Synopsis draft

ONE FINE DAY, IS A GRIPPING TALE WHICH PORTRAYS A PURE CONTRADICITON OF THE TRADITIONAL BRITISH STEREOTYPES FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER WHO BELIEVES IN THE TRADITIONAL BRITISH MORALS AND VALUES OF WHICH CONTRAST TO THE TRUE PORTRYAL OF BRITISH SOCIETY.

THIS BEGINS FROM TECACHER IN THE CLASSROOM TEACHING A CITIZENSHIP LESSON SPEAKS OF HIS FRIEND'S EXPERIENCE OF BRITISH STEREOTYPES. HOWEVER, WE SEE A DEVASTING TRUE PORTRAYAL OF THE DARK SIDE OF CONTEMPORARY BRITISH SOCIETY.

INFLUNCED BY SOCIAL-REALISM FILMS SUCH AS, 'THIS IS ENGLAND'.

Script

INT.CLASSROOM.AFTERNOON
Teacher is preparing presentation on multiculturalism and british values.

MR.SMITH: we will be spending the next few afternoon registrations discussing our different lifestyles and how we feel about being britsh. what does it mean to you to be british?

STUDENT raises their hand and catches the attention of the class.

STUDENT 1: Being english?

STUDENT2: Living in London?

STUDENT3: eastenders!

STUDENT4: who even cares?

STUDENT 5: “ yeah, Britain’s shit…”

The class erupts with laughter

MR. SMITH: “Your problem is you just don't appreciate where you come from, you don’t realise how lucky you are to live in such a great country with such respectable people! I had a friend that was a foreign exchange student and her experiences are proof of how great our country is”

EXT.OUTSIDE TUBE STATION (DAYTIME)

Lukasz arrives in London with a small suitcase and walks down the street.

MR.SMITH(VOICEOVER): “He came with virtually nothing and was amazed by the huge variety of ethnicities in London.”

Lukasz stares at a group of friends (all of which have different ethnic backgrounds)

EXT.CASHPOINT.DAYTIME

Lukasz uses the cash point and goes to put his wallet in his pocket.

MR.SMITH(VOICEOVER): “Even a foreigner noticed our British sense of fair play.”

Lukasz drops his wallet on the floor and a passer picks it up and hands it to him with a smile.

Passer by: ”Sorry mate is this your wallet?”


INT.APPARTMENT.AFTERNOON

Lukasz arrives in a small room, places his suitcase on the bed and smiles.

MR.SMITH(VOICEOVER): “We swapped homes for two weeks. He was amazed at how convenient everything was.”

Lukasz goes through the drawers in a fit of excitement.

INT.CLASSROOM.AFTERNOON

MR.SMITH: “Living in his home was hard, at first i didnt like it, i felt frustrated when i couldnt communicate, but with a I got through it alright knowing that i would be returning home soon. It truly was an experience! And it made me realise that we don’t really have any problems here in blighty.

Bell rings

MR.SMITH: You can go now!

Children hurriedly gather their belongings.

While Mr.Smith cleans the white board one of the students reaches into the chest of drawers

MR.SMITH: (turning around having not realised) Is something wrong Lawerence?

STUDENT: (confidently)No Sir (seeing a ruler on the floor) I just dropped my ruler.

picks up the ruler and exits.

Mr.Smith sits at desk where she continues with some work. fades out to show a shift in time.

EXT.STREET.EVENING
Establishing shots of high street, teacher is filmed walking along the road arrives at bus stop and looks at his watch.

MR.SMITH sees someone shout a racist remark at a passer by as he walks down the street.

RACIST:"(Racist remark)"

EXT.OUTSIDE ESTATE.EVENING

MR.SMITH confidently walks along until he’s confronted with a gang of youths. They attack he and he has no chance of fighting back.

One of the youths pulls out a phone and starts to record.

