RESEARCH: Harry Brown Deconstruction

Film: Harry Brown
Year: 2009
Certificate: 18
Director: Daniel Barber
Genre: Action/Drama


     Opening titles slowly appear and reappear on a black screen. You then begin to hear non diegetic muffled voices which turn to diegetic when you are cut to a group of young gentleman. All of them are wearing hoodies and speaking in a modern broken working class accent. The scene is entirely shot on a mobile phone which works surprisingly well regarding verisimilitude, it’s as if you aren’t watching a film but viewing a video on someone’s phone so the whole scene seems a lot more realistic. The scene has a very sinister feel, mostly because of the possible stereotype of the characters and the grey concrete wall smothered with graffiti. It soon becomes obvious that the hoodies have drugs as the camera directly shows a weird contraption. A hoodie is soon centered out as the other characters force him to take the drugs and then pin him against the wall, slapping his face and swearing. He then exhales the substance and his chums congratulate him and the camera moves back. Another hoodie then looks at the camera and shows off a gun, describing it as "real shit" and then giving it to the guy who just took the drugs as if it were a green beret. The film then cuts to the directors title and then cuts to more mobile filming, probably from the same camera. The sound is very loud and frightening and two men are on a bike riding dangerously through the estate. The jumpy film work shows more graffiti and dead trees to emphasis the scariness of the estate. The film then cuts to them riding past a lady with a pram, swearing as they go past you then see one of the youths get out a gun which makes the audience tense, they then ride back and shoot at the girl deliberately missing. The gun sounds are made to be very loud so the audience jump and are naturally scared of the gun. The man continues shooting at the lady and she is shown screaming and protecting her baby. Inevitably the guy on the bike misjudges and shoots her in the neck and she falls over dead. There is a pause so the audience can take in what happened and then both riders swear and make a hasty get away before the camera shows a lorry hitting them. Splinters fly everywhere and the mobile camera is flung in the air before landing conveniently to see the two now dead motorbike riders on the road. The film the cuts to the words ‘Michael Caine is Harry Brown’ on a black screen, the writing is small, a decision by the director so the character Harry Brown appears small and unimportant.

RESEARCH: Preliminary Film

This is the preliminary task. I was involved in the editing, unfortunatly the filming was less then adequate so therefore it did not turn out quite how I would have liked it to. However I have learnt and it was increased my knowledge of media and film editing.

RESEARCH: Preliminary Story Board

South African Guy and Tall Guy talk about driving somewhere!

RESEARCH: Match On Action

     This is yet another camera technique that aims to create verisimilitude. Following the 180 rule a person can be shown walking from the left side of the camera to the right side. When they reach the right side the camera cunts to another scene so the person is now back on the left side of the shot and walking to the right again. Shown below.

     This camera technique is not only used for walking, it can be used to voom in and out to show what someones doing or flicking to the other side of a door when someones opening it.

RESEARCH: Shot Reverse Shot

     Shot reverse shot is a filming technique used when two or more people are speaking to each other in person. The technique is explained below:

     A camera is placed behind the first actor who is often barely in the shot and focuses on the second actor in front of him. That actor will then say his lines one after another, making sure to leave a few seconds gap after each one.

     The camera is then moved so it is behind second actor and focuses on the first (please note the following of the 180° rule). That actor then says his lines, also leaving a few seconds gap after each one.

     The two septate shots are then edited to make one single tape of the whole conversation playing out in order and thus creating an illusion of verisimilitude.

     This filming technique requires only one camera, making the scene a lot cheaper to shoot. It also allows you to shoot half of the scene even if only one actor is in on that day. Simply get an actor who looks like the absent one from behind and no one is the wiser.

     However, the actor being filmed may have to say his lines without the other actor joining in, meaning the first actor has to be be aware of how his colleague will act his lines in order for the scene to look and sound convincing. Another problem is that the scenery around them must be continuous. Let's say the two actors are talking next to a road; a car is seen driving in their direction, the second actor is then filmed and so the car must be seen driving past him. For this reason directors often have to request roads to be closed on the day of filming which can be expensive. If there was a car involved in the scene it would have to be carefully and quite painstakingly timed, especially if the car was to be in more than two shots.

     Nevertheless it is a technique that is very common in the film industry. Below is a clip from BBC's The Trip which often uses this technique.

RESEARCH: 180° Rule

In the image we have two men sitting down. Albert is on the left (from the camera) and Hudhafah on the right. As long as the camera is that side of the two men this seating arrangement will always be so. Imagine however if the camera man cut and then moved into the section marked with the red warning symbol and then started filming again. When watching the film the two characters would appear to swap places and it would look like a 'continuity error'. The 180° rule states that all filming should always be taken on one side of the duo so that when the camera cuts the two men are still in the same seats. You are however allowed to go round to the other side but only providing you film yourself doing so. This will create versimilitude (the belief that the situation is real and all knoledge that you are watching a film goes).