Emmanuel Adair Year 12 AS Media Studies Blog: Evaluation Part 1

What brief were you working to?

My group and I were given a brief to work towards, it had to target 'British 16-24 year olds' and also our opening sequence was to be roughly 2 minutes short. The opening sequence had to be from the 'social realism genre' and all of our audio and visual material had to be completely original and music had to be copyright free. In reference to targeting 'British 16-24 year olds' my opening sequence successfully did this as we kept to the smash mouth opening creating a fast paced opening sequence intriguing the audience, which generally appeals to this age range. Also the actors themselves were of the age 16-18, so the audience can relate to this. My opening sequence for 'Rivals' ran at 2;10, this was acceptable as the brief stated that we could be 12 seconds above, so this was no issue. In the brief no exact gender was mentioned, however this may have been a problem for our opening sequence as no females were included therefore i feel it would mainly appeal to males.

Explain the title and what happens in your opening sequence making reference to the treatment?

The title for our BSR film is 'Rivals' this connotes the rivalry between the characters seen in the opening sequence, and also the violence that occurs in the film.The typography we used for the title was an urban jungle style font, this connotes the urban feel of the film, relating to British Social Realism, as most contemporary BSR films are set in the urban parts of Britain, in this case East London, for example one of the films i researched was 'My Brother The Devil' which was set in Hackney. The general story to the entire film is; a large gang in the Romford area were controlled by 2 brothers (David and George) who had lost their mother at a young age and were dragged into the gang by members of it who they befriended. Due to David's girlfriend cheating on him with George, a separation between the members occurs due to both brothers fighting.. Eventually David decides enough is enough, and targets the girl who tore them apart while he is not home. The opening sequence only showed David breaking into George's flat with 2 of his other gang members, this is seen at '1;20-1;39' here you can see them breaking into George's flat, by kicking down the door. The intervention between the brothers allows the audience to see the corruption found in British society. Our film 'Rivals' was heavily influenced by other BSR films such as; 'Shank', 'Kidulthood' and 'Ill manors', at '2;03' the audience can see the character attempting to kick down Georges door, this relates back to violence, which is another element heavily used in the likes of those films mentioned.

Explain how it explores the themes of BSR referring to your research

The main theme we were intending to explore was violence, this is evidently seen in our opening sequence, as the audience can see at various times where physical violence was present, for example at '2:07' when David pulls out a flick knife, clearly connoting the theme of violence as the weapon itself connotes this, and also at '2:08' when David pushes George up against the door and holds the knife above his head, portraying the theme of violence. All the characters were represented as stereotypical British teenagers, conforming to typical portrayals such as gang violence, this is seen through the costumes of the characters, typically being tracksuits and black jackets. In reference to research, my group and I watched various other BSR films and opening sequences, which also explored this theme, from the likes of; 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood', 'Ill manors', 'Shank' and many more. For example, in particular this was seen in 'Kidulthood', when Jay, Trevor and Moony break into Sams flat and beat him up and push his mother down the stairs, this scene connotes violence.