Pre-Production:Treatment draft

Titles:
The two  titles that we are currently considering are as follows:

"Queen Khan" because it includes the title of the main characters last name while being a reference to the boxer Amir Khan's nickname. We believe it's effective because the title is short much like most British Social Realist films while because the title references Amir Khan it allows the audience to connote that there may be elements of boxing while telling the ethnicity,religion and gendre of the character for the audience. The title will appeal to our target audience of a British and Asian target audience by the reference to Amir Khan it has.

The other title is "The Girl Boxer" which we decided to use because it relates back to the documentry which our product is inspired by this means that we will already be appealing to an existing audience while also appealling to our new British and Asian target audience. However  we are still unsure about the title because it dosn't stand out as film for out target audience and sounds a bit bland and cliche. I would also have no trouble gaining the rights to use this title because the documentry is owned by channel 4 which owns film 4.

Target Audience:

Our target  audience is a male and female Asian British audience between the ages of 12-40, with interests in boxing,culture,religion and biographical films. The classes we have as our target audiences are the lower class and middle class, although we are not specifically trying to make the film appeal to the upper class we will not exclude them from our films audience but they will not be our primary target audience.

I believe my film will appeal to this target audience because the cast is a mixture of Asian and British actors which means the production will have characters that the audience can rellate to by ethnicity. The story and themes in the film such as the underdog stoory and the cuultural tensions and family dilemmas the film explore are something that everyione can relate to.

The representation that the characters are shown in will help the audience relate to the film because the characters will be typical of people that our target audience may have encountered such as over protective fathers and families that still have tradition family values such as the man providing for the women.

 Research I undertook showed me that an audience for British Social Realist films can gain a larger audience if the film is inspired by current events in society and/or if the film is based on a true story. This film will appeal to this target audience who're interested in British Social Realist films because the film deals with current things in society like immagration and racial tensions between different ethnic groups. The story is inspired by the story of  Ambreen Sadiq which gives the film some realism which will also appeal to the target  audience.   http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ambreen-the-girl-boxer/4od

Technology:

I'll use Mini DV cameras for the bulk of the shoot because it has been shown by directors like Danny Boyle to be an effective piece of technology in film  when shooting on location and when in locations that are hard to menouver around in. They're fast and cost effective which is also a large benefit. I will use mini DV's to show the state of mind and how the chjaracters are feeling. I will do this by filming in a cocumentry style in the boxing ring with the characters, being steady when the characters are alright and becoming sloppier and more amamteur thhe more danger the characters are in.

Mobile phones will be used to show the fights from the spectators in the crowds perspective.  This will be suitable because it lets the audience know that what we're seeing is from someone elses point of view and will tell them that this person is clearly not that important by the picture quality they are seeing.

 Limitations of this technology are that the picture quality won't be as good as that of a HD camera because I won't be filming on HD because i  don't feel confident enough editing on that  software.

Representations:

The key characters in my film are the female lead boxer who is the protagonist.

The lead characters brother and sister who act as her emotional support and link to her negative family members who do not approve of her boxing.

Her trainier/coach who will act as a surrogate father figure.

Her father and mother who act as blocker character types.

The rival boxer and her coach will be the villains as they're the primary antogonists that our lead character has to face off against although her family can be interpreted as the real villains.

My film will subvert to some of the typical representations of social groups so that it appeals to the target audience but will also subvert from some because this product is inspired by a real life story it should still be accurate to the real life story that it is based upon.

Narrative-Brief:

The lead female character who is currently going to be called Noor Khan will compete againsty a rival boxer currently called Jo Simpson to win the national amateur champion title for her age and weight division. The character will only have the support of her brother,sister,coach and uncle as she fights the toughest 30 minutes of  her life all the while having the pressure of her community,parents and exterior family looking down and turning their back on her.

Narrative- More detail:

The entire film from the moment Khan enters the location her fight is in will occur in real time.

The story begings with a standard linear narrative focusing on Khan trying to prepare herself in in her final week of  training to fight Jo simpson for the ABA title of their weighrt and gendre division. While training her father and mother begin to heavily pressure her to give up boxing.

Her older brother Adil  has recently been released from prison for GBH so is looked down upon by his community and parents and this has a further negative impact  on peoples reactions to his muslim younge sister being a boxer as he is encouraging her to do it. The film explores the racism, family tensions and stress that Khan has to go through  to build up to her fight  while only having her brother and surrogate father figure coach for support. . The film will end with Khan winning her fight and gaining the respect of her community as we see her community openly cheering for her at there homes and in the audience. The film wil close with Khan in an after fight interview hoping her family will support her further in her career now her community does.

The films real ltime segment/scenes will make up either half or a third of the film.

* The character of Adil will be a negative male character who shows support for the character Khan even if he isn't the best role model. This is a typical charactter type of British Social Realist film so it should appeal to the target audience.

* The coach "Keith" will play a large role in the film being a surrogate father figure and possible better role model than Khan's brother Adil. He will be the catalyst behind getting Khan and Adils Uncle to support her and give her uncle the idea to get more muslims and members of the asian community to support her.

Conventions:

I'll use social realist conventions such as negative male role models and surrogate father figures to show the struggle that the lead character had to endure to make her victory seem all the more speecial.

I will use conventions like lack of a soundtrack because it'll kkeep the audience in the realm of the film and add to the verisimilituude.

I will subvert  from conventions like a heavily implied sad ambigious ending and instead will have a largely happy and positive ending but that is left ambigious about whether her family supported her to let the audience have something to ponder on.

Hybrid elements I will employ will be the biographical aspect by drawing inspiratiion of real life events that happened to Ambreen Sadiq. Other hybrid elements will be the boxing movie conventions such as a possible montage training sceene and the character reaching a point where it looks like that they may lose but ultimately succeed. However I may leave this out because it may take away the realism.

Style & Iconography:

I will use extensive long takes and manipulate camera movements to both make the audience feel one with the character but to also express the characters emotions and physical stabilityduring scenes which both occur in the ring/traing and with her famiily.

I'll employ a shellshock effect during the boxing scenes so that when Khan is hit depending on the vacinity she's in to the camera and the force of the punch the camera will have a jump cut which will shift to a shot with a slight zoom to show impact  while the camera work gets more amateur and sloppier, i would use  a shell shock sound effect  to show that the characters hearing has dirsorientated; using a hight pitch one note to get louder and the other sounds would get quieter.

I will use costumes and props as visual cues. for example if there is a of Khan and her father arguing I would frame the shot so the boxing gloves and religious painting are between the two characters as they argue to show their significence.

Institution:

The production company in my brief has impacted the type of film i intend to make by making my film an underdog story because it'll appeal more to an audience who like Film 4's body of work.

The produiction company also impacted my film by the themes that it would tackle because I wanted to tackle themes that most films would be afraid to tackle but Film 4 would allow me to.

The distribution will effect the film because it'll only be able to have a limited release world wide because film 4 have to produce many other films.  It'll most likely the film would only be released in the UK, USA and Pakistan because of the characters and themes won't appeal to a completely global audience and the themes are tailored to a very specific niche audience.

My film would be exhibited in few cinemas across the UK and would be released for home video exhibition by Film 4 in large stores across the Uk like HMV and would be available to order online at websites like PLAY.COM because of their ability to allow the product to be distributed over sea. The film would also have a television premiere on Film $ and channel 4 because it would cost nothing to distribute because it's owned by Channel 4 and would allow word of mouth to spread on the product.