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