Saturday, 8 May 2010
PRS Clearance
If we were to professionally produce this film for mainstream public viewing then we would have to rite a letter to our local performing rights society for music. Explaining that we would like to use The Cinematic Orchestra - All Things to All Men as part of our soundtrack. In the letter we would say where the video was posted and how that it was appearing on TV if so. They would then set the price baced on their tarrif prices. And that lience woul last a year. The licence covers you to credit the soundtrack on our media and some money from the liences goes as royalties to the performer. And other companies like Film Four would also have to pay towards these royalties if it were to show thw film.
BulletProof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8XDKPCFDs
I am having trouble with blogger! Please visit this link to see fullsized video (As right hand side of the frame is missing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8XDKPCFDs
Evaluation for Final Media Product
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products?
I believe that after studying the genre of film noir for the past year has lead me to be more aware of the stylistics and characteristics of the noir genre. particularly some of the film openings that we watched for films. They gave me an insight into how other media texts attract and keep the attention of audiences through giving them puzzles to solve called enigmas.
Our production group watched the 'Kill Bill' opening sequence. It only lasted just over a minuet, but from this we could see how simple it was to set the scene of action, Give the audience an enigma to solve throughout the film and build suspense in the film.
Also inspiring me was some of the classic noir films of Sunset Boulevard and DeTour. After watching these film i could see that some of the stylistics used in the soundtrack and editing could really keep the audiences interested in what is happening and feel like they are part of the action. Another genre of film but from the same era of film noir is 'Psycho'. Pictured below is the famous shower scene were the viewer can see a figure enter and approach the main character, but she cannot see. This part builds huge suspense for the viewer and makes them want to scream "look out behind you".
4. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of making this product?
While researching for ideas of noir I used a series of technologies to help aid me in my understanding. I used this blog to express my understanding of what I have learnt. While looking at some classic film noirs I manage to convert the DVD files to digital media and watch them on my iPod. This gave me time to watch and fully understand the convections and codes of different classic noirs. Also YouTube was very helpful in aiding me in discovering other film openings like ‘Kill Bill’ rather than going on the films I have in my collection openings; I was able to search a broader range of film openings and discover new genres that didn’t before appeal to me. And finally Wikipedia was helpful in aiding me in some other people views of the noir genre.
5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that since completing the preliminary exercise and making this piece I have learnt so much from the simple amateur mistakes that I made. In the preliminary exercise I felt that all that I had to do was point a camera at some people exchanging dialogue. But whilst filming it I found out that it is much more than that. Shooting someone’s face isn’t as simple as pointing the camera at them. It’s all about how you the film maker want the audience to portray that person. Like a close-up may reveal more about that person than a mid shot etc. And when using shots like the mid shot where should you aim to have the character in the frame. Learning about thirds in a frame made me realise that the picture becomes more professional and interesting than having a big blank space above their head. Comparing my progress from the preliminary exercise to the final noir open I have developed my skills as a cinematographer and as an editor. Simple skills I learnt like going over and over the action with the actors made continuity a lot easier than it was in the exchange because it was easier to see the continuity, rather than putting in extra shots to show the ellipsis of time. Also reviewing the video after you have shot a scene with the group made sure that they were happy with how our final piece looked at it wasn’t just one persons input like the exchange was. And in my first edit I spent a lot of the editing time choosing was clips would cut well and match with the next. As time progressed and I started to work on the exchange I found it a lot easier and quicker to match up the continuity of changing shoots. And I was able to use the software to aid me in production rather than to work against me.
At first I found it hard to work as a group but from working together in the final piece I found that combining your ideas with others leads to better results in most cases. Because they further develop your idea to make it even better and more spectacular. And that why our group piece works so well is because everyone in our group felt that it was what they wanted the piece to look like and feel.
But the skill I believe that has developed the most is the skill of building tension for the audience so that they want to watch the media you are producing. Finding the right shoots to fit in with the music to make the music compliment the image on screen makes people enjoy your work and want to watch your media product. I found this in the exchange when people were “wowed” by what we had produced. In the preliminary exercise the video just looked like someone’s home video were you just point the camera at what is happening. But now looking at the final media product I feel that if it were feature length then it would be able to make it as a professional film. Because of the tension building skills I have learned.
I believe that after studying the genre of film noir for the past year has lead me to be more aware of the stylistics and characteristics of the noir genre. particularly some of the film openings that we watched for films. They gave me an insight into how other media texts attract and keep the attention of audiences through giving them puzzles to solve called enigmas.
Our production group watched the 'Kill Bill' opening sequence. It only lasted just over a minuet, but from this we could see how simple it was to set the scene of action, Give the audience an enigma to solve throughout the film and build suspense in the film.
Also inspiring me was some of the classic noir films of Sunset Boulevard and DeTour. After watching these film i could see that some of the stylistics used in the soundtrack and editing could really keep the audiences interested in what is happening and feel like they are part of the action. Another genre of film but from the same era of film noir is 'Psycho'. Pictured below is the famous shower scene were the viewer can see a figure enter and approach the main character, but she cannot see. This part builds huge suspense for the viewer and makes them want to scream "look out behind you".
So I believe that my certain parts of my media product represent the two films mentioned above. As the audience you see the female character go and hide round the corner ready to shoot. But the male character doesn't know this as he walks up to his target. I believe that 'Psycho' inspired our group to want to give that feeling of suspense to the audience like the one in 'Psycho'.
Also 'Kill Bill' inspired our group to want to keep it short and simple. if we threw in massive amounts of clips, shoots music, sound effects etc. Then they would spoil the meaning of the noir. As classic noirs didn't make high budget films. they made low cost films where the narrative and suspense made you interested in them as a viewer.
Our group wanted to challenge most of the codes and conventions of classic noirs. Being in the target audience for our media product we had an understanding of what the audience may expect from a contemporary noir. We wanted a modern setting, one were most people in the target audience would be able to associate to. So we didn't want the film to look black and white like the classic noirs. Also the cloathes we wanted to bring up to date, but still make them have the feel of noir. so we used red for the femme-fatals jacket. and keep the other two male characters in black and white clothing. Our setting created a problem. Modern buildings tend to have a warm feeling to them, the way that light is used in them gives the setting a warm glow. So we looked into some editing techniques that would cool down the images. So that the image appeared modern but had that cool feeling to it.
Also the props used we wanted to signify good and evil. The male character's gun was black and the femme-fatals gun was grey. This was no accident we selected the two guns prior to filming to send an unconscious message of who is good and who is bad in the film.
2. Who would be the audience and how have you attracted/addressed this audience? And how does your media product represent particular social groups?
In the brief we were asked to produce a film with a certification aged at 15 years old. So we looked at the criteria of the BBFC 15 rating so that we would not make a film aimed at 15+ be an 18 certificate. We compiled a questionnaire and handed it out to 10 members of the public. And from their responses we could determine the age group and what sex would go to see a neo-noir. We found that both men and women were interested in a neo-noir thriller aged between 15-30. And we found that in the test screening of our media product that the audience liked the way that the actors looked to be early twenties, which the audience liked as they could associate themselves to as they didn't look to old.
Also our media products' theme and and narrative portrays the characters to fit class 'B' in the social economic grading system. As you you never find out if they are killing someone as a hit man or if its a personal vendetta, in which case the character may fit into a lower grade like 'C1 or C2'.
3. What kind of media institution may distribute your media product and why?
After looking into distribution companies and production companies i found that working title films may distribute our film as in the past their films have consisted of many basic films that have risky target audiences. But each year they have a big impact film that will bring in big revenue. but i also think that a big multi-national company like working titles will not want to risk its money on a very small independent production company like ours. Instead i believe that channel 4 films would be more likely to distribute my film. It has famously distributed 'Trainspotting' Which was a major global success. and is usually willing to fund a low-end budget film like ours. Also we would stand more chance with this distribution company than working titles as channel 4 films like their films to be 'British' which means British actors, British setting and British Production company. Hopefully channel four would screen our media product on their freeview channel 'Film Four'. And i think it would be eligible to play anytime after 8pm. mainly due to that's when the film will get the highest volume of the target audience. 4. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of making this product?
