LO1 - Task 2

Purpose

The purpose of this film is to entertain audiences and be used as a method of escapism. It is presented as a feature film and would have been released in cinemas nationally for a couple of months before also being released as a DVD and similar products for audience consumption in different ways.

Genre

The genre is thriller with slight comedy and horror elements. The advertising focussed more around the thriller and horror elements as a lot of iconography from the film fits into that more than comedy. The use of the location and characters defy and or twist the conventions or normal parts of that genre so that the film comes across as different which is important for warp as this was their first film so they had to make it seem unique and like they were a company worth looking out for. The choice to make the narrative and the protagonist’s arch morally ambiguous could make audience want to watch the film more than once which would make the film more money. 

Style

The style of the film is very gritty and it strongly adheres to use of verisimilitude, this makes the events of the film seem more powerful as they appear realistic. The insertion of comedy into the film also adds to the characterisation and allows audiences to become invested in the narrative more easily.

Content

The content of my film is what appears to be a conventional revenge story but quickly starts to become different to the average film in that sub genre. Dead man's shoes follows Todorov's theory to a certain degree. There does seem to be at the beginning of the film, a sense of equilibrium, although it does appear to be a shady one based around drugs and the dealing of the them by a group of people. Whilst this doesn't seem like a good situation, overall it doesn't seem that bad as the film continues, however the people with who this situation applies to, could be seen as the villains of the film and are certainly made out to be characters that the audience aren't supposed to be supporting .The Introduction of Paddy Considine character soon disrupts this though, and throughout the film we see this "equilibrium" rapidly disappear and the characters being forced down an increasingly dark and desperate path.

We don't get to see whether or not Equilibrium is restored with the film ending in such a sudden way, however most of the characters who it applied to at the begging of the film are dead, and the remaining one seems shocked and changed by the events that occurred throughout the narrative.

Genre

Dead man's shoes is a horror thriller due to the nature of the narrative and how it's presented. There are also comedy elements throughout the film, but they aren't the main focus of it.

It also fits into the sub-genres of slasher and home invasion, which are both types of horror. It is also a revenge story, which is usually associated with action.

Content and meaning

Sound

Diegetic – In dead man’s shoes the sound a gunshot denotes that a gun has been fired but connotes that someone has died and that this is a violent situation. The sound of the rain denotes that it is raining, however it also connotes the mood of the characters and how this is a typical British village which are often stereotyped as being very rainy. 

Non diegetic – The soundtrack changes throughout the film, starting off as quite a light happy piece but quickly becoming darker and more intense. This connotes how the narrative of the film changes and how the situation which the characters are in continually transform. It could also reflect the mind-set of the characters, with each character becoming increasingly unsettled and further from any sense of humanity and normal life as each scene passes.

The diegetic sounds mostly all fit the conventions of the genre. The frequent use of dialogue is quieter than most of the other sound effects, which makes all the other sounds effects of the film seem even more violent and have an increased effect on the reader. The soundtrack also fits the genre which genre of the film. All of the music which is featured in the film is licensed songs by varying artists. However often the songs are edited and shortened to fit the sequence in which they’re used. Whilst the general use of songs and music becomes darker throughout the film, the majority of the songs remain quiet melodic acoustic pieces.

About a third of the way into the film there is a confrontation between two of the main characters: Sonny and Richard. This is the first time any of the drug gang encounters Richard when they suspect that he is a threat. In this scene Richard immediately displays his sense of power by interrupting Sonny. Sonny begins saying “You know, the lads have this ridiculous idea that-”, before Richard quickly interjects by saying “Yeah, it was me”. This immediately establishes Richard’s sense of power over Sonny and because of the casual manner in which he says it, demonstrates his lack of nerves or fear, that Sonny was hoping to try and expose. Later on in the scene Richard’s threat to Sonny becomes more aggressive, at one instance he points to the palm of his hand and says to Sonny “You’re F**king here mate”, demonstrating the grasp and control he has over him. 


Editing

In dead man's shoes one of the pieces of editing regularly used, is the shot reverse shot structure, this is because of how many parts of the film are comprised of dialogue and using that kind of editing makes it easier for viewers to be able to understand and watch the conversation unfolding.

