R+P POST 9: Whiplash opening sequence analysis

Analysing opening sequences 

WHIPLASH

The scene opens with a loud drumming which engages the audience; Miles Teller is framed within the frame as he outlines the narrative of the film. He is alone, isolated and he automatically captivates the audience as they empathise with him if they have ever felt within a similar position. We want to also captivate our audience as our coming of age film aims to engage audiences who are under-going similar circumstances in life.

As the scene goes on we get closer to the main protagonist and the music gets louder, the audience is drawn in to the world of the film. We are captivted and feel as though we are within the shoes of J.K.Simmons. This establishes Whiplash as a film which very much involves the audience with the narrative of the film, particular with the gripping story of Miles Teller.

The dark nature of this shot helps to convey J.K.Simmons' character as dark and mysterious, as we get through the film we later start to develop his character however in the opening of the film, the audience are 'left in the dark'.  Which is conveyed through the lighting within this shot.

We also get a sense of this character having dark humour, using his power and status to mock those in a lower position than him. This is shown through the high angle shot as this makes the character appear powerful in juxtaposition to the low angle shots used when Miles Teller is pictured in shot.

R+P POST 8: Genre, Title, Outline of film

Genre, Title, Outline of film

Title-

Our group decided on the title 'bearings' because we thought it managed to relate both to the theme of skating with 'bearings' being a device used to keep a wheel turning on it's axes but also with the more commonly used definition. Our film is about our main protagonist (Isabelle) having no relation to the common stereotypes of a girl ages 16. She challenges common conventions which adds to her interesting character. 

Genre-

Our film 'Bearings' is a coming-of-age drama. We chose this because we felt like it would be easiest to reach the target audience as we are part of the audience which coming-of-age films tend to be aimed at. Similar films within the genre include 'Submarine' and 'Whiplash'. 

Themes-

Our film covers themes such as gender and sexuality stereotypes and the pressures that they cause. The coming-of-age film 'Billy Elliot' also covers these issues and the success of this film highlight that these issues are of interest to people particularly in modern day where gender is a topic of huge controversy, this controversy will create a buzz for the film and people will go and watch it regardless of where their opinion lies.

Synopsis-

Our film focuses on the on-going conflict between 'Isabelle's' educational life and her passion for skateboarding. Although society and her parents push her towards work and school, skating is her passion. We follow her on this journey and witness her love for skateboarding. After demonstrations is her hard work Isabelle is invited to the national skateboarding competitions. However this competition is during her school exams, her parents try and convince her to concentrate on her exams but her passion drives her away, with moments of romance both sexually and platonic-ally Isabelle goes on a journey that she can never forget and faces problems that our audience will relate to and empathise with.

R+P POST 7: Institutional Research: Studio Canal

Studio Canal

Studio Canal is the only studio operating simultaneously in three main territories across Europe: France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The company distributes a total of more than 50 films a  year throughout Europe. This would allow us to spread our film across Europe which will help the success of the film. Studio Canal much like 'Vertigo' and 'Entertainment Film Distributors' have also had experience in distributing similar genre of films (coming-of-age) such as Billy Elliot and This Is England. 

R+P POST 6: Institutional Research: Entertainment Film Distributors

Institutional Research

Entertainment Film Distributors

Entertainment Film Distributors are another British distribution
company who have successfully distributed films in the U.K. They
were founded in 1978 by Michael L. Green. Since then the have successfully distributed huge films such as 'The Lord Of The Rings' and 'Saw'. 'The Lord Of The Rings' clearly was aimed at our age group and therefore have had prior experience in targeting our audience and how a knowhow on cultivating the market.


Between 1990 and 2010, Entertainment distributed films made by 
New Line Cinema along with films from other independent production 
companies, this shows that they are willing to give independent films 
a chance. Entertainment Film Distributors have released many BAFTA and Oscar-winning films including The Departed, Million Dollar Baby, Gosford Park, Brokeback Mountain and The Artist. This success highlights that they are able to distribute a range of films, although these are fantastic films, Entertainment Film Distributors hold a key role as they are the ones who are able to put the film out to people and generate a buzz on platforms such as social media.

R+P POST 5: Institutional Research: Vertigo Films

Institutional Research

Vertigo Films

Vertigo Films is a British distribution company which produced films such as the 'Street Dance' series. The company was founded in 2002 by Allan Niblo and Nick Love. The company aims to distributed films from independent production companies.
Vertigo themself claim ''Championing new talent has been key to Vertigo Film's production company' Examples of this include Tom Hardy who starred in 'Bronson' and Gareth Edwards who produced
'monsters' which vertigo helped to distribute. Since then he has gone on
to produce 'Godzilla' and 'Star Wars: Rogue One'. This demonstrates
how they are essential in the development of new talent. being an
independent film which would be the first that anyone from our group
had produced Vertigo Films may be willing to help new talent as they
have in the past.

Also they produced films such as 'Street Dance' and 'King Jack' which
target a similar target audience that we are aiming to target showing that
they have experience on distributing to this audience already.
'Street Dance' made £11million which demonstrates that Vertigo are
successful in distributing films to our target audience.

R+P POST 4: Audience Profiling

Audience profiling

These two characters were created so that we could base our film at a specific 'type' of person.

The first character is a female aged 15-20 she is the same age and

sex of the main protagonist within our film so instantly she 

becomes entwined with the character and the problems that she

faces. The issues we address could well be issues similar to what

she faces, therefore she will want to join the character on a journey of finding the problems that they both face. These issues include pressures from society to always look your best and peer pressure

into alcohol.

This character, although male also can relate on some of the problems challenges within out film. He is also 15-20 years old. He is also likely to enjoy skateboarding as it is a very popular sport amongst his age and sex group. He is likely to receive information regarding new films on social media so it is clear that social media is an area which we would need to cultivate in order to make our film successful.

R+P POST 3: BBFC ratings research

BBFC - Ratings regulations:

With our film being a coming of age film and our target audience being 15-20 years old we are looking at the upper brackets in terms of our film rating.

These catagories are a bit more limiting than the aged 18 regulations, with the issues that we want to address the aged 18 regulations may be better fitted however doing so would limit our audience dramatically and would not be beneficial for the profits of the film. As a group we decided to instead use the aged 15 regulations because although our audience is still slightly limited films such as 'deadpool' highlight that aged 15 films can still be financially successful because there is a gap within this aged audience.