Inspirational Music (Beach Combing)

Yirumu - River Flows In You

Now I have a more solid idea that I can work around and manipulate. I can now think about the possbile music I play choose to compose for my opening sequence. I was originally thinking of something more urban and gritty, now looking on the idea I have I could still incorporate that element to it but make it much more slower and really emphasise how emotional it is for the sufferer. I believe that this song creates the same feel, I aim to create something very similar and the way that the Yirumu plays I believe targets that niche British audience who may listen to this kind of music occasionally.

Treatment

Title

The title that we have chosen is 'Half Empty'. This is because it has a double meaning in the sense that it connotes that this is a pessimistic film taken from the saying 'is the glass half empty or half full', which means it sets up tension and seriousness. As well as this it connotes that it is about alcohol but this is a less obvious connotation but it still however sets up an enigma. We believe that it is conventional for a BSR genre mainly because it sets up quite a depressing feel to the film due to the negativity in the title. When we spoke to our target audience they came to a unanimous decision that this is a title that would persuade them to go watch the film as they would like to find out what its about. It something like a riddle. From this we gained that it would appeal to our target audience as it creates enigma and mystery which our target audience will appreciate.

Target Audience

Our target audience is males and females but predominantly males age 16-24, who are interested in partying and enjoy socialising. It will be aimed at a fairly educated working class audience so they'll be able to grasp the seriousness of the theme. Our themes of alcohol and dysfunctional families will appeal to this audience as they are major issues in todays society. The narrative and language that will be used will feature urban language used by youths today, this could also be said to be our USP. The representation characters in the film will mirror the common stereotypes of youths in todays society. E.g. 'chavs' and how they dress. It will appeal to young males via the uses and gratifications theory; personal identity as they may see themselves in the main character .The type of research we employed was a focus group where we discussed with our target audience the types of things they'd like to see and why and how they feel about a BSR film on the negatives of alcohol. Here is some research that I found on binge drinking.

Technology

We plan on using a HD camera due to the high quality and sharpness which the camera entails, this is because it captures details of the characters and location which is critical in BSR films as it adds an artistic dimension to it. For sound we are going to use Logic Pro 8 to compose a soundtrack so that we can create the appropriate atmosphere that will compliment the seriousness and heighten the verisimilitude. For editing we will use Final Cut Pro to make sure that we can edit the film in a way that will capture the audience and again create an appropriate atmosphere and heighten the verisimilitude.



Representation

The leading protagonist in the film is a 20 year old male named Sam, who is slowly realising that he's turning to alcohol as a solution to all of his problems and becoming an alcoholic (played by Anand Pithia). Another key character will be Sams mother who is very worried about the welfare of her son.
We will show the typical stereotypes but we will also try to challenge them as we will be looking at them through different viewpoints. For example when he realises he is an alcoholic, typically in a BSR film he would give up with life maybe, but in this he tries to fight against it.

Narrative

A young man comes to terms with the fact that he is an alcoholic. He soon starts to feel economically depressed simply because he doesn't know where he'll get the money to feed his obsession.
We will show Sam and his friends using alcohol as a source of enjoyment, but then we will slowly see the depressing aspects in Sam life that will push him towards using alcohol as something other than enjoyment. We will show his dysfunctional family when he gets home and show that this is what pushes him towards alcoholism. After this we will show his personal economic crisis and how this has a negative effect on him. We decide to use a non linear narrative, mainly because we feel that it is important to show the audience the pinnacle of the film as this will engage them and want to find out how he got to that outcome.

Conventions
We will use minimal dialogue and use a smash mouth beginning and using this as a non linear beginning as Sam is at an alcohols anonymous meeting in the start which immediately shows a crisis. This will instantly capture the audience. It will subvert the conventions of a BSR in the sense that the ending will not be as depressing or be a cliff hanger as it will show the personal growth of Sam.

Style and Iconography

The camerawork we will use will include many long shots followed by close ups to show comparisons between the positivity in Sams friends and the negativity in Sam. We will also use a variety of shots such as tracks to make it look as if though we are following Sams life and looking into his mind. This will highlight personal identity for the audience.
We will use non continuity editing as we are using a smash mouth beginning. We may use a series of jump cuts to show that Sam may not always be thinking straight and to show how dynamic the life of a teenager is. The costumes we will use are typical urban clothing of today (e.g. Adidas Originals, Vans, Snapbacks) as our audience may wear the same clothes and feel involved in the film. The props will revolve around alcohol as this is the main issue, e.g. bottle openers, bottles of alcohol.
As we are using minimal dialogue there will not be a lot of diegetic sound. We will be using a soundtrack which will ultimately set the mood and ambience of a serious film about serious issues. The instruments that will be used will be played in minor chords as this emphasises the tension and maybe even the negativity in the film.

Institution

The main institution of our film is Film 4 as they are renowned and well known for making films with similar concept. Our original production company will be called 'Contrast' and will compliment the film is todays issues in urban England as the logo will connote this through the images used.
It will be distributed through Film 4, will be exhibited on all Channel 4 platforms to generate more viewers and our target audience may watch shows on these channels e.g. Skins. It will also be on the internet as todays youths use the internet a lot, therefore we will also create a website for the film so the audience can broaden their understanding of the films meaning. It will be available on DVD and the soundtrack will be available on leading digital media stores. E.g. like 'This is England' and 'Fish Tank'.

