Social Context Study: Creating Storylines: Plane Crashes

Current Influences/ Fears in Society

Over time the influences and fears within society change depending on the events that happen in the world.   The influences can be positive or negative on the world and the fears and influences can also have a large or little impact.

Within today’s society, the current influences/ fears are:

• ·         Fear of Terrorismà The Attacks in Tunisia, 7/7 bombings 10 years ago
• ·         Fear of Immigrationà French Ferry Strikes in Calais
• ·         Fear of Nuclear Warà Russia’s over looming nuclear threat
• ·         Influence of Gay Marriageà Legalised in all 51 States of America
• ·         Fear of Greece leaving the Eurozoneà Causes a huge problem and a problem with a payback of their loans, creating fear thta Europe will be in huge debt to other countries with bailout loans
• ·         Fear of Plane Crashesà F16 California Mid Air plane crash
• ·         Fear of Extreme Weatherà 2 people killed in the British lightning strikes

These are current topical issues that worry people or have influenced culture for the better.

Narrowing down the choice

When looking at the fears and influences above, as inspiration for film ideas some of them are really good but others are not so good in terms of creativeness but also how complicated a plot for a film would have to be in order to incorporate that fear/influence.  Therefore the top two fears that I think would make a particularly good storyline are the fear of immigration and the fear of plane crashes.  Films and videos from news reports are great sources of inspiration for these ideas.

Possible film idea 1:

The Fear of Plane Crashes

• It would start off in an airport as several people start to board a plane and out on the runway they see a plane crash land.  
• This would start a panic and people running off the plane and cancelling plans etc.  
• Over in the control tower they would be panicking and trying to contact all other plane to get them to do an emergency landing to keep them safe and to unload their passengers.    
• However one plane was too far away and the communication broke.
• The plane keeps flying happily off to its destination to American coast when some of the controls stop working for a few seconds then work again, causing the pilots to worry.  
• All the passengers are unaware and they continue sleeping and working as they normally would.  
• The stewards and stewardesses begin to notice something is wrong and one questions the pilot as the plane dips causing the passengers to worry.
•   The pilots try to contact the control tower but they can’t and are left on their own to fly themselves to safety. 
• During this it begins to focus on families and other flyers of their reactions as the plane get worse and worse with more technical faults.  
• The film would end with the plane having to crash land with only a few being rescued from the plane when it crash lands in the sea.

Further Development of the fear of Plane Crashes:

Explicit examples from the Media:

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/02/shoreham-airshow-disaster-the-11-victims

• The Shoreham air show indicates why people fear plane crashes and the destruction they cause.  The link goes to an article by the Guardian showing the faces and descriptions of 11 out of the 20 people killed by the plane crash on the main road.  
• This highlights the devastation to not only events but to hundreds of people’s lives through losing a loved one or having to witness the horrific ordeal.  
• The images of the crash on different articles accompanied by this further enhances that fear due to this being the second air crash from a public display at a show in a very short period of time.  
• This also has a larger impact upon the public and the fear due to this being at an event where more people are at risk especially the young and those unable to escape their fate.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/03/reunion-debris-flaperon-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-confirmed

• MH370 was the Malaysian Airline that went missing over Vietnamese airspace, 2 hours after take-off on 8^th March 2014.  
• There were 247 passengers and 12 crew aboard the plan when it crash landed and the authorities only knew due to oil slicks in the sea being found.  
• This story was covered massively in the media as this was one of a numerous number of planes that had gone missing over several months.  
• This hyped up fear and panic regarding the situation and led to more precautions being taken on the flights to ensure that this wouldn’t happen again.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370?page=11

This link shows a timeline of all the articles relating to the flight and shows the article on the debris is one of the latest articles.  The prolonged media coverage of any little development in the story stopped when this article was published.  This shows that people still held some form of hope for the passengers and the crew as this would mean that they were going to keep finding answers.

Deconstructions of influences:

LOST (TV Series 2004-2010)

• This was a major source of inspiration for the fear of plane crashes as this is what the whole point of Lost is about.  
• The fear created by the plane splitting apart and crash landing is heavily played upon in the trailer and this further enhances the fear as although this is a fictional plane crash, the idea that your life is dependent upon landing and the skill of a few people is a terrifying aspect. 

• Also, Lost influenced from outside of this clip through the time on the beach afterwards in which people are still at danger help to amplify the fear of the people in the plane as their nightmare isn’t over yet.  
• The idea of everyone working together to help save each other and keep each other safe highlights that they are all in this together regardless as to who they were before the crash.  
• This shows that their hope makes them believe that survival is imminent and that they have to survive regardless of what happens in order to get home to their families safely.

The Knowing (2009)

• Again the plane crash within the Knowing really just elaborates on the points made about the ‘Lost’ plane crash element.  
• When these two crashes are compared they are very similar due to the atmosphere they create but also they complement each other due to them highlighting that no two plane crashes are the same and they can occur in many different ways. 

• The way the plane crashes with its wing going along the road and leaving a trail of fire in its wake highlights the pure destruction that plane can do when going into a descent at rapid speed. 
• It also adds a more realistic element to the crash in which the people on the ground are no safer than those in the air.