Ill Manors broadcast platform: trailer analysis

What are the typical codes and conventions of film trailers - what information is usually provided?
Some typical conventions of a trailer include 

• Institutional information, such as Actors/Director names or the production/studio company
• The release date and maybe the release format
• Action sequences or dramatic moments of the plotline to build up action codes or suspense
• The title which is normally presented at the end
• Voice over/ text on screen/ dialogue or narration to establish a narrative or character
• Music or soundtrack, which are mostly non diegetic
• Promotional information such as the film's website, a twitter hashtag or other social media links
• Enigma codes
• Narrative, the general dilemma or disequilibrium (Todorov's theory)
• Characters are generally established (Propp's character theory)
• Review, quotes, with maybe star ratings
• Tagline

How are trailers distributed? 
Trailer's are mostly distributed online and through social media. They can also be distributed through film festivals or during the previews section of a movie screening. Specifically speaking, many "comic" related movies such as Marvel/DC will show their previews or trailers specially for people who go to Comic Cons.

How does the Ill Manors trailer use trailer conventions?

• There is reference to the institutional information of the studio company that made the film.
• The release date, film title and other social media links are at the end of the trailer. The social media links help to create promotional information for the viewers.
• The trailer uses non-diegetic but parallel background music which helps the audience to easily identify with the genre and narrative.
• The trailer uses dialogue to establish a narrative  
• There are many action codes and enigma codes such as the punching and pointing of the gun. 

Who is the target audience? Does it have a unique selling point or use particular techniques to appeal to the audience? Consider the way the scenes are edited together – does the trailer give away any clues about the narrative? Are the main stars visible in the trailer? Is there information about the director of the film? Is there information about the release date? Is a narrator’s voice-over used? Why?
The target audience for the film is young adult from aged 15-25. It has the unique selling point in the sense that it is very focused on violence and graphic scenes to appeal to it's audience and also hook in the younger audience, especially considering the fact that their target gender is more focused on males rather than females. 

Many of the main stars are in fact visible and shown in the trailer however, they're over all plot line arc is not revealed so their appearance is very subtle, and generally the trailer does not give away the plot line of the film. It does however create a very general and generic idea of the film being about an urban gang warfare and how it is based around the under privileged of East London.

There is a few parts of the beginning of the trailer that is about the director, it shows the logo of Plan B and shows his name after that. It also uses the soundtrack by Plan B which could give the audience an idea as to who the director is. There is also some information about the release date right at the end to let the audience know when it will be released.

How has the genre of the film been represented through characters, settings, lighting, colour, music/dialogue, camera shots/movements/angles and editing?
The genre of the film is represented through the different aspects of the film and focuses mainly on the fact that it is a crime drama set in East London. 

Many of the characters are perceived and shown with a very angry and violent personality, their appearances are also affected by their personality and regional area, as they wear hoodies or tracksuits which are stereotypical to the region of East London. This stereotype helps to accentuate the genre of the crime and urban drama set in London. The setting is absolutely crucial to this as it reinforces the genre especially the idea of it being an urban film.

The colour of the film is generally using a darker theme than most generic film which is parallel to the entire theme of the plot line. The music is tense rapping which also is very parallel to not only the genre but also the plot line in the sense that is considered to be very "urban" and associated with gangs.

Ill Manors Film Review

Planning

Director

The director of the movie was Ben Drew also known by his stage name of Plan B. This was his first ever feature film, but he had directed a short film called "Michelle" before which also starred Ed Skrein. I personally thought he was able to create a very unique and exceptional film considering it was his first ever one. What I really liked about it was that he was able to use his music expertise and use it as a way to really bring the film to life as the music really fit the genre and narrative.

Main stars

Riz Ahmed, a well known rapper and also well known for the very popular movie Four Lions and Nightcrawler. His celebrity fame is something that would appeal to the audience and attract a wider audience.

Ed Skrein, known for Game of Thrones, the new Transporter, and up coming Deadpool. As he is in many big franchises that were only after Ill Manors, it would attract a huge audience to check out his smaller works.

Plot

The plot is about 8 main characters and focuses on each of their separate storyline. These storylines which at first appear to be completely separate but with small links, end up coming together right at the end to create one big picture and plot. The whole storyline revolves around the idea of sex, drugs, violence and the general theme of struggle in the less deprived areas and the stereotypical culture around them. I think it is a very unique plotline which keeps you hooked into the film, at first you see it as a several different strands of plot converging away but it is not until the end that you realise that they are all part of the bigger picture and that they are in fact converging into each other. This, I believe, is a greater metaphor for society in the socially deprived areas of London.

