Research into Homemade Production Companies

Name of the Piece

Inner Monologue Ideas

Deconstruction Of Dystopian Influence: Locations

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.

Source of Inspiration: Game of Thrones

Social Context Study

Current Social Issues

Suggestions of current influences/fears within our society include:

• Gang culture - London riots
• Terrorism - Britain's being radicalised and going to Syria
• Increase in body image awareness
• Awareness of LGBT becoming more talked about and viewed as less of a taboo subject - legalisation of gay marriage
• Risk of medications running out or not being effective against diseases - antibiotics crisis
• Authority figures, such as police are being criticised and negatively viewed with things such as race - shootings of many black people in America

Film Ideas

• One film idea is based on the idea of body shaming and how it can lead to eating disorders and low self esteem. The film could focus on how an individual is made to feel by society when the pressures conveyed by the media to look or be a certain way can become overbearing and negatively impact a persons outlook on life. The pressures could be acted on as voices within the characters mind reminding them of how they should look. A different perspective to take with this could be that it is mainly viewed as women who have body image issues, however we could portray it from a males point of view, not seeing his reflection till the end and using gender neutral actions for them to act upon so the audience may be led to believe they are seeing a woman's struggles, and showing how society judges so quickly through this tactic. 

• Another idea is that with the increasing immunity to medications, we are taken back to a past time where even minor illnesses can become deadly. We could focus on the viewpoint of someone who has taken to living away from society so they are less at risk, but when someone they are very close to in the 'main world' gets sick they are forced to help save them with what they can find away from society, without catching anything themself. It could become a story with the outline of are those you love sometimes more important to you than yourself?

Film Idea One Inspirations

• The tube advert 'Are You Beach Body Ready' for Protein World sparked widespread outrage as the poster displayed a woman who's figure was supposedly seen as the 'ideal' body as far as the company were concerned. This led to many people viewing this as irresponsible at therefore a possible contributor to the number of eating disorders that can be viewed as occurring from perceived social pressures to look a certain way (for example as the woman did in the poster). An online petition to get the poster removed was uploaded to 'change.org' and within a matter of days the petition reached 40,000 signatures. An extract from the petition reads 'Protein World is directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image of the bronzed model, in order to see their product'. As well as this, the hashtag 'everybodysready' circulated around social media alerting those in further away regions to the need for awareness of body shaming in the media to be seen.
• A meta analysis carried out on participating teenagers by 'Just Say Yes' showed that 69% of teenagers viewed models that they saw in magazines as having their ideal body and basing their diets around these, and that just by viewing these models 7/10 people felt more depressed after seeing one of these photos than they had prior to viewing it. The most important fact could be seen as that only 5% of the american population naturally possess the ability to have a figure such as those usually shown in magazines, and therefore it is likely that in attempting to create this 'perfect figure' as viewed by society, people are doing more harm than good. 

Social Context Study

For our media coursework. we have to produce a film with a primary theme of moral panics - it must be based on a moral panic currently within the media. Therefore, in this blog post, I am researching current fears within society, and choosing two of these to create my own film ideas. 

Current influences/fear in society:
There are a large amount of fears within society today, but the main ones are:
> Gang Culture - the London riots, Saturday 6 August - Thursday 11 August 2011
    - For example, with the London Riots, which took place from Saturday 6th August to Thursday 11th August 2011. These riots were largely filmed and publicised, mediated to create a moral panic.
> Increase in body image awareness
   - For example, an advert was released in a tube station in Australia, depicting a slim woman wearing a bikini, with the caption 'Is your beach body ready?', and this sparked a lot of outrage and controversy within the media.
> Increasing stress levels and how they affect the immune system
   - For example, scientific journals are being published which present new data which suggests that increasing amounts of stress reduces the effectiveness of the immune system, and within the media there are increasing pressures over schools and education.
> Acceptance of the LGBTQ community
   - For example, the legalisation of gay marriage in all 50 states of the USA occurred in 2015, which caused controversy
> Fear of the growing immunity to medication
   - For example, various scientific journals and articles within the news are now discussing the increasing immunity to antibiotics
>Fear of Rape culture
  - Celebrities such as Jimmy Saville are constantly being discovered as rapists and abusers
> Immigration crisis
   - Thousands of people are migrating over from countries such as Syria to countries such as the UK or Germany, and a lot of oil rich countries are refusing to let them in due to fears that terrorists may be among them.
> Fear of corruption of authority figures (links to racism in America)
   - There was recently a shooting in Boston, where a police officer killed an innocent, unarmed black man, which sparked a lot of outrage globally.
> Fear of terrorism
   - For example, there was recently an ISIS shooting in Tunisia which evoked a lot of fear, and also there was the 11/11 bombing of the twin towers in America.

