Jaspreet S. Hayer
Evaluation

For my practical production I worked in a group of five to bring forth the opening scene to a gangster film called “Pride”. The films opening scene plot is about the demise of the once most notorious Mob boss (me) “Jova Jatt” in London. To concur with the theme of a gangster film we chose of the film to be “Pride” as it symbolises a pride of lions or a mans pride that leads him to his death. These connotations may persuade the audiences to watch and purchase the film.

We decided to share the responsibilities as this benefited the production as all ideas were put forward by five people. It benefited our productions as Kabir and I thought of interesting shots as I had the camera if they didn’t work the rest of the group would input ideas. However in the beginning filming and editing the production was difficult as all the group members had commitments like work, tuition or me going to America. But near the end everyone thought the production came first, however it was evident that some members put in more work into the production than others. Nevertheless my role was to get intricate shots, producing ideas before filming and ways of editing.

Having studied “Bullet Boy” (2004) as apart of module 2 and being inspired by Pulp fiction we used a non-linear narrative and incorporated special effects, which were hinted out to us by “Sin City”. We made use of the black and white shots with certain aspects of highlighted in red for example the blood. We used this effect as we wanted the connotations of red to be in the minds of the audience, hinting the genre and violence. The shots proved to benefit the beginning of the production as it makes a huge impact on the audience.

The productions non-linear narrative as flashbacks are used in the beginning indicated by fades and dips to blacks. The production also subverts Todorov’s narrative theory as we use a flashback “the good old days” which is juxtaposed in the present bad day (the death of Jova Jatt…the boss) and the production ends with the boot closing containing weapons. This would leave the audience in suspense as the gangsters are leaving the car with guns and closing the boot, creating suspense and enigma codes.

Our cinematography was well thought of before hand which enhanced the quality of the production. The montage of the driving sequence was a pastiche to The Sopranos however we altered so that it was created with our own ideas instead of duplicating The Sopranos; we reversed The Sopranos sequence. We used The Sopranos sequence to pay homage to the show; this was mostly my idea which was approved by the group. Some shots were shaking however this was a typical convention of the opening sequence of the show and created authenticity as it depicted movement instead of a static shot. We used edits such as speeding up scenes like the BMW car to show that the killer wants to leave the country as fast as he can and freeze frame the character in the poker scene to create an identification with the audience.

There are many types of settings in the film such as the hotel shot with the killer and Jova in his office dead, The Sopranos sequence and the poker room. The mise en scene that we created and chose was to outline the characters as the killer and the gangster. The hotel with the killer in has low key lighting to create a sense of a negative atmosphere and portray the character as a heartless murderer. Furthermore the driving sequence outlines the Britain’s and Southall’s location like in CSI: Miami. Additionally the gangsters have a yellow tint and high key lighting to portray them not as the hero’s people who fight for their rights, which challenges Propps theory. Furthermore the costumes worn were Indian clothing, it was used to create authenticity and a sense of realism, which would relate to the Asian audience.

Moreover, in the opening of the production uses non- diegetic sound; the sound was the sting of the infamous Sunrise radio station in Southall, there was also after the sting a radio report which is a voice over. We used the voice-over to outline the opening sequence and the stages like in the humorous film “the Godson”. Furthermore during the driving sequence non-diegetic sound is used again “Putt Jattan de” by Surinder Shinda. We changed the gangster conventions used for example in The Sopranos opening and incorporated an Asian feel to it. We did this to create authenticity and so that it would appeal to ethnic audiences. Moreover the poker scene begins with a voiceover this is so that the audiences will an understanding and will have identification with the gangsters also it has another Indian track playing as background sound or filler sound “Miteran de Motor de” by KS Makhan. Additionally the interrogation sequence uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound like in “The Usual Suspects” 1990. The track we used was “Magnet”, we used this track to create sympathy for the mob members and try to portray them as “shaheed” (martyrs).

One of the weaknesses in the production was the dialogue in the beginning as tried to use method acting but did not succeed however in the end we decided to write a script together. Furthermore the other weakness was the sound of the voiceover; it was unclear and also had no emotion it sounded as if it was read, we got this from the feedback we received from family members.

Additionally in the beginning we used a font similar to times new roman which we thought was un-original and so we tried incorporate some more of an Asian feel to it by using an Asian font called “Prakrta”.

The distributor we decided to use is “Miramax”. This is because they are an art house Distributor and have distributed films such as “Kill Bill” .We would like to distribute the film to cinemas such as Odeon and Vue, this is because audiences would appeal to the Vue cinema as they have deals from network providers such as Orange. After the movie has been taken off cinema’s we would want our movie to be shown on channel such as Film 4. This is because programs such as “The Sopranos” are played on E4 and “Godfellas” on Film Four which have a gangster genre so this means we would get high ratings.

Overall, I think we have made a successful opening sequence that has special effects, voiceovers and finishes with an enigma. In the beginning we encountered many problems with time, file conversions and using different computers we have overcome and made a production to be proud of which can also stand up to Strap.