Shameless Opening Sequence Analysis

The title sequence I have decided to analyse is shameless. The reason I chose shameless was because, the title sequence is one of the most informing opening to a TV drama I know. Within the first second, there is an establishing shot of old tower residential tower blocks, which sets the scene for the whole drama. Shameless is based on people who live off benefits, and who live in these tower blocks, so within the first second of seeing the opening, the audience can get a feel for what the program is actually about.
The shots within the title sequence are quick, establishing shots, portraying the life of these people. The different shots include a flats, surrounded by concrete, highlighting the city life, rather than the green countryside, which also sets the scene. Other shots include; a pub with barbed wire around it, insinuating crime, and violence, which is one of the main points of the program.
Frank narrates the opening of the program, by walking around where he lives, explaining about ‘Chatsworth estate’, and “pubs and drugs”, which instantly shows the audience what the show is going to be about.
The opening features short clips from the season of the show, which explains the story line, which is about to unfold, and also, furthermore highlights the genre of the show, and what is included in it (drugs, violence, sex, alcohol, political issues, ect)
Within the first 30 seconds, there was 40 different shots, which highlights the fact of the fast paced, action filled drama. The fast paced camera shots, also match the rhythm of the fast paced families the story is about.
During the opening, a few clips of each character appear, which is very effective, because it gives the audience a brief opening to what each character is like, and what they will expect of each character.

Analysing shameless, made me realise that it relates to the work we did on stereotypes, because throughout the opening, the characters are portrayed in this “chav” –like persona. They are all wearing clothes, which could be related to the image people associate with chavs, or perhaps anti-social people. The characters often wore sports wear, and/or high street labels, such as umbro.

Most of the opening is set outside, showing the environment of where the drama is set, and highlighting the living conditions.
In my opinion, the opening to Shameless is intriguing, because the storylines which take place in the opening, for example the drugs, and violence, don’t have any association with me, because I don’t live in an environment which is surrounded by drugs, and violence. Therefore it makes me want to learn more, about this society I am unfamiliar with, therefore inactivating me, resulting in me wanting to carry on watching the rest of the episode.

Production Practice

Production Practice- Warp films, and working title. Including budget, depending on low or high budget - quality of film/audience

Different special effects, depending on budget, natural light 'this is england'. Hot fuzz/This is england.

Low budget - limited to set, which doesnt need changing

high bidget - Sets are specially made for the movie, eg hot fuzz



Action - high budget would use a lot of camera work, relating to action, for example fast camera work.



high budget can appeal to a wider audience, because the institutions have more money, and more licening taking place, therefore their films can be sent around the world, rather than just to a few cinemas, like an independent film will. higher budgets have more money to spend on advertising.



High budgets will usually have greater detail, when it comes to mise-en-scene. This is because they can spend more money, on small details. for example American beauty use Roses as a iconography. Where as, This is england, do not have any iconic conventions.



Low budget films often use natural light in films



ATL BTL



High budget use both

low budget use BTL

Shameless analysis

Throughout shameless, we see all different types of camera shots. At the start of every shameless episode, there are quick, 1 second shots of the estate, including barbed wire, graffiti, and vandalism. By including shots, such as these, it creates an instant impression of ‘lower class’, which is what the TV program is about. The director also uses a steady handheld camera convention, which creates the impression of the audience looking into their lives. During action, for example when “Paddy” beats up a man, the camera work is quick, and snappy. Also the camera work is a lot more shaky, which creates tension and thrills. The aerial shot indicates that the footage is coming from a CCTV camera, which is looking down on them. A sharp zoom is used a lot in shameless, usually to zoom in on objects, or facial expressions.

Shameless raises a lot of social, and political problems, such as child benefit problems, and money problems in general. It creates escapism for the audience, into a world that most of them will not be aware of. In my opinion, Shameless can be a lot more broader, with the message which the director wants to portray, because it is not shown in prime time, therefore they can touch on other subjects, which might not be suitable for a prime time television show, such as Eastenders.

The props in Shameless are very basic, and would be cheap to buy. This is so that the audience can relate to the characters more, because the objects on Shameless are not out of reach for an ordinary viewer. This relates to the work we did on ‘class and stereo type’, because the “working class” often only had the bare essentials, which is what is included in Shameless. Therefore the director is playing around with stereotypes, and status, which will enable the audience to be able to understand the text a lot more, because the stereo types will be familiar to other TV dramas, or even perhaps in real life. Although shameless is based around the stereotype of the working class people, in my opinion, I think shameless also breaks stereotypes, for example “Micky” is gay, and he doesn’t really fit into the “camp” category. I think this is interesting, because it goes against the stereotypes of other TV shows, and allows the audience to see gay people in another perspective, and not just camp.

