Shifty-An Independant British

                                                                     Shifty 

"Shifty is a British film made in 2008 under the Microwave Scheme that was funded by the UK film council (Since replaced by the BFI). The aim of the scheme was to provide young London film makers with a platform to make small independent film.

The rules of the microwave scheme were that the film had to be made in 18 days and with a budget of £100,000, it was the second Microwave film to be released. Shifty opened in 51 small independent cinemas such as the Curzon chain and on its opening weekend took £61,000. The final box office takings were £143,000 and most of the film's profits came from DVD and television sales.

Shifty was distributed Metrodome. £50,000 was spent on making celluloid prints of the film, administration and advertising. The intention was to attract two different audiences The first audience was the middle class audience that regularly sees small independent films at the independent cinemas. In addition they wanted to attract new, younger, urban audience. The audience had made "Kidulthood" and "Adulthood" profitable. In order to target both audiences, Metrodome produces different trailers. Interestedly the trailer targeting the youth audience, had a soundtrack of hip hop music but there was no soundtrack in the actual film.

In addition Metrodome ran adverts on pirate radio stations, used to Fly Posters (these are illegal posters that were put up ) and gave out "business cards" which depicted Shifty as a drug dealer and directed the recipient to a website. A music video to promote on Youtube and a website was created and prompted on social network sites.

Most controversially, the film sent out viral emails that identified the recipient as a potential drug dealer. The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint and the emails were banned. However, the ‘bad’ publicity generated helped to promote the film.

Finally, Metrodome targeted the youth audience through a competition offering £500 worth of studio time to young musicians. The lucky winner had the opportunity to work with Riz Ahmed – a musician who starred in the film.

“Shifty” is a thriller that builds slowly. There are three interwoven threads to the story.  Chris (Daniel Mays), a young man in his twenties returns home to visit a best friend he has not seen for years. An enigma is set up. Why did Chris leave? We suspect something awful happened but are not sure.

We quickly learn that Shifty has become a drug dealer. As he completes his ‘round’ the film creates a realistic picture of urban life. A second thread to the story concerns Trevor who is a drug addict and desperate for drugs. The audience become involved in his desperate search for drugs which becomes ever more desperate.

The third and most important plot involves Shifty being placed in danger by Glen who lies and claims Shifty is short changing his supplier. Shifty fears for his safety and the film builds toward a climax of tension. The final resolution to the film takes the audience by surprise.

The Trailer:

Continuity Editing

                                                          Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing is to see how techniques are created, to plan a sequence to show the understanding of it and it is in preparation for filming and editing the first piece of coursework this week. Continuity Editing retains a sense of realistic chronology and generates that time is moving forward. It may also use flashbacks of flash forwards in an expected or realistic way.


There are different types of continuity editing:

Eye-line Match
-This is where we see a character looking at something off screen and then they cut to a shot of what they are looking at.









Match On Action
-This is where we see a character start an action in one shot and then we see them continue it on the next shot.









Graphic Match
This is when two shots are linked with a similar shape or composition of an image, the filmmaker can choose to place the shots in a certain order so as to create a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next, when the two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look.







180 Rule
-This is a basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same relationship to each other, when the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting two subjects, it is called crossing over the line.











Shot/Reverse Shot
-This is normally used in arguments or in conversations.

Film Noir

                                                                    Film Noir

Film Noir is the term given by the French film critics to a group of films made in Hollywood from 1941 to 1958. These films were characterised by their pessimistic, dark themes that show the darker side of human nature, fatalism and menace. They are filmed by using low key lighting to give the films the hard, sharp look, with stronger areas being darker. The most popular theme in Film Noir are American Crime and Detective films.

Colour and Lighting

                                                               Colour and Lighting




The first use of colour was seen in films such as "Voyage a Travers l'impossible" by the Pioneer George Melies in 1904. Here the film was hand painted frame by frame.
The next development was the introduction of two strip colour using only red and green, for example, The Mystery of the Wax Museum. The first full three strip technicolor was Becky Sharp in 1935





From the 1930's to the 1940's, black and white represented reality and colour represented fantasy and spectacle. There are two ways we can use colour, denotation and connotation.

Denotation:
This is a literal description of an idea, concept or an object
Connotation:
This is what we associate with a particular idea, concept or an object.

Colour works on a subconscious mind to create a mood.
For example, red can symbolise the enemy, anger, blood or even romance, green can symbolise peace, earth, sickness and new life and blue can symbolise sadness, calmness and tranquillity



                                                                       Lighting.

Key Light

  - This light is the brightest and the most influential

Back Light

  - This light helps counteract the effect of the key light or creates an outline and/or silhouette.

Filler Light

  - This light helps to soften the harsh shadows that the use of the key and the back light create.

Under lighting

  - This is where the  main source comes from below the subject and is mostly used in thrillers and horrors.

Top lighting

  - This is where the main source comes from above the subject, this is also used in thrillers and horror films, and the light highlights the features and is used to create a glamorous look.

Low Key Lighting

   This is created by using only the key and back lights to produce a sharp contrast of light and dark areas on the screen as very deep and distinct shadows are formed. 

High Key Lighting

  - More filler lights are used to make the lighting appear more realistic.

Mise En Scene

The Mise En Scene Exercise:

-In this exercise, we had to produce a small, quick film to show the people's emotions through body language and facial expressions. Firstly we showed the feeling of relaxation with a few friends chatting and are comfortable, they show this by being laid back, not showing any expression at all. then we showed the feeling of embarrassment, by having someone accidentally trip over with a handful of books. After this we showed some sympathy toward the embarrassment by asking them if they're okay. We then show the feeling of anger and frustration, as Viktorija looks unhappy and gives a long stare. The feeling of nervousness comes soon after as the group of friends become unaware and afraid of what Viktorija might say. The frustration and anger come back when she flips a chair and walks out of the classroom dramatically slamming the door behind her.

Rope 1948

                                                              ROPE 1948

Rope is a psychological thriller that was adapted from Patrick Hamilton's  Play which appeared in 1929.
The play was based upon the real life murderers Leopold and Leob who killed an innocent man to see how it felt, this case became very famous in America and it was linked to the ideas of Nietzsche and his notion of "superman" a morally superior human being. His ides influenced Hitler and the Rise of Nazis.

The film was made in 1948 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The unique and interesting thing about the film is the editing, Hitchcock wanted to film the story as one long continuous take so that it was like watching a play and the audience felt they were "living" the action, however, before digital, film came in ten minute rolls and Hitchcock had to compromise and each unedited scene is ten minutes long, the changes between the scenes appear rather "clunky" to a modern audience.

Using this editing technique creates a feeling of claustrophobia, the actors and the audience are both 'trapped' in the film. The trunk with the body in it is present throughout the whole film, which adds to the tension. The popular questions that are asked are; Will the trunk ever be opened? Will Phillip and Brandon ever be discovered?

Another fascinating element to the film is the way homosexuality is portrayed, the strict censorship of the 1920's meant that the subject could be implied but not openly stated.

This thriller used devices such as Cliffhangers and Suspense.

Cliffhanger: Will Rupert Cadell (James Stuart) be killed at the end of the film?

Suspense: We constantly wait for the trunk to be opened and the body to be discovered.