Our production looks to depict the drama and tragedy of the social injustices faced in our society. It is within this overarching narrative that we represent a working-class man suffering from the prejudice of social hierarchies as he gets fired and evicted: in losing his job, he loses his self-respect, place in society, home and family. The protagonist is thrust into a downward spiral and depicted running through a cramped pathway; a metaphor for his life, our protagonist has spent his life running to keep up. The pressures suffered by the man continue to build. Inspired by the short film 'The Mass of Men', as well as Ken Loach’s film on the workers in the gig economy, we looked to capture a similar sense of pressure as the man is judged and turned away. To complement the drama and tragedy generated by the frustration of the injustices he must face, we look to interweave action in a fast-paced chase scene. The chase scene is both figurative and literal, while he is getting figuratively chased he is simultaneously being chased by the pressure of not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from.
A further representation evident in our film trailer is a social issue that resonates with audiences globally, this is our portrayal of the small fish in a big pond. Common forefront in the workplace we set up the hostile environment of the poker game to act as an epitome of the struggles of those excluded in society. We do this through employing Levi-Strauss’ idea of binary-opposition with the contrast of heads held high and gloomy looks on their faces, wearing suits and dresses against our protagonist with messy hair and untucked shirt. Creating a brooding aura, we mimic the intensity of not fitting in, whether that be professionally or socially.
Branding is maintained through our consistent use of fonts for our titles. With an emphasis on originality, our film title is dynamic in its use of uneven edges and unusual shapes, this stays consistent with the ‘Ground Floor’ brand, which reflects our innovative approach to genre. We push our nonconformity through our social media campaign; we use inventive, interactive methods of marketing such as our use of Q&A and competitions. We are completely transparent in sharing the ideas behind our production as we want the audience to feel completely involved. My Twitter feed also showcases my film poster, behind-the-scenes shots and unseen footage to reinforce the branding of the film.
Equally, tending towards darker tones, my film poster establishes our the realism of our brand in its use of subtle gradients. Creating a dark contrast that connotes struggle and pain, a semi-gothic vibe can be found throughout all areas of the film as I aimed at a darker saturation and contrast in my editing. From the muted tones of the opening shot of urban graffiti on a wall, connoting a crying face emoji, which immediately evokes the resignation and sense of failure of our protagonist, through to the colour correction that I painstakingly carried out throughout to cast a subtle pall of gloom over the protagonist, all of these touches contribute to an atmosphere of darkness and despair. Our scenes within the woods in our film trailer similarly promote this idea of isolation that is consistent in our brand. The woodland scenes are really key in our film. For me as an English Literature student, I know that the wood symbolises all that is in opposition to rational, organised society. The wood is a place of anarchy, wildness, lawlessness, outcasts – any children’s book uses the same tropes. We use woodland in our film to show our protagonist charging madly after he has lost his job; it is also the venue for the ‘temptation’ scene where he accepts money from an unknown person, which leads him further down the path to dissolution and ruin. The woodland backdrop appears in our social media to reinforce the cohesiveness of the branding.
Our production engages with our working class social group audience by utilising the ideas on identity set out by Gauntlett. He argues ‘that despite individuality, people do tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them.’ This resonated with our aims for the project as we wanted to build this culture that can feel represented by the struggles faced by our protagonist and feel consequently empowered by the representation of these traditionally marginalised themes. We looked to respect this idea of a collective identity through our Twitter marketing campaign that was consistently active within the comment section of our posts. Igniting conversation with our early QnA (Question and Answer) post we prompted
conversation about what audiences would see in ‘Ground Floor’, ultimately creating a culture surrounding our production. Twitter allows users to branch off into conversations amongst themselves under the umbrella of discussion that our project creates. This is further supported in our Trailer which alludes to our production being highly rated by critics with indie festival nominations; amongst the contemporary-drama watching film culture this would be a highly engaging premise. With this group being our target audience, it was highly important we had an emphasis upon these awards in our social media page as it suggests prestige and excellence; both things central in their choice of movie.
In my research of the ‘slice of life’ drama genre, conventions typically lie within naturalism as protagonists struggle through reality but resisting at every turn. Staying true to this theme, our production’s character is established through our incorporation of the intensities of the action genre. While typical conventions find drama in the tragedy, we took an optimistic take upon the genre to portray a man willing to break free from his circumstance no matter the cost and ultimately found drama in the action. This breaks traditional conventions in such a way that adapts to our research as within surveys in our community, it was made clear that the majority shy away from the genre due its ‘hopelessness’ or ‘mundane’ aspects. Therefore, we encapsulated the naturalistic workplace frustration convention within the premise of violence to attract a wider audience.
My research further drew upon Ken Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ and ‘Sorry We Missed You’ whose trailers use low-key, naturalistic colour palettes, slower pace and traditional film-making methods. I therefore looked to develop upon those ideas through our use of action genre-codes, a genre far more palatable towards a 16-30 age range. These action-codes lie within our use of fast pace editing and depiction of violence as our protagonist is portrayed to be desperately running. The trailer ends on a cliff-hanger: as the protagonist’s hand smashes the fourth wall, we engage audience’s curiosity about his next step by leaving open the possibilities of fighting back and taking charge of his destiny, or capitulating in a spiral of intensifying violence.
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