Our interpretation of a modern British crime film has many influences from cult films of the past as well as current crime sub genres from the likes of ‘adulthood’ (Noel Clarke 2008) where youth crime plays the prominent part. My role as cinematographer meant I could collaborate a range of techniques through influential camera shots around the location we were filming at. Our ‘drug deal gone wrong’ situation was where I wanted to create tension and isolate the characters from the busy situations of modern society; this was why a desolate car park was a great setting for this scene.
I developed the narrative through my specific area of micro responsibility by using certain camera shots. Opening the film sequence with some establishing shots helps the audience get a real feel for the setting. The focus on the ‘drug dealer’s’ feet walking up the stairs shows the progression through the car park and builds up the tension between characters. The shot from over the customers shoulder was a direct influence from the 180-degree rule from western shootouts; I wanted to show the physical repulsion between the characters using past techniques in a modern situation.
Our group worked closely to discuss on where we should film and what props were vital, and example of this was the scarf that the drug dealer wore, we wanted to keep the dealers identity as hidden as possible I also tended to film from behind the ‘dealer’ to express this, this was often a following shot, the use of a hand held camera accomplished the rough gritty feel I wanted to impose on the audience shown by the shaky camera. I feel that this made the scene more thought provoking and consequently represented the secretive world the drug dealer lives. On the other hand the customer is the complete opposite of this and is very innocent in his actions.
The technical capabilities of the equipment we used made it easier to express our creative choices. The use of ‘final cut’ on the Mac’s meant we could use fades to skip time as shown when the drug dealer is walking through the car park, it saved having prolonged shots in which would of lost all the tension and made the film less fast paced. The most prominent use of this technique was where I chose to use a first person prospective shot, I wanted the viewing audience to see and feel what the ‘victim’ was endure; the use of fades gives the scene realism.
My overall aim with the camerawork was to build upon the tension and suspense throughout the piece until the fight scene occurred which I thought acted as the ‘trigger’ in which imposed the fast paced action on viewers.Although this was the case some technical difficulties led to limited amount of footage, the batteries in the camera were flat when we started filming as a consequence we had to travel back to college and collect some more, the duration of time to film was shortened but time was productively used.
Throughout the piece of work we had to adapt to certain changes in the setting we were working with, when we were drawing the storyboard we originally wanted to include some cars parked in the car park but it was later made obvious that this wasn’t possible so we filmed in an empty space which subsequently turned out to be better than the original idea.
The feedback I received as cinematographer had many good points “camerawork was good with some nice shots-water droplets” I was happy with the overall responses, some critical comments I received were “some more shots in the fight would have been good” this shows that the footage we currently have doesn’t show enough action and that the fight ends to quick, the excitement we wanted to entice on the audience clearly lacks here and is something we needed to improve on.
I chose to be cinematographer, as I believe I am very good at visualising shots in my mind and then representing into the production, I am also confident with how to use the video camera. However with some more practice with the camera I feel we could have got slightly better shots. I believe that the finished short film shows all the gritty, dangerous and exciting aspects of a British crime film, our indie film engages with the audience with its simplistic plot, and although maybe being too short in some places it proves to be an enjoyable watch.
For our film sequence we wanted to set the scene in an abandoned area or where there wasn’t many people around. We wanted to do this because then it makes the scene more mysterious and also gives the audience the feel that what is going on needs to be secretive. We then decided to film the scene in a car park when there where no people around, this created the atmosphere that we wanted and we felt that it would make the audience feel uneasy about what was going to happen.
When we were on location we decided to do some different shot type that weren’t on our storyboard this was because we thought we would have enough footage otherwise and there were also things at the location that we thought would be worth film such as the water coming down the wall. Also by doing more shot types we managed to set the scene more.
In our film sequence we wanted to build up suspense between the two people meeting together to do a drugs deal I feel we successfully did this by using appropriate music and thought the use of quick editing to show the two peoples point of view.
We didn’t have any costumes for our film instead we decided to use casual clothing this gave a sense of social realism but also so that the audience can relate to the situation more. However one of the people acting in our sequence dressed in all black clothing so stereotypically this shows that the person is going to be tuff, that they want to keep there identity hidden and that they are possibly thuggish/ aggressive (you sometimes dress in a way that you feel for example dark could mean your angry and aggressive.) This is shown in our sequence when the person in black gets in a fight with the other person.
My role in our film sequence was to create a piece of music that would fit in with our footage. My role was very important as the music had to set the right sort of mood and to create suspense as the film went on. To get an idea of the sort music I had to create I looked at a few films for example Kidulthood, Adulthood and Get Carter. From analyzing these films I found a scene in Adulthood that was relevant to our film. I then took this idea and created something similar on garage band. My overall feel is that the soundtrack went well but maybe I didn’t create enough suspense in the fight scene, Also there was a problem uploading the sound to our film footage this resulted in the sound being to loud when the two people are talking to each other.
