Evaluation of Issues Project

When I first received the Issues Introduction Coursework element, I had no clue about which topic I wanted to cover. There is such a variety of Issues in our world ranging from political problems to crucial environmental issues. I decided I would mind map all of my ideas out (anything to do with issues) and I evaluated my choices. I wanted to create a piece on a topic, which is relevant now and has a very strong history – an issue that needs tackling now. I decided I would go down the root of abuse (social issue), which is a very vague topic. It includes sub-topics of physical abuse, discrimination, child abuse and many more. Abuse is a topic, which has affected the British and nearly every single person on this planet: on an international scale we have child labour to electric chairs. This needs to stop now: this may be the root cause of anger, of hatred, of breakdowns in relationships. Abuse is a topic, which has also affected me in some ways during my life, and I thought it was time to put some of my own background into my piece of work; this is a skill, which many directors use in their films. Eg. Steven Spielberg is Jewish, and his film ‘Schindler's List' has its point of view to sympathise with the Jews because of the cruelty to them from the Nazis. I was influenced by this director to be very subjective about a topic I am very serious about. I integrated my two art forms through a film. This is using ‘moving images' and ‘drama. ‘ It is a simple idea but the procedure and the work takes a long time to create. I decided I would use film to show my intended audience (young children, aged 10-12) what the effects of bullying and abuse can cause. A film can use spontaneous language, and I kept the scenes short so they were memorable: this is the purpose of a film. First of all, from my original mind map I began to think of topics, which could be incorporated into my project from abuse. I decided I would go down the root of school bullying, a typical situation which takes place, but it has hybrid topics. It covers discrimination, domestic abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse and the mentality of bullies. This is because abuse does not come in one form – abuse is caused by something, which enrages people. Through my research I found that through psychology, abuse is caused by a mental issue, which enrages people, which causes a physical outcome (usually negative). There then, is a solution how to calm down, how apologise and stay calm. But when somebody gets bored they begin to aggravate somebody, which can bring on this anger again. It is a â€Å"vicious cycle. † This is exactly what my piece intends to do. It shows that ‘bullying never ends' and ‘bullying never stops' and that whenever there is a peak of happiness it eventually falls back down and everybody has to start rebuilding their lives again. This is a scene in my piece at the end of the film. Another theme is that ‘abuse creates more abuse. Her mother has domestically abused Zoi and therefore it's â€Å"mother-like-daughter†: Zoi begins to bully people too! I created scenes, which would evoke the audience about scenes of abuse, and bullying and I wrote them with more dialogue to create a stream of consciousness (just like Zephaniah's Neighbours) and this would engage my audience. I researched how girls were mean to each other (using Mean Girls) and I used some of these girls' characteristics in my own piece. I lastly created a storyboard with quick images and shots on how the audience was going to see this film. I drafted the scenes and the storyboard so I could see what improvements could be made to make my intended audience to make them even more shocked! I used a style model to show how to write and how to present a film script. I took the layout and the font type of this piece to make my own script look professional. I also incorporated some of my critical analysis pieces' work like having many twists in the films. The Guardian Advert ends with a twist using different shots; I decided I would use my own twist. These are that Zoi is getting domestically abused, and Stacey kills off Anna at the end. It is a very depressing ending, which is what I want my audience to feel left with. I want them to connect, to empathise with Zoi and Anna and show that dreadful things can affect our lives. I want to show my audience that bullies are, and will always be, hated. When also creating my advert poster, I looked at some posters showing abuse and took ideas from here. Like the silhouettes; the purpose of using a silhouette is so the audience can try and convey their own idea to what the character really looks like rather than just filling it black. I also put on some media to give it a modern touch (eg. ewspaper and magazine cuttings for the title) and I also edited the â€Å"girl's† body to look devilish. A first judgement would make you think that this girl is evil, which is an idea taken from my analysis pieces. Actually, the devil girl becomes a nice, well-mannered pleasant character! My strengths in creating this piece were being able to create a strong film with a message; my scenes were very strong in the way they were acted and the range of shots I used emphasised the raw emotion I wanted to convey to my audience. I used different types of literacy techniques and dramatic techniques too. Eg. In the soliloquy of Anna (a dramatic monologue), I wanted my audience to feel sympathetic to her. My weakness was time keeping. I had a plan, and I tried to stick to it. It took too long filming and editing though. That was the longest part of the project – but in the end I completed my project with success. If I were going to do this project again I would keep time-management at the top of my list because everything else (portfolio etc. ) fell behind. I think that writing my scenes were also strong using a pragmatic lexical choice to involve the audience's own colloquial language incorporated into my film piece. This would engage the audience because it would feel very comfortable, informal and sort of â€Å"eavesdropping. † Examples of this are â€Å"mates. † I experimented with swearing, which is very bad for a young demographic to hear, but in the end, children will end up hearing this language once they get older anyways. In my opinion, I think that my final piece is very successful in putting its point across to my demographic (young children). If my audience were watching this then they would feel shocked at the end and all the way through, which is its intended primary purpose, with the second being to entertain. This film is full of a hybrid of issues and plot twisting. It conveys symbols of trust and loyalty (hugs and holding hands) as well as scenes, which can shatter trust (i. e. letter in the locker). My piece not only conveys the theme of abuse through a modern media type (film), but it is very personal to those who are murdered, or commit suicide, being school students, being different today! I honestly think I have done a great job in presenting my issues to influence young children to NOT get involved in bullying or abuse!