Film Titles Evaluation - The Good Daughter

Film Title Evaluation - The Good Daughter

The name that we chose to be the title for our film from the initial three suggestions was 'The good daughter'. We eventually decided to go with this idea as we felt that it definitely had the strongest appeal amongst our group because it strongly suggests both a sense of irony in the sense that she (Isabella) has just killed Joules, and surely committing a murder cannot be a 'good' thing to do. However, we felt the title was clever as it has a double meaning depending on the view you chose to take on it. As well as this sense of irony it creates, it also contradicts itself in the sense that Isabella has followed the orders of her father, making her a very obedient daughter, and therefore through the eyes of her father, a 'good' daughter.
We felt that the title gave very strong connotations of the controlling nature of Christian towards his daughter, highlighting the mass power he has to be able to sway her very actions and decisions. It integrates well the obsessive and controlling nature of the father in just the title, as if almost to be patronising towards her; as if he is actually literally saying 'good girl'. Showing this twisted relationship between them and highlighting the power Christian has over Isabella was a key factor to the choice of using 'The Good Daughter' as our title.

Titles
We in the end decided to choose a bold, white font, all in capitals in which to present our film name and actors names.
We chose white as it shows a clear contrast against the background and is easily readable - black would not be clearly seen, and any other colour would look out of place considering the ambiance of the film, e.g yellow would be far too vibrant.

We chose this bold font as it clearly presents the bold 'no nonsense' approach of Christian, it has more power about it!

We decided against using a calligraphy font as although it presents well the class and etiquette of Isabella and her father, it was very difficult to read on the screen.

Our title 'The Good Daughter' will appear on screen towards the very end of our sequence as Christian's car is shown driving away, whilst crossfading into an extreme close-up of Isabella's face. This is used to literally portray the fact that Christian has got inside his daughter's head and is manipulating her thoughts. The title shall fade in, and then fade out again at this stage.

We decided to call the name of our production group 'Smokescreen Productions' as it has a very mysterious ambiance about the word, and fits in extremely well during the opening shot of Isabella smoking. The title 'Smokescreen Productions' shall fade in and out during the point when Isabella is sitting on the windowsil, fading in amongst the smoke clouds.


















The actors names appear on the screen in a similar fashion during different establishing shots, when the characters are first introduced on screen.

The name of our group as directors also fades in and out after the actors names.

Initial Film Title Ideas

In terms of the title of our film, we have narrowed down a few suggested ideas to the following:
- The good daughter - this is a strong sense of irony as Isabella (the referred to daughter) kills a man, in theory not making her 'good' at all.
- Blood red lips - referring to Isabellas deep red lipstick and draws attention to the clear femme fatale attributes that she has. Also giving connotations of blood itself, and implying that there is going to be some kind of murder.
- The bridge - connoting the clear emotional gap between Isabella and her father

Of these three remaining suggestions, our favourite at the moment is 'The Good Daughter' as it clearly brings about connotations of irony in the one sense that she is clearly not 'good' for committing a murder, however on the other hand she is obedient to her father which can also be seen as being 'good'.

Titles
For the actual titles in our film in which we shall use to write our film name/title, actors names and directors names we have a few different ideas in mind:

colour
- The colour of the font should certainly be white as it shows a clear contrast against the background and is easily readable - black would not be clearly seen, and any other colour would look out of place considering the ambiance of the film, e.g yellow would be far too vibrant.

font
- bold, clear fonts e.g. arial - THE GOOD DAUGHTER, BLOOD RED LIPS, THE BRIDGE
(represent the punctual 'no nonsense' approach of Christian, easily readable)
- subtle, serif fonts - The Good Daughter, Blood Red Lips, The Bridge
(connotations of slightly higher class, easily readable)
- fancy fonts, calligraphy
(could represent the high class and importance in society of Christian, or etiquette of Isabella, however can be difficult to read)

Evaluation of Final Soundtrack

For our soundtrack, we used the first 1 minute 27 seconds of Sunny Days Are Over in our film, as this was the song we felt most appropriate to fit our thriller soundtrack. We felt that the song created the exact eerie feel and chilling ambiance that we were looking for. The steady but intense beat of the music means that when editing we could cut the footage to the beat, heightening tension and drama further; once we actually put the soundtrack to our film, we managed to fit the film so that the soundtrack accompanied the footage almost perfectly in many places. For example, the use of deep drums when Christian's evil eyes first appear on the screen, and the actor's name (Martin Lambert) fades in, creates a great feel of fear and tension; a feeling that we aim to create as it connotes the character himself very well.

