British Films and King's Speech Case Study

I have done some research on what makes a British film, I used an example, The King's Speech as it is a Drama film. I thought it would be helpful to look at a British drama film in detail and the production that went into it as it could help me with my own drama film.

British films

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Nine Frame Analysis of the Opening Scene of 'Public Enemies'

In the first frame of the film the focus is on the prisoner's feet marching. This appealed to me as I had originally liked the idea of opening my film with the focus on somebody's feet walking. The screen is black for a few seconds and we can hear the sound of the marching feet before the picture comes to the screen. I find this effective as it draws us into the story.

The shot then changes to the hands of the prisoners, we still do not see their faces in the shot, this helps us to question who is being arrested, possibly. Or the fact that we cannot see the faces of the people reflects how they are not seen as people. They are all dressed the same, in the same position and doing the same thing. The only thing that defines them as individuals is their face and this is the very thing that is hidden from the audience.

We now see the backs of the heads of the marching prisoners. Not quite their faces, but it allows us to slowly be brought into them. We can see the divestiy of people being arrested, age and race varying. This shot also allows us to get our first glimpse of the surroundings. All of the previous shots are fairly close up, whereas now we are very subtly easing out of the close up shots. This allows us to see the bigger picture and lets us discover more about the story we have been thrown into.

At this point we finally see the faces of the prisoners marching by. The camera angle has changed, and the shot is still close up. The focus throughout all of the frames so far has been wholley on the prisoners, nothing else. Their expressions are firm and so far no music has been played in the film. Music could have had a large impact and influence on how we view the prisoners at this point in the film. If sad music was played, we may feel empathy or sympathy for them, perhaps leading us to thing they are not deserving their sentence. If menacing, dark music had been playing we would perhaps think these people were evil and deserved the treatment they were getting. As there is no music we cannot help but to take a neutral standpoint on the prisoners, and as we see later on in the film, this is for a good reason.

We now have our first shot that is not purely focused on the prisoners. A guard is watching them pass by, and the shot previous to this one could have been following his eyeline to what he was seeing as the angle of the prisoners walking by matches the position he is standing in beside them. The shots are still close ups, not allowing us much scope to see the conditions or setting, although from the people we have seen we are lead to believe it is a prison. This is interesting, as we are told the surroundings not by being shown a large prison building, but by seeing the people, what they are wearing and the way in which they behave.

A wider shot now allows us to see a fallen prisoner, this is a short, yet powerful shot. It can tell us much about what the prisoners are going through and the conditions. It is quite amazing how such a short shot can tell us so much. We also see that nobody is paying any attention to this fallen prisoner. The prisoners marching do not appear to be even looking at him, and the guards are paying no attention to him, either.

The shot remains wide, showing us the sheer size of the surroundings. The people seem swallowed up by the building around them, this shot seems to reflect the power of the prison itself. The shot shows how powerless the people look in comparison to the huge towering walls. This may help us to understand how the prisoners feel, they were once in power over others when commiting crimes, but now they are powerless under the iron fist of the law in the prison.

We then return to a cluse up shot of the hands of the prisoners. Once again I feel that if music were used this could create a strong feeling of how we view these people. Hands can show a huge amount of emotion. This image could show the weakness of the prisoners, or it could show their anger and how they wish to break free again.

Again we see the prisoners walking away from us. Although not a huge amount happens in these first nine frames, no words, no music, all we see is the prisoners walking by us and all we hear are their footsteps. This film opening is simple, but I feel it holds a vast amount of power and the mood can be influenced so much by very small and subtle changes. Many close-ups are used and I feel this is effective as the audience is kept in the dark to a certain degree as to what is going on and where the story is taking place. I would like to try to use some of these techniques in my own film opening.

Title Sequence Timeline of 'The Moulin Rouge'

I analysed the opening scene of the Moulin Rouge by putting into a timeline. I think this will be very helpful when I am planning my own film, as the timeline allows me to see how shots change and how fast they change. They really help you to see the style of the director of the film and highlight some interesting techniques that you make not otherwise notice unless you take the film apart into such small details.

Iconic Sounds

I am extremely fond of classical music being used in films. I find it can evoke a great deal of emotion and sets a subtle mood. Sometimes, when used effectively, you are not even aware that there is music playing in the background of a film.

