Tuesday, 29 November 2016

AS Media Urban Sounds Practical

Urban Sounds Practical


Post-productions


Using "YouTube" I selected the below videos as I felt that they were most fitting sound wise for our montage.






On clips where there was talking I muted the sound and replaced it with one of the above accordingly.


With some of the sound I layered them like the above so it makes the clip appear more busy and hence create a more threatening impact for the vulnerable homeless woman. As shown above with some of these sound clips I had to use the fade tool to make the layers seem fitting.

I also tried isolating certain sounds and make them appear louder for example the "scum" and the laugh from the theme park ride. I don't believe this worked very well as there was a noticeable difference in volume. I tried using the blade tool and altering many clips so it progressively gets louder and then decreases again, but this seemed too noticeable with the "scum" bit. Instead I just did it too the theme park ride.



Yet, upon reflection the cruel manic laugh will probably confuse the audience as it is not obvious the character is in a theme park and so either they will get confused with why a laugh was inserted or will be confused if wondering why a homeless person is in a theme park. I felt this shot should be removed, but the graphic match indicates the protagonist's sense of movement through the city.

AS Media Montage Source Of Inspiration

Montage Source Of Inspiration


Research and Planning


One way of using many locations is by creating a montage. A montage is an editing technique of relevant clips that occur in quick succession in no particular order. An example of this is shown below from a clip of "Requiem for a Dream".


Using this technique allows for a fast understanding of the plot/character's state. Despite, urban dramas usually having a minimal amount of editing, other social realism films/TV programmes that use this are usually based on drugs i.e. "Skins" to show its effect on the character. I looked at different techniques for this effect in my urban issues blog.

I believe this is good to establish the initial position of our homeless character in the film opening. We can, therefore, use this montage to display and almost 'day in a life' situation which can include all of the planned locations and scenes that will conform to many conventions of an urban drama and make it incredibly identifiable as an urban drama or a social realism film.

We can further this busy montage of urban life not only through the large extent of locations but also through contrasts with perhaps and opening scene where the protagonist is alone. We thought perhaps, linking with the plot and the idea that the brief is to produce a film opening, that we could include a quite scene where the character has just woken up alone. Within this scene, the introduction of a slight plot of family issues, could be shown through a sentimental object and then we can cut to the montage after the title to separate and emphasise the contrasts.

Some editing techniques like crosscutting are used in quick succession similar to a montage to create a more fast paced scene which still maintains some kind of order. For our opening, this scene would probably be the best option as we can still include many locations etc. while still maintaining some sort of order to initialise the film's plot. My group and I worry that developing a plot would make things to complex as urban dramas are usually character driven and it may seem like a short film, but we could do this while maintaining professional simplicity. We could create some sort of sequence of the girl travelling throughout her day to a final destination which can prompt the following supposed film. This would still be simple and character driven with some indication of plot, without being a pointless and random, fast paced montage.

A perfect example of this can be seen in "Hot Fuzz", directed by Edgar Wright. Although Wright specialises in comedy, he focuses on visual effects to create humour rather than improvisation and dialect, with little editing, that most comedies include nowadays. Rather than humour, we can use some of his techniques about framing, props, order and lighting to create a sense of sadness or concern for the homeless girl as she wakes up and gets on with her day. This would be most beneficial, as from a preliminary we learnt that dialogue is very hard to capture without appearing so amateur.

Inspired by this I like the idea of using sound to keep the audience focused but also enforce ideas like the eerie crackle sound similar to thunder when the church is showing, hence, not only being pathetic fallacy and parallel to the character's disagreement with moving, but also foreshadowing that the supposed rural and, therefore, peaceful, village is not what it seems. Therefore, to also enforce the contrast between the quiet scene, where the girl is on her own, and the busy montage, we can use contrasts in volume, tempo etc.  Doing this would make the urban streets seem threatening and unpredictable.

With all of this in mind, the following storyboard ideas were produced using already planned ideas:
  • A close up shot of someone kicking over a cup with money in it from begging.
  • A close up shot of cardboard signs.
  • A long shot of Emma amidst a crowd of people or traffic.
  • An extreme close up shot of her dirty features i.e. fingernails.
  • A long shot of traffic.
  • Establishing shots of deprived urban areas.
  • An extreme close up shot of rubbish
  • A 'trombone shot' (like a tracking zoom shoot) of them walking down a street.