Exhibitors and Digital distribution

The exhibitor
The exhibitor sells the experience of the film
Ways to sell films:
• By 3D
• offers (orange weds)
• HD
• Sign language, or subtitled, or even different language.

Why go cinema?
• Big screen
• Surround sound
• No distractions (escapism)
Why is digital distribution important for the development of the film industry?
- Cheaper, and will be easier to distribute, because it would not have to be physically passed around, therefore more people will see smaller films.

The UK film council want to make nonmainstream films accessible in ways, what are they?
- Digital road shows to raise awareness and understanding amongst the exhibition sector of issues around digital cinema. The cinema exhibitors’ association and the UK film council are working with a ‘screen digest’ to raise awareness and understanding amongst the exhibition sector of issues around digital cinema.
- Digital innovation in film.
The digital innovation in film project will team up independent film companies with specialist partners to reach audiences in new ways, E.g over the internet. The project is the first in its series from NESTA’s innovators growth programme, which will explore ways for creative businesses to grow by exploiting new technologies. NESTA and the UK film council will select up to 10 film companies from across the UK to take part in the project, and look at different ways of exploiting their films, with different technologies.
The projects involves a lot of companies working together, creating synergy. Without the companies teaming up together, the goals will be a lot harder to reach.
- Three ways the UK film council want to make films more accessible.
1- Improve access
2- Raise Awareness
3- Increasing information
Digitial distribution is 1/10 of the price of original distribution. This is why 'This is England' was distributed digitally. This allowed up to 150 digital deliveries to a DSN, across the UK, this is why it was more successful.
How has the recession impacted on the box office takings?
Obviously with the recession taking place, it has impacted in the box office profits. More people are downloading movies off the internet for free, illigally. This has made the piracy rate increase by 40% over the past 2 years.
With piracy such a popular task right now, this makes the profit of the box office decrease.


DSN - Digital Screen Network
Been designed for distribution and exhibition of the content that was orignally captured on film. The data is converted from original film, to digital form, then encripted. Later goes to cinema, who decript the digital version of the film, and then use the file, which is on the server.
Main stream vs Independant
Cultured viewers go see independent films, rather than the regular consumer will go see main stream films.

Process of distribution

I saw this picture, and I thought it related to what we are studying in media. So I posted a blog about it.

FIlms incorporating Modern Technology into their advertising

Companies and film institutions are researching into modern technology, to advertise, and promote their films. These new technologies are often networking tools, such as social networking websites, movie websites and email websites and IM programs.
Facebook has “pages” such as, review pages, fan pages and applications to advertise new films. As facebook is an evergrowing population of people, ranging from teenagers to seniors, this is a great/cheap way to promote their
films. This type of advertising is below the line, because you will need to be a member to access these pages, in most cases. Films like ‘A Christmas carol’ presented by Disney is featured on facebook, it has review pages, where anyone can review the film. You can even become a fan of the film, and therefore more people will see this film, which relates to viral marketing. In some cases, the movie institutions host competitions over facebook, giving the winner tickets to premieres.
Msn website has a whole section dedicated to movies. In this section the user will be able to see new DVD releases, Cinema releases, coming soon, and also reviews. On this website, it is mainly high budget films, because it would cost more to promote on this site, rather than on facebook. This is still below the line though, because the user still has to navigate over to the website.

Orange, the network provider hosts something called ‘orange Wednesdays’, where orange offer 2 for 1 deals on Wednesdays, and they send you codes through texts. It costs 35p per texts, and you have to be an orange customer, this is also an example of synergy.

Status & Class Stereotypes

We made our powerpoint based on class and status stereotypes, and were then made to present it in class...
Higher,lowermiddle and class stereo type

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Other presentations we used to learn about other common stereotypes...

Gender

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Stereotypes Age

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Ethnicity Powerpiont

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Regional Identity presentation

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Sexuality Stereotypes2

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Physical Ability2

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Distribution

Licensing - Licensing is granting permission to others to use property rights, such as trademarks, patents or technology under certain conditions. Most licenses state that distributers must pay “royalties” to the director every time a film is played, or every time a song is played ect. This means that the director will get a cut of the money made, when the film is broadcast each time.

A fee is charge to a get a license, which allows the user to release the films and exploit it in different countries. If the broadcaster sells the film to a broadcaster, like sky ect, then they are offered theatrical rights. Small independent film institutions have no contact to their films out in the worldwide mark, meaning that it can only be shown, usually where the film is made. Licenses are also needed to certify the film, giving it a certificate to the age group it is suitable for, e.g. pg, 12, 12a, 15, 18.example “this is England” will only be shown in the UK. If the film is signed over to a large

company, such as universal, it can be shipped to over 90 countries.

