Component 1: Varieties of film and filmmaking - Section C - British Film
What is British cinema?
Things to take into account:
12 years a slave - British director, British actors, British funding. However, majority funding was US, was originally american book adapted by american writer, filmed in US. Considered american.
Gravity - american actors, Mexican director. However, filmed in UK, post production in UK. Considered british.
British films gain a tax relief.
Highest Budget - action, fantasy, sci-Fi
Highest Amount - Dramas, comedies, documentaries, thriller
Top Grossing - Comedy
Only 7% of tickets sold in cinemas are for british film.
The most made genres (^) are also generally the cheapest (docs, comedies, dramas)
Social Realism:
Realistic stories and relationships between characters, using settings not made for film ( post WW2 - wrecked London in "hue and cry"), characters sometimes very similar to the actor playing them.
What is considered realism changes parallel to the changes in that society (a time when women are assigned more roles, films will include those themes). Films about women working is mundane, showing how early on , British film celebrated mundane everyday life.
shows society at a specific place at a specific time
Social realist films early post world war two received funding from the government to show what society is like after the war, and re-image it, giving Britain a brand and a look.
French New Wave and Italian Neorealist (influenced british film) : - use actual locations, not sets
- documentary visual style
- avoidance of neatly plotted story-lines
- conversational speech, not literary dialogue
- avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork and lighting
Verisimilitude - believability within the world (opposite of something like star wars)
In the British New Wave of Social Realism, the directors became more important than the industry.
The New Wave protagonist was usually a working class male without bearings in society.
Films like The Full Monty address the erosion of regional and class identities amid a landscape rendered increasingly uniform by consumerism.
Consumer society - having more concern with material goods and riches.
Welfare state - having the NHS , education until 16. The idea that society gives people a minimum quality of living.
A lot of these films in the 80's were targeted at Thatcher and her effect on society, without naming her personally.
In the 80's, Channel 4 attempted to cultivate a cinema audience for realism. Films like "letter to brezhnev" following characters from the margins attempting to stake a claim in the new order. The funding for these films grew, and by the 90's there came a formula for "triumph over adversity" , feel good vibe. The Full Monty introduced new comedic elements. On the other side of the spectrum are films like Nil by Mouth and the War Zone which depict the topics in an extremely graphic way.
British Social Realism will mostly be about 2-3 people, very small scale characters and stories
Example : "Kes"
Themes : outsider, casual violence, poverty, escapism
Characters : The lost boy, strict authority (teacher/bullies)
Technical Elements: documentary style unedited raw (still thought out, but not so obviously) , conversational speech
Example : "secrets and lies"
Themes:
Characters:
Technical Elements: everyday social interaction that isn't dramatised
Richard Curtis : "Writes and directs whitewashed (no consequence films/just white people), saccharine, improbable, middle class visions of the UK that are supposed to be funny."
foppish : charming and daft ( hugh grant)
Richard Curtis films create an expectation for what the UK is supposed to look like e.g. all white and happy, certain accents
Hitchcock - british director, known as the master of suspense, an auteur
Danny Boyle
Binary Oppositions - two things that clash
Things to take into account:
- Story/ subject matter
- setting
- crew (mainly director)
- characters/actors
- production company
- funding
- dialogue
12 years a slave - British director, British actors, British funding. However, majority funding was US, was originally american book adapted by american writer, filmed in US. Considered american.
Gravity - american actors, Mexican director. However, filmed in UK, post production in UK. Considered british.
British films gain a tax relief.
Highest Budget - action, fantasy, sci-Fi
Highest Amount - Dramas, comedies, documentaries, thriller
Top Grossing - Comedy
Only 7% of tickets sold in cinemas are for british film.
The most made genres (^) are also generally the cheapest (docs, comedies, dramas)
Social Realism:
Realistic stories and relationships between characters, using settings not made for film ( post WW2 - wrecked London in "hue and cry"), characters sometimes very similar to the actor playing them.
What is considered realism changes parallel to the changes in that society (a time when women are assigned more roles, films will include those themes). Films about women working is mundane, showing how early on , British film celebrated mundane everyday life.
shows society at a specific place at a specific time
Social realist films early post world war two received funding from the government to show what society is like after the war, and re-image it, giving Britain a brand and a look.
French New Wave and Italian Neorealist (influenced british film) : - use actual locations, not sets
- documentary visual style
- avoidance of neatly plotted story-lines
- conversational speech, not literary dialogue
- avoidance of artifice in editing, camerawork and lighting
Verisimilitude - believability within the world (opposite of something like star wars)
In the British New Wave of Social Realism, the directors became more important than the industry.
The New Wave protagonist was usually a working class male without bearings in society.
Films like The Full Monty address the erosion of regional and class identities amid a landscape rendered increasingly uniform by consumerism.
Consumer society - having more concern with material goods and riches.
Welfare state - having the NHS , education until 16. The idea that society gives people a minimum quality of living.
A lot of these films in the 80's were targeted at Thatcher and her effect on society, without naming her personally.
In the 80's, Channel 4 attempted to cultivate a cinema audience for realism. Films like "letter to brezhnev" following characters from the margins attempting to stake a claim in the new order. The funding for these films grew, and by the 90's there came a formula for "triumph over adversity" , feel good vibe. The Full Monty introduced new comedic elements. On the other side of the spectrum are films like Nil by Mouth and the War Zone which depict the topics in an extremely graphic way.
British Social Realism will mostly be about 2-3 people, very small scale characters and stories
Example : "Kes"
Themes : outsider, casual violence, poverty, escapism
Characters : The lost boy, strict authority (teacher/bullies)
Technical Elements: documentary style unedited raw (still thought out, but not so obviously) , conversational speech
Example : "secrets and lies"
Themes:
Characters:
Technical Elements: everyday social interaction that isn't dramatised
Richard Curtis : "Writes and directs whitewashed (no consequence films/just white people), saccharine, improbable, middle class visions of the UK that are supposed to be funny."
foppish : charming and daft ( hugh grant)
Richard Curtis films create an expectation for what the UK is supposed to look like e.g. all white and happy, certain accents
Hitchcock - british director, known as the master of suspense, an auteur
Danny Boyle
Binary Oppositions - two things that clash
Great notes, Guy - keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteMr Boon