Once we had finished our film sequence we then looked at the rest of the class’s films we then gave each other feed back. This was our feedback
The Mise-en-scene was good; people liked the clear car park representing isolation. Clothing was good and represented characters well. Character shouldn’t have slowed down on the stairs. Camerawork was good with some nice shots - water droplets. Filming was a bit shaky at times, wasn't clear if it was intentional or not. Some more shots for the fight would have been good. Sound was good, matched well with the sequence but the music should have gotten quieter during the dialogue. Editing was good, some shots were too long. Fight scene well edited
From this feedback we could see what people liked and disliked about our film. One of the things that they didn’t like was how the person was going up the stair which is fair enough but he couldn’t run up the stairs because then it looks like he’s running away from something showing fear which defeats the character profile of being tuff and a feared person, also I feel that when he’s going up the stairs it creates suspense, because of the slow pace keeping the audience wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Other negative feedback was on the fact that the music needed to get quieter around the talking which I realized I made a mistake on.
If I was to do this project again I would prefer if I wasn’t doing the sound because I don’t know how to use the Garageband software very well and I feel I would of produced a better piece of work if I had been doing either the filming or editing.
My role for our short film sequence was Director and as a group we had to first of all we had to decide on the genre we would work with, as a favourite of the group and my personal preference we decided to choose a British crime/realism genre, the influences that made me want to make a British crime was because first of all the topic we had gone over and found out about all the different elements which make and British drama and try and include them in our work, the main choice for a British drama was mainly based on personal preference as I take an interest and influences from other British crimes. Films like Adulthood (Noel Clarke) such as the costume and attitude suited our scene, snatch (Guy Riche) had a good representation of tracking and fighting shots, from these I can take ideas and influences from as they put the grime and grit into there films to get this representation micro elements of the genre in there films. As we chose this genre we have had to put in certain elements that make the genre. This influenced our decisions such as location, setting etc. As my role was Director I had the role of deciding on mise en scene and character. The mise en scene that I had to think about was location, costume, setting, props etc. as well as character so the emotion and actions each character should show. With the mise en scene I had to create this gritty urban but still cultured scene, as the characters had to be doing this ‘deal’ we needed a urban but quiet area that still had this effect on the audience and suited the genre, so the Cineworld car park was a good choice for the style we needed and as we went at an early time, the space was clear and suited for this ‘meet’ that had to be a quiet location with no one around which set the scene for our sequence. The costume was a concept needed to create the right look for the genre, so we decided the characters to have a specific look, James looking like a student who just wants his drugs and I looked like the ‘hoody’ perspective, with scarf over the face, hood up and trainers with a duffle coat, mainly all in black that created this thuggish look and gave out this look as if I had a more grime/urban look that represented me as this harder character than James, so it looked right for the sequence we were creating. The other issue was props as we did well to represent the drugs with flour and a freezer bag but I had to change some shots and story line as we had no weapon so as a group we decided to use keys but it changed and I decided to just keep the attack as a brutal beating and went well. Another target I had to achieve was character and the emotion, as me and James acted I wanted this anger that attacked innocence but not out of willingness, a forced attack and from the time that we had and the style we had set the brutality but may not of shown the forced attack and could have been tweaked a bit.
As a group we came across a few problems with camera shots and some minor problems with props but as a group we made decisions that developed our idea and the narrative such as on editing changing the main fight scene to not use a weapon and use fades so the kicking scene changed the emotion with a more gritty brutal fight that I wanted in the beating in scene with the kicking and is one of my favourite parts that makes the characters and genre and emotion feel like a urban British film.
The audience are the main judges of our sequence and what I wanted to represent from my part was convincing characters and to create a British crime/realism from the mise en scene. To show the audience this I made sure there was nothing out of place and tried to use as much believable costume and props as much to create this British feel and represent each character/. Also to create this isolation for the meeting situation between each character so it was more of a real situation. From the feedback that we received from mise en scene and characters was that people liked the clear car park representing isolation and showing a more British and urban location and setting. As well as clothing was good and represented characters well. This tells me that overall the thought into choosing the right location, costume etc. helped our sequence show the narrative we were looking for and represents our genre as a British crime.
The Kidulthood part is relevant between 8:00 and 9:30 minutes which is the fight scene to relate to our fight scene and where some ideas were taken from.
As a group we developed the narrative and characters in our sequence. We started brainstorming ideas and settled on one we all liked. Myself, Harry (cinematographer) and Lewis (director) all began to talk about mise-en-scene and how we thought it should look whilst Ali began looking at sound. We worked on a storyboard and settled on a location and characters.
Originally we wanted to make a fast paced sequence and also for it to be a little longer than it was at in the end. However we did have major hindrance in our shoot. When we got to the location to do our shoot we found we had been given a camera without a battery. This meant that Harry had to travel back to the college to get a battery. This cost us lots of time we could have been shooting and also meant that, as editor, i didn’t have as much footage to work with. One particular problem with the editing was shot of the character walking, where two takes had been done that overlapped when we wanted one continuous shot. This meant i had to use a fade to show passage of time, but it didn’t look very good.
