An insight into 'UK Ambition'

UK ambition follows a gang of young male characters who only know a life of drugs , crime and violence. Since birth they have lived on the same east London estate and as is all to common in modern society, they have never had a proper parent figure to look up to. However, there is one promise on the horizon. This comes in the form of Basketball and is Darius' (Mirzo Y) only hope of escaping a world where fighting is a way to pass the time, Crime is an afterschool activity and gang war is the way of life.

As shown in the opening two minutes, Sport is the main genre of this film but it also follows up as an insight into modern day British poverty and the 'Yob' culture that goes hand in hand with this. The storyline follows the traditional 'Zero to Hero' format that is seen alot within modern day Cinema. This gives the representation a feel good factor aswell as a potent wake up call into the state of elements of Britains current society.

The Making Of 'UK Ambition'

The idea for 'UK Ambition' was based largely around the format of urban culture. We took a long time considering how to approach the issue of realism whilst at the same time giving the audience somehthing they haven't seen before. The location, soundtrack and dialog were all an integral part of this process and it took up a large amount of time simply getting the feel for the genre of the representation.

The location for our film was in my eyes the most important factor. We had to find somewhere that would put across the right message and set the tone for the film. In the end we chose a council estate near where we all live and this is where the theme of sport (Basketball) originally came from, as this particular location just happend to have a basketball court. The genre of sport gave a great chance to use a wider range of shots than we had in our prelimenary task and this meant we could experiment and edit more of the footage to put together a very accomplished peice of filming. The use of a low angled slow motion shot at the end of the film, i feel was a great way to end the representation as it gives a clear message of the genre and purpose of the film.

We did come up against a few small issues which we did eventuallt solve. The first time we shot the coversation between the two characters we didn't use the 180 rule effectively and it was quite confusing for the audience to gage an understanding of the characters viewpoints. We got this feedback from 3 different people and decided to re-film it but this time pay close attention to the quality of the shots. Another slight problem that we unfortunatly couldn't correct in time was the unfortunate weather conditions. At the beginning of the film the weather is overcast and is showing hints of snow. This however, changes within a few seconds of the representation to sunshine. The reason being for this is we fimed a number of different shots on different days and this made the conditions of the setting quite contrasted throughout.

We researched different techniques from films of similar genre to give us a guidline as to how to create the right effect. In the end we found the Noel Clarke film 'Adulthood' to hold a number of intresting ideas and techniques and found that fims of that particular genre use very fast flowing shot transitions and alot of subtle editing. As you can proberbly see from our film we have used the same technique to try and recreate the effect.

The soundtrack wasn't a great issue. We knew we had to use a local artist of the urban genre and managed to find a song from an unsighned London Grime artist. This really gives the film conviction as it fits perfectly with what is going on on screen and lies well with the purpose of the film.

We tried to use a wide range of shots and ensure that their purpose was clear to give the audience the best possible experience of the storyline. This meant filming a lot of material from different angles, positions and lights to create the best possible effect. We used a Birds Eye View shot at one point to give the audience a wider view of the characters surroundings aswell as two establishing shots to give across an initial idea of the setting. The reason for their being two is that the location changed halfway through and we felt it neccesary to re-establish the setting.

Our film UK Ambition is about a young basketball player who with the help of many, progresses to reach proffesional level, and follows a rags to riches concept. We were originally going to m,ake it an action film, but decided a sporting drama would be more original and intersting to film. Whilst planning, we also decided the location, dialogue and camera shots we that we were goin to use. I was filming most of the film, and Mirzo Young and Alex Cox were mainly acting.



For the opening 2 minutes we decided to use a range of camera shots and angles, and started off with an establishing shot, so the audience instantly gets a clear picture of where the current scene is taking place. A second establishing shot is used later on in the scene of the railway bridge, informing the audience that the setting by this time had changed. A simple close up of the alarm clock was used so the audience also gained the knowledge of the time of day. We used fairly basic camera shots for most of the opening sequence to keep a steady opening. However some more complex shots were also used. A close up of the basketball was used to hi-light it's importance in both the genre and narrative of the film. Another close up of the greeting of the two characters was used to emphasize their close friendship, and the conversation that followed used over-the-shoulder shot which included the 180 degree rule, so the audience did not become disorientated.


