What have you learnt this week from looking at the mark scheme and peer assessing previous work ?
Looking at the mark scheme gave me an idea of what a perfect coursework piece would look like. It also enabled me to take a look at what a very low quality piece of work would look like. However the main thing i gathered from analysing other peoples work via the mark scheme is that the understanding of the task it self has improved drastically. I now fully understand the objectives of the task. I hope to carry this knowledge on to when i do my own project , and can embed it in my own work to gather the most marks i can.
How will this inform your production ?
Me looking at previous work will help me in my work , because i will try to see what they have done good and bad and possibly adapt it towards my work. But the most beneficial thing would be the mark scheme. I have assessed the mark scheme and have even tried to mark a piece of work. Therefore for me to be in the position of the examiner marking a piece of work , i now fully acknowledge what is needed for a good piece of work. Such as the criteria , i will try as hard to make my work to the best of quality.
What will you try to emulate/avoid?
From the coursework i have assessed i have seen top of the range quality work. I will try to assess their videos maybe once or twice , and see how they are getting so many marks. I will try to emulate this , and all the other good things their video has. however on the other side i have assessed very poor quality work , and i tend to not copy their traits. Things such as poor quality of shots have been used , i hope to avoid something like this. As well as the other things which pull down the marks , such as the theme not matching to British social realism. And finally some of the editing was poor , for example continuity editing was very poor on one piece of the work. Therefore i would assess my work just like i did with the previous work and i will try to emulate the good coursework however avoid the lower-end coursework which were docked marks for silly things.
Over the years , Britain has acclaimed a lot more publicisation. One of these reasons are due to the fact the film genre ; British Social Realism is emerging as a favourite for a lot of people. It is a genre which reveals what goes on in the Society of britain. And i say revealed due to the fact it is something to be ashamed of , at times. There are funny films which are based in this genre , one outstanding film example of this would be four lions (2010) .
However even four lions does not end in a merry manner , all 4 main characters are killed at the end. Other british social realism films mostly consist of violence , politics , racist injustice , and many more.
One main trait they have is to show the un-varnished britain. The gritty every day life of the run down places in britain. The films make you endure a lot. Sometimes you go through an emotional rollercoaster along with the characters in the film , as britain is not so pretty and british social realism does reveal this to its British nieche audience. These are other examples of British social realism films in the past decade.
This is the opening of the clip. As you can see the logo is an eletric guitar and a skull. Which is not the best representation of a british institution. Also the music is of a rock and heavy metal combined. This will not outline to the audience that they are in for a british social realism film , which carries the genre of being more sad and disasterous rather than being hyped and excited. Finally the text of the insitution called " hell jumper studios " gives us a rock feeling. Instead of a feeling of any mystery , however one credit is that it does mach the theme of rock in the film.
In this scene , the two male characters are playing an eletric guitar very enthuisiasticly. This is a prolonged part of the opening sequence , the music as i have adressed before does not match the genre it should have such as british social realism. Instead the music gives it the rock genre. Also this has no relevance as to what british social realism means at all.
This is a low shot of the character , giving him a lot of power. However normally in a british social realism a character with character is shown as more gritty , violent . This character cannot be associated with them traits , as he is being seen as more scruny and tidy. The hair is to neat also , to be linked to british social realism as they are normally more scruffy. As british social realism trys to show poverty , he does not look to be suffering of any poverty.
This is a picture of a character who is meant to be associaed with violence , and grittyness. However she approaches none of this , she is shown more happy and well dressed. This again is another flaw which you do not catch in british social realism films , because normally the appearance of a character can show they are violent or come from a hardship life. This girl however is dressed suitble enough to be classed as middle class , when the aim for these types of characters is more low class or working class. A chav's appearance would be one to emaluate in this scene.
This is a scene where both the characters have acclompished something. Possibly being the completion of a cd. They then greet each other for it . This is not an urban way to greet another in which young people do in british social realism. And british social realism will definately promote this in any of their films to show what goes on in britain , because this has no "streetwise" towards it.
This is a long shot of again the two main male characters. Again the mise en scene shows a very polished and clean background. This does not apply to the british social realism. Also the two characters customes , are very tight and stylish. However in a normal british social realism theme it would be baggy or ripped . I would improve this by showing some real sighn of poverty , possibly ripped clothes or old clothes. As well as this i would make the background look more gritty and un varnished as it is to polished now.
