Part 1- Brief

This project began by looking at what we actually had to make our project towards a brief that was set to us. The brief acts like a guideline for our project and we have to follow it. It tells us such things such as who our opening sequence is aimed for and what company we are making it for. The brief has stated:

You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year olds. To give Film 4 an idea of how your film will develop they have asked you to produce the first two minutes of the film, providing a clear sense of the graphical, editing and musical style your film will use. To protect Film 4’s reputation as a leader in British cinema the film must conform to the conventions of the Social Realist genre, and meet all audience expectations for this type of film. Finally, to keep costs low, all visual and audio material used in the film must be entirely original, with the exception of stock sound effects.

My opening sequence did meet the brief as it is clearly directed at 16-24 year olds. This was directed at this audience mainly via the themes that we had portrayed in the opening sequence. We explored typical BSR themes of drugs, violence and corruption of youth. These theme can relate to this target audience as between the ages of 16-24 it is more likely to start experimenting with things, such as drugs. Also the people in that age range are more likely to develop their own sort of language made up of abbreviations and slang which also incorporates a lot of swearing. This makes it relatable to the themes of corruption of youth. Violence is an ongoing thing in the world but it mostly has been stereotyped to people who are within that age range. So all these themes that we have explored can relate to the audience in one way or another. These themes are also explored in successful BSR movies such as This is England.

This is England showing a little kid swearing- Corruption of Youth

The title of our production was 'Class A' . This has various connotations but the main one playing along with the main theme of drugs throughout my opening sequence. As class A is where all the big drugs are such as cocaine. The other connotations of this title is do with social groups and this can connote that class A is being at the top of that social group and being successful. In our opening sequence success is to do with drugs, just how the boss is shown to be wealthy. Also to do with social class it goes along with the narrative as the characters are all middle to lower class characters that are trying to escape into a higher class of people. Below you can see that one of the characters are wearing a very expensive belt suggesting that his line of business has let him afford that and he is living the Class A lifestyle.

Boss wearing Louis Vuitton belt- 01:02

That is the main things that my title can connote really, drugs and social classes. But this does suggest more themes of escape and such.

Our title

When the opening sequence begins 3 conversations are going on between three characters , one being the protagonist. In the middle of these conversations you can see specific rich items on the antagonist as he is walking towards the location. With all this being done in the first minute the audience can establish who each character is and what they look like as well as how they talk and dress and find out what situation they are in at that current moment of time. In that first minute it really establishes the plot of the movie when the protagonist,Chas, says he doesn't want to sell drugs anymore. This sets up the protagonist's story line throughout. As the second minute begins the boss is then shown (the antagonist). He comes in shouting and waving a gun about. This shows he's a bit psychotic and also a statement made by one of the characters saying "oh he's here, you're gonna get fucked' states the authority of the boss. As soon as he enters all the conversations stop and it is silent and the characters then proceed to give the money they have earned to the boss for selling the drugs. The fact that the boss did not even ask for the money shows that the characters are willing to just hand it over with no issues once again stating where he actually stands. The boss then hands them a bag of cocaine saying he is care free as he handling serious drugs,but he keeps them in his pocket as he walks around. The protagonist does not deliver any money as he has not sold any drugs and the boss gets angry and Chas runs out with the boss getting more psychotic and following him out. The screen then goes black in synchronization with the gunshot which leads the audience to believe that Chas has been shot. Watching on, you see Chas walking into school leading the audience to ask questions of what actually happened.  

Boss chasing Chas- 01:45

This opening was done correctly as the brief had clearly stated it had to be a BSR opening sequence meaning we had to include conventions of a BSR opening sequence. We included a smash mouth opening which engages the audience. This is typical of a BSR because a BSR film that also delivers a smash mouth opening is Trainspotting. We also used super imposed graphics which is another convention of an opening sequence. We placed our opening credits in such places that it was easy to read and we made it big enough to see. Enigma was placed near the end of out opening sequence which is another convention of a BSR opening sequence. We did this by making the audience believe that a character had been shot but then seeing that same character in the next scene. It makes the audience as questions. These are just three of the conventions that can be denoted in our opening sequence. We had engaging music, we introduced characters and introduced the themes of the movie. As we have used a variety of conventions it shows that we were successful in making an opening to a BSR film. 

The themes we have explored in our BSR are: drugs, violence, corruption of youth, escape.
At 01:20 of my opening sequence you can see the themes of drugs being portrayed. Below you can see the themes of drugs in Trainspotting and in my opening sequence- Class A.

Trainspotting- Using heroin

Class A-01:20-Boss sniffing drugs

Trainspotting is all about drugs and how life is with drugs and without. It shows the positives as well as the negatives. Drugs is the main theme in that BSR. Our BSR is very similar to this film as the main theme that runs through our opening sequence is drugs as well.  You can see that the boss is sniffing his bag of cocaine as he handing it over to one of his dealers to go and sell to the people. This shows that he is the boss and it shows that he can get access to the class A drugs whenever he pleases as he pull it out of his pocket like its sweets. As this is similar to Trainspotting, it shows that drugs is a typical theme is BSR movies which makes our one successful .

You can also see the theme of violence in a successful BSR such as Kidulthood and my then looking at violence in my opening sequence. At 01:51 you can see the boss holding his gun ready to shoot someone.

Kidulthood- Exploring themes of violence

Class A-01:51-Boss holding up gun

In Kidulthood violence is emphasized through certain objects which are weapons such as bats and guns. We have done the same thing by emphasizing violence through holding a very serious weapon and pointing it down the road. This also tells the audience more about the character committing the act of violence. The fact that the boss is about to shoot someone when there are houses and cars around shows it is a public area and it is not isolated yet he still does not care and he will still hold the gun up in plain sight.

Class A-01:46-Chas running away

At 01:46 you can clearly see the theme of escape as the protagonist is running away which is similar to what the main theme of Fish Tank is.

Fish Tank- Her vision to escape

Fish Tank got its name metaphorically as the movie shows a young girl trying to escape out her world and go into dancing. It is just like a fish trying to escape its tank. This means the main theme in Fish Tank is aspiration and escape. In my BSR Chas says he doesn't want to sell drugs anymore and later on he runs out of the door away from the boss, running away from the drugs. This shows our use of the theme of escape.