RetrospectA bold British Sci-Fi about the trials and heart-felt struggles of a troubled teen.
SynopsisRetrospect entails the life story of a young British adult as he struggles to find the fine line between right and wrong. Brought up in a council estate, ‘Dom’, turns to boxing as a means of escape and empowerment. Our film catches his story at a poignant part in his life. He has had his boxing licence revoked due to his arranged illegal boxing matches, which have big money rewards. On his biggest fight yet, the fight goes horribly wrong and he ends up beaten to a pulp. After being resuscitated he comes back with a strange lease of life. Dom has gained a strange power: the ability to rewind bad situations. Our film opening starts with the discovery of this power. During his first illegal fight after his near death experience, ironically he kills his opponent. The next day, he comes face to face with a newspaper article describing his brutality. However, he teleports from the present back to the fight scene and stops the fight to prevent the death of his opponent. The time period is brought back to the present and the newspaper article has changed. The rest of the story follows him along a string of trials his must overcome. However, Dom starts to take advantage of his new power and finds that his alteration of time begins to have a knock on effect on the loved ones around him. The film ends tragically when the implications of his adjustments mean that his dearest friend dies and his is unable to rewind time and save them.
GenreThere are two different categories to which our genre fits into. These are British Film and Sci-Fi. After our research we found that there was a big gap in the market for British Sci-Fi, a challenge which we felt we wanted to undertake. The conventions of a Sci-Fi include… a scientific theme, visionary aspects…Imaginative plots, usually visualized through fanciful settings… Expert film production design, advanced technology gadgets (i.e., robots and spaceships) and fantastic special effects. The latter of which we don’t have. To ensure that our film follows these conventions we plan on taking full advantage of the mac’s editing skills. The usage of editing pace, chronology & colour balance should enhance the believability of our production.
Another key feature that puts our film into the Sci-Fi category is the fact that our Character has the ability to rewind time… However, the immediate genre which is introduced to our audience is the concept of British film (British Mis-en-scene, clothes, music), so by adding the surprise element of sci-fi creates enigma. The aesthetics of a British Film are as follows: gritty, fast paced, and can show the realism and hardship of Britain.
The conventions of the opening 2 minutes of a feature length film are:*Establishes setting/character
*Uses establishing shot and slow pace edits
*Non diegetic sound
*Creates enigma.
We believe our idea incorporates all of these concepts. The establishing close ups of our character give time for the audience to be made aware of the proposed characteristics and props shown in the shot. Hopefully they gain an understanding of the type of character he is. The use of slow motion, real time and reverse scenes creates a contrast in which the plot is developed: the audience are captivated and engrossed by his trail of thought. This therefore, creates enigma. The use of non diegetic sound within the fight scene induces the sense of adrenaline and apprehension which again, adds to the overall pace.
Research
Our favourite part of sculpting our project was obviously the ‘market research’. Any excuse to watch films. We have capitalized on the new found interest for new British Drama/film i.e. Misfits and Adulthood and incorporated winning characteristics from these to enhance our opening. The main film that has the desired affect that we want to create is Adulthood. Here is a brief clip. (Cross, Mis-en-scene, music, costumes) Here is another of fish tank (Also a British film, mis-en-scene) Misfits is yet another form of media that we were able to gain ideas from. We like the way in which the rewinding of time is shown. Lastly, a music video. Devlin shows destruction with the shaking of the camera... something which we could possibly incorporate.
Opening
Our first two opening minutes of our film sequence is as follows... The clip begins with an 18 year old guy, dressed in lower class clothing. We will begin with establishing shots of the mise en scene of an estate. Our character would initially start running through an estate, all the while sparring to make the audience more aware that he is an ex boxer. We have decided to use the estate as it fits better with the mood/genre of the opening and it fits well with the character. We have decided to fade the titles in and out whilst the character is running. As the character is running through the estate he will have headphones in which will be playing diegetic music as it is in the characters ears, as he rests after training he will take out the headphones and the music will stop for the audience also. We have decided to play Shakespeare – Akala as it fits with the character profile. Our character is going to be stood/ sat against a wall showing the stress he's feeling rather than relaxation. We will then show 4-5 establishing character shots: Sparking up a cigarette, twitching with his fingers, bowing his head. By the character is part of a newspaper showing an article about the fight Dom has taken part in. After the character has seen the article he's smoking a cigarette which is blown into the camera and pauses the frame of the smoke for 2-3 seconds which then cuts to the fight scene. Dim lighting produced with a strobe light and torches as a fight/scramble between two lower class lads in an alley way takes place. Lots of low/high/ interesting angles. There are other people in the alley spurring the boys on. We will have diegetic sounds of the fight. The fight will end with Dom walking away from it ending this feud. The close up of the smoke will then rewind showing that time has now changed. Dom will then glance at the article and it will show a different article as if the event never took place.
