Ideas For Opening Sequence

Narrative:

Brief Synopsis: The film follows the lives of two friends living in a racist run down area, who are segregated by issues of race and discrimination.

Opening Sequence Synopsis: The first scene is group of white boys omitting racist comments and  intolerance to a Muslim boy of the same age, who lives in the local area we then  go on to establish that one of the white boys begins to change his racist ways, which differs from his friends, and starts a close friendship with the Muslim boy, and he learns that the boy is genuinely nice and the white boy reforms his ways.

The film will use a omniscient narrative and have a it from the perspective of different characters but the main character will be the white boy trying to change his ways. It will also follows the perspective of the muslim boy and the group of white boys more specifically the leader. There will be no narrator as it is not a typical convnetion for most BSR films as it takes away from the realism of it and will affect the verisimilitudinous of the piece. It will follow a linear structure as most BSR films do.

Our film will use many opening sequence conventions and will introduce characters, themes, setting and narrative. It will have engaging music and be a smash mouth opening to keep the audience interested and make them want to watch the rest.

Conventions:

We want to recreate the colour pallete used in fish tank

The conventions that we will use are: themes of violence, racism, discrimination, friendship and childhood, which will be subtly hinted throughout to go along with the typical BSR conventions. We will use Super Imposed Graphics to show actors names, production companies and film crew, which are a typical opening sequence convention and are found in every film. Also in this sequence we will use natural lighting to further establish and reinforce the themes which connote realism, so natural low key lighting establishes violence as dark li
ghting connotes danger, which is a key aspect to uncover in our opening sequence. Also in this sequence we will use a blue colour pallet, which connotes the realism and harsh nature of the film, like the pallet in Fish Tank.

Title: 

We are currently working  on a title to grab the audiences attention, and fit the film. The title will be typical of the BSR, genre, as it will be 1 or 2 simple words, and be powerful, giving subtle hints to the narrative.

Target Audience: 

Age- 16-24

Gender - Male

Interests -  Violent films, Political and Racial issues.

Location - East London // Hackney // Stratford & surrounding areas.

Ethnicity- White and Asian backgrounds

The target audience's other media consumption will include; TV, Social Media and The News.

Our film will appeal to them as it includes issues of race and hate crime which are found in everyday situations and be seen on the news and are political issues. The main characters in the films are aged between 16-18 so the target audience will be interested in watching the film as the characters are a similar age to them. This film will appeal to a male audience as most of the characters are male, and typically, males have an increased interest in violent topics. We have said most of our target audience would live around East London, as they would have a specific interest in the film if it was set in a place they are familiar with, and live near. Like, Gone Too Far, was set in Peckham, South East London, which appealed to teenagers who live in Peckham, and the surrounding areas because they recognize the locations used. 

The films that we'd say the Target Audience would watch include Ill Manors, Green Street,  Bullet Boy, The Football Factory, which are all films set in London, and include violence, hate crime, and racism. Also short films set in East London such as Tight Jeans and  Music that the target audience would listen to include London based rappers such as Giggs, Kano, Skepta & Sneakbo, which are typical Grime artists, which London based teens like. The film's uses and gratifications help the audience 'personally identitfy' as the target audience may identify with some of the characters in the sequence, connoting a successful sequence, drawing in the audience's attention.

Instiution:

The production company for our film will be Film 4 this means our film will have to conform to the usual conventions of Film 4 films and stick to their ethos. We are lucky to be backed by such a commissioner who are passionate about films, and helping young film makers kick-start their film making journeys, providing us with support. By having this production company on board, this means our film is going to be played at independent cinemas like the Picturehouse cinemas in Hackney, Greenwich, Stratford and Clapham, who exhibit other British Social Realist films like Gone Too Far. Our film would be shown on the Film 4 Channel and based on it's popularity and box office earnings, and may be shown on sister channel, Channel 4. Possible exhibition/premiering of the film at a London film festival, would open the film up to a new audience, attracting many other members of the public. Using new media technology and the fast growing online streaming services, I will show it on Netflix as many other BSR productions are shown on there like the This is England 86 series, Bullet Boy, Shifty and Sweet Sixteen. Possibly, an event held premiering the film, at the film festival could include local musicians and artists helping promote the film by making a special appearance. This could help promote the film, and also be a marketing technique that is inexpensive, as the budget is small.