AS Media Maidstone Location Scouting Practical

Maidstone Location Scouting Practical

Brief


For our film opening we would like to include many stereotypical urban areas like the back of shop fronts etc. As we are all familiar with Maidstone I decided to scout for locations in this chosen area. Other locations will be taken in London, where locations are identifiable and conform to common conventions. I have also chosen to not focus on the conventions like shop fronts etc. due to the availability and instead chose to focus on finding other locations.

As our protagonist is a young homeless girl, as a group we chose to create sympathy by making her seem vulnerable. This helped us devise a plot that the girl's parents have died. Consequently, to create sympathy we have chosen scenes of the girl watching families and her visiting her parent's graves. So, for this location practical I have decided to scout for graveyards and locations associated to families, like parks.

We have also had the idea of including the theme of Christmas subtly, which is usually when family is praised. However, if we relied too much on this it would make the film lose its raw reality on homelessness and would make it seem 'cheesy', and perhaps even unprofessional.

Production


For this practical I wanted to see if the church and graveyard beside Archbishop's Palace was a suitable location. On my way, however, I came across a park in Tovil. This locations would allow us to film the park scenes in the montage if it is suitable. The photos below were taken at 07:00 in the morning. The lighting was fairly poor and so I had to use the flash.


Due to the darkness, it made the park look incredibly creepy and would actually make the film appear to be a horror, this is enforced by the woodland settings, which is not appropriate to the urban conventions, despite the council houses and railway behind the river. On the other hand, the darkness and the coldness would make us feel sorry for the character and emphasise their isolation.

On my route to the church, I also found desolate areas and the backs of warehouses which we could use instead of shop fronts where there may be too many people walking by. Although, we wish to use busy urban locations to show how despite there being so many people, the homeless character is being overlooked, making her seem weak and worthless, these locations can show remoteness and isolation. So, we could use the shop fronts for some shots like a time lapse of people walking by. Hence, we could replace some urban locations to the following locations and could add non diegetic noises usually heard like cars, people walking and sirens to make the locations seem busy. These photos were also taken around 07:00, but stretched on till 07:30.


Below are the photos of the church graveyard. The graves are incredibly old, therefore I plan to not use this location as it is unsuitable to the plot's context.


On the other hand, As shown this location backs onto a busy road that leads into Maidstone Town Centre. We could use this to still show that the character is in an urban area, but perhaps muffle the sound of the cars to present this hard hitting and significant scene as a contrast to the busy urban noises we would use in a montage of clips that represent homelessness, urban areas and the park.

Below are some other locations I found possibly suitable to the opening in Maidstone Town Centre. This include another graveyard, but the graves are still old and back onto a wall preventing us from panning from behind graves or use establishing shots from behind the graves.

Storyboard First Draft

Storyboard First Draft
 
Location
Our urban drama will be mainly focused around social realism, this means that we will need to pick our locations carefully. We have decided that our main locations will be Maidstone, Tovil and certain areas of London, this will mean that we have variation but similarities in each location. This can lead to a wider variation in locations as it will give us different options from each one, this will also give us diversity whilst filming as we will have more choice. The only location I have concerns over is a public toilet as we are highly likely to offend someone if we use one that is often used. If we scout for one associated with a sport club we can speak to the people who have the key so that we can avoid offending anyone and we can still include the scene.
Actors
We will only have one main protagonist in this film opening but there will also be several extras appearing to make it seem as though a street is busy. We were hoping to film on quiet streets to avoid offending the public. The actor we have chosen is a teenager that will make the film opening more effective as the audience is more inclined to feel sympathy for the character.
Props
Our props have either been bought or created previous to this blog, our main props will include; the locket, a scrap of fabric o protect it, a sleeping bag and a homeless sign that would have been made. The use of props is limited with our film opening as we want it to be as authentic as possible and have a realism feel. The use of too many props will help us to lose that accurate image we are trying to create.
Story Board


Monday, 28 November 2016

Sound research


Sound research


I am going to look into sound that we can put over our video as we are not going to have any dialogue.