In order to aid with the evaluation of our soundtrack, we showed our film to a different group to ask of their opinion of our soundtrack. The question asked was as follows:
'Does the sound track effectively enhance the mood & tone?' - all members of the group unanimously agreed that it did.
This is an example of an extended questionnaire answer which we gave out to the other group having viewed the film:
'The sound track adds to and heightens the mood and tone of the mise-en-scene fitting the action well. The sound track evokes tension and fear, and is quite dark, moody and heavy. The stings in the sound track make it eerie.'

Final Soundtrack

The soundtrack that we have eventually decided to use for our thriller, is 'Sunny Days Are Over' by the unsigned band 'Hyperions Fate'. It is classified as being under the 'instrumental' genre. To discover this final soundtrack, we searched randomly through the site http://www.unsignedbandsweb.com/ a site which contains various samples of songs composed by unsigned artists, taking note of all the possible songs we felt could be appropriate for our thriller.

We felt Sunny Days Are Over to be the best choice of soundtrack to use in our production as it creates the exact eerie feel and chilling ambiance that we are looking to achieve in our film.

Lizzie King, a member of our group, wrote to the artist Hyperions Fate via http://www.unsignedbandsweb.com/ to request permission for our group to use their song in our thriller in order to gain their permission. As of yet we have not received a reply, but due to the fact that the band are unsigned we are not necessarily required to have the band's full permission. The email read as follows:

'I am a student at CNS 6th form Norwich, England studying A Level media, as part of my coursework I have to construct the opening to a thriller film. For the soundtrack we have to use a copyright free piece of music. After looking though the site I found that your track 'Sunny days are over' would be perfect for my production. I writing to ask/ inform permission if I can use it in my production.
Kind Regards
Elizabeth King
CNS 6th form'

Revised Narrative

Our film would be classified as a psychological thriller.
Isabella is the obedient yet deceitful daughter of gangster Christian. Christian has an extremely intricate, controlling relationship with his daughter in which he manipulates her thoughts into making her perform his twisted dirtywork (well indicated in our thriller by this crossfade between shots of Christian driving away and Isabella's face, as if to literally portray the fact that he has got inside his daughter's head).

Isabella is involved in a complicated romance with Joules, a member of an opposing gang to that of Christian. The father, of course, does not approve... He has got inside the mind of his daughter, convincing her to 'do away' with Joules. Isabella makes an arrangement with Joules to meet her. Upon their seemingly romantic embrace, shots are crossfaded between those of the guilty Isabella and her controlling father, implying strongly of some relation and strange on-goings. The eyelines of Isabella and her father during these shot transitions are on the same level, implying that they themselves are on the same level, also as though to show that her evil father is watching her every move with great intent. Isabella decieves her gangster lover, Joules, and stabs him in the torso, resulting in Joules' untimely death at his lover's feet. Having got conformation that the deed is done, Christian winds up his car window as if to suggest that 'the job is done'. Our thriller introduction then ends with Christian's car driving away from the scene, and various crossfade transitions between shots of Isabella and her father to further promote the intricate relationship between them and the power he has over her. The final shot being an extreme close-up of Christian's shady eyes looking on, brimming with evil!

We feel that it is best suited for our film to be classified as a psychological thriller, as it is all based around the idea that an evil, controlling father has manipulated his daughter into performing his every twisted deed upon demand. The film indicates the complex, sick relationship between father and daughter that has flourished over the girl's prolongued, troubled childhood, due to the possessiveness and controlling nature of her father. We tried to steer clear of the usual generic year 12 media projects that simply have cash or drug exchanges, and instead chose to try and create a far more thrilling, complex relationship orientated film, which sets our film apart from the usual, less deep projects. We feel this adds another dimension of terrifying nature to our film, making it far more chilling by instead highlighting the vast power of twisted, controlling family relations rather than the usual bland breifcase exchange!

- Opens with establishing shot of Isabella smoking on windowsil

- Close up of Isabella's face as 'Smokescreen Productions' fades into the shot amongst her cigarette smoke

- Isabella is seen leaving the room

- Cuts to extreme close up of Christian's watching eyes in car rear-view mirror

- Car window is wound down as if to imply the job is beginning...