While researching for ideas of noir I used a series of technologies to help aid me in my understanding. I used this blog to express my understanding of what I have learnt. While looking at some classic film noirs I manage to convert the DVD files to digital media and watch them on my iPod. This gave me time to watch and fully understand the convections and codes of different classic noirs. Also YouTube was very helpful in aiding me in discovering other film openings like ‘Kill Bill’ rather than going on the films I have in my collection openings; I was able to search a broader range of film openings and discover new genres that didn’t before appeal to me. And finally Wikipedia was helpful in aiding me in some other people views of the noir genre.
In the planning stage our group needed to keep close contact as each of us was workin on our own subject area. I was looking into editing techniques and researching on how the location will look while its being filmed. In order to make sure that i got the groups input and not just mine i had to regulary inform and speak to my group using MSN Messenger and Facebook to get their input on my idea and if it needs any further devlopment.
Also I used Adobe Photoshop to experiment with some of the typefaces that could be used in the final edit. Once the final edit had been created it had to be compressed down so that it would be able to be uploaded to the internet.
The final the technologies I used were in the production part of my coursework. The level of technology available to me was quite vast. But there was always someone that could tell me how a device worked or could solve my problem. The camera we used to shoot the piece was a Canon HV/DV this was a useful camera as the digital video tape made it easy to capture video onto the computer to edit. The computer that I used was a Mac Pro which made rendering and capturing video superfast and the video and sound quality really high. Whilst shooting we used a 600w key light to help make shadow silhouettes on the walls and making a characters face light and dark. To be able to dolly the camera with the footsteps we had to mount the camera on a skateboard and track the walking action. And where there is a character talking we used a pro microphone attached to a boom on the rifle setting to capture what was happening were the microphone was directed. Finally in the edit we had to put in a voiceover and heavy breathing into the video we did this with two devices a recorder from an iPhone, and then emailed the voice clip to my student email address. And the other was from a Creative Dictaphone that was able to plug into the USB slot and upload the video. The Canon’s DV function meant that the digital video could be extracted super-fast to the Mac using its FireWire port. The software used was called final cut pro which we used to edit our media piece together and is really user friendly and easy to use after a quick demonstration. Also I used Apples garage band to help me find the sound effects I needed to make the gunshot sound realistic. This again was very simple to find the sounds and an export them to a file type that can be use in final cut pro.
5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that since completing the preliminary exercise and making this piece I have learnt so much from the simple amateur mistakes that I made. In the preliminary exercise I felt that all that I had to do was point a camera at some people exchanging dialogue. But whilst filming it I found out that it is much more than that. Shooting someone’s face isn’t as simple as pointing the camera at them. It’s all about how you the film maker want the audience to portray that person. Like a close-up may reveal more about that person than a mid shot etc. And when using shots like the mid shot where should you aim to have the character in the frame. Learning about thirds in a frame made me realise that the picture becomes more professional and interesting than having a big blank space above their head. Comparing my progress from the preliminary exercise to the final noir open I have developed my skills as a cinematographer and as an editor. Simple skills I learnt like going over and over the action with the actors made continuity a lot easier than it was in the exchange because it was easier to see the continuity, rather than putting in extra shots to show the ellipsis of time. Also reviewing the video after you have shot a scene with the group made sure that they were happy with how our final piece looked at it wasn’t just one persons input like the exchange was. And in my first edit I spent a lot of the editing time choosing was clips would cut well and match with the next. As time progressed and I started to work on the exchange I found it a lot easier and quicker to match up the continuity of changing shoots. And I was able to use the software to aid me in production rather than to work against me.
At first I found it hard to work as a group but from working together in the final piece I found that combining your ideas with others leads to better results in most cases. Because they further develop your idea to make it even better and more spectacular. And that why our group piece works so well is because everyone in our group felt that it was what they wanted the piece to look like and feel.
But the skill I believe that has developed the most is the skill of building tension for the audience so that they want to watch the media you are producing. Finding the right shoots to fit in with the music to make the music compliment the image on screen makes people enjoy your work and want to watch your media product. I found this in the exchange when people were “wowed” by what we had produced. In the preliminary exercise the video just looked like someone’s home video were you just point the camera at what is happening. But now looking at the final media product I feel that if it were feature length then it would be able to make it as a professional film. Because of the tension building skills I have learned.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Pre-Production paperwork and Group Meeting Notes
Meeting 1 Tuesday 23rd February 2010 (Pre-Production)
Today we desided on what groups we were going to be in for our final media production. In our group is Seb Ashington, Emily Stansfield and myself (Martin Osborn).
We got straight down to business and came up with an enitial idea for our piece. We all liked the stylistics of the opening of KILL BILL and the cinematograhpy and editing looks very simple but effective and this is the look we want. Also I mentioned that i liked the neo-noir of Sin City and i would like to used the black and white with a filter on the red so that this will bleed through. so objects like jackets blood and red lazer dots can be clearly seen.
We have also decided our job roles:
Emily - Art Director/ Mise-en-scene
Seb - Cinematographer
Martin - Assistant Cinematographer, Sound
Meeting 2 Tuesday 9th March (Week of shoot)
We have decided that Martin will be take Sebs production ideas and be cinematographer as Seb will be a charater in the video. Also Martin's great editing skills from the exchange will hopeful make our final piece look professional so he will be assistant Editor alongside Seb.
Meeting 4 Tuesday 6th April (Editing)
We have now done all shooting. voive overs for the final pice and started to put together a rough edit. And the lighting in the video doesnt feel cold and grimy. So after speaking to our lecturer he gave us the idea to cool down the colours in the video. This is used in spooks to give the audience the feeling of dark and grimy.
Pre Production paperwork;
In order to be able to film we had to undergo pre-production paperwork. this covers health & safety side to filming our groups paperwork is listed below;
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Today we desided on what groups we were going to be in for our final media production. In our group is Seb Ashington, Emily Stansfield and myself (Martin Osborn).
We got straight down to business and came up with an enitial idea for our piece. We all liked the stylistics of the opening of KILL BILL and the cinematograhpy and editing looks very simple but effective and this is the look we want. Also I mentioned that i liked the neo-noir of Sin City and i would like to used the black and white with a filter on the red so that this will bleed through. so objects like jackets blood and red lazer dots can be clearly seen.
We have also decided our job roles:
Emily - Art Director/ Mise-en-scene
Seb - Cinematographer
Martin - Assistant Cinematographer, Sound
Meeting 2 Tuesday 9th March (Week of shoot)
We have decided that Martin will be take Sebs production ideas and be cinematographer as Seb will be a charater in the video. Also Martin's great editing skills from the exchange will hopeful make our final piece look professional so he will be assistant Editor alongside Seb.
Meeting 4 Tuesday 6th April (Editing)
We have now done all shooting. voive overs for the final pice and started to put together a rough edit. And the lighting in the video doesnt feel cold and grimy. So after speaking to our lecturer he gave us the idea to cool down the colours in the video. This is used in spooks to give the audience the feeling of dark and grimy.
Pre Production paperwork;
In order to be able to film we had to undergo pre-production paperwork. this covers health & safety side to filming our groups paperwork is listed below;
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Finding a Location to film
After we came up with the idea for our neo-noir we needed a location to film it at. we wanted to keep the film as simple as possible. so we decided to shoot the film at the college. As a group we went around the college to find the best spots to shoot.
This is the glass bridge that connects the two sides of the college together after seeing this view we decided to include it in our film as it gives the sense of someone observing the action.
Here is a selection of corridors that we used all seem to have the contrasting feel of light and dark.
The next image was from an ext ream-long shot but as a group we decided it was to far away and didn't build the suspense enough.
And this last image shows the extreme-low angle we wanted to achieve with the footsteps.Still shots from the Final Piece
Before
This is a before and after shot and an example of how we tinted the colour of the film slightly blue. We done this because we felt it would create a cold mood and atmosphere. Whereas the shots before felt too orange and did not hold the effect we wanted.
After
---------------------------------------
This still is a close up of the femme fetals feet in a usual costume of high stilettos.
I think it's a good shot because it was cleverly filmed using a camera on a skateboard, it's the type of shot you see in films such as Kill Bill.