Prints and Advertising - The quantity of prints produced for different films varies depending on the type of film, for instance independent films such 'dead mans shoes' will have a smaller budget allowing them to produce about 10 prints which can then circulate around one country. Major films such as '2012
' will have a much larger budget allowing them to have around 1000 prints, meaning they can distribute it worldwide.

To advertise the film distributors use materials such as posters, trailers and clips, they send these to press releases, interviews and cinemas to get the film out there and to attract audiences. Bigger film companies such as DreamWorks will have better contacts meaning they can receive reputable

reviews giving the film better press. They also have a bigger budget so a large amount of the budget can go to promoting the film. Artwork is also used to advertise, such as posters, but the most effective are packaging and displays such as billboards

and on the side of buses.

Campaigns are also a good advertising method as they use editorials, interviews, reviews and are put into popular magazines, which attracts lots of public attention as it is above the line marketing. They then distribute the trailer which they play at the best time of the day usually between 5pm and 7pm. After the trailer is out they can have a press campaign which major films use, they address the release properly with press campaigns and PR's. Smaller independent film would just rely on below the line marketing such as internet advertisements, email and verbal communication. There are then pre-releases of the

film, the method creates excitement making the audience want to go and watch it which is good for the viral marketing.

Digital Distribution - This is purely digital, meaning it is when things are downloaded to a computer. Any downloadable content is digital distribution meaning you will not need prints or reels. the advantages of digital distribution are that in the future it will be cheap, it will also cut costs on prints and reels meaning less of the budget has to be spent, making more profit. It will also reach larger audiences as it is done on computers as there are no limitations on sending it out, this will benefit the independent companies. Although it may cause people to lose jobs if the work with the prints and reels e.g. cinemas, print companies.

Film marketing - Films are usually released on a Friday as statistics show that the weekend is the most popular time for people to go to the cinema. Companies try to avoid releasing films with a similar story line or genre at the same time as there will be clashes which may risk their profit, this however is getting more difficult as on average 10 films are released per week! After the release date is agree the theatrical release is worked on meaning more printing and advertising

is produced and distributed to draw attention to the films release. The producers of a film have to pay a fee to allow the film to be on the market, which then allows them to get royalties, Although Hollywood blockbusters and working title (who's parent company universal own 70% of their company) have vertical integration. This is a technique used by large companies to cut the

distribution costs, as they distribute it themselves meaning they do not have to pay other companies.

Logistics of distribution

Logistics

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American Beauty

American Beauty

The male gaze

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Media Male Gaze

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Bridget Jones

Bridget jones' Diary:

synergy marketing (the company uses another companys successful products in order to promote their product):
To advertise they used Coca Cola Enterprises to be interviewed,
Galaxy,
Virgin Megastores,
msn.com

atlantic

Soundtrack
& Bodyshop

visual marketing (advertisements the public can see):
billboards
bus adverts
posters
tv adverts
cinema trailers
wallpapers

Lifetime TV presented 30 second clips to promote it.

Product Placement (advertising products in the film):

galaxy,

wonderbra.

The Boat That Rocked:

synergy marketing:

spotify the website advertised playlists for the film

60 song sountrack (70's music)

Visual Marketing:

posters,

trailer,

competitions,

wallpapers (computer, phone)

product placement:

Typhoo Tea

Roberts Radios

James Bond:

Synergy Marketing:

Sony advertised the film on an advert for HD t.v, this is different to the others as it is a major brand selling expensive products.

Avon to produce beauty products.

Product Placement:

Aston Martin

Rolex Watches

Ford Mondeo

James Bond films advertised higher quality products than the other two films and teamed up with more reputable companies for their advertising. This is because bigger companies are eager to get involved with the film, as it is established and very well known with a great reputation. Because of the good reputation of the film this will boost the products sales rapidly as it is being featured in such a big film. Where as the working title films use every day products such as galaxy and wonderbra, which are mainly aimed at women as that is their target audience.

Above the line promotion& Below the line promotion

Promotion Strategies

Above the line promtotion

Above the line is a type of advertising which is shown through media such as TV, Cinema, Radio, Print, Banners and search engines to promote brands such as films. The highest uses are things such as radio and television advertising, and web banner adverts. This type of ad is impersonal to customers as it is communication in a conventional nature.

