In the style of the thriller genre, we thought that the criminally influenced man should be an older unshaven thug-type. Lauren kindly volunteered her dad, Alan Burton. Alan fits the role of Adrian Doyle very acutely. He fits the 'Harry Lime' look, the older criminally influenced man.
The female in our thriller has the 'butter-wouldn't-melt' look, she appears blameless and lawful. However when she takes the money from the till, it should put a different spin and perspective on her character. I hope she would appear dishonest, insidious and somewhat corrupt. We cast Kaya Maplestone. By casting Kaya it may also suggest some racial hatred. For example in Jackie Brown, she fends for herself, is the friend of some and the enemy of others.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
This Is England '86 2/3
The film This Is England uses the same cast as this later TV series. The beginning of this clip in my opinion is beautiful and one of my favourite openings, it is gentle and shows tragic beauty.
- The first few shots have only diegetic sound, the tides and the seagulls. They show derelict buildings and warehouses, from neglect. It cuts to a well composed shot of the sunset over the water.
- To contrast this beauty, it then cuts to a disturbing shot of a blood stained leather seat, followed by a hand, and then Shaun’s face gazing at the driver. Following these shots, they suggest that the driver has killed someone in his own car with his bare hands, and Shaun admires him and idolises him for this heroic act. Shaun has been manipulated by this grown man to do what is wrong and criminal.
- It cuts to a shot of the driver, character called Combo, with blood on his shirt. However he hangs his head, which suggests he is not proud of what has happened. This could change the audience’s perception of Shaun. He is still a little boy and doesn’t understand what has happened, scared.
- As soon as they talk it is a cultural signifier accustomed to their accent, stereotypically in TV drama’s much like This Is England ’86, this implies that they are the working-class/under-class suffering from poverty and deprivation. Shameless is similar in that the people living on the estate have accents and those who came to evict them, spoke well with good grace.
- The clips suggest that Shaun and Combo are similar and not much differs bar their age, however the shot of the front of the car showing them sat in it, suggests that however similar they may appear, they are two different people.
- Shaun gets out of the car and says “Bye Combo”. This suggests that Shaun has left him, now he has no one to help him with his troubles. Why is a grown man needing help from a young boy anyway?
- The shot of Shaun standing in the rain suggests that maybe he has no where to go and no one to talk to much like the character Combo. Or it could suggest that he has washed Combo and his issues away and is starting fresh like a new drop of water.
Skins opening clip 1/3
SKINS (4.19-5.34)
Each of the characters that are shown highlight something that represents them, by doing this is gives a clear understanding and to some extent and expectation of what we have to expect from them as individuals.
- The scene starts with the character Tony walking to college. His surroundings are middle-class terrace houses which suggests that he and his family hold middle class norms and values.
- Tony makes a call and the camera cuts to a phone vibrating on a dirty plate with the butt of a used cigarette. Immediately this shows a different lifestyle to Tony’s and suggests that this character, Sid, has the norms and values from the working-class. Sid then uses language carelessly that would stereotypically be used less in the middle-class, for example, Tony and his family.
- He makes another call immediately, this suggests that he is organised and trying to get other people to help him and maybe manipulate them to some extent. The next call he makes is to Chris, from his answer phone message he seems quite immature so this suggests he has working-class values much like Sid.
- The third call he makes is to Jal, she is practising her clarinet when he calls and answers annoyed that he interrupted her. From purely the fact that she plays the clarinet suggests that she has middle/upper-class values, she is up early to practise her instrument and when he calls, it is still her main priority.
- The next call is from Michelle, who is in her towel applying moisturiser to her legs. Beauty and care are the things that represent Michelle. From the phone call it also establishes that she is willing to help out other people, this could be a middle-class value. From the look of her surroundings, they suggest her family is fairly well off and ultimately a middle-class family.
How is Class Represented in the Shameless Clip
Shameless, is directed by Peter Lydon, written by Paul Abbott & Daniel Brockhurst. Its first broadcast was in January 2005. It follows the lives of the residents of Chatsworth Estate in Manchester. The show is still airing on live TV 7 years later & are on the 9th series.
The initial thought of shameless is highlighting that all working-class citizens are the same as the characters. However despite this first image, many of the characters show upper class values despite their life being working/under-class. The character Frank Gallagher portrays an image of self-destruction via alcohol and drugs, despite him nodding towards ‘political correctness’. In contrast, they show the upper-class to be aspirational, privileged and legitimate.