This is another shot that i really liked from our piece. its not a shot often used. and the focus settings had to be spot on. We wanted the audience to feel like the gun was being pointed towards them to help bulid to the suspence of the scene. the gun is in a shapre focus and the charaters face is in a fuzzy focus this draws attention away from the face and to the gun.
I like the trasition between these two shots as this really throws off the audience as the person that has just been shot wakes up and there is a voice over.
Again i really like these two shots as the camera is placed as a person who watches the female walk past. it envloves the audience in the action.
Questionaire for Our Neo-noir
Before we could produce a neo-noir we needed to know what interestets our target audience. so we compliled some questionaires to see what our target audience would like to see in a neo-noir.
Sex: Male Female
Sex: 16-20 20+
Do you enjoy violent thriller films i.e. “kill Bill”? Yes No
How often do you watch a movie? Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly
Do you like to have a narrative twist to keep you on your toes? Yes No
Do you prefer a happy ending? Yes No
Do now what a Film Noir is? Yes No
If yes, have you watched if so please specify.
Do you enjoy neo-noir? Yes No
If yes specify which ones you have seen.
Sex: Male Female
Sex: 16-20 20+
Do you enjoy violent thriller films i.e. “kill Bill”? Yes No
How often do you watch a movie? Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly
Do you like to have a narrative twist to keep you on your toes? Yes No
Do you prefer a happy ending? Yes No
Do now what a Film Noir is? Yes No
If yes, have you watched if so please specify.
Do you enjoy neo-noir? Yes No
If yes specify which ones you have seen.
The Exchange Brief
Our next task we were asked to complete was another filming exercise. This time we were asked to take what video, editing and production skills we had learnt from the preliminary exercise and produce another video; this time our brief was: to produce a film of two people exchanging an object. But this time there would be no dialogue unlike the first. But we were allowed to put in a piece of music to help build suspense for the viewer. this would be a trial run at a neo-noir film opening and any mistakes made in this piece would help educate us on our final neo-noir piece of work.
3 Film Openings
Kill Bill - Kill bill opens with very scared heavy breathing diagetic sound. Then a bland and white shot of a woman that appears to have been beaten up appears. In the background you can hear the sound of approaching footsteps. As she tries to compose her breathing the shoot cuts to a tracking close-up of the boots walking down a wooden floor the women charter then looks just off camera to which the audience presumes is the person who has just walked up to her. The character then speaks in a gruffly man voice. And goes to wipe some blood off the face of the woman. Clearly lettered on the face towel is the word Bill. The woman character appears to not want the character to touch her and refuses to speak. Her breathing gets heavier again. The male character then exchanges a few more lines of dialogue before the woman character says “Bill, it’s your ba...by” at which point a loud gunshot is heard and blood splatters across the floor from a headshot at the woman. There are no titles in the scene to tell you any companies or the film title or actors. But the very basic shoots straight away built a massive amount of suspense and present the viewer with a huge enigma for the film.
Shooter – Shooter starts from an extreme long shot and the camera dollies in. As if mounted to a helicopter it then tracks a river downstream at a slow pace the main actors name appears followed by a customises film title. Then various names appear on screen for producers, actors etc. The camera cuts across a meander and looks like it’s going to crash into a cliff but it then tracks up the cliff to the top and very slowly continues forward. Were it focuses on a camouflaged sniper rifle. The shot then cuts 180* to were the camera was where we see the two snipers disguised as bushes. At this point there has been oricestrical music which dies down. And the spotter speaks. The camera then cuts to a POV through a sniper sight.
We then discover that the two are just making conversation to pass time. At which point the camera goes to a US military camp were the viewer is shown hostile forces moving towards a US convoy. This is just in front of the snipers position. The sniper shoots and kills two men and the convoy continues. Then about 5 other enemy vehicles follow the convoy and the sniper has to engage them. The sniper comes under fire. The US camp chooses to leave them there as they are not supposed to be there. An enemy helicopter then shoots at them and the spotter is killed the sniper then does everything he can to shoot the helicopter. And eventually he shoots the rota blade and the helicopter crashes. I feel that this film would appeal to its target audience as although it is different to kill bill it again builds suspense to the viewer, and although the scene is longer than kill bill you still feel a high amount of tension. The time allows the viewer to feel for the two US soldiers. It also gives the viewer a story narrative to go on.
Sin city – the first scene has a title on it called “The Customer is Always Right” the scene opens and a women steps out onto a roof top balcony. A man starts a voice over about what he see and the viewers see him walk out. The two characters exchange dialogue and there is a faint sound of a saxophone in the background which is a non-diagetic sound. This suggests to the audience that there is romance between these two characters. They kiss and a strange style of cinematography is used. Just the main features of the backdrop are highlighted in white. With the two charters everything else is black. The scene looks like an art silhouette. And again we hear the male voiceover. The saxophone is very prominent again here. Then he tells her that he loves her in voice over and explains why he has to do it; as the audience hears a silencer gun shot. The audience feel saddened from what has happened. A long silence is heard as you can hear diagetic raindrops, before the voiceover oh him saying that he will ‘cash her check in the morning’ at which point a strange fade out sound is heard and the camera pans out of the location quite fast and curls around the city towers to reveal the buildings to say – Sin City. Again this is a different genre of film opening and gives the audience a lot of questions and enigmas to think about and answer. Again like shooter we feel for these two characters before we are startled that one of them dies.
So I feel that these three films opening have taught me that for a film opening to be great you must first appeal to your audience. You have to make the opening scene interesting. They will have paid money to see this film and if they don’t think that the film is any good in the first 3 minutes then they are not going to want to watch the rest. In order to keep their attention and make them want to watch the rest of the film I believe that you must give the audience a puzzle/ enigma to solve or think about. This puzzle will make them want to watch the whole film to find out what actually happened and see if their answer was right. To help build this puzzle I believe that suspense must be built up this can be done through the lengths of shot or by the soundtrack. Or even by what’s happening in the narrative. Usually with the suspense the audience will want someone to associate themselves with or even like. So an insight to what the charters like will do this. A voiceover will usually do this. The voice over makes us feel like we are in that charters head and that we know what he or she is thinking.
Shooter – Shooter starts from an extreme long shot and the camera dollies in. As if mounted to a helicopter it then tracks a river downstream at a slow pace the main actors name appears followed by a customises film title. Then various names appear on screen for producers, actors etc. The camera cuts across a meander and looks like it’s going to crash into a cliff but it then tracks up the cliff to the top and very slowly continues forward. Were it focuses on a camouflaged sniper rifle. The shot then cuts 180* to were the camera was where we see the two snipers disguised as bushes. At this point there has been oricestrical music which dies down. And the spotter speaks. The camera then cuts to a POV through a sniper sight.
We then discover that the two are just making conversation to pass time. At which point the camera goes to a US military camp were the viewer is shown hostile forces moving towards a US convoy. This is just in front of the snipers position. The sniper shoots and kills two men and the convoy continues. Then about 5 other enemy vehicles follow the convoy and the sniper has to engage them. The sniper comes under fire. The US camp chooses to leave them there as they are not supposed to be there. An enemy helicopter then shoots at them and the spotter is killed the sniper then does everything he can to shoot the helicopter. And eventually he shoots the rota blade and the helicopter crashes. I feel that this film would appeal to its target audience as although it is different to kill bill it again builds suspense to the viewer, and although the scene is longer than kill bill you still feel a high amount of tension. The time allows the viewer to feel for the two US soldiers. It also gives the viewer a story narrative to go on.
Sin city – the first scene has a title on it called “The Customer is Always Right” the scene opens and a women steps out onto a roof top balcony. A man starts a voice over about what he see and the viewers see him walk out. The two characters exchange dialogue and there is a faint sound of a saxophone in the background which is a non-diagetic sound. This suggests to the audience that there is romance between these two characters. They kiss and a strange style of cinematography is used. Just the main features of the backdrop are highlighted in white. With the two charters everything else is black. The scene looks like an art silhouette. And again we hear the male voiceover. The saxophone is very prominent again here. Then he tells her that he loves her in voice over and explains why he has to do it; as the audience hears a silencer gun shot. The audience feel saddened from what has happened. A long silence is heard as you can hear diagetic raindrops, before the voiceover oh him saying that he will ‘cash her check in the morning’ at which point a strange fade out sound is heard and the camera pans out of the location quite fast and curls around the city towers to reveal the buildings to say – Sin City. Again this is a different genre of film opening and gives the audience a lot of questions and enigmas to think about and answer. Again like shooter we feel for these two characters before we are startled that one of them dies.