It is then revealed that MR. SMITH is watching the attack on Youtube.

our names on the credits at the end of the Youtube video.

Magazines Research: Purpose

Film reviews can entertain, convince, notify, evaluate, criticise, publicise, misuse and save money; and inform people. Any number of these principles can be carried out in any review, and it is frequently decided by the magazine and their intentional audience as to the how and to what degree that these purposes are accomplished. Reviews operate as a middle man involving the (un-)seen film and the audience, and can therefore hold some influence over a variety of things, such as:

• The gross revenue of a film. While there are a numerous claims that mass-marketing of certain films can quash any review's impact, the failure of a film for example Alexander (which had particularly ruthless reviews) begs to differ. Nonetheless, there is in addition support for this argument, as was the case for all the later Scary Movie films; and the Disaster/Epic/DateMovie series. Despite this, they emerge to have a significant impact on independent films, and the astonishing success of some such as Pulp Fiction was believed to be to a certain extent the consequence of exceptionally complimentary reviews. Occasionally, film companies will not screen a film for reviewers in apprehension of getting very poor ones, as was the case for The Avengers. This doesn't always turn out well, as this approach is far too widespread nowadays and reviewers persuade audiences to be cynical about such films.

• Advertising for the film. As well as an advertisement for films within itself (anyone can fail to spot all the convention adverts from time to time, after all), many critically commended films 'spam' review ratings on their film posters and film companies rarely present press kits and gifts to critics in hopes of getting more positive reviews. Independent films are also undersupplied in the large marketing budget, and reviews inform audiences about the film for free; working in their favour.

• Anticipated earnings. Still major box analysis sites such as Box Office Prophets feature reviews in their estimates.

• Audiences who seek to make an improved judgement on whether to view a film or not. Finally, it’s the consumer who has the money and they don't always have it to throw away, so any good signs of a film, for instance a review, assist them decide on a film that they would enjoy.

The audiences for reviews contrast as they are largely reliant on the magazine itself and its own, intended target audience. For instance, a film like “Harry Potter” would be reviewed as a children's story in a children's magazine, supporting it largely on appearances and how 'desirable' it may be, whereas any adult magazine or newspaper (be it The Guardian, TotalFilm, or Sight & Sound) would see it as a story about childhood, focusing on what's below the surface and how it tries to explore this theme.

‘TotalFilm’ and ‘Empire’ provide for mainstream film audiences who are initially desire to be entertained. Whereas, there is to an extent of criticism concerned, it is not the foremost focal point of the majority of articles; more the plot and characters. It is also more visually satisfying, with numerous graphics, images and colour that grab hold of your sight easily, plus a rating for films. Audiences are just expected to know the main stars of Hollywood, and perhaps other, parallel mainstream films (e.g. in TotalFilm's "See this if you liked..." section).

On the other hand then there are magazines produced by cinemas, for example, ‘Prevue’ by Vue cinema, who pass out a brochure style layout to be read quickly (also means its cheaper to produce), includes a huge picture of lots of smaller ones, no rating, and simply a plot/character summarisation that is entirely positive, as the institutional repercussions (i.e. ticket sales) warrant it.

Magazine Research: Differences between film magazines in the UK .

There are many film magazines in the UK, including; Sight and Sound, Empire, Vertigo, Uncut etc. when looking closely at these different magazines, it is interesting to see how they differ and consider why this may be the case. Empire is a magazine wich carries out a consistant mode of address, which is fun and colloquial. Initally, Empire was launched as a sister magazine to the very popular music magazine, Q in 1989. From that point onwards, through its eye gripping images, appealing layouts and casual communication with its audience, Empire has been a major success. The magazine is aimed at young adults which is evident through its content. Empire includes features such as 'daily quiz', 'competitions' and 'game reviews' which reveal its target audience quite clearly.

The cover of the magazine alone promotes the 'chatty' mode of address and the casual tone that runs throughout the magazine. This is evident through phrases such as 'First kick-Ass Review Inside'. The images on the cover show the virtual reality theme which also runs throughout. Empire is full of intense graphic images to promote the latest action films.

It can be argued that Empire assumes its audience are only interested in specific genres such as comedy and action films and that the audience will already have a knowlegde about things such as video games. It also assumes that readers have an interest in certain movie stars, as often an issue will focus mainly on one or two actors (as you can see in this case, 'Speilberg' and 'Zemeckis').

The magazine 'Sight and Sound' differs hugely from Empire. Its proffesional mode of address and basic structured layout contrasts to Empire massively. Sight and Sound is aimed an older and more sophisticated audience. When comparing its content to Empire this is emphasised. Features included in Sight and sound consist of things such as 'Obituaries'and 'film review: Capitalism: A love story'. This content would not appeal to a young audience with an interest in films full of action and virtaul reality video games like Empire but an audience with an interest in historical information about actors and film. Sight and Sound however does make assumptions about its audience, as does Empire, by providing reviews on romance films and factual information about the deaths of movie stars thereby assuming that the audience will have keen interest in these areas. Sight and Sounds synopses provide film plots in full, including suprise twists therefore leaving no suspence in the reader as to what might happen when viewing the film as Empire would. Overall, in comparison with Empire, Sight and Sound is a very informative magazine with intention to educate over entertain whereas Empire seeks to grab the attention of its readers with a somewhat 'tabloid' content full of interesting facts about film and celebrities whilst careful not to reveal too much in their reviews and synopses. The cover of Sight and Sound also reveals the mode of address and the style of magazine through its image of a man sophisticatedly attired, wearing a suit and spectacles. The cover lacks colour and animated graphics contrastingly to Empire, it is mainly black and white with a black font used. Unlike Sight and Sound, Empire uses an exciting typography with different colours and sizes to make it more eye gripping, Sight and Sound consists of a basic font and its articles are longer in length with more textual information than imagery.

Magazine Research: Conventions

Magazine Research: Conventions

This is a film extract from the popular film magazine ‘Total Film’. It displays many conventions that are very common in most film magazines that are reviewing a film.

1- Headline: This is the title of the film, it is in bold to make it seem urgent, it needs to be seen by the reader as this is the film they are reading about.
2- Image Subheading: This is meant to be related to the picture that its next to, in this particular magazine, the subheadings are comical as it reflects the types of readers.
3- Picture: The picture represents a snapshot from the film itself, it has not been edited. This particular picture focuses on what seems to be the main character and it has been chosen because it is a powerful image and wants to say something about the story as the colours are very mellow.
4- Strapline: This is a feature the magazine uses to try to ‘sum up the film’ or give something the reader to remember, it could also have a hidden meaning. EG: this particular strapline ‘a test of nerve’ may mean that a character in the film is put through their paces or it could mean a test of nerve for the audience sitting through the film.
5- Graphics: These standout icons display the ratings feature done by the film magazine. They are centered next to the headline for quick reference should the reader be flicking through wanting to find high-rated films.
6- Introduction: The introduction quickly informs the reader when the film is out, it is preparing the reader to watch the film if the review appeals to them. The introduction is in bold, it displays importance as it makes a statement.
7- Byline: This displays the author of the review, it is in bold to highlight a name of importance, it always might make the read recognise the author who they have previously read.
8- Breakout boxes: This gives the read a quick summary, a collection of facts about the film for reference, it is ‘broken out’ of the main article to highlight its importance.

Film magazines vary in the design of a page as it depends on readership and content of the review, for example, the image above shows only 2 columns which contains the main text aswell as 2 breakout boxes which contain extra information.
The font and typography of the article varys, the font creates certain character for the magazine, it gives it an identity as it makes it easily recognisable and the font can also suggest if the publication is serious or just for fun. Typography is the way text is laid out onto the page eg: the size, spacing and line length but these will follow a ‘house style’. In the magazine total film all the headlines and graphics are the same, this is the house style.

