Location deconstruction

Location deconstruction

Our coursework will need an outside location as the concept is based on homelessness. I am going to look at various locations used in film for the idea of homelessness.

Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray story (2003)

The first four shots in this film show walls with graffiti covering them as the camera pans or tilts across them. This shows the abuse to the location and how rough the area is. The last shot tilts down the graffiti covered wall to show a sleeping bag where the person has been sleeping. This could be applied to our coursework as we want the first shot to be the homeless person waking up on the road however we want it to be somewhere slightly busier so you could see people rushing around in their hectic lives paying no attention to the homeless person to demonstrate the lack of respect.

Later in the film a grave yard is used as the two sisters bury their mum. This is used well to show the sadness and loss that Liz Murray feels. We could use this in our coursework as it would make the character seem more vulnerable with nobody there to protect her (parents).

Homeless (2015)

One of the locations used in this film about a boy who makes his way through life in a shelter after the passing of his Grandfather is shown in the trailer. It is dark and in the streets where he sits with nothing around him. This illustrates how he is alone and he has nothing, this portrays the idea of the young boy being homeless. A location like this would be ideal in our coursework as you see people walk passed him to show the contrast between the busy “normal” lives of people and how his life is still and lonely.

Another location shown is the shelter where there are other people of his age group but they all seem alone and sad even when they are in a room full of people. The room itself is basic and has just the necessities (a bed and possibly a sink) this would be great for an urban drama based on homelessness however it would probably be further on in the film than just the opening that we are making so we will not be using a shelter, also it would be difficult to get extras and find a place that would be willing to let us film in their facilities.

Short films

There are many short films on YouTube that focus on the idea of homelessness. The first one I found is called homeless. In this short film all the locations are outside and it focuses on the importance of clothing as the man starts off looking dirty with holes in his top, then he spends his last bit of money on a blazer and everyone starts respecting him. The first shot shows the homeless man asleep in the door way of a building on some cardboard boxes. This would work in our piece because we want the first shot to be the homeless person waking up on the streets. This could be difficult to film because we want to see people’s feet walking past her but people might see the camera and stop walking.

TV homelessness

There are also TV programmes that either have an element of homelessness or are based on homelessness. The BBC rendition of Sherlock has a scene where there are lots of homeless people in a drug house and John Watson goes to find his neighbour’s son. The house is run down and abandoned, it is big and was probably a grand and expensive house once. This is ideal for the idea of homelessness as it shows that the people have just found shelter wherever they can and it doesn’t matter what state it is in.

I think it would be too difficult to use this in our coursework because we would have to find an abandoned house to use and there aren’t very many around that we know of.