So I feel that these three films opening have taught me that for a film opening to be great you must first appeal to your audience. You have to make the opening scene interesting. They will have paid money to see this film and if they don’t think that the film is any good in the first 3 minutes then they are not going to want to watch the rest. In order to keep their attention and make them want to watch the rest of the film I believe that you must give the audience a puzzle/ enigma to solve or think about. This puzzle will make them want to watch the whole film to find out what actually happened and see if their answer was right. To help build this puzzle I believe that suspense must be built up this can be done through the lengths of shot or by the soundtrack. Or even by what’s happening in the narrative. Usually with the suspense the audience will want someone to associate themselves with or even like. So an insight to what the charters like will do this. A voiceover will usually do this. The voice over makes us feel like we are in that charters head and that we know what he or she is thinking.
Evaluation of Exchange
This production task was more challenging than the first preliminary exercise. This time we were asked to take more thought into consideration regarding the environment we would be filming in. To give our productions a feel of noir or even neo-noir. Which type was not specified in the brief. But our group choose to use a neo-noir feel. We had a first group meeting to discuss possible locations to film in. We quickly decided that we would like to use drugs and money as the items being exchanged. This was mainly due to the fact that those two items we felt would appeal to our target audience. We wanted the viewers to see that what the characters were doing was illegal.
After deciding the items we then needed a location that would match the theme of drugs. We went around the group asking each person to show a location that they know and feel that would fit the mise-en-scene of a drug exchange. Each person explained were their locations was and why they felt it was a good place to shoot a drug exchange. It was decided that we would use my location which was situated about 500 metres away from the college. It was a dark alley with old bricks and bunkers in. Most of the brick had moss on it and the location felt really gray and dark which they group liked. But a week before filming one of the groups stumbled across a location near the marina in Ipswich and said it’s perfect for what we want. I really liked what they had found and wasn’t bothered with the change from my location to theirs.
Whilst filming in the location we found some really good locations were cameras could be positioned like fire escapes three stories high. But we were told not to use the location as it did not meet the health and safety requirements to shoot. Also whilst filming we found that some shoots at the marina worked better than the planned story board so we shoot them and included them in the edit. We were also very lucky to have the Suffolk police helicopter fly over our location whilst filming. Again the group felt filming this and putting it in our video would make the audience feel that the characters are doing illegal substances.
The overall task was very successful as we completed all the pre-production paperwork to shoot off the site of the college in time for our filming day. The mise-en-scene was great as the location was what we wanted and we didn’t have to compromise.
The cinematography was also very good, although confined by health and safety we still managed to shoot some really good extreme high and low angle shoots. The only problem with Dutch tilts is its very hard to get the target on the thirds line but I used the knowledge learnt from the mistake in the preliminary exercise and managed to get a really amazing high angle Dutch tilt shot.
The editing also went very well we had very good footage from the cinematography but the continuity didn’t seem to work. We couldn’t accurately show the passing of time. This really made the production value of the piece look really low. But reusing shoots like the police helicopter and a shoot were the character starts walking to the location and gets to the location of the exchange is the same but we used the same clip. Again not having to have to use sound made a vast improvement on my first preliminary piece of work as a boom was not required. The only downside to sound in the piece was the two tracks we used. If we used one sound track (the first one), then the film would have felt a lot more tense. With the second soundtrack in there at the end test audiences said that spoilt the suspense that the first piece had given them.
After deciding the items we then needed a location that would match the theme of drugs. We went around the group asking each person to show a location that they know and feel that would fit the mise-en-scene of a drug exchange. Each person explained were their locations was and why they felt it was a good place to shoot a drug exchange. It was decided that we would use my location which was situated about 500 metres away from the college. It was a dark alley with old bricks and bunkers in. Most of the brick had moss on it and the location felt really gray and dark which they group liked. But a week before filming one of the groups stumbled across a location near the marina in Ipswich and said it’s perfect for what we want. I really liked what they had found and wasn’t bothered with the change from my location to theirs.
Whilst filming in the location we found some really good locations were cameras could be positioned like fire escapes three stories high. But we were told not to use the location as it did not meet the health and safety requirements to shoot. Also whilst filming we found that some shoots at the marina worked better than the planned story board so we shoot them and included them in the edit. We were also very lucky to have the Suffolk police helicopter fly over our location whilst filming. Again the group felt filming this and putting it in our video would make the audience feel that the characters are doing illegal substances.
The overall task was very successful as we completed all the pre-production paperwork to shoot off the site of the college in time for our filming day. The mise-en-scene was great as the location was what we wanted and we didn’t have to compromise.
The cinematography was also very good, although confined by health and safety we still managed to shoot some really good extreme high and low angle shoots. The only problem with Dutch tilts is its very hard to get the target on the thirds line but I used the knowledge learnt from the mistake in the preliminary exercise and managed to get a really amazing high angle Dutch tilt shot.
The editing also went very well we had very good footage from the cinematography but the continuity didn’t seem to work. We couldn’t accurately show the passing of time. This really made the production value of the piece look really low. But reusing shoots like the police helicopter and a shoot were the character starts walking to the location and gets to the location of the exchange is the same but we used the same clip. Again not having to have to use sound made a vast improvement on my first preliminary piece of work as a boom was not required. The only downside to sound in the piece was the two tracks we used. If we used one sound track (the first one), then the film would have felt a lot more tense. With the second soundtrack in there at the end test audiences said that spoilt the suspense that the first piece had given them.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Report On Exchange
Our next task we were asked to complete was another filming exercise. This time we were asked to take what video, editing and production skills we had learnt from the preliminary exercise and produce another video; this time our brief was: to produce a film of two people exchanging an object. But this time there would be no dialogue unlike the first. But we were allowed to put in a piece of music to help build suspense for the viewer.
Evaluation
Our brief was to shoot a short video with someone entering a room and exchanging a few lines of dialog with another character. Taking into mind the skills of basic video production; so continuity editing with Sharpe cuts between shots. And whilst filming the footage the framing must look professional by using the rule of thirds. And checking what is in the frame.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece.
My Noir Synopsis
Simon; A drug dealer trying to get out of illegal drug dealing is forced to shoot a dealer that has failed to pay from a previous shipment of drugs. The police enter the house as Simon escapes out of the back. The police were tipped off that that house had a dealer occupying and dealing from it. The detective knows the dead dealer well (Joey). Then Simon comes on to narrate that all of this could have been prevented and that it was not his fault that he was dealing. Its just the chain of command. And a the film starts with a flash back to him being ‘normal’(not a dealer, just driving around doing normal teenager stuff) it explains what happened two weeks ago..., then one week ago then that day. After the flashback has told it story the film will continue and the audience will be left with a scene were nobody has won. In the flash back he tells the back-story of Tasha who is a beautiful blonde
The film starts with a establishing shot of a housing area with a car in the distance. Before it gets to close there is some off action shots and someone gets out of the car and walks along the main road path and up to the front door of a house and knocks (very assertively). A drugged up man answers and lets him in. a confrontation is started and Simon is forced to kill the dealer. Just as he is exiting the rear of the house the police raid the house from the front. The inspector see him fleeing through the fields after he finds the dead body.
Location: Run-down house that looks like a drug den. And is really untidy and falling apart. Set in a typical run-down council housing estate. This will give the effect to the viewer that people are stuck in their way of life; there social class forces them to deal drugs and no one ever gets out.
Docks – again with the run-down housing estate i would like the docks to feel really cold and grey. The feeling that no one down by the docks is happy with their pay or how they are being treated. I would ideally like their to be run-down abandoned warehouses, so that there are lots of ways to escape and hide.
The film starts with a establishing shot of a housing area with a car in the distance. Before it gets to close there is some off action shots and someone gets out of the car and walks along the main road path and up to the front door of a house and knocks (very assertively). A drugged up man answers and lets him in. a confrontation is started and Simon is forced to kill the dealer. Just as he is exiting the rear of the house the police raid the house from the front. The inspector see him fleeing through the fields after he finds the dead body.
