Cloud9: Evaluation of Our Use of Genre Conventions

Mise-en -scene

We watched 80’s news to get an idea so we could recreate it for our piece, we gathered that it was quite different to the news today as it didn’t contain much content in terms of outside footage.

The use of the old BBC logo is another way to portray to audience that everything is set in the 80’s.
After looking our research we concluded that an actual news report would be the best way to present the news of ‘Ruby’s’ death. (The kind that would be shown on the 6 o’clock news the day of her death) This is due to that fact that most of the reports followed the same format and we can replicate this to present our own script and footage; this will therefore help make our report have as much verisimilitude as possible as this creates authenticity needed for social realism genre. This is important in films such as "Green Street" and "Football Facory" which rely on authenticity.

Verisimilitude in Green Street

This report for example only involves a main news reader sitting at his desk whilst communicating with other reporters. A simple graphic slide is put on the screen whilst they speak about Ruby. This is very minimalistic and all the effects are similar to the ones used in the 80’s.

We used this shot during the flash back in our piece which was a common convention used in coming of age movies.
This was inspired by the movie ‘This is England’, as there is a similar shot in which we can see the character walking past old garage doors.
This kind of location was often used in the 1980’s, which is why we used it and also it had a retro feel to it.

This is England '86

6 & 8

During this mise en scene is important as both the characters had an 80’s look, for example Ruby was wearing a Parker coat which was a common trend/casual during that type period, we used this specifically as well as the hair cut of Sam, he had a quiff. The use of costume followed the conventions of real media products which try to establish an authentic feel in what is a kind of period drama.

This is an important eye line match, we used this in our opening two minutes, and this involves Jimmy staring at a photo of his sister as a child.
The use of photo frame is common in coming of age movies, as it can be used to show remorse or innocence of a character. A significant photo or film footage is common in social realism genre of movies to bring up memories of happier times and uses this to make the contrast clearer, an example of this is in ‘Stuart: A life Backwards’

The use of this prop can also leave the audience intrigued how an innocent child like that changed into a possible drug addict.
This is the exact reason as we wanted to create juxtaposition, so the striking difference between the before and after of Ruby. We edited the picture to make it appear that it was taken during the late 70’s. This is one of the ways we improved our piece’s verisimilitude, the absolute key feature of our genre. 'This is England' uses a montage of 80s footage to do this but we have more limited resources.

Sound

2 & 4 & 5

The sound use in coming-of age films varies. Non-diegetic sound is often used at various points throughout most movies and the genre of this music is often ‘alternative’ or ‘indie’ as it is targeted at a youth market e.g. "juno" which released a popular soundtrack album, as our film probably will.
We used characters that were the same age group, also during this close up of Jimmy during this we had complete silence which we used to create an emotional environment.
In picture 2 we had the news flash running on top, during the close up of Harry. This is common as it shows Harry’s emotion during it. Also during the close ups of Jimmy we edited the sound of the news report, so that its gives a sound perspective of it being played from a TV.
In pictures 4 & 5, we have a song during the flash back, this is used for juxtaposition. Its fast paced, and it fits in with the pace of the walking, also this is a common convention used in all genre of films which has flashbacks. Moreover this completely contrasts with the previous tone and ‘resets’ the film.
This is also used to represent the transition from the sadness to happiness, in our case to show when life was better for them.

General

A typical plot outline consists of a main teenager, usually a male, or a group of teenagers who are ‘coming of age’.
We didn’t follow the common convection of coming of age to have main character that is a male; we had both a male and female, Jimmy and Ruby Maverick.
In coming of age movies, things normally start of all flourishing but then starts to take a downwards spiral as the movie progresses, they soon begin to realise the world isn’t as amazing as they thought it could be.
The stories typically feature a mid-teen male and are often told in flashback form. This is something that we chose to do but then taking a flash back to 1983 to begin the story of the band.
The teens are the protagonists of the story and there is usually some kind of catalyst who causes problems.
In our piece, Sam is the catalyst as he will be having a relationship with Ruby.

Camera angles/movements

2 & 9

We used a series of different shots of Jimmy during the initial stages of the piece, we used close ups and mid shots to do this.
The use of these shots are typical in social realism as it is important to highlight who the story is going to be about and close ups/screen time can be used to do that.
Use of close ups can help you cause an emotion, which the character can infer, for example the close up of Jimmy during the new flash which announces the death of Ruby Maverick automatically links them together, moreover this causes the audience to have sympathy for his character. This is a common method used in emotional films.

Editing

We put a filter on top of our piece to create an 80’s feel by changing the colouring and saturation of the film, this adds to the verisimilitude of the piece as well.
For our piece we also used cross cutting in the flash backs to create a fast paced mood - this helps move the opening sequence along.

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