Below The Line promotion

below the line promotions are short-term incentives and are aimed at customers making it more personal. With increasing pressure on marketing teams to achieve communication objectives more efficiently despite their limited budget. They use less conventional methods with a delayed or immediate incentive to purchase with a temporary effect on the audience. They include activities such as direct mail, public relations and sales promotions.

2012 (hollywood blockbuster) with a budget of $200 million, spent $4 million on advertising

The men who stares at goats (working title film) with a budget of $25 million.

Since Four Weddings And A Funeral in 1994 the advertising strategies developed are internet marketing such as banners, websites and targetted emailing. There is now mobile marketing, consisting of recieving the information through a text. Search engine marketing is the text ads that appear on the top and right column when someone performs a search using Google, Yahoo, etc. which are above the line marketing.

How does the budget of a film institution effect the the production practices used to appeal the target audiences?

Whether the budget of the film is high or low, the message can be portrayed with the same success rate. The higher the budget, more details can be added, for example, in post production more money can be directed towards adding effects, which could then add more detail to the text. Also higher budget films can afford a more relevant set, and can also be more adaptable, which will make the film look more professional, and the audience will be able to take the film a lot more seriously.
Hot fuzz explores action and comedy, therefore it can appeal to a larger audience, and therefore be more popular. Hot Fuzz also relies on the film institution's reputation to be a sucess, for example "from the makers of shaun of the dead...".
Higher budget films also have the option to use a wider varity in cameras, for example the CCTV camera shots in the opening of Hot Fuzz.
Higher budget films can also afford more established, hollywood actors, who have a good reputation, which will also make the audience want to watch the film, if they are fans of the actors, which could widen the audience, by drawing in these high-end actors' fan bases.
As well as being able to afford well established actors, higher budget film institutions can afford a well established post production team, which will add the special effects of the films, if they use a post production team that isn't well established, they might not have enough experience to create an effective film.
Although low budget films can look more realistic, High budget films can afford extras in scenes, to make the scene come to life, and look more realistic. Higher budget films can explore more genres, through the means of costumes, Choreography, sets, effects, ect. By having variety of different genres, there will be a wider audience potential.

Low budget films target a smaller audience, as they normally stick to one kind of genre, usually realistic drama. By sticking to just one kind of genre, this will limit the success rate, and narrow the audience viewing. Although by sticking to this one genre, they can focus more on it, and add more detail to their text.
One of the ways low budget films make their films so realistic, is by using natural props, such as the use of natural lighting, or the use of improvised scripts, also not much, (if any) make up is used, this also cuts down on the costs.
Low budget films will often use sets which do not require any changes, for example in 'This is England', the director decided to use a small estate, which hasn't changed much from the 1980's, and all was needed, was the 1980's props, which he got from ebay really cheap, as they didn't work, or simply outdated. This added a realistic vibe, and by using props which are really within the budget range, it could appeal to the working class, which is where most of the audience will be based, therefore this could cause the film to have a higher success rate. In 'Hot Fuzz', the director decided to have the actors equipped with guns, and police costumes, which would cost more money.
In 'This is England', the director decided to use unestablished actors, which added a sense of realism, because the audience most likely haven't seen them in anything before, therefore they could apply the text they are in, exclusively to the actors.
In 'Dead Man's shoes', the use of camera is sometimes unsteady/handheld, which makes the audience feel that they are in the movie, so they can apply themselves to what's happening on screen.

In conclusion, I think that lowe budget films are for a specific audience, and are probably fans of independent movies, which could effectively narrow the audience views. I think that higher budget films have a wider target audience, as they contain a variety of different genres, and also well known actors, and appealing trailers, including "from the makers of..", which will make the audience want to see the film, if they have previously seen the makers of the other film.

Film Budgets - Hot Fuzz and Dead man's Shoes

Hot Fuzz £8 million
Dead mans shoes £723,000

Shane Meadows On Low Budget Films

• He has learnt alot from producing low budget films and realised you can produce a good film with out state of the art technology and superstar actors.
• He has also learnt that having famous actors in it doesnt necessarily mean it is a good film as if the actor does not fit the story then it's better to have an established actor who does.
• Shane thought it was a challenge to produce as he had to stick to his budget and had to try to recreate the 1980's. Fortunately he found an 80's looking estate in nottingham, which had not yet been modernised, this did not affect the budget. He then had to recreate the look with props, renting cars from the 1980's era would have cost a huge £150,000, so they brought them off of ebay for a mere £100 a car.
• To create social realism they used nartural and domestic light, which also did not affect the budget.

