Production Log: Week 11

This week i had been planning my production with my group and we had been writing up our shooting script and doing our location recces, cast list and other pieces of documents which would help us start filming for our production and we did this without too much struggle as we were to work on the documents in our groups which put less stress on us individually and gave us a chance to work as a group. The only issue we had was that we were unsure n our graphics and the opening scenes for the shooting script but we overcame this problem after watching a short clip on YouTube which gave us a clear idea of how we can shoot our shots as they were similar to the YouTube clip of the opening scene of reservoir dogs.

Jay Call Sheet

Jay Cast List

Jay Location List

Jay Location Reccies

Jay Production Schedule

Jay Shooting Script

Production Log: Week 10

This week in lesson, we have been working on our treatment and we had to split our treatment up into 3 different sections so that we were able to work on it effectivly and to the best of our ability. We had to decide our narrative, props characters and we had to think sensibly about this. Also we had to go out and do primary research and for this we chose to do vox pops in which we were able to find the necessary information about BSR as a genre and we could get feedback from our final idea and see what type of improvements we would be able to make. For this we used a flip cam and recorded people responses to questions to do with our idea. We learnt that a lot of our audience werent familiar with the term BSR but once we explained it and gave examples, they understood it and generally enjoyed them as they can be related to alot of people and are generally realistic. We also got a lot of positive feedback on our idea which made it easier for us. With an exception of tiny improvements, our idea was solid and would work well with the BSR genre. This influenced our plannign as we had a clear mind on what we were doing and with the little improvements, we would know what to change without much difficulty.

     

Production Log: Week 9

Last week we were learning about our narratives in our films and the essential parts involved in a narrative, all coming from a theory based on movies and how they work. We were also to write up our treatments on our blogs which we split up in our groups and worked on separate sections for our treatments and then put it all into one to finalise our treatment. I found that this was a lot less stress and it was fairly easy as i had a general idea of the whole film, it was clear and understandable for me to write up the treatment for it. It was also mad easier due to McKee's Narrative theory, which gave us information about how a narrative is written and made our treatment a lot easier to type. We used this when having to write up our own narratives. Without this information we would've been unable to do this, so after a clear understanding about McKee's theory, we have a better understanding about narratives.

Audience Research and Analysis

Vox Pops



Data Presentation
From The first question "What are your thoughts on the BSR Genre and why?", our audience answered:

• "Realistic"
• They are able to "relate to the movies"
• Also it is "relevant to us" so we are able to take away points from the films, good and bad.
• It also relates to real life so this adds a sense of excitement to the film.

The second question we asked was "What do you look for generally in a film" and got responses like:

• "Action and Comedy"
• Explosive action
• Action is very entertaining
• Fights and drugs
• Good and entertaining storylines. Also inspiring films as they have a deeper meaning behind them
•  a lot of violence 
• reality based movies as you can take away lot and appeals to a larger audience

Next was "What is your favourite BSR Film and why?" and they answered:

• Adulthood as it is what is seen in the area and can relate to some characters
• Kidulthood as they've seen people be affected by similar reasons and the aftermath behind it. Also the narrative behind the movie as it is interesting and intriguing.
• 4.3.2.1 as it has multiple storylines so keeps the film interesting. 

Next we asked our audience "What are your thoughts on our idea?" and got feedback like:

• Complicated but sounds good
• Fits BSR genre but is exaggerated.
• Really good storyline and very relevant to real life
• "quite realistic"
• "simple and not complex"
• "shows reality and is not exaggerated" so this therefore makes it effective and suitable to the BSR genre.

Finally we asked "Do you think our BSR idea portrays British life accurately or does it exaggerate some aspects?" and got responses like:

• "it has been exaggerated but is relatable to some"
• "issues being dealt with are quite accurate"
• "portrayed pretty well" as situations are very realistic so this fits the BSR genre and shows what really happens in gritty areas in Britain. 

