ill Manors

Today I watched 'ill Manors' which is where my song 'Michelle' is featured. Directed by Ben Drew (Plan B) I found it really helpful in terms of gaining inspiration for my music video.

Dark lighting- ominous

Skimpy clothing- energetic shot, wanting to escape

Close up of face, shows cuts and bruises, could be a shot to show her determination in wanting to change- looking to the future

Above are pictures of the actual character of 'Michelle' in ill Manors. This is who I am basing my actress Imogen on and feel I have fitted the brief well in terms of costume and make up. What I gained from watching this film and actually seeing the character were the effects of simple camera shots to convey raw emotion. I want to portray an angry and broken girl who is seeking independence and freedom, whereas in ill Manors, Michelle is heavily prostituted and is involved with lots of hard drugs which is quite difficult to watch at times. Overall, I found watching this film inspired me to really think about the character I want to portray, and to plan ahead the types of shots and angles I want, as in the film, less is more.

Ill Manors

Ill Manors is a low budget British crime drama film which was written and directed by Plan B (Ben Drew). The film was produced by Atif Ghani, it features Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Keith Coggins, Lee Allen, Nick Sagar, Ryan De La Cruz, Ahouska Mond and Nathalie Press. The film was distributed by Revolver Entertainment and three studio's called Film London Microwave, BBC Films, and Aimimage. Ill Manors was released on the 6th June 2012, a budget of £100,000, which raised to £453,570 in the UK box office. The film is set in Forest Gate, London which focuses on the lives of eight characters mentioned above, the director Plan B (Ben Drew) has six original songs which connects with the narrative of the film.


Plan B's soundtrack album was recorded during 2011-2012 in the UK at Edge recording studio and the Sanctuary, the album was released after the film 'Ill Manors' on the 23rd July 2012. The producer of the album include Plan B, Al Shux, Eric Appapoulay, David McEwan, 16 Bit, Labrinth and Saul Milton. Some of the recordings were featured in the film which were called Ill Manors, Lost My Way, Deepest Shame and Playing With Fire. The album had debuted at number one in the UK album charts and received positive reviews by critics which promoted the actual film too.

Production aims

After filming last week, I feel really pleased with the stage I am at. My aim is to have finished filming by the end of January, and then to start editing straight after. Looking at the filming I have done, next time I would like to:

• Get some more shots of Imogen upset (close up/long shot)
• More urban shots (cluaustraphobia/cramped/busy/unsafe)
• Shot of man to illustrate abused childhood
• Panning and location shots
• Abstract shot

Below are the kind of shots I would like to get:





Preliminary filming

For the screen tests, I wanted to go to a few of the selected locations where I was planning to film the music video just to see how it would look on camera and also to see if the overall concept would work.

The shots I manged to complete were:

• Establishing shot of the opening location
• Long shot of Imogen sat by the tree
• Shot of Imogen running past the camera
• Close up of Imogen's face looking back as she was running
• Extreme close up of Imogen's face to show vulnerability
• Shot of the tree branches against the white sky
• Shot of the traffic on the motor way
• Panning shot of Imogen sat on the motorway bridge

This allowed me to see what shots would work, and confirmed my decision to edit the whole video in black and white. What I need to do now is edit my tester shots and then I can go on to film some real scenes ready for the rough edit by Christmas.

Planning for filming

In order to try and get some inspiration for the types of scenes I want to include for this video, I listened to the song many times paying particular attention to the lyrics.

'This life has taught her she must pay...'

'I guess she only has herself to blame...'

'I've been walking alone this dirty road...'

'There's no way back from here...'

Obviously this is a very emotional song so I want to keep the shots deep but minimalistic. I think it would be important for this genre to not give too much away and go over the top. 

I recently watched Ed Sheeran's new music video for 'Give me Love' and found that it gave me a lot of inspiration for my project. The shots and angles from some of the scenes worked really well with the genre and I feel that I can gain ideas from it. I also love the actresses's costume. Have a look for yourself: