Reseacrh and Planning: Character Profile: Lizzie

Socially known as Lizzie, her real name is 'Elizabeth Barrow'. A tall, attractive girl with long blonde/brown hair. From a middle class, educated background Lizzie is from London, and lives with her Mum and Dad making her a lone child. Her boyfriend Ty, is also from London but has a complete different background; and we intend to emphasise this difference in class through our social realist trailer.

Lizzie is also a popular, fashionable girl as the audience will intepret from the opening scene of our trailer, and its after this scene the audience will then identify the slow disruption in the life of Lizzie and the journey she then takes after Ty gets into some illegal troubles.

Reseacrh and Planning: Trailer Title (Film Name)

The title of any film has to be carefully chosen, and we decided to call our film "Subsidence".

In relation to Social Realist trailers, films like 'Fish Tank' and 'Jar of Hearts' have carefully chosen names, and evidently have a secretive meaning, in relation to their story and genre. We opted to follow this path, as we felt it was important for our film name to represent a hidden message, in this case it represents a our main character 'Lizzie' and her journey through teenage life after she is introduced to drugs and new social groups.

"Subsidence" means to 'sink to a lower level' which is relative to our film, as its all about how a middle class girl sinks to a lower level of class and image through drugs. We aim for the trailer to emphasise this dramatic lowering by ordering the shots to represent the change and the negative impact drugs have on humans. Through image, verbal language and body language we intend to show how 'Lizzie' subsides to this level and how it ruins her life; which had a great level of potential. Her boyfriend 'Ty' is also a reason for this 'destruction' and the name of the film we chose was short, catchy, teasing and unique. This then links with the film, and its a title we can link to many areas of the film and the characters journey. It also then links with the themes of gender, class and violence which is important and a key asset.

Other names we considered was 'Human Destruction' and 'Breakdown'. These two were average and lacked appeal. The feedback we received from our questionnaire agreed with, and confirmed our decision to pick "Subsidence" for our social realist trailer.

Reseacrh and Planning: Production Brief

We are going to produce a film trailer for a film in the style of social realism. This film focuses on a young couple, named ‘Lizzie’ and ‘Ty’ who both end up having to face the struggles and difficulties of a drug addiction. ‘Lizzie’ at first, is a strong-minded, intelligent, middle-class young woman with high aspirations. However, this all becomes clouded once her boyfriend, ‘Ty’ begins to lead her down the wrong paths in life. ‘Ty’, is older by 2 years, and comes from a lower class background. His interests are of low-aspiration, and his career path is non-existent. ‘Ty’ tends to have a larger interest in taking drugs.

When, ‘lizzie’ is to learn of his bad habits, she tries to understand his reasons for doing so. However, this aspect of the narrative is very secretive and creates a sense of curiosity for the audience as well as the characters themselves. ‘Ty’ becomes very aggressive and defensive at this point, and refuses to open up to his girlfriend. After some persuasion, ‘Lizzie’ herself, experiments with the drugs under her boyfriend’s influence.

‘Lizzie’ begins to also enjoy the ‘buzz’ of the drugs and soon becomes an addict too. This encourages the idea that we are still living in a very patriarchal society, and men are ‘longing’ to be dominant in most situations. As the story unfolds, we learn as an audience, that the class differences have caused huge problems with ‘Lizzie’s’ family structure, her parents disapprove which leads her to rebel even more. She sacrifices many things to stay with ‘Ty’, however he is not the man that she believed he was. We learn the reasons behind his troubled mind and begin to understand his love for drugs. This all is revealed as an uninvited guest, (Ty’s brother) turns up out of the blue. After this encounter, ‘Ty’ goes missing and cannot be located or contacted. ‘Lizzie’ is franticly searching for him but fears the worst. She convinces herself that her boyfriend is dead and ends up over-dosing because of this, however, ‘Ty’ is alive and in fact just in hiding from those who are chasing him. When he hears the news of ‘Lizzie’s’ death, he pays his respects and attempts to get his life back on track.

