Sunday 30 March 2014

Main Task - Research Part 5

During our research we watched a film called, "Some Mother's Son" it is set in the same time frame as our film is, therefore it is beneficial to us to watch this movie. It follows the story of the hunger strikers of 1981 in the maze prison in Northern Ireland. The mise en scene in this film is extremely effective as it brings a realistic and believable view on Northern Ireland during the troubles of the 1970/80s.



The lighting and editing of this film gives it a look of grunge on it, representing the poverty and turmoil conflict has caused in Ireland. We hope to use the same effects in our film to recreate the look to portray the despair caused by the actions of the people in our film. The titles in this film are simplistic and subtle as they are just text on the screen without any attention being made to it. We plan to have very simple titles in our film, we hope them to not take away from what is actually happening in the movie, therefore they will hopefully just be in the bottom corner of some shots.

Friday 28 March 2014

Main Task - Research Part 4

Anther film we have watched to gain some ideas for our main piece is mickybo & me. This film is set in Belfast at the time of the troubles. Although the actual groups that our film is based around do not feature in this movie, the mise en scene, lighting and locations would be perfect for our film. The titles also, at the start of the movie are what we hope to use for our film. The simplistic titles do not take away from the action that is happening on the screen, we aim to make this similar in our main task.



This film is very naturalistic and there is rarely artificial lighting. The majority of the film is set outside, and as some of our shots will be filmed outside we aim to control the lighting using final cut pro and to ensure there is no glare from the sun in any of our shots. The costume in this film, is very close to the time in which it is set. We hoped to get some ideas as to how to dress our actors to make our film, and which props would be authentic to the time. Though watching this film we also noticed there is a filter effect on the shots, this makes the movie look old and gives it a grimy and glum look, to portray the poverty and the effect of war on working-class people in Belfast.

Saturday 22 March 2014

Main Task - Research Part 3

Anther film which we want to base our project on is 'Michael Collins'. This film is about Irelands fight for independence and the easter rising in 1916. The film has a scene in which the IRA meet to discuss an attack on a police barracks to take weapons. The scene takes place in a small dark room, it is a secret meeting between the men.



The meeting happens at 4:23 in this clip. This film shows Ireland in a good way as it portrays the people's bravery and that their fight for freedom from British rule was an inspiring mission. The shots in this scene seem to focus directly at the main speaker of the meeting. This is how we plan to have our film with the portrayal of the importance of the leaders of the gangs. Although this film is set in 1916, the mise en scene of it, is a effective and very real in its reflection of the time it is set. We hope to ensure the mise en scene of our film brings a realistic and genuine look to the film.

Saturday 15 March 2014

Main Task - Research Part 2

Another film which is based on the troubles of Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s is Five Minutes of Heaven. This film has a meeting of UVF members arranging to kill a young catholic man. This meeting is useful for us as it shows that some groups don't think about the severity of their actions as they laugh and joke about how their reputations will improve with this killing, but others in the group feel worried about this plan. The camera in most of these gang meeting scenes always shows a close up of one member of the group looking frightened or seems to want to not conform to the gangs plan.




In this clip, the gang meet in a car to discuss killing a young man that they are all familiar with. This film reflects just a small bit of the troubles in Northern Ireland at this time, yet it still portrays the country as one that is still violent and hasn't moved on. In this film the two main characters represent the loyalist and republican communities and when the man who's brother was killed by the UVF, threatens to kill the man who killed him, the bitterness and hatred is evident and represents the current feeling around Northern Ireland. This is a very derogatory way to show the country.
The mise en scene for this film, when there are flashbacks to the times of the troubles, the location is perfect as it is clear that Belfast is a violent city. The costumes used in this film are exactly what we would use for our film as they represent the poverty in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and the hate that is in the group of young men's hearts. The props were also very authentic to the time the film is set, the cars and guns.
The lighting is mostly artificial as the flashback scenes are set at night. The darkness of these scenes gives the audience a sense of danger and suspense, the type of feeling we would aim to have for our film. The camera shots in this film are effective in that, when peace is being made, after the troubles, the shots are steady and seem to focus highly on facial expressions of the characters. But when danger is ahead or there is violence happening, the shots seem to be frantic and ever-changing to replicate the madness and unnatural effect of this conflict.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Main Task - Plot and Research Part 1

For our main task we have decided to make a drama film set in the late 1970s during the troubles in belfast, the main scenes are two meetings, one between IRA members and the other between UDA members. These meetings will cross over as they are talking about the same subject, revenge killings. The IRA are meeting to discuss the possible killing of a UDA leader who is in the hospital visiting his son who was injured in an alleged sectarian attack. The UDA are meeting to discuss the possible killing  of any catholic to hit back at the republican community.
We have researched the history of Northern Ireland during the troubles to give of an idea of the extremism of these groups just to have their voices heard. The target audience for our piece are people of ages ranging from 20 to 70, we would hope it would educate people who may not know a lot about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Also

We have watched a few films which our set in this time and with this style of genre. One of these films is In the Name of The Father, in this film there is a meeting between IRA members in prison talking about an attack on a prison officer, the men know the plan and act natural. We hope to base our film around this type of meeting.



In this clip we see men with an obvious attack on their minds, the tense music makes this clear to the audience. The way in which their plan goes along, each of the men has a job to do. For our film, the attack on the men will be based on this, pre-determined idea of what is going too happen.
The dark, harsh lighting of this clip is what we aim to have for our film. As we want to portray the hate of the characters this lighting would be perfect to represent this.
The mise en scene, such as, hair and make-up is very interesting in this clip as it makes it clear that it is set in 1970/80s. We would hope to base our work on the old-fashioned mise en scene for our film.
 The music used in this film is very tense and creates suspense throughout, as our film is similar, in this action/thriller genre we would hope to have music in order to make the audience feel anxious about what is about to happen.
The shots in this film, focus on the facial expressions on the characters, to make the audience aware of their reactions towards the action in the foreground of the shot. In this clip especially, when the prison officer is on fire, many close-up shots are shown of other characters. We would aim to have this during the action scenes of our film to show the frantic nature of what is happening in the scene.



The titles in this film are interesting in that it shows a scene in which people are entering a pub, and as they close the door a bomb goes off and the pub is blown up. This is effective as this is the first thing the audience sees and as the bomb blows the up beat music starts as this violence is what the audience should expect throughout the film. The titles are very simple, there are no big effects on them, they are just text with a black background. This isn't exactly what we plan for our film as we would want to have our titles over a scene as we wouldn't want the audience have to wait through the titles to watch the film as from previous experience this is very frustrating.