DISTRIBUTION - OST

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

• I created a fictional identity of the musician behind the soundtrack of my film, James Riley,  who was an Indie romantic artist, which fitted an outside teenager looking for love, similar to how Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys recorded and sung the soundtrack behind Warp's Submarine

It is not always the case, but most films will have a number of tracks.

Even if their isn't an official soundtrack made for the film, you will find playlists on the two main music streaming sites Spotify and YouTube, in the case of Baby Driver there was already a playlist on Spotify created.

For my film opening I have chosen the tracks I Want Candy and I Keep Forgetting.

While these are not mainstream songs and are also covers, they still carry with them some pop identiy.

When I played the I Want Candy track to a girl above in my year, she reacted by saying: "Of course, who doesn't know that song"

However big hit films will feature songs from the top charts, which is included in the trailer

https://www.bustle.com/articles/169688-the-song-in-bridget-joness-baby-trailer-is-absolutely-perfect-for-the-movie

It can be that the personality/image of the singer will correlate with the genre  themes of the film, like for Suicide Squad which deals with a bunch of misfits, you have artists who have all been hedonistic and/or damaged to some extent

 for Bridget Jones's Baby you have romantic Ed Sheeran. 

INDIE Case Study - Warp

Warp Films was born as a film subsidiary of the independent record company Warp Records.

2002 - Short Film My Wrongs (by Chris Morris)

2004 - First full feature-length film,

           Dead Man's Shoes directed by Shane 

           Meadows, 

2006 - This Is England, Shane Meadows

2007 - Grow Your Own, comedy about racial 

            issues

2008 - Hush, Horror road trip 

2009 - Le Donk + Scor-Say-Zee, mockumentary, 

           took five days to film, shows how 

           convergence and digitisation have made

           filming easier

2010 - Four Lions, surprise small hit, Warp took

           a gamble and increased the number of 

           screens 

2011 - Tyrannosaur, critics raved about the film

           It was given to a US distributor who 

           specialize mainly in LGBT+ films.

2013 - For Those In Peril, final film produced by 

           Warp X, looks like the grant has dried up.

2014 - '71, an historical action thriller, set in NI.

           But unlike other indie films about The 

           Troubles it was from the POV of an 

           English soldier, not the Northern Irish, 

           which goes against the representation of

           minorities. The action genre chosen is 

           quite commercial. However, the lead is 

           unknown to international audiences, is not

           RP and working class. Not glamorized like

           a typical action hero, has less control/

           agency within the narrative unlike Matt

           Damon's lead character in Working Title's

           Green Zone. It flopped, but slowly

           achieved $1.2m in the US.

2016 - Ghost Stories announced. Demonstrates

           Warp's ineffective online presence.

           Yardie announced. Directorial debut of 

           Idris Elba, 

           

Opening EG7 - '71

'71

Yann Demange (2014)

BBFC 15 rating, MPAA R 

LEAD ACTORS: Jack O'Connell
GENRE: Historical action war thriller

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warp, Screen Yorkshire

TITLES:

Whether titles appear over the action or a blank screen varies, in this case after the idents, it is white on black screen. One can often connote the genre from the font and style, while it has some minimalistic serif attributes which often signifies comedy, it is a white writing on black screen, and it isn't bubbly. This connote a serious and non-comedic film, thereby signifying the genre drama.  The narrative has already started, as we can already hear the sound of boxing, fighting exasperated breaths and cheering. The information of who exactly has been fighting has been withheld from the audience, thereby creating narrative enigma, another common convention of a film opening.

...

SHOT 1

The narrative enigma is pursued further with a black screen

SHOT 2

A whip pan is being use to cut straight into  the action, we can see a green shirt

SHOT 3


While he has been already been on camera, the protagonist has now been introduced through a medium close-up. His journey throughout the whole film, one of brutality and bloodshed, is signified through the conflict. But the character he is fighting is not the antagonist, but the fact that he is fighting a member of the British army is a possible signifier of the revelation that the true enemy in this film turns out to be figures in the British army.


SHOT 4


Medium close-up of the protagonist, with other young males in the same clothes, who will remain throughout the film as minor characters.

SHOT 5

A slightly lower-angled medium longshot.








Throughout this scene the the protagonist does not speak, signifying his lack of change he can bring throughout the narrative.

Opening EG2 - Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee

Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee

Shane Meadows, 2009

LEAD ACTORS Paddy Considine, 

                          Olivia Coleman, 

                          Dean Palinczuk, 

                          Shane Meadows

GENRE: Mockumentary

Camera zooms out. This isn't a glamorous location. The 

...

