see the drawbacks of his work with major work-piles which he has not attended to yet and we start to see how it stresses him out and how he is assigned way to many assignments and now how it is starting to effect him. On the way home from work  Adam see's a woman on the street who is a prostitute and he knows this but he picks her up anyway even though he is a married man, he doesn't see it as a bad thing anymore because he uses females as a way to get past stress in his work life. Later on that night Adam comes home very late due to what he has been doing with other females, but his wife is not aware of what goes on after work. He arrives home to a lovely home-cooked meal from his wife, which you can tell a lot of effort has gone into and he completely disrespects her and throws all the food she has made for him on the ground, breaking valuable dishes that had been given to her from her grandparents. His wife Laila who married up the social class to Adam from lower to upper class, starts to argue with him asking him why he is home late and about the mess he has just made. Adam being very short-tempered reacts to Laila raising her voice at him, he then shouts at her back and walks upstairs. Laila try's to follow to talk but Adam then reacts violently and pushes her down half of the stairs and leaves her alone on the floor even though he can see she is hurt. 

Agents of change:

The next day Laila has to go to work, she works in a little coffee shop. Assisting customers and working as the cash-out girl. Laila being sore from what happened the previous night is allowed to have a little bit of a longer break than usual since her co-workers are aware of the situations she has to deal with at home. Whilst relaxing on her break a random man who she has never met before comes and joins her. His name is Daniel and he is the protagonist in the film. They chat for a while and start to engage in good conversation at the end he asks for her number but she says if you want it you will have to come back tomorrow. As he leaves she goes to talk to her best friend who also works at the coffee shop and she starts to say you should go for someone like him but she constantly has to remind her that she has a husband and if were to ever get caught the consequences she would have to face with Adam.

Conflict/Complication:

 The next day Laila not thinking Daniel would show up, shows up and Laila is very surprised, this time Daniel brings her flowers and Laila not being used to being treated like that gets so happy and hugs him. They then sit down again at engage in interesting conversation learning things about each other. Daniel discovers that on the side Laila has an extreme passion of making dresses and discover Daniel needs a dress made for a wedding coming up for his sister. They then loose track of time. It is now the end of work for her and she's leaving and he then asks her about her number and she gives it but at that moment in time her husband comes to collect her from work and see's her giving her number to Daniel. Adam not knowing who is approaching them starts to get a bit weary but inside Laila's mind she knows exactly whats going to happen when they get home and immediately starts explaining as soon as she see's him.

Elaboration

Adam gets the wrong impression; he walks into the café to collect Laila from work and sees her giving her number to Daniel, when she is just giving him her number for making a dress he wants made for his sister. Adam drags Laila home and violently hits her, she tries to explain the situation that they are just acquaintances and she just gave Daniel her number for dress making but Adam does not listen. He violently smacks her across the face leaving her crying in the living room and forbids her to go work or going or until he permits her to leave the house. Laila lays there hopeless on the living room floor crying her eyes out whilst Adam leaves the house with an alcohol bottle in his hand, slamming the door behind him. Adam does not come home late till that day and like every evening Laila had the dinner laid out ready on the table but unusual Adam did not acknowledge her effort and did not eat what she had cooked for her. Laila had not left the house for a week now and started to notice the fact that Adam has been coming home very late for quite a while now. Whilst Laila was cleaning the bedroom she found a women’s item of clothing which didn’t belong to her or Adam, it looked like another woman’s night dress. Adam comes home that night and Laila has no dinner made and has the item of clothing laid out on the table and questions Adam to whose this is, also Adam has a lipstick mark on his white shirt, seeing this Laila broke out into tears and rage and started shouting at Adam, who denied it all and became very angry at Laila to why she is questioning him, even though he is in the wrong he sees no harm in what he is doing and thinks Laila has no right to question him and he is entitled to do what he wants to do. He becomes increasingly violent towards her and slap’s her across the face, pushes her into the banister and smashes a glass on the floor. Laila wakes up the next morning and decides she needs to get out the house so goes to work. That day in the café, Daniel comes for coffee at lunch as usual and she try’s to avoid eye contact with him he pulls her to the side as asks why she hasn’t been at work for a week. She says she hasn’t been well but Daniel sees her face is bruised and has a black eye, she can’t help help but start to cry and explain the whole situation to him. Daniel cannot see the pain in her eyes so offers to talk to Adam to explain what he is doing is wrong. That he cannot be treating women like this. She declines the offer as it would only make the whole situation worse. Daniel then says he will be back tomorrow to see how she is doing, Daniel then privately calls Laila’s home hoping for Adam to pick up whilst she is at work that day. Daniel then try’s to explain to Adam that how he is treating Laila is wrong and he should treat his wife with respect, love and care, with this Adam gets very angry and has a physical fight with Daniel, swearing and they begin attacking each other, Adam is furious and runs out the door to get Laila from work to drag her home and abuse her, mean while with blood running down his face.

Climax and Resolution

 Daniel calls Laila and tells her to run away, far away, as it is not safe for her to stay with her husband anymore; he says he will meet her at the train station within 15 minutes. Daniel rushes to the station and hugs Laila. They see a train coming they do not care where it goes too and jump onto the train and see Adam running towards the train and the doors close on him.

Coda

An Ellipsis saying “6 months later” appears at the bottom of the screen and shows Laila opens up a dress shop and is happy, Daniel also appears in the scene but the two are not married just stay and live together for the happiness they both bring each other

Production log 4

What have you learnt about your target audience?

