Task 1

We decided to base the genre of our short film as a social realist, as we then researched various examples of this genre which include: KIDULTHOOD,AND THIS IS ENGLAND. We combined this genre with the style of a ‘poetic slur’; we initially developed this idea by watching the short film “slip of the tongue” which depicts different views and opinions of people in everyday society using a voice over as the main means of audio

We came up with the idea that our main character would feel as if he is trapped within society, we developed this concept through watching a short film called “inside” which gave us an insight of a mental patient who is locked in a facility and suffers from split personality disorder. Watching this film also allowed us to build up a character for our actor as we looked at the various personalities shown and were able to decide on which one would most suit our concept, actor and message

By watching various British films which follow social realist conventions such as, Adulthood and looking for Eric” we found that the mise en scne of the location is very important in terms of trying to create a mood for the film , for example if the film was shot on a sunny day in a park , the concept of the film would seem the complete opposite of what we were trying to depict , this is why we chose to film on days which the weather dull or grey as the film seem more realistic

We also chose to film in places where the mise en scene of the surrounding environment looked gritty and run down.

We wanted our location to look as realistic as possible because the genre of a social realism usually depicts a realistic portrayal of life in a British society, as well as many other aspects the more realistic the location the higher the chance you stand in making the audience understand the issue you are trying to put across

By studying a variety of different films we found that camera shots and angles can be used in order to use a variety of camera shots to make the main character seem a certain way, for example the long shots used in our short film make the character seem smaller, lonely and vulnerable in comparison to the surrounding environment


The fact that the protagonists costume is all black connotes that his internal depression has seeped out and has become more apparent to the outside world. It also displays a typical anti social youth of the 21st century, social realism films such as adulthood show this by using clothing such as hoodies.

00:47 From various media productions we have found that props can be a very suttle yet informative way of making your audience aware of the characters lifestyle. In this shot we can see 3 alcohol bottles which gives the impression that the protagonist is a alcaholic we wanted them to see this because in every day life and also film such a "looking for Eric" this is a way in which people deal with their problems

02:02 We have used many static camera shots because we are trying to show the characters detachment from society, this puts the audience at a distance as opposed to being in the characters position or being able to relate with the problems he is facing

Again the mise- en- scene in this location has been used to emphasise a deeper meaning , the fact taht in the previous 3 shots the character is in shot with railings or metal bars connotes the fact that he is trapped in this lifestyle.

02:48 The hand held camera in this shot is a typical convention seen in social realist films as it gives the film a more realistic edge An example of this technique would be "kidulthood"

03:06 We choose to include the college as a filming location as it is a very clear signifier of the characters age group. Our target audience is 17-19 yr olds and this could allow teenagers to empathise with the character as they could also find college lifestyles monotonous or pressuring

TAsk 4

Task 2

TASK 3

The film poster has an image of our main character in the foreground and blurred out sentences from the voice over in the background, this relates to the main characters life as the words are not clear and leaves the viewer unsure of how to judge him. The poster features  no colors other than shades of black and white this gives the audience an idea of the gloomy narrative.

The obvious link between our film review and film would be the screen shot which is displayed at the top of the page it was placed here  to catch the reader’s attention (A typical empire magazine print convention) , we chose a shot which would make audience members keen to read the review , this image shows the protagonist with his back to the camera which leaves viewers unable to distinguish the characters feelings however gives them an idea of his loneliness, this gives them a insight on the life of this character and the concept we aimed to produce , the location used for this shot also adds to the social realist genre.

We chose to use a sans serif font “Times new Roman” in order to give the  review a professional look, as the concept of our film is quite serious , if we used a sans serif font such as “comic sans” at a glance the reader may interpret the film as a comedy

The rating of the film was done based on audience feedback, it was important to rate the film appropriately because it gives the reader a idea of what they will be watching. It wouldn’t have been sensible to rate the film five stars because this is not realistic for a short film under the genre of social realism. Another way we informed the reader of the quality was by including a quotation from a viewer, we made the text bold so it would catch the reader’s eye.

The link between our ancillary texts are clear due to the use of dull colors and similar pictures which give of a gloomy feeling  which relate to or main character and storyline. The both display the title of the film very clearly defined by its large size.