Treatment

Title

The title of our film is 'Suffocation' This relates to the fact that Laila who is our main chacter is suffering from domestic violence and is trapped in a relatioship which she doesnt want to be in. She is lonley and aspiring for someone to wlak to she cannot take the fact she is all alone as her parents have disowned her, her isolation and bordem makes her into an emotional werck. I think that this titile is conventional as it expresses the emotion of a real peroson and what she is suffering anf British Social Relaism films aim to portay the mundane realsim and the injustice of what she is suffering from.I think this is very appealing to our traget audeince as it is very attention grabbing and our traget audience need a title which standout to them also i think the title portays a sence of enigma which is a very important convention of British Social Realism Films.

Target Audience

Our target audience for this production is in the age range of 16-24 so our aim to produce something exciting and thrilling which will catch the attention of our young audience. We are targeting towards both male and female for this production so we must alter our ideas to include themes and topics which will engage both male and female, whose interests would be socializing with friends, going to the cinema, eating out with friends their other media consumption wold be for example Twitter, Face book and would watch channels such as comedy central, Itv, channel 4, sky 1. 

These are very mainstream channels which mainly show fictional shows and programs which have nothing to do with real life and are heavily influenced by comedy. So the fact that we are producing an British Social Realist opening sequence for this target group would mean that we would have to familiarize them with the concept of British Social Realism and how this genre of film show the hardships and mundane realism of life and is often called a kitchen sink drama However the fact that our target is audience are mainly middle class students who live in England they will be familiar with the working class situations as they do see people suffering from problems such as dysfunctional families, petty crime, corruption of youth.. Etc.

This is the reason why chose to do a focus group for our primary research as we are able to hear the audience’s voice. Here is my primary research into the target audience which also explains our brief film idea.

We also carried out some secondary research into the target audience for British Social Realism films. 

This secondary research is conducted on the target audience for this production we are making and it gives quite a positive response towards British Social Realism films, this shows that the target audience would be interested in films which show reality compared to Hollywood films which show unrealistic and mostly fictional story lines. It will make it easier to create a British Social Realism film knowing that our target audience is able to relate to the situations shows despite our audience being middle class there are certain situations which a lot of teenagers go through which are all similar However this means that our target audience would mainly be interpreted in the themes such as: corruption of youth, petty crime, drugs, alcohol and dysfunctional families.

Our film idea is based on the idea of domestic violence despite this theme being something which our target audience is not familiar with when we described our idea to our focus group they really liked the idea, this draws attention to the fact that they are interested in shocking and realistic events. Despite the issue being very sensitive the focus group understood that many people go through though issues such as domestic violence. Also there are not many British Social Realist films in today's day as they mostly focus on the corruption of youth I think the fact this is a new and interesting theme attached with a sensitive issue it will catch the attention of many young adults and teenagers this is what would the unique selling point for our film. Having a unique selling point is very important as it is what makes your work stand out.

There is more research into British Social Realism Films looking at the UK film council exit poles where people leave comments on what they thought about the film. This can be very useful when looking at what a particular audience want from a film, and it is a useful tool for film makers as they can take out what a target audience likes from a particular film and enhance it so it meets the requirements for the audience. For example in the British Social Realist Film Tyrannosaurs there were many reasons for why they liked the film and the fact that only 7% of the audience went to see the film due to word of mouth means that it is very difficult for British Social Realism films to distribute as there is a niche particular audience who like watching British Social Realism as we can see from the 53% figure. As in our brief we are asked to create a film for 16-24 year olds we have to really find themes which interest this age group due to the fact most of the audience within this age group do not find British Social Realism interesting.

However here in the film Shifty 31% of the audience watched the film due to the fact that the story appealed to them meaning the topics were interesting and intriguing to watch and find out about, this is what we are aiming for in our British Social Realism  Here in Shifty the main themes were, crime, violence, drugs and isolation. There are themes which will all interest a younger audience so we need to use a couple of these themes in order to attract a younger audience as these themes are something which they are able to relate to in everyday life.