Meet My Audience



Qualitative Data Analysis
From this I have learnt that my storyline isn't very realistic. From the feedback I gained, I saw that a lot of people said that they found the storyline to sound unrealistic in some aspects, so we will use this as a improvement and improve slightly on our storyline so that it is more realistic and so that it fits the BSR genre clearly.
Also another point was that the audience mainly look at violence or action in films, so this has made us sure on our idea as we start our production with a smash mouth beginning by going straight into the film, with action and guns so it is intriguing right from the start and doesn't have to have a boring start to fully get into the movie. Also doing this makes it easier for the audience to identify the characters and see their type of personality throughout the film just through seeing the first two minutes.
Another point that has been narrowed down is that our audience enjoying seeing the truth behind a BSR, no matter how much of a struggle is as it symbolises some areas and always show a group of people/ an individual who tries to get out of that life and the inspiration to leave the life behind so we must make sure that in our opening two minutes, we show the real life struggles properly.
Also we were told that kidulthood was a really good movie as it shows the aftermath of what happens when you get involved with gang and drugs, and this is ideal for us as our clip starts of with a flash forward of the consequences of getting involved with drugs and as kidulthood was very interesting because of this, i believe our idea will have the same sort of reaction and will attract a larger target audience.
Finally, from our research we found out that drugs seems to be associated alot with a BSR genre based movie and seems to be common in a lot of the people we interviewed so we aim to keep this as our main theme throughout and where possible, show drugs and the consequences to as close to reality as possible as the audience are clearly intrigued to see the consequences of drugs, so we will show that but also the consequences of involvement in drugs, such as cocaine.

Whole Film Narrative

Exposition

Protagonist

My protagonist is a 16 year old Asian boy names Chas. He is brought up in a very abusive world as his father abuses him a lot when he is angry. His dad would lash out on him every other day while his mother would try to calm him down. He eventually becomes sick of this and leaves home and enters the drug world. Chas is represented as a stereotypical teenager of this generation who does what he likes and is associated with drugs and violence. He dresses in very casual clothing such as a tracksuit with air forces as his everyday clothes. 

Agents of change

 The antagonist is the drug supplier who wants the money that Chas owes him and is willing to do what it takes to get him back, there isn't any ulterior motive to this just the fact that the supplier is an irritable guy who wants Chas to suffer for wasting his time with such a little matter. 

Conflict/Complication

Chas eventually wants to get out of the drug world because he finds out its not what he thought it was going to be so he wants to get out and stops selling drugs but ends up owing his supplier money but he only ends up owing the supplier money because instead of selling he was taking the drugs himself which isn't apparent from the get go and is seen later on in the narrative as it is a secret kept from the audience. 

Elaboration

The film starts with the protagonist named Chas, he is neglected in his house and in school. He has no friends and his dad beats him senseless. Due to this he keeps to himself and he reads magazines and see how drugs are associated with money and fame in some cases. He craves this attention and one day he decides to get involved with the drug world and befriends some dealers to get involved. Eventually he realizes that he wants to get out of the drug business and get his life back to normal so he just stops thinking its that simple. Eventually his supplier gets annoyed that Chas hasn't got the money he owes him and goes after him. He finds ways of avoiding the supplier for a long time seeing as he decides to go back to his old life of just sitting in his room with no one to talk to, he becomes very paranoid and cautious about a lot of these things.

Climax/Resolution

After hiding from these dealers and making sure not to get caught, one day Chas finds out that his friend that he used to deal drugs with is in trouble with the supplier as well. His friend comes to stay with him and finally they get seen by the supplier. They get chased and Chas gets away but his friend gets shot and dies. 

Coda

A couple days later it shows Chas crying at his friends funeral and then followed by some shots of how he's got his life back on track, he gets back into education and the supplier now leaves him alone as he feels he got him back for killing Chas' friend.