Traffic sounds









These sounds will play over a black screen before we see the homeless girl waking up so that people understand she is in a busy place before even seeing where she is. The first choice has more sounds of cars driving past but the second one has more car horns and variation of sound. We could use both videos and overlap them to make the place where she is sleeping sound even more busy.

Music



One song choice could be ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash as it is slow paced and simple like the life of the homeless girl. The song builds and then slows down again which could be timed so that it builds with the montage and then go quiet again when you see the girl at the gravestone. The first words say “I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel.” Which could show how she has lost all her emotion from living on the street so she wants to get it back. It then says “I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.” This could also link to how her life is unimportant and people don’t care and she doesn’t want to be there.


Another song choice is ‘Nobody Sees Me’ by Tom Byrne. This song is similar to the Johnny Cash song but is explicitly about homelessness. The lyrics explain the life of a homeless person. One problem is that 1:17 into the song it says “Oh Mum how I wish, you would come to the phone. And talk to your daughter cause I’m feeling so low. I’m scared and confused and I’m missing you so.” This could be interpreted as her Mum walking out on her, which is not what we want as we are basing our piece on the storyline that her parents died which is why she is alone. People probably will not listen too closely to the words and they could mean the mother has only just died and she misses her phone calls to her mum while she was alive.


We could also use ‘Hometown Glory’ by Adele. This is about someone walking around their hometown and looking back on different memories so it fits with the context of our storyline. It is also a very well-known song so there is a risk of the film opening appearing as more of a music video, in addition in relation to the storyline the song is quite upbeat and a big rather than quiet and simple as the life of a homeless person would be.



We could also use music without words so it would be just piano. (‘More Beautiful/Sad Piano Songs By Brian Crain’ or ‘Sad Piano Music (THIS WILL MAKE YOU CRY / Saddest Piano & Violin Ever!) These tracks are longer and easy to edit together so it would be easy to choose which bits of each song we would want to use in relation to what is happening on the screen then we do not need to worry about the words.

Conclusion


In conclusion there are many songs out there that would be appropriate for our coursework but if we decide they do not work with the video when we are editing then we could use music without words and use it to set the mood.

Actor Deconstruction of Social Realism Films

Actor Deconstruction of Social Realism Films
Fish tank
The main character in fish tank in a 15 year old called Mia. She is the leading role in the film as she struggles through the coming of age plotline.
The use of a teenage character is effective as it means that they have vulnerability that is not questioned and they can make the wrong decisions. This often leads to a greater character development as the protagonists learns through the film, this is more enjoyable for audiences as they won’t got bored of the constant naivety. The young age will also make the character more relatable for the audience. Pitched at young adults, this film I relatable and therefore more of the audience will find the character likeable.
This is the most likely route that we will take with our characters. If we make the protagonists 15-17 it will make a vulnerable character that can have a deeper character depth and development. It is also the easiest path for us to take as our group is primarily girls.
The Selfish Giant
There are two protagonists in this film; Arbor and Swifty, both aged 13. This plotline is realistic for young boys in a working class environment.
By having a younger character they sympathy for the protagonists is heightened, this is due to the public’s general reaction to protect the younger generation. This reaction is relied on throughout the film as the young character are put in difficult positions that the audience will, at times, feel uncomfortable to watch. These difficult situations are the main theme of the film and as the characters go through their developments they are still too young to have that much of a reversal.
This type of character will be harder for us, as a group, to include as the age is too young for us to incorporate and none of us has younger siblings. As effective as this age would have been to our plotline it would have also been impractical.
Submarine
Oliver is a 15 year old that, much like Mia, struggles through a coming of age plotline, although the issues faced are much more generic to the age range.
This type of character is common in drama and social realism films and as mentioned before, the use of a more vulnerable age is appealing to film makers as their character development is more relatable and their decisions are more jaded by youth.
This age and category of character is available to us as well but due to the minority being male in our group the character will most likely be a female.

