Codes & Conventions

We planned our film extremely well using storyboards. Even though we storyboarded our project very well at the beginning, our piece underwent several changes as some of the things we wished to show were to difficult to do well. Other than that I believe our film follows several codes and conventions very closely. As we were trying to create a social realism film, we tried to stick to the codes and conventions of that as much as possible. I believe we managed to achieve this quite well, as we have recreated a lot of similar shot types and mis-en-scene. We have also created quite a similar storyline as it includes several references to lower class living and drugs.

The setting for most of the shots, is quite dark and dreary which sets the scene and helps the audience to understand the context of the film. We used a lot of close-up shots to show our character’s emotions which is very typical of both short films and social realism films.

London To Brighton

Kidulthood

Our Film

• There are hardly any shots of our main character with any other characters to show the physical and emotional distance she is from others around her. When others are in the shot with her, they are always at a different level to her. The most prominent of these being the shot of both Carley and her teacher. Carley is sat on the chair at a very low level compared to her teacher, which makes the teacher seem intimidating and also as if she is ‘talking’ down to Carley. Also, when Carley walks through the social area with the other teenage girls, she is higher up than them but as they are all sat down on similar levels, it makes Carley appear excluded the others.

Ariel Shot

The Toilet Scene

Dreary and grim looking house

The fact it looks unkempt is also typical of lower class areas.

We also kept to a small amount of locations which is following the conventions of short film. We kept settings that be familiar to the audience for example: school, home, toilets, etc. The majority of the locations we used are very grim reflecting where our character is within herself. The bedroom is very sparse and impersonal indicating that she doesn’t feel at home there. In the school, she always walks around alone showing that she is very alone in of her problems. We kept to one main character as this is very common of short films. The film is usually between one and ten minutes, so the audience doesn’t really have long enough to try and understand finer details of the film such as context and character backgrounds. This also meant we had to make the costume quite obvious to reflect our character. Even though we decided to portray a subject that most social realism films deal with, we originally planned to challenge conventions by portraying it in a very artistic and creative way, which is where the postcards would have played a big part. Although the postcards weren’t used in the end, I think our film was still quite creative in way we portrayed our ideas. Even though we used a lot of close up shots which is typical of short film, we followed the conventions of an independent film by using different angles with our shots. We used some ariel shots within the toilet setting to show how everyone looks down on a habit such as the one our main character has.

Above are some screen shots from our film. All of them are very close-up. This is done to show the audience exactly what is happening and to make sure focus is on the most important features of the shots. You can also see the ariel shot. This shot allowed us to show the drug taking in a realistic way. If the shot was a close-up also it may not have been as convincing. The shot with the can of drink is quite a creative shot and isn’t usually seen in films.

• In the sense of mis-en-scene we followed the conventions of having quite obvious costumes, as this makes it easier again for the audience to understand the context of the story. Short films usually have a very low budget and we stuck to conventions in that sense. We didn’t spend a lot of money on any of the props and our props weren’t extremely outlandish which is also similar to short films. We used minimal editing which is similar also to short films. We only used simple editing techniques, such as saturation and black & white scenes. These were used to show memories or flashbacks, which is also typical of films in general. The only conventions we challenged was the portrayal of the older females within the piece. This was done to show the audience just how much problems our main character is going through. She is portrayed as very alone in all of the her problems. The fact that everyone around her is so mean and excluding almost acts as a justification to why she ends up on the road she does. It means that the audience is more likely to relate to her and feel sorry for her than to just regard her as irresponsible.

Kirsty is dressed in a very casual, scruffy way. Her hair has not been styled and she is just dressed in a very ‘thrown together’ way.

To get some general idea of the outcome of our film, we help a small focus group. Most of the focus group were the people who had taken part in our original focus group. This worked well, because they were then able to tell us whether or not we had created a piece which met their expectations or not. As they were part of the original part of the focus group, they made up a vital part of our target audience. After asking them general questions, we were able to get a general gist of what they thought of the film. Although they enjoyed the film, a couple of the group found the narrative hard to understand or misunderstood it. This showed us that if we were to do the project again we had to make the narrative more explicit. They understood the use of editing techniques and thought the use of mis-en-scene and shots were good. As a group they were torn between which ending to opt for. They believed the first, shorter version was more shocking but believed the second versions ending was very well edited and added more a closed ending.

Our project overall worked very well. If I was to recreate this project or to take part in a similar project, there isn’t a lot of things I would change as I see all of the experience as a way of learning what works well and what doesn’t, etc. However, I would maybe try and do test shots to ensure that some of the more creative ideas can be portrayed properly. As a group, I think it would be a good idea to maybe hold regularly screenings if possible to ensure that our film is understandable to an outside audience. If we were to do another project like this, I think it would be interesting to explore the idea behind our narrative in more detail and to maybe expand our characters with a bit more depth. I would also try to shoot several scenes from different angles from different angles, probably simultaneously to make the editing process more interesting and to allow more versatility when the film is actually finished. I would definitely plan my time more effectively and have set, firm deadlines for filming certain parts of the film. This will make the editing process a lot easier and more organized. I would personally take more part in the editing process as I have gained a lot of different skills on the editing software, both Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop. We would also have a more organized and specific way of getting audience feedback as this is a very important of way of gaining feedback and understanding whether or not your target audience understand your piece.