In this scene the characters have met with the supposed violent people in the film. However they're facial expression is told by the poor use of mise en scene. This is not a good reaction , and in british social realism more fear is shown in body expression. If i was to edit this i would make the people look down aswell as have more negative body expression. Such as being more slouched than being upheld .
As you can see the posture of the characters feet is a bit blurry. Therefore the quality of camera work is extremely poor , i would work on this. I would take more time on the shots and shoot them to perfection. It is visible this shot is rushed.
This is the ending of the opening sequence. From previouse work i have felt curious , from a cliff hanger or possibly a good ending. However in this case i have not felt any interest to know what will happen next. I would change this by possibly ending the opening sequence to the beginning of the two male characters being assulted. Then it would give more of an enigma as to if they will fight back , or whether they actually was going to get hit.
As you can see on the time line of the video , this is the intro of the opening sequence. The back-ground is a dark black theme. This is used in a good technique , as the next scene is also a dark black background. Therefore it sets the theme of darkness already for the audience. Another good thing about the beginning of the clip is that the name " Anonymous Productions" aswell as their logo ,( a question mark ) , sets the topic of mystery. Which then makes the audience think , and this statergy is used more than once in the video. As there is a anoymous person in the video . Showing on the whole that the name and logo of the insitiution suits the theme of the whole video it self.
In the mid shot ,(above), the character's upper torso is covered in blood. He's vest is also ripped. Showing that he has been involved in some sort of monstrositity or violence. But due to the facial expression shown by the character is that he is almost baffled. This is backed up later in his dialogue of asking where he is . The shot is a mid shot , which is used to show everything in the set at the specific shot. This brings me onto the mise en scene of this shot , hes custome connotes violence and pain. Which then leads the genre to be of a violent sort. Aswell as the previous information giving the mysterious effect of the shot , this then adds to the genre of the film making it more of a myserious theme. This shot of the male character is used very well , as it sets an inigma as to why he is like that. And people then are more interested into the story and will continue to watch the film. Which is what all instituions aim for in a successful opening sequence.
This image , (above) , is during a shot reverse shot. This is in the middle of a dialogue between the anomalous character and the character covered in blood. The low shot of the character , gives him more power compared to the other character. The unknown character is dressed in black , aswell as covering his face. Therefore it sets mystery on to who this character actually is. This part of the scene is used really well as the audience now get more information as to why the character covered in blood is in the state he is. The dialogue of the unknown character is , " tell me where it is !" . His voice is very imperative , this identifies more of the story line. Again this is used well because the audience are now understanding more of the story , and are more curiouse.
Moving along the scene , this picture above shows the male character in distraught and pain. Again setting an early genre of violence. However the main point i gathered from this , is the sound of the character. Aswell as the fact he is in pain to talk and is almost crying shows he cannot handle anymore torture. You can identify the character more , because of his accent. I have previousely worked on regional identity , however this character's voice is not of a british accent.Therefore it excludes the british regions. It is of a different identity towards any in british culture , and this can be linked to the title. "Written Syria". Possibly meaning that the character is from syria therefore enhances a syrian accent of english. The representation of syrian people is positive here , as the english of the character although doesnt sound home grown is very fluent. Meaning the character is educated and therefore giving a positive representation of syrian people and syria it self. This part of the opening sequence is used very effiencently because the use of sound outlines more to the story line and again gives more information on to who these characters are.
This is a close up on to the main character of the opening sequence. From the type of shot it tells us that he is injured. He has a black eye , this again adds to the further violence conducted in the opening sequence. The close up helps us also get a closer look as to what the character actually looks like . Because in the dark it was a bit harder. However now you can see the person is not english , and is of a more asian/arabic ethnicity. Again this matches the title and the whole theme of "syria" . Meaning this shot has been used well again because it is setting the theme and is always showing us more of the character . Aswell as giving us an insight on to what the film will be about , as we all know asian people do recieve racial injustice. And the close up identifies the character is asian , which means the audience now have some ideas as to what the whole movie may be about.
The italic use of texts on this part of the opening sequence , gives the whole project a more unique look. It has a vintage look towards it , it can be described as un-ordinary towards what other institutions use in their work. Again connoting the fact the character is not english and is like the font of the text , an outlier . Also the sound in this scene is arabic music. Syria is part of the arabian republic, and their spoken language is arabic. Therefore this sound has a lot of relevance as it suits the theme of the film. Sound has been used very well in this matter due to that fact it matches towards the whole theme of "syria" , also the texts were used well to show vintageness and different . Which connotes with the character aswell who is again different to what normal british social realism films use ; home grown characters.