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Props related to homelessness- Practical

Props related to homelessness- Practical
By watching films, documentaries and TV programs that link in with our theme of homelessness I have looked at the different possible props that we could use. We have already sourced two our props so by finding other appropriate options I can see if they will work with the existing options. By creating props I will also have the power to dictate their state of distress, this can indicate how long the character has been homeless and how they have evolved to adapt on the streets.



We could possibly include the idea of a sign in our film opening, by having images of the character begging we could introduce a sympathetic response from the viewer. For the sign we would need an old piece of cardboard and a permanent marker. Different messages can gather different responses from the audience, this could be effective as it will add some realism to the scenes.
I chose to do three different signs that we could use, they all have different messages but they are all effective, I believe that if we use the simple 'homeless and hungry' idea we can have an effective scene and we can use its simplicity to make a complex character. To do this I used an old cardboard box and asked my brother to run over it a few times to make them seem more worn. I ripped the panel into three parts so that it looked less clean.

I then used a sharpie and a permanent marker to write on the signs


Used take away coffee cups are also seen in film where the character is homeless, these can either be used for their purpose or for the character to beg for money. This can be practical in its uses as we can use the prop to evolve our scenes, we can give the prop a subtle importance as we can image the character being given the mug, then them using it to beg for change and then further on.


In films you can often see the character using a shopping cart to carry what is left of their belongings in it. This is possible but would be impractical for us as we are going to be using a range of locations and transporting the cart is unrealistic.
Due to the realistic take we want to take on the theme of homelessness I believe that the less props we use the more effective the film opening will be. By overcrowding the scene we could risk the reality we are trying to convey.

Actors Deconstruction

Actors 

For our opening scene of the movie, we decided to include a minimum of 2 actors; one of which will be the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist will get the most screen time, as expected and the antagonist is actually really only there to show a hardship in the life of a homeless person, he is not a character with depth or insight. In the beginning of our social realism film, very little to no diegetic dialogue will be present. This is because our actors are not professional, and so the quality of acting will be lowered the moment they begin to speak.
Since our film uses a young actor as the homeless person, we decided to use Emma, a 16/17 year old as our choice. This is because as she is on the team, she is reliable and so we don't have to worry about if she won't be available to shoot, also by using a young character as our protagonist we wanted her to look very vulnerable and we can achieve this by using a female actor. Our second actor is Angel, a 17 year old as the antagonist, he is mostly going to be seen doing either of the two: calling her a scum, or stealing her prized possession, her locket. Angel is going to be depicted as kind of a non-likeable character, as he is going to be the problem for our main character. His appearance is going to be normal, too show that he is relatable to everyone and that his actions represent the majority of what people would do.

To achieve a look of homelessness to our actor, we wan't to apply some makeup which adds the look of dirt to her face, our actor is also not going to wash her hair for 3 days prior to the shooting to add realism. Her clothes are also going to be ragged, distressed and torn to show that it's not a recent thing, but her situation has spanned over a lengthly period of time. We have also thought about brining in a wider range of actors because we wish for there to be groups of people laughing and having a good time to emphaisese the islolation of our protagonist. However do not know whether we should go with this due to the limitiations of having too many actors, e.g. them not having time to film and transport, we have to outweigh the benefits with the negatives.

In conclusion, by keeping the number of actors to a minium we increase the chances of reliablity and can have more time to film incase we need to reshoot anything, it will be easier to decide on a time which works for everyone. With the use of speical make-up and other techniques we can achieve a realistic homeless look to ensure it looks as professional as possible.



Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Editing Practical

Editing Practical 



For my editing task I took to final cut pro to manipulate a famous movie scene, by changing the background music soundtrack and the diegetic sounds in the scene, I managed to produce a contrapuntal piece which is quite humorous. I decided to use a song thats now picking itself back up due to the time of year, the iconic 'its beginning to look a lot like christmas' creating an eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere as the actions no screen don't match up with the song. 

In conclusion the experience with playing around with the song is a great way to get to grips with how to change around the atmosphere and manipulate the way the audience feels about the scene. 