Character
Research
Our favourite part of sculpting our project was obviously the ‘market research’. Any excuse to watch films. We have capitalized on the new found interest for new British Drama/film i.e. Misfits and Adulthood and incorporated winning characteristics from these to enhance our opening. The main film that has the desired affect that we want to create is Adulthood. Here is a brief clip. (Cross, Mis-en-scene, music, costumes) Here is another of fish tank (Also a British film, mis-en-scene) Misfits is yet another form of media that we were able to gain ideas from. We like the way in which the rewinding of time is shown. Lastly, a music video. Devlin shows destruction with the shaking of the camera... something which we could possibly incorporate.
OpeningOur first two opening minutes of our film sequence is as follows... The clip begins with an 18 year old guy, dressed in lower class clothing. We will begin with establishing shots of the mise en scene of an estate. Our character would initially start running through an estate, all the while sparring to make the audience more aware that he is an ex boxer. We have decided to use the estate as it fits better with the mood/genre of the opening and it fits well with the character. We have decided to fade the titles in and out whilst the character is running. As the character is running through the estate he will have headphones in which will be playing diegetic music as it is in the characters ears, as he rests after training he will take out the headphones and the music will stop for the audience also. We have decided to play Shakespeare – Akala as it fits with the character profile. Our character is going to be stood/ sat against a wall showing the stress he's feeling rather than relaxation. We will then show 4-5 establishing character shots: Sparking up a cigarette, twitching with his fingers, bowing his head. By the character is part of a newspaper showing an article about the fight Dom has taken part in. After the character has seen the article he's smoking a cigarette which is blown into the camera and pauses the frame of the smoke for 2-3 seconds which then cuts to the fight scene. Dim lighting produced with a strobe light and torches as a fight/scramble between two lower class lads in an alley way takes place. Lots of low/high/ interesting angles. There are other people in the alley spurring the boys on. We will have diegetic sounds of the fight. The fight will end with Dom walking away from it ending this feud. The close up of the smoke will then rewind showing that time has now changed. Dom will then glance at the article and it will show a different article as if the event never took place.
CharacterWe have chosen this actor to feature in our 2 minute film, as we believe he fits the look of the type of film we are creating to look like. In the film he will be presented as an 18 year old guy, with a job as an ex illegal boxer. He will be shown to be living in an estate that we will present in the opening of our film to get a background of where the character is from. The costume for our actor will be grey trackies similar to the picture shown, a hoody and trainers. Our character will have the hood up in the opening to emphasis he done something wrong and trying to hide away from it.
Location
To fit the aesthetics of our 2 minute opening we went and looked for potential locations that would look really effective and match well with the idea we have come up with. Here we have taken a few shots of places that we really liked the mise en scene of. We really liked the cross as it becomes a contradictory to the rest of the film. We wanted to use a location that had interesting shots of the lower class estate that our character is from.
Audience & rating
We believe that our film would attract a male audience from the age group of around16-25. This is our intended audience for our film. We also think that this film will appeal to people with a similar background. We think that our film would be rated a 15, we have done some research into the BBFC.
Overlaying music
We have chosen to use the song Shakespeare by Akala, as we think this song was quite fast paced and a song that our character would potentially run to from the look we have given him. The pace of the song matches the pace of the beginning of the film and has a good beat for the character to run and spar to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gme1YN-qZV8
By Gabi, Katie & Vicky
LocationTo fit the aesthetics of our 2 minute opening we went and looked for potential locations that would look really effective and match well with the idea we have come up with. Here we have taken a few shots of places that we really liked the mise en scene of. We really liked the cross as it becomes a contradictory to the rest of the film. We wanted to use a location that had interesting shots of the lower class estate that our character is from.
Audience & ratingWe believe that our film would attract a male audience from the age group of around16-25. This is our intended audience for our film. We also think that this film will appeal to people with a similar background. We think that our film would be rated a 15, we have done some research into the BBFC.
Overlaying musicWe have chosen to use the song Shakespeare by Akala, as we think this song was quite fast paced and a song that our character would potentially run to from the look we have given him. The pace of the song matches the pace of the beginning of the film and has a good beat for the character to run and spar to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gme1YN-qZV8
By Gabi, Katie & Vicky
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