The range of current British films on the UK & Ireland's Netflix accounts available to all users.

Style and Iconography:

We will use lots of wide and long shots to establish the derelict, run down setting of the film and accompany this with an establishing shot to further imply the idea of the deprived setting, in which the narrative takes place. This is a good use of these shots as the audience get to explore the setting through certain shot types. For the editing of the sequence, we will use straight cuts which will add to the sense of realism created by the film as transitions like fades could take away from the realism we will create. Also using fades in an opening sequence can connote that time has passed and as we will be using a linear narrative, so we don't want to mislead the audience into thinking time has passed, or there has been a significant change in setting/ location.We will use costumes as a visual signifier in this film to help connote to the audience the various ethnicity's and religious insights of the people explored this film for example, the Muslim character in this film when we see him for the first time he will be wearing the jubba/thobes as he is on his way to the mosque. This enforces the convention of the exploration of characters, and connotes he is a main character in the film. We will use music to help convey the tone of the film, such as a song with lyrics that link in with the storyline. Possibly a song on par with I Need Church by Professor Green, as he is a London based rapper, in which this songs lyrics are: ''And I'm tryna figure out who I favour, who, Made me do the things you made me do?'' - which could relate to our storyline as the the white boy who is with his friends is peer pressured into being racist to the Muslim boy. We will use the natural sound created during filming and not use any Foley sound as Foley sound takes away the realism, and we are trying to make the film as real and genuine for the audience as possible, as the situation our film entails is a common one, so it is only fair to reflect the reality of the situation through the filming and sound caught on camera whilst filming. The music we will use in our opening will be non-diegetic and be only audible by the audience as diegetic music is not a typical convention of British social realism. The typography we will be using will have to relate to the British social realism genre and our particular film, as our film is set in a run down deprived area we thought that we should use typography that has a similar style to some graffiti that you would see in those areas here is an example of one we had in mind.

Representation:

The key characters in this film are the Muslim boy and the white boy who decides to reform his ways and abandon the group of white friends who are not tolerant of the friendship. The protagonist of this film will be the white boy who decides to change his ways as it will be from his perspective as he tries to become a better person and stop the racism in the scene. The audience will be able to root for this character as they can see a good side to him and be on his side when begins to reform himself to an unprejudiced character. The antagonists of the film will be his former group of friends and more specifically the leader of this clique, who is the main person in the group who doesn't accept the Muslim boy, and who pushes his racist views on the remaining members, and the rest of the group conform to the peer pressure. I will be able to follow Propp's character types as there is a prominent villain character in this film who attempts to stop the protagonist. The helper could be the Muslim friend who helps the protagonist become a better person, who educates the reforming boy, to the ideology that Muslims are not bad people. Our film will challenge the stereotypical representation branded upon Muslims in Britain and show them for how they really are, in every day situations and British culture. I will also challenge those people in Britain who feel Britain should be a purely white country and to deport all of those who are not white and represent them to be closed minded. 

Technology:

The technology used in our production will be predominatly used in the filming and post-production stage of creating the opening sequence. We will use the cameras and tripods from our media department to film all of our footage we need. The quality of the cameras could be better, but my having a low quality and grainy picture, can connote the realism we are trying to capture. We will use iMovie on the iMacs to edit our footage and create the opening sequence, which enables us to add music, our chosen colour pallet, and add super imposed graphics, and other conventional BSR opening sequence conventions. If it was possible and unrealistic, we think that a helicopter with a camera on it, filming a birds eye, area view of the whole of London, and then zooming in to focus on the street where the film is first set, would be good to establish locations and make it a realistic opening sequence. Also in the production we will use real phones and gadgets to create realism, and real text messages being sent.