EVALUATION QUESTION 1 conventions and representations

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

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What I cover in this post:

• General conventions (vodcasts summarising them)
• genre conventions (film cast studies)
• issues of representation and how we tackled them (gender, sexuality, ethnicity)
• How we applied the genre conventions we noted
• How social realist and indie productions challenge conglomerate conventions

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Creative use of technologies:
This is my creative input, the points covered are:

• The 8 conventions we looked at in social realist films, and how we used or challenged them in our film opening
• Idents, companies, production context
• Titles research
• Sound, genre signification
• 1st shot
• Central protagonist and narrative
• Mise-en-scene for exposition
• Transition to main film

• Issues of representation, and how we chose to represent different social issues (gender, sexuality, ethnicity)

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As the creative part of this evaluation question, I recreated Vogue's 73 questions interview, like this one:



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1A How does it use or challenge conventions?

I began research on general conventions looking at these films:

Goon

 L4yer Cak3

Visioneers 

 Mean Girls 

The Mexican

 The Notebook

Apocalypse Now 

The Wicker Man 

Baby Driver

Submarine

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Blogging on these films, I made posts on these 8 conventions:

• General conventions 1: Idents, companies, production context
• General convention 2: Titles research
• General conventions 3: Sound, genre signification
• General conventions 4: 1st shot
• General conventions 5: Central protagonist and narrative
• General conventions 6: Mise-en-scene for exposition
• General conventions 7: Transition to main film
• General conventions 8: Other points

To summarize each convention, we made vodcasts

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General Conventions 1: Idents, companies, production context
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• short audio visual clips played before films
• first thing to see at a film opening
• one of the simplest area of film openings 
• showing their brand to the audience 
• usually 3 company idents to spread the risks
• usual to be 1 - 5 secondslong per ident
• idents for conglomerate or subsidiaries are longer than indie idents
• a lot of production companies competing
• Big Six are dominant both in distribution and production

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General Conventions 2: Titles research
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• a method where film credit production companies
• about 20 - 30 titles 
• there can be exception, in the Mexican or The Wicked Man there we only see under 10 titles
• at high end tentpole movies everything is pushed to the back so the titles start after the movie
• usually about 3 mins long 
• in title sequence you find a lot of signifiers
• exposition what the genre of the movie is going about
• different positioning
• different size font for titles

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General Conentions 3: Sound, genre signification
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• audio bridge between titles (eg Bride of Chucky, Baby Driver)
• ambient and Foley sound for verisimilitude (The Mexican, The Quiet Place, Baby Drive, Chucky)
• music can be diegetic or non-diegetic - often used to signify genre/target audience (eg Baby Driver and Chucky)
• music is not usually continuous - fades in and out (eg Baby Driver)
• sound can signify setting (eg Submarine)
• Can be used to build tension/narrative enigma (eg The Mexican, Drive and Chucky)
• Institution aspect - OSTs

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General Conventions 4: 1st shot

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• balance between exposition and narrative enigma (eg The Mexican, This is England)
• Mis-en-scene for exposition (keep brief) 
• Setting/period (This is England, Submarine, Spectre)
• ABC1C2DE?
• incorporate elements of the narrative (eg Baby Driver)
• framing (anchoring, rule of thirds, eg L4yer Cak3)
• inter titles (break up panning shots, exposition, signify genre)
• conventionally and challenging convention (Spectre)

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General Conventions 5: Central protagonist and narrative
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• Uses and gratifications theory - identification (Submarine)
• Todorov 5 point narrative (Submarine)
• Counter+stereotypes - realistic representation (eg Molly Pretty in Pink)
• Binary opposition (eg Bridget Jones Diary)
• Archetypes (Bond)
• Narrative enigma + voiceover (Bond, The Mexican, Drive, Baby Driver)
• Amount of time the camera spends on protagonist/first character introduced - cutting back to protagonist - reactions, rule of thirds(Drive)
• iconography as part of narrative (Baby Driver)
• establishing/panning shots + tracking (Bond)

  

