'71 is a 2014 British historical thriller film set in Northern Ireland. For our mock exam we analysed the opening of this film under timed conditions in a style similar to the summer exam format - I have embedded the essay (after typing it up) at the bottom of this post as it has lots of relevant points (many of which have been extracted and put in the bullet point format throughout this post).
 |
| '71 poster |
PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY
PRODUCTION: Crab Apple, Warp, Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland
DISTRIBUTION: Studio Canal; 11 territories
BUDGET: £8.1M
BOX OFFICE: $3.2m
BBFC: 15
This production is a Warp production, but it had a much higher budget than the majority of their films. It did receive grants form the BFI and Film4 - typical of indie productions. This ensures that films with more diverse/controversial representations are still made and the industry is not monopolised by conglomerates.
This film lost a lot of money, and it was a big risk for art to have such a high budget in the first place.
The hybrid aspect of it being a historical thriller/action/social realist film did give it a higher chance at being commercially viable than the majority of Warp films, and though Studio Canal is a well-established distributor it did not put much of a gamble into the film and marketing was limited.
The film did have a week long theatrical release in America (to qualify for the Oscars), showing the ambition o this film in comparison to Warp's other productions, but the amount of territories it was related in was still a low number in compassion to WT films (and there was no distribution in China).
 |
| Company list (distribution) (IMDB) |
The 15 rating form the BBFC is interesting, as This is England got rated an 18 mostly due to cursing and the violent scene at the end (which is relevant to the moral values the film condemns), but '71 has extremely graphic and violent scenes throughout (when his friend is shot in the face when they arrive in Belfast, when a bar is later blown up with a child inside, the homemade stitching done o the protagonist etc.). This is an examples of how more commercially acceptable films are given more chance for commercial success than more controversial ones.
Although the film was ultimately a commercial/financial flop, it was nominated for BAFTAs, BIFAs, and O'Connell won the EE Rising Star award. This shows how although the film was not a financial success, its' critical reception proved it to be a success in ways that many other Warp films are.
IDENTS/COMPANIES
- Studio Canal
- distribution and production company (mostly distribution)
- Subsidiary of NBCUniversal (one of the Big Six)
- co-production financing (that way risk is spread if the film is a flop)
- can be part of meaning (has worked with WT and Warp)
- Film4
-
tv channel (UK)
- denotes low budget
- BFI (British Film Institute)
- gives grants to low budget indie films they think require subsidy (which do not need to be repaid)
- government funded
- previously known as UKFC (UK Film Council)
- Screen Yorkshire is a regional branch - the film was not shot on location, and the extensive creation of the streets with houses in varying states of destruction show where much of the budget was spent.
TITLES
- informational words are smaller than company names
- small serif font (white on black)
- 'presents'
- production and distribution
- co-production between Crab and Warp
- the Warp logo is also on screen - larger contributor
...
MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION
- blood, sweat, costume, hair
- all wearing green military costume
- all sweaty (including those not fighting)
- all crew cuts (functional, military)
- creates high level of verisimilitude
- on the bus:
- is not a sports car
- man wearing a flat cap and smoking
- connotes Yorkshire
- signifies film is set in the past (cannot smoke on busses now), hence the name '71
- in the café
- is not a fancy 5 star restaurant
- run down, cheap looking place
- signifies poverty
- Is very similar to the sudden cut to the unappetising, greasy food in Withnail and I
- Though not in the opening, when the locals bang their metal bin lids on the ground
- metal bins are now out of date, so signify the time period (maintain verisimilitude)
- preferred reading: it was a warning that police/army were approaching
- signifies target audience (older, native to the uk/Ireland)
EDITING
- fight scene:
- no ELS (establishing shot)
- fast-paced editing, short takes
- cuts closer to protagonists face and cuts to see his reactions
- anchors protagonist
- centrally framed protagonist
- Training montage:
- quick fade from black (ellipsis)
- longer takes
- hand-held camera
- documentary style of realist genre
- sticks to 180 degree rule
- morning scene:
- almost a match cut done through the audio (the sound of the gun is similar to the lights turning on)
- fade-up from black
- Café scene:
- fast-pan to reveal brother's face
- shot reverse shot in the conversation
- continuity editing
- 180 degree rule is used
- match on action with the fork and food
...
CINEMATOGRAPHY
- fight scene:
- no long shots (M/MCU)
- no fade-up
- whip-pan and hand-held tracking shots (realist)
- low-key lighting
- brutal/grim
- natural lighting?
- shallow field of focus
- protagonist in focus (and foreground), but can still see detail in the background
- anchors protagonist
- cuts back to protagonists reaction (and centrally framed)
- Training montage:
- ellipsis (there is an overall ellipsis, not just here)
- tracking shots of protagonist
- cuts back to protagonist
- morning scene:
- begins with tracking shot of superior officer
- becomes MCU
- long take
- lighting as man steps forward (lowkey and shows shadow on half his face)
- signified as villain?
- establishes power dynamic
- protagonist is in the edge of the frame
- sets up equilibrium with protagonist having very little power within his situation
...
SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION
- Fight scene:
- audiobridge over titles
- sound is unclear: basketball? fighting? shouting and hitting noises
- creates narrative enigma (Barthes)
- audio does not fade up - cuts in
- diegetic sound
- ambient sound (crowd shouting and hitting)
- only coherent speech is coming form the coach
- Northern accent (Yorkshire)
- all for verisimilitude
- Morning scene:
- audiobridge fade-up
- music is sinister
...
CENTRAL PROTAGONIST/NARRATIVE
- Anchorage:
- the camera repeatedly cuts back to the protagonist to show his reactions
- the protagonist is the first character we see in an MCU
- As the fight scene comes to a close there is a tracking shot of the protagonist, form an MLS to an MCU of his face, showing the blood and sweat on it (verisimilitude)
- Todorov's narrative theory:
- the protagonist's equilibrium is established almost entirely through the editing of the opening:
- he is established as the protagonist by repeatedly cutting back to show his reactions
- in the training montage, there is always an establishing shot of the area, with the troops training, then it cuts to a close-up of the protagonist's face - this shows him as indiscernible from the rest of the men (a 'cog in a machine')
...
MOCK EXAM ESSAY
...
