1. My piece is called ‘Expectation’. My primary aim was to raise awareness about
bullying and peer pressure within schools as it’s a huge issue that I have
experienced personally in the past. Peer pressure sometimes fails to get the
recognition it deserves and resolved the way it should which is why I have
chosen to write this particular social realism. I wanted the audience to be able
to empathise and sympathise with the protagonist while, possibly, reflecting
upon experiences they may have had themselves.
I had no budget for my film and therefore the school supplied all the equipment
such as the mini DV camera and editing suite. Low budget isn’t much of an issue
because I would use default lighting and weather conditions. This reinforces the
fact I want the audience familiarise themselves with the surroundings and it
also sustains the naturalism and verisimilitude which are the main conventions of
the social realism genre. My film was shot in 16:9 to create the cinematic effect
which is a convention of a feature film however this is the only link my film
shares with a feature film.
My film challenges the basic codes and conventions of real media products. I
studied other social realism films such as ‘Kidulthood’, ‘Adulthood’ ‘Last Resort’,
‘Nil by Mouth’ and ‘Half Nelson.’ I was extremely analytical of the openings of
‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’ because of the similarities to mine. I wanted to
emulate the director’s techniques in terms of linking the micro to macro so that
my film was more effective as a social realism dealing with bullying. The opening
of ‘Kidulthood’ is quite ambiguous because of the swift transitions and rapid
camera cuts and close ups. The close ups emphasise the characters emotions and
helps to highlight their isolation and vulnerability hence why I used a fair
amount of close up shots in mine, to communicate these same ideas to the
audience. Also, the quick transitions and cuts could represent metaphorically
how short teenager’s lives can be due to violent bullying and I believe the
director’s rationale was to signify this early on in the film. In contrast, I wanted
to convey a sense of slowness to put emphasis on my main characters loneliness
by editing the shots and making them not cut too quickly.
In ‘Half Nelson’, the shot of Dan Dunne sitting on his living room floor with his
legs splayed out, the slightly jittery movement of the handheld camera evokes a
sense of his edginess while the width of the frame makes his figure appear
small and leads us to feel his isolation and loneliness. Similarly, there is a shot in

2. my film where the protagonist, Louise, is standing in the centre of a wide shot
alone which heightens the sense of her isolation.
In ‘Nil by mouth’, although it has a completely different set of themes and
issues to my film I noticed the opening scene relies heavily on diegetic sound
which is similar to a scene in my opening where the protagonist is silently
watching students and staff walk past in a rush without even noticing her
standing there, there is also a glass door separating everyone from the
protagonist. The lack of diegetic sound is significant here as it emphasises the
protagonist’s timid mannerisms and how she’s cut off from the whole situation.
My media product represents a typical, young school girl who simply strives to
be liked within her new school. On the other hand, it also represents a typical
villainous school girl who prides herself on the intimidation of others. I created
a juxtaposition of these two characters intentionally to emphasise the different
social groups within the school. As the key character is based around me, I
understood how she should behave and feel in this particular situation. This
allowed me to direct the actress playing Louise with specific instruction and,
therefore, I avoided being completely minimalistic which conveyed my themes
and issues with clarity. However, Louise’s characteristics do not reflect year 7’s
as a social group because I am only showing an individual character so I evaded
direct stereotyping.
After researching other films that fall into the social realism category such as
‘Last Resort’ and ‘Half Nelson’ I looked at media institutions that distribute
these films and I came across the BBC, Icon and Pathe. I would like to pitch my
film BBC because of its diverse and converging media such as everything from
the different channels to iplayer and playstation 3. BBC would be a great choice
because there is more chance of my film getting viewed due to all the different
channels. These films obviously have a higher budget than mine and it allows
them to deal with continuity easier, for example, they can use artificial lighting
if natural lighting isn’t enough whereas continuity is an issue in mine because of
the weather so filming was more spread out. I found that following examples of
other successful social realism films to be a wise choice as it would allow me to
attract a niche audience before maybe trying to gain a mainstream one if that
was possible.

3. My piece, to reiterate, is set in a school and deals with themes and issues such
as bullying and peer pressure so my target audience would most likely be 12-18
year olds. In pre-production, I found out the majority people interested in my
film were 16 year olds and I later did more research and found out this is
because most have experienced some form of discrimination in the past. As a
tester, my film could be screened in schools to raise even more awareness to
students who have been a victim and give a better understanding to teachers
who have to deal with these complicated issues. I feel as though I’ve
modernised my film so my target audience won’t lose interest. I also wanted to
connect to them and allow them to feel familiar with the issues raised. Also, I
want the audience to be able to either sympathise or empathise with the
protagonist.
Before I began production, I handed out several questionnaires to different
people to gain a better idea of what they’d expect from my film. I also asked
for opinions on other social realisms so I’d understand exactly the sort of
themes and issues that appeal to them. This method also raises awareness about
my film and the social realism genre as a whole.
I learnt basic techniques with the camera such as white balance and zebra
exposure. White balance is basically the removing of unrealistic colours in a
shot, for example, in a white, well lit room you wouldn’t expect a murky, bluish
colour or a flushed, pinkish colour to surface which can sometimes happen,
however, the white balance can be adjusted to sort this minor problem. Zebra
exposure is the controlling of light exposure on the face to create a naturalistic
figure in the frame instead of unnecessary shadows or brightness exposure on
the face.
I also learnt how to use avid which I had never used previously. I learnt the
basics of editing such as cutting shots, deleting shots, splicing and colour
correction. I also attempted to learn the adjusting of diegetic sound in a shot,
by, for example, taking specific parts of the sound out completely.
Looking back in retrospect, I feel as though I’ve come a long way in terms of
filming since my preliminary task, which was a technical exercise to demonstrate
my technical ability. My preliminary task had to be filmed twice as I crossed
the line the first time round and the camera was on manual focus mode when it
should’ve been on automatic focus however, in my defence, I didn’t understand

4. all the functions of the camera properly then but can now successfully shoot a
short film appropriately. Also, another aspect I struggled with was timing and
felt slightly under pressure and this admittedly caused me to rush. However, I
have sorted these flaws in my main task. The main task required me to have to
establish effective links between the micro elements and the key macro issues
of my narrative so I made sure to put a lot more thought into it such as
organisation and timing.