Stephen Neal - Reasearch and Planning

Two Cars, One Night

• Genre : Social Realism
• Filmed in an actual place, not a set.
• Uses real people, not playing roles they are who they are.
• Chronological structure.
• Conventions
• It’s socially possible, main point of social realism.
• The Māori culture is shown within the children in the way people act to react toward them.
• They use a set time frame that jumps forward at different times but is always chronological, I like this style and my group could use it.
• Format and Narrative:
• Shows a vignette of a moment in the characters life.
• Short narrative allows the point to be shown quickly and clearly.
• Starts with a normal evening for the boys. Interrupted by the girl’s arrival, giving the older boy the chance to mock her, but then it is resolved by the end when the girl leaves.
• The chronology is always linear allowing the audience to see the narrative more clearly.
• This order of events would be better for my group as in our last piece it was difficult to work with the jumpy narrative.
• Editing
• Some parts were sped up to show the passage of time
• The camera pans and does lots of movement
• I like the eye level shots as time goes by, it look nice and would be easy to do

• The cuts are normally simple cuts, no dissolves.
• Cigarette trails show time

• Themes
• Shows a representation of gender
• Shows a representation of Māori
• Stereotype of show off child boy is used. He calls the girl ugly and his brother gay. Says he can drive.

• Camera Work
• They use mainly Mid - Close Range Shots
• The best use of movement in my opinion is when the camera pans to follow the older Māori  man in his car. It allows the viewer to see his status and how much the child respects him as he watches him for as long as he can.
• Mainly the camera is still and only cuts allow for a different perspective on the scene. I like this fact and i think it would be good to use in our film.
• The two main characters are always on seperate sides of the screen to show their seperation at the beginning. However as the film progresses they come closer until they are together in the car.

• Mise En Scene
• The body language of the male character is controlling and dominating from the start. He tries to establish his power of the female through swearing and pulling faces at her. However she responds in much the same way. Only through her standing up for herself does the boy begin to respect her and goes to talk to her properly.
• The props allow the audience to see that the setting is either very rural or set in the past.
• The lighting used is very harsh and brings attention to the lighter areas, such as the large sign in front of the cars as well as the characters and not the area around them, showing that the story film is about the story of the characters and not the setting, allowing the story to have universal significance.

Colour Bleed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00ktwvp

• Genre: Drama
• Shows emotion and trouble, drama.
• She is forced to pull of her own nails, hard to watch, troubling for the audience.
• She dies but her memory is left lingering, nice end to the drama of the main story.

• Conventions
• It leaves a lingering message about society.
• The way people respond to others is critiqued.
• Form and Narrative
• Show a day in the girls life where they sacrifice someone for the good of the community.
• Shot from the perspective of an omnipotent character but an audience with a closed perspective.
• It follows a chronological structure.
• Editing
• Many cuts that get progressively quicker, cross cutting, to build tension in the final moments in the film.
• Low level when looking at the humming bird, make it seem very important and gives it significance.

• Themes
• Society and changes that it needs to make
• To accept social groups as they are
• To allow creativity
• Not to judge people by how they look or what they like.
• Sometimes acts of evil can be good in disguise, misleads the audience.

• Mise En Scene
• The use of colour is beautiful and emphasises the different points in the film.
• The facial expressions of the main character are over exaggerated to emphasise different emotions in the film.
• Her costume is different to everyone else showing her outcast like status.

Last 3 Minutes:

·         Genre: drama

            o    Shows how everything in his life went bad but in reverse.

o    The central concern is with the death of the main character

o    Concerns on war, family and drink are all shown within this short film.

·         Conventions:

            o    It is sad for the audience to watch a man die; life was very hard for him.

o    He dies on his own, to add to the sadness and drama of the film

o    Many close up shots to allow us to see from his perspective.

o    Pain and torment are conveyed to the audience through his facial expression and body language in the beginning.

o    We watch others feel pain.

·         Form and Narrative

o    Show a mans life in reverse.

o    Shot from the perspective of a character reliving his earlier life..

o    It follows a chronological structure.

·         Editing

o    Many cuts to signify many elements of his life.

o    Low level when first seeing the man giving him importance.

o    We end with him on his back in a state of weakness.

·         Themes

o    War

o    Family and its importance.

The View

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00kvk62

• Genre : Drama
• Filmed in an actual place, not a set, easy to find and do ourselves.
• Range of different people, not hard to find or get in our film.
• Conventions
• Shows emotion.
• I liked the way it showed many emotions and events for different people.

• Format and Narrative:
• Shows a vignette of a moment in the characters lives.
• Short narrative allows the point to be shown quickly and clearly.
• The film jumps from time to time to allow all the characters to be seen.
• Editing
• They edited cuts to allow people to disappear and move around however remains fluid.
• From the perspective of the bench, never see the view until the very end.
• The cuts are normally simple cuts.
• Themes
• Shows a representation age’s
• Emotions and their effects on others.
• Suggestions of different parts of life.
• Social problems such as drink.