Treatment

Title

In my group we decided that out title should be called "Class A". The title "Class A" connotes the main theme of the narrative which is drugs and because it is called "Class A" it also connotes that more serious drugs are involved in the story. As well as looking at the theme of drugs it could be looked at as being a reference to a social class which our protagonist is looking to reach seeing as he is a working class character and wants to escape in to a higher class of people. 

The title originated from the main theme of drugs because we thought that this was the main theme we wanted to be able to portray and the connotations of "Class A" i think do this quite well as a reference to "Class A" drugs. It connotes to the audience what drugs will appear in the narrative and also possible serious consequences may occur because class A drugs have a serious penalty by if you caught under possession of it. Also in the drug world where class A drugs are deemed to be the best and most expensive drugs where gang fights often happen over drugs like these and people get killed also offers another connotation for the title. For example In our production we will be looking to have our protagonist as a drug dealer, this denotation reinforces the connotations that our main theme is drugs as we will see Chas dealing class A drugs and ends up owing his supplier money because he didn't want to be involved anymore and having the supplier go after him backs this up.

I believe that the title being called "Class A" is conventional of the BSR genre, it is short, simple and has various connotations of the themes and content of the narrative. Typically BSR titles are short and simple with a reference to something that will happen in the film or either something that connotes something metaphorical like "Fish Tank" which a girl wants to escape like a fish in a tank. I think that the title is effective because it instantly establishes what the contents of the narrative are which i think is key to give the audience and idea of what the film will be about.

I think my title would appeal to the target audience of 16 - 24 year olds as it is simple, though it is unique it is obvious to be able to understand what it is about just from the title. Though the title is obvious when looking at it as about drugs but it could also have smaller, less clear connotations such as aspiration because people turn to drugs to escape from the world around them. Also something like drugs connotes addiction or experimentation and some people around that age being involved with things like drugs whether it be dealing or taking them, and this has a possibility of them being to relate and personally identify with this theme. 

Identify target audience

My production is aimed at very specific people. My production is aimed at people that are aged between 16-24. My production is targeted mostly for boys because of the stereotype that boys typically like violence and are more associated with the bad things in life more than girls. The fact that the age range is from teens to young adults is good for my production because this way the characters and the narrative will gratify them more than it would for other aged people. The narrative or even the characters may relate to the audience and this way they will be entertained and they will enjoy it. Also in most BSR's the jargon being used is more relatable to this age audience so if the audience can easily understand what is going on and every term used then it will be more likely that they will enjoy it. Also playing on the stereotype of boys are more likely to enjoy violence then it will draw in a wide male audience. Even though this can be aimed particularly at boys it will bring in girls as well and the fact that the age range is for 16 years old minimum then everyone will be allowed into the cinema and there wouldn't be any issue to watch it on TV such as parental controls because they will be allowed to watch it. This allows the movie to be certified as a 15 and also it allows us to use a variety of language, violence and sexual associations etc. into the production. If there is this variety then it makes it more relatable to people because in our production our main theme is drugs and in life it is typically seen that 16-24 year olds that are experimenting on drugs or even addicts therefore making it more relatable. My production will be targeted towards people that are interested in certain things such as what life is like with drugs and how it can be positive and negative on people even though it is mostly negative. Also for the audience to be interested in my film they need to be interested in violence because my film will consist of violence throughout. The main interest for the audience though is to see what life is like on the grittier, dirtier side of the UK and what things happen in these areas and how people are affected. This will gratify the audience in the way of them finding out more information about this side of the UK. It will be targeted towards people of the middle class. These are the average sort of people that you see on the streets walking around. Also it will be good to appeal to these people because most of these people own televisions and do go cinema so it will bring in a wider audience this way and these people will have the interest of finding out how underclass people live and what their lifestyle is like. The themes that my production will use are themes such as drugs, corruption of youth and violence. These are normal for BSR films but it does have originality to it when it comes to the narrative of the film. This originality will appeal to the audience as it will be something that they haven't seen before. The narrative shows scenes of violence and drugs which is normal for a BSR but the way these themes are portrayed in the film are going to be unique. Also BSR films are known for being authentic and my film will be authentic and it adds the sense of realism for the audience. This will keep the audience watching the movie. 