One example of an action shot is near the beginning of the film when Herbie attempts to leave his friends flat and come down to see Richard waiting behind the door, the action match starts with an over the shoulder shot of Richard where Mark is clearly visible over through the door. In this shot we see movement in Richard's arm before it quickly cuts to a shot on the other side of the door where we can see from a front on view Richard hitting the door with the bottom of his fist. This is effective because, from the second we see the back of this character and a slight reflection in the window we can tell that they are dangerous and ominous, but by changing the camera to have the full view of the character and their mask on when the loud bang is heard, amplifies the fear that we feel and makes the audience jump out of their seat in fear.

Camerawork

One of the shots used frequently in dead man's shoes is the close up. This forces the audience to take a closer look at the character's faces and all of the small movements and reactions to what is being said, showing off in better detail the actors performances. This also conveys the 'in your face' kind of visceral and gritty film that Shane Meadows intended Dead Man's Shoes to be. Another shot used at regular intervals throughout the film, particularly near the beginning,  are long shots and establishing shots, which help to bring viewers into the films interesting and often not visited setting. These also let the viewers know about the isolation of the village, showing them how there is no easy escape for the characters, which pays off later on in the film, with the disruption of the equilibrium.

When high angle shots are used in the film, it's usually when the camera is focussing on the Sonny's crew. This shows them as weaker characters, who because of the bad things they do, should be 'looked down on' by the viewers. Low-angle shots are used for the opposite reason. Whenever Shane Meadows chooses to implement a low angle shot, it's when the camera is looking at Richard: this makes him seem bigger and more menacing than he is, his character immediately becomes more intimidating. It also often silhouettes his body against the background, giving the effect of some giant omnipotent presence, like a kind of wicked god. This also relates to parts in the film, where he says that "God will forgive these men" and that he "can't live with that".

One example of movement in the camera works, is when the story goes into flashbacks, the camera is often quite shaky, this shows the instability of Richard's mind and how what he remembers isn't vivid or clear which may be due to his emotional connection to them, which warps his view of it.

One of the first shots of the film is when the two brothers are both lying together as babies, this connotes the bond between them and shows how one will always follow the other, I can tell this as the camera starts by only showing one of the brothers, then pans to the side to show that they're lying together. This footage also resembles footage that would have been filmed by a family member, which connotes that it wasn't only Richard who would have been so massively effected by the loss of his brother.

Mise-en-scene

In dead man's shoes, mise en scene is used to try and help create a distinct setting and mood for the film. Most of the sets of the film seem just like viewers would expect to find in rural midlands villages, this makes the film feel more authentic and makes it a more believable story allowing the audience to become more invested. This also makes the events and nature of the film even more shocking as it hits closer to home by having it in a location that most people who would have watched the film would have visited or been familiar with. The camera is often close up to characters and used to make most of the sets seem smaller and confined, this creates an effect of chlostrophobia and makes the viewers feel more trapped; emphasising the terror of the characters.

Another example of setting in this film, is the farm in which Richard stays. The dilapidated and crumbling structure connote Richards insanity and slowly disappearing humanity. The idea of this place which would have once been so full of life, now empty and derelict, conveys the effect that the death of his brother would have had on Richard: taking all the joy out of his life and reducing him to a cold hard shell of anger and pain.

One example of iconography is the gas mask that Richard wears at certain points in the film. It is quite a scary piece of clothing, putting viewers on edge from the first time it's used. Due to Gas masks use in the 2nd world war, they have strong connotations of death and evil, this makes it use in such a peaceful setting even more terrifying because of how it is a dramatic disruption to the equilibrium.

Another example of iconography is the Citroën 2CV which the drug dealers all drive about in. This is effective because it helps to connote the comedic undertones that Shane meadows has used throughout the film. It also shows how under equipped the character are for the situation at hand as well as contradicting the  suave drug dealer stereotype that is often found in modern films.

Richard's gestures are often quick and small, this shows how he is brewing with energy and emotion which he is barely able to control. It also makes the audience jumpy, as they are never sure if one of these small moves is  going to lead into a bigger one, which could be more dangerous than all of the others.

Sonny tries to carry himself with a certain amount of swagger nearer the beginning of the film. this connotes his self confidence and how he believes himself to be untouchable. This makes it even more obvious when he begins to doubt himself, and whether or not he's going to be able to come out of this nightmare as a winner like he has so many times before.

