Poster Analysis

Both these films address the same issue as our short film, therefore, we thought that it would be good to analyse both and them and compare and contrast the appeal to their individual target audiences.

I think that the red used both, “Shahada” and “At a Close Range”, show the struggle for identity and entrapment, which is what we want to portray as well.  Ass well as this, it could show danger between the characters relationships, or even a danger in trying to keep their identity strong. I think this would be a good colour to incorporate in my poster, as it is striking and will get across quite a lot of key themes running through the film.

The Shahada title is both in English and Arabic, however, the Arabic is significantly smaller, this perhaps signifies, that his English culture and possibly heritage is dominant in his life, although he is trying to break the mould.  I think this is a very unique idea that would work very well with our concept. As well as this, the title is in white, bringing a stark difference to poster and other themes, such as innocent and youth.

In contrast to this, “At Close Range” is in red and the characters are almost swallowed up by the darkness. Maybe connoting a deep, dark secret, is taking over their lives and both characters are struggling to keep on top of things.

To conclude, there are many keys things that I want to take from both posters that will create my final piece. I like that the keys characters are shown in both posters and that the dominant colours alone tell a story. I will use these posters as inspiration my my final. 

Presentation

What went well?

• We did a good job at articulating our finals ideas to the class. 
• We had a great visual aid and were able to strike the balance between who spoke without cutting over each other.
• The presentation told a story, from our trials to what we hope will be our final outcome
• we were able to answer all the questions as our idea and planning was very strong

What went wrong?

• I think it would of been good if we had a script which would prompt us to say the rights things and therefore would of eliminated any stuttering I had throughout the presentation.
•  As well as this licensing permission hadn't been finalized the same day we had the presentation, therefore we were unable to show the exact whereabouts of the pub. 
• We had troubles showing our animatic as we had set or setting to private.

If I were to do it again?

• If i was to do it again i would of made our pitch on Prezi. I think that by doing this it would of made the visual aid more exciting to watch for our audience.

Overall

I'm very happy with our outcome. The good things outweigh the bad and we received constructive criticism which will help us in the production process.

Writing the Script

I was in charge of writing the script and from our primary and secondary research I began to brainstorm ideas of how each character should talk. It was a challenge to strike a balance between the audience understanding Stan's prejudice, whilst at the same time not use anything that would be considered offensive. So i tried to layer everything Stan says, so that when he says it, it would generally just go over you but when taken out of context, it gives a shocking effect.
Here is an extract:

                       "SHORT FILM"

                            By

          Vivienne Samuels and Channan Toussaint 
    

 EXT. CRYSTAL PALACE STADIUM -- DAY

Iconography of south London scenery, hustle and bustle of London life. As the camera pans two men come into focus. They clearly share a family bond, playfully fighting. STAN, 50 and looks it, dominant of two. He is loud, boisterous, a born entertainer. A couple paces behind him is MITCH, 17, much smaller in frame. He is trying to keep up with both STAN's gait and personality. He looks up to him. Both men speak with a strong cockney accent. This is a rough working-class area and they are its product.

STAN

That was fucking amazing son, the best one yet! Cor blimey I forgot how great it was to watch the footy live, a little bit loud though

MITCH

HA! Yeah dad it was bloody great you’re getting old dad

STAN

It’s a good thing I've got you to keep me young ey son?!

They laugh

STAN

Come on let’s go down the pub and get a few

Secondary Research

To gain a better understanding into drama conventions surrounding the theme of father-son relationships, I took a trip down to the BFI's Mediatheque. Much like a film library, I had the choice of over two thousand films, or television programmes to choose from and watch within the British archive files, to get inspiration.

 

The film I found most inspirational was Still Lives, Distant Voices.

Although a feature film I was able to draw the essential storyline from it and hopefully uses some of Terence Davis' techniques for our father and son relationship. The film evokes working-class family life and plays particular attention to popular culture. I think that showing the bond between our on screen family shown also be shown through popular culture.

Davis also didn't have a huge budget for his film, so had to find locations that looked working class. I think that his achievements will be easy to follow.

I also looked up some of the first British short films made. I watched the 1903 original version of Alice in Wonderland.

 Although a contrast to our family relationship theme, it was good to watch an early short film that made the audience see, 'through the eyes of youth'. We want there to be a slight sense of dramatic irony within our short, so that the audience know that there is something wrong with the boy.