Magazines Research: Audiences

Different film magazines attract different audiences through the films they are promoting or criticizing and their mode of address. Some film magazines, such as "Sight & Sound" will include a critical analysis of a film from an academic perspective. This is in complete contrast to the audience attracted by an in-house magazine, such as "Prevue".

An in-house magazine aims to promote the films being shown at that particular cinema to the customer and generally have a bias take on the film. The magazine is aimed at customers and is essentially advertisement for the latest blockbuster. These in-house magazines are usually promoting mainstream cinema and the mode of address is casual and light hearted, appealing to the average cinema visitor.

In complete contrast to an in-house magazine is a professional film review found in magazines such as "Sight & Sound". The mode of address is academic and is aimed at an audience that has, not only an interest, but a wide knowledge of film. The magazine does reviews of international cinema and quotes directors and films which will be completely unknown to the average cinema visitor, when analysing the film in great depth and outlining the storyline. This shows that the magazine is not advertising the film but making an academic review of the film.

There are also film magazine such as "Empire" which make a non bias critical analysis of blockbuster films. This attracts a younger audience than "Sight & Sound" and requires little prior knowledge of film or the film industry. The younger audience is also attracted due to the humorous and entertaining mode of address. 

Film magazines attract a variety of different audiences

By Greg O'Sullivan

Film Poster Research: Purpose

Film poster research: purpose.

The main purpose of a film poster is to promote the film to the public, in order to make them want to watch the film. In order to do so, film posters are made to appeal to a specific target audience. Film posters are also used to promote the main stars of the film. When viewing a film poster, one should be able to gain an insight into the story line of the film, and just by looking at it, establish the genre and the tone of the film; wiether it be horror, comedy, romance etc. Generally, a film poster will establish the genre/subgenres of a film. Commonly, films have more than one poster to promote it in order to appeal to different demographics, resulting in them having wider target audience therefore bigger viewing figures. For example, the modern posters for the classic Romeo and Juliet.

This poster advertises the romance genre of the film.
As the main image is of the hollywood stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes kissing, one can assume from this poster that the film is going to be mainly about a passionate romance. This poster, therefore appeals to a female audience more so than it does a male. It also appears to be aimed at a young adult audience. In the background of the poster, there are male characters equipt with guns, demonstrating aggression. This gives the impression that a sub genre of the film may be action/thriller. The tagline, 'My only love sprung from my only hate' emphasises the romance genre of the film whilst leaving the viewer intruiged.

This poster was also used to promote the film Romeo and Juliet, however the title given to the poster is simply 'Romeo'. This insinuates a more masculine tone to the film, as a result targeting a male audience. The mise en scene creates a ganster genre. As an audience we are faced with the main star of the film, smartly attired with a ciggarette in hand seated in front of an explosion. From this one can assume that the film will be action packed fulfilling the conventions of a thriller genre. This poster has no insight into the romance genre of the film contrastingly to the previous poster. This stresses how different film posters can be made for the same film and can yet appeal to such diverse target audiences.

Over time, the characteristics of film posters have developed and changed to ensure they succesfully fulfil thier purpose. This poster advertising the classic horror film, 'Jaws' was created in 1975. Horror posters, trailers and magazines were often more over the top in comparison to more subtle posters today. For instance, in this poster as you can see, Jaws (the shark) is the main focus of the image and is central to the poster.

The poster shows a female character swimming directly above the shark, suggesting that she is the menacing animals prey. Suspence is created through the fact that the female is unaware of the sharks presance and therefore the fact that she will be attacked, this also emphasises the females isolation and vulnerability. This portrayl of women is a popular convention in horror films and was particularly popular in the 1960's and 70's (around the time of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho') as they are presented as weaker than the attacker making the film more horrific. From this poster, it is clear that the film is a horror, the black background connotes evil and violence and the red headline connotes anger and blood. These colours have been selected to emphasise the gory and violent eliments of the film. The simple layout of the poster makes its audience focus mainly on the image, however there is a phrase at the top of the poster which enhances its advertisement, 'number one best seller.'