- Isabella shown walking up steps to meet her lover, Joules

- Crossfades to low angle shot of Christian looking on

- Joules is introduced, shown waiting for Isabella

- Embrace is made, Isabella running into the arms of the waiting Joules

- Fades back to Christian watching on, close-up in car side-mirror

- Over shoulder shot of Christian looking at watch, as if to imply the murder is arranged/timed - waiting for the murder to occurr...

- Extreme close up of watch

- Crossfade to High angle shot of Isabella's eyes, looking away as if guilty

- Fades back to low angle, extreme close up shot of Christian watching again

- Fades back to Joules and Isabella - Joules shown falling in pain

- Joules collapses to his knees, grasping the ankle of Isabella as if he does not want to let go, palm falls flat to the ground

- Shot of Joules dead on the floor

- Fades back to Christian winding up car window, as if to imply the job is done...

- Car drives away, title appear - 'The Good Daughter'

- Title remains during crossfade to extreme close-up of Isabella's eyes, whilst crossfade shows car driving off into her head (as if to imply he has got inside her head)

- Fades to shot of Joules' hand on the floor as he was collapsing, as if she is hazily remembering the murder she has just caused

- Ends on a faded shot of Christian's eyes with a low angle extreme close up shot of him looking onwards, as if he is always watching his femme fatale daughter...

Problems encountered and resulting alterations...

Locations
Despite our unanimous group decision that a train station would be an ideal setting for our thriller opening, upon further investigation during our initial shooting at Norwich train station we quickly fell upon many difficult filming obstacles which hindered our filming progress at the location. For example, duely to the fact that at all times of the day at which all of our cast and crew were readily available to film, the station itself was exceptionally busy and heaving with real life businessmen and passengers! In an ideal world this would not be an immediate problem in terms of filming, however the amount of curious people walking past who were blatantly looking at the camera rather ruined the whole ambiance of the shot! Aswell as this, i shall admit that we appeared initially to be rather ambitious with the range of shots we had interpreted achieving. For example, we felt a very low angle shot of Joules' foot stepping off of the train onto the platform from the underside, between the gap of the carriage and platform, would be an ideal opening on which we could also show titles (not too dissimilar to this picture). However we soon realised that mainly due to health and safety reasons that we would obviously not be able to get the camera in an appropriate position to shoot the footage, therefore decided against many important shots like these located at the train station. In conclusion, due to this large array of set-backs we eventually decided against using the train station as the location of our opening sequence, and instead decided upon an alternative setting.

Narrative
Our initial narrative idea, as shown below in earlier posts, involved the exchange of two briefcases between two notorious gangsters, Christian and Joules, for money in return for incriminating evidence, with Christian's deceitful daughter, Isabella, intercepting the money via the murder of Joules with the intention of taking the money to run off to start a new life; eventually getting caught by her father! Confusing, isn't it? Yes, we thought so too... Upon great reflection of our plot, even though we all believed that it had the makings of a decent film narrative as a larger part of a film (spread over 20 minutes or so), however the numerous breifcases, exchanges and betrayals that occurred in our plot would have been far too confusing/overwhelming for any audience to take in and fully understand what is going on in such the short space of time we had to work with (2 minutes). Having realised this, we reconsidered our narrative and came up with one that we feel to be far less confusing, and fits much more neatly into the two minute gap! This final plot is described in greater detail under the seperate post of 'Revised Narrative'.

Actors
As you will have been able to see if you looked closely enough at our notes under our initial narrative idea, you will notice that the actor which we had initially chosen to play Joules has changed. We were originally going to be using the older brother of one of the members of our group, James King (older brother of Elizabeth King), as our Joules character as we felt he fitted the criteria to be able to play the character well in the sense that he was in his early 20's, of average height and daark hair (looked a believable character once dressed up in a suit). However, due to difficulty in availability of James for filming because of his full time work, we instead decided to improvise by recruiting our friend Harry Ewing to fill the role. This was far more appropriate as he is of our age which means he was not working full time and was therefore readily available to film more frequently, yet in appearance looks much older than his actual age of 16, meaning he did not look out of place acting as a suit-blown gangster in his early 20's! We were very grateful of his cooperation to fill in and believe he did an excellent job in filming, doing Joules' character great justice!

