specific effect

The effect mentioned in the film noir feedback

The film 'The dead letter drop'

Here is our finished Film Noir 'The dead letter drop'. Though good, it did manage to contain a glitch during the scene with which our male protagonist receives his first letter. I believe that this may have happened due to the size of the film before it was compressed.

Coursework Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

With the film noir that was set out to be made it was merely a development of the noirs stories of pessimism and the destruction of the male protagonist by the femme fatale which has been seen in so many past noirs narratives such as Double Indemnity directed in 1944 by Billy Wilder and the Maltese Falcon directed in 1941 by John Huston. Though our contemporary twist was taken from films such as Brick which was directed by Rian Johnson.

This film also inspired the idea to incorporate our previous work which was ‘the exchange’ and use it as the opening to our contemporary neo noir and act as the beginning to a flash back of events that brought our male character, Spencer to his end. This i felt would leave a fantastic enigma straight from the beginning of the film. usually, watching an opening scene it should enables the feeling of intrigue within the viewer, making him want to watch more and understand more about what this film is going to offer to them.

Our opening scene does just that. As well as this we also chose most of the film to be set in open spaces like those seen in Brick which is set within a school. I liked the idea of using open spaces because its very different to the small claustrophobic locations that were used in past film noirs. The incorporation of the previous noir narratives of femme fatales and unlucky/unwanted male characters was what we used as our main narrative.

The mise-en-scene in the opening scene see’s the femme fatale dressed literally ‘to die for’ whilst our male character is dressed simply but smartly with a pea coat and winkle picker shoes similarly like those in past noirs. The narrative was based around a desperate male looking to replace his pathetic life with something more exciting and is offered the chance to change this the femme fatale who lies in wait to toy with him and use him for her own sadistic pleasures with countless letters which unbeknown to him will in the end destroy him. The film follows a non-linear approach to things to make the viewer guess on what is happening and also to aid the confusion.

The opening is in black white to take into account the previous genre’s stylistics but when the story transfers to the flashback it turns to colour, maybe to confuse the viewer on what is real and what isn’t. the cinematography and editing of the first scene adds the disorientation/uncomfortable feelings felt from past noirs such as when the female character walks towards Spencer, the use of jump cuts distorts the females walking pace and the fade away of her character makes it seem as if she isn’t real.

(see the specific effect on the blog entry)

The film made was more of a challenge towards previous noirs in the sense that the locations used and the clothes worn were more of a take on modern noirs (apart from the opening scene) such as brick than those seen in the Big Sleep which was directed in 1946 by Howard Hawkes and the Maltese falcon, directed in 1941 by John Huston, like trilby hats and long silk gown dresses, though in some sense it could also be classed as a development on from the usual narratives that are usually used with film noirs such as those that evolve around the females being considered more powerful then the males.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film noirs represent feminists/strong females that can take control of a situation…which they may have chosen to cause. Who have power mentally/physically/sexually over the male protagonist Spencer, even though she maybe mentally unstable!

The locations that we shot in were firstly the college, which we managed to avoid being noticed and from the viewer perception it looks like an ordinary public place. It was chosen to use as our meeting place between the two characters with the sound used to be digetic to make this known and secondly we travelled further outwards towards a symbolic bridge within Ipswich. This was to not only play homage to the films British roots but also was a great location as it was down a dirty beaten track which is similar to those within noirs such as that seen in the Maltese falcon when P.I Sam spades partner gets shot.
The representations of our strong women is shown firstly within the mise-en-scene. The clothes at the beginning accentuates her sexiness which helps to empower herself over our male character as well as the pink envelope that keeps being handed to him by her.