The whole influence behind this particular narrative, is based on the Shakespearian play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, however in a much more modern, and realistic way. The main focus is on the social issue of drug addicts, however combined within this complex storyline, we have family break ups and dramas, a constant romantic drama as well as the main, social realist theme which runs throughout the film.

In order for us to create a trailer on a film, the whole narrative must be planned out so that the most important scenes can be selected to be shown in our trailer (without giving too much information away).  This is a low budget production and will be filmed on location, to further more emphasise realism.

Reseacrh and Planning: Mise-en-Scene

This aspect involves a whole range of areas which all contribute to creating the intended effect on the audience, for example:

• Costume
• Setting/Location
• Body Language
• Lighting
• Props
• etc.

It involves everything that is seen within the scene and is an extremely important aspect of film-making. The surroundings have to correspond with the codes and conventions of the 'social realist' genre. We want to try and represent 'Urban Britain' through the use of mise-en-scene therefore we wish to include stereo-typical conventions which do so. For example:

• Graffiti
• Subways
• Blocks of flats
• Schools
• Hoodies
• Low cost/quality costume/make-up
• Playgrounds
• Cigarettes
• Weapons

The location of the scenes has a huge impact on how the style of the film comes across, therefore 'Location Research' will play a huge part when investigating the codes and conventions of Social Realism.

Reseacrh and Planning: Editing

In our social realist film trailer, its important that we give the impression to the audience that the content within our film is a good amount. This then leads on to the audience gaining a sense of curiosity about the film itself and intrigues them to look further into the film, i.e watching it at the cinema or buying a copy in a shop; which of course is effective marketing.

Every trailer needs to make an impact, an effect that can be made through editing can be vital in gaining our films popularity.

When looking at the content of the trailer, its important we have a series of separate shots edited together very tightly which then will help the audience gain an understanding, or a further understanding of what they have already interpreted.

Continuity editing is very common in social realist films, ones including 'Fish Tank', 'Shifty' and 'Trainspotting' in which both 'Shifty' and 'Trainspotting' we have done case studies of as part of research into the social realist genre. It's a common convention of social realist films as it helps explain the story much clearer and it's natural flow emphasises the reality and normality to the audience, and by doing this is can help the audience become more involved, or attached to the story.

Reseacrh and Planning: Sound

Sound is crucial to any trialer or film and is an area you have to carefully focus on, as it's impact cant afford to be underestimated. Sound we intend to include in our trialer will be all natural, as the trailer is based on reality:

• Buses
• Sirens
• Car Horns
• General Talk
• Dialogue
• Traffic
• Nature Noises

These are all general and natural sounds, its important to grasp this aproach when making a social realist trailer and also reflects the current society and their part to play in "Urban Britain". The soundtrack is also apart of the sound, our soundtrack (if we chose to add) will be:

• An atmosphere reflector
• Slow
• Jumpy
• Carefully ordered and chosen.

Reseacrh and Planning: Camera Angles (Cont.)

A Birds Eye Angle: Although a hard angle to use, its an angle we will consider in this trailer as it helps establish the setting, by looking down on the overall location. This angle will therefore help us emphasise the location of "Urban Britain" which a convention of all social realist films. This shot is usually used at the beginning of the trailer and we be a good asset to the trailer and a shaping our underlying message. This shot in relation to our film will help get across the urban side to Britain that not many see or know much about, it also strengthens the impact the audience gets when they realise the tough and brutal conditions people face in day-to-day life.

Dutch Angle: An angle commonly used to show a characters emotion, focusing on confusion. This could be a good angle to use in relation a social realist trailer as it can be used as character reaction to the drugs and what they do to you, known as the side effects. This can be held longer for effect, and its a shot that has potential to entice the audience into becoming more involved in the story and its events.