When comparing the most recent 'Jaws' poster, created in 1987 to the created in 1975, we are immediatley aware of how film posters have developed over time. Unlike the older poster, this has a clear BBFC certificate allowing the viewer to know the target audience of the film. The graphics used on this poster seem of a higher quality, the shark has been merged into the title, suggesting that we as an audience are now familiar with the fact that 'Jaws' is the name given to the shark. This poster also has a tagline, 'Mans deepest fear has risen again', the word 'again' gives the audience an idea that the film is part of a sequal all the while creates suspense. The fact that the main stars of the film have been included in the poster means that the attention of the audience is taken away from the horrors of the image, making it less over the top as the previous poster. The colours used on the poster are much more high key than those used on the previous, and the water is alot more realistic highlighting the improvements in technology over time.

Film Poster Research: Analysis

This movie poster of the film 'Platoon' , complies with the various film poster codes and conventions. Initially, to advertise the film thus enticing people to watch the film by appealing to particular audiences.

The poster has this do by establishing the specific genre(s) of a film through specific codes and conventions such as the images; this may also include the promotion of particular stars appearing in the film. For instance, some actors are particularly known as "genre specific stars", for example, Hugh Grant is very much associated with "rom-com" films. So the image of Hugh Grant on a film poster, may automatically provoke the presumption that the film has an contextual basis on "rom-com" plot-lines.

In addition, titles and taglines; these also have to stimulate question and thought but above all a brief understanding of what the film's plot line may include. For example, the 'Platoon' poster has a very strong and outlandish type of title in terms of it is rare that two colours are used within the composition of a movie poster title. This may well link into the tagline depending on the interpretation. One interpretation is that the white lettering bordered by the colour red is done to signify the USA, as the film contextual basis is around the involvement the USA in the Vietnam war. Although another interpretation is a metaphor, that the colour of white is a sign of 'innocence' whereas the the colour red is signify 'blood'. Connotations which are strongly linked to the subject of war but above all it corroborates with the tag-line "The first casualty of war is innocence". These are all compliances made to the technical codes used in the construction of a text, i.e. the inclusion of a film title and tag-line.

Of which corresponds with the dog tags replacing the "OO" of "Platoon"(American army division), they are used by the USA military forces to identify those who are found dead in war, when the body cannot be recognised. A stark contrast to 'peace' sign below the title and tag-line, used as semiotic, to draw the connotation of how USA promoted that their sole purpose of their involvement in Vietnam was to bring 'peace' to the area (as that was a key feature of their foreign policy of the time).

Film posters are full of semiotics, audiences quickly process a lot of information about the film from these without even noticing, just from the visual imagery contained within the poster. These are part of the symbolic codes, a key feature of the construction of a film poster

For instance, the main image in the film poster of "Platoon" has the picture of a soldier centre stage of the poster, directly above the title, separated from the warfare. There's almost an aura about him, it stimulates several questions such as is he praying? Of which draws the connotation of the crucifixion. Or is depicting an image of desperation of one of many soldiers within those US forces in Vietnam who were fighting a vary hard uphill battle of no hope of winning the war. Whilst in the background, there is a juxtaposition between connotation commonly drawn with the sight of palm trees; paradise to the explosion within the setting of the palm trees.

Above all, the overall focus in on the one soldier, bold title directly below the image of the soldier, plus, the explosion in the background, of which the soldier seems a 'world away' from. The tag-line connotes the darker side of war. Its structure is one which is dissimilar to the common tag-lines consisting of a repetitive, alliterative and 'rule of three' structure, although comply with the most common if not the most important convention of being short sentence (memorable and thoughtful, especially something in context to the film).