Institution & Audiences

Working Title and Warp Films
Institution and Audiences

AOs
Production Practices to appeal to audiences
Distribution and Marketing strategies to raise audience awareness
New technologies to help target specific audiences
Audience and how they challenge institutions

1.Working title are a British film production company who are based in London. It was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1982. They produce feature films and some television productions. It is not a conglomerate.
Warp Films is a sister company of warp records, was set up in 1999 with funding from NESTA. It is based in Sheffield, England, with a further office in London and has 14 full-time staff. It is a conglomerate.
2. The ownership of the company affects the budget of the film because if it is a wealthy company the film can be high budget and if it has not got a lot of money to invest the film is low budget. If the company has been invested in by other owners and lots of money has been invested there is more money for multimillion dollar films.
3. Warp films have produced films such as:
• My Wrongs
• Dead man’s Shoes
• Rubber Johnny
• Scummy Man (arctic monkeys video)
• This is England
• “grow your own”
• Dog Altogther
• All Tomorrow’s Parties
Working title have produced films such as:
• Pride and prejudice
• Notting hill
• Nanny McPhee
• Shaun of the dead
• Bridget Jones’ Diary
• The Calcium Kid and many more...
4. Working titles film bridget jones’ diary had a budget of $26 million, and made $ 282 million. It was very successful and a sequal was made.
Working title who produced This is England had a budget of $1.2 million, they made $315,000 profit.
5. The matrix had a budget of $ 742128461 and made a profit of an estimated $363000000.
6. NESTA provide funding for warp films and Universal invested into working title.
7. Warp Films budget affects the genre as they have more money so can use special affects and stunts, for things such as action films.
8. It is appealing because it looks realistic and can relate to problems in the world such as war. It is also exciting and builds suspense so the audience may find it appealing.
9. Warp and working title aim at a general audience.
10. Working titles main genre is romantic comedy.

Film Preliminary

Film



Upon starting our film preliminary, we had to first produce a story board, which we could then use to develop our film from.
Our story board had to consist of someone opening a door, walking across a room, then include a small amount of dialogue. Our group developed the idea of a teacher coming into a staff room and having a conversation with another teacher about a student who misbehaves. The talk about getting him expelled. We used close ups, pans, and over the shoulder shots, and we also stuck to the 180 degree rule.

During the filming process, we decided that we would change a few things on our story board, and improvise a few shots, because we thought we could improve on our original story board. The shot we started with, was an establishing shot of the door, which then zoomed into an extreme close up of the door handle, and the character’s hand opening the door. We added a school bell sound effect, so the audience could get the idea that we were filming in a school, and get the general idea of the plot, this added to the mise en scene of our video. We also added a creaky door effect, which gave an old effect, which matched the old door. We later included another establishing shot of the door, but from the other side, so that the audience could see the character and where she was going. This establishing shot also included another character, so the audience could see who was in the room, and give a brief introduction of the 2nd character. Although this establishing shot got the job done, I think that the continuity would of flowed better if we had used a pan shot, and showed the camera panning from the 1st character, to the second, this gives a bit of life to the video, rather than just having a simple stationary shot. We did however use a pan shot throughout the dialogue of the characters, when they were discussing the students report, and passing it to eachother. We used an over the shoulder shot, which turned into a close up, to reveal the school report to the audience, which I thought worked well because it allowed the viewers to get involved with the context of the video.

During the over the shoulder shot, we made sure that we stuck to the 180 degree rule, because we thought that this made the film a lot more professional, because this is what is key in the movie industry. Although it worked, I think the flow of the different shots could have been improved, perhaps by the smoothness of the shots. I think a problem we had was between each shot, the characters continuity was incorrect, because their positions changed after each shot, which reduced realism.

After the dialogue scenes, we used a pan shot, which panned outside the window, and later zoomed in. In the post production process, we sped this shot up, and later slowed it right down, and we also added a mysterious soundtrack, which was tension building, we wanted to experiment with music, and camera shots to build tension, we also though it added a twist.

During pre production, we shot a number of scenes, a number of times. Later, in post production we cut parts out, and slotted them in between other shots, to make the continuity more accurate, After adjusting the shots, and deciding where we want everything, we added a brighter colour filter, which gave the film a greater contrast.

The lighting in this room was bright, and natural, because we chose a room with big windows, and a well lit scene, this would make the colour filters stand out more in post production.
The key thing I learnt throughout this, was that adding sound to a shot, which is meant to mysterious, and tension building is effective, and works well. I also learnt that continuity is a key factor, I know our video could improve on continuity, and I think this is what lets our film down. I also learnt that continuity errors is almost comical, because you can’t take the film seriously if it contains all these obvious errors.