Eye Level Angle: This an angle that draws the audience level with the character and is another angle that is commonly used in social realist films and trailers. It could be used in our trailer at the start to show normality and represent the atmosphere, how calm and peaceful it is, which is how we intend to start our trailer. This is a good angle to help the audience understand relationships between characters as they feel level with the characters and can easily position themselves in the environment of the characters on the screen.

Reseacrh and Planning: Camera Angles

 Camera Angles are a vital edition to any film or trailer, and the variety of angles are very helpful in doing a number of things to your trailer such as shaping a message, or explaining a characters position in society or a way they particularly feel at the time of the camera shot.

These angles below are ones we are considering to use in our trailer:

Low Angle:  This angle looks up at the character and is an angle that tends to represent the characters power or level of authority. This is because the camera is looking up at the character and from an audiences perspective it seems to be as if the character is looking down on you which links with the idea that the upper classes tend to look down on those from lower classes, following the stereotype. This angle can be based around a theme of age, class, gender and social realism. In relation to our film it will be important as our storyline tackles class and gender and we can use it to show a characters feeling of individual authority through this, which can then help the audience gain an understanding of the atmosphere we intend to create in the scene.

High Angle: This camera angle tend to look down on a character or a subject, in order to make it feel or look small and vulnerable. It can again be used to represent gender, class, age or social realism. In relation to our trailer, this angle will be very important as its an angle that is easy to use when attempting to create a persona and portray their feelings through the camera. Also, as "Subsidence" tackles drugs and the affect these have (negative), this angle will help emphasise the true impact the drugs have on an individual and with the camera looking down on a character it will help overall in introducing the pure isolation and vulnerability the character is feeling, therefore emphasising the deeper and stronger negative impact drugs have on lives or normal people, a message we intend to portray in our trailer.

Reseacrh and Planning: Cinematography

Camera Shots

Camera shots are extremely important for any film production; however we are focussing particularly on how the style of the shots can contribute to creating the social realist genre. There are specific ways in which the director uses cinematography effectively to resemble the intended genre.

The whole idea behind social realism is to produce a realistic representation of society. Therefore the framing in which the audience are presented with, have to attempt to resemble what they would see if they were actually there. This is why a lot of wide shots are used because they allow the audience to see the whole scene. It makes it easier for the audience to understand the relationship between characters, due to the fact they are being shown the orientation and proximity of the characters in one shot.

Establishing shots are also frequently used within social realist films so that the location of which the film is set is made very clear. These shots are often shown at the beginning of the film so that the setting of the film is well established early on. When these shots are used within social realist films, they often portray ‘Urban Britain’ such as, blocks of flats, graffiti etc.

It is important to understand that this genre of film is often presenting the life of poverty, therefore nothing is ‘glamourized’. This includes the  characters themselves, in fact it is important for the imperfections of the characters to be shown. Close ups and extreme close ups allow emotions and imperfections to be emphasised.

Research and Planning: Codes and Conventions

In order to produce a trailer for a social realist film, the narrative for the overall film has to be pre-determined. The aims of social realism is to present a realistic representation of society and they often focus on highlighting a current social issue or problem. Therefore a specific issue has to be decided on so that we have a narrative to base our film on.These could include:

• Teenage pregnancy
• Drug abuse
• Crime and deviance
• Gang culture
• Cyber bullying
• Social networking
• Homelessness
• Alcoholism

It is also important to analyse and research the codes and conventions of the specific genre so that our film trailer will be easily recognised as a social realist film.
The cinematic techniques are ways in which the specific genre can be created. These include:

• Cinematography (inc. shots, angles, styles etc.)
• Mise-en-Scene (inc. locations, costumes, lighting etc.)
• Editing (inc. composition of shots, transitions, graphics etc.)
• Sound (inc. dialogue, soundtrack, ambient)

Coursework Project Brief

Trailer for a Social Realist Film

A promotion package for a new film from the social realist genre, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film

You will be marked on :

Research
Construction
Evaluation

You must show evidence of storyboarding, drafts for print materials, location research, design research, casting process outlining reasons for choices, shooting schedules, risk assessments, treatment or brief.