I find that using classical numbers will help set the more sombre tone to my piece. I am very fond of Elliot Goldenthal's work. He has done the soundtrack for the Crime Drama Public Enemies, I find the pieces composed for this film are extremely powerful and I would like to use similar music to this if I choose to use music in my task.

As I am also fond of Film Noir, I have a soft spot for typical 1930's singers, too. I love Billie Holiday's music, and find her style is also powerful as her voice carries a great deal of emotion and passion when she sings.

                                              

 

In the film Pride and Prejudice, I find the classical music is some of the best I have ever heard in a film. My favorite piece from the film has to be 'Liz on top of the World'. 

Another song which I find deep and emotive is Cold by Aqualung & Lucy Schwartz.

Typical Synopsis

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, the Drama film genre is very broad. It contains many sub-genres, some of which I am going to write about here. I am hoping that by summarising some of the sub-genres of Drama films, I will be able to decide which sub-genre of Drama I would like to use in my film opening.

A style of film which I have a passion for is Film Noir, I find that fact that it is in black and white is not just original but also helps give an overall mood to the film, I am quite fixed on trying to make the opening of my film in Black and white, too. I find that the darker tones will show connotations of the mood I am trying to reflect in my film, I am quite keen on a sombre tone. Film Noir is not really a genre of film, but it is a kind of film that has a very strong emotion and tone to it, something which I would like to try and create myself. The film often uses dark images and silhouettes, something which I find very effective in creating emotion and a tone in a film.

Melodramas

These are sub-genre of Drama films. These often incorporate unrealistic characters dealing with romance or domestic issues with characters that came under certain stereotypes. These kinds of films are made to appeal predominantly to female audiences. They are often described as 'tear-jerkers', 'woman's films' or even 'chick flicks'. An example of a Melodramatic film is 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die' which is about romance during the war time.

Biopics

Another sub-genre of Drama. Biopics focus on the life of a person or group of people, telling their story. Sometimes the people focused on in these films are famous people, and the film will tell their story. The word 'Biopics' is combinationg of 'Biography' and 'Pictures'. Biopics can fall under many film genres, not just Drama. An example of a Biopic is Ron Howard's film 'A Beautiful Mind' which focuses on the life of a schitzophrenic. This sub-genre appeals to me, as I feel that I would like to focus on just one person in my film opening. I want my film opening to be serious, and to draw the auidience in, something which I think a film under this sub-genre will achieve very effectively yet subtely.

Romantic Dramas

A very large sub-genre of Drama is Romance. These films generally focus on the struggles of two people in love to be together and their journey as a couple, facing certain issues together. The romantic films that fall under the Drama category can often end in tradgedy, the happier Romance films often come under the Comdey or Chick Flick genre.

Supernatural Films

Perhaps a less obvious idea of a sub-genre of Drama films. But horror films and other similar films use a great deal of suspense to build up an emotion of uncertainty or fear in the audience. By making the audience feel frightened, the film must be effective as to be afraid, you have to be able to connect with the film and it needs to be believable to some degree. To do this I believe it is a great skill, which does use some dramatic effect. Many of these films are filmed using handheld cameras, such as the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, all of which are quite sucessful or controversial. As I am also going to be filming my film opening with a handheld camera I feel that perhaps by looking at the techniques used in these films I will find an effective way of creating suspense in my own film. These films have proved that you do not need advanced equipment to make a successful film, it's about how you use what you have in an intelligent and new way that the audience is not used to. These films are extremely clever as they use no digetic sound or music over what the characters are hearing, this makes it hard to tell when something will happen as in more conventional horror films you will hear music building up to an event to scare us.

After looking at these sub-genres of Drama films I am keen on trying to make a Biopic film, following the life of somebody in a darker light, perhaps incorporating some of the techniques from other sub-genres that appeal to me. I will look at techniques used by supernatural films using handheld cameras to build suspense and to gather ideas that I like from them that I may like to try and use in my own film. I will also look closely at techniques used in Film Noir as this is my favourite style of film due to it's originality and tone.

Whilst browsing, I found the page on the same website that I posted previously which is very helpful when looking into sub-genres as it is easy to read. http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html

Audience Expectations!

Interviews with the Audience


Here are some interviews with my target audience on what they think a drama film is all about and what they would expect to see in one.

 Just from interviewing these people it is clear how many sub-genres Drama contains as many different themes were brought up, such as: war, romance, crime and death.

It is clear from most of the interviews that some form of strong emotion or conflict is a key theme in a film that comes under the drama genre.