Media A2 Coursework Blog

To put all my research together I created a treatment to present to my other class friends and teacher. The following Prezi explains my film in a simple format, plus it involves a little audience research:

So as read previously, my protagonist needs to mirror the modern day 'archetypal chav', therefore the clothing needs to match her makeup. The clothing of a googled Archetypal Female Chav is: Mainly it's clear that tracksuits or revealing clothing are the choice to go forwards with.   I think i'm going to be using Pink and tracksuits. 

My female protagonist is, as we have found out, low-income archetypal chav, suggesting the make up is of a specific nature: To achieve this look, the suggestion is just high volume of foundation, A lot of blusher, plenty of mascara and hoop earrings. The stereotype makeup is to emphasis her stereotypical persona.  To research the technique further, without it looking silly. I looked at 'WIKIHOW'   and it gave me steps as to achieveingthis look. Further, the hair is usually either half shaved or up in a high ponytail. Maybe sometimes with plaits running to the hair but mainly from my research the hair is unbrushed and dyed. 

The character I am researching into for my protagonist is one who would be living in a low-income area. Suggesting the things she would wear are high street stores like Primark, H&M, New Look, Matalan. However this doesn't suggest as to what she wants to like and wear. Her characterisation is the 'archetypal chav' with the hoop earrings, tracksuits and cheap makeup. She is inspired by: Tulia contostavlos, Kerry Katona, Michelle Keegan and Whitney from Eastenders. Obviously thick makeup and hoops are obvious. It looks like also main colours are pink and black. Also denim jeans or jackets could be an option.

Demographic  With her characterisation, my female protagonist is set up to portray a low-income, on benefits social outcast that has very little academic interest or interest at all. Typical low income areas of  London are places such as, Hackney or Newham. Hackney The graffiti is a common artistic expression in places of low income because of the minimal educational interest due to suppression of wealth causes youth to become bored and not attend school, picking up bad habits, getting into bad groups and causing socially challenging protests. This is supported by the Hackney Results: A-Level In 2014 Hackney students scored an average 675.8 points at A’ Level, equivalent to a B and two C grades compared with 688 points in London and the England average of 714 points, equivalent to three B grades Most common main languages spoken in Hackney Main Language Percent: English 75.9 % Turkish 4.5 % Polish 1.7 % Ethnic breakdown of Hackney’s population Ethnic...

My parents need be fighting. The Dad needs to be hot headed and aggressive because he slaps the child and shouts at the mother. The mother on the other hand doesn't really have a characterisation, but maybe angry and shouting back. An aggressive father figure well known to all is Phil Mitchell from EastEnders. You can see from this video how he is shown to be aggressive towards everyone including family members: It's hard to characterise someone who will be aggressive because of reputation but maybe family members might be willing to do it.

So I need for my movie, a young female child, a mum, a dad, and some judges. To understand the type of characters I need, I needed to research. Young Female Child This girl needs to dance, as the story line involves an emotional dance. She needs to also be a bit rough, due to her home life in the film being unstable and her confidence to steal a chocolate bar from the shop. Looking on the IMDB website, I came across a category called:  " Lost, troubled Youth, Drug addiction, Homeless teens, Foster Care, Juvie, Youth prostitution or Runaway Movies ". The characters from these movies, given an indication of the character I need. Movie to pick out are: 1. AUGUSTA, GONE - which is where a child's bad behaviour results in her mum sending her away to a camp. The main female character is played by Mika Boomrem, who looks innocent enough without her mise-en-scene...    Books where children run away: 1. Jacqueline Wilson - When life with Jayni's violent-temper...

My storyboard then needed to be written out more professionally for my actual movie. However, although this is what I am shooting from, I am going a bit free range when it comes to the Dance scene as it is very subjective as to what the dancer decides to do on the day. Also the grammar/ terminology is not perfect yet...

A young woman is having troubles at home. So the filming starts with her walking through the streets, but with flashbacks of her being kicked out of her house by her dad. After the title screen, we see shots of her in the streets getting into trouble – stealing from a shop (already filmed). She discovers a dance audition pamphlet on the ground, picks it up, reads it. We cut to the clock in the waiting room of the dance audition, continuing to show more shots of people waiting for their auditions. The main judge appears in the waiting room and calls Phoenix’s name. Shots of Phoenix entering the audition room, then dancing. This is cross-cut with flashbacks to her previous troubles at home (fighting with parents). The final shot is Phoenix being slapped by her dad, when we also hear the judge’s clapping.

My overall chosen Genre is social realism because the creative licence I could have with it, will allow me to use experiential sounds and dance together. The 'Social Realism' movement's aim was to show awareness to those who couldn't see or refused to see the normal, everyday working class of the 19th Century. So therefore  now the idea is to showcase the real life scenarios one would not supposedly see everyday, being of an upper or middle class income. Artists such as Banksy, who is a graffiti artist, uses his talents to introduce the world of the unseen to the public eye. He showcases political problems through an artistic talent: This kind of movement inspires me to create a piece of artwork that understands social realistic features.

My storyline was constantly changing and throughout my storyboard, I was sparking ideas also. Some things I was coming up with were better than my original and some things were no so good. However, THE BIG CHANGE IS NO ABANDONED BUILDING! The problem was that I cannot drive so getting myself and my actors and my crew there was going to be a nightmare as it was in Uxbridge. Also, it didn't really fit into my storyboard, so I removed it entirely!

My storyboard research was helped by this video my friend recommended... I will use these techniques in my story boarding process because the arrows make sense to me and it makes it more professional.

Now I have my final idea in the running, I've been looking into other short films to see what camera angles, editing, mise-en-scene or sounds I can pick out that really work. The first kind of sub-genre is Sadness: I 'googled' sad short films to see what other people have come up with, and this is the responses i found: This short film has some really interesting techniques within it. I loved the editing where the shot was taken but reversed: So here the shot at 2.29 was taken as a close-up camera angle which I find effective in focussing on the tear, which is the feature but the tear roles down then back up the cheek. I think this is interesting and confusing to the mind but effective in creating an artistic license to enable it to look like the tears are falling. Furthermore, I'm very inspired by the non-diegetic music overlay and the quick flicking between the shots. The shots were in no chronological order, but they formed the story. Like flashback...

So as my brain is ranting off ideas, I've finally developed my idea: