Does a Production have to be Tight to a Script - Essay Example

Does a Production have to be tightly to a Script? Introduction It is amazing how the filmmaking industry has today with the continued advancement in technology. The films producers keep on advancing on methods and film shooting styles adequately developing varied production approaches. Today, such approaches matters a lot and have had an effect on the filmmaking processes and the audiences. In this essay, am seeking to establish whether production should adequately be tied only to the script or should there be flexibility to encourage naturalistic response of the actors in the film- realism. I will therefore reflect on the work of Ken Loach and its applicability on our major fiction project as a group. Further, I will describe the stages of film making and reflect on the integration of social realism in the filmmaking process in respect to our fiction film and further draw adequate conclusions on inclusion of social realism in the fiction film. Synopsis Kimberly a 17-year old daughter is in a white-station wagon sited in the back seat with her smaller brother Kiefer-15 years old. Ivy, the mother drives on a rough road headed to North Park Estate but keeps on complaining that she was unlucky in life for she had not gotten the right man to get married to but guesses aloud that it is because she had two grown up kids who no man could ever accept responsibility of. Kimberly and Kiefer do not say anything but the comment hurts them badly. Together, the family arrives at a North Park Estate where the family is to start a new life. While this place seems perfect for the mother and Kiefer, Kimberly is not satisfied and wishes that they could have continued to live in their previous home where she had met and made friendship in the neighborhood. Kimberly and Kiefer immediately gets enrolled to a new high school in the nearby and her mother starts working in a hotel in town as a cashier. Frustrated already, Kimberly finds it hard to make friends in the new school and even in the neighborhood. Her mother is frequently off since her work sometimes extended to the odd hours of the night and Kimberly has to stay home with Kiefer who was more of a computer geek. Kimberly finally meets a friend, Stacey, a teenage neighbor who helps her explore the neighborhood. Kimberly discovers Marble Sweet, a local cake shop thanks to Stacey. A nice looking gentleman, Park-owner of Marble Sweet, seems interested in Kimberly and offers her a job to work in the store as a baker since she had a passion in baking. Without hesitating, Kimberly accepts the offer and starts working in the shop secretly without talking to anyone at home about it. She was tired of staying home ‘alone’; Kiefer was always playing games in his computer while her mother came home late and sometimes drunk. Kimberly meets other three employees in the store and she slowly by slowly begins to gain confidence. Kimberly even earns a nickname ‘pretty’ for her kindness and good looks. Marble Sweet becomes a home for Kimberly after school and she begins to feel appreciated again and more so she begins liking Park. Two months later, Ivy confronts Kimberly saying that she always acted distant and never at home in good time. Kimberly accuses her mother of the same. Tension in the house starts growing and it even worsens when Kimberly finds her mother with a man in the house (though she never confronted her about it). Later, Kiefer found out about her mother and confronts her. Ivy angrily reveals to Kiefer and Kimberly that the man they were complaining about was Mark someone she felt that was good enough for her and that he was to become their father since he was paying their bills. Ivy further condemns Kimberly and Kiefer for being selfish and not being satisfied with the life she had given them. The argument goes on and on until Kimberly could not take it anymore. She moves up to her bedroom and locks herself up where she could not help it but cry out loud. Later in the day, Ivy comes home with Mark. Angered, Kiefer confronts Mark and a very heated dialogue ensues. Kiefer even holds Mark by his collar. Furious, Mark slaps Kiefer. Kiefer condemns him of taking advantage of his mother and further tells him that he was the worst guy his mother had dated. Ivy disappointed intervenes and the two lovers walk out evidence that Ivy was not leaving him. Hurt, Kimberly goes to Marble Sweet to seek comfort in Park, who is very kind to her. The feelings between the two continue to grow stronger and stronger. Kimberly ends up spending the night in the shop and opening up to Park. She tells him that the shop was the only place that made her happy. Park deeply sympathizes with her but tells her that her mother loved them so much and in fact no one else could do what she had done for them. Kimberly thanks Park for everything and for the good advice. Kimberly returns home in the morning only to find her mother and Kiefer packing ready to move again. The two had reached a conclusion that it was time to move again. Angrily, Kimberly digs out a bike and runs to Marble Sweet. She moves right ahead and embraces Park-the owner the shop in front of the customers and all the employees. Ivy and Kiefer who had followed her to see what she was up to watches the whole episode in dismay. It was evident that she was in love and her colleagues on the other hand loved and cared for her. Though Ivy takes her away to the car, Ivy had never felt happier for her daughter than she was at this moment. Surprisingly, they drove back to North Park Estate. Ivy hugs her two children tightly and swears that she will do anything just to make them happy. The Social Realism Style The film style-social realism is commonly seen in the work of Ken Loach. Ken Loach is a popular film maker and producer whose work remains