Location: Run-down house that looks like a drug den. And is really untidy and falling apart. Set in a typical run-down council housing estate. This will give the effect to the viewer that people are stuck in their way of life; there social class forces them to deal drugs and no one ever gets out.
Docks – again with the run-down housing estate i would like the docks to feel really cold and grey. The feeling that no one down by the docks is happy with their pay or how they are being treated. I would ideally like their to be run-down abandoned warehouses, so that there are lots of ways to escape and hide.
Friday, 30 April 2010
My report of Sin City (Neo-noir)
As in my example the film features 3 volumes of stories by ‘Frank Miller’ who originally wrote the story on a comic book series. The first part is called ‘The Hard Goodbye’ about a man who embarks on a brutal rampage in search of his one-time sweetheart's killer; The Big Fat Kill, which focuses on a street war between a group of prostitutes and a group of mercenaries; and That Yellow Bastard, which follows an aging police officer who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured serial killer. Although there is three different storylines going on its not always obvious that the stories are not connected. As the viewer you feel as if you just getting an insight into the characters and the narrative is building up to them meeting.
The film starts with ‘The Salesman’ walking onto a penthouse balcony where ‘The Customer’ looks out over Basin City. He says that she looks like someone who is tired of running and that he will save her. The two share a kiss and he shoots her; she dies in his arms. He says he’ll never know what she was running from but that he’ll cash her check in the morning. Then surprisingly the story jumps to a different storyline That Yellow Bastard (Part 1). On the docks of Sin City, an aging police officer tries to stop a serial child-killer. From raping and killing eleven-year-old .
The Hard Goodbye
After a one-night stand Marv awakens to find Goldie has been killed while he slept. vowing to avenge her death. His parole officer warns him to give up on this mission. Marv interrogates several informants, working up to a corrupt priest. Marv kills the priest, but is attacked by a woman who looks like Goldie. Eventually he ends up being executed
The Big Fat Kill
That Yellow Bastard (Part 2)
Hartigan is recovering in a hospital and is told Nancy is in danger and in the end Hartigan commits suicide to ensure Nancy's safety. Again, he justifies his life for Nancy's as a fair trade.
Epilogue
An injured Becky departs from a hospital, talking on a cell phone with her mother. In the elevator she encounters The Salesman. Narrating the scene, he says that if you turn the right corner in Sin City, you can find anything.
So the narrative of the film is very dark, there isn’t really much happiness in the film all the characters we feel close to and side with all end up dying and no one really seems to win. And the message of the fiction city comes across; that nothing good ever really happens in Sin City.
Sin City uses shadow and stark backgrounds, black and white are the sole colours most of the time with exception of red, yellow and blue in some stories.
The film starts with ‘The Salesman’ walking onto a penthouse balcony where ‘The Customer’ looks out over Basin City. He says that she looks like someone who is tired of running and that he will save her. The two share a kiss and he shoots her; she dies in his arms. He says he’ll never know what she was running from but that he’ll cash her check in the morning. Then surprisingly the story jumps to a different storyline That Yellow Bastard (Part 1). On the docks of Sin City, an aging police officer tries to stop a serial child-killer. From raping and killing eleven-year-old .
The Hard Goodbye
After a one-night stand Marv awakens to find Goldie has been killed while he slept. vowing to avenge her death. His parole officer warns him to give up on this mission. Marv interrogates several informants, working up to a corrupt priest. Marv kills the priest, but is attacked by a woman who looks like Goldie. Eventually he ends up being executed
The Big Fat Kill
That Yellow Bastard (Part 2)
Hartigan is recovering in a hospital and is told Nancy is in danger and in the end Hartigan commits suicide to ensure Nancy's safety. Again, he justifies his life for Nancy's as a fair trade.
Epilogue
An injured Becky departs from a hospital, talking on a cell phone with her mother. In the elevator she encounters The Salesman. Narrating the scene, he says that if you turn the right corner in Sin City, you can find anything.
So the narrative of the film is very dark, there isn’t really much happiness in the film all the characters we feel close to and side with all end up dying and no one really seems to win. And the message of the fiction city comes across; that nothing good ever really happens in Sin City.
Sin City uses shadow and stark backgrounds, black and white are the sole colours most of the time with exception of red, yellow and blue in some stories.
3 Examples of Neo-Noir
Brick – was released in 2005 and fits the genre of neo-noir perfectly. The basic storyline is that a teenage loner pushies his way into the high school crime ring to investigate the disapeance of his ex-girlfriend. The film has all the traits of classic film noir; odd-ball characters, dark and gloomy setting right down to the very smart and quick paced dialogue of a 30s/40s hard boiled detective thriller. The twist that lifts it above parody and even a mere homage is the presentation of these elements with high school kids. The director’s way of telling the story makes the audience feel like they are being taken along smooth and quick editing. Along with skewed and distorted camera angles. He manages to maintain suspense throughout the film. And the narrative follows tat of typical noir with the good guy not winning. It has all the traits of a noir but with a younger cast and a more up-to-date setting and scenario.
Sin City – again was released in 2005 and features 3 volumes of stories by ‘Frank Miller’ who originally wrote the story on a comic book series. The first part is called ‘the hard goodbye’ Sin City is famous for its artwork, which draws heavily from film noir, including its use of shadow and stark backgrounds. Black and white are the sole colors most of the time with exception of red, yellow and blue in some stories. Partial color usage is designed to draw attention to a certain character in the story. The writing style also draws heavily on detective and crime pulp fiction. Strange metaphors and similes are often used. This gives the narration a very unnerving feel. The story is set in Basin City fictional town in the American west. With strange climate it has deserts, farmland, tar pits and also it snows their part of the year most of these settings are considered dark and gloomy
Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow – this film was released in 2004 and it crosses into many genres. Sci-fi mystery thriller with action adventure, but i belive that this film uses alot of noir traits in it and should be considered as a neo-noir. “The film is set in an alternative 1939 and follows the adventures of Polly Perkins, a newspaper reporter for The Chronicle, and Harry Joseph "Joe" Sullivan, known as "Sky Captain", as they track down the mysterious "Dr. Totenkopf" who is seeking to build the 'World of Tomorrow'”(Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow ) so to give the film its 1939 feel i believe that the film has been decolorized in the edit to make colours dull and cool. But because there is still colour in the film I believe that it appeals to a younger audience than most noir films. Most neo-noirs are aimed at 15+ male and females but I believe that this film appeals to people as low as 8 years due to the narrative and the characters. Which may get more people interested in noir films.
Sin City – again was released in 2005 and features 3 volumes of stories by ‘Frank Miller’ who originally wrote the story on a comic book series. The first part is called ‘the hard goodbye’ Sin City is famous for its artwork, which draws heavily from film noir, including its use of shadow and stark backgrounds. Black and white are the sole colors most of the time with exception of red, yellow and blue in some stories. Partial color usage is designed to draw attention to a certain character in the story. The writing style also draws heavily on detective and crime pulp fiction. Strange metaphors and similes are often used. This gives the narration a very unnerving feel. The story is set in Basin City fictional town in the American west. With strange climate it has deserts, farmland, tar pits and also it snows their part of the year most of these settings are considered dark and gloomy
Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow – this film was released in 2004 and it crosses into many genres. Sci-fi mystery thriller with action adventure, but i belive that this film uses alot of noir traits in it and should be considered as a neo-noir. “The film is set in an alternative 1939 and follows the adventures of Polly Perkins, a newspaper reporter for The Chronicle, and Harry Joseph "Joe" Sullivan, known as "Sky Captain", as they track down the mysterious "Dr. Totenkopf" who is seeking to build the 'World of Tomorrow'”(Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow ) so to give the film its 1939 feel i believe that the film has been decolorized in the edit to make colours dull and cool. But because there is still colour in the film I believe that it appeals to a younger audience than most noir films. Most neo-noirs are aimed at 15+ male and females but I believe that this film appeals to people as low as 8 years due to the narrative and the characters. Which may get more people interested in noir films.