Monday, 21 November 2016

Portrayal of homeless people in media

  Homeless People in Media


Image result for cathy come homeHomelessness is a subject that is not always touched upon in movies as it isn't the main focus unless the sotry revolves around the homeless person. Sure during a scene in the movie there may be homeless people in the background however they aren't ever touched upon deeply as a character, they're just your stock poor, ragged clothing unfortunate soul on the streets. The issue is frequently described as invisible, despite the prevalince of it in real life. Movies that focus on following a homeless people bring light to the issue and give it public attention.


Cathy Come Home (1966) is a television play that highlights homelessness, the play follows the characters of Cathy and Reg, and their descent into poverty. It shows that homeless people had a life before their current situation and how quickly and unpredictable the world is. Cathy being the main character adds a sense of vulnerbility and her having kids adds to the intense effect of sadness to the play.

A common reaccuring theme that seems to be common in these movies about homelessness all follow this one beginning, the homeless person is always evicted to begin with. Often showing that homeless people deserve everyones respect as an equal, as they were 'normal' as well. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) is a movie by Sony Pictures, follows the story of a man named Christopher Gardner whose life slowly falls apart after investing in a device called the 'Bone Densiety Scanner'. After losing his house and wife, he is forced to live in the streets with his son.


The Pursuit of Happyness Poster
These movies both depiect the protagonist as successful and well-estableshed. They had families and jobs, it was just an unfortunate event that led to their demise. Watching their struggles as they try to rebuild their life puts light to homelessness in reality, often times being shunned away from job oppertunites because of their status and situation not allowing them to escape from that life. However these homeless people aren't always shown as realistic as they could be, they have clothes, some money and a bit of hope, they also look clean. Homeless people in reality are always seen with ragged clothing, torn up items and very little possessions and no hope.


AS Media Homelessness Props Practical

Homelessness Props Practical


Brief


In my deconstruction of mise-en-scene in urban dramas, I explored how props are used to portray a character. As a group, we would like to convey the protagonist as young and vulnerable. However, I would also like to show the poor conditions the character lives in by overlapping props usually used to show disrespectful characters as 'dirty' e.g. empty beer bottles.

Firstly, to portray the character as vulnerable we decided to base our film around homelessness. To denote a character as homeless, many films heavily rely on mise-en-scene like locations of alleys, subways and busy city streets. This was discussed in my survey analysis.

Another part of mise-en-scene is props. Many homeless characters have an unkempt and dirty appearance to show their poverty, time on the streets and lack of necessities let alone luxuries. The character is usually clothed in heavy, dirty brown or faded colour coats, hats and trousers with obvious holes and rips to show its wear. This is used in many films including brief glances in "Maniac" as well as discussed clips in "Shameless".

***

Similar props are used like blankets and sleeping bags. In the short film "DIFFeRENCE", cardboard is used to act like a base for the makeshift bed. This cardboard was also used as signs, this is used in "Shameless" by characters like Frank who con people with false sad stories. However, like in "DIFFeRENCE", it is used to gain sympathy and support from not only pedestrians in the film but also the audience.

There is normally no other props to show the lack of property the homeless character is. When there are more props it is usually, like said earlier, empty beer bottles or miscellaneous litter. This usually makes the character seem 'dirty' or disrespectful as they lack care.

Production


I first started to depict the homeless character through a makeshift bed by buying a cheap sleeping bag and fleece blanket. The sleeping bag was a turquoise blue, which made it seem childish and new, so I reversed it to the grey side later.


To show its wear and the awfulness of living on the streets, I used the researched ways of distressing fabric. I first started with the blanket, as it was easily replaceable and can therefore be used as a 'test piece'. Initially, I cut off the labels that deemed the idea as recently purchased. I made sure to be harsh and cut roughly with a blunt pair of scissors to produce a well worn look. Cutting fleece meant that it cannot really fray, however, it did look like the blanket was well used and torn. Consequently, I experimented with this and cut away the majority of the seam.


As shown above, sometimes the scissors would cut the fleece really jagged due to its bluntness. I thought this was not successful as it looked obviously cut, rather than moth bitten or worn. To combat this, I tried stretching the fabric and even ripping it.