Final Storyboards

Mock exam essay - Snatch

Discuss the representation of physical ability and disability in the clip from Skins series 2, episode 1

The clip from skins represents well the way in which the characters’ physical disabilities can be frustrating for themselves and also depressing for their family and friends, and how it can damage/hinder the whole youth experience. It also shows well the ways in which very much the opposite, physical ability, is linked with emotional outlet and expression amongst the character via a number of techniques including camera angles, shots, movement, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.

Physical disability is represented as being frustrating for the disabled character himself, Tony, in the clip by using various techniques. In terms of camera angles and shots, many close-ups are used especially on the character’s face to really make the audience empathise with Tony by showing them so vividly the emotions which he is going through. This really highlights the fact that he is feeling frustrated purely because of the intensity of the shots themselves, clearly portraying the anger in his eyes. The use of a handheld camera in some shots of Tony, as opposed to a steadicam, represents the high level of chaos that he is experiencing. The sudden jerky movements of the camera are an insight into the hectic situation in which Tony has found himself, due to the huge amounts of frustration which have built up towards the end of the previous series. His frustration is also portrayed by the use of faster cuts between shots in comparison to the very start of the episode, and also the increase in music pace. This fast paced editing emphasises the franticness he is experiencing; by not having the individual shots on the screen for a long period of time, the audience is not able to take in vast amounts of information hence creating a sense of chaos and confusion. The music pace also contributes to this frantic ambience in the same way. The mise-en-scene contributes greatly to the way in which the audience interpret Tony’s emotions by accurately reflecting the sadness he is experiencing, as these dark tones are generally associated with feelings of depression and sadness as opposed to brighter, more joyful colours.

This disability of the protagonist, Tony, also causes depression and frustration for his friends and family closest to him. Once again this can be implied within the clip using certain camera angles and shot types. In one instance during the shot, a point of view shot is used for the character Sid (one of Tony’s close friends) whilst focussing on a picture of Tony before his life-changing injury, causing the audience to empathise with Sid by making them see the situation from his point of view, and hence showing the despair that the character is feeling for his friend. The lighting in this clip is also used very cleverly, especially during one particular shot when Tony’s girlfriend is shown in the shower, with some very dark, shadowed lighting, reflecting dark bar-like shadows on her and the shower cubicle, as if to imply she is trapped in this woeful situation along with Tony. The soundtrack, again itself plays an important part in emphasising this matter. The lyrics bombard thoughts of friends and family, which when played in sync with the shots of Tony’s friends and family show the closeness that they feel to him, especially expressing their concern.

The final of the more depressing topics of this essay, how Tony’s disability can damage and hinder the whole youthful experience, is implied throughout the clip by the costume of some of the characters. The costume worn by Tony’s sister, a very uniformed dress and blouse, could in more ways than one, represent dead-ended ness, in the sense that it could be the dress of a dead-end job yet at the same time implies how the whole psychological situation with Tony has hit a wall in the ways that family and friends can help his situation (has reached a dead end!). The sound bridge used within the clip emphasises well the contrast and difference between the two very different attitudes towards their current life for the characters Tony and Maxi. Again referring to sound, the soundtrack of the clip, especially the lyrics, reflects this negative experience of youth by repeating the phrase “it’s gotta’ get bad before it gets good” showing that there are bad times to come for the characters. Different shot types are also used to present this hindrance of youth by the very first shot when the change of focus between the pencils and Tony is used, which shows the separation and isolation of the character. Because of the fact that Tony is now illiterate, this change of focus represents well this fact, and also the clear barrier of understanding and literary gap of knowledge.

Lastly of all, physical ability can be linked in this clip with emotional outlet and expression via many different techniques. These techniques are namely the use of high angle shots when Maxi is shown on the rooftop, dancing as could be seen freely. These extreme long shots and camera panning of Maxi represent the freedom he is experiencing by showing the vast amounts of space available in which he is utilising to express his emotions, in comparison to the extreme close ups and still camera shots (not panning) of Tony which in contrast present his frustration via lack of space and freedom, as if he is trapped. During the shots of Maxi, there are large amounts of open sky that can be seen, which obviously imply Maxi’s freedom compared to the gloomy entrapment of Tony’s room. Costume within this clip is also utilised well in showing Maxi’s emotional outlet and expression. For example, His clothing involves some very baggy, loose trousers and a thin flowing t-shirt, which imply in itself his freedom and great expression of emotion, as if he is not being held down, and has room to express himself, as if he is totally free and not tied down, in comparison to the dead-end uniformed style clothing of Tony’s sister, used to show her entrapment.