Evaluation of Preliminary Exercise
Our brief was to shoot a short video with someone entering a room and exchanging a few lines of dialog with another character. Taking in mind the skills of basic video production; so continuity editing with Sharpe cuts between shots. And whilst filming the footage the framing must look professional by using the rule of thirds. And checking what’s in the frame.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece as the wire kept vibrating the boom.
I feel in general our production went very well for our first attempt at film making. Our group fulfilled most of the brief whist shooting trying to get shots in thirds. But in one shot whist a character was walking across the shot from left to right the cinematographer had the character in the right vertical third when they should have been shot in the left vertical. Then after that shoot the cut to the next shoot feels very irregular to the viewer, this is due to the actor changing their body stance in the change of shot when opening the door. Most of the rest of the cinematography is good. The eye line match on the two-shots and shot-reverse-shot is good and meets the upper horizontal third. But some of the over-the-shoulder shots there was dead space between the top of the frame and the top of the actors head. And the sound quality was generally good apart from nearer the end of the clip the boom operator didn’t wrap the microphone wire around the boom so this created an irregular/ unnatural sound in the final piece as the wire kept vibrating the boom.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Synopsis & Treatment for Final Piece
Here is our groups own synopsis for each individual area the first is mine and i covered editing and sound, the second is Emily's she covered mise-en-scene and finally is Seb's he covered Cinematography.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
Synopsis for BulletProof
The film opens in the past in the general storyline of the film. Mike is waiting to go and kill a planned target. He looks at his watch and climbs three floors of stairs and walks down the corridor to the location were he was told he would find his target. He walks up to the target without being heard and points his pistol at the target. The woman who sent him on his mission (Candeece) who is Mike’s old partner for their hit man agency is also been asked to go the location. Unbeknown to her, her target is Mike and she is under grave pressure to kill her target (It is hard for her as she has a crush on Mike). Mike goes to pull the trigger on his target but takes to long and is shot by Candeece. We see mike collapse to the floor as-if dead! At the end of the scene Trig (who was Mike’s target) walks over to Candeece and sees that she is nervous so comforts her by telling her “you did well”. They walk off down the corridor with Trig believing that Mike is dead. But Mike then sharply opens his eyes gets up and addresses the audience to say; “So I suppose you want to know what is going on?”
BulletProof Script
INT. STAIRWELL (GROUND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE looks at his watch and opens the bag with the gun in, he takes out the gun and checks the bullets and puts the magazine in the gun and exits squatting in the shadows under the stairwell.
INT. FEMME-FATAL STAIRWELL (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
FEMME-FATAL nervously walks up the stairs holding the gun awkwardly and pauses and looks at the direction information, continues to the entrance to the corridor and pauses and sighs
INT. FEMME-FATAL 2ND FLOOR CORRIDOOR DUSK/EVENING
FEMME-FATAL enters the corridor and walks the centre of the corridor and collapses into a dark area on the right
INT. TRIG BRIDGE (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
TRIG is in a locker arranging some documents. A gun is clearly visible on the documents
INT. MIKE STAIRWELL (MIDDLE FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE is weary of being seen and if anyone is above him on the stairwell, he clibs the stairs calmly putting one foot on each step as he goes up the stairs.
INT. MIKE (2ND FLOOR CORRIDOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE stops just outside the entrance to the 2nd floor corridor and opens is and peers around the open door into the corridor to check it’s clear. He proceeds with the gun held loosely in his right hand
INT. BRIDGE (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE walks down corridor and sees a glance of the subject he is meant to kill. His footsteps get lighter and he goes up to the wall and creeps along the wall. He gets to the corner looks round, composes himself then stands in the centre of the corridor and slowly brings the gun from the relaxed position to the firing position with the barrel pointing towards his target
TRIG: I’m surprised you haven’t pulled the trigger yet!
MIKE: How did you know I was here?
TRIG: I know most things.
MIKE: Name some!
TRIG: I know the organisation that sent you! (Gloatingly)
MIKE: And how would you know that
TRIG: easy, we have a mole in your organisation, the one thing I don’t know is your name! May I have the pleasure of knowing it?
MIKE: NO!
MIKE raises the gun to trig who is looking straight down the barrel. There is a long pause before a loud BANG!
MIKE collapses to the ground as-if dead
TRIG confidently walks over to CANDEECE and takes the gun from her
TRIG: You did well
TRIG & CANDEECE walk off down the corridor
MIKE from dead, suddenly awakes picks up the gun and addresses the audience (via fourth wall)
MIKE looks at his watch and opens the bag with the gun in, he takes out the gun and checks the bullets and puts the magazine in the gun and exits squatting in the shadows under the stairwell.
INT. FEMME-FATAL STAIRWELL (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
FEMME-FATAL nervously walks up the stairs holding the gun awkwardly and pauses and looks at the direction information, continues to the entrance to the corridor and pauses and sighs
INT. FEMME-FATAL 2ND FLOOR CORRIDOOR DUSK/EVENING
FEMME-FATAL enters the corridor and walks the centre of the corridor and collapses into a dark area on the right
INT. TRIG BRIDGE (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
TRIG is in a locker arranging some documents. A gun is clearly visible on the documents
INT. MIKE STAIRWELL (MIDDLE FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE is weary of being seen and if anyone is above him on the stairwell, he clibs the stairs calmly putting one foot on each step as he goes up the stairs.
INT. MIKE (2ND FLOOR CORRIDOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE stops just outside the entrance to the 2nd floor corridor and opens is and peers around the open door into the corridor to check it’s clear. He proceeds with the gun held loosely in his right hand
INT. BRIDGE (2ND FLOOR) DUSK/EVENING
MIKE walks down corridor and sees a glance of the subject he is meant to kill. His footsteps get lighter and he goes up to the wall and creeps along the wall. He gets to the corner looks round, composes himself then stands in the centre of the corridor and slowly brings the gun from the relaxed position to the firing position with the barrel pointing towards his target
TRIG: I’m surprised you haven’t pulled the trigger yet!
MIKE: How did you know I was here?
TRIG: I know most things.
MIKE: Name some!
TRIG: I know the organisation that sent you! (Gloatingly)
MIKE: And how would you know that
TRIG: easy, we have a mole in your organisation, the one thing I don’t know is your name! May I have the pleasure of knowing it?
MIKE: NO!
MIKE raises the gun to trig who is looking straight down the barrel. There is a long pause before a loud BANG!
MIKE collapses to the ground as-if dead
TRIG confidently walks over to CANDEECE and takes the gun from her
TRIG: You did well
TRIG & CANDEECE walk off down the corridor
MIKE from dead, suddenly awakes picks up the gun and addresses the audience (via fourth wall)
Friday, 5 March 2010
Contemporary Noir / Neo-noir
Contemporary Noir or Neo-Noir is a modern piece of film that is influenced the film noir era starting in the 1920 and lasting until the early 60’s. neo-noir uses different aspects of film noir such as plot, characters, stylistics and mise-en-scene. Unlike classic noirs, neo-noir films are aware of modern technology and modern film techniques, and these modern techniques and technology are incorporated into the plot-line. Due to Hollywood blockbusters in recent times some neo-noirs don’t seem to be as big or popular as these. But the genre of film noir has had a huge impact on other current genres like horrors using shadows and silhouettes to suspend their audience.
Neo-noirs usually incorporate certain aspects of film noir. Such as low-key lighting, silhouettes, lipstick, make-up. Or the plot could have a miserable end, where the protagonist becomes trapped in a web of crime and becomes involved with a femme-fetal. Three good examples in my opinion of neo-noirs in recent times are;
• Se7en
• Brick
• Sin City
Neo-noirs usually incorporate certain aspects of film noir. Such as low-key lighting, silhouettes, lipstick, make-up. Or the plot could have a miserable end, where the protagonist becomes trapped in a web of crime and becomes involved with a femme-fetal. Three good examples in my opinion of neo-noirs in recent times are;
• Se7en
• Brick
• Sin City
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Neo-Noir Images
Here is an image of a neo-noir, the neo-noir uses colour but dulls down most colours to give that high contrast between light and dark. only key objects and characters are highlighted in this scene. Also the rain effect is known as a film noir technique
Image of 'Sam' from the Maltease Falcon, which the Silhouette of the falcon and sam projected on the wall
A two-shot of a male and a female facing each other. none of their features are highlighted just the Silhouette's of the figures stand out in the bright smoke.