Due to warp's smaller budget a lot of the costume's used are just normal clothes that most likely would have belonged to the actors beforehand. This does, however, work to show the normality of their lives before the introduction of Richard. It also makes them more believable.

Warp also didn't do much with the lighting. This gives all the film a more natural look, giving it a raw and gritty effect, that is difficult to find in many big budget, mainstream Hollywood films. However there are some parts throughout the film, where everything falls under a black and white filter. This happens during the flashbacks to make it obvious for viewers that these are in fact flashbacks, but also the darker footage offers a more visceral view of the whole story, making it even more hard to bear when viewers watch the events unfold onscreen. It also offers the viewers the chance to see for themselves what actually happened, and not the opinions of the characters, hence they are seeing the "black and white" facts of the matter.

            Production process

Pre-production

For the planning and pre-production of dead man's shoes, certain things needed to be done.

The script would have needed to be written by Paddy Considine and Shane Meadows. the choice of director and some of the cast would have already been decided, however the rest of the cast and crew would need to be hired and the budget would have needed to be established by warp films.

Production

 The production of the film would have been mostly made up of the actual filming of all the scenes. They also would have re-recorded that didn't sound as good in the camera footage, this could include dialogue and sound effects, although some of the effects would be added in post production. For the production the camera crew and actors will have travelled to Matlock so that they could get the scenes on location

Post production

The post production of the film would have primarily comprised of editing the footage, so that it would effectively convey the narrative in a way that would make it easier for viewers to watch and understand. The addition of certain sounds would be added: this would include all the sound that was re-recorded during the film's production, any of the foley sound that would have been made after the production and the soundtrack would be added to film and edited so that it didn't subtract anything from the other sounds and how the narrative is told, one example of this is the gun shots that are heard across the film as they would not have used a real gun because of the health and safety hazards it would have caused.

LO1 - Task 1

Ownership: Script 

My name is Lewis Wright and I’m here to talk to you about the world of movie production on behalf of educationwise.

Let’s start by talking out independent companies. Whilst many other companies are part of major conglomerates, Independent companies are often more arty and whilst they do still want to earn a profit, because money is a pretty important part of modern society, they tend to be in the business for the sake of being good at it. Take Warp Films for example, it’s not highly likely you’ve heard of many of their films, I mean, you might have seen four lions but it wasn’t really advertised or distributed that much. However if I asked you if you’ve seen any of the Transformers films you’d probably say yes.

Independent business’s often have to take part in joint ventures for big projects. This is often because due to their smaller size and often lower budget, the companies are limited in what they can do by themselves. And so by joining together they can make something even better. An example of this is warp films who very often team up with film4. One example of a film that was a joint venture was Ben Wheatley's "kill list".  Wheatley co-wrote and directed the film under the funding of warp films and film4 and whilst it only made £111,682, which is quite a low amount for a film, the film received multiple awards and was nominated for many more garnering it a critical success. Raise your hand if you know what a conglomerate is … now lower them because I’m a video and can’t see what you’re doing… idiots. For those of you who are unclear a conglomerate is basically a pie. You see a pie is made out of different slices, all of which are fine are fine on their own,but when they’re all together make something even better. Rupert Murdoch is the owner of fox and has a net worth of over 12.5 billion. Because of how long he's been making money and expanding his business he now owns two major conglomerates: Newscorp and 21st century fox 

Operating models

The nextx thing we will be looking at are operating models, which sound simple but actually have much mroe to them: did you know for example companies have 2 different types of integration: horizontal and vertical , but to understand them we first need to understand the 3 stages of a company releasing a product. Stage one is production so that's the actually creation of the product, it could be actually filming for a film or building something like a toy or gadget or writing a book. Then you have stage 2, the distribution, in which you take the take the product and get it out to the masses. Then there's the third final and possibly most important stage: exchange, this is when the company gives the product to public in exchange for something which is almost always money. 

 Vertical and Horizontal integration are basically the different ways of which a company can go about completing a project, seeing as each smaller company like a subsidiary or an independent company can't find funding to complete the whole process by themselves, usually either focussing on either production or distribution, they need to come together with other companies for a joint venture or as I like the call it "the big fun super happy company friends game". 