At the end of the opening two minutes a low angle shot was used of Mirzo practicing his basketball skills, to portray him as the character in the ascendency, and the character who holds power and confidence in the film. For most of our opening 2 minutes we used a tripod to keep the camera steady, but handheld the camera when needed for more sophisticated shots. Panning was used quite often to track the movement of the two characters prior to their meeting. To keep the film realistic we needed to convey steady camera movement to the audience.



It was important for the audience to believe what the narrative delivering to them, so the clothes and music we used had to fit the genre. Therefore we had Alex Cox and Mirzo Young wearing sporting clothes, and not designer wear, to emphasize the characters lack of money and status. We filmed inside an outdoor basketball court, and included a shot of the surrounding grafitti, to give the location a gritty, urban apperarance. Other props such as the basketball were also included in the mise-en-scene, to help establish the contempory, urban feel we were looking for.



We decided we would use an urban soundtrack, of either the UK hip hop or grime genre, to fit with our film. After experimenting with many different soundtracks, we felt the one we chose complemented the film best. The beat dropped in unison with the transition of the characters waking up and getting ready, and the speed was well suited to the pace of the film. The singer has a confident voice, which represents the character's ambition. This soundtrack was played throughout the sequence and acted as a sound bridge, so the scenes appeared to flow uninterrupted. Also some of the lyrics such as, 'you're so crisp' and 'im not a top breh' explained the characters position at that point of the film. The dialogue of the two characters is to the point, and of an informal manner, showing them to be friends. Whilst scripting it, we included words and phrases, for example 'safe' to further get across the characters personalities.





The amount of editing we could use was obviously limited as we only had two minutes, though we ddi include some which helped the pace of our opening. Fow smooth transitions, wipe screens were often used as it gave a competitive feeling of the two characters jostling for screen space, which is symbolic of their competitve nature in the narrative. Slow motion was also used for the very last shot, in order to capture the skill of the young basketball player and create a unique visual effect for the audience to enjoy. Match on action of the characters leaving their houses was used to keep the scene interesting and fast paced, so that the camera shots did not simply just feed the film to the audience.

Whilst filming, and after recieving feedback from several people, some issues were encountered and rectified. During the conversation we did not properly use the 180 rule, and so refilmed this part for the benefit of the audience, making it easier for them to understand where the conversation is taking place. It was difficult to include all the props and clothes in all the shots and retakes that we did, but as we were short on time we decided it did not notice badly enough to be a real problem. The weather also caused a problem, as in the same scene it changes from snowy to sunny in a matter of seconds. However because we filmed over a number of days, and were quite restricted with time, there was nothing that we could really do about this.

Having evaluated our opening, if we were to do this again we would have put more thought into the planning and organisation of the filming to avoid the problems that are listed above. We would also have spent longer developing the dialogue, as we felt that this could have been stronger. Other than that we felt we succeeded in most other areas in executing an opening two minutes which exposed the culture, atmosphere and tone of the film to come.

By Matt Harrop

UK AMBITION.......

Choosing a Sport / Drama film ...

We have chose this type of genre because we love sports and a bit of drama in it.
our first ideas were an action film. As we thought about it we came to a conclusion that it is a really hard one to do when you don't have the right props, good locations and the right equipment to make a good job of the opening movie. It took us a long time to come to a conclusion and be convinced that we are doing the right decisions.
Firstly it is a good one to do because there can be used different types of camera shots, angles and composition.
Secondly the sound is an important issue in every single movie. We could use the soundtracks the way we want. The choice of our music is quite compatible with the genre and the taste.
Thirdly it is a good genre to do because there are not many locations and props involved in the scenes we we have a compatible equipment to produce the intro.
Finally we did not chose the movie just because i prefer basketball out of all sports and my other group members like it we chose it because we thought it would be an interesting, exciting and motivating one to do.

To conclude i think it is going to be a very good intro of the movie, because it is going to be different from everybody else's films.
Cant wait to finish the final piece.

M Y