Characters

The main characters in the film were:

• Riz Ahmed as Aaron
• Ed Skrein as Ed
• Keith Coggins as Kirby
• Lee Allen as Chris
• Nick Sagar as Marcel
• Ryan De La Cruz as Jake
• Anouska Mond as Michelle
• Nathalie Press as Katya

The actors were very effective in their acting as through their facial expressions and emotions, they were able to very clearly portray the emotional turmoil of each character. This was very useful as it helped the audience to relate and connect with each character, whether they agreed with their actions/inner thoughts or not.

Genre

The genre of the film is an urban, crime drama. This is evident through the narrative's use of gang warfare, drug abuse/use/marketing, violence, prostitution/sexual themes and overall general theme of an urban environment. The mood of the story focused on creating tension and suspense, as we continually see many characters make immorally wrong decisions, but eventually feel sympathetic as we start to see things from their perspective which fits the idea of a drama however, breaks the conventional theme of crime.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is written and performed by the director Plan B, and each character/storyline has a specifically written song to reflect the narrative. I personally thought that although it was very unique how the soundtrack was used to drive home the narrative, I feel like it was a bit too overt. Although, it was at the end of most narratives, as a way of a summed up conclusion for the audience, I feel like it would've been better if it was a little more covert in it's metaphors and meanings as this would leave the meaning of somethings up to to the audience rather then blatantly telling them what the director meant. For example, "I am the narrator, this is ill manors, let me take you back in flashbacks" etc.

Audience

The director aimed the movie at a late teen, young adult demographic as it got a BBFC rating of 18. I would definitely recommend it to many of my friends as the movie is generally aimed for an urban youth audience. It is a very unique movie in the sense that it intellectually and maturely challenges the stereotypes of our modern society. It provides the audience with an insight of the socially deprived and those characters of society that many people would consider a hindrance, as the movie shows that this is not at all the case. We see the perspective of these characters and see their point of view of life and how their daily struggle is something that is brutally honest and makes us feel sympathetic towards them despite their immoral decisions.

Review

Ill manors, a film deeply focused on the idea of urban crime, drama of the stereotypical East London society and regional culture. It is the debut feature film of the visionary artist Ben Drew, otherwise known as Plan B by his stage name. The film follows the storylines of six different varied characters in the unforgiving streets of East London, it is a film that aims to challenge the generic stereotype of "broken" Britain and tries rigorously to show the different perspectives of every day problems faced by the general populace of a typical urban area. This ranges from the idea of peer pressure, to gang warfare and drug dealing. Through the use of these very intricate themes and ideas, the over all narrative becomes masterfully hard hitting, and embodies the idea of dark, gritty drama. 

By creating these different perspectives, the film begins to give the populace of the less deprived a voice of opinion. This effectively helps the audience to relate to the characters much more and generally to people in actual real life that they might encounter and therefore challenging the viewpoints of many general British people. 

The cast is uniquely varied, but at the centre of the cast is Riz Ahmed, most commonly known for Four Lions accentuates the conflict of many people that are forced to partake in their dire situations. His character is one that Drew uses expertly to show the inner turmoil and conflict of personality and moral dilemma of choosing between right or wrong. This creates a lot of sympathy from the audience and his character is one of the only few driving forces for good that we see through the duration of the film.

There is a certain unique magical feeling from the combination of the powerful and energetic imagery from cinematographer Gary Shaw, mixed with the hauntingly potent lyrics of the soundtrack written by Ben Drew himself. Through this mix, Drew shows to the audience the despair of the characters who have no other choice than to sell drugs, resort to prostitution, or even get involved in gangs for their own personal sense of identity.

Overall, I would give the movie a 3 out of 5. It is a dark and gritty grime drama which focuses on a very integral part of society that is often overlooked in many different aspects of not only media but in people and culture. Right at the end, the focus of the movie begins to trail off as the message it attempts to drive home becomes tediously forced. Although, it comes up with an overall conclusion and attempts to show the audience that there is an overall bigger picture despite the separation of the storylines, we don't feel as much sympathy for the overall bigger picture. Yes, we do get to see the reasoning for many of their immoral decisions, but we don't see what can be done, apart from the obvious redemption of the arguably most chaotically evil character Ed, as he decides in a moment of decency to risk his own life for the life of a baby. 

I personally feel that this conclusion does not show the audience that there is something done, which in turn could be argued that is Drew trying to present the obvious hopelessness of how they can never change their ways. However, I believe that if Drew is so obviously trying to challenge stereotypes why does he choose to show the hopelessness and the apparent lack of a different choice for these characters. 

