Previous Candidate's Work - Further Analysation

Looking at other pieces of work similar to yours is an important part of the process of film making. Without this attribute of the research, it can be quite difficult to find out what the target market wants. In the previous post you may have noticed that I had displayed my notes on all seven trailers created last year. In this one I will analyse two of them and tell you how I would improve certain aspects or how well they have done them already.

WRITTEN IN SYRIA
This film seems like one that has a guy from Syria that is now in another country and is writing about his new daily life.

The sequence opens up with the production company's logo; this simple design is very affective and looks quite believable as the background of the logo matches the background of the video. In many other pieces of work that I have seen from plenty of different occasions, the production company's logo does not match the background at all.
Also, as many films start up with this kind of a beginning, this work has met a great convention of an opening sequence.

The first scene denoted in this sequence is a mid shot of a male character sitting on a chair with signs of blood appearing over his body/vest. We can immediately assume from this denotation that this individual has been captured and tortured. From the slur and accent within his speech it may be possible that he has been kidnapped from another country, most likely Syria, and taken into another one. I believe that this was a very bold choice of an opening scene to the sequence as it immediately allows the audience to question what is happening.

Throughout the scenes of this character being tied up, a few short takes of other objects/people occur. This includes an image of pliers and rope. This use of mise-en-scene gives the viewer a little more knowledge of what has happened; it is evidential that this individual may have been tied up to this chair through a vigorous process that included the equipment seen in the frame. After just two shots the viewer has been given many clues and questions.


With the font of the credits, I believe that this has been chosen quite wisely. As a film just begins, most directors, especially the ones that create independent/serious films, would not want their audience to be too distracted by the names appearing on the screen and would much rather have the crowd focused on what is happening within the scene itself. This piece of work has done this quite well as the font is not distracting at all due to it's height and thickness. It is readable as well as unnoticeable if wanted to be.

Another great aspect of this work is the lighting; as you can tell from the framing displayed, the candidates have used a spotlight to allow the camera to focus on just the male character tied up in the chair. This use of mise-en-scene allows the suspense to kick in further as well as allowing the attention to be focused on just this individual.





The next scene in this opening sequence denotes a close up of another male character with a black eye waking up in a bed. This shot is particularly affective as it establishes how the audiences have been shown the ending of the film before the beginning, automatically allocating questions and clues in the minds of the viewers. I quite like this idea as it allows the users to find the film more intriguing as their interest level is is raised due to this technique.

The use of transitions is a great way to emphasise on time moving on and to speed up the pace. The creators of this opening sequence have done exactly that. In order for the audience to get the sense that this character has gone through a long and rough process, they have metaphorically represented this through the use of transitions happening within the same shot. I find this very affective but as an opening sequence, I would not do this as it seems to be moving slightly too fast.

The film title suits the storyline; it has a handwritten designed font with a white background, to symbolize the paper. I am quite fond of this, however, I dislike the fact that they have also got a black background behind the logo, which makes it look quite unprofessional. I would much rather prefer the entire screen to be white, as oppose to just the logo.

The exceptional use of this high angel shot is particularly great as it captures the weakness that this character is feeling. As the audience are at a more advantaged stage than this individual, it is almost as if we have obtained more power than him, enabling us to understand his low position at the current state. This judgement that we are given can allow the audience to want to see what disadvantages he may have coming his way within the rest of the film.


CYCLE

The opening to this film begins with a hand-drawn design of the production company logo. I appreciate the typical use of presenting the company's logo first, however I am on the fence with the fact that the design was hand-drawn. On one side I dislike it as it does not show any signs of technology being used, however, it can also be a good thing as this also exemplifies the budget of the typical BSR film genre.

The next scene denotes a guy jumping over a pole and then running. As this is the first time we have seen any characters in this film, immediately an act of suspense occurs amongst the audiences of the film. I quite like this shot as it is so sudden and allows the viewers to think more. Also, the fact that this character felt the need to jump over the obstacle instead of going around it emphasises on how much of a rush he may be in, which again, creates thought and suspension within the viewer(s).

The only sounds we hear in this shot are those sounds that are diagetic. There is no soundtrack being played, just the sounds of this individual's footsteps running. The use of this so early on in the film may allow the viewers to wonder what is going on. However, I would say that I dislike this as it does not make me, personally, feel a great form of suspense, as there is no pace being raised, only the noticeable character running away, which does little for me. Although, it is quite early on in the sequence.

The next few shots are ones that go by quite quickly. One of the first ones we see is a denotation of a group of youths in tracksuit bottoms and hoodies; a very stereotypical outfit for teenagers. The costumes showcased in this production are very accurate for a British Social Realism film as they represent the true presentation that is apparent within this genre. This allows the audience to get a sense of what age group and what kinds of people this age group is.

Another shot that we get is one of a police van; this immediately connotes trouble, especially after being shown right after a shot of youths in their stereotypical clothing. This long shot shows the van moving whilst also picking up the pace of the music. The non diagetic sound allows the situations to be sped up due to the fast pace that the sounds have within them.

We then see more moments where the character in the first shot is continuing his running. This continuity is great as it connotes that he is in a rush and this is what the film is likely to be about. On the other hand, the use of camera language is very poor. I understand that the producers decided to use a hand-held shot to create the shot, but the camera is not being held very correctly; it is quite shaky which takes away any credibility which could of had been rewarded.


The font used for this piece of media text is not very creative, in my opinion. As this is the default font used for the editing software 'iMovie', I find it hard to believe that the editors put much thought into choosing the font that would display the right connotations. Although, on the other hand, credit font is not as important, as well as the fact that this may have been chosen as it does seem quite 'urban', so in some ways it could of had been quite a good decision.

One of the next shots includes quite a long take of a group of friends entering a house and listening to music whilst talking. As independent films have low budgets they tend to present audiences with many long takes, as "time is money". This shot exemplifies this theory and is exactly why I agree with the use of it. Also, there is a lot of diagetic sound used so there are no awkward pauses due to lack of dialogue.



The use of lighting in this opening sequence, if I do say so myself, is not very great. We are presented with one scene of the group of friends in a room during a time of day that looks like it could be the morning or afternoon. However, the next scene that are presented with seems to be much later on in the day, yet the dialogue seems to flow from one shot to the next. This is quite a bad example of continuity as it denotes now flow whatsoever. However, due to the tight schedules and all timing problems that do occur during production of independent films, it may cost a lot of money if the scene takes longer to film. As independent films would much rather film in one day as oppose to three, they tend to try to get it done as soon as possible. If I were shooting this scene then I would make sure that the curtains were closed from the very beginning of it so that the issues of continuity could be reduced.


Overall, I would say that both opening sequences do display many conventions of British Social Realism films. They both contains conventions such as drug use and violence, both of which are seen in many BSR genre films. Although the 'Written Syria' trailer, in my opinion, was produced and edited much better than the 'Cycle' one, they both contain a group of positives and negatives.