Pride Production

Pride Production - Done

There are hundreds upon thousands of connotations when one thinks of the the 1980’s. Football hooliganism was in its prime, with tragedies like Heysel and Hillsborough occurring in the 80’s, and the latter of the two was huge for Margaret Thatcher, a hated figure in Liverpool, and across the country in some areas, however, she is largely remembered as the best Prime Minister since Clement Attlee. Pop music was starting to emerge in the UK, going hand-in-hand with the hundreds of riots and protests that the miners did in the UK. The miners strike of 1984/85 is what the main focus of Pride is, exploring the Lesbian and Gay community which came together with a small mining community in Wales. 

The film is directed by award winning Matthew Warchus, who uses very generic conventions of the drama throughout the film to ensure the audience stay in track with the film. Stephen Beresford, the man who wrote Pride travelled to London to meet all the original members of LGSM, as he discovered that there was literally no information on the group, meaning that it relied on the reliability of the members of LGSM. This could have been a problem for the encoders, however they managed to work around it by getting as much information from the members as possible, but Beresford had to travel a long way to meet every member. 

A documentary which stars Alan Davies explored the events that happened in the 80’s, and largely all seem to be negative. The marches, the petitions, the speeches, the violence, all seem to increase dramatically in the 80’s. As Pride was based on true events, the producers and director made it essential that the story remained as true as possible. The people involved are still alive, which gives them an edge in getting it realistic as they can help, but it the events that were depicted in the film were false, then it may upset those involved due to how delicate and emotional the story is. 

As it was set in the 80’s, the encoders have to ensure that the tone feels right, and the audience can immediately establish the time, and place that the movie is set. The problem with this is that different people have contrasting views on the 80’s. Southern, upper/middle class people may have a different opinion on Thatcher and the 80’s to Homosexuals in the North, so the encoders have to have a right amount of balance in the film to make it as realistic, but also nostalgic too, a key appeal of films. Another appeal is the fact it’s based on true events, the Miners Strikes has a huge impact on society in the 80’s, effecting everyone in Britain, so the information provided could prove to be an appeal for those who wish to learn about the subject, or learn something new in British History, as the work the LGBT community did has been unbelievable. The audience may be effected by what’s happening on screen, as they may feel sorry for the characters, knowing the events they are seeing actually happened, and could allow some members of the audience to personally identify with the characters, placing themselves and imagining what they would do in the same situation, ie, when they get spit on by the pedestrians. The audience are likely to accept the unusual and unique elements to the story if the events were true, as it’ll be easier to suspend their disbelief. 

The director must decided which stories or events to sepicn in the film, and cut others our from he film in order to maintain the storyline. The movie must keep its drama and entertainment to ensure that the audience stay on track with the storyline, and don’t drift off. If the director applies for a creative license, this can allow him to manipulate and create characters to fit the conventions or the storyline, thus advancing he storyline, which is crucial in this film, as despite being 90% true, characters like Bromley and Maureen are not real, they were created by Warchus to advance the plot. This license was important for Warchis, as Bromley is one of the most important characters.

The film was produced/paid for by Pathe Productions, as well as the British Film Industry (BFI) who typically find films that struggle to raise money for their film. The BFI though set strict targets for films to strive to achieve, if these aren’t met, the MFI will not fund the film. The 3 factors for Pride to achieve was on/off screen diversity, and creating opportunities and promotion, paid apprenticeships and employment opportunities, and as Pride ticks all of the three, this can allow them to have financial support from the BFI, although, it’s impossible to know the actual amount from the BFI, as the actual figures were undisclosed