Evaluation of our creative project (practice)

As our filming location was restricted to just the College building, we wanted to shape a narrative that would appear relevant to this location, and not be over the top or unbelievable. Also, as I have said before, when watching 'La Haine' another film based on power poverty and conflict, we noticed that the narrative and action was set out against a political context that affected the central characters. These were two key inspirational factors that we used to shape our film, which hopefully resulted in this: a political context that affects the protagonist, but at the same time, it is a context that is believable relaxant to the location and the characters. That is why we opted to use the news concerning rising tuition fees for universities in England as our political context. What's believable about it is that should these scheme be approved (I heard the news on Thursday night, bad times...), a number of students will be affected. They will simply feel that because of rising the cost of fees up to £9,000 a year, higher education will just seem 'too impossible' to reach from a financial aspect. This how we aim to show poverty - students are denied opportunity because of what something costs. However, when filming this, I felt that the dialogue was very compressed in the sense that the only thing the viewer will see is a rebellious, whiny student. Also, our script did not take as long to film as I thought it would, so some sections of dialogue were improvised on the day. While there is nothing wrong with improvisation, I was concerned that the viewer may find this section to be a bit too general, and not dealing with the context. That it will appear as nothing more than a 'for and against' argument about university, something that happened and will continue to happen if fees were raised or not.

However, something that I feel we have done well is made out political context clear. We begin the film by showing a computer monitor that contain a web-page of a news article about the raise in tuition fees. I feel that when seeing this, the audience will be less-likely to question why we have chosen to include our created characters as they have seen why they behave in the way that they do. By doping this, we are also hoping to show an element of power - the power of parliament and the strain that it will inflict amongst generations of young people to come. Unfortunately, the way that we wanted to present conflict became less powerful due to the fact that when writing the script, I had included too many lines for the person playing the Teacher character to learn in a short space of time before filming. The dialogue was quite forceful (see below), I had written this when thinking of (again, no named mentioned) teachers who are strongly encouraging of getting student to apply to university.

"That’s ridiculous! You have to go to University, because what else are going to do? Nothing, that’s what! Without education, you’ll be nothing! This college will have nothing to show for your generation if you all said that you ‘can’t afford’ to go to university, so there are no excuses! Get a move on!"

We wanted this dialogue and this character to reflect conflict. He presents a contrasting view on going to university, appearing to care little for the student's excuses for not wanting to go. All he is concerned about is having impressive work to show from students who had studied at the college - like trophies on a shelf. What I fear is that, as this dialogue became compressed, the conflict that we were trying to present will appear less powerful to the viewer.

Before writing this script extract, I have had experience with scriptwriting. However, this was not for film, but for theatre, so when writing this, I found that I had to restrain myself from writing stage directions and find a way to represent the aspects of power, poverty and conflict as if they were written for the screen, and not the stage. This was a challenge, but I challenged that I liked as it has given me preparation for when I write my screenplay for the real creative project. I will think back to this experience when creating this and try to apply a similar writing style to what I have done now. Also, I have learnt that when writing scripts, I need to consider how much time there is before filming must happen. This is so that when working with others, they can learn dialogue effectively and give better performances. This will decrease the chance of having last-minute hitches on the day of filming, meaning that we can use time much more efficiently.

Comments on 'Gommorah'

From the beginning of the film until the end of it, we are made aware countless times that power, poverty and conflict are a prominent theme across four individual stories. Money is constantly mentioned, such as an opening scene where an elderly man complaining about the amount of bills that he has to pay, stating that 2,000 Euros isn't enough, and a scene near the end of the film where a mobster describes people's debts as being like crops - they just keep on growing. A choice to join a rival gang destroys the friendships between two young boys, and the initiation phase of joining a gang, by wearing a bullet-proof vest and being forced to take gunshots, being left with horrific bruises. There is no other sound at this point - just the gunshots, and because of this our attention is brought to it. It is moments like this that show us how emotionally moving and shocking gunfire can be to the individual - the tension on their faces, like the close-up of the the man who was just threatened by two mobsters, is chilling to see. The use of tracking shots imposes the feeling that their are significant features about some of the characters, and by surround scenes after gunshots with nothing but silence, we are aware of the shock that these events cause.