New Technologies

Within recent years of both cinema and television productions, the ever-changing new technologies used within them have become more and more important in the whole audience attraction of the production itself. In many cases of recent films, such as Avatar, Bolt, Coraline and Toy Story 3D to name but a few, the main reason for which the audience have been most inclined to go out and spend their money to watch the film at a local cinema, is often in fact because of all the pre-hype attention surrounding all of the special effects and flashy new technologies used in the production of, and shown in the film itself.
Recently in the filmmaking industry, the old-fashioned way of attracting audiences to cinema by having a gripping, enthralling storyline or plot to the actual narrative of the film, to keep audiences eyes glued to the screen and their minds lost in tales of gangsters, heroes and interesting characters, have instead been knocked off of the top of the priority ladder by new cutting edge effects and eye catching animations. It seems that not all, but many of today’s audiences prefer to watch the new films for their special effects as opposed to their narrative content. 3D film is the current cinema craze, and is set to become even bigger amongst film enthusiasts in the near future. These flashy effects, when the characters seem to jump out at you, as if you could touch them, seem to add a whole new dimension and thrill to the whole film viewing experience, that today’s modern audiences cannot seem to resist. Current characters in these newer blockbusters seem to jump out at you and grab your attention quite literally, as opposed to more primitive or traditional techniques of well-thought out narrative planning where their personalities would grab you far more metaphorically, enthral the audience by the interesting personalities created for the characters. It is not so much that the roles of the movie’s characters of this century do not play a vital role in films, because they most certainly do, there is no question about that, it just appears as though they are becoming less and less important in drawing the attention of audiences to film; becoming second best in order of importance to special effects and new technologies, which are revolutionising film for which most people would agree are improving it for the better! There are most definitely going to be people who are of the opinion that the storyline is still far more important than these effects, but most will find it hard to oppose the fact that they are undoubtedly creating a whole new era of the moving image as a medium.
Although the form of 3D entertainment that is currently in use in major mainstream cinemas such as Odeon and Vue, in recent blockbusters such as Avatar and Coraline are on the cutting edge of modern technology, the philosophy of 3D images in cinema is no new idea; in fact the use of 3D moving images in films have actually been around in cinema for over 50 years. The first known record of this in cinema occurred on 8th April 1953, and drew in many audiences who wished to be a part of this history making breakthrough in the world of cinema. Prior to the 50’s, the film industry could only be described as a booming one. The UK box office admissions in 1948 were hitting 500 million, though with the growing popularity and then inevitable rocketing marketable success of the television, the UK box office admissions began to plummet. It took the release of ‘Jaws’, Britain’s first summer blockbuster in 1975 to really bring back large numbers of audiences back into cinemas for their film-viewing needs. In 1980 there were still only 50 million people coming in through the doors of cinemas during the course of the year, a fraction of the figure from 30 years earlier. Though from then on, the production of large Hollywood projects continued to draw in vast numbers of viewers to cinemas, and by 2008 had brought the UK box office admissions for the year back up to a more stable and respectable 164.2 million. This is clear evidence of how new technologies has had such a large impact on the British film viewing audiences and trends, as it was the astounding underwater shots and breathtaking realism of the shark itself that audiences could not resist, so eventually came flooding back in through the turnstiles of cinemas all over the country. In contrast to the quality of viewing they would have received at home on their televisions at the time, the draw of the 1975 blockbuster packed with effects and new technologies to capture the attention of viewing audiences was just what the cinema industry needed to bring it back to life.
One perfect example of a new film, which contains a vast amount of these new technologies, is James Cameron’s new 3D film Avatar. Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to portray his vision of the film. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production, and at $150 million for promotion. The film was released for traditional two-dimensional projection, as well as in 3-D. It was touted as a breakthrough in filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Cameron was announced to be using this newly invented and patented ‘Reality Camera System’ to film in 3-D, in September 2006. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception. This has been the first real breakthrough in advanced 3D filming since the initial, more ‘gimmicky’ techniques, which seem to just use 3D effects purely for the fact that it is available to be used, which have been around since the first 3D movie made by a major Hollywood studio hit screens in 1953, a noir film named Man in the Dark. So basic 3D film is certainly no particularly new attraction! Though of course the levels of technology used in Cameron’s Avatar is greatly exceeding of this initial technology that dates back to over 50 years ago. For Avatar itself, a number of revolutionary visual effects techniques were used in its production. The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion-capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006. Innovations used in the production of the film include technological breakthroughs such as a new system for lighting massive areas called ‘The Volume’, a motion-capture stage six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and only 40% live action, which I feel is a figure that really demonstrates the sheer importance of technologies such as computer generation in today’s modern film.
In conclusion, some examples of the new technologies that have flourished over the past couple of decades, and last 10 years in particular, are the aforementioned completely refurbished 3D viewing experience, computer animation (used for the first time in film in the production of the classic, Toy Story) new high definition cameras which allow audiences to view the completed film in a far higher resolution and picture quality than would have previously been possible in the last decade. These are just 3 examples of the kinds of technologies that have become ably available to film producers in order to bring a whole new dimension to this decade’s filming experience (often quite literally!) and what many people believe is the start of a completely new, high-definition filming era. All of which have been tremendously successful in forming the quality productions of blockbusters ranging from 1975’s Jaws to 2009’s Avatar. These have consequently captured the attentions of audiences not just in the UK, but all over the world, and encouraged viewing audiences to return to cinema to watch these big, highly rated projects rather than staying at home to watch their televisions and miss out on the whole cinema experience that makes film as great as it truly is! Many believe that due to these new technologies, we really are entering a whole new era of film viewing phenomena.

