Mock Exam

Coming Down The Mountain

                From the very beginning of the clip the audience are presented with an image of a childish, disabled teenager Ben, in comparison to a fast-thinking, typical teenage boy, David. The distinction between the two brothers becomes clear as the audience firstly see a bird’s eye view of their shared bedroom. It is noticeable that Ben’s side of the room is incredibly separate from david’s one, as his domain contains a collection of toys, Doctor Who posters and colourful bed sheets.  David’s side, however, involves a dark and dingy selection of posters with plainly coloured bed sheets. This straight away conveys the brothers’ differences, and so already the audience is able to understand how sharing a room couold cause problems. The non-diegetic music in the background is rather upbeat but with a deep bass to it, also suggesting a representation of the contrasting brothers’ personalities.

                As David begins to speak about murdering his brother, the music becomes very fast and suddenly the audience are shown a variety of clips from fish, to dinosaurs, to cavemen. These each convey how David views his disabled brother and this is confirmed when there is a cut to the kitchen, and David’s voice as a narrative describes Ben as a ‘big potato with eye tenticles’. Before this the audience are shown an establishing shot to convey where the characters are; at their block of flats. The non-diegetic uplifting music in the background (‘wouldn’t it be nice’) contradicts how the protagonist, David, feels about his life. This music becomes diegetic in the kitchen as it is quietly played out of the radio. As the two brothers begin to bicker the audience are shown a close-up shot of Ben eating his breakfast, creating a sense of empathy as the idea that he struggles with his daily life starts to be portrayed. The mother’s actions towards Ben cause the audience to sympathise with him as she treats him in a kind and gentle way by kissing and hugging him goodbye.

                When Ben raises the question of how pigs are killed, David begins to tell him an exaggerated story, insinuating that Ben is unintelligent and gullible. This also suggests how Ben looks up to David to educate him. Police sirens begin to quietly ring in the background which perhaps foreshadows David murdering his brother in the future. After the two protagonists have left for school, several clips of Ben and David are shown to illustrate their lives together. The audience are shown a short clip of David aiming and shooting a toy gun at Ben, which could also foreshadow Ben’s death and David’s desire to get rid of him.

                Whilst the brothers are at school, the audience see a scene in which David is away from Ben, in a class, doodling on the table. There is then a close-up of his sketch on the table of a horse connotating his power sa the more able brother, or perhaps his lust for power as he holds almost no control of his teenage life due to Ben. He answers back to the teacher in a snappy and bitter way, suggesting he is a fast-thinkr and learner. When he brothers meet to leave school, David is faced with the decision of leaving his brother or leaving his friend. In this situation, with the company of David’s friend, there is a clear impact on how he treats Ben. The shot reverse shot of David and his friend not only conveys how quick he is to give in to peer pressure to leave Ben, but also show s the audience, through an over-the-shoulder shot, how Ben is affected by the conversation as the shallow focus shows David in the foreground as the more dominant brother, with Ben looking helpless in the background. Before this, Ben appears to be at peace with his relationship with his brother as he is blissfully unaware of David’s frustration.

                Ben returns home alone, as the audience see a slow motion clip of his bus journey. The teenagers surrounding him o the bus are presented as typical and rowdy whilst Ben sits in silence, clinging onto the baras though he feels insecure without David there. The slow motion pace has a sympathetic effect on the audience as they can finally see from Ben’s point of view. He looks rather out of place in the public environment alone where as David conflicts with him, as he is a typical grumpy teenager who appeared to fit in well in the classroom full of other teenagers.

