Camerawork/Cinematography

Camerawork and Cinematography are important to any film, especially in a football hooligan film such as Green Street and The Hooligan Factory as it helps create the setting, atmosphere and helps shows true emotions of characters in scenes.

For example shots such as...                                                                        


Close-Up shot: A close up shot shoes the true emotion of the character or even the damage done to the characters face in cases like football hooligan films.

Long Shot: A long shot is used to show a further away view of the action happening in the scene, for a football hooligan film this could be a stadium or a long shot of a fight scene.





Medium Shot: A medium shot can be used to show emotion and feelings of multiple characters in the scene such as the characters from Green Street celebrating when there team scores.




Shot-Reverse Shot: A shot reverse shot is almost always used in a conversation. The pace of the cut between each person talking can suggest the intensity of the conversation. This would be used in a football hooligan film quite frequently as these films are fast paced.



Shots such as match-on-actions are also used to show action happening from different camera angles to give the scene a (depending on the situation) feeling of the pace. For example, a fight in a hooligan film will use fast paced match on action shots to show the tempo of the fight.

In some parts of a film, handheld camera movements are used. Sometime this is used to act as though its just someone off the streets filming it like a fly on a wall, instead of moving the camera along a special rail, the shakiness of the camera and the mobility of it gives a certain scene an immersive experience.  
                  
                   

Cinematography and Camerawork

The cinematography in football hooligan films usually involves a use of match-on-action heavily, especially within the fight scenes. This is used a lot as it improves the fight scenes by making them more intense as it seamlessly switches angles, this is used in tandem with fast paced editing all to improve the film and make the fight scenes feel more brutal and grounded in reality. A common shot used in these fight scenes to make them more intense is a close up, this is due to the raw detail and expression within the characters face as they're doing what they are doing.

Handheld camerawork is often common place within this genre of film as it becomes more immersive for the audience using this type of cinematography making it more intense and the whole scene more realistic. Here is an example of the handheld camera in action in a fight scene from The Football Factory.



Another common shot in football hooligan films are medium shots and long shots. This is so you can get a broad view of all of the carnage that takes place within these fight scenes and how many people are actually involved in them. I have also seen long shots used to show crowds at football matches in these films, this shows the huge amount of people that love this sport and have a huge passion for it.



characters in football hooligan films

The characters usually come across a typical, middle class, working Englishman. But when it comes to the weekend when they go to watch their home team. Home or away. They will join their pals and scrap against any opposing fans that are looking for the same thing as they are. A bit of violence. Any football hooligan film you could think of gives this same representation.

As there would be in any normal friendship group there is always the person who is loud and very obnoxious as they like to attract undue attention to oneself. This person usually runs the group/firm when comes to the violence on a weekend. Throughout the film they usually are centered at the front of the crowd like Pete, the firm leader in the beige coat, is shown is this shot from Green Street.

They are also seen as being hostile due to their love for fighting. All of this creates characters that would typically not b liked. But due to their charismatic nature it makes them lovable rogues in which the audience root for. Another typical character involved in these films is the comic relief, this character is important to make the film feel realistic and also put a bit of a comedic spin on it, as it would just make the group feel unrealistic if there was n comic relief character. An example of this character would be the actor Danny Dyer who plays the role of Tommy Johnson in The Football Factory.


I wish to take the mannerisms of these characters and used them within my own film which will give it a feel of one of the classic football hooligan films.

Title Sequence Analysis - Green Street

At the start of Green Street Hooligans, the title sequence appears under each characters name, as shown in the image below. The film starts with men with stone stone island gear on walking through an airport loudly which already portrays them as football hooligans.

In our film, the titles are very simplistic, a bit like the ones we used in our film as we got our idea from this, however we could have put them over when the character appears instead of them being bunched up at the start. If  the titles were large and animated it wouldn't have the same effect as it does being simplistic. Music used in the scene is emotional but i would prefer to have an upbeat song in the film we are producing.

The title sequence is also shown as the same as the names, this creates a flow to the title sequence and doesn't seem unnatural to the viewers and keeps the continuity in the film, this is something i would like to take into our film. We got a lot of inspiration from films like this and hope to take it into our film.

Setting/Location

Setting/Location

 Setting and Location is an important factor in any film, especially in films such as "Green Street" and "The Hooligan Factory". For example... A football hooligan film is not going to be set on a beach or in an American neighbourhood its going to be set in a lower-class British council estate, typically on a rainy cold day. Typical cities such as London and Manchester are usually used as they are stereotyped that they feature areas that are less prestige such as council estates and run down areas.

 












Areas such as these are almost featured on the back alleys of these estates or under bridges or just somewhere out of site of the public and most importantly the police. You will never see fights taking place in the middle of the city or next to the football ground as it will be too "risky" for them to do so.

A stadium will always be included in a football hooligan films as it shows an insight into how much football matters to the supports and most importantly the characters willing to fight for their club and their fan base.