GENRE EG1: Tyrannosaur

(SAM'S WORK) - input by me in green
...

...

Budget: £750k
Box Office: $299k (Worldwide) / $22k (US)
Ratings: 84% (RottenTomatoes) / 7.6/10 (IMDb) / 3.5/4 (Roger Ebert)
Production Companies: Film4, UK Film Council, Screen Yorkshire, EM Media, Warp X, Inflammable Films
Director: Paddy Considine

IDENTS:

No Idents.

TITLES:

• serif font
• white font on black background connotes seriousness and drama
• different sizing between the titles and names to distinguish the different roles 
• the main title is centered and all capitals
• animated titles, fade in and out
• different positioning of titles
• for aesthetic purposes
• duration of title sequence: 00:00:03 - 00:02:04
• numbers of titles: 12
• In the other Paddy Considine film we looked at (Journeyman) there were also no titles before names (other examples had "with" "starring" "introducing" etc.)

...

Tyrannosaur credits from harriet Barlow

...

SOUND:

• soft guitar sound with notes that are a few seconds apart has an impact on our mood
• it connotes drama / seriousness
• get the serious feel
• makes us calm
• ambients sound of radio to add verisimilitude
• the incidental acoustic music is very conventional of social realist films
• it kicks in just after he has kicked his dog - this encourages the audience to empathise with the protagonist, rather than see him as a villain

1st SHOT:

• establishing shot
• starts with a close up of a male character
• narrative enigma because it's not very clear how the male character looks like due to shadows 
• using natural lights
• lowkey lighting

...

...

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST + NARRATIVE:

• the male character is in every shot
• tracking shot when he is walking back home while having his dog in his arms
• shot variety of him
• he is always in focus
• it cuts back to him
• anchors he is going to be the central protagonist
• he is coming from the working class ( track pants, white and dirty shirt, drunk, is desperate for money)
• The music allows the audience to empathise with him, rather than see him as the villain who just kicked his dog to death in a drunken rampage
• This is quite a controversial and dark theme, something more commonly found in social realists
• the protagonist is an anti-hero: complex an din shades of grey, not a 2 dimensional stereotype
• this is similar to what was found in the New Wave movements

MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION:

•  small room 
•  squeaky floor
• bland colours
• anchors poverty
• The beer cans are used to confirm that he is drunk

...

...

TRANSITION TO MAIN FILM:

• The equilibrium is disrupted when the central protagonist kills his dog
• Todorov's 5 point narrative theory:
• establish equilibrium
• the protagonist is a violent, alcohol drinking, swearing unemployed man
• disrupt equilibrium
• when accidentally injures his dog and realises he has to kill it so that it won't be in pain anymore, he later has a breakdown, and realises he must change something in his life, but has little power to change much
• the rest of the theory is not seen in the opening, but is present throughout the film

Fail or Success?

From the ratings I can tell that the movie was quite a success. Paddy Considine even got an award for the best film and best debut director award. Olivia Colman who plays Hannah in the movie got an award for the best actress.

...

...

However, the movie didn't do well in Box Office. One reason is because it only got a limited screening in America in just 5 theatre. Also, Warp managed to get Tyrannosaur quite widely distributed on DVD and not so much in cinema which the Box Office doesn't count the sales of DVD's.
...

...

It only grossed £299k (only the Box Office worldwide), whereas, the budget is £750k. The movie received a positive reviews and currently has a score of 83% on RottenTomatoes. Stuart McGurk of GQ magazine even called Tyrannosaur  "The best British film of the year". This is very rare for Indie movies to win awards and get good reviews from companies such as GQ or RottenTomatoes. This also indicates that the movie was a success. But still in the UK the movie doesn't sell well due to it's genre "a brutal, frank, and ultimately rewarding story of violent men seeking far-off redemption". 

For our film opening I took influence of the background music. It's a guitar with notes that are several seconds apart. For the font I like the serif font, it connotes seriousness. However, I am definitely including the white font on black background that anchors seriousness and drama.