Waterloo Road Analysis

                The location of the scene is in a busy canteen in a school, this is clear as there is the sound of people talking, kids shouting and knives and forks hitting plates. This sort of hectic atmosphere highlights how Ben is being publically humiliated implying the cruelty behind this bullying. It begins with a mid shot of Ben walking through the door happily; there is then a quick cut to a mid shot of Bolton walking forward, towards the camera. The use of the same shot allows the audience to grasp a better understanding of both characters, by focusing on the mise en-scene. Ben is wearing a black hoodie, a black necklace and a black bag. This reflects the darkness of this scene and the unhappiness of his life. The audience can then see that Bolton (who is the bully in this part of the scene) is also wearing a black hoodie and also a chain. This allows the audience to understand that the two characters are not all that different and would usually get along due to their similarities; however the rumour has destroyed Ben’s chances of friendship with anybody. However, Bolton’s chain is hanging out of his shirt, highlighting to the audience that he is a more upfront and cocky character compared to Ben. His earrings also indicate he is a rebellious person. Bolton’s body language can instantly be interpreted as violent due to the way he licks his gums before speaking, his aggressive and emphasised steps and his quick movements.
                The conversation is opened with the loud slam of Bolton’s lunch tray hitting the table, reflecting the harm he’s capable of. There is then a medium close up of Ben’s surprised reaction to the noise. Bolton then begins to threaten Ben, shown in an over-the-shoulder shot of Bolton and the back of Ben’s head. As the diegetic dialogue begins, the background noise of the canteen quietens, allowing the audience to hear Bolton’s accent, furthering their interpretation of his character, as his harsh accent highlights his character-type. There is then a quick cut to another over the shoulder shot of Bolton’s head and Ben quietly and softly answering, highlighting his confusion to the threatening conversation.
                There is then a two shot medium long shot of two girls noticing the heated discussion and questioning it, but not intervening and helping Ben, simply watching, highlighting how Ben has no real friends who support him. There is then a cut to a two shot medium close-up of Bolton and his mate still threatening Ben, highlighting how Ben is fighting a losing battle, as he is being ganged up on by more than one person. There is then an over the shoulder shot of the Bolton’s head as his volume increases and he begins shouting at Ben, this allows the audience to see Ben’s shocked and hurt reaction to Bolton’s threatening behaviour. A cut to a medium close up of just Ben, looking upset highlights his loneliness in this situation. There is then a single medium close-up of one of Bolton’s gang looking sternly at Ben, highlighting how people agree with Bolton and Ben is being victimised. There is then a long silence after Bolton says ‘got it?’ indicating Ben’s confusion and fear. The tension is then broken with the obvious sound of Bolton’s shoulder bashing past Ben’s, shown in a medium shot as Ben attempts to rush away. This highlights how Bolton is a bully and a violent character. As Bolton is a different ethnicity to Ben, this highlights also that the bullying might also be down to racial differences.
                The scene then switches to a conversation between two girls, sitting at a table nearby. It opens with a medium long shot of a girl quietly discussing why the two boys were arguing, the volume of the girl’s discussion highlight how the reason the boy is being bullied is supposed to be a secret – indicating how people must have gone behind his back, making the audience feel sympathetic for Ben even more. There is then a medium long shot of the girls sitting at the table, this allows the audience to consider their characters and decided what they think of them. Both girls are wearing short skirts; they have their shirts hanging out and their ties on loosely. This indicates this is not a posh school and the students within it are not respectful or necessarily smart.
                There is then rigid cross cutting of the girls, using medium close-ups, discussing the rumour about Ben and how everybody knows. The fast pace editing in this scene highlight the quick cuts which reflect the intensity of the conversation and also represent the frustration of the characters. This is then broken with a medium long shot of one girl slamming her fork on the table, the loud noise represents her anger that Ben is being bullied, showing that people do care about him.
                The scene is then taken to a close up of Ben, who is at the food court, being served by a dinner man. His sarcastic tone highlights instantly to the audience that he is a bully that has heard about the rumour also, foreboding that Ben is about to get more grief from another character. The close up of this dinner man allows the audience to judge him as a character due to the mise-en-scene. He is wearing all white, which is a contrast to the connotations of white: calm, pure, angelic. However, the colour is used to imply he is staff in the canteen, and also to indicate how Ben is bullied by all types of people, the obviously mean and the unexpectedly mean also. He is wearing a hat which is twisted sideways, indicating his rude attitude.
                A medium long shot of thee dinner man serving is opened with the loud clatter of the plates, reflecting Ben’s fear of what is about to happen. There is then a close-up of Ben’s shocked and startled reaction that even a staff member is bullying him. This is followed by a close up of the stuffing being served reminding the audience that this bullying is taking place in a busy canteen environment. The medium close up of the dinner plate allows the audience to hear the slam of the sausage being hit onto the plate reflecting the threat of violence and also the two loud hits of the spoon on the plate, indicating that Ben is powerless and the dinner man is stronger than him, mentally and physically. There is then a two shot of Ben and another student watching the dinner man, indicating to the audience that this bullying is being done in front of other people, highlighting Ben’s embarrassment. A volume increase of the dinner man shouting at the staff to ‘throw away’ all cutlery highlights how this man is more powerful than Ben and he is too weak to stand up to him. The dinner man’s violent emphasis of the word ‘catch’ demonstrates the cruelty of this bullying and reminds the audience of the rumour.
                There is then a focus pull of the man to a close up of a dinner lady in the background who has been watching the way he has been bullying Ben. The silence highlights how, alike the girls earlier in the scene, she has witnessed the bullying but not intervened and tried to help Ben. This then cuts to a focus pull from the man helping another student, using a soft and subtle tone, to a big close up of Ben looking hurt as he notices the harsh and obvious victimisation of this bullying.