The colour pink in some way expresses feminity as well as her trade mark red kiss print in the top right of the envelope. This take on women, not necessarily the tight dresses and the vast amounts of make up, but the power that they can posses over a male in some sense is a realistic portrayal of what happens in the world all around us. The ideology isn’t necessarily truthful from the messages that are portrayed within our film. That women are devious and are out to corrupt and demise any man that they can get their hands on but I feel in some way, the representation of previous noirs narratives were covered though thinking back, maybe a wider range of noir characteristics were missed such as low key lighting and angle of shots that were looking down upon the male protagonist to show the power that she has over him?

3. What kind of media institution may distribute your media product and why?

Our film should be distributed through film four or by between the eyes film production company and distributed by metrodome distribution. Reason for this is that they are small time British production companies (apart from film four) and our film isn’t exactly a big budget production looking for fortune. Because of its British heritage in the sense of locations and modern dress attire during the flash back, this may appeal to a broader range of audiences in England, especially to those that are interested in supporting the British filming associations as well as being firm fans off film noirs or contemporary twists of them.

Working title may also be an option due to them previously being a firm British production company until universal brought them in 1998. I say that this also could be an option due to their horizontal integration as well as their freedom of making films with a high payment to allow them to be made as well as the option of making 1 film which has risks involved. Seeing that it’s a film noir which usually isn’t something that is seen within the cinema’s on a regular basis. Though the cinemas where this would be distributed would probably not be any that are where big blockbusters are usually screened.

Maybe more art theatres or among the British film festivals that take place yearly.

Channels that would be screen our films would be BBC or channel 4. BBC have a close tie with metrodome distribution and channel 4 usually screens artistic cult films in the sense of Amelie and Les Triplettes De Belleville which was directed by Sylvain Chomet. this one at the caines film festival which lead to its global poularity thoughout. This is what i intend for our production. Try to gain its appearence within film festivals like the iris prize festival in Cardiff or maybe the The national student film festival in Bristol. reasons for these is that they are situated in large cities which would allow a greater population of audiences that will be attending. this could therefore equate our film to be seen by many which could lead to a word of mouth popularity increase for 'the dead letter drop'.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience that the film noir is targeted at is obviously those that enjoy the genre as well as those that enjoy a story of realism, one that doesn’t go past the boundaries of non-fiction and stay hard boiled and truthful, though aren’t always ‘solid fact’ such as ours which tell the story of a person’s demise through playing a game.

Its targeted at the lowest social grading of E all the way right through to A on the social economics. reason being is that film noir is realism. It tells it how it is though sometimes the stories might be slightly fictional but many aren’t, such as Brick which was directed by Rian Johnson which follows a teenager set out to find why the person he loved became mixed up with drugs and societal underdogs and how did she die.

Now, extreme cases cover death but the common occurrence of someone’s loved one taking the wrong path in life isn’t something unheard of and that’s why I believe our film can cover such a range of social economic/ demographical scale. Some people can relate to the overall representations and pessimistic narratives that are told whilst others who are far from ever experiencing such devastating things can watch and see how real something’s can get.

Our film isn’t as devastatingly real but it does withhold the meaning that it doesn’t always end well….things aren’t always a happy ending. So therefore I guess it covers from ‘innovators’ who are described as having high incomes who enjoy the finer things in life to the ‘experincers’ with the average age of 25 and the ‘survivors’ who have the lowest incomes.

The films rating or BBFC I believe should be considered a 12A. Our target audience is involved within this as well as anyone younger. Reason being is that it does promote hatred, psychotic, murderous behaviour/ intentions from the femme fatale which could be seen as a threat towards legal values I.e. breaking the law through murder. But due to the low bbfc classification because of the lack of scenes (none) of violence this means that its suitable to the age group of 12A and upwards and allows the film to be open to a wider range of audiences.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience was addressed due to the comparisons that they could make maybe in the ideology of events unfolding such as the unfamiliar unhappy endings, that not everything always ends up such as seen between the characters who both seem like ‘strivers’ (low resource group who are motivated by achievements) such as Spencer.

He is lonely, fed up of the mundanity of life and is after something/anything to awaken a new excitement within.

