Tuesday 20 October 2009

Creative Ideas!

This is a scene from Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). It shows the two main characters in a drug store. These characters are cold-blooded murderers who kill for kicks. What I wanted to show was the green overlay in the scene. I really love the effect, it creates a more mysterious and tense feel to it, and of course in mise-en-scene terms, it portrays the sickness in the male characters head (Mickey). This shade of green has been shown in other parts of the film too, associating with Mickey.

It would be great to have something this creative in my film, but I will decide on this later on in the creative process.


Sunday 18 October 2009

Researching into the theme.. Trainspotting.

This is an iconic scene from the movie Trainspotting. It shows the main character, Mark, has gone cold turkey off heroin. Although this film has a strong comedy influence, and the film I intend to create holds nothing comic about it, I thought it was well worth showing this scene for how the character acts when cold turkey.


Friday 16 October 2009

Aims & Context

I aim to create a short three minute scene from my imagined film which is titled . The scene itself will be a montage of the protagonist of the film enduring giving up drug use. The genre of my film is drama, it is a serious comment on drug abuse. The full story of my film is to be found in my synopsis.

I want it to look and feel gritty, in the style of typical gritty British films which are in the style of social realism, such as Kudulthood (Menjaj Huda, 2006) and Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996), which looks back to the tradition of social realist films in British cinema, examples such as Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960), Kes (Ken Loach, 1970) and more comtempory films, such as Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 1999). It will appeal to a maturing audience that are of college age, - 18 onwards. The audience will have a mature intellectual level, to be able to appreciate that the film is a comment on drug use in a negative attitude. It will appeal to young men mostly as it's not often young women are attracted to realistic films about drug abuse.

I aim to use the skills and techniques learned in FM1 to create a scene from my film, fully demonstrating my capabilities and skills in mise-en-scene and cinematography. I will direct, film and edit the film myself. I will not be acting in it.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Final idea! What I want to film.

The scene I feel I want to film is a slightly paranoid, painful scene from this gritty drug-based film I have thought-up. The main character in my film will have come off drugs through a realization of some sort, a wake-up call you could say. So, this guy goes cold turkey and is sat in his room/flat drinking, and shows him being depressive, agitated and paranoid. He acts jumpy, breathes heavily and his eyes are wide. At first the camera shots will be longer, building the tension and nearing the end they will be incredibly short and dramatized and jerky.

I found this video on YouTube.com about someone going cold turkey. It's fictional, but shows it as real as possible. If you notice, the colours shown in some scenes are blue and red, possibly showing the 'cold' in cold turkey, and red for pain.


Tuesday 13 October 2009

More Initial Ideas

I was thinking, instead of creating a film with very slight horror elements included, I want to create something to be taken much seriously, with a not so fantastical theme.

-Instead of focusing on paranoia, have something with more depth.
-Something with a meaning.
-Possibly with a serious theme, like drug addiction or alcohol addiction, with someone who is obviously suffering from this.
-A montaged scene?
-A scene with non-linear time?
-Loads and loads of close-ups of a face in distress. --- Emotion.
-Want the scene to look dirty, I want to film something do to with someone at their lowest.
-Have non-diegetic music?

Monday 12 October 2009

Initial Ideas

This is just some rough ideas I was throwing out. Note form.

Genre: Paranoia (subtle horror), thriller, drama.

  • Starts with someone in house.
  • Something is watching them.
  • PoV, ceiling shots, creeping up behind them.
  • This could last around 1.30 to try and bring out the feeling of fear and paranoia in the audience. (Unsettling).
  • Wakes up with a shock.
  • Dexter-esque getting ready scene, short, paranoid, feeling sick.
  • Dark, minor-sounding music playing as he leaves his house. (Mad world?)(Nick Drake?)
  • He’s walking to shops to shoplift.
  • Feeling of someone watching him, hallucinations, strange camera pans/shots.
  • Flashbacks to him taking drugs.
  • Needs a moral/meaning.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Genre: Drama Conventions

Drama Conventions
A drama is a film that deals a lot with human emotions. They are usually very serious, tense and portray realistic characters, of which the protagonist and/or others are usually in confliction with themselves and other people. The themes of which these films are based upon are just about anything, as long as it’s realistic/a real-life situation, no such themes that include aliens or monsters… generally nothing super-natural. Some of the more popular themes to depict are injustice, drug addiction, poverty, mental illness, the corruption of power and racial prejudice. They usually link to something topical, such as politics or poverty. But dramas don’t have to have such explosive dramatic themes, some have basic themes which are simply human emotions, films dealing with themes such as failed romances, loss, family issues, broken friendships and affairs of the heart, these are often classed as melodramas. All drama films are very tense, often the soundtrack/music playing an important part in the overall feel of the films, with mysterious intense scores to provoke emotions in the spectator.
In early Hollywood drama films, instead of blaming society as a whole for topical subjects taken on (as such as social problems in society), they would shift the blame of it all on an individual rather than the institution, as to protect the society as a whole, and usually the individual would be punished for his or her actions. Usually these kind of dramatic films are dealt with in a very frank and realistic manner, this is not always the case for these types of films.
There are many sub-genres of drama, as the genre itself is a very very broad genre, with a wide spectrum of different films with different ideas and approaches of cinematography, but are essentially still classed as drama. Here are some examples of the different sub-genres you will find in drama films.

Biopic
A biopic (or biographical film) is a film which portrays the life of important historical person or group of the present or past era. Although biopics cross the genre boundaries, for example the film may focus on a Western outlaw, so thus will have more of a Western influence to it than drama, but is still considered a drama. Biopics were most popular in the 1930’s.

Historical Drama
Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Not to be confused with Biopics, where the films revolves around the person, whereas in historical dramas it’s more based on the real events that happened, such as WWII.

Period Drama
Period dramas, or costume dramas are dramas which focus on life in eras such as the 1700’s or 1800’s, for historical purposes, (very similar to biopics) romances or adventure films. Quite often based on books written in these eras. Very elaborate costumes, sets and props used to capture the feel of these time periods.

Dark Comedy
Although this genre has obvious comedy influences, it is still considered a sub-genre of drama. These films have serious, usually taboo themes, as such as rape, murder, war, insanity and terminal illnesses. The comedy element of these films usually provoke thought about the serious subject matter, but also used to shed light on these topics.

Comedy-Drama
Very similar to dark comedies, apart from the subject matter focused on in the film is less tabooed. An equal amount of comedy and drama. In these films the protagonists pasts are more likely to have an effect on the film than their current actions, their past catches up with them.

Political Drama
Very topical films, based on the politics of the past or near present. Political dramas are usually made after it has been some time after the subject matter has passed in the news, as could be seen as bias or influential.

Tragedy
A drama in which the protagonist’s downfall is caused by a flaw in their character or by a major error in judgement. Often end well and end bad, or start bad and end bad. Very tense, sad and depressing.

Romance
A drama which focuses on the elements of romantic love between two protagonists. These films usually have happy endings, or at least bittersweet endings. Often tearjerkers and more popular with women. Can be linked to other genres, such as romantic comedies, or rom-coms, which still have the element of drama but not as strongly as just a romance.