Bullet Boy, Suall Dibb, 2004

Location/settings:

- Beginning of film is prison to countryside to estate - it is like he is in a dark crowded room, then free in the countryside, where he chills and relaxes with Wisdom, then is back to the rough area of london estate.

- lower class london estate, rural area, very overcrowded, sense of chlostraphobia. Majority are black people.

Narrative Structure: time/point of view

- current days or near enough, year 2000+

- one day after the other timeline, following his life after he is released from prison one day at a time?

- Such is bullet boy where we are watching each day of liams life until his sixteenth birthday and his trip seeing his mother in prison. (countdown)

-Both start with visits to prison and the days that follow after

Ideology - Race/class/gender

-Black populated area, fairly poor area, low social class.

-Mostly Males between 18-20s, Females are the characters who are good and guide the males.

- See how the younger generation gets dragged into this way of life from influence by, in this case, 'Bredwin' and brothers hwo they look up to older brothers etc. follow their path.

"you owe me bigtime yeah?" - never ending cycle!

Characterisation- Roles/Functions etc

- Ricky - like Liam in sweet 16, wants to start a fresh and get away from area, has strong connection with friend Wisdom, typical young adult in getting fed up with his mums moaning. Cares for little bro but finds him very annoying (realistic brotherly relationship)

- Curtis - Innocent little boy who is slowly being dragged into the culture from his brothers actions - via - playing with gun with mate and shooting him by mistake,

worried for his brother, acts mature when realises somethings wrong, but still keeps realistic character of young 10 something year old boy by playing with his friends and winding up his bro. Respects and listens to his mum.

-Wisdom- Rickys friend, seems to be his only friend his age...so possible closer bond.

At 1st i felt that the two werent to connected because of their different attitudes and arguements but when Ricky tells him he is leaving, Wisdom offers his respect and money to help him.

Believes in revenge, not afraid to shoot people.

-Shay (Ricky's bird)- She cares for him, keeps him stable, love eachother, she herself doesnt know how to escape or where to go. As seen in when Ricky says go away with me, she takes a few seconds of thought to reply, also when Ricky is shouting for her at her window, she curls up and cries to herself in her small room.

-Mum- Ricky and Curtis's mother is a strong mother figure even though she is a single mum with a current partner. She cares deeply for her little son and worries about Rickys path. She later chooses, after a emotional church meeting, to kick Ricky out and think of the future of 'her little boy'.

-Genre features -

Sound - R n B music and 'rasta' which is in contrast with characters and their background and social setting.

Realistic point of view of a black young male 'in da hood' (life like problems)

Sweet Sixteen, Ken Loach, 2002

Winner of many awards...

Sweet Sixteen, Ken Loach, 2002.

PLOT SUMMARY

Liam is a restless 15 year old who is struggling in a poor part of Scotland in Greenock where employment is low and youth have little options in life.

He is waiting for his mother Jean, to be released from prison for a crime his father commited. Once she is out (in 3 months) he plans to find a place to settle down with his mother and his sister Chantelle and her little boy Calum to stay away from the likes of his father and grandad who deal are in the heroin business. But to get to this dream, he needs to find some cash, preferably to buy a nice little caravan on the seafront.
To get to this money Liam ends up in all sorts of trouble with his best friend and becomes involved in the criminal underworld of drug dealing.
He knows its wrong, but wants the best and this is the only way it can happen. Will it all work out by the time he is Sixteen?...

VIEWING NOTES:

Film Title: Sweet Sixteen - ironic title, 1. normally associated with girls 2. name "sweet 16"would come across as a happy moment. the characters and main character is not 'sweet' or in a 'sweet' position.

Location/Settings: West part of Scotland, poor part of estate area, sets the scene, sets the characters and their status of class.

Landscape described by Martin Compson and Ken Loach as being a beautiful view etc, but below this is the area which is given a grotty feel.

Ideology: Class - low class Scottish 'Chavs' - lots of swearing,slang, dress code, accent.
Boys depicted in film as trouble, Girls are trying to do good.