Meeting up with Bikram

Today I met up with up with my partner Bikram, and we discussed in more depth and detail our treatment. We talked about the ideas that we had in our head and thought about different narritives in which we could incorporate them into our opening sequence. We also talked about the overall look we want our film to have as we both were thinking to portray Britain in a raw and gritty style however we both differed in levels of grittiness. We also looked at the film My name Is joe, and generated some ideas from there as to how we could introduce our story and that is when we decided that we would use an AA meeting to introduce our protagonist. however we thought that we needed something else in order to be different and we couldn't really decide what would be the driving force for our protagonist and make him go to the AA meeting. We watched a clip from the peep show although it is a sit com we needed to see what an AA Meeting consists of and the kind of props and lighting systems we coulde use. By thinking about this we were able to think and work out a possible location were we could film this scence. Also we found that the life experiences and their personal reasons as to why they drink are a good way of introducing the themes in a film. Overall we talked and generated a lot of idea between us and I am more confident that we have a secure, realistic and unique idea.

Target Audience

For my Target audience research my partner and I conducted a focus group to see what teenagers would like to see in our film. We had a discussion based on four questions, which were based on the titles, what they thought on the themes of the film, who the protagonist should be and finally what other themes they thought would work well with alcohol.


What I found that was good was that my target audience had a lot to say on the topic and I was even given suggestions about possible scnes that Icould have within the film. Out of all the titles that I mentioned to them majority of them agreed that 'Half Empty' was the best one and thought that it added a 'suspicious atmosphere' to it and some thought that the other titles were too obvious were as 'Half Empty' would make them think as to what the film would be about.

When I asked my peers about how relevant they felt the issue was to modern day society. Raees explained how more and more younger people are drinking. I went onto the Drink aware website and found this statistic on Binge drinking which showed that it is most common among 16-24 year old and more common in men than women, it showed that 21% and 14% of women drink more than double thier daily guide lines,  so the fact that I am talking to people who this statistic revolves around means that I am really aiming for them.

Another point which was raised in the discussion was social influences that youngsters may recieve which included peer pressure and how they are forced to do things and how its not always their fault as they are doing it to be 'cool'. Another significant issue I beleive that my audience would like to see is were the alcohol problem begins from and one of the paraticipants talked about how and elder, more responsible person drinks and thats what makes it acceptable for them to drink. I believe that I need to include more experiences in the film and go into more depth as to why they cause and what causes them to behave in the way the character does.

They seemed to like the idea of using both genders in the film and showing the negative effects on alcohol on both sexes as they beleived that it would generate a wider audience and would avoid being sexist and biased towards females. They also thought that by using both genders they audience would be able to generalise how the opposite sex reacts with alcohol and how they could possibly accomodate this. It allows them to see both sides of the picture.

I beleive this piece of research has helped me significantly and shown me what I need to do in order to be successfull in creating my film. It has also given me a lot of inspiration and generated a lot of ideas in my mind that I could put towards my final piece. I believe that in this piece of work I have learnt the importance of analysing target audience as they know what they like and all that is required is you asking them.

Meeting Up With Bikram

I met up with my partner and we talked about our target audience and how we should face this, we had three options we could either do a questionnaire which I did not want to do and neither did Bikram mainly because it generates quantative data which we did not really want to obtain as we wanted to know what the audience thought of our idea. The other option was Vox Pops which would work however my partner and I want to discuss our idea with our peers in full breadth and depth so we decided the best way to do so would be doing a Focus Group. We were both happy with the outcome and felt that our audience were very helpful and provided us with a lot of vital information.

Reflective Analysis (3)

This week we looked at treatments and what we need to include in them, which was titles and how we need to consider how its anchors certain themes and content and whether it would appeal to our target audience. We also looked at our target audience and how we could appeal to certain genders, and age. In our brief our target audience is people between the ages of 18-24. We also looked at the technology we would use and how it is vital that we are innovative in our titles an example would be the American show Weeds, although this show is American and not BSR I find interesting how every single show the titles are different. If I can consider using this idea I must incorporate this into the BSR theme and ensure that it is relevant. I the must also consider the representations and whether they will be stereotypical or whether I will challenge them and create new ones. Personally I am thinking that I will use the typical stereotypes but at the same time I will challenge them and attempt to change them.

I have learnt a lot about the conventions in British institutions and how they introduce their films and example of this would be using a smash- mouth beginning  an example would be London to Brighton. Were we see what seems to be the female protagonist come bursting in and talking without any introduction, this immediately sets up an enigma as to why is she bruised and severely injured? When doing my titles I would like to use a simple technique when introducing my audience however I would also like to make sophisticated by thinking of placement, an example would be that my protagonist may be walking down an alley way and as he is walking away on the floor would be the production company as I think its conforming to the BSR themes but at the same time is different and shows to the audience that we have paid attention to the little details even if they do not acknowledge it.

Inspirational 25 Word Synopsis

Treatment:
Alcohol never brought out the best side out of Alan, years of devouring beer after beer is taking its toll. Has he hit rock bottom?