Whilst others could relate to our femme fatale not in the sense that she is murderously inclined…I hope, but in the sense that she is a sexual deviant who dresses in fashionable clothes, is powerful and confident in her own body and who can take control of situations. I believe females would be intrigued to watch this for that very reason. Some of the feedback from the audience we showed this too gave great acknowlegement towards shots used to define our characters. For instance, the shot of the femme fatale walking over the camera was liked by the females of the audience because it showed the power that that the femme fatale had over the male protagonist who was walking towards her.

The non digetic sound used such as the background music was a variation of modern music which divulged over certain music genre’s I.e. rock and hip hop which would be the type of music that our target audience maybe interested in.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making this product?

Technologies used for the initial research stage on cinematography used and editing effects were that of popular search engines such as Google and you tube. You tube was used mainly for viewing opening scenes of previous noirs. It’s on you tube where our main idea to have the ending of our story as the beginning was seen. These were from opening scenes of the film Fight club which was directed by David Fincher and the 1950’s D.O.A directed by Rudolph mate. Facebook, the online community, was also another place which was researched to have an idea on whether any Film Noir fan groups had been set up and to see what these fans most wanted to see within a film noir film.
Technologies used in the planning stage varied tremendously during our production. To start with our camera used was a Canon HV30 DV camcorder. This was our piece of equipment which was used for the stages of filming. This was also used to record the voice over’s which we used to give a little more understanding towards the narrative of the film. The VELBON DV-7000 tri-pod was used to keep the camcorder steady ensuring that the filming was fluent with no shakes within it.
The YOGA shotgun microphone, boom pole and headphones were used in the scene inside the car. This way the conversation being filmed would again be fluent with no background noise and ensured the conversation being heard was clear and understandable.
Once the filming had been finished I edited the footage in final cut pro which was on the Apple Macs, effects used were also developed on final cut pro such as the fades between some scenes and the jolted approach from our femme fatale to our sitting protagonist male.

The titles were also developed on Final Cut Pro as well as compressing the files in the compressor so that we were able to make them into QuickTime files so that they could be smaller and more accessible on the web. This would allow it to be placed onto our blogs also.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our final piece I felt had made a vast improvement compared to the original work that had been done. To begin with, the knowledge that I now know compared to the beginning is vast in cases such as editing and cinematography, being able to recognise shots that worked and shots that didn’t. this was a problem that seemed to keep cropping up during the final piece in which shots in the storyboards and ideas of shots looked and sounded great but it wasn’t until we started to film them that it would become apparent that they just weren’t working with the flow of the film.

For instance, our first meeting between the femme fatale and Spencer was meant to be in a corridor which would see the femme fatale bump into Spencer causing his books to drop but at the same time she would drop an envelope to the floor which he’d notice once the books were picked up. Now the main problem was how compact the corridor was and the shots we wanted were just to large for the area that we were working in. therefore it was moved to a larger area in a public meeting spot within a college.

Why this was chosen was because of the openness of the area and also it would be an easy place for someone to be able to creep up onto an unsuspecting person/victim in Spencer’s case. The importance within our time management was that it created a plan to run by, making sure that the filming wasn’t just by coincidence and that everyone had a role to complete which sped up the pre and post production phases, though to our groups bad luck myself and Rita were left to finish the post production by ourselves due to two of our other members of our team leaving college.

This caused us to become behind to begin with which lead to the editing being kept on hold but this didn’t prove to be a problem for very long.

My role was largely to do with editing, it was my job to piece together the shots we had achieved and make them flow due to continuity editing which was what our main target was instead of the non-linear editing which would be seen in past film noirs.

The reason i chose continuity is that it makes the film a lot more fluent and also it gives a little extra towards the contemporary noir 'take' that we were trying to get, though to some degree it can also be classed as non-linear due to the fact that our ending was at the beginning of our film and the idea is to try and relay how our male protagonist got into the position he was in.

