Inspiring Films and Directors Part 2

How Danny Boyle turned a ‘Braveheart’ Scotland into a nation that chose ‘life’

From the first moments of hearing the words of Mark Renton’s opening monologue, you know you’re in for a hell of a ride. From the title Trainspotting, you’d be understandably forgiven for assuming that this film was about a man who looked at trains for a hobby. (Ok, just me then), well the film in actuality is something quite distant and remote from that and altogether different. During the film opening, the viewer is faced with a hard hitting assault of the visual senses of what life is like for a minority of working class citizens in Scotland, or at least aims to be. As mentioned in an earlier post, this for me is a film that captivated my attention towards the genre of Social Realism, as I believe there is little else that can topple this ‘David’ budgeted, but ‘Goliath’ executed masterpiece of a film.  Directed by Danny Boyle, the film really explores with great depth and detail the negative connotations and poor influences that a drug inhabited area can manifest into an area.  Both addiction and dependency on the drug heroin is shown to spread like a crippling virus bringing with it unemployment, danger to life and unpredictability, all of which are issues explored in the film throughout its duration. It also opens the eyes of viewers into the lives of the ordinary working class citizens who, perhaps financially insecure and unstable in their relationships, need another anchor in their lives; a sense of dependency and a release that will always be there for them to turn to in a time of need. This dependency for Mark Renton and his peers is shown to be that of drug taking and substance abuse at a dangerous level, with the director effectively allowing the audience to experience the effects of hard hitting drugs through the explorative techniques used in the camerawork. A good example of this occurring is a scene where Mark is seduced by the drug Heroin and subsequently begins to feel the forceful and convulsing after effects.   This is particularly effective through Boyle’s masterful deployment of his directorial skills, where the viewer along with Renton begins to experience feelings of inertia and a ‘sinking’ feeling in a literal way as a low angle POV shot is used to effectively demonstrate Renton’s constraints placed on him by the drugs. This camera technique has also been used effectively by Boyle to allow the audience an insight into Renton’s experience of the drug and the beastly effects that the taker must endure to ‘ride out’ the experience, such as diarrhoea.

It is through the gritty representation of the urban populace’s living conditions that is one of the film’s many and various appeals as it is upon a wider platform of the film medium that the working class is represented on.

This film is a huge inspiration for me as this film, along with This is England really raised the bar and introduced a whole new genre in the case of Social Realism to a far wider, more diverse and wide reaching audience. I think that this is mainly due to the fact that up until the emergence of this film into the public eye many people had never experienced such a realistic confrontation of drug issues that inhabit society presently and society at the time.

Part of the film’s appeal is the fact that many audience people were easily able to relate to the various situations that the characters find themselves in even if they themselves had not experimented with or experienced the effects of drugs, many people have been a witness to the effects and the negative influence the drugs can increase onto individuals who partake in the activity of recreational drug use initiated for pleasure.   

Part of the success attributed to the film is Boyle’s immersive camera techniques and his rigidity of sticking to the codes and conventions of the Social Realism genre, and his risk taking by allowing relatively unknown actors to adjourn the film screen to showcase their talent that ultimately complement the overall enjoyment of the piece for the audience. Perhaps it is through the generally agreeable assumption that Trainspotting is such a realistic portrayal of everyday working class civilian life that have captured the hearts and minds of so many fans of this film both on a national and international scale that contribute so much to its success.

I believe that through the use of just pure camera film and the minimal usage of special effects and the absence of CGI, Boyle has created a masterful piece of film that is pure brilliance, a film that is not poisoned nor detracts in its effect on the audience by the use of CGI.

For me, only three words can sum up the quality of this film: Pure, gritty genius. If the viewing for Trainspotting was a drug, I’d be instantly addicted, unquestionably an addict for life, of that I have no doubt.

