MEST4 Linked production: Research and planning

MEST4: Linked Production planning

Your Critical Investigation topic: 

• Hyper-masculinity
• Toxic masculinity 
• Black community perception
• Changing ideologies of the Black man

Your Linked Production brief: 

A drama focusing on the topics followed in 'Moonlight'- a sought of homage, using similar themes stylistically. I don't want it to appear to be 'arthouse' but taking the turn of a drama may seem better in illustrating the idea.

Length/size of production (e.g. 3 minutes, 5 pages etc.): 

• 3-4 minutes

Give an example of an existing media text this is similar to what you plan to produce: 

• 'Moonlight' 
• 'Bear'
• 'Young Soul Rebels'

Give an example of an institution that would produce or distribute your planned production:

• Plan B Entertainment
• Film4
• A24 

How would your production reach its audience?

The production would reach our audience through social networking sites such as youtube so it can be shared but ultimately be through traditional advertisements on T.V. Twitter, where a production can easily go viral. 

Who do you plan to work with on this project?

Muna

Ornela -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RESEARCH:

'BEAR'(1993) dir. Steve McQueen

Bear, is a 10 minutes long, silent, and consisted of two naked men, one of them him, wordlessly circling each other, staring and sparring,  Steve McQueen's first major film. From looking at articles the video raises sensitive issues about race, homo-eroticism and violence. It depicts two naked men-one of which is the artist-sparing and teasing one another in a confrontation which goes from tenderness and aggression. The film is silent but a series of stares, glances and winks between the protagonists "creates an optical language of flirtation and threat."(Tate)

The film opens with a close-up, a cinematic convention, shot of one man's shoulder. The camera then moves slowly upwards and to the right, travelling his face with close  proximity that suggesting the camera is feeling across the dents of his face. I think, McQueen may reinforce the idea of the sexuality Black male bringing into the idea of Black men being seen as sexualised objects rather than humans, at certain points, medium shots revealing underneath of the men showing their genitalia maybe to reinforce such ideas but also subvert them as Black men aren't able to freely be open with their sexuality or ability to be intimate sexually or platonic with other men- a sexual empowerment of Black men not represented in culture. The viewer is left to watch the scene with the intentions of making their own images and ideas of what it is trying to communicate but the main idea is the two characters are in a world of their own and created their own identifies and unnerved from that of onlookers: "I want to put people into a situation where they're sensitive to themselves watching the piece"

• I will use the camera work of the film to add to my own linked production and things such as the lack of dialogue as I want emotions and narrative to be more conveyed in the camera work and cinematography.

'YOUNG SOUL REBLES' (1991) dir. Issac Julien

Artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien's first commercial, narrative feature film Young Soul Rebels was borne from a desire to depict the various youth movements around the Queen's Silver Jubilee of 1977, a time of great jingoistic pride, belligerent chauvinism and the counter narrative regarding the confusion for many young people, specifically ethnic minorities, regarding national identity and where their place in this anniversary celebrating Britain actually was.

The film focuses on two soul boys and lifelong friends, straight mixed race Chris (Valentine Nonyela) and gay black Caz (Mo Sesay) who run a pirate radio station from a friend's garage and are keen to get ahead and introduce their mixture of soul and funk to more and more people in the London area - an area which is reaching boiling point thanks to the forthcoming Jubilee celebrations and the murder of a local gay black man (and mutual friend of Chris and Caz) out on the heath and its subsequent bullish police investigation.

On its release Young Soul Rebels was compared favourably to Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, though in the long run one suspects this did more damage than good. It's certainly true that Julien shares some of Lee's traits and talents, but he also has a touch of Hanif Kureishi about him too, and he is - like Kureishi - specifically a vibrant and vital storyteller of a culturally and ethnically diverse London. It's a beautifully directed film too, capturing the period and the summery vibe well (though its just as nostalgic now for an audience for the 1991 it was filmed in) and recreating the varying youth movements (punk, racist skinheads, soul boys, the gay scene) all jostling for street space with a variety of astute costume choices and social sentiments within the script.

• The setting and style of characters in 'YSR' will be sued in this as I find the narrative takes in the dame one I have chosen. As I would like to have the same feature of care free black boys in a drama about themselves. 

'MOONLIGHT'(2017) dir. Barry Jenkins

• Moonlight is an Arthouse Indie Black 'Coming of Age' movie following the life of Chiron in three chapter of his life where the audience witness the change in his personality, life and his exploration of his sexuality. 'Moonlight' still holds generic traits of a 'Coming of age' movie which contain characters from a young age and going through their life till a certain point where there would of been a change in the protagonist and to others around them. This would be the basic of a 'Coming of age' and as it focuses on Black men it uses actors to reflect that. 

This would be generic of Arthouse/Indie where they would communicate emotions through camerawork or scenery other than through the actors facial expressions.
The movie originated from a play called 'In the Moonlight: Black boys are blue' which was then transformed to suit the big screen.