Even though I was editor I also helped within decisions being made in what shots would be better to use and the obstacle that was needed to be ‘climbed over’ which was “what can replace the corridor scene”.

This was a large decision between, at that point, only three of the four members of the group.

My abilities that I have gained I would say have increased tremendously compared to when I first began AS media. During our pre/post production work the understanding of being organised has increased.

The change of mentality from chancing the productions has changed to what it was to begin with.

On our last media piece storyboards were one of our main focuses of pre production which helped because if we hadn’t then the problem with the small corridor could have been worse than it was and our post production emphasis was more towards the shot lists.

Making sure that each scene was logged and then the time recorded so that we knew when it begun and ended. This made it a lot easier for if we needed to go back to a particular scene which in one case we had too due to the college system causing clips that were being logged to freeze half way through.

The understanding of using a CANON HV30 DV camcorder and the VELBON DV-7000 tri-pod was another key element of our production that needed to be understood. Without the knowledge gained in using it would have made some of the scenes which viewed objects of interest like the ’radio’ being turned of would have proven difficult or the exchange of the letter at the beginning of the film.

Our SMART targets were generally all followed though sometimes we managed fall short just a couple of times such as on one occasion we were set to film during a weekend but for some reason the camera’s didn’t contain any battery packs and because of this we were setback by up to one week which wasn’t very helpful. The main problem that we came to realise was whether our goals were realistic and were they attainable in the time frame that we had. The answer again on most occasions was yes but there were times when the groups optimism may have been slightly too high as we found ourselves filming outside of college hours due to our time to complete gradually running out but this in somehow trained us all to cope with the stressful situations and find a way around them.

Those being represented within our film were strong females who didn‘t rely on what the male decided to but instead told the male what to do. This was the main representation that we were after as seen by many past femme fatales but with the slight exaggeration of our femme fatale being a tad bit crazy. It was made to be as close to a film noir narrative with the inclusion on contemporary aspects which included modern clothing and lack of private eye jargon that would be originally spoken in films such as the Maltese Falcon by Humphrey Bogart.

Our main target audience/ those who were most likely to be the viewers of our film were those who greatly admire the past and present film noirs. Whether it be for the realism with which the films portray or the power and intelligence that the women have over the male protagonist and the million other male viewers.

I feel that our film delivered this exact portrayal of those such stories that were loved by noir fans.

I think the ideology that may be made from someone who hasn’t really heard of film noir or now what they are about will view the film as a thriller in which a psycho female is out to kill a innocent male but to those who watch film noirs they will see different messages such as females are stronger mentally and physically then some would give them credit. Also that life isn’t always fantastically brilliant and that some people don’t have the benefits or social popularity that others do. This is where we were trying to portray Spencer as being someone who doesn’t have large social groups and is lucky with women.

After viewing the final piece of our media production and whilst editing I started to realise that in some sense this message wasn’t being portrayed as clear as I had hoped. Instead it comes across as a young male who is desperate for money which was a slight let down. If I were to film this again I think I would change the attire he was wearing and make it more towards a geeky, lonely, dull character with the inclusion of wearing boring colours and large glasses with an even more scruffy hairstyle then he has in the ‘dead letter drop’.

Our narrative I felt covered the main codes and conventions of film noir in the sense of a pessimistic storyline and the immediate downfall of Spencer as soon as he opens the letter, even though he doesn’t realise it at the time. The characters in which the film portrays are those that are generally seen in noirs such as Double indemnity directed by Billy Wilder or a more recent contemporary noir Body heat directed by Lawrence Kasdan in the sense that the male protagonist is always tricked by the devious Femme fatale who is always in the quest for power.

The genre in which Film noir is is that of darkness and realism with an uneven balance of pessimism and optimism with the outcome of the scales always weighing down on pessimism. I felt in total all aspects of this genre was covered within our take on it. The beginning sequence is black and white just like those previous noirs with the contemporary twist of it being colour during the flashback which in some way helps to add a decision making in whether the flashback is real time or not.

