Planning : Audience Profile.

A typical audience member for my film opening would probably be 15-20 year old male who would be Upper Working class or Middle class and either have a GCSE or A Level education. If I had to sum these sort of people up in one word it would be, Individualistic. I think that these sort of people would probably go out with friends in their spare time, they would listen to mainstream urban music such as Skepta and Tinchy Stryder. and probably watch a lot of comedy on television such as South Park, Family Guy and The Inbetweeners. The websites which they would mostly use would be Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and sites like YouTube. They would most probably watch films such as Kidulthood and This Is England. I think that this average person would look like this.

Genre Montage

Here I have put together a selection of images which I think represent the genre of British Social Realism.

Introduction To Main Coursework

For our main piece of coursework we have been asked to create the opening 2 minutes of a film. I have chosen to work with Cameron Snowdon and Jack Phillips and we have chosen to base our piece on the British Social Realist Drama Genre.

Research & Planning : Title Sequence Analysis: Se7en

In order to analyse the opening sequence of Se7en (1995) I will look at the different  elements of the film  and try and establish how they are used to set up character, narrative and genre.
     The music in the opening credits/sequence  is called Closer, by Nine Inch Nails. The music sets a tone of a sort of underground, eerie feeling. The piece of music is at the start, relatively slow paced and as the opening sequence goes on, the music increases to a faster pace and creates a sort of climax at the end of the opening credits.  
     In the opening sequence, I feel that the mise en scene plays the most important part in creating  the tone of eerie feeling and the drama genre. In the opening, the lighting is very dark, this creates the tone of uneasiness around the set. The fingers that we can see in the film seem to be male, this creates a sense of power which then could determine the main male theme about the film as it progresses. 
     In the opening credits of the film there is a lot of sharp objects such as blades, needle points and tips of pens. This has an effect on the audience where it puts them on edge and invites them into the film straight away. These sharp objects are backed up by the disturbing images of the weirdly shaped hands and the image of where it looks as though there is a spike going through someone's head. This could be disturbing for some viewers but it sets the drama sort of tone straight away.  
     There are a lot of cuts in the opening and it seems to compliment the music because at the start of this short sequence, the cuts are relatively infrequent but as the opening goes on the music pace increases and the cuts become more frequent. Again this emphasises the point of there maybe being a climax towards the end of the opening. Also, to do with editing, the writing to introduce the actors playing the characters is sometimes blurred, this again gives the impression to the audience that something suspicious is going on and it seems to involve the viewers as it slightly confuses them. 

     The main colours used in the opening sequence are blacks and whites. Occasionally there are a few reds chucked in which surprises the viewers as it is such a contrast from black and white. Surprising the viewer also sets the tone for the rest of the film as there are many more surprises to come. The irony of the distinguishing colour being red is the thought of blood that it brings to the viewers mind and at one point in the opening we see a spurt of blood onto a page which creates the feeling of the frightful crime that the story could have to bring. 
     Overall I think that the opening of Se7en has a great effect of setting the tone for the rest of the film mainly because of the dark lighting and dirty music that is presented in the sequence. 

Research & Planning : Narrative theories

The Hermeneutic code is when the opening of the piece leaves questions with the audience and makes it sort of a mystery. The point in this is that it keeps the audience wondering what is going to happen next and makes them try to figure out the answers to the question as the film progresses. This keeps them involved and therefore enjoy the film more. This is applied in Dexter as there is a lot of extreme close ups which leave us as the audience wondering, who is the man? and why does he seem so aggressive?
     The Proairetic code is very similar to the Hermeneutic code in that it keeps getting the audience to think about the piece and it makes them again ask questions to themselves. In the Proairetic code it puts the audience on edge and makes them wonder if there is anything going to happen soon. In Dexter this could be applied because the camera shots make the man seem violent and therefore makes the audience think that he will produce some sort of violent act. This is supported by the dripping blood.
     The Semantic code is how camera shots and editing is done which makes the opening seem the way it does. In Dexter there is a lot of close ups which means that you cannot fully see the whole setting which creates mystery. In Dexter the lighting is generally dark which again creates the feeling of violence and mystery.
     Levi-Strauss introduced the idea of binary opposition as one way of analysing narratives. He delivered the point that every element in a story had some sort of contrasting element to fight against it or to argue another meaning. A typical example of this would be Cowboys & Indians. This could be shown in Dexter through the Person's serial killer, violent mind, against the everyday life. For example in the opening there is the violence shown through the knives, his razor and the blood, and then the everyday life is shown by the food that he eats and just the general idea of him getting up, eating, getting dressed and going out of the house. Just the average person's morning sequence.

Research & Planning : Genre theory

 ''genres are instances of repetition and difference'' - Neale
This quote is describing genre and the repetition part of the quote means that the film is what you would expect from that genre but the difference part challenges what you would expect.

I have chosen to analyse the drama film 'Kidulthood' written by Noel Clarke and directed by Menhaj Huda.

     Right at the start of the film the first thing that we notice is the very urban music that set the tone and the plot straight away. The music is at a quick pace which also back up the London city set where the film is based. This would agree with the statement in the repetition aspect because this is what we would expect from a inner city environment. Another way in which the repetition idea is supported would be the first piece of actual film that we see is some of the males in the film playing football. Football is seen by many also as an urban sort of sport so this therefore adds to the urban drama which the film is based around. One other example of an instance of repetition is that there are many cuts in the opening, this creates the feeling of the film being fast paced and frantic therefore complementing the inner city setting and the storyline which is about to follow.
     There are however some instances where it would disagree with the repetition idea but would agree with the difference part of the quote. For example in some parts of the film there are some of the characters which are very well spoken. This seems to clash with the environment as most of the people there have Modern London accents and when the characters who have well spoken accents speak it seems out of place in this context. Another way in which the film would agree with the difference idea would be that the film is set it Ladbrooke grove in Kensington, West London. This is a well off place in London and the film completely contridicts the area that it is set in.

Preliminary Production Video