I felt this was slightly better. I decided to use this cutting and stretching technique to create more prominent areas of wear in places like:
  • Around the corners - Where the character would most likely hold the blanket.
  • Near the end - To symbolise where the character's feet would be.
Influenced by the photo of the grey moth bitten jumper I researched, I wanted to present these worn areas by similar holes. This was done by cutting holes and ripping them like earlier. I also used tools like a scalpel and a compass to try and snag the fabric, however, I did not feel this was the most effective technique.


After this, I tried making the sleeping bag and blanket dirty by smudging it into dirt. This didn't produce a proper stain as the mud brushed off the plastic like coating of the sleeping bag, I tried using coffee on the sleeping bag but this ran off the surface. Nevertheless, the effects are shown below:


Outcome


In the shots I filmed experimentally with my brother acting as Emma's character in the sleeping bag, the props can be seen.


Personal Comments


I felt the props still remained new which sadly affected the impact on the gritty and dirty conditions of living on the streets. Nevertheless, having these props increase understanding that the protagonist is homeless, however, affects the believability.

AS Media Homeless Costume Practical

Homeless Costume Practical


Brief


We would like our character to wear warm clothes, as we will be filming in December and we want to make the homeless character seem vulnerable with the cold conditions.  Some ideas for our protagonist's costume include:
  • A heavy mac style coat.
  • Gloves, scarf and a hat.
  • Worn boots.
  • A jumper or a hoodie.
  • Thick tracksuit bottoms or distressed jeans.
This led me to find the following items we can use for our character.

Production


From the list above I chose to buy a hoodie and black gloves as Emma is sorting out the bottoms and shoes, as she knows what will fit her. I also have my own coat, which I think would be suitable. I wish to make the recently purchased hoodie and gloves seem worn by distressing them a bit. The coat however is second hand and I believe already looks worn due to its faded blue colour. The coat and hoodie are seen below, where the coat is modelled by my 6 foot mother, and therefore, will look oversized on Emma, creating an unfitted look due to the poverty we are trying to portray of the character. The hoodie was also oversized for this look to. We used these low saturation, neutral toned clothes to add to the 'dingy' feel and a sense of drabness which helps create a depressive atmosphere.



First, I cut the tips of the fingers of the gloves to turn them into fingerless gloves commonly seen on homeless people, which is incredibly stereotypical as it implies their poverty. I left the ends unstitched so they can fray a little.


Then, with the jumper I smudged mud onto it, this didn't work very well because of the dryness of the soil, it seemed to just brush off. A slight imperfection is seen below but this would not be picked up by the camera very well.


Outcome


In the end, our group decided to just use the coat and gloves as the hoodie seemed too new still. Instead, Emma chose to use a worn UK jumper. 

From left to right: Close up tracking shot of hand and long shot.

Personal Comments


Overall, I felt the costume seemed mismatched because of the contrasting colours. As we separated the costume and didn't really organise the look we were planning altogether Emma wears a mixture of somewhat new clothes like the jeans and the bright shopping bag which are unconventional and worn gloves, coat, hoodie and trainers.

The white trainers appear bright in the shots, despite, actually being worn. However, more prominently the colours between the jeans and hoodie affect the effect desired by the use of  low saturated clothes. This would have been helped if I was able to distress the grey hoodie better to be able to use it. This could have been done by coffee staining or using wet mud. Nevertheless, although the UK hoodie and new pale blue jeans are unconventional, the UK flag emphasises the British identity commonly displayed in social realism films. Identity is used in social realisms like "This Is England" to connect to the niche target audience of that location. In "Fish Tank" and "The Selfish Giant" accents and locations are also used to enforce this. This identity helps the success of the film as audiences can connect to it, despite, the narrowcasting.



AS Media Homeless Actors Source Of Inspiration

Homeless Actors Source Of Inspiration

 

Research and Planning

There are not many urban dramas and social realism films that centre around a young homeless protagonist, nevertheless, there are many documentaries that take the issue seriously and give us an insight into their lives. I believe that although homelessness in film is good as it is so original, it can offend people if not done in the correct way, hence, the lack of such films. One way by doing this is through breaking the stereotypes and producing an incredibly realistic account, similar to some sort of documentary.