Our demise of a helpless male protagonist is a film noir classic and this is what we chose to use to tell our contemporary twist of a story but as said before, the inclusion of modern stylistics like clothes cars make up and modernised furniture (as seen in the first meeting between two)helps to give that contemporary feel.

feedback of 'The dead letter drop'

As media film noir feedback.

Initial audience response/impressions. The good areas.

The first impressions of our film ‘the dead letter drop’ varied between good and bad. Firstly let us start with the good parts. Our establishing shot of the first meeting between the femme fatale and our male protagonist was highly congratulated. The cinematography was a main hit with the audience such as those seen at the first sequence during the exchange of the letter which once opened ‘supposedly’ kills him. Shots were that of a Dutch tilt of the dead males feet as it looks to watch the femme fatale walk away. The digetic music being played created a cross cut which saw the next shot of the radio being turned off which creates the non-digetic music to be turned off too.The panning shot of the atrium was seen as changing the infrastructure of film noir which I felt the film generally did. Instead of it being in cramped rooms with hard lights everywhere we made it in wide open spaces. The editing of our femme fatale walking towards Spencer and jump cutting the scene by seconds to create a distorted walk and the fade away of her after putting the envelope into the bag was highly praised as it left the idea to many in the case of whether she was real or not which even I hadn’t thought of it looking like that.

(That specific scene is on a blog entry to be viewed)

The bad areas were that the dialogue was seen as not being obvious In the sense that in one scene the voice over plays over a scene of the two characters discussing the ‘game’. this caused a bewilderment to a few of our audience members which we later changed to make sure the voice over and narrative was a lot clearer. During the beginning of the conversation between the Spencer and his femme fatale the appearance of a microphone comes into the scene which in pretty much ruined the whole scene. Due to our cinematographer leaving shortly after I put this down to her not really caring anymore and what was more annoying is its something which cannot be changed unless the shot is stretched which creates it to become less in focus. Also at the beginning when Spencer opens the last letter which says BANG an idea was put across to introduce a sound effect to make it more obvious on whether he was shot or not?

Use of cinematography - The different variation of panning shots such as the slow panning of the Orwell bridge and the sped up pan within the large meeting area when Spencer is trying to see who had just delivered the envelope. The variety of shots that were used within the film as well as the editing effects used with the uncomfortable scene of the 1^st meeting between the two was enjoyed.

Use of mise-en-scene - The outfits worn were a noticeable take on noir at the beginning but then it came clear on the flashback of the contemporary twist. The clothes worn for instance with Spencer was seen as a transformation from a scruffy loner to a confident young noir male protagonist. The pink envelope was commented on in being a good colour to express a female as well as being closely related to love.

Use of sound - The background music within the atrium was good in developing the scene in the sense of making it obvious that it was a meeting place and that you could easily go unnoticed in dropping of an envelope without someone realising. The voice over again was slightly criticised in the sense that it was ok but it could have been longer so that it made the narrative a lot more obvious and louder so that it was a lot clearer to hear. In some scene some of the audience said that they had to really concentrate to hear what was trying to be said. The digetic and non-digetic was an overall thumbs up.

Use of editing, titles and effects. - The pace of editing was good as it helped raise the tension of the film straight from the beginning and then let it calm down over so slightly and then raised the tempo back up just before the two meet in the car. As well as mentioned before the distorted approach of the femme fatale and cross cuts that were used within the film.

Suitability of style to noir genres codes and conventions - Everyone exclaimed yes

Suitability of narrative to noir codes and conventions - Again, everyone said yes

Suitability of characters (representation) to noir codes and conventions - Everyone said yes

Overall production values - Everyone said yes apart from a few who expressed their dislike of the low levelled volume of the voice over and the appearance of a microphone within a scene.