This week I have learnt personally so much about my target audience and what I am aiming to do to please them. Our opening sequence that Zahra and myself are creating is aimed towards teenagers and us being teenagers our self we have views on what we dislike and like on British social realism film but together we are only two people and from the same gender and interests our likes and dislikes together remain the same. So we decided to do a focus group aiming towards different genders and races and question them on all things to do with British Social Realism. We choose to do a focus group rather than a vox pop because then you can go into detail with your group and really find out information which is needed and you are not limited to a certain time. We made a small booklet for are audience to look at whilst we played them videos on the projector. The booklet included the name of trailers we showed them in order and along the side showed the themes that are shown in each of them, we did this to help give them a guide because British Social Realism films are not something they are use to seeing and they may find it harder to pick out things which they liked in it so we put that there as a guideline for them. 
Below is what we showed them during the focus group, each member had their own copy,


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What have you learnt about the institutions involved in the production of social realist films?

What I have learnt about the institutions involved are that when it comes to production a large percent of the companies are independent, this is because what they produce only appeals to a niche target audience so they are in need of less money where as Hollywood who are not independent spend millions on nearly every major film they make. The production would normally include more realistic, life like situations so there would really be no need for CGI or special stunts to be needed withing this category of film. Although the lack of money given by the institution to produce the film can sometimes be shown and make the film not look good enough to even show. 

How will this inform your production?

This will inform my production by firstly sticking to what I know my audience likes and not straying away from it creating something completely different. Knowing what they now like and dislike I would keep those ideas in my head when creating my own opening sequence so we wouldn't have to change anything later on. 

Audience Research

Focus Group

Click on the links below to see the three parts of our focus group we did in order.

PART ONE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=11Yoj5mZ30k

PART TWO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4pk2aMvR35w

PART THREE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=giPeIdMeL4M

For the audience research section of our work we chose to do a focus group where we could valuable information on what audience members like/dislike about BSR films. A focus group is where you get a sample of people, different genders and races. And are all brought together to discuss a certain topic for feedback, ideas and their general opinion.
Zahra my partner and myself decided to do a focus group people you are given more opportunity to get better answers, by asking a range of open and closed questions. Also when having a focus group you are able to show content whether it be film clips or trailers or either pictures or just sound. It is more useful because then you are giving your group more to work with. 

The results

What we did was we firstly introduced what BSR was because we were pretty sure that they wouldn't know what it meant. Then showed them 8 trailers showing specific parts which Zahra and myself liked and though was useful to us, and asked what they liked and disliked about it etc.

What we first asked them was if they knew what British Social Realism was and none of our focus group knew so we explained it to them as "British social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in modern society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes such as money, drugs, prostitution and sex are quite usual in modern contemporary social realism films as well as class, religion and political views. These themes are very popular today but not all were involved in the early social realism films."

The first trailer that was shown was the Fish Tanks trailer. After watching bits from it we asked what caught their attention when watching it and there response's where firstly that they liked the fact that it related to real life issues and the themes that which were presented to them, such as the drugs and gangs and how older men take advantage of younger females. And some were some what relatable to the fact they they know it happens and that it is not something that is made up, which would follow more of an Hollywood convention. What they did not like was how the music tempo did not correspond with the actual movement on screen which dull's down the vibe for the audience not making it as exciting as it should be. 

The second Trailer that was shown was Kidulthood and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that they like the humorous side to it, showing that all of the group liked comedy. But they also thought that it was easy to relate to from the language to the area. But thought that some parts of it where over exaggerated and not as realistic. 

The third trailer that was shown was Submarine and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that they liked that it had an unusual love story feel to it, and they picked up on a few of the themes but what they disliked was the fact that it was very slow paced. And especially the males in our group prefer something which is more fast paced/ up beat or exciting.

The fourth trailer that we shown was London to Brighton and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that they didn't really like this trailer as much compared to the others. They thought everything was shown to them in a harsh light yet they thought that it is realistic because they know that it does exist out there.

The fifth trailer that was shown was An Education and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that the females in the group liked it because they thought it was something that they can relate to and it caught there attention but the males in the group where quite the opposite and thought it was too slow for them.

The sixth trailer that was shown was This Is England and we asked they liked and disliked and there response was that they were interested in the history part that was shown and we found that it caught there attention. 

The seventh trailer that was shown was Nowhere Boy and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that they really liked the comedy side to it, that was something which the whole group enjoyed. Also because it was based on the life of a very famous celebrity. It caught there attention but not enough to and pay money to watch it.

The eighth trailer that was shown was Attack the block and we asked what they liked and disliked and there response was that they found it funny and you can tell from there reactions and they could relate to a few things in the trailer but then they also found it unrealistic by the situations that they were put it. 

The last trailer we showed was Four Lions and we asked what they liked and disliked for that is well. There response was that they found it funny again, so the comedy side of it has attracted them but they also said it could be found offensive and its something which people are not use to seeing. 

After evaluating each trailer we then asked which one they all preferred and why and the whole groups response was attach the block.  This was mainly because of the humor in it and how it was relatable to them from the language used etc. After that we explained out idea and then asked for feedback and their thoughts and got some very useful suggestions.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Zahra and myself's idea for our opening sequence is a man who is a lawyer/ business man who is very successful and he fights for women's right and for them not to get abused but then the pressures of work build up on him leading him to beat his own wife when he comes home.

Over time we have developed idea, exploring different points within our idea and we have taken everything into consideration. From the people we use to play to the storyline. Our idea has been altered many time but we have chosen this idea for our final idea. Research has devolped my ideas by firstly our focus group telling us what they like, common themes that come up, what we personally liked from watching and discussion between me and Zahra over films that we like,