Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In creating our film opening, we aimed to make something that possessed the tropes of a British crime thriller to establish a familiarity with the audience, yet at the same time subvert the audiences preconceptions to keep them interested. Film openings of the same genre as our film generally include conventions such as slow-paced, character based sequences showing gritty settings and a lot of verisimilitude in the mise-en-scéne such as clothing. While we include these things in our opening such as the slow pacing and the focus on the main character, the way we have dressed our characters intrigues the audience; our main character is dressed in a smart casual manner whilst the man he meets with who gives him the instructions for the hit is dressed in a suit. This has the audience thinking about the organisation of the crime here and how it is not just low level and reckless. The main character meanwhile seems out of place and subordinate to the man he meets prompting the audience to wonder if he owes something to the man in the suit or is just simply employed by him. We modelled our main character on Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive. We wanted him to appear ruthless when he needs to be and yet being in possession of a sensitive side that the audience can relate to. We wanted an actor who was reasonably attractive as well so as to set up a precedent of the audience having a twisted admiration for such a violent and ruthless character. For the character whom the protagonist meets under the bridge, we wanted him to be similar to Tom Cruise’s character in Collateral and/or the character of Gustavo Fring in TV’s Breaking Bad; involved in a dirty, criminal business yet bringing an organisation and style to it that makes it appear all the more serious and twisted.

Ryan Gosling as the unnamed protagonist of Drive

Our protagonist

Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad

The man whom our protagonist meets, in the centre of the frame

As is a popular convention of thrillers, we opted to include a chase/following scene in our opening as this can build excitement and tension in the audience. We chose to keep the camerawork composed rather than a more shaky, handheld effect which can be popular in low-budget thrillers. Furthermore, rather than jumping straight into the sub-genre of “gritty suburban thriller” (examples of which include Shifty, Kidulthood and Bullet Boy), we wanted to make something more urban like that of which we had seen in films such as ‘Drive’ and ‘Collateral’. Both these films involve a form of transport which give the audience the idea of things moving forward and we originally intended to film our opening on London’s DLR service. However, we experienced difficulty with gaining permission to shoot on public transport and also with very crowded carriages at the times at which we were able to film. Thus, we were forced to compromise by filming around London Bridge.

A still from the film Shifty showing the more suburban setting

Our film's more urban setting

In terms of title graphics, we went for a modern, urban-looking typeface that we thought matched the tone of the opening. We used a blur transition with the titles to create a subtle dynamism. They are a plain white and not very big so as not to be too in-your-face to the audience, just as we did not want our film to be too turgid to the audience. We considered initially going for something similar to the titles for David Fincher's Panic Room by having a more architectural, urban, gothic-esque font. In Panic Room, the titles float around and seem embedded within the frame which was an effect we found would be time-consuming to create and wouldn't be appropriate for the tone of our film as it would be a little too flashy.

Panic Room Titles

Our titles

We also considered how our sound relates to conventions and forms. We wanted to maintain the convention of short, sharp dialogue between characters in high-pressure situations. However at the same time we wanted to build a relationship between the main character and the audience in which we see him as not just a ruthless criminal and someone more thoughtful and relatable. Therefore we used a lot of silence in shots of the protagonist in which he looks more pensive. Again, this is a technique used in Drive, a film with very little dialogue, and through this we hoped to challenge the audience's preconception of assassins being ruthless and somewhat inhuman and give our protagonist a soft centre despite his rough edges.

The protagonist of our film looking pensive

Changes Made To Our Film

Initially, we had intended to film our film on the DLR or a train service, however we found this to be too impractical due to the large amounts of people present on such vehicles and the surprisingly rigorous security in place. As a result, following our recce, we made the decision to change our location from any form of public transport to the area around London Bridge. We did a quick second recce around this area and found some good substitute locations, such as the bridge for the first meeting and then a stairway leading down to the river for the journey to the second meeting, which would take place under the bridge. For the scene in which the girl is dragged into an alley by the protagonist, we decided to use a car park. However, when we came to actually filming the opening, we were no longer happy with this location as it didn't quite work in terms of continuity and lighting. We quickly found a location that worked better with the journey up a staircase preceding it and provided better lighting yet still looked isolated enough to provide tension and threat.

Never Let Me Go Presentation

Part 4 - A History of British Film Since 1984

Q1. What have been the primary developments in the UK film industry in the last 25 years?

It seems that in the last 25 or so years, film in the UK has generally become more commercial. With the introduction of the first UK multiplex in 1985, film became a more immersive, more glamorous experience, and audience numbers quickly began to increase. With more money in the industry, more films could be funded and produced, including successful indie films like Withnail and I and costume dramas like A Room with a View. Costume dramas were particularly successful in the USA, causing more money to come into the UK film industry. Films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral in the mid '90s were very successful as they were quintessentially British yet also entertaining and accessible, and proved a big hit in the US. This was followed by Sense and Sensibility, another big hit for the same reasons, which also starred Hugh Grant. The late 90s saw the development of more gritty British cinema such as Trainspotting, a film about hard drug culture in Edinburgh. This was followed by similar films such as The Acid House. The most successful films in the UK continued to be gritty dramas with a humorous aspect with films such as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot doing well. Notable exceptions were films such as Notting Hill (very much like Four Weddings and a Funeral, and with the same director and lead male) as well as Sliding Doors. Both films made use of an American star as the female lead, assuring box office success not only in the UK but in the USA as well.

Q2.



Q3. What kinds of films do Momentum Pictures look to distribute and why?