Who are the target audience? - We explained that it would be from 15-30 because of the violent end and the difficulty of trying to understand the narrative.

Group meetings/plans on research, shooting, editing.

Our group decisions varied throughout our final film. The research that I carried out was mainly on understood whether film noir was recognised through a varied aged and sex groups and bringing forward a small synopsis on what is meant to happen. This helped to enable any changes that could be made to the production and whether this would be a popular film to be seen.
There were also problems throughout the months with our group in the fact that 2 of the 4 decided to drop out of A levels all together. This meant that roles needed to be changed and balanced out. This was done by balancing out the roles between myself and Rita. As I still had editing to finish (this will later be explained why) Rita accepted to research title faces on the Apple Mac’s and then we could decide on which one suited the film as well as which one that I thought would be similar to previous bold title faces seen in noirs and contemporary noirs such as la confidential and the big sleep.
Decisions varied throughout the shooting stages due to sometimes shooting would become difficult as the location was too busy or the lighting was to dark.
One main problem that caused trouble was due to the lack of planning with the first scene that we tried to film. It failed not only because of the corridor being extremely busy but also that narrowness of it. Mise-en-scene hadn’t been looked into far enough so we were left with the problem in having to rethink a whole scene which was vital in explaining the stories events that were to unfold. This problem was overcome by a decision between our small group to film at the meeting area of college which was spacious and able to include some great non-digetic sound.
The decisions made through editing and problems that were met were as follows. Also, later on during editing it was noticeable that our cinematographer, who dropped out, may not have been all that interested due to the fact that we had a microphone popping into view through a countless amount of shots. This was a problem which couldn’t be altered without ruining the visuals of the scene which was slightly upsetting. Other altercations which needed to be added were the transference from the previous work ‘the exchange’ to the new addition to the filming. Our editing was late to start due to the filming which hadn’t been fully completed. This caused a dramatic set back to the final piece as some areas needed to be rushed to make sure that the story was understandable by the help of a voice over (voice of the dead protagonist) which needed to be added to explain why the flashback was occurring.

primary research

Research covered for my role as editor was to make sure I had an understanding on the way that film noirs look and in what way, the editor brings the scene together in front of you. I noticed a lot of cuts between characters and fades to express that time had passed from the previous scene to the developing scene being shown.
Questions were asked to 20 people aged from 16-25, (10 were male and 10 were female. For fair non biased answers) which was mainly our target audience though the more mature the person, the more likely they would be a supporter of the genre due past presence.
What was found out from the questions asked to our target aged audience enabled us to grasp what film noir’s meant to the majority of people. Some people didn’t know what it was until explained. This helped widen people’s choices of films and film genre’s to watch as many people became intrigued by what film noirs had to offer as well as their modern twists (contemporary noirs) to the genre such as la confidential.

(could i be shown how to upload graph on our return back to college please john)

blog entry mentioning pre-production

Again, waiting on the scanner- will be on blog by the return back to college if thats ok?

completed storyboards and extra pre-production

The following images are of our storyboards. Some of the shots were not used but this is just a clear indication of some of the planning that we undertook.

Our shot list that is seen here was what we used to plan the shots from the footage that was filmed. This helped to find scenes that were needed and in doing so caused less time in finding them.

script for the meeting between spencer and the femme fatale

Screenplay.

INT. COLLEGE CORRIDORS.
SPENCER enters a corridor and hears two girls talking.

Girl
(Loudly)
Yeah, I saw on the news that they found the fifth dead boy yesterday and like the other ones, the cause of death was totally unknown.

INT. SPENCERS CAR
SPENCER’s car is parked by the bridge that was shown on the photograph, OLIVIA turns off the music.

Olivia
With a posh accent
Hi, I’m Olivia. I see you got my letter.
Would you like to play a game?

Spencer
What do you mean a game?
Seriously, is this some sort of joke?