In this picture the most eye catching thing is of course the toe sticking out of character's toes. This can mean many things. One of them is that the character is possibly suffering from poverty therefore cannot afford any new socks. This could mean that this character is a refugee or an asylum seeker from syria. As syria is suffering a civil war at the moment. However the other side of this image , is that the insitution could be connoting that along with that one toe being the only one not in the sock , the character could be the only syrian among all british people .
From the mise en scene of this picture , there is a flag syria aswell as a suit case on top of a wardrobe. The syrian flag shows that any uncertainity of the character's nationality is rubbished. As he hangs it up high and in pride . Which is a very common ritual to do for whatever country your from. Almost to make it feel as if your at home. The other prop in the scene was the suitcase. Again this connotes the fact about the refugee or asylum seeker. We did have a positive representation on syrian people previousely in this video , however now they are given more of a negative view. This is because , all the connnotation i have explained shows that the syrian are in need of help. And in fact a weak source.
The final shot i have picked , is a high shot again of the Syrian character. This makes the character look weak and fragile. The action before this was that he took his flag off the wardrobe , almost as if he was ashamed of the flag and took it off. This could be due to peer pressure of all the british people in his new country. Again a negative potrayal of syran people shows that they are weak . As the character is surrending towards peer pressure.
Overall the representation of Syria is seen more fragile and weak towards the end of the clip . The audience expectation is not that clear. The theme is british social realism , however i only know of this due to it being a case study. To the other audiences , one thing i would have made more clear was to make this seem more clear on to it being a british social realism genre. Meaning it didnt establish the genre as well as it would have hoped. However it still was a brilliant piece of work , outlining all the simple media skills. Meaning their style was very good , they put in effort into their mise en scene , camera work and editing which is probably one reason why this video was good.
Saturday 26 January 2013
Film Title : Battered and Bruised
Strengths :
- Dialogue
- location
- Themes
Weaknesses :
- No accurate or solid relevance of British social realism.
- Clothing - Poor use of camera action , could tell the fight scene was fake due to camera position. - Looks a lot like a trailer instead of a film opening
Predicted Mark : 13
Actual mark : 26
Written Syria :
Strengths :
- British social realism to a small extent
- Good choice of sound , music , dialogue and voice over
- Looks like the opening of a film
- Good editing
- Camera use was good
Weaknesses :
- Wouldn't appeal too many people
- Could try to appeal to more of a British social realism theme
Predicted mark : 36
Actual mark : 52
Cycle
Strengths :
- British social realism
- Good use of language and :
- Clothing
- Mise en scene
- Props ; Cannabis.
- looked like a movie opening
Weaknesses
- Continuity editing was very poor
- Music doesn't match the genre
- Neither is the music copyrighted
- No use of texts
Predicted mark : 37
Actual mark : 29
Straight edge
Strengths :
- British social realism
- A lot of sightings of associations in the British society.
Fish tank is a British social realism film. This is based in an estate in England "Mardyke" estate in Havering. Other screenings include the town of 'Tilbury', as well as the sighting of the A13. The film 4 production received many honors , the outstanding honor is for the ; 2010 Bafta for best British film. As well as achieving this , it one the 'Jury prize' at the "2009 Cannes film festival". Budget : $3 million Box office : $2,357,852 Cast : Katie Jarvisas Mia Williams Kierston Wareingas Joanne Williams Michael Fassbenderas Connor O'Reily Rebecca Griffiths as Tyler Williams Harry Treadawayas Billy Sydney Mary Nash as Keira O'Reily Sarah Bayes as Keely Director : Andrea Arnold The home exhibition methods , were a bit more luxurious then maybe previous film 4 films . it was released on Blu-ray , meaning people can watch the film in better quality. The film was funded by BBC films as well as UK film council. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/ Themes and situations:
Tyler passing on a cigarette and sharing beer.
