BSR Treatment

Narrative

For our production we gained inspiration from 'The Hangover' this deals with various themes that we have decided to emulate some of these themes, a way in which we changed this is by dealing with teenagers instead of adults, also as the movie 'Hangover' is quite comical we would like to change the plot and make it more serious and hard-hitting as it is within the genre of BSR. Our film deals with themes such as drug abuse, corruption of youth and violence. The two brothers, Jerome (Romeo) and Kayden (Kay) who live in Liverpool, but used to live in London. They come down to London for a weekend to go to a party where they will meet their childhood friends, the lifestyle in Liverpool for them is much more different compared to the lifestyle in London for those within the same age range. On their first day back they explore different drugs e.g Marijuana, this leaves them hungover till the next morning where they wake up with no money and no way of getting home. The two brothers end up stranded in the worst parts of London where they are forced to make money, they end up trying to rob shops and people during the night, they do not make much money as at the same time they are trying to survive. They meet new people who help them make money illegally by selling drugs, they get caught up in the lifestyle and eventually one of the brother dies, the brother that dies wanted to stay in London because he got addicted to the money and gets killed by another drug gang. The other brother goes back to Liverpool after his brother has died. The narrative is linear as it follows the story of the two boys who go from London to Liverpool then back to London.

In the opening sequence it will start with the two boys walking out the train station as they tap their oyster cards, they then look at an invite of the party which they are going to later that day, whilst walking back to their friends house they are offered drugs and they eventually end up buying them even though they were weary of them at first, all the audience sees is the transaction, they then knock on the door of their friend who opens the door, then they begin to get ready for the party later that night, they keep looking in the mirror whilst getting ready there are switching shots between both brothers. They are then in the car and one brother does a line on the dashboard which is an extreme closeup and then the other takes a pill which is also an extreme close up, they then knock on the door of the party, whilst they are high then the music changes and it just blacks out. Between each shot it pans then fades out with a black screen, then the next shot fades in with the black then going in to the shot. We also have decided that we won't include much dialogue as the music and the on screen super impose graphics will create detail for the audience to understand what is going on.

Target Audience

Our target audience is from the age group 16-25 as the characters throughout the film are within the same age range so people would be able to relate to the characters who are the same age as them, even though the themes may not be relatable. The main gender represented in the film is male as most of the characters are male so the female audience may not be able to relate as well as male viewers. The interests that the characters will have are things such as social media, drugs and partying, these interests are important as it shows that they are within the older teen bracket, this also gives the target audience an idea of how dangerous all these 3 things could be. A few locations which will be implemented in to the film are the school, houses, parties and drug residence, these are some places which would be familiar for the target audience.There will be more than one main ethnicity as there will be a range of white, Asian and black people throughout the film this will mainly target these ethnic backgrounds for the audience.

The themes that will be relatable for some of the target audience are, violence, school life, drug abuse, friendship, sexual abuse and revenge these themes are good as they do not only relate to the target audience but they help to create the story as the themes show how each point such as drug abuse has changed the characters it is effective as it shows the consequences of each of these themes.

Title

The title 'Remedy' is short like other BSR films it also has a meaning behind it and it relates to situations within the film, a remedy is a medicine or a treatment, this relates to the idea as the movie progresses there is a lot of drug abuse and they use it to drown their problems and the characters believe that their problems are being fixed with the drugs. The title has a strong link with the film does not really give away too much but it introduces the idea that there is a problem that need to be fixed with a 'remedy'. Remedy could also mean to remove something evil, connoting that there is a sense of evilness in the film and there is not much morality as the films progresses, it shows that a remedy is needed to get rid of the evil.

Technology

The technology we are going to use is the camera and the tripod, the tripod will be useful as it allows us to get rid of the shaky movements and make the shots seem more realistic, if we wanted to make the scene filled with a sense of panic we could remove the tripod, but this will allow the shots to look better also the tripod will allow us to pan, tilt and overall just create smoother shots. We could improve our production by each character having their own individual microphone so they could be heard better and the wind would not really effect the sound quality when recording, this is why we have decided to not use much dialogue. That equipment is not accessible so therefore we will have to figure out a way in which wind will not effect the production, but as there is not much dialogue this will not really be a big problem.

Representations

A typical representation in most BSR films is that women are usually oppressed and not really treated fairly, but we have decided to use a counter-type for most of the female characters as they are more equal to men and they have an impact with what they say, although they are not superior to males throughout the film they are not inferior and they share an equal role. There are not really many women in the film as it is targeted mainly towards the male audience, so males could relate but there is still a portion of females.