A film that does this is the 2006 American film, "The Pursuit of Happyness", casting Will Smith who plays a struggling father, influenced by entrepreneur Chris Gardener. The fact that this is a biographical recount explains the realistic production of the film. Most American urban dramas tend to focus on issues like race, violence, gangs and poverty and unfortunately some appear to be incredibly stereotypical and, therefore, fairly comical with films like "Straight Outta Compton", as they lose their realism.

Consequently, creating a middle aged homeless character who we can pity rather than laugh with/mock that is not only a father, but also a character that is shown to be trying hard through being a businessman presents a more realistic, and therefore, a hard hitting response.

However, for our film opening, we will use Emma Fuller from our group to act as the protagonist in the scene. Hence, we will be unable to realistically create a middle aged business man and father like Will Smith's character. Instead, as influenced by our survey, we could play with age, gender and stereotypes of homelessness to make her seem vulnerable and still create this pity with the audience without subverting common conventions. Although as said earlier the conventions are somewhat unrealistic and stereotypes are heightened to display homelessness etc. I believe making her appear as stereotypically homeless as possible will probably be the best idea sadly.

For inspiration then instead of using the very minimal amount of realistic urban dramas that revolve around homeless youth, I will be looking at the following documentaries. The choice of creating a young female protagonist was not only decided by the survey but it was also influenced by the urban drama "Fish Tank", however, we are unable to use this as inspiration for a homeless protagonist.

In the below documentaries, the homeless teenagers and their backstories make us pity them. In society unfortunately there is a lot of stigma around homelessness where everyone seems to assume it is due to them being disrespectful, lazy/not willing to work and dirty, despite Will Smith's character base from Chris Gardner showing that this is not true. The stigmas are similar to those surrounding the modern working class, which I discussed in my blog about urban issues.



So, hearing these people's stories makes us see beyond the stereotypes, so although, as a group we will most likely be using stereotypical homeless clothing etc., with the slight idea that the protagonist is an orphan or something may allow us to see beyond the unforgiving stereotypes as we began to understand the reasons and purpose of her homeless state. This depth in character will hopefully also make the audience more engaged in the story and adds to the realism.

Studying the above documentaries, I have noticed that the majority of teenagers do not look like the stereotypical homeless person. They actually appear somewhat clean and are seen wearing fairly normal, warm clothes like a hoodie or coat. Some of them talk about them taking shelter at friends, hostels or charity shelters, hence, their appearance is different to the stereotypical disrespectful, dirty modern working class homeless man similar to Frank in TV series "Shameless" (the character is not homeless but is usually too drunk to return home). These costumes are different to the true clothes worn in said documentaries.

Yet, I think to clearly show that our protagonist is homeless we are going to have to use some costumes that overlap with said stereotypes. Even, the actual appearance, rather than costume, of the protagonist will have to display poverty and lack of possessions that Emma's character is unable to wash her hair etc. This could include scenes of her scrubbing her arms in a public bathroom, but we can also convey this by asking Emma not to wash her hair or even applying some dirt etc. I wanted to test the effects of this with different methods, hence, the following was carried out.

Production


Below are methods I wanted to test that would make Emma seem unclean due to poverty etc.

The first idea was about the character having greasy hair. I believe it would be better and more authentic if we just get Emma to not wash her hair for a week or so, but as I don't know her hair type etc. and whether it will make a difference, I would like to test the use of products to make her hair look dirty. This can be developed through back combing as shown below, where layers of hair are held and other layers are teased.


I then tried spraying some water to create an almost greasy, matted effect. At first, spraying water created a subtle effect, so I tried running through a wet brush, this caused the effect ton the right photo.


These were less successful so I think just not washing her hair for a few days would be more appropriate and subtle. Similarly, Emma should not be wearing make up. Then we could try fluffing up the eyebrows to emphasise the bare faced appearance.

Some soil could be applied as a way to enforce lack of hygiene. If we are to include a bathroom scene where the protagonist is washing in a dirty public bathroom, then the mud and untidiness of nails would emphasise the little hygiene of sleeping on the streets. This could be applied by rubbing hands in the dirt.