Moonlight centres Black maleness/masculinity, but more specifically Black male sexuality as well as Black male intimacy and youth. It is worth saying that all the characters are Black, but not in a way that it becomes a myopic or singular exclusionary narrative, rather it brings you into a world that is real and that does exist. 

The protagonist, Chiron-- played at various points of his life by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes
The target audience in terms of psychographics would be the mainstreamers, the explorers and the reformers. In terms of demographics it would appeal to an A
BC1 audience, mainly consisting of the young adult group and older. 
The main major values of Moonlight would be to speak of deconstructing black masculinity and homosexuality but also the growth of young black boys and how environments can change them psychologically.

• My movie will obviously take on the convention of 'Moonlight' as it would be like a drama/art house* take on the film. I will be using the colour coding in the film to portray the same effect and feeling that the film was able to. As, I have done re creation of one of the scenes I feel like I understand the colouring of the film quite well. 

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SCRIPT:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HocPYMyx3pQr4zIUdca0nhpZAUFGSXx6kvXVhjVXKcc/edit?usp=sharing

STORYBOARD:

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtX8MSPOLv8WgtgyEemie0DqTUPBUg 

SHOT LIST:

Shot No.	Shot type	Description- dialogue, sound etc.	Filmed
1	Full screen	-Screen dark -Fade out too...
2	XCU	C= steady S= Classic?
3	MS	C= establishing shot, panning down S= car sounds, people (faint)
4	MS	C= Pan to right S= ‘’
5	MS	C= steady, stetting S= footsteps approaching
6	MS	S=    ‘’’
7	XCU	S= walking, footsteps, cars on roads
8	CU	S/A=fence shaking Car sounds etc
9	MCU	‘’
10	MCU	S= fence sound A= fingers clenching
11	LMCU	C= low shot of feet S= scattering sound
12	MCU	‘’
13	LS	S= Footsteps, cars(faint)
14	LS	‘’
15	MCU	S= continuous sound of people talking, walking, cars etc. (faint)
16	MCU	‘’
17	MCU	A= Crying S= muted sounds of outside
18	MCU	A= Crying, fumbling, sniffling
19	CU	S= clothing moving, searching
20	XCU	S= of lighter starting up
21	MS	S= Cigarette being lit Slight breathing
22	OHS M	S= Classical music starts to increase
23	XCUS	S= classical music becomes louder
24	LS	S= louder
25	LS	S= louder -TITLE comes atop shot
26	Full screen	-TITLE S= classic music stops abruptly -long silence
27	L	S= footsteps going down stairs Slight breeze sound (empty)
28	CU	A= realisation on face
29	MCU	D= 180* degree rule when talking S= nearly non-existant
30	MCU
31	MCU
32	M	D= “Yeah see yo...” S= Loud nothingness- pericing
33	M	‘’
34	M	‘’
35	XCU	S= becoming louder then...
36	M	S= Finger snap “Hey”
37	CU	“yeah umm” ...
38	CU	“lol what” “just doing this art... I mean photography thing”
39	M	“Yo you be on that art hoe aesthetic sh*t” Cont. “aight boom” “casual please”
40	M	“aight say no more” “okay seriously casual, just want you” “w-what um yeah” “this aint you” “you don’t know me”
41	MS	C= steady S= camera flash sound D= “cool thanks” “looks good?” “nice sned that to m yeah...cause mans getting this celebra-tay treatment init”
42	XCU	D= “Y=yeah” S= nearly non-existent, like a void
43	MCU	D= “see you around then” “Yeah” “Stop saying yeah like that...freaking me out”
44	Full screen	-quick cut to black D= “Cool”
45	XCU	-Classical music: one instrument, diff. From multiple instruments @ beginning -faint voices of fighting increasing slowly till  shot 43
46	XCU
47	LS
48	MS	-Music stops S= Camera flash x1
49	MS-ML	-Zooming out slowly away from face -Camera steady S= Camera x2
50	Full screen	-On colour fills screen S= Camera flash x3

LOCATIONS: 

• I hopefully be able to do all the filming at park royal near the hotel for my scenes for the film but as the weather will be changing so the effect I want for my film may change.
• Hopefully, the scene wont be packed with people so filming wont be capable but that is a factor that can be taken into account. 

DRESSING:

PROPS:

• Cigarettes
• Lighter
• Camera/Camcorder

MAKE-UP:

• Fighting scene- make-up- blood, scars etc.

CASTING:

• Black male:

Name: Jay

Age: 15-19

Height: 5'3-'58

Features: Qyuite light skinned, short and chubby in a way

• Black male: 

Name: Tyrese

Age: 15-19

Height: 6'0-6'2

Features: Tall, darker skin tone (like Moonlight)

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FILM SCHEDULE:

SAT/SUN-
17th-18th	Opening scenes done in Park Royal
24th – 25th
MON/SUN-
26th-31th	Edit the opening scene- with the sound, cuts and colour
31th -7th	Complete other scenes @ location
9th- 17th	Edit- putting in scenes filmed in holidays put finishing touches on the film