Evaluation Activity 1

"In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?"

  Scene 1
The opening scene of "Old Habits, Die Hard" are designed to prolong the wait, to what viewers know will end in danger, whilst making it appear as a "normal" location. This is a form of foreboding, to make the viewer on edge and wait for the action, which however doesn't come in a form which would be expected by the audience. During the first scene of the opening we use a range of master shots to close ups to best show the viewers, without being completely clear, the situation the protagonist is in.

During these shots we show "Toby" walking from a public suburb to a seemingly abandoned building. Both the techniques and filming of this scene is often very typical of thriller films as it prolongs the drama and builds suspense and we decided the locations on what we felt like were realistic for the plot of our film, we did this to conform to the realism needed in social realistic films.

We used sudden cuts and short, black transitions in addition to the shots to create a feeling of anxiousness in the viewer. We added to the feeling of anxiousness because, although the shots were fast, we drew out the sequence to seemingly last longer than needed. The way we introduced our protagonist "Toby" challenges the conventions of many social realisms as we do not tell the audience about the character but like "Train spotting" and some thrillers we quickly try to forces the viewers into questioning the protagonist's actions which make them more aware of any small details of the character. 

We decided to add a sound track over the starting scene as even though it is less seen in social realism's we felt that by opposing the expectations of the genre we could add something extra to the scene. While not necessary to the genre of social realism, it added an atmosphere and conforms to the expectations of many thrillers.

Scene 2

In this scene we showed "Toby" using a variety of close and mid shots to clearly show his appearance for the first time, we used this scene to show the viewers "he is our protagonist" and this use of shot types to show the main character is very often used in social realisms as it gets the viewers close, sometimes uncomfortably close, to the person so that they feel more aware of the person being "Human" rather than a actor.

During the early parts of this scene the music fades out alerting the viewers of change, we did this partly to allow for easier hearing of the dialogue but also so viewers can tell something is about to happen.

The location we choose to film in had two major advantages, one it was a realistic and likely setting for such a meeting but also because of it's practical use at blocking wind, rain and having reasonable low levels of external sound.

We decided to have Toby dressed in unique clothes, partly to distinguish him from others but to also show his personal uniqueness as a character. Toby on the whole breaks the average conventions of both thriller and social realism as he is nether relate-able or put in a place of admiration. We felt that although it broke the typical stereotypes as the opening progressed Toby would become more relate-able to the audience and his personal problems, mainly his social awkwardness would become a "loveable" point or one used to explain his downfalls.

Scene 3
In this scene "Toby" meets "Creegan", both characters are distanced from the viewers due to the lack of personal detail leaving the viewer to brewed over what is happening, this uncertainty is what we aimed for in the opening scenes as it creates a mystery between character and viewer, and although this isn't often used in social realisms it does occur in thrillers and, we hope, that it will makes the viewers want to continue watching, this is typical in action or psychological thrillers but really breaks the conventions of a social realism as it leaves the viewers uncertain, something most "social directors" ovoid.

Later in the scene we used a large segment of dialogue to give the story plot and to develop the relationship between audience and character. This use of dialogue based story is often found in social realisms as it builds the plot without excess action. Partly this was to develop the story itself, but it was also used to match the codes and conventions of which we didn't want to greatly challenge. As most social realism's use character to audience connections as a means to then later add to the emotions and understanding the viewers feel towards the characters.

This is the first scene in which "Creegan" is shown and unlike "Toby" he has a more professional appearance, although unshaven, he has a shirt tucked in and clean yet appropriate "cottons" with clean trainers. Compared to that of "Toby", "Creegan" is clearly more in control and that is true as "Creegan" is not addicted or taking drugs, he simply prospers off selling them to others.

"Creegan's" appearance was used for more than just showing his power over "Toby" as we wanted viewers to connect with him, only later realising his darker side.

 

Scene 4

The second part of the dialogue which took place between "Toby" and "Creegan" basically built the whole story line into one scene of ; understanding, misunderstanding, aggression and conflict. This is often seen in social realisms during key or defining moments of the film and we wanted to use a similar "sum up scene" so the audience quickly understand the overall emotive plot of the film. This scene would be repeated later in the film after back story so the viewers would better understand the events that lead to the overall outcome. 

