Moving Image Research: Where's the Money Ronnie!

In the Design Practice 1 lecture, Deborah told us about a short film by Shane Meadows which features interviewing effects which are similar to the ones will we need to be using in our task. I am very familar with Shane Meadows work due to the fact I studied him as one of my case studies in my Media coursework. I always find his work fasinating as he manages to capture such a raw cultural message in most of his films, for exmple: 'This is England'.

The design brief which has been set us is:  

Task - Design, produce and deliver a short 3 minute episode.

• Each student should research and develop and design two ideas to storyboard stage and

• pitch their ideas. Each student should document the process in their project file.

•  Each group should decide on one idea to produce into 3 minute character interview, intercut with a flashback scene, that gives their account of what happened to the shoes.
• Each student should edit the footage ( individual edits) into a short 3 minute film and upload it to Vimeo.com.
• This film should also be embedded into your online journal with a 500 words that explains your edit decisions, highlights any problems you solved during the edit and explains how these problems could have been avoided, earlier in the process.

Our moving image piece is to be based around a crime which has happened in a local park. Where's the Money Ronnie! Relates directly to this, with its theme of crime and the ways it displays the interview scenes. I thought this short film was really enchanting to watch because of its simplicity. The basic use of different camera angles and shots combined with each characters flashbacks, allows the viewer to unfold the story and follow it clearly. What I thought was really effective was the use of close up and extreme close up on the suspects face. By doing this the audience was able to understand the characters emotions clearly. The blasphemous language used shows an unrefined side to each characters persona, directly depicting a dramatic monologue.

Another technique used well was the hand held camera shots, during the flashbacks scenes. Shane Meadows used these shots to tell the story from the point of view of each suspect. Using the hand held camera invites the audience to feel like an active member of the story, actively moving along with the footage as it reveals different elements of the plot. This is definitely an idea which I plan to use in my own film.

The strong dialogue which runs throughout of the film acts as a narrative telling the story. As an audience we can hear the interviewees anger and emotion building as they talk, creating tension and apprehension. I want to look at ways which I can feature this skill into my own work. I think the black and white colour scheme works well because it contributes to the 'purity' of the film. I plan to experiment with different types of colours schemes to see which one will enhance my piece- using both black and white, and colour could also create a really interesting effect.

Researching this short film has already helped me to understand my task- it has also given me knowledge on how to begin to organise my ideas. I plan to look at another existing interview style clip (possibly from the Bill, or something similar) to expand my understanding and knowledge further...