Textual Analysis and Representation

Camera Shots, Angle, Movement and Composition

- Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.
- Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.
- Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.
- Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing

- Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.
- Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.
- Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound

- Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.
- Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.

Mise-en-Scène

- Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.
- Lighting; colour design.

Our Waterloo Road Replication

Editing

What's Wrong With The British Film Industry?

In comparison to other locations, such as Hollywood, it can be argued that the British film industry is lacking in something, that it isn't as successful as some others. But it is unlikely to be due to lack of talent, as Britain have some of the finest technicians in the world who are very much wanted by Hollywood, even though they could make even more cost savings by shooting in Poland, or Romania, but still choose Britain. It can’t be down to a lack of facilities, as we have the biggest sound stages and all of the latest technology. It can’t be down to a lack of acting talent either, as today there are many more British actors working in America than there are Americans working in Britain compared to years ago. It isn't just the quality of British films being produced that is low - it's the quantity too. The number of films being made in Britain has fallen to the lowest level since at least 2003, with those that are being made on much lower budgets. On the consumer side, the British watch more films across more platforms than ever before, with record receipts of £988m at the box office. But the production side is a grim picture. The number of films made was down from 87 in 2009 to 79 in 2010. Total films made in Britain, including Hollywood productions and co-productions, fell from 150 to 128 last year. However many people hold a different opinion on the state of the British film industry as it is, for example Lord Smith: “British film is going through a golden period.  A run of British-made and British-based movies has been taking audiences around the world by storm.  But we cannot be complacent – this review highlights the things that the BFI, Government and industry can do to ensure that we continue to build on recent successes. British film is in prime position to make a major contribution to the growth of the UK’s economy, to the development of attractive and fulfilling careers for young people and to the creation of job opportunities across the country.” Like Lord Smith, some people see the British film industry as a huge boost to the economy and believe that when they want they can produce the best movies. The British film industry not only helps the economy out with money, it also supports over 35,000 jobs. Also in respond to the people who say Britain does not produce enough movies, last year independent British films took their largest market share in a decade, which illustrates that Britain does encourage people to produce/make movies and this has made an impact. The box office itself also made over £1 billion for the first time, even though Britain doesn’t produce as many films as America, we still contribute to watching them and financially helping the market. Britain also has the highest amount of cinemas in comparison to Europe, this also proves that we have a lot of people in the country that enjoy and contribute to the film industry, and obviously a large amount of money is gained from the public consuming films in this way. The British film industry has also invested £160 million in movies and gained  £800 million, in other words every £1 we have invested we have got £5 in return. The films produced in Britain have won over 300 awards worldwide and have also won some of the most prestigious awards such as the Oscars and BAFTAs. Britain have produced many successful films in the past such as Trainspotting, which created a lot of gain for the British film industry. If the Edinburgh tourist board didn’t have reason to thank the director of Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, for the adaption of Irvine Welsh’s novel of junkie street life, the British film industry and a million student walls and CD players certainly did.Also some of the more recent and most successful UK independent films were The King's Speech, grossing £46m in the UK, and The Inbetweeners Movie, grossing £45m. They also went to the top of the charts of the top 20 independent films since 1989, coming in above Slumdog Millionaire and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