One theme which has emerged from fish-tank is in fact illegal doings , something which occurs a lot in the estate area's of Britain A major example of this would be the under age and smoking in the film. Normally it is a teenager breaking the rules however in this situation it shows how serious the corruptness is . This is because there are kids under the age of around 10 year old smoking as well as drinking .
a strategy of using children in a way to show how they are breaking the innocence. As kids are usually associated with being , innocent such as Connors daughter who was shown as very innocent playing on her scooter. However in contrast to Tyler the other young child , she is very independent . When Tyler is holding the dog , and sunbathing the other child is playing on her scooter. This shows the difference that Tyler is more independent and doing more mature things however only forcefully due to the environment she was bought up in. Tyler's smoking and drinking shows the bad upbringing by her parents as well as the development in generation. While Connors daughter is wearing nice clothes on the other side Tyler has a more budget able approach towards her style. Meaning that the status comes into play. Tyler being the lower class , she is shown in a very negative way. Almost as if there is a hierarchy and Tyler is lower in every aspect due to her background . I would use this in my film to display the realism of what actually goes on in the run down area's of Britain and to what extent the children are of being alienated from a good upbringing. And a perfect example Fish Tank have used is the contrast between the two young girls.
Another event to match this , would be when Mia is having sex with Connor .Mia only being , 15 , makes this illegal. As the legal age of sex is 16. This provokes a lot of themes but one main theme it has as well as legalism is the fact that Connor is possibly seen as a pedophile. And Mia could be seen as easy going. A stereotypical view of this is that the woman who live in the estates could be seen as easy going and easy for sex, this again comes back to the status. as she is lower class , she has lower standards. Again i would use this in my film to portray what goes on. As i truly believe the children who live in estates give up their virginity way too quick. Also Mia was saying to her mum " just fucked him up-stairs actually" , and her mum replied saying "that's nice.". Prime example of the up bringing and parenting. her mother is almost influencing her therefore Mia would not see it as a bad thing. After all Mia's mum and Connor have a sex scene in the film. This shows the life style of the lower class in Britain and will raise awareness of the realism going on in the estates .
Representation (stereotypes & archetypes):
A lot of stereotypes were shown from the film , and through most characters. Firstly Mia's mother is of course a single mother. She is shown to be care-less in her lifestyle. Her kids do not respect her as a kid respects a mother. Showing she doesnt care in what way she's treated. Overall her representation as a mother was very poor. In fact the closest her and Mia got is shown in the picture below.
They are performing a slow dance. Overall the representation of a single mother in today's British culture is exactly of her kind. A young mother who cares less about life and wants to enjoy her life , probably as much as her children do. I would use this for the British audience to relate with , because single mothers are almost a trend in today's Britain. Therefore it is great for a British social realism film.
One other stereotype would be of women in general. That they are the less dominating with in the genders. The picture below connotes that as well as the stereotypical view that the lower class people have no mannerisms.
Add caption
As they are under going sexual action during a party and somebody obviously walked in as you can tell from the camera shot. This could also mean women are very desperate for the loving of men.
A representation of age is one of the main topics throughout fish tank. Mia being only a teenager , her representation is some what called typical in the eyes of the audience. As she is a stuck up character , who does not listen to her mother. And is very rebellious , which is shown through her acts of kidnapping a child , smoking , drinking and of course under age sex with Connor. The younger Generation tend to have other stereotypes along with this , one main one which was shown through the film is violence.
Mia being harassed by two young men.
Youngsters are normally associated with violence in today's day and age. Especially in Britain. One real awakening of course was the riots. However fish tank had already shown their representation of the young generation and it also consisted of violence. In a British social realism it is important for stereo typcal views to be accurate or at least relevant. Youngsters being violent is the main cause to Britain crime today , and therefore inputting this representation in a film defines exactly what British social realism is about. Showing the external audience on what actually happens in parts of Britain and showing to some audiences what they can relate to.
Mise-en-scene
This is the setting of which Mia lives in , therefore her background. This is typically run down , and like most film 4's , it reveals the grittiness of the place. Being in a flat means many things. Words can even describe the scene ; condensed , antique , cheap , life-less. These are my words to describe the place it is set in.
However it definitely outlines the message fish tank are trying to give , which is Mia is of a lower class background. These buildings are common in Britain , and if i was to make a British social realism film i would definitely use this because there is a huge population of Britain living in flats. Therefore the way Fish tank have used this is great because it shows us that people really do live in circumstances like Mia does.
Inside Mia's house it is scruffy , as well as the outside inside it is also condensed. Meaning on the outside it looks very packed with a lot of people living together , and inside the space is limited for those people to live in. As you can see many of the things are scrambled upon the place . Showing that as people they are Un tidy and careless. As well as this the circumstances are also shown in this , the size of the TV is considered to be very small in an average household.