Technology

The technology which Rianne and I will be using in the production will be mainly an HD camera, tripod and an Apple mac with the program called I-movie which will be used to edit the footage. As this is a British Social Realism film, normally the company's which produce these films are independent companies who do not have a lot of money to spend on the production of the film so simple filming techniques and use of a HD camera will be match up to the conventions of a British Social Realist film . to make our opening sequence look realistic we will have to use hand held camera shots however we have to keep to the conventions of a BSR film meaning that despite having hand held shots we have to have good control use of the camera and use a variety of shots to keep the audience engaged. 

There are a few limitations such as we cannot have big establishing shots due to the fact we do not have a crane, money or facilities to do this type of shot. 

 Representations

The key characters in our film include:

Laila: She is the victim in the story; she gets the abuse from the antagonist who is Adam. Laila is going to be shown as a well behaved, well-mannered lady. Being brought up in not the best of neighbourhood’s and coming from a lower class family. She retained all the manners of an upper class person always trying to better herself and working very hard in school to make herself a better person. Laila is always a caring person but a hopeless romantic falling in love with the successful business man not seeing him for what he really is changes her life but for the worst. Marrying up the social ladder she was not able to finish school and become what she wanted to be wasting her talents and immediately becoming a house wife to Adam. Although she keeps a job for herself and it may not be the best job but it helps shows her independence and how even though her husband makes a lot of money she is still able to work and earn for herself.

Adam: He is the antagonist in the film and the man who marry s Laila. He is the typical successful business man who works very hard to make a name for himself in the industry he works in. He works on women's cases and fighting for their freedom against abusive men, but this successful business man also has another side to him. Being such a powerful man and having a lot of people depending on him all the time he has forgotten about his own relationship with his wife and the pressures of work start to build up causing a breakdown in his relationship and causing him to be abusive towards her. Adam will be shown as a very suave business man with always a brief case in his left hand showing he is ready to work at any time. He seems so professional that you wouldn't think that it would cross his mind to beat his wife but that's not the case in this situation. Adam enjoys playing professionalism sports such as golf and likes to visit the top-end restaurants to din-out. 

Daniel: Daniel is the protagonist in our film. He is the sweet, kind-hear-ted guy that every girl would fall in love with. The hero to Laila's life he unlocks the happiness within her that has been hidden in the shadows for many years. Daniel earning quite a bit for himself working in journalism always find the time to go get a coffee in the morning at Laila's coffee shop in the morning before starting a hectic day at work. Daniel being a victim of heartbreak can sympathize with Laila's current situation although he has no clue of what’s going on till later on. He enjoys the simple things in life making time for all his friends unlike Adam and now that he has experienced everything he has wanted he is at the point in his life where he is just looking to find that one girl and starts to settle down with. 

Will your film subvert or challenge typical representations of any group in society?

Our film would challenge the typical representations of class and status by  firstly challenging the typical stereotype of upper class only marry upper class, or working class only marry working class. We see in our film someone marrying up for not just for money but because she was actually attracted to him and his ambition and drive in life, this was because coming from a working class and knowing the people they don't have the mind-state that they want to do something big with their life and make a name for themselves. So finding someone who does want to do that immediately attracted her to his personality.

Her parents giving up most of their money so she can go to very good school because she was very bright. Enabled her to meet Adam and then shortly after they fell in love with each other She then gave up all of her dreams just so she could be with him her being younger and him just about to start uni, she threw away all of her talents and wasted all of her parents money causing them to get very mad and then her parents feeling disrespected because she gives up everything for a boy at such a young age. Her parents then disown her and she's lives with him alone, not meeting his parents as they do not accept someone forms a working class background. As time goes on she learns that the man of her dreams was not Mr Right all along and how over time respect he once had for get slowly disintegrates till there is nothing left. Here we are challenging the fact that a man who is supposed to be well educated and having high morals falls to the bottom with the most shameful form of abuse.   

Narrative

A successful business man leads a double life; the pressures of work build up on him leading him to be an abusive husband.