Without looking too deeply into the characters of shameless, it portrays the characters as working/under-class people. For example the first impression of Frank would be that he is an alcoholic, who smokes and doesn’t care much for his own children. However when Frank is in the pub with his two children, he stubs out his cigarette when he says “Put your stamp on them” suggesting he is not that bothered about his children or maybe Frank resents them.
The conditions they live in are a classic case of anomie and polarisation. The programme is almost anarchic, in the best sense. It is out of the ordinary and highlights a contrast between different programmes and the diversity in target audiences. However, one aspect that goes un-noticed is that despite the poverty and material deprivation, they all seem to stick together and act as community and fight for what they believe in.
In the first shot we see a two shot of a couple discussing their fostered child. The camera at the end of the discussion zooms in on the woman to suggest that she feels emotionally closer and attached to the child.
In the last shot we see of the couple in a warehouse, is at first a medium close up of their faces and their reaction to the situation that the audience have not yet seen. The camera then cuts to a very long shot, establishing that the stolen car has gone. The depth and vastness of the shot could represent how much trouble the man is in, how he has fallen into such a huge hole that he will never get out of.
Another representational shot is when two women are having a chat about their children, when one of them gets out a bottle of Vodka and starts drinking. However it seems like the middle of the afternoon. The fact that they are drinking Vodka which is cheap and very strong, stereotypically, reckless things happen when people drink vodka and it is deemed as a dangerous drink. The difference between these two women in the working-class possibly the under-class is that middle/upper-class would stereotypically drink wine, or something along those lines.
However the fact that they are drinking in the afternoon suggests that they don’t have jobs and are fulfilling the stereotype of ‘the unemployed working-class, scrounging off the welfare state etc.’ Drinking in the afternoon (from a different perspective) also suggests that they like to have a bit of fun and they are not wound up tightly about their issues.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Re-Filmed Footage
After the struggle we had filming our last shots, we changed the location and the cast, and re-filmed all of the footage. I think the shots turned out better than they did previously and we had more of an idea about what was expected of us from these filming sessions. We still need to complete/re-film about 3 shots, but this is most of our footage.
I think the range of shots that we used has improved and our skills with the camera have definitely improved. I am a lot happoer with this shoot, and prefer the use of shots in comparison to the other one.
Possible Tracks for our Thriller
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Reviewing Our Footage
This is our footage, after filming on our scheduled Wednesday at our initial Cafe, we went over our footage and decided it was unusable. The exterior footage we were happy with but reviewing the footage from inside didn't look how we planned it to. This meant we had to go and find a different cafe to utilise. Luckily Lauren works in a cafe in Bungay, so we plan to drive out there on Feb 1st, and make up for the filming we had lost out on.
What Went Wrong & Improvements
Lighting - When we attempted to film a section in the dark, we didn't have enough lighting to cover and reflect onto the scene which we were filming. This made it very difficult to film, and when looking over the scene's, could not see much at all. Despite not being able to see anything, some of our inter- references were linked to scenes in the dark, if we did ours really badly, I felt it wouldn't qualify for that. To combat this, the cafe that we have chosen, has low lighting which in effect, if we try and get the right angles, we can use to look like the lights have been turned off. Also we have a light reflector which hopefully will be useful when filming this scene.
Characters - I think our female character was suitable, she was young, and naive looking. However our problem came from our male lead. He was tall dark and dark haired but I think too young. We needed an older man, unshaven and thug like. To overcome this, we will be using Laurens Dad, he has agreed not to shave for a few days, this will create the reugged look. He is also older than our initial actor, so it will overcome that problem.
Costume - The continuity of our costume was not consistant, there is a scene where he was wearing the hat and then not wearing the hat. This will affect our grade as continuity plays a part in that. I think that was the only problem with our costume. So on Feb 1st, we will be using simular costumes but making sure the continuity of the hat is kept consistant.
Shots - Despite using a range of different shots, we managed to achieve only mid-shots. To enable us to achieve higher marks on our practical aspect, we needed to shoot more close-ups, also this keeps the male character more annonymous which keeps the tension up throughout the opening.
Hopefully when we film for a second time we can take into account what we did wrong the first time and really tryto combat these problems and not make the same mistake again. As long as we are prepared and know exactly what we have set out to achieve, then we should have stable footage.
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