Inspiring Films and Directors Part 1

Like a Bat out of hell, how Christopher Nolan seizes my admiration for the Dark Knight Trilogy

There’s a quote in The Dark Knight Rises where the antagonist Bane proclaims to the broken and beaten protagonist Batman that he was “born in the dark. By the time I saw the light it was blinding.” Indeed, this sentiment is perhaps echoed in the director’s rise to fame, out of the darkness of an unknown film maker and thrust headlong into the searing light of Hollywood fame, to the rapturous sound of worldwide critical and fanatic acclaim. Christopher Nolan, the writer and director of The Dark Knight Trilogy, which comprised of 2005’s Batman Begins, 2008’s The Dark Knight (who can forget Heath Ledger’s mesmerising performance?) and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, on all counts unanimously united film critics and fans alike of the Batman series since its origins in praising the trilogy for raising the bar for comic book superhero movie adaptations. Other film studios have tried the routine; take a comic book, identify the origins and expand the story to fit a feature length duration and undoubtedly these films are big buck makers for the film studio at the worldwide box office, but it is Nolan through his mastery of the little and acute details that really raises the bar and, in so doing, sets his trinity of films apart from the rest. Batman incidentally once heroically proclaimed whilst saving Gotham City in the opening movie of the trilogy, Batman Begins, “It’s not what I am underneath; but what I do that defines me”, this quote could not more perfectly exemplify and pronounce Nolan’s personal drive and ambition to succeed.  And succeed he did. If there’s one man who inspired my love of all things film and cinema, then Christopher Nolan can claim another name to his ever increasing list of fans seduced by his opulent and splendorous mastery of the film reel. Not only was Nolan a man determined to reach the pinnacle of film capabilities, throughout the production of this magnificent trilogy he was constantly, continually pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved with a camera, pushing for his films to be shot using Imax 3D cameras to further immerse his audience into his masterpiece of film. And by no means was Nolan’s triumph a ‘one hit wonder’ well, three, he followed suit of The Dark Knight Trilogy with the immersive, mind boggling ever consuming and infinitely complex Inception.  A film to unquestionably make the viewer pay attention and give the brain cells a good test if ever there was one!

It is through Nolan’s shooting of the action sequences within his films that really immerse me as an audience member as a sense of anonymous and hidden identity is conveyed at the beginning of each film. This is done on a variant of two extremes; Nolan focussing in on the finer details of a master plot with precise camera shots, as showcased in The Dark Knight Rises where the antagonist Bane is captured as an anonymous prisoner only to later reveal himself the curator of an elaborate plot to “crash the plane” on which he is aboard, to make good his escape.  To counter this, Nolan also begins his films through the shooting of wide, expansive, high octane, adrenaline fuelled chase sequences or as in the case of The Dark Knight opening a bank heist!

Nolan's dramatic elements to his action sequences, whilst may not be duplicated in our own film opening to such a grand scale have inspired me as a film maker to replicate his increasing drive in tension, as our own film opening contains suspenseful and dramatic elements which have the potential to excite the viewer. To increase tension in our own film opening close up shots held for a slightly exaggerated duration have the potential to slightly unnerve the viewer, creating a sense of uneasiness for viewers. 

I personally would describe Nolan’s films to fall into the category of the action/ thriller genre as whilst they are extremely immersive and mesmerising to view, on an extremely grand scale there are elements typical to a thriller contained within the opening of each film, as it is through the simpler techniques of film that Nolan most captivates his spellbound audience. For example, the opening of the final film in the trilogy The Dark Knight Rises opens with a shot of grass being blown about in the wind, connoting a sense of unease for the audience as by seeing the vulnerable state of the weather, a sense of loathsome foreshadowing of darker and more sinister events to come is displayed to the audience.

I believe that whilst the group may perhaps not possess the budget or the equipment to replicate Nolan’s unfathomed success we can certainly aim to transpose his elements of excitement and tension building elements of thriller into our own accomplished work.   

Roles and Responsibilities of the Production Team for Film Opening

 

 

Not unlike our preliminary task, for our production to be a well grounded success, we assigned Roles and Responsibilities within our small production team, distributing and attributing various different roles and duties evenly spread among our team of three.  One of the many successes that came from the completion of the Preliminary Task was deciding where our strengths and weaknesses as individuals lay, and how best we could exploit and harness our strengths for the overall effectiveness and beneficial outcome for the whole group. Having discussed where we as individuals feel most comfortable and best placed within the group, the Roles and Responsibilities within the group are now as follows;

Luke- Within the newly revised and assigned roles, my role is primarily that of director, to direct Actors, and the cameraman  to achieve my visionary aim for the piece.

Ben- Ben’s role in the newly revised production team is to focus on sound within the film opening. He will provide music and sound effects for the film production. 

Zach – Zach’s role within the piece will be that of cameraman and helping me to achieve my visionary aim as director.