Themes

Dysfunctional families

Isolation

Violence

Adultery

Abuse

Aspiration

How will you use the conventions of an opening sequence specifically those of the BSR genre?

Varity of shot types such as midshot, close ups.

Will not expose too much of the narrative

Create enigma throughout

Location where we are going 

Inside Rianne house

Outside my house

School corridors

People

Optional

Conventions

We will use the conventions of the BSR genre and conform to them by sticking with the typical themes that come up and keeping everything realistic and not far-fetched. Keeping it realistic stays within the British Social Realism genre, we will also. We would keep to the typical camera language using the basic shots such as close, mid and long shots and keeping some shots hand held to give a more rough effect to it but we would also subvert because we would use a tripod and get some more cleaner shots when we need it not sticking to the gritty theme throughout. We are going to use are own soundtrack that has been made for our work, using a piece of music which isn't mainstream helps stick to the conventions also we have little dialogue in out opening sequence, it's more based on out characters action throughout helping the buildup. We build up tension making the audience want to know what is going to happen next. Also locations we are going to use are local not going somewhere that looks like it wouldn't fit in with the theme of BSR. The characters we are using are non-professional and this keeps to BSR convention because by using non-professional characters they are kind of use to these situations and may even have real life experience which would get them to play the role better.Our hybrid elements that we are having in this are we have a little bit of romance, straying way from the typical themes of BSR but other than that there is nothing else. The romance element adds something extra to it giving it a unique twist but still again keeping it realistic. Because it does happen in everyday life and some people may be able to relate to it in certain situations. 

Style and Iconography

We will use simple but effective transitions and a vi arty of shots in order to keep the audience engaged into our work, due to the fact that British Social Realism films do not have a wide use of camera language and often keep transitions very simple we will have to use many shore carefully in order to conform to the conventions of a British Social Realism film opening. The editing will be mostly continuity editing as this type of editing creates a flow and looks very realistic when an audience watch the product. Also continuity editing is simple and reflects real life. As British Social Realism films aim to show the mundane realism of everyday life this form of editing is perfect to reflect the real world. Here an example of continuity editing work which Rianne and I have done to reflect the impacts of continuity editing to the audience. The props and costumes will be very important to our story line as it will reflect the type of character really is. For example Adam who is well off business man will be wearing a suit implying he is stuck up and very smart whereas Laila who is the sweet kind hearted housewife in our story will be wearing simple dresses reflecting per personality The props that we will mostly be using would vary from location to location due to the fact we have 3 distinct locations where we are shooting our opening sequence. Visual Signifiers will establish the class of the character and what type of back ground they come from, for example the house that our characters live in, will be well decorated however to show the pressures of daily life of the business man we will show heaps of folders to signify a big work load which he cannot manage implying to the audience his life is in a mess despite the exterior of his personality looking well off. Our soundtrack will fit well with the image playing on the screen we feel that it will catch the audience attention as it has a nice melody but at times of distress though the opening sequence or at a point when it is an surprise to the audience the soundtrack with match and also have a harsher tone to it in this way it is able to grab the audience's attention further.

Institution

The institution which we are making the film for is Film 4. Film 4 is an independent film company meaning they make low budget films they also known for making British Social Realist films that portray the mundane realism and the hardships of everyday life. Film 4 films are also often referred to as kitchen sink dramas where the audience watch people as if they were going about in everyday life. As making a film for film 4 this means we will have a low budget for our production as Film 4 is an independent company and they do not have money for big stars or big sets this why we must shoot our British Social Realism opening in our homes or locations such as down the high road to represent mundane realism. This also means that we will have to think about the distribution of our film. We need to create attractive posters which will grab people’s attention and also we will need to get the film into a film festival before its release due to the fact we do not have the budget for marketing like a Hollywood film. For example the film Fish Tank was shown at Canns films festival as a distribution technique and also so film makers can pick the film up and put it in their cinema. It also acts as a form of publicity. Our film is most likely to be released on home cinema and also available on the Film 4 website and also sites such as Netflix and Love film. These are all examples of new media technology.