Again a female figure signaling a car to stop in the night, only her black outline is visable on the brightly lit road and field with the light source in the centre of the frame.
This image is a good example of how smoke can look with a dark background with light shon onto it.
Another theme that is associated with film noir lighting is that of the slanted blinds. They project light and shadow onto charaters and objects suggesting they have both a dark & a light side to them.
Again another lighting effect of film noir. this dark room makes this charters figure seem really authoritive due to the camera angle and the use of the light casing shadows from the figure.
One more example of a femme fatale with the slanted blind effect.
Here is a film poster from the classic film noir of the 'Maltese Falcon' which uses many conventions of Film Noir
Monday, 11 January 2010
3 Examples of Classic Film Noir
Sunset Boulevard 1950 by Billy Wilder - A man is found dead in a Hollywood mansion floating in the swimming pool. The narrator then comes in to explain that the man in the pool is an unsuccessful screenwriter. The film then cuts to a flashback were the audience discovers that the narrator is the main character in the flashback and is identified as Joe Gillies; in this flash back we find out that Joe is a screenwriter who was trying to make some fast cash to save his car from being repossessed.
Desperate, Gillis makes various calls to Hollywood friends and contacts, and manages to secure a meeting with a producer at Paramount Studios, where he pitches a script he has written called ‘Bases Loaded’. Sheldrake, who is a producer, seems interested in the property until a young woman from the Reader Department, Betty Schaefer, is summoned and arrives with an outline of the script, but dismisses it as a mediocre work. Angered at the rejection, Gillis leaves and then manages to locate his agent, who is playing golf in Bel-Air. He does not help Gillis with his financial problems.
While returning back to Hollywood along Sunset Boulevard, Gillis is spotted by two repossession men and a chase starts. When a tire blows on Gillis' car during the pursuit, he swerves into a local residence in order to escape the repo men. And discovers that he has entered the grounds of what he assumes is a deserted mansion. He hides his car in a garage. And as he gets out of the car a voice from the upstairs balcony calls down for him to go up. He is meet at the door by a butler called Max, who we later find out is a director. He goes upstairs and meets Norma Desmond who was a silent movie star. She learns that Joe is a scriptwrighter and lets him stay and helps him out with his financial difficulties, but Joe is completely dependant on Norma. He occasionally shows discomfort towards Norma’s affection, but he makes no effort to change his situation.
Norma throws a New Years Eve party and Joe finds out hat there are no other guests invited. At this party Norma tells Joe that she is in love with him. He leaves Normas and heads to another party. At this party he meets the woman who said his baseball script was rubbish but likes some of his other scripts. With this news Joe Rings Nomra’s house were max tells Joe that Norma has attempted suicide.
The two seem relatively content as Norma continues preparing for her movie 'comeback'. But Paramount studio only wants to hire Norma's vintage Isotta-Fraschini car for use in a film and has no interest in her script. Max and Joe keep this from her. By now, Max has revealed he was the first of her three husbands, and is a former film director who had discovered her. Joe has secretly begun meeting with Betty to work on a screenplay together, and they fall in love. When Norma discovers this, she phones Betty and insinuates what sort of man Joe really is. Joe returns to the house in time to hear what Norma has said and takes the phone from her. He tells Betty to come to the house, where he explains his side of the situation before turning Betty away.
Joe brushes her aside and begins packing to leave. Norma threatens to shoot herself but he does not take her seriously. As he walks away, she follows and shoots him three times before he falls into the pool, now dead.
Having explained the corpse in the pool, the film returns to the present, where Norma, seated before a mirror in her bedroom, appears to be lost in fantasy
This film has many noir traits within it. The curvy staircase is an icon to noir. As the curvy lines on each of the steps. And most of the shots show someone on the staircase or a close-up of them walking up or sown the staircase. Also the opening and closing scenes when Joe is shown floating face down in the pool with the distorted images of police and reports with cameras is very specific and gives the film its noir feel.
Detour 1945 by Edgar G Ulmer - We were introduced to a man in a bar narrating his thoughts to the audience, about a girl in a broad way show. He travels to California by foot to be with the love of his life, but on his way gets offered a lift by a Mr Haskell, he takes him up on the offer, and begins travelling with him. Mr Haskell begins to feel tired and so they pull over and swap drivers, Al is then driving while Mr Haskell sleeps, when it begins to rain uncontrollably and they are in a car with a convertible top. After carrying on for a while he decides it is too wet to carry on so pulls over to lift on the top. As he try’s to wake Mr Haskell to help him put up the top, he realises something terrible has happened and he is unable to awaken him. He then dumps Mr Haskell in a gutter off the road and steals his identity, by taking his money, clothes, ID and driving away in his expensive car. While in the car with Mr Haskell, Al was told a story about a woman he had once picked up while driving along named Vera whom was very violent and a terrible woman towards Mr Haskell. Now whilst driving along Al sees a vulnerable looking woman waiting for some assistance so offers her a lift as they are going to the same place, after driving with Vera for a few miles, after she has asked him some peculiar questions, he begins to realise this is the same Vera that Mr Haskell had picked up, and that all he could do was tell her the truth about Mr Haskell as she is blackmailing him and threatening to turn him in for murder. He hands over all the money and carries on driving her to California. Once in California they sell his car and rent out an apartment for a night, while discussing what is going to happen next they see in a local newspaper that Mr Haskell was about to come into a large inheritance, at this Vera jumps at the chance for more money and so try’s to persuade Al to impersonate Mr Haskell and get the money. Al strongly disagrees with this and the two don’t talk all evening after a row about this subject. They then get drunk together, and Vera takes Al up on his angry offer to phone the police on him for murder, and doing so locks her drunken self in the bedroom with the phone, in doing so Al pulls the phone lead to get her off and stop her from calling the police, and without realising accidentally strangles her with the phone cord. Once this incident has happened Al has nothing to do but to begin hitching back East and on his way back on the finally of the film we see him get picked up by the police near Reno.
Double Indemnity 1944 Director Billy Wilder - I think that double indemnity is a prime example of film noir. It’s probably in the top 10 most popular film noir’s. So much content in the film screams film noir traits and perfectly defines everything noir stands for;
• Crime
• Murder
• Femme fatales
• Misery
The antagonist who is a salesman named Walter Neff meets the wife of one of his clients and after they have met they have an affair. The plot is to murder his client and him and the cliants wife gain accidental insurance of her husbands death. Walter Neff aims to receive a “double indemnity clause” and get twice the amount of money (hence the title of the film). He succeeds in fooling the police once the woman’s husband is found dead on a railway track. But the insurance company becomes suspicious and believed the death was intentional. This story-line is typical of film noirs as the wife/adulterer is described as “seductive” which is typical of the representation of women in the genre’s era. And the plot line makes the viewer feel misery, like no one wins
Desperate, Gillis makes various calls to Hollywood friends and contacts, and manages to secure a meeting with a producer at Paramount Studios, where he pitches a script he has written called ‘Bases Loaded’. Sheldrake, who is a producer, seems interested in the property until a young woman from the Reader Department, Betty Schaefer, is summoned and arrives with an outline of the script, but dismisses it as a mediocre work. Angered at the rejection, Gillis leaves and then manages to locate his agent, who is playing golf in Bel-Air. He does not help Gillis with his financial problems.
While returning back to Hollywood along Sunset Boulevard, Gillis is spotted by two repossession men and a chase starts. When a tire blows on Gillis' car during the pursuit, he swerves into a local residence in order to escape the repo men. And discovers that he has entered the grounds of what he assumes is a deserted mansion. He hides his car in a garage. And as he gets out of the car a voice from the upstairs balcony calls down for him to go up. He is meet at the door by a butler called Max, who we later find out is a director. He goes upstairs and meets Norma Desmond who was a silent movie star. She learns that Joe is a scriptwrighter and lets him stay and helps him out with his financial difficulties, but Joe is completely dependant on Norma. He occasionally shows discomfort towards Norma’s affection, but he makes no effort to change his situation.