Media Language in 5 Shots - This Is England

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING

• The convention of the protagonist getting out of bed and seeing their room was one I saw in many other film opening examples especially with tweens and teenagers, and I started my film opening like that as well

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

• 
  

THIS IS ENGLAND

Shane Meadows, 2006

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warp Films, 
                                                 FilmFour Productions

DISTRIBUTOR: IFC (US)
                          Optimum Releasing (UK)

GENRE: Historical social realism

LEAD ACTORS: Thomas Turgoose

                            Stephen Graham

                            Joseph Gilgun

                            Vicky McClure

BBFC:  18                 MPAA: Not Rated

BUDGET: £612k       
BOX OFFICE: $3.1m (UK) $329k (US)  
                        $8.2m (worldwide)


CRITICAL KUDOS

ROTTING TOMATOES: 93%                     IDMb: /10

REVIEWS (from wiki)

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 89 reviews.^[10] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 86/100, based on 23 reviews — indicating "universal acclaim".^[11] This made it the tenth best reviewed film of the year.^[12]

The film appeared on several US critics' top ten lists of 2007; it was third on the list by Newsweek's David Ansen, seventh on the list by The Oregonian's Marc Mohan, and ninth on the list by Los Angeles Times' Kevin Crust.^[13]

In Britain, director Gillies Mackinnon rated the film the best of the year^[14] and David M. Thompson, critic and film-maker, rated it third.^[15] The film was ranked fourteenth in The Guardian's list of 2007's Best Films^[16] and fifteenth in Empire's Movies of the Year.

Accolades[edit]

The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards. It also won the Best Film category at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards, Turgoose winning the Most Promising Newcomer award.

A full list of reviews listed on IDMb here.

TRAILERS:

SYNPNOSIS:

Shane Meadow's and Warp's (critical) breakthrough, having an autobiographical story set in 80s with an a working-class orphan of a Falklands soldier.

The film starts with the opening credits putting the film into historical context with three minutes of historical footage, starting with the cultural figure from children's television Roland Rat, followed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the royal wedding between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as several protests. It ends with images of the Falklands War, with mutilated bodies and covered up corpses of soldiers.

The exact date is immediately given as July 1983. 


After the camera has zoomed out of a close up of a portrait photo, this shot displays a routine of the young boy getting up for school, in a medium long-shot. The mis-en-scene features a stereotypical image attributed towards young males, that of a football team poster. The boy is naked except for his underpants, which can connote a maybe more relaxed upbringing than if he was wearing pyjamas, which would suggest a bit more of a stricter,  traditional and middle or upper-class background. The fact that the mis-en-scene of the room is pretty bare and does not have a lot of objects, hints further at a poorer and working class background, as otherwise parents would like to spoil their children if they could afford to. The boy is looking at a portrait photo. With the images of Falkland soldiers falling in battle and the date given, one can connote from this that the by has a lost a close relative in the war, most likely his father or older brother. This kind of portrait lying on surfaces on home being a stereotypical image of a lost loved one. The audience thereby feels sympathy for the young boy's loss, a feeling which is added by the colorless nature of his room, which can be seen as a metaphor for how his life feels.



This is an extreme long shot of a moving subject, giving a feeling of distance the young protagonist. He is walking towards a shop Him walking pass a group of boys his ages signifies his status as an outsider. The fact that the boys start picking on him for no reason creates antipathy for the other characters. However the boy's usage of swearwords soon after this shows a side that is not just a victim. The swearing of both the protagonist and the other boys signifies the rough nature of the area.

...

Through a medium-close-up the boy is shown to be reading a comic. The boy is shown to be enjoying a typically childish thing to do with an undertone of innocence, this child-friendly atmosphere is increased by the comics in the background. The boy's status as an outsider is increased to that of a rebel by not listening to the shop owner's request to buy the comic.



This is a two-shot where vulnerability is expressed with use of the naturally taller height of the shop owner. Due to height differences the shop owner is in medium long-shot (down to the knees) and the boy in medium shot (down to the waist). The Indian shop owner is a common cliché in urban England. The boy has just been having his first pleasure of the day, but it is snatched away from him. There is repetition in the boy's usage of swearwords.

The long-shot shows images of youth culture, with the cliché of graffiti on walls. Sitting under The bridge connotes an area outside the main world, which signifies rebellion and a resistance to mainstream society, a form of counterculture. the hight of the skinhead right shows his status as the leader and a proactive character as he rises to help the suffering protagonist. This creates great sympathy for him as he is the first character to help the protagonist in his day of misery. In portrayal of the skinheads we have two positive representations, the one of a kind helping person displayed in the young male standing and the black man with a hat. Skinheads have a reputation of being Nazis. The two skinheads towards the left don't care much for the boy's predicament, and their skinhead look is even more extreme, so they appeal to the stereotypical expectations of street youths, sitting together and laughing everything off, despite it being obvious that the boy is suffering.

