I have recently been looking at the BIFA in which American Honey
got multiple awards including best director, this film did not gain
immediate success due to the lack of well known actors despite Shia
Labeouf being in the film . I have been especially interested in this
because of the similarities that it has with the kind of production I
will be doing for my AS Media, the film had an overall budget of £2.7
million therefore making it fairly inexpensive. This movie supposedly
"defines our generation". It's key themes involve young people/ youth
and their lifestyle, hedonism, love and betrayal which are themes issues
not usually covered by mainstream cinema nor the Big Six. Equally,
there were no expensive studios due to all the filming had been done on
location, this is very similar to my AS Media production. Part of how
the social realism was achieved within American Honey was through the handheld camera work which gives it an element of 'cinema verite'.Both American Honey and my AS Media production will have no studios, no well known actors, low production values, shooting on location and both explore similar themes especially the element of theft that is explored within them.
At the study day on November 2rd I learnt that American Honey counted as a Britsh film, this is because of the British director, contributing parties and key organisations involved. Andrea Arnold is also known for Fishtank (2009) which had a budget of only £1.3 million, compare this with Star Wars The Force Awakens which had a budget of £203 million. American Honey is an example of BFI/ Film 4 funding.
Another film that was successful was I Daniel Blake, this is one of the more significant films due to it addressing very real and current issues within less fortunate societies in the UK, this is called social realism. The director, Ken Loach, is known for, within his films, addressing very real and possibly relatable issues within our society and that are going on in our country, especially ones that are not necessarily reported on in the news or in other films. Ken Loach is also known for talking out against other British directors for going for the 'safe' options.
