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.
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