In my opinion, I believe the British film industry doesn't lack talent or quality, but does lack the quantity that we need to be even more celebrated and create even more success.

Editing

Not all of the filmmaking is to do with in front or behind the camera; in fact the editing process is crucial for a film to be finished well, as it helps enhance mood, emotion and character. Editing involves combining the right shots into sequences, and combining the sequences into the finished film.

Editor’s tasks to finish a film include:

• Selecting and rejecting (if it’s not good enough) footage by the director
• Organising various shots into the finished film
• Co-ordinating one shot and a following to produce a moving narrative

The editor starts by looking at the various individual shots available to create a particular scene and they then use the script for the scene as a guide, and decide which shots would be best to create it. Sometimes a whole scene may be made up of just one shot if it is of correct length. Scenes are put together to create a sequence, a group of scenes set around a section of the narrative, and sequences are then put together to give a finished film.

Continuity editing

Most films and other moving images that we watch conform to this method of editing. Editing is hardly noticed by the audience, as we accept what is happening on screen if it follows the rules that we have learnt from watching other films.

These are some common features of continuity editing:

• ·         The establishing shot is typically used at the beginning of a film or sequence to ensure that the audience knows where and when the action takes place. This could involve the outside of a building, a landscape or a city skyline. This shot often then changes to the inside of a building that we can assume for example is the inside of the building that we saw in the establishing shot.
• ·         Shot reverse shot is commonly used during conversation, so that the audience can see how both people in the conversation respond and deliver pieces of information.
• ·         180 degree rule is the basic rule that ensures that the audience can understand the scene in terms of where things are within the location that the scene is being filmed. This rule can be deliberately broken by the editor to create confusion and disorientation amongst the film.

Cut

Film editors can connect one scene to another in several ways, including a straight cut, fade out, dissolve, wipe cut or jump cut.

These all affect the pace and mood of a scene. The three things that an editor will take into consideration when working on a scene are the quality of the shot, cinematic space and cinematic time. 

The quality of the shot includes what the shot actually contains, what’s happening in the shot, how has the shot been filmed and how does this relate to what is going on in the shot? 

The cinematic space refers to where the action takes place, for example in establishing shots we are shown the location of the scene in the first shot. What are the people doing within the space and what are we, as an audience, supposed to focus on? 

The cinematic time refers to the time a sequence takes to play on screen – compressed or extended.

To shrink time we can create a series of fast paced cuts to illustrate what is happening a lot quicker. For example, we see a character get in a car in one location and get out at another, so we can assume that a journey has taken place rather than showing the whole thing. 

To expand time we add additional details, e.g. a scene of someone sitting and waiting can be made longer by editing together cuts of the characters eyes, hands, and other body parts to portray their impatience, to create tension.

Editing sets the rhythm or pace of a scene. This could be due to either the music in the background or the mood created by the pace that a scene is edited. To build tension in a scene you could cut from one shot to the next very quickly. However in a relaxed scene shots will be cut at a much slower pace.