My Film Ideas
1. My first film idea is based on the fear of rising stress levels and rapid advances in technology.
Specifically, my idea is that in the film there is a virus, which is caused by the chemicals released through the body when stress levels are high. As technology advances, increasing amounts of pressure is put on the younger generations to achieve more, hence correlating to high stress levels.
The film would have links to the idea of increasing immunity against medication, as the disease in the film would be untreatable, and would also be fatal. This would lead to mass global debates, in which world leaders discuss the next course of action. Some people suggest that they need to close down the schools, but others argue the importance of education so that the disease can be defeated. Religious and moral dilemmas are sparked as religious groups such as Catholics argue that the disease is clearly God's will, sent to teach us a lesson.
2. My second film idea is based on the immigration crisis, which is currently gaining a large amount of publicity. This film would be a lot simpler than the previous, and it would document a family's journey as they are forced to flee from a war torn country and enter into a country where they do not speak the language, and they are met with hostility.

My Favourite Film Idea
Of the two mentioned above, I am most interested in is film idea #2.
The immigration crisis
On Wednesday 2nd September, 2015, shocking images of a three year old boy being found drowned on the shores of Turkey were released, sparking widespread debates over how to react to the ongoing immigration crisis. Thousands upon thousands of people are travelling from countries such as Syria, illegally entering countries such as Greece and Hungary in the hopes of seeking refuge.
In Greece it is being said that this is the 'biggest migration crisis in living memory'.
On Wednesday, a reported 2,500 migrants landed on Greece's shores, and roughly 15000 refugees are in Lesbos, awaiting to attempt to travel to Germany.

Shortly after this, David Cameron released a statement, stating that the UK would accept thousands more migrants. However, it appeared in the Sun newspaper as a headline that the oil rich countries in Europe were refusing to take in any migrants. Their argument was that they feared that terrorists may be hiding in with the thousands of people.

Examples of Existing Films/Show
Several films and shows with similar themes as my main idea exist, and one such example is the BBC Three show Glasgow Girls.
"What started as a grassroots petition to save their friend from deportation inspired a powerful human rights movement which would eventually change immigration practices in Scotland."
The above quotation is a synopsis of Glasgow Girls, and so we see how it is a TV drama about immigration within Scotland, whereas our piece would be on immigration for a country such as Afghanistan to Britain.

However, there are very few films which follow the theme of decreasing effectiveness of immunity - most that discuss this topic or something similar to it are dystopian/horror films, looking at the immunity to vaccines which causes a zombie apocalypse, such as I Am Legend or World War Z.

Film ideas based on society

We had been asked to individually come up with two possible film ideas that we could create which have a link to the struggles in today's society. 

 Film idea #1

I thought that it would be interesting to make a film about domestic abuse/violence. This is heard about alot on the news and on other medias however, it is very uncommon to hear about a domestic violence case where a male is the victim, which would be an interesting idea to go with. The Guardian newspaper wrote in 2010 that more then 40% of domestic violence victims are male and so I thought that it was important to get the story of these men heard. 

The film would constantly question the idea of masculinity, because in today's society it is seen as important for a man to be "a manly man", and so this would be one of the ideas that would regularly occur in the film like his partner shouting at him to be more of a man etc. 

In terms of the trailer, it would start with the wife beating the husband and shouting abuse at him. The camera would be canted and the shot would also be faded around the edges to mimic that he has been attacked. Diegetic sounds of ringing would also be heard as though his ears are ringing from the hits. 
The shots could then cut to him looking at the mirror, touching the bloody bruises on his face and his wife walks behind him and stops behind him and looks at his reflection in the mirror. 
There could then be shots of the couple out for dinner with friends, to show they are 'keeping up with appearances'. However you can see from his body language that he is on edge while she seems to be all over him. 
The trailer could then end with him on the floor, bloody, tears rolling down his face obviously had just been beaten, with the camera canted low angle shot of the wife walking out of the door. 

I think also, this could be very interesting to film if we filmed the whole thing from the man's point of view, with only actually seeing the face of the male through his reflection in the mirror. This would also be very helpful as we would only need to find an external actor from our group for a couple of shots, rather then for the whole trailer. 

Film idea #2

This is an idea that is revolved around the idea of rape. This is about how young girls are increasingly becoming victims of rape because how they look and what they wear which puts them more at risk to older men. The more revealing clothes are becoming the 'norm' for children as young as ten to wear and are being specifically made for them and sold in shops that cater for the 'preteens'. Victims are then found time and time again to be slandered across social media for being too provocative in what they wear and so what happens to them is their fault or 'they are asking for it'. This film could show a young girl being slandered over social networking sites because of what she wears and what happened to her.