Costume and prop planning

Before we begin filming, we have planned out what props we will be using and what the main character will be wearing:

Costume and props presentation

Location shots

Here is a slideshow of shots of the locations we are thinking of using for our short film:

Presentation1

Compiling these shots will help us plan shot types while story boarding and also help us plan what types of creative techniques we can use for specific scenes.

Genre theory

There are several theories on the subject of media genre, which include:

John Fiske -

"Any one programme will bear the main characteristics of its genre, but is likely to include some others: ascribing it to one genre or another involves deciding which set of characteristics are most important" 

- Any texts main characteristics will be classed as that genre e.g. Lord of the Rings is considered fantasy as it mainly contains the icons of fantasy.

Richard Maltby and Ian Craven -

"The success of Hollywood is reliant on the combination of predictable elements with variation." - Hollywood is mainly successful because films that fit in specific genres have predicatble plot devices.

Edward Buscombe -

Edward Buscome felt that Iconography was the best way to achieve generic definitions.

- A films genre is defined by its icons e.g. A gangster film will contain guns, violence.

In stark contrast Rick Altman suggests:

• Genre theory presumes that viewers pre-read texts
• Viewers become passive voyeurs
• Genres are therefore restrictive
• Doesn't allow for hyrbids - the blending of genres

Film Log - Wednesday, 10th November

Today, we successfully managed to film a test sequence for the introduction of our film. Since the recent story change, it has been much easier to film as the locations haven't been nearly as demanding. We have uploaded our footage to the computer and have finished editing. So far, the shot types were mostly successful, however, at certain points we have had to edit it differently or even had to remove the entire clip so a re-shoot may be need to be scheduled in order to perfect the sequence.

We have lowered the saturation and brightness on each clip to give it a dingier, more urban look. Despite social-realist films not usually being edited drastically, we believe that we still fit within the conventions of it as the desaturated, grey look adds to the atmosphere of the film.

We have next planned to film the first flashback of the film, as we have decided to try and film it in a chronological order.

Common representations in Social Realism

Social Realism often focusses around different groups of people, such as teenagers and often middle-aged men and women. Teenagers are usually portrayed in a stereotypical manner in social realism, such as vandals or drug -users wearing scruffy clothing or looking like 'chavs'. Older women are often portrayed as being single parents, either being abusive or not being able to cope.

These are often traditional representation, as kids have alsways been seen as being trouble-makers or anti-social, however, women being portrayed as being single parents is quite modern, most likely because having children out of marriage isn't seen as consequential as it once was.

New idea - Plot overview

Plot OverviewV2
After showing the group the last script and idea, we decided that it would be difficult to find the actors required and even more difficult to film properly. So after discussing it further, we came up with a new idea and allocated me to produce an overview. We have also decided on a title for the film, Attrition.

Attrition -
          Wearing something down by the cause of friction.

We thought this related to the film as it represented how the main character has worn his life away to a life of stealing and dealing drugs.

Social Realist genre conventions

After looking at several social realist films such as Fish Tank, Kes and This is England, there are a running line of common conventions found in all of them.

• A vast majority of these films have been shot using handheld cameras, to give the films an almost documentary like feel to the reinforce the realism. These often include long cuts and a lack of 'flashy' editing, in order to make the audience forget they are watching a film.

• The use of unknown actors was also a common factor found throughout all of the example films, such as London to Brighton, Fish Tank and even This is England. The actors were used to reinforce the realism as they could be seen as just anybody in society, so the personal success wouldn't get in the way of the atmosphere. Upon reading certain texts about the directors, some only wrote a base script so the actors would have to improvise, so it would have a more realistic feel.

- Example of unknown actors -

• The use of sound if mostly diegetic as music is sparsely used and the real world sound is exaggerated. Music is still used, but mostly in very specific scenes, often to carry the emotion of a certain character to the audience.

Media Script - Alex
This is the initial script for our social realist short film. It isn't complete yet, but the group wanted to see the current progress on it.