  Todorv's 5 point narrative (from DB media blog)

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• set dressing, props, lighting(high/low-key?) (Submarine, Need fro Speed, This is England)
• Makeup (Baby Driver)
• costumes and iconography (Baby Driver, This is England, Submarine)
• accents and sound (This is England, Submarine)
• exposition v narrative enigma, also subverting expectation/body language (Mean Girls, Baby Driver, Need for Speed)

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General Conventions 7: Transition to main film
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• represented from Todorov's Narrative theory
• it suggests that it follows a 3 part equilibrium structure 
• this equilibrium is disrupted by something (binary opposition)
• then reaches a solution when equilibrium is restored

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General Conventions 8: Other points
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Genre Conventions

After doing all this research on general conventions, we came up with our film idea, and made a pitch. Our film was inspired by Paddy Considine's 2018 Journeyman, which I saw at a British and Irish Film Festival here in Luxembourg - an indie social realist film.

Following this decision we did case studies on these indie social realist films:

• '71
• Grimsby (a contrasting study)
• Journeyman
• My Beautiful Laundrette
• This is England
• Tyrannosaur
• Withnail and I

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I saw/ I did

A large part of social realist films is to portray darker themes of real life with accurate representation - this in itself challenges more conventional aspects of studio productions, which are created to make as much money as possible.

However, we aimed to follow most of the conventions of the social realist genre.
This presentation goes through the conventions we followed and changed from other social realist films:

Genre conventions applied from harriet Barlow

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Here is a commentary vodcast I made showing the influence of or genre conventions research on our final cut:

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(SAM'S WORK)

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This is Sam's Carpool Karaoke on the same topic
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GENRE EG3 Withnail and I (Paul Heller and HandMade Films, 1987)

Poster

Withnail and I is a 1980's British black comedy/social realist cult film. Set in the 60's, very effectively, with the actor portraying the protagonist having stated "Its provenance is from a different era. None of the production values, none of the iconography, none of the style remotely has it down as an 80's picture". the plot follows two unemployed and unemployable actors, Withnail and "I" (played by Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, respectively) who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Deciding to take a holiday, they visit Withnail's uncle Monty for a key to his house in the countryside, but plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse and constant rain, their 'break' is far from relaxing. (Wikipedia)

OUR INFLUENCES

• The use of somber incidental music to set the tone and signify an older target audience (also conventional of indie)
• Use of set dressing for character exposition (though not to show poverty or lack of up-keep)
• shown through panning shots as music plays
• White serif font of the titles to signify social realist
• low-key lighting (showing both the low budget and realism)
• Morally ambiguous characters that do not fit neatly into a single Proppian archetype (the protagonist of our story is both the hero and an antagonist/villain)

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PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY

Budget: £1.1m
Box office: UK £600k; US $1.5m
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
BBFC: 18

The author of the unpublished novel was paid by an oil heir, Moderick Schreiber, to turn the manuscript into a screenplay, and on its completion Paul Heller (producer) convinced Schieber to direct it after he had found funding for half of the film.
George Harrison (of The Beatles) then agreed to fund the rest of it through his company HandMade Films.
The film was nearly shut down 3 days into filming by Denis O'Brien who was overseeing the film on behalf of HandMade Films, as the film had no "discernible jokes".
In total the film cost £1.1m, although £30k was invested by the author to film scenes which the company refused to fund which he was never reimbursed for.
This film is a good example of the amount of artistic freedom indie productions have in contrast to studio films, as they have diverse and complex representations which were not so commercially viable in the 80's, and still are not today - although this film received no government funding through the BFI/UKFC, grants or TV station funding, theses are all very typical for indie productions as they exist to ensure wider representations.

