Treatment In my treatment, I will explaining about: • The titles I will use • My target audience • How I will use technology • The representations my film will conform to subvert to • The narrative • How conventions will be subverted or conformed to • Style & Iconography
TITLE Our title is going to be called ‘Virtual venom’ as it has a high degree of ambiguity to it which will create a sense of mystery and engima. This will make it seem interesting and unique to watch. More importantly, this connotes murder and pain which the protagonist (called Mary) will experience. This relates to our themes of peer pressure, bullying and suicide which we would like to explore in our British Social Realism film as some findings in our voxpop suggested to us that these issues were a growing problem in modern society. We believe this title is conventional as it sets up the “kitchen sink ideology” which film four typically use to convey their gritty style approach to films. This is because the breathe of venom has many harsh connotations. I believe it will appeal to my target audience of “British 16 -24 year olds” as it has a unique title which does not give away too much about the narrative but connotes a sense of death which our film will explore.
Target Audience
Our target audience are young female and male adults of the age, sixteen to twenty four. We felt this is appropriate age seen as our film focuses on modern issues which most young people face in everyday life. The interests of my audience: • Binge Drinking experience • Uses the Internet • Partying • Dubstep music. • In an education Other media consumption: • Social networking platforms such as, Twitter. • British films • Youtube. Social Class: • Middle and working class background
Narrative We tried to make our narrative unique yet realistic and so we came up with a story of a girl named Mary who lives a normal life with ordinary friends until we realise that something is happening behind the scenes...We realise her life isn’t all normal at all. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, who is easily influenced by his friends, soon sees that taking advantage of Mary is his new ambition to get his peer’s respect. As the story moves along, we will witness her get persuade by Jimmy to send pictures of herself with no clothes as he promises that it will make their relationship stronger. Despite his peer’s influence, he decides to keep it as his own secret until sooner when he is at a party, his phone gets stolen. Immediately, Mary’s pictures end up all over social networking sites such as facebook and twitter and child pornography is exposed for everyone’s eyes. From here on, we went with the convention that most British social realist films use which is to have a gritty and raw ending therefore, once Mary realises her life is no longer “normal” and “stable” and sees it as a nightmare – has no friends, and everyone is sharing the pictures around and laughing at them, she loses her esteem. She looks for help but there is no where to turn to and so she takes an overdose on pills and is found left dead in her home.
Narrative • In our opening sequence, we make sure it meets the conventions of a British Social Realism film: • Everyday working class location - Protagonist on the train, with friends, there is no dialogue until we see montage 3 second clips of their everyday life from their prospective. This would be unique because when you are on the train, you never can understand what happens in their real life away from their daily routine as it’s not very cliché.
Target Audience We believe the film will be appealing for sixteen to twenty four year olds because the (sub)themes relate to modern issues which teenagers are challenged by on daily basis. For example, peer pressure, bullying, cyber-bullying, violence and suicide is something which we felt would engage them into the story as it will make it realistic in relation to their lives. It will also make it stimulating by using the ‘uses and gratification’ theory which states that a good film is one which: • Allows for them to achieve a sense of belonging, in a sense that, young people can relate to it. For example, I will use some colloquial language as this is a common everyday sort of language most young people use everyday. • Allows for them to feel amused, in a sense that, it has some humourous elements to it which can help establish the personality of different characters. • Allows them to be self-seeking which can mean maintaining their personal status. For example, in our film, Mary starts of in a normal love-relationship with Jimmy which many young people today embrace. • Lastly it should allow them to gain new information. For example, we want to tackle the issues some that are mentioned in our themes such as, peer pressure and how it has a prominent effect on young people’s lives.
Target Audience The representations our film will reflect how most typical working class children behave. For example, enjoying the use of the internet, being rebellious in general. This will help them appeal to the different characters. However, we will make sure the film doesn’t use a great amount of stereotype as this will make it seem unreal.
We think the narrative is great as it is unique and will focus on the lives of British teens on the internet and the negative impact that has on their social lives in a great detail. Lastly, the unique selling point of our film is that films tend to focus on the wider side to British life which relates to our modern industrial society we live in today – Internet is where live is for most people socialise today, this where growing problems take place. In addition to this, it looks at the real world of social networking in a deeper way which most British Social Realist films have not experimented with.
Technology We plan to use a HD camera as they are cheap and light to use and would film our clips to an excellent quality. This also allows us to be more creative with the camera as it can be handheld or attached to the tripod and seen as our film is from the British social realism genre, it should connote a gritty feel in the shot types. Therefore, the handheld movement constructed by using this form of technology will create a verisimilitude that allows the audience to connect with the real life of the characters. The only limitations of using this camera is that it needs to be hired from our school and other students will want it, therefore, we need to use it very effectively against our time. We also plan to use a program called ‘Final Cut Express’ on the mac computer, as it has a lot of features relevant for the editing process. This should help our production come across as a real professional film. However, we will need to make sure we get the editing done in time and we know how to use the software effectively.
Conventions I will conform to British social realist films, seen as I will have: • Normal everyday characters, e.g. Mary and Jimmy are just a typical boyfriend and girlfriend couple • The shots will be very gritty and harsh to my audience. For example, some of my opening sequence clips will have hand held movement and basic camera shots and editing. • The titles of our film will be gritty • The institutional logo will be original and connote that the film is independent and On the other hand, we would like to subvert to the British social realism genre:as an innovative film company and so we will try to subvert the genre in a relevant way
Style & Iconography
Institution
Representations