Through the roles and responsibilities for the main task we can hopefully achieve our overall aims of the piece very effectively, to replicate the style of a social realism film genre and incorporate elements of our own originality by building a sense of gritty urban mystery into the opening, as well as a sense of original creative flair and individuality to the work through the completion of our individual roles to a highly accomplished standard.

Character Profiles for Film Opening

There are two characters shown within our film opening. Creegan Donohue and Toby Scott appear as antagonist and protagonist characters respectively and we wished to convey the contrast between these two binary opposite persons through their demeanours and personality traits. I believe we were able to fulfil our goals and aims of representing these two very different characters and their personal quests through the stage directions dictated in the script and through the ‘rough’ lexical choice of Creegan contrasting with the pleasantness of Toby.    

This presented to the audience, two very different characters from the drug scene, the dealer who is presented as capricious, erratic, calculating and cold. 

Whilst in stark contrast to the above, the protagonist and ‘hero’ of the piece; Toby Scott is presented as a binary opposite to Creegan’s dark and overtly oppressive nature and demeaning stature.  This is shown hopefully through Toby’s attempted alleviation of drug taking in the opening scene, which Creegan takes an over reactive and rather infuriating stance to. Acting on an impulsive stimulus that Toby’s alleviation of drug and substance abuse is actually a set up to hand him into the “fucking pigs” he flies into a fitful rage that allows the audience to experience his calculating and devious nature, both of which are personality traits which we wish to explore in the opening of our film.  

We wished to show in our film opening two very differing characters with regards to their personal attributes and personalities. We wished to do this through symbolism to show clearly the two opposite personalities.

Character Profile Number 1: Creegan Donohue
Age: 19
Costume: Red jumper with black, baggy trousers. 

Creegan is the very embodiment of the sinister culture of the drug trade. Dark, devious, cunning, cold hearted and above all else, greedy he is a character of volatile and obtrusive nature with his sole aim in life to reap the rewards and benefits of other people’s discomfort and misfortune, primarily making a sizeable profit from the drugs that he sells. Sinister by nature, tyrannical and commanding by force it is these attributes that mark the character as one to be viewed with particular discontent, resentment and displeasure from audience members and the other characters alike.

Character Profile Number 2: Toby Scott
Age: 19
Costume: Green khaki jacket with faded blue jeans
Toby the protagonist of the piece, by contrast to the antagonistic Creegan, is a character more easily relatable to members of our audience. Less volatile and aggressive than Creegan, the character generally is more oriented towards more usual or otherwise ‘normal’ social behaviour. However, one thing that marks Toby out as acutely different is his tendency to become socially awkward in situations whereby he can become difficult in expressing the correct emotion for the situation that he may find himself in. We wish to showcase this in our film opening as it is an area of disability similar to autism or aspersers and as we are making a social realism film opening to cover this material will be a new and exciting direction in which to move our film opening.    

Storyboard for Film Opening

The storyboard is a helpful tool as it allows  us as a group to effectively plan which camera shot types and angles we will use within our film opening. The intended effect of the storyboard is to provide both guidance and support to the crew on the day of filming as to what camera shots we will be required to film for our task, although our plans may alter from those shown on the storyboard currently as circumstances on the days of filming may be slightly different and whilst on location we may be inspired to make alterations and changes to better serve the effects of our opening to a greater effect, so therefore flexibility is something that we will continue to view with an open mind, being aware that our plans may change from what we had perhaps intended.

Setting of the Film Opening

The setting of our film opening is very important as it will help to establish the storyline of the piece. It should ideally aid us as filmmakers in helping to tell our story to our demographic, that of a teenage and young adult audience by bringing realistic locations into our filming; it makes our film opening appear more authentic for the audience.  During our film opening, there is a mix –or hybrid- of both urban and rural locations, the urban location will be shown within the opening of our film during the botched drug deal opening scene. During the opening of our film, we want to present the location of the botched drug deal as harsh, hard hitting, gritty and a little bit grim to represent the wide negative conception of areas inhabited by drug issues, as this reflects the quality of life and the living standards commonly stereotyped within areas inhabited by drug issues.  
We wish to explore the woodland area of our film opening through the use of wide expansive shots to display the openness of the natural world and to show that the two characters are no longer consteained by the limits of the city during the chase scene.

 By showing both locations and environments in our film opening not only will this contrast differing ‘feelings’ to our film opening, it allows us to experiment with differing backdrops/ setting to the action. The reason for the contrasting environments being shown in our film opening is to contrast different social backgrounds commonly confronted and experienced in life.

