Charlie Dominic James Anthony

Cartoon Violence is a short-film following the theme of knife crime, which shows a darker side of modern Britain. At first the film seems to be simply another film about knife crime, imitating the likes of Kidulthood and Bulletboy. However as the film develops this view is soon dismissed.

The quality of the film is impressive, even more so given that both director (James Hurley) and cast are complete unknowns. Billy the main character, is an innocent boy (played by young rising star Dominic McCoy), who is tormented by Jack (Joshua Pascal-Noel), the local “bad boy.” As the abuse continues, Billy faces a choice: should he take a knife with which to defend himself, or should he take the braver decision to leave it at home? The film explores the two different outcomes and consequences of his actions.

This is where Cartoon Violence distinguishes itself from the countless imitations of Kidulthood, making clever use of animation to get across the underlying message of the problems with youth culture and knife crime in modern Britain. This is an unmissable cinematic experience and a great contender for ”Film of the Festival.”

Magazine article draft 3

The film is made by an unknown director, James Hurley and with a cast of unknown actors makes the level of quality all the more surprising. Billy the main character is an innocent boy played by the young rising star Dominic McCoy, who is tormented by Jack (Joshua Pascal-Noel) the local “bad boy.” As the abuse continues for no reason Billy must choose if he should take a knife to defend himself and, the film explores the consequences of either taking the knife or not.

This is where Cartoon Violence distinguishes itself from the countless imitations of Kidulthood, and makes use of animation to get across the underlying message of the problems with youth culture and knife crime in modern Britain. But overall is an unmissable cinematic experience and a great contender for film of the festival.

Planning Film poster

My Film Poster

Firstly my poster is targeted at an audience that are aged between 15 to 19 years of age. These are the ages of an audience that are still in education. The primary target is to highlight the effects of knife culture within a British society. This will specifically affect teenage males.My Film Poster highlights the urban gritty style of modern Britain.

Secondly I have also included the possibility of having a message in our Film Poster, as this would help give out an educational purpose. The Film Poster does have social realism elements which are a very British filming style and the animated element could be argued to be surrealist. But more importantly as our theme is based on youth and knife crime the Film Poster does incorporate British Themes. This is done through the main imagery used, for example the background holding elements of urban style.

This poster I have created explores the contrast of cartoon and reality. I have shown this through the use of colour and the captured images. I have decided to make this image as cartoon looking as possible without losing the reality of what we are trying to put across. To do this I have added a filter over the whole image which separates the colours and tones and this makes the image become bold. I found this really effective as it adds a surreal element that I wanted to achieve. Following this, the reason behind the image in the background is that it is an effective image as it shows the elements of British themes which are urban community and youth crime. This has a great effect to the outcome of my Film Poster as it enhances its visual effect as well as brings meaning and clarity to what the poster is trying put across. Finally, the text follows a font that we designed and have included in our film, I felt it had an enhanced effect to my poster as it highlights the cartoon element that I also wanted to put across to the audience.

Photoshop development

Development

Here are a range of posters that have been developed to reach a Final Design. I have included experiments of positions, text and images so as I can visualise what would be the best one to select. I finally selected the design I liked to develop and then made sure that I used photoshop to enhance its meaning and visual aesthetic.

Magazine Article Option 1

Cartoon Violence is a film following the theme of knife crime which sticks to a very social realism side of modern day Britain, the film has very Kiduldthood and bullet boy inspired feel to it. The film initially seems to be a short film about knife crime shot as a simple film, however as the film develops we are in for a shock to the way in which the story is portrayed.

The film is made by an unknown director (James Hurley) and team, and with cast of unknown actors it makes the level of quality present all the more surprising. The main character (Billy) is played by Dominic McCoy who is the “good” innocent boy of the story who is tormented by the bad boy of the story(Jack) played by Joshua Pascall- Noel. Joshua is a key in portraying the modern view of youths today and plays a stunning performance in his debut role. As the unprovoked abuse continues for no reason Billy continues to contemplate taking a knife to end the abuse. The film explores the consequences of either taking the knife or not.

This is where Cartoon Violence comes into its own and becomes a truly unique experience. Instead of simply showing what happens if Billy chooses to/not take a knife with him it is shown with an innovative use of animation, this is where the director’s description of a truly experimental film becomes apparent as does the meaning of the chosen title. The animation shows the end of the story in way that is rarely been seen in short film.

This is what makes the film so unique and makes it a must see and a sure favourite at this year’s Ealing Film Festival. It offers a truly unique and new exploration of a common genre, from both director and cast to look out for in the future