Ken Loach - 'classist' - CERT 18 - they said that was silly to be an 18 as its about youths of around 15-18 years old and it would appeal to them. (way they talk, they all swear the same etc)

Characterisation:
Liam - is troubled but wants good life for mum and sister, hates his dad etc.
Dad - is a drug dealer, beats up Liam for screwing up. Controls Liams mum and Grandad.
Grandad - follows liams dad like a henchman but shows mercy and tells him to stop when Liam is being beaten by his father.
Chantelle - Liams older sister, looks after Liam, tries to guide him, has a kid of her own.
Mum - begins in prison, wants Liam to do well. Cares for her kids but is confused and near end of film we find she wants to stay with Liams dad instead of getting away.
Liams best friend - Strong relationship, fights with him alot, mentioned in film the 'brother relationship'. At end of film seems liek he doesnt care if Liam stabs him, really tries to push him to see hwo far he would go. Hates the man Liam begins working for.
Tony the drug dealer boss - tries to guide Liam into crime, build him up, do his dirty work,

Narrative Structure - point of view
- Like a documentary as such, liams story and we are following him around in a lot of scenes in the way the cinematogrophy is used. (like a 3rd person view)

-use of time: Countdown of mums release from prison, 3 months till Liam's "sweet sixteen"

Genre Features - Natural colour for the filmaking, very natural sounds and happenings, real gritty british realism.

'Top 50 cult films'

http://www.filmsite.org/cultfilmsew.html

Here is a link to a site containing their version on the top 50 cult films as of 2003. Few of these may have changed. A minimum of films listed are selected also for the 100 greatest films of all time. Meaning that just because it has a small following and was not marketed widely in the 1st place, doesnt mean it wasnt directed properly in what is a really good but low key film.

Dark Knight Presentation

Director: Christopher Nolan –
Produced both Batman movies, The Prestige, Insomnia, Memento. With a director who has produced some popular films over the past 10 years, this also helps to attract the public, who saw other films by Christopher Nolan and the previous Batman and know It will be a good film.

Budget$185,000,000 (estimated)

Production CompaniesWarner Bros. Pictures – The famous Warner Bros company which only big or certain films get produced by. Legendary Pictures – Seem to produce films for the male audience, these include lots of big superhero and comedy films DC Comics – The famous comic company that produces the comics of iconic characters in the DC universe. Worldwide brand associated with Batman Syncopy – Worked on the previous batman and the prestige by Christopher Nolan and another film in 1998. Just 4 films.

Opening Weekend$158,411,483 (USA) (20 July 2008) (4,366 Screens)£11,191,824 (UK) (27 July 2008) (502 Screens)Gross$529,143,070 (USA) (16 November 2008)£48,246,658 (UK) (28 September 2008)

Cinemas shown: ODEON – Most common popular cinema in UK, IMAX London, Cineworld. Even lots of local cinemas paid to get this in there screens.

Importance of Genre - The superhero genre has been a solid seller over the past decade and slightly further to the early nineties.The specific genre appeals to all comic book fans wanting to see their childhood heroes come to life on the big screen. Other fans may just want to see an ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER film as this is normally the type of genre that superhero movies are based on.

$$$$$$ THE STARS $$$$$$ -
A film maniac would look at this cast and believe that the film would be very good with this cast. Not only are they all good actors to help make it a believable/enjoyable film but one could assume that the actors arent all in it for money and have read the script and feel that it is a strong story.


•Audiences are reached through the amount of money spent in the media industry. This included tons of publicity for the trailer of the film on the internet and TV. A collection of impressive looking posters were put up at bus shelters and billboards. Lots of them revealing the Joker, whom was a big icon in the film and an instant hit. This is mainly due to the performance put in by Heath Ledger and the announcement of his death included many different audiences seeing the film.

•This also brings me to mention that stars are a huge part in films these days with many audiences having their favourite actors. “The dark knight “ is full of well known actors. The main movie poster tells us this. To me if it has lots of stars in the film, it has to be a fairly decent film.
•Young children seeing the film because its Batman in general how is an childhood hero. They are also reached through mass merchandise in toys, food and clothes. Older teens and men seeing the film for action and the continuation of the Batman series. You could say people who weren’t fans of Batman saw the film simply because of Heath Ledgers technical last performance and the hype of the character of the joker through the media. We could say this is how they reached many female audiences also.

Music: Hans Zimmer was one of two composers that produced the soundtracks for this film. He worked on the first film and has become a ‘legend’ among his fan base. He produces such powerful music. The music to a film may not be the key point for attracting audiences, but it does help to make a better experience when viewing.

An online version of the fictional newspaper The Gotham Times arrived and was followed by numerous websites, including a defaced Joker version of the paper called The Ha Ha Ha Times. This was very interesting and shows another way that fans would be interested to view this site by going on the web, learning more.