Both forms of integration are a variation on this, with horizontal being when it happens with companies that you aren't part of a conglomerate with, making it the only option for independent companies, and vertical being when you complete the whole process from within the conglomerate. Vertical integration is the most economically friendly option seeing as it will allow you do everything for cheaper as you are all part of the same company and the profits will be equally useful to all subsidiaries who took part in the process. It's like buying a pizza for yourself or with friends, if you do it with friends it costs less, but then you also get less (*holds up a slice of pizza) and if you do it by yourself, it'll cost more but be worth it in the end (*takes a mouthful of the pizza). 

Conglomerates can use horizontal integration, whenever they have joint ventures with parent companies for example, but usually they'll stick to vertical integration, because it makes a lot more money  

To find out about Warp x you must first cast your mind back to 2005, when the Digital Screen Network was founded. It was founded to try and combat the fact that the only films available to see in cinema were blockbuster American action films. They thought to try and create more variety they needed to allow smaller independent film companies to be able to distribute their products easier. Thereby they introduced digital film projectors to most cinemas across the UK; this made it cheaper for smaller companies to distribute their films as they did not need to create large quantities of expensive film. 

Warp x is the sister company to warp films. Their job is to convert all of Warp film's products from film to digital and then distribute it to cinemas both local like the showroom and national like Odeon or Cineworld.  

Products

Warp films is in a parent company with warp records and a sister company with warp x and  until recently only made one product, films. However they have now started to venture into strange and exciting territory with a brand spanking new TV show called "the last panthers"  being released on sky atlantic and another show called "southcliffe" and whilst these aren't the first TV shows they've made, it'll be the first that didn't start of as a film. Of course I'm on about the "This is England" series, which has already had 2 series: "This is England '86" and "'88". the series is set to finish this year with the release of "This is England '90" concluding the story of the characters.

They have also released 2 documentaries, both following popular bands, with the first being a, warp favourite, Shane Meadows featuring the rolling stones, their rise to fame and their 2012 reunion tour. And the second as Richard Ayoade presenting the final gig of the arctic monkeys renowed 2007 tour.  

In total Warp have released 17 feature films, all of which are very niche and unconventional projects and while rates of commercial success have varied all of which have gathered critical acclaim and a cult following. Whilst for many studios an income the size of warp's would be a massive failure, their use of low budgets and horizontal integration means that it doesn't have as much of a negative effect if a film makes a low box office.

First up it's "independent productions", who have adapted several novels to films already including "we need to talk about Kevin, which was released to critical acclaim. This will help them attract a new market as people who have already read the novels would be interested to see an on screen adaptation. However their have been a few original projects with "the falling" a new film starring Masie Williams (Game of thrones) being the brainchild of writer and director Carol Morley. Though it was a critical success The falling only scraped together £359,082, which when considering it's probably one of the company's best known films isn't alot. Warp Films most successful project "This is England" grossed a worldwide profit of $8,155,222 absolutely dwarfing that of "the falling".

It also put warp on a lot of people's radars making them pay attention and give a lot of their films a chance,

this lead to a lot of their films being more successful and receiving a higher box office, e.g. Four Lions. 

So in short, though Independent productions do a have a strong set of films  

Another independent film company posing a possible threat to warp films is the equally pretentiously named 

Big Buddha films (*Logo flashes up on screen with a popping sound effect). They specialise in producing

short films to be released 

Market Position

Warp films is one of the most well established and successful independent film companies in Britain (or even the world). They have managed to release 17 feature films and won multiple awards including Baftas (*audience applauding sound clip) making them a critics favourite and often highly anticipated projects. Their current net worth sits at around £482,200 pounds and is only expected to go up as the company expands. Each year the company raises an increasing amount with their 2014 income being 50.9% higher than 2013’s.

Rupert Murdoch quiz

I'd say 90% correct is decent 

This quiz was given to test and recap our memory of all the information that we were given last lesson. The questions covered Rupert Murdoch, 20th century fox, warp films and the difference between independent companies and conglomerates. The question I got incorrect was the about the conglomerates that Rupert Murdoch owned, in my answer I confused "Newscorp" with "News of the world" (which I'd say is an easy mistake).