Outcome


Below are photos of the outcome.



Personal Comments


I felt this production was somewhat unnecessary as it was obviously fake. The dirt and hair looks so purposeful and, therefore, supports the stereotype of homeless people as someone to be disgusted by. Therefore, I think like in the documentaries the appearances can be normal, with some slight dishevelment to slightly conform to this stereotype just the audience can easily understand the homeless situation.

AS Media Mise-en-scene Source Of Inspiration

Mise-en-scene Source Of Inspiration 


Brief


Based on our survey, many people would like to see several props in our urban drama. Props are used to convey the character and also the conditions they live in, as well as the location. Below are some examples where mise-en-scene is carefully planned to portray the character in dramas, specifically characters stereotypical in urban dramas.

Research and Planning


From my editing practical, I used the clip of Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump". In this clip, he is drunk and angry about his disability. In this scene, the emphasis on his alcoholism is shown through him scavenging through empty beer bottles. The fact that all of this is in the chosen location of his apartment presents the idea that perhaps he drinks at home as comfort. The empty bottles are not thrown away maybe to show that they are recently empty or he doesn't care about the state.

Above: Mid shot.


Similar mise-en-scene is used in urban dramas like "Shameless" where the character Frank is represented as a disrespectful, modern working class father, rather than a struggling, wheel chair bound man like Lieutenant Dan. The location used is also very different as "Shameless US" uses run down urban areas and Frank is commonly seen in a bar due to his alcoholism. There are scenes in the show where Frank is even too drunk to return home and sleeps on the streets, disrespecting the urban town and people's property. While Dan was abusing alcohol more privately presenting the idea that he drinks to help with his sadness and anger about being unable to use his legs.

In our film we would like to highlight the issues around homelessness. As urban dramas are character driven, we can change the meaning behind the story through the character. In the example of "Shameless", Frank is an older, stubborn and reckless modern working class character that is stereotypically shown in urban dramas to represent the modern working class as disrespectful. Especially, when Frank is also a father as well as a drug addict.

As analysed in our survey, instead of developing this stereotype, we would like to use a younger character, which would be more vulnerable and therefore make the audience feel pity for them. In the short film "DIFFeRENCE", attached below, the younger homeless man is attacked viciously.


The character has very little to begin with including just a blanket and cardboard for insulation and not even the necessities like food. Yet, this minimal amount of props means he has no property to survive let alone comfort himself, this means he has no defence against the attackers and, consequently, we feel even more sorry for him.

On the other hand, one thing in common between these different representations of homeless people is that their costumes are both similar. Characters usually wear heavy clothes like coats, hats and trousers to insulate themselves. These are usually worn and dirty, as shown by brown colours, holes and dirt.

The dirtiness of older, alcoholic characters like Frank and Lieutenant Dan are developed not only by extra props like beer bottles, but also by the actor having a long, unkempt beard and hair, yellowing fingernails and teeth. Although younger characters still have longer and unwashed hair, the characters seem to make some sort of effort to keep it maintained, as stereotypically they still maintain some sort of respect unlike the disrespectful older men shown through Frank, showing their insecurity and level of self worth. It also subverts the stereotypical homeless costume portrayed by older, disrespectful characters like Frank.

Personal Comments


In our film opening we could use a young actor with fairly little possessions like in "DIFFeRENCE' to show how much of an easy target the character is and therefore, create sympathy. This could be further developed if we use a young female actress, stereotypically seen as weaker. This is why we shall use Emma to play the protagonist.

If we were to use a sentimental item it could further develop the audience's pity for the character.  As a group, we decided to perhaps use a locket and leave the person in the locket unidentified to create ambiguity.

Another way to add pity is to set the scene during Christmas time. The cold and snow would develop the audience's concern for the character, but also seeing happy families passing the isolated character would emphasis how alone the protagonist is and further create sympathy. This would link with the supposed family photo in the locket.

Yet, I think adding this Christmas theme would appear to cheesy and more like an advert. We could include scenes of the character at family places instead like a park etc. The idea of family issues came from the responses of our survey.