The Graduate, Mike Nichols, 1967, USA

->When he is driving in his car, we have sound that goes with whats actually happening on screen. What i mean is the strum of the guitar gets slower and eventually stops to show contrast with his car fading away. (it breaks down)

->When the wedding chapel is revealed to the audience there is a string of guitar. He tries to enter but the door is locked, when he runs around and up the stairs another strum is used. It is like the guitar is a frequent instrument used in the film and with every new hope that he has found the church, then found a new way into it a new strum happens.

->During the wedding scene where everyone is shouting at the main character Ben Braddock. Elaine looks around the hall in 1st person mode, sees everyone shouting at him, but there is no sound coming from there mouths. All we hear is Ben's shouting of her name in a frantic voice over and over. It's like all she can hear is his voice because thats what she cares about.

->Sound is muffled in some scenes because it relfects the main characters moods and his hearing. Like when he is at a party and all we hear is muffled voices. We are hearing what he is making to hear.

Scream, Wes Craven, 1996, USA (Looking at SOUND)

Diagetic sounds play a big part in horror films and they work together with the instrumental horror themes. The screechs, the beats and the thumps.

Opening title clearly depicts its genre, extreme thumping edgy music in opening title.
There are certain diagetic noises that at times to scare the audience are louder than they naturally should be. For example, certain related things like Cindy pulling out a kitchen knife, the doorbell, the fgas on the cooker. Certain things that will be important.

These are sounds known as "Visceral" - 'sounds that you feel, hits you loud/scary'
In one good scene of filmmaking, to contrast with the situation, the girl Cindy, has left the popcorn on the cooker, its popping up (loud noises) and its about to explode. At the same time she is on the phone to the killer and is breaking down, with the conversation we are waiting for the killer to appear and kill her or for something to happen. It's like the build up of tension and the popcorn bag is blown up and ready to explode. We could guess that when something happens or before something happens the popcorn will explode.

Evaluation of "The Meeting" production

In this production which consisted of Scott as the photographer, Dom as actor and myself as the other main actor we where to produce some sort of story using one shot photos. The title was called "The Meeting". So my main task was to produce a storyboard on what we will do.

I went for a personally classic idea of 2 people meeting up, ending in a face off and then left on a cliffhanger. However, my take on this is that there is mystery and suspense added because the shots taken show Dom looking bad and serious and in a hurry (Why?) and then there is me looking calm at 1st and as if i am waiting for someone, (who?).

The length of each shot varied as i made a video of the shots and put it with theatrical music. So some shots lasted 2 seconds, some lasted 3-4 seconds when showing more important scenes. They also synced quite well with the music like making some sort of still shot trailer.

The 1st shot is a medium shot of me leaning against a pillar outside a building. With this shot you cannot see as an audience what building i am at. It is then changed to a crane shot scene of Dom walking down a public path. We used a crane shot to get variety of shots and show his dominance on this lonely public path. Then a jump cut is used to show him slightly further up the road. A white flash appears at the beginning of each of these scenes to build up tension and go with the music. There is then a close up shot of me looking at my phone, this is to capture my reaction of this. Then a white flash fades in to Dom looking at his phone. However we used a tilt shot looking up to Dom because we wanted to show the "power" that this character has over us as a viewer.
We then use a basic transition of a bar dissolve after Dom's picture to change scene completely.

Then as the music builds into a beat, it fits in nicely with the next scene. Which is tension of Dom beginning to run down this path. We still used one shot photos but did it on quick capture flutter on the camera so it took lots of shots per seconds. We achieved this by using tracking on Dom, it showed movement. Between each single shot of Dom running, more white flashes are used for the tension building.

The next scene is a transitional effect of the screen exploding into bits to reveal a shot in 1st person view of my phone and a turning point in the story. This was done so the audience could read my message on my phone and ask who is it from? Dom?

Following this was the use of extremely close up shots of mine and Dom's faces to get the characters reaction to what they have just seen. I am shocked and Dom is stern. These images were edited and given a sepia tone which turns things a darker yellow type colour. Like an old photo. This is because i wanted to show that this scene is important to the characters as well as the audience and with a change of lasting colour it should be remembered.

Finally to get more camera shots and cinematography, I came up with this idea to show a stand off between the two characters facing one another from some distance. This was to be shot using depth of field into shallow focus and vice versa. It happened the opposite way around for each characters 3rd person view on screen. It builds the tension of a stand off and what will happen now? Depicts opposite sides. (good vs. evil etc)

After a "to be continued" which was added on the video, I replay the shot of the 2 characters faces split in half on screen. Once again contrasting character. It was edited with a paintbrush/comic affect that makes it seem everlasting. Like a painting.

Hope you enjoyed.