Sommers Town

As part of national film week, my media group and I went to watch the film called Sommers Town. The film was directed by Shane Meadows and made in 2008, however the film is in black and white (until the last few scenes where it changes to colour). Sommers town is Even though the film was made in 2008, I think the purpose of choosing to shoot in black and white is to make the film seem like it was in the 1950’s which is the time period in which the story was set. In 1950’s they wouldn’t of had colour in films, so maybe Meadows was trying to recreate the same effect as original black and white films did. Some people may say that they don’t like the fact that it’s in black and white, others do like it, but after the first five minutes you completely forget the fact that it is colourless as the film is really interesting.
Sin City was directed by Frank Millar/Robert Rodriguez and was released in 2005. The genre of the film is action/crime/thriller. The film received many awards, 16 wins & 29 nominations. s an Robert Rodriguez is amercian filmmaker, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He is best know for making profitable and crowd pleasing independent and studio films with low budgets and fast schedules by HollyWood standards.
The Man Who Wasn’t There was directed by the Coen brothers. The release date of the film was 26Th October 2001. The film was Nominated for Oscar and another 19 wins & 32 nominations. The genre of the film is crime/drama. They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share a similar vision of their films.
Rumble Fish was released on the 21st October 1983 and was directed by Francs Ford Coppola. The genre of the film is drama and was nominated for Golden Globe and had another 2 wins & 1 nomination. Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an Italian-American film director, producer and screenwriter. Away from showbusiness, Coppola is also a vintner, magazine publisher and hotelier. He is a graduate of Hofstra University where he studied theatre. He earned anM.F.A. in film directing from the UCLA Film School. He is most renowned for directing the Godfather films, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.
All of the above films are share themes of drama/crime. This could be linked to the use of black and white footage as the colour black connotes dark thoughts and maybe could relate to the film.

1. 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?
As it is in London you would expect to see quite a lot of the famous landmarks, such as Big Ben and the houses of parliament. Also the film is set in the 1950's when the chanel tunnel was being made so you would expect to see clips of that. Marek and his dad comes over to England from Poland in order for his dad to be able to work on the crossing. I would expect to hear quite a lot of non diegetic sounds that reflect on the busyness of London and in particular the trafic congestions. There may be sounds car engines and buses.
b) What are you expectations about character and narrative based on this setting?
The setting of this film seems like quite a poor area of london, and you might expect to see people living in cramped and uncomfatable places. The main character Tommo plays a typical teenage boy character, but he still retains the fact that he is still young as throughout the film he finds himself in many bad situations.