• This indie/low budget is reflected in the film
• mostly shot on site, although none of the filming was done in Penrith, they were locations near Shap and Bampton
• there is no CGI or SFX used
• the image quality is often grainy, unlike how it would be for a Big Six production - this is probably because of the cheap digital transfer which is more typical of indie films, contrasting completely with studio productions of the same period such as Star Wars, with multi-million dollar upratings overseen by George Lukas

  

  The limited information given on BoxOfficeMojo

• On BoxofficeMojo and The Numbers there is very little information about domestic and international gross (number of territories, US, China), though the film did get theatrical release in the UK
• the film isn't extremely popular outside of the UK - mostly because it is too "English" and International audiences are unable to identify with many aspects of it, but also because it's success wasn't expected
• It is also more common that indies do not have non-domestic release, though auteurs such as Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and sometimes Shane Meadows are exceptions form this as their names are more marketable
• Daniel Day-Lewis (who was in My Beautiful Laundrette) was considered fro the role of Withnail, but it was ultimately given to an unknown actor (also reflective of indie)
• The trailer, similar to My Beautiful Laundrette, aims to portray the film as more of a comedy than a depressing social realist (although the film is a dark comedy)

• in 1999 the BFI voted the film as the 29th greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 Time Out magazine ranked it as 15th best ever
• Re-issues and re-masterings have been released since the film came out, continually making money
• Editionalising - commercial movies are often re-released in box sets, special editions, genre boxsets - even Shane Meadows has boxsets

  

  Withnail and I 20th anniversary 3 disc special edition on Amazon

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TITLES

• the simple white serif font is typical of the social realist genre, similar to '71 and Tyrannosaur
• There aren't many extra words like "starring" "with" "introducing"
• 3 minutes ling
• a total of 17

Withnail and i credits from harriet Barlow

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  Withnail and I

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SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION

• The film begins with slow jazz music playing
• sets the mood - depressing, mellow - completely contrast with something you might expect to find in a horror film (e.g. the drums and high pitched strings in Bride of Chucky - this clearly reflects the genre), this is more like the incidental acoustic music of Tyrannosaur 
• also signifies the target audience (not teen, older - also reflected in BBFC rating of 18)
• Ambient sound of the kettle and walking is heard as the song comes to an end
• some of the sound mixing is very poor - as actors walk towards the camera their voices become a lot louder, and are difficult to hear when far away
• this is representative of the budget/technology available at the time

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FIRST SHOT

• fade form black, slow zoom, medium shot to close-up, hand-held
• Naturalistic lighting, low-key 
• make it look cramped, dark
• also reflective of the low budget into context
• Dusty dark wooden cupboard and dark brown lamp
• connotes poverty, lack of care
• all the dark colours make it  seem claustrophobic, oppressive, gloomy and depressing 
• Clothing is simple, practical, dull colours
• masculine 
• inexpensive
• representative of target audience (mature), more through identfication than aspiration though
• The film title is seen in the first shot, which isn't extremely conventional of the films we've looked at, and is not distinguishable form the rest of the credits there than the slightly larger font

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PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE

"I"

• overgrown 'shaggy' hair and beard
• unkempt 
• lack of upkeep
• does not need to look presentable/professional for an office job
• Glasses and cigarette
• make him look intellectual
• troubled artist look
• 'suffocating' in the apartment
• introverted and bookish look, but also pretentious
• When he goes to the cafe for food there are close-up shots of headlines, unappealing looking food and an ageing woman eating a greasy egg sandwich, the camera cuts to a close-up of the protagonist's eyes
• they are slightly red with massive bags underneath them
  