Opening EG9/Teen EG1 Submarine

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING

• The voice-over which I saw in most teen films
• Signifiers of the Other with a similar coat, multiple photos of non-mainstream cultural figures, etc.
• Panning shots across the room
• Audio bridge before the opening shot of sounds from nearby, however with my coursework I did it already with the ident
• In retrospect I wish I had also included landscape shots

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

• The voice-overs

Submarine 

Richard Ayoede, 2010

GENRE: Teen romantic comedy, social realism

LEAD ACTORS: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warp, Film 4 

DISTRIBUTORS: Optimum Releasing, The Weinstein Company 

BOX OFFICE:

BUDGET: (worldwide)

BBFC: 15     MPPA: R

ROTTEN TOMATOES: 87%         IDMb: 7.6 out of 10

REVIEW QUOTES

TRAILER: 

traifeaturing a song by Belgian singer Jacques Brel, appropriately about the issue of (young) love, but not the kind of song a contemporary teenager will listen to, just like Toots & the Mayals with This Is England, unlike Jess Glynn's Hold My Hand used in the Bridget Jones's Baby trailer, which now has nearly 100m views, and debuted on No.1 on the UK charts and peaked at No.86 at the Billboard 100)



This features the incidental music from the Jordana section

The full film has been uploaded onto YouTube

SYPNOSIS:

A very quirky and unusual teen film with elements of romantic comedy, social realism, fantasy, with debut director having been influenced by French New Wave among other film styles.

Having the coming-of-age side of the teen film  the relationship, as well as his anxiety expressed in the very experimental film style.

IDENTS:

We only get a Film 4 ident, with their signature sound intact. 

TITLES:

They are cross-cut with white on blue and then the final title, the film, following the Rule of Thirds

NARRATIVE/EXPOSITION:
Oliver Tate is clearly anchored as the protagonist, we are introduced to him first and will follow, this also follows the  and hi status as The Other is also set up, 

GENRE:

Not your typical romantic comedy or teen film, which is reflected in the box office.

SOUND:

Their is an audio bridge of what appears to be diegetic sound, however that is debatable as he is not directly next to the sea, and due to the experimental and fantasy-like style it might be in his imagination, so in a way it is part of the world, the world he has created. That starts off a potential massive debate on if soundtrack is an expression of their thoughts and personality, which leads us on to the non-diegetic sound, it starts off by sounds to signify the very quit takes as we zoom in on the protagonist.

Then we have the first track by Alex Turner from his original soundtrack (OST) for the film. How far are the lyrics expressing/representing the protagonist's thoughts?

Only the first 30 seconds or so are used, the rest are cut off, the length limit of my coursework will also mean I will have to cut down music based on an existing track if I want to use that.

(Source: azlyircs)

SYNERGY

This is an example of synergy, just like with Le Donk. However, the audience gained by this is limited, as Warp don't have access to big names in the music industry like Ellie Goulding and Duffy (ironically Welsh, however she doesn't show her religional accent in her music like the Monkeys do. with their Yorkshire dialects "Sommit, settee").

The cameo of the Arctic Monkeys in Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee is a binary to the cameo of Ed Sheeran in Bridget Jones's Baby.

Alex Turner at the UK premiere, this has less views than videos featuring his songs:



Domino Recordings even did a trailer for the film:

*Include screenshots from Spotify and potentially other sites of the OST, might have been created by fans in the case of Spotify, would show it's an indie film*

Some UGC videos with the songs by Alex Turner, some viewing figures are in the millions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0YEVNacmtw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDGYZvvwtc

DISTRIBUTION - Summary of Consequences of Indie

Unlike subsidiaries of Big Six film studios, like Working Title, I do not have access to huge budgets, so I cannot afford an A-List star. I do not get a big budget because I have no films that have been a success, so the producing values and thereby the verisimilitude is extremely inferior to the likes 

However, indie directors can rise to that level, like the director of Monsters who went on to do Godzilla and Rogue One (shows how the film industry works, when starting out as a low-budget, indie director he had an original idea, to make it big he worked on remakes and franchises.

SOURCES:

https://www.screendaily.com/features/why-the-uks-indie-distributors-face-a-growing-challenge/5123146.article

ADVERTISING:

• Billboards all over the word
• Electronic Posters in train stations, airports (like Blade Runner in Trier Hbf)
• Advertising Online, on websites, including when it's been released on DVD

HOW MY FILM MIGHT GET FUNDED:

• Government funding, like Warp have done especially from the BFI, also from Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland.
• BFI Funding, read about recent changes in this article.
• Kickstarter Compain; All Tomorrow's Parties, Veronica Mars, Warp's Mark Herbert has said that he sees the future in this technology 
• https://www.thebalance.com/film-video-crowdfunding-985225

OTHER POSITIVE FACTORS FOR INDIE

• Convergence brings down the price of filming equipment, and the complexity of production, this is shown in how it took Shane Meadows only 5 days to shoot Le Donk + Scor-Zay-Zee. If we could completely focus on our Media coursework on, due to this prosumer trend it wouldn't take us that long either