Film Four Ideology.

Looking For Eric



This film shows the Film Four ideology as it features unknown actors, that have strong northern accents and are represented as working class failures, through the very basic lifestyle they lead. For example, the main male character Eric rides a bike for transport, rather than driving a car. This shows that he probably cant afford to drive. There are a lot of shots in a football stadium, with many devoted fans screaming and cheering their team on. This represents football stadiums as very rowdy and team spirited. Their are many British cultural references as Eric's sons are all wearing Man United tops, only people within Britain would know where his sons were going and what team they were going to support as they are a major football team in Britain. This seems to be a typical non escapist Film Four storyline, as Eric says in it 'my wife refuses to talk to me' and 'my kids wont give me the time of day'. So this trailer shows the Film Four ideology because it highlights real domestic issues that many working class Britons face daily and it is done very realistically. It is set in a heavy accented area like many other Film Four films and it includes many British cultural references.

Submarine



The characters in this film are represented very ordinary, quite dull and boring. There are a few shots of the rural countryside, which is a British cultural reference as parts of Britain are known for their beautiful rural areas, this may alienate an American audience as America is a very built up place which leaves little landscape for the countryside. The storyline seems to be based on romance and relationships. This trailer doesn't really display typical Film Four ideology because its not like other Film Four films that have strong portrayals of the domestic hardships of Britons. Romance isn't really a common social realist topic.

Four Lions



The characters in this film are represented as dumb terrorists. This representation of the characters creates a wider representation that all Muslims are terrorists. The characters also have strong midlands accents and some have strong British accents, this is typical in Film Four films. There is a shot within the trailer of the docklands which connotes that if there were ever to be a terrorist attack, they would target there. So it is represented as a hotspot for terrorists. Police also play a role in the trailer and this is a British cultural reference because they wear specific uniform that only British people will probably recognize and could alienate other audiences outside of Britain. The rough camerawork and use of real life locations, the strong accents etc. all help to show Film Four ideology as these aspects and more help to create the social realist films they set out to make.

Continuity Editing Exercise - Storyboard.

Edit Workshop Evaluation.

In my edit workshop sequence, I made sure my partner and I stuck to the brief and demonstrated knowledge and understanding of match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 - degree rule.

In my sequence, the 180 degree rule was demonstrated when the two characters were having a conversation. As one character - Ellie was always on the left of the screen and the other character - Kalkidan was always on the right.











The rule of thirds was shown as much as possible in my sequence.
The screen grab shows a shot from my sequence where the characters are talking and the rule of thirds is clearly displayed as we see the character -Ellie's eyes in line with the first red line meaning, they are a third of the way down the camera.




The editing technique 'Match on Action' was displayed when the character, Kalkidan is walking through the door. By using this technique we are able to see a clear flow of action, from the beginning of the action through till the end at different angles. These two screen grabs are shots from my sequence that demonstrate the technique - Match on Action. In the first shot we see Kalkidan, with her hands on the door pushing it and her right foot in front of the left about to walk through. In the second shot, we see the reversed side of the action as we see her finishing the action as she walks through the door with the same right foot leading the action and her hands still on the door pushing it. This shows a continuous flow of action between two shots.


During production, my partner and I faced a few challenges. When filming, the match on action shots, we forgot to film the full action from either side so that we could cut and edit it in post-production, because of this we had to re-film the shots. Also remembering the 180 degree rule in the match on action shots was a challenge and we didn't have enough time to re-film that footage, so we just had to work with what we had.

During post-production, cutting the two match on action shots so that they created a smooth continuous action was almost a difficulty, it took a fair amount of time and required me to pay extra attention to detail, so that the continuity was not broken.

