PART 3

WHAT IMPACT DID

THEMEDIA INSTITUTION
FILM4HAVE ON
EACH PRODUCTION STAGE
ANDWHY?
 PRE - PRODUCTION
The media institution we looked at, Film4 had an massive impact on each production stage. As a
result of this, it influenced our final product and made it very reflective of a typical BSR film.

• Pre-production: We did a lot of research before creating our film of different BSR films. One of
the trends we noticed was the consistent use of the same themes used in the films. Typical
themes explored were things like Violence, Addiction, Sexuality & other controversial themes.
We also saw that the genre of the film is usually crime. Although they had twisted storylines, they
were never action films as this is very reflective of a Hollywood film.
Film 4 impacted our our pre-production work as it made us explore and study closely all the aspects
used in BSR films. This made us notice closely the camera angles/shots/movement used, editing,
sound, typography etc… But mainly from research we found the kind of locations they are usually set
in, which impacted pre-production the most as it helped us plan where we was going to film .

Film4’s ethos often involves discovering unknown talent and using it for the characters in films. This
impacted on our production as we used everyday common people to act out the roles that we
created.
During pre-production we planned to have our protagonist committing crime, for a good cause… she
has a dream to get somewhere with her life unlike the rest of her neighbourhood.
 • When we came to decide the title of our film, Film4 impacted our decision as we got
inspiration for their title styles. We found that they were often snappy and straight to
the point. This isn't usually likely in a Hollywood film as they don’t want to give away
too much of a story, but as BSR films are reflective of real life… They are often quite
boring.

Film4 impacted our typography as we

was inspired by Kidulthood.
Kidulthood’s title also has certain
letters in lowercase. This impacted
our pre-production as we planned
what font we were going to use for
the title and we felt it suited our target
audience as young people often type
incorrectly/slang.

Film4 often explores a variety of different races and cultures.

E.g. East is East clearly explores a Pakistani lifestyle.
…More appropriately to our storyline, we looked at films such
as Bullet Boy. Although Bullet boy primarily shows Black
culture, it still impacted the characters we choose for our film
and affected our pre-production as when we came to write the
shooting script, we choose characters to suit this, but instead
chosen to target it to all cultures. This is evident as there is a
Middle girl, a Mixed race girl and a Black boy.
 Production
• Equipment: we used basic equipment (camera & tripod)
…This was impacted by Film 4 as we know that their budget is very small (like
ours) and therefore the equipment they use = basic and are relatively cheap.
As we had a small camcorder, it enabled us to create a handheld shaky affect
very easily. This rough style was influenced by Film4’s “Kitchen sink” style.

• Locations: Based on our research, we found that Film4 are usually run
down urban areas and the houses consist of typical working/“under class”
families… Often council estates.
This impacted our production as it affected the location we would set it in.
Instead of shooting it in any road, we chose Ilford Town centre which is a typical
urban busy area full of young teens who “hang about.” Therefore, we felt it
helped to conform to Film 4’s typical conventions for BSR.
 • Cast: We used characters of different races and ages which was impacted by our research into
other Film 4 films such as “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “East is East” who explore specific
cultures (Asian.)
Adulthood’s cast were mainly young teenagers of a variety of backgrounds which impacted our
production as we too had a variety.
In “This is England” we see the young kids misbehaving and getting into trouble (having underage
sex, drinking etc…) which is stereotypical of children this age. We used this stereotype in Dead End
by portraying the characters (young teenagers) already misbehaving as we see her handling drugs &
money.

Another example of a similar cast in terms of the teenagers is “Fish Tank”. They are
portrayed as trouble makers who are very “chavy” in their appearance and speak very
informal. Our cast also dress in this way, but a more modern version. E.g Charlene wears a
fluorescent Nike jacket, jeans and trainers (very casua but not too “hood”).
Ashley says “I’m not a road chick no more,and I swear he’s your man!?” which is informal and
only understood by those familiar with slang. The storyline of “This is England” focuses mainly
on a troubled young boy growing up in England which impacted our production as the
storyline of “Dead End” focuses on one person getting in trouble, excepting using a female
instead of a male which is not your usual stereotype and a possible unique selling point.
 Distribution
• Film 4 would impact our distribution if we was to distribute our film as it would
influence us to focus more on Home release (DVD’s) as this is where film4 films
usually have the most success.

Where: Dead End would be released into Art House cinemas on specialist release into
major cities (I.e. London) as that’s the culture our film explores.

How: Our film would be marketed through viral strategies that create word of mouth using
new media technology (internet) such as Social networking sites (facebook) which would
address our specific target audience of 16-21 year olds because they often use social
networking and can share with their friends.
This would raise audience. As we are working to a Film 4 brief which is an independent
film company, we could market our film by having festival screenings in advance, before
official release, which is effective because reviewers and journalists would be there
creating word of mouth.