I wanted the audience to look at the editing and think that I had done well to create suspense within the sequence. I don’t think that this was the case in the end however, because it doesn’t really fit in with the story of the sequence and doesn’t seem to be the right way the story should have been told. This wasn’t what I originally wanted to do however and I think I managed to do well with what I had.
The feedback for editing said “some of the shots were too long; the fight scene was well edited.” This shows that the choice of long durations shots obviously wasn’t a very good choice. But in the end there was nothing I could do about this as I could only do the best with what I was given. I am pleased to see that the fight scene editing was well received because I did make the decision to go back and re-edit this. When we looked at the original rough cut I thought that it wasn’t fast enough and didn’t look very good so I went back and re-edited it. This of course meant that the clip was quite a bit shorter but I am pleased with this decision.
I chose to be editor because I felt confident with the Final Cut software and thought it was something that I was particularly good at. I think my skills enabled me to do better in the end as I knew what I was doing. I do however really feel that the sequence could have been a lot stronger but due to the lack of footage I did what I could. If we had had more footage, which wasn’t any fault of ours, I feel that I could have done a lot better.
Yesterday we all watched each others clips and left feedback for each other. The feedback we recieved was mostly positive.
The Mise-en-scene was good, people liked the clear car park representing isolation. Clothing was good and represented characters well. Character shouldnt have slowed down on the stairs.
Camerawork was good with some nice shots - water droplets. Said to be a bit shaky at times, wasn't clear if it was intentional or not. Some more shots for the fight would have been good.
Sound was good, matched well with the sequence but the music should have gotten quieter during the dialogue.
Editing was good, some shots were too long. Fight scene well edited.
We can now use our feedback to help us when we come to write our evaluations.
We have decided to film our part of the film of a fake drugs operation where the drug dealer must kill his buyer who owes his family money, and this is the only way to join his family trait.
this will all happen in the cineworld complex mainly the car park in our lesson on Friday
these props will be all we need for our sequence as our sequence consists of a bit of dialogue and the drugs are for the fake deal and the knife is for the murder scene.
Hey, I’m James and I’m going to be doing the editing for our group. Once we had come up with our idea i went home and watched ‘Kidulthood’, a film we had talked about as inspiration for our project. I thought it would be a good idea to go back and watch this film again to see if there were any editing techniques i thought were particularly interesting. The film in itself was interesting but some of the editing techniques used added to the effectiveness of the film.
There are two bits of this clip i particularly like. The first is in the playground when it is already introducing you to the characters. It switches between the three different groups but i found particularly interesting about it was the way it speeds up when we aren’t focusing on a character, and then it slows down when we are focusing on a character that we need to know about. I thought that was great as it showed the chaotic style of the playground and what the school was like. The next bit i found interesting was the scene where the group of girls are beating up another girl in the classroom. I thought the way they repeated the shot of the actual hit was very effective as it gives a sort of double take effect. Where you’ve seen something really quickly and weren’t sure what you’d seen so you go back to look again. I thought that was very effective. Another bit i found very effective was when the girl gets hit the clip is sped up, or maybe cut i can’t quite tell, between the actual hit and the girl hitting the wall. I thought this emphasised the power of the hit and what effect it had on the girl and thought it was particularly interesting.
as we will have only two characters one character is a drug dealer 'rudeboy' so he will have clothing mainly British urban style
- hoody - flat peak - jeans - trainers
the other character is a normal student looking to buy drugs so he will have clothes such as college topman clothing like an average student and average clothes;
British crime films normally include similar conventions which we will have to relate to these include
- working class - edge of society - crime - unemployed - troubled - drugs - personal relationships - real life situations - reality - rarely stylized and exaggerated
our ideas for our location would need a lit place but at night to get the dark feel to bring the mood out our ideas go from
- Lit car park - Train station - Bus station
As a group decision we have decided to use a lit car park to go with the story and its in a secluded location to get a dark situation which will help emphasize the effect of our story.
The sequence we have decided to make from our film is where the boy who wants to become part of the gang has to beat up the person who has ripped the leader of the gang off. We have decided to film the sequence in a car park in the evening so it is dark outside and we will have the light from the car park lights.
The genre we want to focus on is British crime; influences include Get Carter, Kidulthood, Adulthood and Pulp Fiction. Get Carter, Kidulthood and Adulthood are all examples of British crime films. Kidulthood and Aldulthood are very recent films focusing on youth culture in London. We have also taken influence from Pulp Fiction as we like the use of editing and some of the shots used in parts of the film.
Plot Outline
Plot outline: A young teenage drop out is interested in joining a gang. To become part of this gang he must first prove to them that he is loyal. As a test of his loyalty the leader of the gang sends him to beat up a man who has ripped him off earlier in the film.
We have our idea and genre decided so we are influenced by British crime films and with our sequence of quite high brutality we want it gritty and original, so we have been getting examples from such British film scenes from various British films.
KiDULTHOOD
- from what we can take from Kidulthood is the age and how the represent the youth as well as some of the shots we could get ideas from.
Dead Man's Shoes
- From what we can take from Dead Man's Shoes is the brutality that it can show as well as the mood it creates.
