Group film idea

Group film idea - Brief explanation of my opening sequence:

This piece of work was produced by mainly me but with the help of Charlie and Joe.

My film is called ‘One – Two’ which connotes the combination of punches that Jack (the protagonist) receives when he gets knocked out. I believe it’s a clever idea because it really emphasizes the fact that the protagonist gets beaten at the start of the movie; which accordingly leads onto a further narrative whereby Jack goes through a journey in order to get back up and carry on fighting for what he believes in.

Story line:

The story line revolves around Jack as the sequence starts with him shadow boxing (literally) in front of a mirror – warming up for his first ever fight! The audience feels a sense of intensity, from the rhythm of the fast – paced sound, due to the non – diegetic sound pumping them up; this can therefore offer a connection between the audience and the protagonist within the opening scene. Both the audience and ‘Jack’ are hyping up to the same music, which relates to Rick Altman’s genre theory about syntactic elements, which signify the emotional relationship between the character and the demographic. Again, this is achieved through the use of non – diegetic sound.

The generic conventions of boxing films consist of the main boxer walking out of his dressing room to begin his/her fight. I have involved this into this scene through the use of a camera technique called: ‘Silhouette’. This creates brilliant sense of ‘Film Noir’ within the mis-en-scene with the lighting in front of the camera in order to achieve this effect. It entices the audience and captures the demographics engagement.

The last scene in my opening sequence is the fight scene. This is captured through various different camera angles and the use of tracking.  The audience suspects that Jack will win this battle, however this narrative allows the film to progress and hints a further story line in the rest of the film due to the fact that Jack loses. This is echoed through the use of dialogue when Jack’s coach says, “You know what you are fighting for”. The point whereby Jack is represented as a quite dominant character – signified through the use of camera angles and the non – diegetic intense sound. This is misrepresented when Jack gets knocked out in the fight scene.

Characters:

The protagonist who is represented as the ‘Hero’ (if were relating it to Vladimir Propp’s character type) is named Jack.  Jack is protagonist in the film as he is the boxer – this is his first fight connoting he is the underdog but at the same time is represented as powerful at the start of the opening sequence.

Paris is the coach of Joe (the opponent boxer). Although Paris isn’t actually starred on set, Joe has to have a coach and Paris is just that.

Zack is the coach for Charlie; Zack is starred in the mis-en-scene towards the start of my opening sequence just before the fight starts. He motivates Jack to do his best.

Joe is the opponent in the film – he knocks out Charlie in two hits signifying the title of the film, hence the name: ‘One – Two’. Joe is a quietly confident character who does end up beating Jack, even though the build up and focus surrounded Jack.

Matthew is starred as the referee for the film. This referee takes his job very seriously and keeps his eye on things through out the fight.

Setting:

The location is very important and must stay consistent with the theme of the genre and film. It is set in quite a run-down boxing ring connoting the level of the fight – the location signifies the fight is quite low league in terms of boxing.

Props:

Generic conventions are crucial in the construction of a film surrounding a specific genre. For example: in the opening scene visual iconography is denoted through the use of a simple detail, like a water bottle connoting that boxer works hard and requires water to keep himself going.

Another convention of a boxing film is the use of gum shields when fighting, in order to make the film more sophisticated. Jack’s facial expressions connote what the fight means to him – his face is completely focused and extremely serious. This was achieved through the camera work of a close up of Jack’s face.

Costume:

The costumes that the characters wear connotes their characteristics, so therefore the wardrobe has to be accurate in order to represent them correctly. For example: Jack (the boxer) wears a black and gold robe with a hood to signify mystery about the character because he is unknown in the sense that he has never fought professionally before.

Genre:

Originally, I was leaning towards the idea of a hybrid genre consisting of ‘drama’ and ‘action’.  A hybrid genre is extremely effective due to that fact that the audience gets the ‘best of both worlds’ in terms of engagement through two different genres. However, the genre I have chosen is a sub-genre. This particular sub-genre is under the category of sport but is then simplified down to boxing.

Age rating:

The age rating is based on the fact that the opening sequence contains violence and therefore age needs to be restricted. Although age does need to be restricted, it shouldn’t be restricted to the extent that it narrows the audience down too much. Accordingly, the age rating is 12.