Harry Brown - Trailer

The film Harry Brown, directed by Daniel Barber, is a British drama which falls within the Social Realism genre. The plot follows a pensioner who lives on a English housing estate that is "descending into youth crime". After my change in genre, my new storyline has taken a new turn. It now consists of themes relating to modern day British society, and how it is effecting the younger generation. After watching the trailer, it is evident that this has similar themes.

Helpful site

I have found a site which I think we help my extremely during my new research into social realism and films done by independent films houses.

http://www.empireonline.com/features/50greatestindependent/50-41.asp#50independent

This Is England Analysis

This Is England is another Social Realist film, again produced by Shane Meadows. I decided to look further into Meadow's work as I like the style he uses when filming and I think he is very successful within the Social Realism genre. It is based in the 80's and gives and insight into the 'skinhead' culture of the time in England. It is a very emotional and hard-hitting story, which is typical of Social Realism films.

Again, I have taken several screen shots of the trailer which I think portray typical conventions of the genre.

The inter-titles in a trailer are extremely important, especially in those of films of this particular genre, as they help establish some sort of narrative along with the footage. Due to the minimal nature of some of the footage featured within some Social Realism films, the inter-titles used are vital in creating interest within the audience. In this particular trailer, similarly to the trailer for Somers Town, they are trying to create interest within the audience by including good reviews of the film. The text used is simple, placed over artistic location shots. This is seen in a lot of trailers with small budgets, like Social Realism films.

This screenshot is of a particular part of the trailer where the footage has been slowed down, so the characters are almost in slow motion. Due to the low budget nature of films like This Is England, there are not a lot of post editing which is found in Hollywood movies. However, in order to create variety and create a trailer that interests audience, some postproduction editing is done. As well as the usual transitions between shots, some effects like this are used in order to add an artistic effect to the trailer.

Again, this part of the trailer involved some post-production editing which is simple, yet effective. Two clips have been simply layed over each other to create a montage effect. Social Realism films rarely rely on elaborate editing within their trailers, however artistic editing like this is sometimes found.

As well as the inter-titles which present some of the positive reviews of the film, Meadows has alos included independent film awards that the film has been nominated for. This is another selling point commonly featured within trailers of Social Realism films.

Somers Town Analysis

This is a trailer for the film "Somers Town" directed by Shane Meadows. Meadows' films tend to all belong to the genre 'Social Realism' which is now my chosen genre. The film Somers Town seems to contain similar themes to my own storyline, so I've decided to analyse

the trailer for typical codes and conventions for this genre so that I can apply them in my own work.

I have taken several screen shots of from the trailer so that I can analyse the conventions.

This is one of the first shots shown in the trailer. Usually, films that belong to the social realism genre are shot by independent companies due to minimal budgets needed and they are never expected to feature well known actors/actresses. Trailers for films of this particular genre and budget aren't usually fast paced, action-packed like those of Hollywood films, therefore quite a lot of the time the trailers include awards that the film has been nominated for, or positive reviews of the film, in order to create interest.

Another element used within most trailers is the use of filters over the footage. The use of filters helps to create a particular mood to the trailer. Throughout the entirety of the trailer, there is a black and white filter over the footage which was most likely added during post-production. This filter creates a individual, original edge to the trailer as most films are colour.
I took a screenshot of this particular shot as I like the framing of it, with the character in the middle of the shot whilst people walked past (out of focus). The shots that Meadows produces are always well thought through, taking into consideration the framing, focus and composition of the shots. Within my own work, I will rely on the framing on my shots in order to create an artistic edge to my work, meaning it will follow the typical conventions of the social realism genre.
I took a screen shot of this particular shot because of yet again the brilliant framing of the character, and also the natural lighting used within it. Because of the small budgets used, natural lighting is almost always used in films of a social realism genre.

Shane Meadows - Director

These trailers are for some of Shane Meadows', an English director and screen director, more well known films. Meadows tends to focus more of social realism films, and his inspiration usually comes from his own experiences from his youth. I like Meadows' work due to his style of filming, and hope to adopt a similar style of filming when taking my own footage. Meadows tends to take simple shots, but in an artistic way. Since I've changed the direction I'm going in, I would like to take some more shots as well as use some of the shots I've already taken to create an artistic edge to my own work.

Change of plan!

After filming some test footage, I have realised that the shots I planned do not achieve what I wanted and do not clearly portray my original story-line. Therefore, I have decided to change the genre and my general story-line. There are some shots in my test footage that have inspired me to take my trailer down the route of social realism films, with a more gritty story-line about a teenage boy who has lost his way and how society lets this happen to a large percentage of teens in this country. The shots that I like from my my test footage are those that are atmospheric, depressing and where the character is looking moody. I will look at work by director Ken Loach, as he has directed films in a similar genre. I will plan some new shots, and refilm in order to follor my new brief. Here are some of the shots from my test footage;

After this change in direction, I came up with a few ideas for shots to use within my trailer. Here are a few sketches, accompanied with notes, of ideas for my new footage which I may combine with some of the footage I already had. (click on the image to enlarge)