Initial Ideas

We have started planning the base idea for our film, around the social realist genre. We have decided on this because of how accessible it is to us, no special props or costumes will be needed and we won't need to find a special location for filming as most social realist films are shot in big cities or densely populated area. Especially since we don't need many actors for the idea we have been focussing on.


Initially we had other ideas, such as a parkour short, we have the resources to do it, but we decided that it would difficult to present a story within the allocated time and also to film it would be difficult... not too mention how dangerous it could potentially be.


We have centred around the theme of drugs, as we believe it is a big issue currently in the UK and should be addressed. Throughout our film, we plan to place a moral within the story, which follows the standard format of most short films.

Theories of the Media

There are several theories concerning the Media and its audience:

The Hypodermic Syringe theory

Dating from  the 1920s, its based on the idea that the Media is like a syringe, it injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs onto the audience and as a powerless mass, the audience has no choice but to be influenced by it.

The Culmination Theory

After the audience has watched the same thing repeatedly they become de-sensitised to it. For instance, if the audience is constantly watching violence, eventually they will feel less sensitive to the subject.

The Two-step flow Theory

The theory that states that the audience won't actually affected by the media text itself, but only by the discussions that the audience has on it

The Encoding/Decoding theory

This theory come in two parts:

Encoding is the process where the producers construct the text

Decoding is the process where the audience reads, understands and interprets the text.

This theory also states that different media text will be interpreted differently depending on the viewers' identity, culture and opinions.

Future Project Discussions

I have established a group for my future project with Alex Puplett, and we have discussed what type of project we would be interested in doing. We have agreed on doing the short film project, which must have a run-time of five minutes.

Review of Skills

For my A2 Media project there will be several skills I will need to develop while there are several skills I believe I have already worked on and developed.

Skills I have developed

These are several skills I believe I have already developed and worked on:

• Identifying uses of technology


• Use of editing software


• Use of camera and handling

Since working on my last media product I have learnt how to identify the use of Digital technolgy used withing the media, such as the use of Digital Cameras which create a good quality image on a reasonable budget, for instance, how many films are shot digitally over film reel.

Also the use of application software such as editing programs like iMovie 09 on a Mac computer, which allows the public to use simple editing software that previously wasn't available. By identifying these I can now tell how this technology will benefit me and how I can use them properly in my project. This particular skill is one I made sure I was comfortable with as I felt it was quite important in the production process we undertook while producing our film opening in the AS course.

Being able to use a camera was a big part of the project last year so I made sure that I knew the device we would be using, the Canon MD205. Also I learnt the names and definitions of the different camera shots and angles so I could construct a sequence that felt fluent without breaking certain rules of cinematography, such as the 180 degree rule. Also lighting played a big part as the location we chose was very dark, so by setting up the correct lighting we could improve the quality of the shot. So by thinking of all these factors I believe I have shown that I am capable of using these skills to my advantage.

Skills I need to develop

These are the skills I believe I need to work on:

• Research and planning

• Time management

After working on my preliminary and main task last year in the AS course, I believe I didn't do enough research into the genres our group was looking at, which resulted in making a lot of last minute decisions which could have been avoided. Also by not researching into the character development early enough, it resulted in having wrong costumes and certain props looked out of place. So by improving my research for the A2 course, I believe mistakes such as that won't happen again.

Also, I believe I overlooked the planning stage of the production which resulted in last minute filming which in places put us in a rough position. By doing last minute filming, this also set us back on time when we needed to edit the current footage, setting us back entirely. So by improving the planning, we will have more room in case something doesn't completely go to plan.

Time management also ties in with the lack of planning, which both resulted in last minute decisions and wasted a lot of time when we could have been working on improving the final product instead of having to do last minute filming. So by improving all of these skills, I believe my next production will turn much better and the pre and post production won't be as difficult as before.

A2 Blog

This is the blog where all my A2 Media Studies work will be posted to.