Momentum Pictures is a UK distribution company which has distributed many critically acclaimed films. Generally, they distribute dramas that look at characters rather than big budget blockbusters that focus more on an adventure or an epic event. Examples of this are Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola's character study set in Tokyo, the Oscar-winning The King's Speech which tells the story of a King taking elocution lessons and Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in which a couple remember their failed relationship. By doing this, Momentum Pictures can avoid spending large amounts of money on high budget blockbusters and instead spend less money on lower budget dramas that go on to be very successful due to the amount of thought and care put into them, which allows audiences to relate to them more.

Part 3 - The British Film Industry

Q1. What do these statistics suggest about the current state of the British Film Industry? Does it seem to be in good shape?

From reading these statistics, it seems that the British Film Industry is indeed in good shape and still growing and becoming more popular. My principle statistics for this assumption is the cinema admissions for 2010 and the box office revenue. The admissions reached 169.2 million in 2010, a very strong total that was only 2% down on 2009 (an excusable drop when considering the presence of the World Cup and the winter's big freeze). To illustrate further the popularity of UK cinema, the 2010 box office revenue still rose despite increases in ticket costs to come to a box office revenue of £988 million, a 5% increase on 2009. Furthermore, the UK is currently the third largest film market in the world, making substantial contributions to the UK's GDP. UK filmmaking is also doing very well, adding to the success of the British Film Industry; 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1' earning almost $1 billion at the worldwide box office and 'Kick-Ass' was the highest grossing independent title of 2010.

Q2. How does film production in the UK seem to be very different from the Hollywood model?

In Hollywood, films are produced by large studios who buy the script and then generally use tens of millions of dollars making the film, using high-paid directors and actors, and marketing it. In the UK it is different due to lack of available money. Before making a film, a production company may have to find multiple investors simply in order to fund the film. In addition, multiple production companies may make one film in order to assure enough money is put into the film to have it made. A lot of money for films will also come from the government through things such as lottery funding, whereas in Hollywood this does not happen.

Q3. What does this information tell us about the state of the UK film industry in 2010?

This information tells us that the UK film releases of 2010 are still very much dominated by the US' output. While there are still a lot of films with British connections, it is hard to truly define a film as British as funding often has to be gained from other countries such as the US. Quite a shocking statistic is that the US films released in the UK in 2010 made up 72% of the total box office earnings, showing how much of a presence US films have in our market and how UK films still have a long way to go to dominate the market, sharing only 24% of box office earnings in 2010.

Q4. Use imdb.com or another website to find out the UK distributors of the films placed 6-10. How many of them could be considered British films? What does this say about the scale of the UK film industry?

Shrek Forever After was distributed by Paramount UK.
Twilight Saga: Eclipse was distributed by E1 entertainment in the UK.
Sherlock Holmes was distributed by Warner Bros UK.
Alvin and the Chipmunks was distributed by Twentiefth Century Fox UK.
Sex and the City 2 was distributed by Warner Bros UK.

The only one of these films which could be considered to be a British film is Sherlock Holmes as it was directed by the English Guy Ritchie and set in England. However, it was produced by two American studios so cannot be defined as truly British.

This suggests that the scale of the UK film industry is still relatively small as purely British films are still not able to reach into the box office top 10, only British-American films.

Q5. Which one of these two films recently released in the UK do you think is a BBC co-production and why?

I would think that My Week with Marilyn is a BBC co-production as it looks quite stylish yet understated as well as having many British actors in the cast, which are things that BBC films are known for doing well. I am also aware that the film is set in England. The poster for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas makes it look like it could be a BBC co-production, however I think it looks a little too cinematic and highly produced for quite a simple concept which makes me think it may not be.

Q6. Why do you think the Coalition government decided to close down the UKFC?

I think that the government closed down the UKFC because it did not appear stable and sustainable with its money. It appears that it was irresponsible with money and in tough economic times the government has an obligation to be extremely sensible with the taxpayers' money and so I imagine they felt it prudent to shut down the UKFC.

Q7. Do you think the film industry needs a body like the UKFC/BFI? Why?

Yes, I do think that we need such a body because, as David Puttnam said, it's the "strategic glue that binds a disparate sprawl of auteurs, craftspeople, circus barker and market traders". There are so many roles involved with creating film and so much bureaucracy that it seems very important to have an organisational body to manage the situation.

Idents

For our film's production, we need to design an ident for our production company. First, I will look at a number of idents of existing production companies.

This is the ident for BBC Films, a UK production company that, while it has produced some big films in the past, often produces low budget films like ours. Their ident has fairly simple text which perhaps reflects the straightforwardness of their films and how they are less blockbuster-y and more down to earth. The ident animation is very nice and suggests to the audience that they will enter another world as they watch the film as there is a supernova-esque effect.

This is the ident for Dreamworks, which is a much bigger production company than BBC Films and produces many high-budget blockbusters. The ident is longer and uses a more complex animation. It really suggests to the viewer that they are about to watch a very professional, entertaining film. Like BBC Films, the idea of dreams and clouds suggests that the viewer will enter another world with the film.

This is the ident for Pathé which is a French production company that has produced many films of varying budget. It is a fairly simple animation of a mobile turning which displays the company logo. The text and shape of the mobile is slightly eccentric which reflects the eccentric nature of their films such as James and the Giant Peach, Bride and Prejudice and Mr. Nobody. The ident as a whole as well does not suggest one is about to see a saccharine, disposable blockbuster.

From this research, I have concluded that for our ident I would like to have something that reflects the nature of our film. Not something as "nice" as the Dreamworks ident but slightly harsher although still appearing stylish and urban as our film is. I think we should keep the animation fairly restrained as our production company would be focusing on low budget films based on content rather than effects; our animation should be slick and succinct.