Analysis of a Chase sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6fKA334gk

As we have established as a group, the main crux and action point of our film opening will in fact be focused upon a central tipping point of a chase scene, in this post I will be analysing both the conventions of a chase sequence and how certain techniques are put into practise to make it look both appealing and eye catching to the viewer.  I will also be exploring how both tension and excitement are maintained throughout the sequence to establish what makes an exciting and eventful chase sequence that we can effectively carry forward to our task as possible strengths when we come to film and later edit our task in the future.
The clip that I have chosen to analyse for this particular analytical post is that of a chase sequence from the movie Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. In the scene, Dominic Cobb is chased by ruthless bounty hunters who are after him "dead or alive."
There are a number of things that make the chase sequence both exciting and rewarding to watch as a viewer.  One of these is the very real and apparent threat and danger that the audience feel the character is in and therefore this makes the chase sequence seem ever the more exciting and engaging for the viewer as they are willing the protagonist to escape peril, hopeful that they escape from the danger unharmed.

Camera Work and Camera Shots
The use of the enclosed and confined camera shots and angles, partly aided by the sharpness and abruptness of the cut is what has the viewer leaning on the edge of their seat for the entirety of the chase sequence.  Quick, fluent and sharp camera movements aid the build up of tension in the chase sequence as the way the camera tracks the movements of Cobb's pursuers through the tight, enclosed space of hustling, bustling and crowded city streets adds an extra feeling of paranoia, claustrophobia and fear as the use of the enclosed, confined space of the narrow city streets makes escape for Cobb seem an almost impossible feat, adding yet more excitement for the viewer as the protagonists options continue to dwindle and narrow, limiting the opportunity for a plausible escape, making it seem like an ever increasingly incomprehensible option that may have to be ruled out.  Indeed, to add to Cobb's feelings of isolation and implausible escape seeming ever more likely the use of an aerial shot serves the purpose of highlighting to the audience the tight and narrow dimensions and parameters within which the foot chase is taking place, creating evermore the feeling of imprisonment and certain capture for Cobb as the narrow streets are represented to act as a physical barrier which harms the protagonists escape options to a severely crippling and detrimental effect. From this analysis, it is clear that confined space and limiting parameters such as narrow streets work well as a chase setting serving the purpose of "trapping" the viewer, along with the protagonist building a stronger relationship between the audience and character members.

Soundtrack
Soundtrack all but adds to the excitement and tension levels already experienced amongst viewers of the chase sequence as a rumbling drum is heard with the music rising and falling to almost simulate the rhythm of a beating heart to emphasise the feelings of rising panic and fear not only felt by the protagonist but also to complement the feelings of excitement members of the cinematic audience will undoubtedly be feeling during the scene.

Editing
Editing like Cobbs' pursuers is not only fast paced but also ruthless in it's decision making. Fast paced cuts between camera shots all but add to the impending and immediate sense of danger that is life threatening to the protagonist of the piece. The fast paced editing adds to the pace of the scene and pushes the narrative as well as the scene forward by advancing at an alarming rate between camera shots and movements so the audience experience a situation of breathlessness and exhaustion just from watching the sequence rather than partaking in it, like Cobb is.

Mise En Scene 
The Mise en Scene within the chase sequence is used effectively to complement and represent a feeling of foreignness and to provide an exotic feel to the piece as the chase sequence as influenced by the bright, majestic colours of another culture fairly dissimilar from our own still provides through the lighting a dark atmosphere. Indeed, this is emphasised at the beginning of the clip during the cafe exchange between Cobb and his friend as he talks through his plan of immediate action to outrun his pursuers where the characters faces are partly concealed in the half light to perhaps represent a darker undertone that is present in their immediate surroundings.     
Through the analysis of the chase sequence I  have learnt that for our chase sequence to be engaging and exciting for the viewer, it must take place within a confined and restricted area whereby escape from fate seems an almost incomprehensible and implausible outcome in order to derive and deprive the audience of feelings of boredom and annoyance. Also, as the chase sequence will take place at the beginning of our film, being for the fact that it features in our three minutes of film opening extract, it will need to be fast, paced, punchy and dramatic to keep the viewer engaged and  focussed and in order to maintain the audiences attention span throughout the duration of the opening scenes.