Another representation is where the young teens work for the older leader, this representation is shown later on in the film as when they have to start selling drugs they have to work for an older teen to survive, they begin to not only work to survive but they work to impress him so they begin to change their ways from how they were before, this is how it typically is in BSR films, for example in Kidulthood the boy Trevor has to impress his uncle by cutting a mans face. This connotes that the teens will go to extremes to impress their older influences, this convention is also brought in to our production as the boys are forced in to the lifestyle and end up being trapped and one of them never really gets a chance to escape as he dies this shows the audience the consequences of these type of lifestyles.

The locations used are also quite gritty and unpleasant as they do not really have much money to start with and then it gets even worse when they lose all their stuff, they live in a council house which connotes that the characters are quite poor. This brings in the theme of poverty and also as they are living in a council house to begin with it connotes that they are most likely within the working class or maybe even underclass as some situations throughout the film deal with extreme cases of poverty. Usually in most films which include council houses they use and establishing shot to connote that the area is not very nice, if the area is not very nice it also connotes the type of people that are going to be living there, the people would most likely not be very nice and most of the people deal with similar themes of violence, drug abuse and poverty. In our opening sequence we hope to achieve a clear understanding from the audience of what type of people are living in these areas, also we want to portray these character in the first two minutes of the film. Overall the location helps to connote the quality of life in these areas.

Style and Iconography

The camera work throughout BSR is very important as it can create the mood for a certain scene, if a tripod is removed from the camera it can be used to make panicky scenes as the hand movement on the camera is more shaky and it makes the whole situation seem more realistic to the audience this would be used to connote personal identity of what type of person they are.Also the locations are very important for example recording in alleyways, train stations and around council houses it seems regular in terms of a BSR film connoting that the people are just everyday people who can't escape the lifestyle and they are just doing things that (in our perspective) an average person would do. Places such as a train station can connote that they do not have enough money for  a car or maybe they are not old enough so it connotes how young they are. Also the alleyways could be seen as quite scary and intimidating so this could have a connection to what type of people are living there and it would have relevance to the local people. The shots used also help to create the tension in certain places, for example a high angle shot could remove the power from any character and gives the audience a sense of power over the character, this also makes the characters seem vulnerable and powerless. Also when they are taking drugs there is a close-up of their eyes showing the effect that the drugs have had on them, and it is followed by a high angle shot to take away the characters power.

Conventions

The conventions of a BSR mise-en-scene we will use to make our opening sequence are common, working class locations, a dark and dull colour palate and also real lighting such as street lights to give it that orange tint. This is so we can make our opening sequence successfully look like a real BSR film and also create a real atmosphere for the audience when they are watching. If we was to set the house party scene in a big expensive house this would take away the realness of the film as the characters in the film are in a working class part of London so a more suitable place to set a house party might be a block of flats of maybe a common working class house. Some locations which we have thought of already but not yet confirmed are Goodmayes station and a local alleyway. We would use Goodmayes station to record the two boys arriving at the station in London from Liverpool. This scene will show the two boys walking up the stairs of the station and tapping their tickets and going through the barrier. To make these shots successful we will have to record at the station at a suitable time so it is not very busy and when there is minimal sound so the camera does not pick up any unwanted sound. This could be hard as if we was to retake any shots we would have to get the lighting exactly the same from the previous shots and there is also a lot of background noise from trains and people. We would use a local alleyway to record the scene of the two boys buying drugs. This is a good location as it gives the audience a sense  that something bad is going to happen or taking place, it also gives out mysterious tone. Normally in BSR films when a scene is set in a alleyway, something bad takes place so by using an alleyway in our scene this will fit with the realness. To make the shots successful we will have to get the lighting right so it gives off a scary sort of mood, we will also have to make sure there is not to much people around and minimal background noise. 

Institution

The production company is Film 4. Throughout the research we have done on Film 4 we have seen that they have a regular pattern when they are producing BSR films. We have found that the actors/actresses that they use are untrained, as they are untrained this makes the production seem more genuine as the characters may have come from a similar background as the character that they are playing, they give actors/actresses a chance to become bigger and this is a big acting opportunity for example John Boyega played in 'Attack the Block' he then later was given an opportunity to play in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' this shows the opportunities that Film 4 can create for an actor/actress. As Film 4 deals with similar films in the BSR films that they make such as violence and drug abuse these are some of the themes which we wish to implement in to our production as it will match and keep the consistency of other Film 4 films. Also as one of the main themes is the addiction to drugs/drug abuse it will make the audience think about these topics in reality and think about the consequences of drug addiction/drug abuse. Also this film is different as it has taken inspiration from 'The Hangover' which is a big movie and by Film 4 producing and distributing this film it could show the reality of the situations. Also the film could be distributed by Netflix which teenagers tend to use a lot, so they would be able to watch the film on there as not many people watch television as much as there are things such as Netflix. Netflix would also reach a wider audience as it allows people to watch it on different technology such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and even on TVs.