Technology

The technology that will be used will be some simple technology such as iPods and old phones. This will be simple and be only used to establish the era of the film. This will also establish the class of the characters. This will be suitable for my production as old phones such as an old Nokia will establish that these characters are not very wealthy as it is a very old phone that they are using. Also using an old iPod will establish their class. It will set the era by showing that it is set in the modern age but not in an area that is very high classed. In terms of camera i will be using a lot of different camera language such as 360 shots and long takes. This will be easy as it conforms to the conventions of a BSR. The limitations of the camera shots is the 360 shot as it is going to be hard to do this shot without making it to shaky. BSR films consist of handheld camera movements but if there is to much shaking then it will make the film very unauthentic. I have many ideas of how i can do this 360 shot and still make it look authentic for the audience. Other uses of technology will be using fake syringes for any scenes to show drugs and the effect of them will be done by acting. The only limitation of this is actually finding this fake thing and making sure in the film we use the appropriate camera language to make it look as realistic as possible. In BSR films there are infrequent edits and abrupt cuts. I will use this but i wish to do a shot tracking someone’s feet when they are running. This will be a good shot if filmed properly and it will make my film look good. This is another hard shot because we do not have the technology to follow someone’s feet at that speed so we have to think of some other ways to be able to perform this. 

Representation

When coming up with our idea we decided on having one key character, a protagonist called Chas, a 17 year old male who has been kicked out of school and aspires to be rich through selling drugs, through him we see his lifestyle and the representation of a teenager who has grown up in working class conditions and how intends to escape from it.

Due to the fact that our narrative really only looks at life from his perspective which in a way is a positive aspect as it allows for the audience to be able to get to know and empathise with him. Also the fact that our character is representing a stereotypical, bad representation of youth of today it gets across the BSR genre and how it looks at showing real life as accurately as possible.

We are not really subverting from any representations of any social groups as we see that to not be accurate in relation to real life but we are subverting our protagonist in the sense that once he starts his drug dealing lifestyle he wants to get out of it as soon as possible and will do so by any means. 

Narrative

The film follows the protagonist named Chas. He is neglected in his house and in school. He has no friends and his dad beats him senseless. Due to this he keeps to himself and he reads celebrity magazines and sees how drugs is associated with money, fame and success. He craves attention and one day walking to school a group of thuggish boys, drug dealers approach him and invite him into the gang. Receiving the attention from these people he joins and from there on he becomes a drug dealer and becomes an addict until realizing what has become of him and he wishes to get out of this gang and get a job and money and does anything he can to get out. 

The opening sequence will start with 5-6 boys sitting around a round table talking and laughing. Every single guy sitting there is wearing baggy clothes and caps. This will show their personality in a way. One guy will be wearing jeans, a shirt and a jacket. This will show his status that he is a higher class. He is the drug supplier and he talks to all of them about stories that happened during the day of some violent act that he had done in  the day. Behind the drug supplier a trashy looking girl that is an addict and rubbing up against the drug supplier once again showing his status. The drug supplier will then start talking about how he wants all the money that everyone owes him from selling the drugs. Chas however doesn't have the money and gets all nervous. He had purposely done this due to the fact he wants to get out of the life he is living. The drug supplier asks him for his money and he runs straight out the door. From here the drug supplier stands up casually with a smile on his face, walks out and pulls out a gun. The screen will the fade to black and the title will appear. From here the next scene appears of Chas walking to school. 

