Part 1- Brief

When we started this project we were given a brief in which we had to follow in order for it to be acceptable for Film4 Productions.

The original Brief states:

You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year olds. To give Film 4 an idea of how your film will develop they have asked you to produce the first two minutes of the film, providing a clear sense of the graphical, editing and musical style your film will use. To protect Film 4’s reputation as a leader in British cinema the film must conform to the conventions of the Social Realist genre, and meet all audience expectations for this type of film. Finally, to keep costs low, all visual and audio material used in the film must be entirely original, with the exception of stock sound effects.

I believe that my production is clearly targeted to 16-24 year olds. We included sensitive, harsh themes such as Domestic Abuse, Teen Pregnancy and alcohol consumption. These themes are complex and at times can be too graphic for ages younger than 16. The themes of teen pregnancy can be relatable for teens aged 16-24 if they have experienced it. They may also appeal to watching this as information to see the lifestyle of an abused young pregnant teen as an insight to reality. Also we included a lot of swearing which is not acceptable for younger kids to hear. We included the poverty and deprivation that is commonly displayed in generic BSR films such as Fish Tank. At 0.42s in my opening sequence you can see the empty fridge and the basic kitchen without any expensive goods.


The title of our production was 'Cornered'. Our title has many connotations for example the words actual meaning is to be forced into a situation or place from which it is hard to escape. This connotes the content of our production where Becky (our main character) is being cornered by her abusive mother’s and is trying to escape from her because she finds out she is pregnant. 

Even though this may not be shown in our first 2 minutes it could be shown later on. We did not want to expose too much of the film in the first two minutes. Also our title connotes that she is being pushed into the deep, gritty corners of society and not being able to be set free by her mother and that her journey will be difficult. The title connotes themes of abuse and neglect and connotes a struggle, so instantly the viewer feels sympathetic towards the main character.  

At the start of our opening sequence we gave away a vital and shocking discovery that our character is pregnant. During our opening sequence the viewer see's our character carelessly drinking and smoking. The viewer is notified that the film will consist of a journey of Becky and her pregnancy. However after our title is displayed we showed a bit of the start of the action and that is where the mother is shown. She is very aggressive, calling her daughter foul things and dismissing Becky's evident sadness. This sets up the rest of my film because it gives the viewer insight of Becky's household and the domestic abuse she gets. A common convention of a BSR film opening sequence is a smash mouth opening. Even though our film was not as dramatic as some of the films such as Trainspotting but I believe the revealing of the pregnancy straight away creates a shocking moment especially when she starts to drink and smoke straight after her discovery.

The themes we have portrayed in our production are: Corruption of youth, Domestic Abuse, Alcohol addiction, rebellion and teen pregnancy.

Domestic Abuse-

We established the theme of domestic abuse later on in our production. When Becky is crying in her bed her mother storms into the room. Without consoling her or being a caring stereotypical mother she is very abrasive and aggressive towards her daughter saying 'What are you still doing in bed you stupid slag?' 'I should of gotten rid of you when I had the chance you stupid cow'. These two lines that the mother says clearly describes her feelings towards her daughter and that Becky receives a lot of abuse from her mother regularly. Similarly in Fish Tank the theme of domestic abuse is clearly evident in the film. The mother in the film is very similar to the mother in our film because they both subvert the common stereotypical representation of a mother.

Teen Pregnancy-

We established the theme of teen pregnancy in our production right at the start. She is on the phone to the guy who got her pregnant and he clearly wants nothing to do with it. This is clear when she says 'What? what do you mean it's not your problem?' This displays the characters isolation yet also her careless immature behavior. The theme of teen pregnancy is also displayed in Kidulthood. We represented the character in similar ways where she was frowned upon and started losing friends and was seen as an outcast. We did this when Becky asked her friend for a drink but she was rejected.

Production Log- Week 18

I think that I executed our production process very well. I kept to deadlines, remained organised throughout and used my knowledge of the media text to create a good overall product.

I also believe I contributed a fair amount to the production as a whole. I created the music by myself, and filmed the majority of the shots, however this was a group project and my partner also had some contribution.

My group was alright. Me and my partner are friends so we knew what we wanted to do and how to talk to each other. However being friends came to it's disadvantage because at times where I would like to be serious and do some work my partner would think that this was a joke and would not pay attention. It would be difficult to make her understand the importance of the task as she thought that I was having a laugh when I wasn't. This made me stressed because we were not getting work done because the majority of the time we were arguing or she was not listening/contributing. However after all that arguing we worked well. We came out with a good final product that we are pleased of and even though it was a bit hard, I was glad that I worked with her because I don't think I would of achieved what I have done.]

My key strengths of the process was definitley the sound and editing aspect of the production. I enjoyed creating the music. It did not take too long to make, yet me and my partner both agreed it would fit into our production well.. I also enjoyed cutting the footage to size and watching our production grow and fit together neatly. I believe that I did this well because in some points the match on action is so tight you can not even notice that we used just one video camera.

I think in the future I will improve on my communication skills. I do at times find it hard to work in a group or partnership because I like my voice to be heard. However I have now realised it's good to let others speak and work together.

Production Log- Week 17

The sound aspect of our production was particularly simple. I was a previous GCSE music student so was familiar with the music production programmes. One lunch I made a random beat in a couple minutes and I asked my partner to come down and hear it. We both thought that it sounded good and would suit our production very well. However the issue with it was knowing the timing. I wanted the bass to appear at the start and when our actor is drinking and smoking, the bass goes to give an empty, slower feel to the production to mimic the effect of the alcohol. We also extracted the audio from one of the shots of our actress's film mum and used it on top of  a shot of her crying. We did this because the shot of the mum looked wrong and was not shot right. She was unable to film due to illness so we extracted the audio and it works just as well.

The issue with the music was easily rectified. I filmed from where the music was going to start and from where the music would finish on my phone. This helped me set boundaries of where I want the bass to enter and exit.

Production Log- Week 16

This week has been a productive week for me and my partner. We filmed all our relevant additional shots both inside our characters house and outside. It did not take long to film because we had a couple weeks previously to thoroughly plan what we are going to do. I guess at times we had to ensure that the footage was similar to the previous shots we had filmed before. For example the weather, location and lighting in her house.

If there were any issues we easily rectified it because we wanted to get the best shots possible. For example if the lighting in our actors room was different to a previous shot, we altered it by opening her curtains a bit more or close them if there is too much light.

Our teacher then came and saw our production as a draft finished product. Overall he was pleased with it. However there were little things that our production needed in order to represent character well. For example we did not portray our character as an aggressive girl like we wanted so we added a shot of her pushing someone on the street. Also at some points a shot was required to make the production more fluid as a whole for example shots of her walking.

"Cornered" Opening Sequence