How do the filmmakers construct the representation of Britain in ‘White Girl’?

There are many aspects in even just the opening of the TV drama ‘white girl’ which give examples where the filmmakers have constructed a representation of Britain in which, in many lower class areas, segregation plays a large part within their society. For example, when the family are entering their new home city in their van, they show a close-up shot of a mosque against a very working class background of flats and terraced houses, showing great contrast between the two very different lifestyles. The look of confusion on the girl’s face at the sight of this mosque indicates that she possibly doesn’t understand why she is living amongst people of a different religion, and therefore highlights the great divide between the two cultural backgrounds. When the family arrive at their new home, the van is parked in an alleyway outside, with a shot of the van from behind looking down the alleyway. The entrance appears very small and distant due to the placement of the camera. The way in which the van appears so small and enclosed amongst this alley represents the entrapment of the family having moved into this new neighbourhood, that they will now not be able to escape this new lifestyle. This segregation amongst British culture is highlighted again by the producers in the editing, in the cross-cut from a girl wearing a burka to the white girl, as this clearly presents the total difference in lifestyle between the two children’s cultures. This particular shot of the burka-wearing girl is a point-of-view shot from the white girl through the glass of the window of the van. This glass represents the separation between the two cultures, as if the glass is representing the lack of empathy or willing to accept other’s beliefs in certain areas of Britain’s society, preventing the girls from gaining an understanding of each other, and possibly a friendship between them.
The producers also create a good representation of the run down, derelict, working class and rough areas of Britain. At the beginning of the program, there are a number of different shots showing the large role played in working class Britain that is fish and chips, beer, and the overuse of substandard jewellery worn by certain male characters. All of these things aid in the creation of encapturing working class Britain in as much accuracy as possible. A large proportion of the opening is also based around the abusive father of the unnamed ‘white girl’, which identifies the kind of life that many people living in such conditions have to face. The use of an abusive parent plays a great part in representing Britain in this drama, as it clearly shows how rough some areas can be. It creates a sense of fear for the audience, as they are at the time seeing the story through the eyes of the little girl, who is under potential threat from her drug-dealing father at any given time. The use of low-angle shots of the high-rise tower blocks within the neighbourhood make them appear very daunting, as if to show that the lives of the people of this area are very subdued, with their opportunities at a brighter life being blocked by these huge pillars of concrete and cement. There is a close-up shot showing the poor condition of the girl’s trainers, implying that they are in fitting with the rest of her lifestyle, and show that her family are possibly living in such poverty, and have too little money to afford another pair. This point is highlighted again when the local chip shop owner points out the fact that the girl is “getting too big for that bike”, again showing that she has grown up with the same possessions, unable to afford another. This could also possibly imply that she is outgrowing her life amongst the council flats and dirtiness of lower class Britain, and should take any opportunity to progress out of it and make something of her life, fulfil her dreams! The true working class atmosphere of the mise-en-scene is also captured well by the filmmakers with the inclusion of a building site close to the homes, a typical example of an occupational opportunity undertaken by many people from this background.