From this picture Mia's clothing , is a loose polo and jogging bottoms. In Britain today people who are associated with these clothes are called some thing like " chavs" .Which is a working/lower class look that youngsters have these days. And it is looked negatively upon because it is very cheap and a Un hear-ted approach of dress sense. Overall this gives Mia herself a very negative portrayal . Using this to show what British youngsters are like and dress like is a part of realism. And for fish tank using this is a great way of showing British social realism . I would definitely use this for a way to show what some working class and most lower class people have adapted to wearing.
The emblem on top of the television , is Football club West ham united . West ham are based in the east of London , east ham. Statistically that borough is the most poor in Britain. Therefore it then matches what Mia and her family are ; poor. As well as this west ham united are associated with a lot of violence. There fans who refer them selves to as irons , are extremely violent and run there own firm . Which they conduct violence with other clubs in the league which they play in. Overall the west ham connotation has a massive representation , because it matches what fish tank are actually portraying of Mia and her family itself. As they are violent as well as lower classed people. This is a great technique to use because people will automatically identify it as British , and use the stereo typical views they have on the club and associate it with the people who own the item. Which is most probably what the directors hoped had come out of this setting.
Music & Sound effects
Music is a very big factor in the film. One big song in the film is the song which Mia decided to dance to in her audition , "California Dreamin". There is a connotation in the title aswell , mia has big hopes and ambitions from this audition. She therefore decided to use an inspirational track to maybe keep her on track and in fact keep her "dreamin". It is from the late 1960's , a singer called Bobby Womack was the owner of the song. He is known for sometimes mixing all genres in to one song.
Mia is dancing to an Ashanti song , who is mostly known for her Rn b and hip hop style of music. However she features with Ja rule . A rapper who has got involved in a lot of conflicts in his life , and mostly raps about violence. Therefore the music choice again was suitable in here as Mia can relate to the genre of the music.
Another rapper mentioned in the end which Mia discusses her fond of is , Nas. He is from the same hip hop and Rn b genre , however unlike ja rule, he raps about living life and the way of life mostly. Almost seen as inspirational. And one trait he has is to discuss what happens in the american culture and daily on goings , just like how film 4 are showing through fish tank what goes on in British culture in some areas. therefore i believe this artist and Mia's reference towards him is very significant and works very well as what Nas raps about is the wa Mia may inspire to live,.
Camera Work & editing
The camera work in most film 4 films are very rough . And almost to make it look as if it is make shift. This is because they want people to feel more engaged because it seems more realistic with the way of editing and camera shots. Rather than having special effects every single shot.
As you can see from this low shot of Connor it shows that Mia herself looks more powerful and he looks weak against her.
The shots in the film do describe the relationships very well. And in the picture above the over the shoulder shot is showing that they are both in a conversation , on the same level.
The use of shots and the quality of shots are extremely good for the type of film , it is not a product from the mainstream institution, therefore the only way film 4 can engage with their audience to make them film as if they are involved. Most of this is done by British social realism , which they can relate to but the shot in the film also give a great feeling of reality in the film as it is very makeshift and it looks how it would in real life.
Dialogue
Mia's use of dialogue and her family's are full of expletives. "Ring me back you bitch" , Mia had a rift with her friend , and she had called her. She was apologizing however in seriousness she used an expletive to adress her friend. This is saying the people are being shown as very low class people who have no manners or education as they would not be addressing people like that. Of course it is revealed Mia doesn't actually go to school at the moment and also rejects the chance for a new school. Her lack of education is possibly one reason in why her dialogue is of such a poor quality. This was at the beginning of the film , towards the end Mia was leaving for Wales . And she had bidden farewell to her sister however using the opposite of words. " i hate you" . She said it comfortingly , showing that her toughness ,as well as her stubbornness ; makes her avoid her true feelings. And the dialogue also gives us a better insight on Mia's character .Tyler and her mother also are people in the film who use many swear words. Tyler refers to her mother as a "bitch" and then calls Mia the same word out of anger. Again this shows how the characters , because for a child to be referring to adults like that is rude. And it is a lower class trait to be using words like them with your guardian. Overall the dialogue used in fish tank is spot on. It is of the urban era , therefore it identifies the characters , the swearing and rude manners is something that the British are known for. therefore the British social realism is effective as the dialogue matches the characters and there backgrounds.