During this scene we stuck mainly to close, mid, over the shoulder and two shots to put the viewers within the scene, again this very much fits the conventions of social realisms as the viewers are directly involved with the story line.

During this scene we removed the soundtrack and left in the diegetic noises to add to the life like effect we desired, alongside the sound we used multiple editing techniques such as cross dissolves and motion blur to add to the viewers sense of presences within the scene, we hoped and feel like the techniques allow the audience to better feel Toby's pain although not put in his position with a POV shot.

Scene 5
This is the final scene of the large block of dialogue in our opening, this scene is full of aggression and is used mainly as the "turning point" within the film. The scene is very gritty and I feel technique-wise similar to that you would see in a Shane Meadows film.

I feel this scene conformed to the average conventions of social realisms in the whole as not only is the fight done mainly verbally and rather than a out right fist fight they attempt a stare off, unlike the blockbuster action fights, in my view, social realisms focus and the impact of the fight rather than the fist to face scene that occur all to often in action films.

The editing in the scene was mainly simple cuts with a few cross dissolves at a reasonable fast pace, the editing of this scene didn't play a large part as the physical actions of the characters attracted attention directly them.

Scene 6
This sequence was the beginning of the chase scene in which "Creegan" runs after "Toby" as he tries to escape, the scene leads through two locations, from the urban warehouse to the rural forest which is nearby. This scene uses a range of shots often found in thrillers to build drama and make the viewer worry for a character, this is something we wanted to achieve as due to the hybrid nature of our film (A social realistic thriller) we wanted to conform to the thriller and social sides.

While creating and editing the chase scene we used a much faster speed than previously used in the opening and alongside the match on action and shot reverse shot that we used to show the shrinking distance between the two characters, we used repeated POV shots as we wanted to get the viewers heart pumping and fear for Toby.

Scene 7

During the chase "Toby" escapes from Creegan's rage and runs towards the forested area, in hopes of evading any violence, we felt this scene of "escaping" really fits to the profile we created of "Toby", we feel that although this scene is action filled it conforms to the conventions of both thriller and social realism extremely well.

We used a fast pace sequence of shots during the start of the chase and increased it again during this later part of the chase, we felt this added to the drama of the scene and made the characters fear even more for "Toby".
 

Our main aim during this scene within the opening was to grab the audience into the turmoil that surrounds Toby's life and make the audience want to learn more about the event before and after the collision, when repeated later in the film, it would be to really push the bond formed between Toby and the viewers

 

 

Scene 8

This scene is the "Title" scene and although social realisms often don't use titles or billing to maintain a feeling of realism, we felt that although it challenged the conventions of social realisms and didn't completely conform to that of a thriller it helped to sum the story as a whole and build viewer understanding of the past scenes, we got the idea of this technique when creating the title as we felt the location, style, font and text of the title would add to the overall audience understanding.

 

The title it's self was "Old Habits Die Hard", this title really sums up "Toby" as a whole, in feel personal like "This Is England" the title can greatly help the viewers not only start to watch a film but also understand what it is about in terms of, "This Is England" being about a "Young English Lad" during a politically tough time during England's history, our film, "Old Habits Die Hard", being about "Toby" struggling to deal with his drug addiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scene 9

The final key scene was filmed in the style of a Vlog (Video Blog) it contains a dark confession by Toby and really shows his longing to be understood by others, during the scene we used a off-scene audio, which would later be explained, partly to confuse the audience and partly to represent the social awkwardness that Toby is plagued with. I believe this scene perfectly conformed to the conventions of the average social realism.

 

All the shots are a plain close up shot as Toby delivers his dialogue, we did this as we felt that what he was saying was important and using excess shots would distract the darkness of his dilemma and might avert the attention to less important things.

Our film opening sequence is heavily influenced by the Social realism genre so therefor we would be aiming our film towards people between the ages of 15 and 40, these people would not have to be fans of the genre itself but we hope it will attract both the fans and a wider audience selection due to its effective representation of issues that many face, in a way that others can understand..