‘Before Viewing’ – Prep Task on ‘Somers Town’
1. Why do you think a modern director would choose to produce a film in black and white, rather than in colour? What effects might they be hoping to achieve?
Although I feel that shooting in black and white in modern times isn’t really to my particular taste there are many modern films that use this technique. Each to their own, but the reasons behind Shane Meadows shooting entirely in black and white I will hopefully successfully explore below.
Since the invention of movies in colour in film and television, around 1950, it has become the Hollywood norm. It’s a standard in the entire industry and is seen quite prominently to be a risk by the distributer to produce a film solely in black and white. One example of this is shown through Frank Darabont’s adaptation of the well known Steven King novella ‘The Mist’ it was intended to be shot and shown in black and white (perhaps to add an eeriness to the film) but was eventually pushed by the production company as a full colour film. It’s massively common to find many black and white films among student and independent film (as Somers Town is) Because of this black and white is now seen as a rare artistic choice by the director. This is seemingly true as many modern black and white films have been chosen as black and white solely for artistic purposes which help visually back up the narrative. One reason that is common among modern black and white films is it helps visualise and establish a time setting. One could see this as the reason in which Shane Meadow’s reason for filming in black and white because as I am aware it is set around 10-20 years ago. Although this technique could be seen as the idea that it was shot around the time it was set, which would exclude Somers Town, I’m sure black and white helps give the feeling it is set in the past if not much has changed (which indeed it hasn’t since the 90s)
The choice to shoot in black and white could also be to show the tone and the mood of the film. Parts of films can also be shot in black and white to establish the same feel, a notable one of these is ‘Casino Royale’ the 21st James Bond film which begins in black and white. Dream sequences are quite often shot in black and white which I think runs parallel to the fact that humans are supposedly only to dream in black and white. Linking to this, a side thought I’ve just had. If we dream in black and white then films could be shot in black and white to give a dream like feel to the film.
2. From the list of modern films shot in black and white you were given. Choose three and find out their release date, their genre, the director’s reputation and the critical reaction to the film.
Clerks (1994) – Clerks is an Am
was a surprisi
ng success and made over $3 Million and was made on a budget of only $27,000. This movie describes a day in the life of two clerks in New Jersey. It covers their various mishaps and misdemeanours, which include drug dealers, a wake, a dead customer, and a lot of abuse of customers. The use of black and white on this film was only used due to budgetary restraints (the film was funded wholly by the director) the budget that they were working with didn’t have enough money to rent daylight sources. It won a handful of awards and is features on many lists including ‘The Cult 25’ in which it performed at number 13.
Sin City (2005) – Sin City is a film noir styled action/crime/thriller film. The film is based on a graphic novel from Frank Miller and it is shown in the picture to the right that the use of film noir was purely to duplicate the artistic design and vision from the original graphic novel. It uses the visual black and white with colourised elements that work as
direct representations to the graphic novel. The film itself was filmed in colour and then transferred over to high quality black and white, it literally uses a shot for shot technique (as shown in the picture) The film was opened to hugely popular reviews and the film was compared favourable to other comic book films released around the same time.
Schindler's List (1995) – The film is directed by massively known Steven Speilberg. The film is about how one businessman saved the lives of over a thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust. This is arguably the most famous black and white piece of modern cinematography. The film uses black and white and a slight documentary style 
to create a horrific sense of realism and the period the film is set in. The film was shot completely exempt from modern techniques such as cranes, zoom lenses and steadicam, many of the moving shots were even hand-held, all this adds to the gritty realism of the film. The film notably caused problems for the set designers who were used to working with colour, they had to darken and lighten aspects and the costumes to stop things blending in to the background. They used colourised elements (as Sin City did) with one little girls red coat to symbolise blood on the hands of the allied forces. The film is widely critically acclaimed, it won seven Oscars and features on many Top 100 films lists.
3. The film is named after Somers Town, the part of London in which it is set. Most of the filming also took place on location in that area.
a) Given the London location, what iconographic sights and sounds might you expect from the film?
I expect a lot of classic London digetic sounds, such as London busses passing etc. I expect the sight of the big red London bus (although the film is in black and white) I’d also expect many sight-seeing areas to be shown on the film around London such as the famous bridge which looks over the parliament used in a lot of film and television such as Doctor Who and 23 Days Later. This may sound reasonably stereotypical but I’m aware the film is set around an low class estate so I would expect to here digetic background noises of people arguing etc.
b) What are you expectations about character and narrative based on this setting?
I wouldn’t say I have any real assumptions purely based on the setting. But many poor people are from this area and the film is based around a young homeless boy I believe so I’d probably expect an unruly lonesome child figure. Looking for his place in the world, a ‘coming of age’ narrative is probably what I’d expect. I’d also figure that discrimination would fit into the narrative somewhere, as the time and setting of the film lower classes would’ve been highly discriminated.
'After Viewing' Coming Soon!