The British film industry: institutional context

What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?
The cultural test is a test that a film must pass in order to be defined as a British film, if it doesn't quality as a co-production. In the test, the are four different sections which are : Cultural Context, Contribution, Hubs and Practitioners. In order to pass this, the movie must get a score of 16 out of 31 points in order to be classified as British.

Complete the task on the Factsheet, researching the films listed and finding out what they score on the cultural test: Sweeney, Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

• Sweeney - This movie itself scored 16. It past the minimum requirement just on the context section.
• Attack the Block - This is a British movie as it is using British characters and the setting is in Britain.
• Skyfall - A James Bond movie with links to British intelligence and it also uses a variety of British characters even though the subplot takes the characters outside the UK.
• The King's Speech - This is portraying the British royal family.

What is the main problem for the British film industry?
Recently, the British film industry has focused a lot more on the production side of the filming, and not as much on the distribution. This essentially results in many UK having difficulty getting exhibited, so many of the film makers are selling the film and it's distribution rights to a distribution company.

What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

1. Historic and important film studios e.g. Ealing Studios
2. Third biggest film industry in the world
3. British films also take 5% of world box-office takings.

What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

1. They could work with and co produce with American Studios as Hollywood is able to finance quite easily
2. Make low budget for a niche audience where the film-maker is able to keep all profits.

MEST1 Section B: The British film industry

Write a one-sentence definition of what makes a film British.
Whether or not a film is British could depend on many different factors, it could depend on if the film was made in Britain or if it was funded from within Britain, if the cast is British or if the general subject matter is about Britain or general British culture.

What is the difference between a Hollywood production context and production context of a British film?
The difference between Hollywood productions and British productions is that Hollywood's productions tend to generally have a very high budget, rely on the celebrity casts/cameos and generally stories based on "wowing" their audiences in order to anchor them in. However, in comparison, British productions tend to focus much more on character driven stories, have much more of a smaller budget and they rely heavily on their advertisement being word of mouth or through production companies and even film festivals.

When did the James Bond franchise start?
The James Bond franchise started in the 1960s

In terms of film censorship and graphic content, what began to change in British film in the 1970s and 1980s?
During the 1970s and 1980s there was a huge continual evolution of the censorship system for films. This was due to the fact that there was a massive rise in British films that had overtly sexual content and other extremely "taboo" topics such as violence on screen. This meant that many films were under scrutiny for their ratings and eventually had to be filtered down. For example, A Clockwork Orange was actually banned for it's use of high amounts of violence and sexual scenes.

What groups are often represented in British film? Give examples of films these groups feature in.
The groups that are very often represented in British film are the British youth, for example in films such as A Clockwork Orange and Attack the Block. Combined with this representation of the youthful group, the British films tend to focus a lot more on issues of class, politics, education and social hierarchies which are issues that generally what concern the British culture.

What does the Factsheet suggest might be the audience appeal of British film?
The fact sheet suggest that one of the biggest thing to appeal to the British film audience are the actors. The British actors are a lot more easily identified as British and are generally associated with specific genres of British Films. For example, Hugh Grant is considered and almost always associated with British romantic comedies.

January MEST 1 Assessment

WWW
You start extremely well and all of your responses have a real authority and genuine understanding running through them. You are 1 mark from a B, 6 from an A.

EBI
However, you must read the question! The paragraph on sound in question 2 is not earning you any marks - the question was mise en scene!

You tail off a little towards the end. Revision and practice will help with this.

Learners Response

How does mise en scene contribute to the impact of the film?

The mise en scene is used very effectively to portray to the audience the emotional impact of the film. This is done through a variety of ways, the most prominent being the use of facial expressions by the actors to portray the emotions being felt by each character. They have very clear and slightly exaggerated expressions so that the audience is quick to see what the characters are feeling, for example from happy to scared to relieved. These are all very simple and relatable emotions to the audience and the lack of dialogue makes the acting even more effective.

There is the use of very soft lighting with bright hues of yellows. This sets the atmosphere of a family home and also helps the audience feel at ease. This could also be used as a way of foreshadowing to imply the man's safety and that there is a happy ending. The use of the bright golden hues of yellow are emphasised through the flying glitter presented at the impact of the crash, this could be used to represent the broken glass of the car. This easily helps to create the setting and make the audience feel as if they are actually present and thus anchored into the advert.

Finally, in the mise en scene the family are portrayed as the prop of the seat belt which is very unique and creates a very strong impact on the audience that just as family is important, so is the use of a seat belt.