• he looks tired, depressed
• The voice over is very cynical, but comedic
• is used for exposition 
• his criticism of mundane daily life, but also detachment from it (he "feels sorry" for people because they have to wake up to depressing headlines everyday without marking that he himself does exactly that) creates narrative enigma, but also emphasises the gritty and negative light that the film is shown through (as it is all form this character's point of view)
• Propp:
• The Hero: "I" is signified to be the 'hero' of this film as the camera repeatedly cuts back to show his reactions, and he is the only character we are offered insight into through the voiceover
• The Donor: Withnail's Uncle Monty is definitely the Donor of the story, giving them the key to his house in the Lake District
• The Princess: the princess could be "I" desired career as an actor, or it could be Withnail as there are a lot of homoerotic undertones (in a scene they refer to each other as "lover", and at a bar "I" is threatened by an irishman and called a "poof" - a derogatory term)
• The Villain: Withnail is the villain, as he is one of the obstacles blocking "I" from succeeding in his career, is more active in creating conflict (with both a local farmer, a drug dealer and a policeman), however there is also recognition of "I"s own involvement in a lot of theses situations. 
• The Helper: it's impossible to avoid the fact that the apparent protagonist has no name in this film, and Withnail's narcissistic tendencies clearly show that he perceives himself to be the protagonist of his own life, and he views "I" as his Helper/sidekick. Although "I" is the one who proposes going on holiday
• The Dispatcher: "I" is undoubtedly his own dispatcher, sending himself to the Lake District, but also deciding to leave Withnail to his alcohol and drug addiction to work on his own career at the end of the film
• As there are so few characters in the film there are a lot of overlaps between the propping archetypes, which is also reflective of the realistic and complex representation of the social realist genre

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MISE-EN-SCENE

• the first shot is followed by a panning shot of the apartment, lots of set dressing has been done

• wine bottles, mess, dirty clothes
• everything looks dusty or dirty
• the walls look grimy
• used cups lying around
• a British flag is hung carelessly from a chair  - shows lack of patriotism, and England isn't painted in the best light throughout the film
• As the camera moves into the kitchen the protagonist re-enters the shot to fill up the kettle and you see the real extent of the mess
• the sink is full to the brim, empty and full milk bottles are thrown on top of drying racks loaded with plates and a curtain over the window looks to be on its last leg
• The curtain pattern is good for verisimilitude, as the film is set in the 60's and it is a stereotypical pattern style of the decade
• All the furniture is clearly very fine
• glass cabinets, wooden chairs, a grand dining table, leather sofa
• but all clearly uncared for, maybe even second hand, all mismatching

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OTHER POINTS

• There were some issues that probably wouldn't have happened were the film a high budget studio production
• the author "forced" Grant, the actor playing "I", to binge drink so he could more realistically portray the character, although in real life he was Teetotal and had a health condition which prevented him from being able to process alcohol, so he was violently sick
• The original ending saw Withnail killing himself by pouring wine into a shot gun and firing it whilst drinking form it, but it was deemed 'too dark'
• the film is already too grim to be considered by a conglomerate, and the low(ish) budget does mean that theres is less pressure to make a profit
• the involvement of HandMade Films is what really prevented this
• demonstrates the amount of freedom low-budget index have in contrast to subsidiaries/conglomerates who use the tentpole format

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Prelim Task

Task
Practice continuity editing by filming someone walking down a corridor, entering a room and interacting with someone in it


Techniques we practiced using

• shot reverse shot
• match on action
• 180 degree rule
• whip pan
• focus push
• panning shot
• tilt
• basic lighting techniques
• we also made a brief shot list
• dutch angle

What we didn't have

• call sheet
• script
• tripod/monopod
• dolly
• props
• stabiliser
• microphone 
• mood board

What I learned 

• body language is as important as dialogue
• director needs to be clear/may need to demonstrate
• shot lists make it easier
• shooting in reverse order 
• continuity (eg turning out lights) must be payed attention to
• how to use manual focus
• get lots of footage (often of the same scene) from different angles/distances
• always try and jump at least 2 shot distances (eg extreme long shot to close up), other wise it looks like a continuity error
• see what footage looks like with and without lighting

Continuous editing v. Discontinuity editing

Continuity editing uses techniques which immerse the audience in the media text, make it smooth and show events as they happen in chronological order. Discontinuity editing however makes the audience acutely aware that they are watching an artificial text which has been constructed, and uses techniques such as jump cuts and the breaking of the 180 degree rule which take away from audience immersion.

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PODCAST2: Sample scene update and genre conventions research

in this weekly podcast we discuss:

• specific genre convention research and more films for analysis
• updates on shoot on Sunday (props cast, shots)
• review of sample scene this week
• audience research

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