Unfortunately, all of these powerful shots, I find, appear to drive towards no sense of overall narrative. With emphasise split between four separate groups of characters, and sadly, it seems as if the timing between characters are broken down in to fragments that just don't explain enough about each group. For example, we will have a 2-3 minute focus on one group of characters, surrounded by emotionally provoking imagery, and after that, the emphasis changes. Because of this, we as viewers fail to get any sort of emotional attachment to the characters - I can't even name any of the characters. It is as if we see them, 30-45 minutes later, we see them again, 30-45 minutes later, they are dead. Contextually, 'Gomorrah' sounds as if it would contain much more attaching moments. The author of the book where the film gets it name, Roberto Savino, has been held under police protection since its release in 2006 because of the amount of Cammorra mobsters who want him dead for publishing notes of their activities around Naples, Italy. This factor made me build excitement towards the film, thinking that detailed and frightening events would portrayed on-screen. While many of the scenes are frightening and disturbing, such as the closing shot of two dead bodies being carried away in a large digger (it shows that they are not humans, but just more litter to be cleared up from the floor), they are no detailed. As I have mentioned above, it seems that individual plots are cut far too short, and resumed far too late so we lose attachment.

However, the cinematography is used powerfully, it is just shame that this power appears to drive towards no narrative. For example, after a scene where a car has crashed, the front rolls right up towards the camera screen, creating a close-up. At this moment, I felt the intensity that the shot was aiming to create. the Tracking shots used, particularly of the boy sporting an England vest near the beginning, create the impression that the figure are important - our attention is drawn to them, yet we learn little, if anything, about the characters afterwards, as the emphasis on them then changes. A large amount of party music is used during a shoot-out, creating a shocking contrast in terms of what kind of event that the music is suggesting. Sadly, once more though, it then seems as if no developments are made from these points.

The contextual research that I conducted prior to watching 'Gomorrah' made me desperately want to like this film. Unfortunately, with no attachment to any characters whatsoever caused by cutting story extracts way too quickly, the film fails to contain a definite narrative. As I have stated, some very startling and powerful scenes are mused in the film, thanks to the incredible use of cinematography, but seems as if they don't drive any narrative either - they are just there. Powerful images, it seems, without a story.

Background research on 'Gomorrah'

• The story is based on a book by Italian writer/journalist Roberto Saviano, which was released in 2006.
• The book, entitled 'Gomorrah' details organized crime caused by the Camorra, a criminal organization based in Naples, Italy.
• Since it's release, Saviano has received numerous death threats from mobsters and Godfathers of the Casalesi clan.
  
• Saviano has had to be escorted by police ever since and is currently in hiding.

• In 2008, however, Saviano announced that he wanted to leave Italy. "I want a life. I want a home. I want to fall in love. I want to [be able to] drink a beer in public, go to a bookshop and choose a book after browsing the back cover," Saviano said. "I want to go for a walk, enjoy the sun, walk in the rain and see my mother without fear - and without frightening her. I'm only 28 years old for fuck's sake."
• The book has sold over 1million copies in Italy.

• In 2006, the number of those killed in Naples and the surrounding areas was 72, of which 50 were Camorra-linked .

• In 2006, a known mafioso was shot dead in full view of the public by the Cathedral in Scampia as he was coming out of bar. In the summer a Canadian tourist was shot in the leg by a stray bullet during a Mafia shootout, and an American tourist who gave chase to two muggers was set on by local people who sympathised with the criminals rather than the victim. Hotels have taken to handing guests plastic watches so they can leave their expensive items in the hotel safe.

Sources
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/16/italy-mafia
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article621615.ece
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929425/