iconic in film production industry. Some people would say that Ken Loach’s approach to film making takes more of a linear approach to film shooting (John, 1988, pp. 593–597). I agree. He reflects on the experiences of the screenwriters and the actors onto the screen and adequately encourages the actors in a film to bring in their own ideas or surprises them by giving them a room to evoke natural reactions by speaking in the film without having prepared in advance-ad lib (Seino, 2010, p.24). In this case, it is possible to bring in the real-life experiences or even work experiences of an actor into the film (Lovell, 1980, p. 19). Realism is further achieved by giving the actors a small portion of the scripts rather than the whole scripts to avoid over-rehearsing and keep the dialogues in the film fresh (Seino, 2010, p. 24). What further gives the actors a chance to reveal their natural reactions something Fuller (1998, p, 151) says that it “provides the film with comic elements”. Some of the scenes in most films by Loach appear unscripted. This is a method he uses to stress out the areas of filmmaking process to ensure that there is real interplay between the characters in the film (Fuller, 1998, p, 151). The main aim of the fiction film was to reflect on the modern life of the single mothers in the nations of global North. In the shooting of the fiction film, I did not feature as a major actor but I was largely involved in the film editing where I was the Negative Cutter. The fiction film underwent the following stages before arriving at a final script, firstly, development stage; this is where the screen play was written after creating the ideas of the film. Secondly, pre-production stage; where the shooting preparations were made, shooting locations were selected and the crew film was also selected. Thirdly, the production stage; where the raw elements of the film were recorded in an actual film shooting. Fourthly, post-production stage; where sounds, visual effects and images of the recorded piece were edited. Lastly, the preview stage; where the final piece was screened by the group members. Social realism style was adopted in our fiction film during the shooting stages to allow the actors to express themselves more honestly and more naturally. First, our group actors who participated in the film were not celebrities; they were just ordinary people. In this regard, more reality was brought in the film than acting. Secondly, during the fiction film shooting, the actors were never served with the full scripts of the film. This adequately created a room for the actors to become creative and bring in their own reactions and choice of words in the film. Further, this brought about fresh conversations which were not rehearsed prior the shooting. This also gave the actors the power to integrate their own ideas and thoughts in the film what made our fiction film more lively, interesting and real. Thirdly, during recording the various scenes, for example the scene where Kimberly runs to the Marble Shop to seek comfort in Park, the recording cameras were kept at a range where even the actors themselves could not realize that the scenes were being recorded or someone was watching. This made some of these scenes to come out exactly the same way they would if they were never part of the filming process meaning that in such scenes, even if the cameras were never there, the reaction would have exactly looked the same. Fourthly, some scenarios in the film evoked the natural reactions meaning that in some situations the reaction of the actors was real and not pretence. For example, in the scene where Ivy brings Mark home and Kiefer holds him by the collar and Mark was not supposed to slap him. Therefore, the feeling of anger expressed by Kiefer after being slapped by Mark was real and not pretence. Our film was intended for a general audience and therefore the scenes in the film were developed in a way that they cut across the different ages, societies and their social structures. During the filmmaking process, several ethical issues were to be discussed by the group members. For example, the scene where Ivy brings Mark home in front of her kids brought about a situation during the film shooting process. The crew had to sit down and agree on how best to go about the idea since having targeted a general audience; moral values were expected to differ significantly. In my own perspective, I feel that the film’s concept, style and content elements were successful but our structure and format elements could be improved further to suit our targeted audiences and be in line with our goals. Conclusion Social realism is such a complex and flexible concept in filmmaking in that its inclusion in the fiction film brought about complications that almost torn the group apart following some of the incidents in the shooting stage where some of the group members accused others of stepping out of the line. However, these situations were adequately contained and the affected actors made to understand why such incidents occurred. Flexible in the sense that it brought about the feeling of ‘here and now’ something that made the fiction film more real and lively. Social realism also enhanced the objectivity of our fiction film. Bibliography Fuller, Graham.1998. Loach on Loach, London: Faber and Faber. John Wakeman. 1988. “Ken Loach” in John Wakeman (ed.), World Film Directors 1945–1985, New York, H.W. Wilson Co., pp. 593–597. Lovell, Terry.1980. Pictures of Reality: Aesthetics, Politics, Pleasure London: BFI. Seino, Takako. 2010. Realism and Representations of the Working Class in Contemporary British Cinema. Pdf. Available at https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/4720/SOCIAL+REALISM+AND+REPRESENTATION+OF+THE+WORKING+CLASS+IN+CONTEMPORARY+BRITISH+CINEMA.pdf?sequence=1 Read More