Norma throws a New Years Eve party and Joe finds out hat there are no other guests invited. At this party Norma tells Joe that she is in love with him. He leaves Normas and heads to another party. At this party he meets the woman who said his baseball script was rubbish but likes some of his other scripts. With this news Joe Rings Nomra’s house were max tells Joe that Norma has attempted suicide.
The two seem relatively content as Norma continues preparing for her movie 'comeback'. But Paramount studio only wants to hire Norma's vintage Isotta-Fraschini car for use in a film and has no interest in her script. Max and Joe keep this from her. By now, Max has revealed he was the first of her three husbands, and is a former film director who had discovered her. Joe has secretly begun meeting with Betty to work on a screenplay together, and they fall in love. When Norma discovers this, she phones Betty and insinuates what sort of man Joe really is. Joe returns to the house in time to hear what Norma has said and takes the phone from her. He tells Betty to come to the house, where he explains his side of the situation before turning Betty away.
Joe brushes her aside and begins packing to leave. Norma threatens to shoot herself but he does not take her seriously. As he walks away, she follows and shoots him three times before he falls into the pool, now dead.
Having explained the corpse in the pool, the film returns to the present, where Norma, seated before a mirror in her bedroom, appears to be lost in fantasy
This film has many noir traits within it. The curvy staircase is an icon to noir. As the curvy lines on each of the steps. And most of the shots show someone on the staircase or a close-up of them walking up or sown the staircase. Also the opening and closing scenes when Joe is shown floating face down in the pool with the distorted images of police and reports with cameras is very specific and gives the film its noir feel.
Detour 1945 by Edgar G Ulmer - We were introduced to a man in a bar narrating his thoughts to the audience, about a girl in a broad way show. He travels to California by foot to be with the love of his life, but on his way gets offered a lift by a Mr Haskell, he takes him up on the offer, and begins travelling with him. Mr Haskell begins to feel tired and so they pull over and swap drivers, Al is then driving while Mr Haskell sleeps, when it begins to rain uncontrollably and they are in a car with a convertible top. After carrying on for a while he decides it is too wet to carry on so pulls over to lift on the top. As he try’s to wake Mr Haskell to help him put up the top, he realises something terrible has happened and he is unable to awaken him. He then dumps Mr Haskell in a gutter off the road and steals his identity, by taking his money, clothes, ID and driving away in his expensive car. While in the car with Mr Haskell, Al was told a story about a woman he had once picked up while driving along named Vera whom was very violent and a terrible woman towards Mr Haskell. Now whilst driving along Al sees a vulnerable looking woman waiting for some assistance so offers her a lift as they are going to the same place, after driving with Vera for a few miles, after she has asked him some peculiar questions, he begins to realise this is the same Vera that Mr Haskell had picked up, and that all he could do was tell her the truth about Mr Haskell as she is blackmailing him and threatening to turn him in for murder. He hands over all the money and carries on driving her to California. Once in California they sell his car and rent out an apartment for a night, while discussing what is going to happen next they see in a local newspaper that Mr Haskell was about to come into a large inheritance, at this Vera jumps at the chance for more money and so try’s to persuade Al to impersonate Mr Haskell and get the money. Al strongly disagrees with this and the two don’t talk all evening after a row about this subject. They then get drunk together, and Vera takes Al up on his angry offer to phone the police on him for murder, and doing so locks her drunken self in the bedroom with the phone, in doing so Al pulls the phone lead to get her off and stop her from calling the police, and without realising accidentally strangles her with the phone cord. Once this incident has happened Al has nothing to do but to begin hitching back East and on his way back on the finally of the film we see him get picked up by the police near Reno.
Double Indemnity 1944 Director Billy Wilder - I think that double indemnity is a prime example of film noir. It’s probably in the top 10 most popular film noir’s. So much content in the film screams film noir traits and perfectly defines everything noir stands for;
• Crime
• Murder
• Femme fatales
• Misery
The antagonist who is a salesman named Walter Neff meets the wife of one of his clients and after they have met they have an affair. The plot is to murder his client and him and the cliants wife gain accidental insurance of her husbands death. Walter Neff aims to receive a “double indemnity clause” and get twice the amount of money (hence the title of the film). He succeeds in fooling the police once the woman’s husband is found dead on a railway track. But the insurance company becomes suspicious and believed the death was intentional. This story-line is typical of film noirs as the wife/adulterer is described as “seductive” which is typical of the representation of women in the genre’s era. And the plot line makes the viewer feel misery, like no one wins
Monday, 4 January 2010
History of Film Noir & The Codes and Convetions of Noir
The term Film Noir is used to describe the era that stylish Hollywood film crime dramas were primarily used. The era that film noir was primarily used for these type of film was from the early 1940’s to the late 1950’s. The term noir came about in 1946 by a French film critic called Nino Frank. Cinema historians and critics defined the general rules of film noir after reviewing the past films and deciding on commonly used effects, prop’s, storylines, etc. Many of those who created potential film noirs later confessed that they were unaware of having created a distinctive type of film.
It was given its name of film noir after the second world war where the French named it. Meaning film of black & white. France was receiving a large flood of Hollywood movies in a short space of time because the French had been to busy fighting to play many movies during the second world war.
Cinema critics define film noir as stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize sexual motivation. Back when film noir was in its prime, it was associated with its usage of black and white styles and very low-key lighting, rain shadowing, Smokey settings, and over usage of lipstick. A lot of the storylines derived from the stereotypical crime fiction that appeared in the United States during the depression. Film noir was a big hit because most of the world had just been involved in WWII. The nations like the US and the UK had bad social conditions due to the men returning home and expecting to go back to their old way of working. The women like the jobs that they had been asked to fill while the men were at war. And many women refused to leave their job. This was illustrated by the strong roles women played in film noirs.
Film noir produced a lot of ‘B’ picture movies; because early films didn’t have a big budget or corporate backing to produce them like they do in modern Hollywood productions.
Some forms of German expressionism (Another style of early film) comes across very strongly in very early film noir. This technique uses extreme camera angles, angles that are not typically used in Hollywood films. This makes the viewer feel very strange as it is something they are not used to. Also colours in film noir tend to be very highly contrasted between black and white. There is not many mid-tones colours used (i.e. gray)
Classic film noirs (from the 1940’s/50’s) typically use black & white. Mainly due to this was the best techonolgy at the time. But modern film noirs or ‘Neo noirs’ as they are called illustrates certain aspects of the codes and conventions from old noirs. Like in Sin City 2005. It mostly uses the Black & White technique but in some scenes it also may let though some red to really draw attention to what the film is illustrating; Like a fem-fatal’s make-up, Or the blood of a victim.
It was given its name of film noir after the second world war where the French named it. Meaning film of black & white. France was receiving a large flood of Hollywood movies in a short space of time because the French had been to busy fighting to play many movies during the second world war.
Cinema critics define film noir as stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize sexual motivation. Back when film noir was in its prime, it was associated with its usage of black and white styles and very low-key lighting, rain shadowing, Smokey settings, and over usage of lipstick. A lot of the storylines derived from the stereotypical crime fiction that appeared in the United States during the depression. Film noir was a big hit because most of the world had just been involved in WWII. The nations like the US and the UK had bad social conditions due to the men returning home and expecting to go back to their old way of working. The women like the jobs that they had been asked to fill while the men were at war. And many women refused to leave their job. This was illustrated by the strong roles women played in film noirs.
Film noir produced a lot of ‘B’ picture movies; because early films didn’t have a big budget or corporate backing to produce them like they do in modern Hollywood productions.
Some forms of German expressionism (Another style of early film) comes across very strongly in very early film noir. This technique uses extreme camera angles, angles that are not typically used in Hollywood films. This makes the viewer feel very strange as it is something they are not used to. Also colours in film noir tend to be very highly contrasted between black and white. There is not many mid-tones colours used (i.e. gray)
Classic film noirs (from the 1940’s/50’s) typically use black & white. Mainly due to this was the best techonolgy at the time. But modern film noirs or ‘Neo noirs’ as they are called illustrates certain aspects of the codes and conventions from old noirs. Like in Sin City 2005. It mostly uses the Black & White technique but in some scenes it also may let though some red to really draw attention to what the film is illustrating; Like a fem-fatal’s make-up, Or the blood of a victim.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)