Conventions
In our production, we will conform to the typical stereotype of a drug dealers appearance of jeans and a puffy black jackets. This we will do to represent the typical appearance of local drug dealers and for the audience to identify and compare them from the main drug supplier, who will be wearing expensive branded clothing, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton items of apparel for the audience to be able to establish him as the top antagonist due to his social status and wealth status due to his expensive clothing. We will also make sure that we subvert to the typical stereotype of a father as our storyline includes a abusive father figure, instead of a typical role model father who takes care of his kid. This will be portrayed by the fathers tone and language towards his son, he swears and abuses him to connote the little relationship between the father and son and the real life everyday struggles the main character, Chas is going through and how he fights to get out of that life. Also, some of the audience may be able to relate to this stereotype of a father as they have seen it and, therefore, the audience are able to relate to the film more, and are therefore more engaged into the story and characters. Also there will be subversion from the mother character as a mothers job is to protect her kids, but she is failing to do this even with her efforts and I think this will be portrayed best in a BSR as the audience will empathise for the boy as he has no one to turn to and this results in the audience empathising for this young helpless boy. This would also add authenticity as not all mothers are perfect as they seem and act different alone so this is to see the true side of the family that have grown up with low wealth and not much help.

Style and Iconography

In the production, I will be using a lot of handheld camera shots as typical BSR films are handheld to give it that serious atmosphere and to really drag the audience in the real life situations in the film. There will be little amount of establishing and long shots, as these are used in other genres, whereas BSR films stick to mid shots and close ups as these are most used in a typical BSR and this is where we clearly see the emotions of the characters to see the real struggle about a BSR film. Also we will use natural lighting throughout as this creates no effect, and keeps it serious which will be based around our type of storyline which is a serious struggle for our main character Chas.
We will keep the editing to a simple, and just base it around cuts and fades as these seem to be most effective and work well in BSR's. For example, in adulthood, there are only fades being used throughout the whole film and it seems to work best as it flows well with the storyline and the show for struggle being shown and the audience to pay attention to this and not the fancy transitions which are unnecessary and don't flow as well.
I will keep the costumes for the drug dealers to a simple plain tracksuit with trainers and a hat to cover their face. This will signify equality of authority between the drug dealers and will signify the difference to the drug supplier showing he has more respect, due to his wealth and clothes. Also this will signify the drug dealers as low class thugs who commit criminal activities to make money but are just assuming without knowledge of their background. Also the drug supplier will be using the latest gadgets and expensive jewellery to represent his wealth and social status in comparison to the drug dealers, who wear cheap clothing and do not carry around much as they have no money and earn a living with selling drugs representing the everyday struggles of their lives. Also another prop I will use will be flour to act as my drugs. This is used to signify a life changing object and also to connote the dangers of the life some have to result in due to their struggle for money. Also this links back to one of the main themes being drugs, and represents the title, being Class A, it connotes drugs which makes the audience think about the consequences of this drug which is what the movie is based on.
In consideration to music, We will like to keep to having our own created soundtrack that fits the genre and themes of the film. Also the music will be flowing accordingly to the shots so it will look professional and the audience will be able to remember the movie and soundtrack and create an association. Also is creates authenticity. We have ideas of slow paced music during tragic scenes and fast paced music during the action scenes. Also the music will represent the movies era and also will signify who the film is targeted at.


Institution
The Brief of film four was to create the opening of a British Social Realism. This narrows what themes would be most appropriate and what is most typical to a BSR. There is a lot to do with drugs and violence so we made sure that these were two of the main themes inside our production. Also we must make sure it is realistic as that is a key feature to a BSR genre so we made sure that the storyline behind our production is realistic and believable. This will affect the distribution of the film as it is a BSR , so the majority of viewers will be from Britain and also would have to fit the target audience as that is who the film is based at. Our film will be exhibited on NMT as British social realisms generally don't do too well in box office sells, so if it is available to the public on line, they are able to take full use of it and this will grab a larger fan base that enjoy the film. Also I would maybe have home releases, because if it becomes a success on line, people may want the DVD's as a collection so if it is available, they may be able to make a profit through this method as well.