Long shot

Over the shoulder shot

Cut away

Overall I think the strengths of this edit workshop are that I have demonstrated a clear understanding and knowledge of the techniques, such as; match on action, 180 degree rule, rule of thirds and shot reverse shot, as they have all been shown in this short sequence at least once. I also stuck to the brief filmed and then used a wild track throughout the sequence, I took on board the advice given by the brief and avoided using zooming pans and instead used static shots when filming someone walking in and out of a frame. I used a variety of shot types, including; establishing shots, long shots, over the shoulder shots etc. Extra cutaways were also filmed, for example; we filmed a fire extinguisher and cut back to it to prevent having to use a shot that would break the continuity.

Rule of thirds is not applied

The overall weaknesses of my work are the poor consideration of the rule of thirds rule, all though it has been considered and used correctly in some shots, the rule is inconsistent, when it should have been done throughout the whole sequence. Also, in the second shot of the match on action, the 180 degree rule is broken, as Kalkidan starts the action on the left of the screen and the finishes somewhere in the middle drifting to the right of the screen because of where the camera was positioned. This could create confusion within the audience.

If I had the ability to improve my work, I would make sure that the rule of thirds is consistent throughout the sequence and therefore re-film all of the shots that broke this rule. I would also re-film the match on action shots to ensure that the 180 degree rule is not broken, making the rule consistent throughout.

Continuity Editing Exercise - 'Rivalry'

Continuity Editing Exercise.

To complete this Continuity Editing Exercise, my partner and I had to create a storyboard for a given scenario. We then had to stage, film and edit this scenario. This scenario had to have a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting in a chair opposite another character. There is then some dialogue exchanged between the characters. This scenario was titled 'The Encounter'.

Within this footage, my partner and I tried to convey key media language skills. The first skill we attempted to demonstrate was the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is when two characters within a scene should keep the same left or right relationship. The camera should not cross the 180 degree axis that connects the two characters because it then confuses the audience. If the camera does cross this axis it's called crossing the line. In our footage we tried to to stick to this rule by continuously keeping one character on the left of the camera and the other on the right. Here is an example of the 180 degree rule.

Another skill we tried to use was the match on action technique. Match on action is when the editor cuts from one shot to another to match the action from the first shot. The first shot shows the beginning of the action and the second shot shows the completion of the action. In our footage we used the match on action technique twice. The first time was a character opening a door and entering a room. The second time was, a character picking up and slamming down a cup. Here is an example of the match on action technique.


We also used the shot reverse shot technique. This is when you take a shot of the first character looking at or talking to the second character but only show the first character. Then the editor shows the second character in a separate shot looking back at the first character and then return to the original shot of the first character. We used this technique in the same way in our footage. Here is an example of the shot reverse shot technique.


The final skill my partner and I tried to demonstrate in all of our shots was the rule of thirds. This is a rule used in all visual media texts. It is when the eyes of what is being shown are a third of the way down the camera. This rule also applies if a building or landscape is being shown, because the top of the building or landscape should also be a third of the way down the camera. In each of our shots, we tried to use the rule of thirds to the best of our ability. The following video is to show a visual example of what is meant by the rule of thirds.


I worked with Kalkidan Brook to plan and film our scenario. This grouping was very successful as we both equally completed the work in harmony, we respected each others ideas and then put our ideas together to make our work suit the both of us.

To develop the scenario even further to make it more interesting, Kalkidan and I added our own creative situation, but still stuck to the brief. We twisted the encounter to make it an encounter with a girlfriend and a rival lover. Its almost like an interrogation. The girlfriend is portrayed as very aggressive and angry and the rival lover is very anxious, scared and timid because she has apparently been seeing the girls boyfriend.

Our storyboard was reasonably useful as we had drawn out what we had originally wanted to achieve and where we would use the key media language skills. We stuck to our story board quite a lot as we used the match on action technique when one of the characters was entering a room just as we had planned. However  we repeated this technique when the same character slammed a cup on the table which we had not put in the storyboard, we made this decision during the filming of our scenario because we thought it would work. We also didn't use all of the shots we had drawn in the storyboard because we felt they were unnecessary and would make the scenario drag out for longer than necessary.