Olivia.
No. Not at all.
This is nothing more than just an exhilarating pastime.
You will get a lot of money if you win the game.

Spencer
What I have got to lose. I’ll play.
Who would pay me if I won?


Olivia
Let’s just say, I’m a very generous person.
However, if you were to lose, the consequences would be great!

Spencer
What type of game is this?

Olivia
A treasure hunt


Spencer
Ok, what am I looking for?

Olivia
You will know when you find it.

Olivia gives Spencer another pink envelope and exits the car.

The treatment of our contemporary Neo Noir

Treatment

For our modern film noir adaptation we intend to use part of our exchange exercise, in order to make a piece that is both modern but also has the classic characteristics of film noir.

Cinematography by Rita

We decided to use a wide range of shots that will add to the film noir effect, We used a long panning shot of the bridge because it not only shows the location but it can also be used as an establishing shot as well as being visually beautiful. This shot was quite lengthy compared to our second panning shot of the atrium which was a point of view shot of our male character. The speed represented the fact that he was looking for someone, but most people in the shot weren’t important.

In the car, while the characters were talking we filmed the conversation from either side and from the back. This was so that when editing we could use the shot-reverse-shot technique for the conversation. This was a medium shot. This helps show facial expressions of both characters, which is quite important. We also had an extreme close up of the radio when Olivia enters the car and turns off the music, the close up was so that the audience could see the action, which was quite empowering for her which was also a cross match with the music flowing into the second scene inside the car.In the car we also shot the conversation scene from the back, we positioned the camera in the boot of the car. This gave us another angle on the conversation that could be used later on.

We filmed a shot of Spencer in the atrium in which he was sitting down and Olivia was standing in the background by the wall, she then walks up to him, puts and envelope in his back and walks away. For this shot we kept Olivia to walk as far away from Spencer as possible within shot so that when it came to editing we could give in a ghostly effect of her jump cutting towards him which added to the mystery and non linear effect of film noir.

Editing by Joshua

The editing techniques used for our final piece will try to make the film noir filming a continuous flow to make the viewer feel like they are there in first person viewing the action taking place. The beginning shots are taken from our 1^st piece, The exchange. What we are trying to go for here is a flashback scenario. Showing the viewer what is going to happen and then relaying back to how this situation happened. Black and white is used for the beginning to make the viewer aware which is the flashback and which isn’t. This stylistic has also been used to refer back to the old noir stylistics. Our opening scene of the flashback shows Spencer, our male protagonist, sitting alone unaware that the femme fatale is behind him lying in wait. When she approaches him to place an envelope into his bag a use of jump cuts are used to speed up her movement towards Spencer. In doing so it also develops an eerie perception to be made….Is she real?The shot of Spencer opening the envelope fades out and the next shot fades in to show that time has passed between shots. That scene also show the unveiling of the Orwell bridge and the next shot to follow will be its graphic match of the Orwell bridge….hopefully.

The sound within this scene is digetic and non-digetic. with the inclusion of background sound such as that within the atrium aswell as non-digetic music which ends during the shot of justine turning of the radio.

In general the transitions between shots will be to link the sequences being shown. The use of Cuts which will be used to change locations/ scenes within the film. The next shot will be of the Orwell bridge and a panning shot towards our male character. This shot also allows the graphic match but also starts an opening to the scene and the meeting between Spencer and the femme fatale.Motivated cuts will also be used, like those scene in the beginning with Spencer sitting, to try and keep the viewer constantly anticipating the next shot….hopefully!

Sound by Rita

The sound on our film noir is dialogue, atmosphere voice over’s and music.The dialogue is quite simple and relatively short as most of the film is mysterious. In the dialogue, Olivia the femme fatale asks Spencer to play the treasure hunt game. It is quite posh dialect as Olivia is ideally, a posh, rich character. Although she keeps he sentences short and mysterious, and never gives away too much information. The voice over’s will help us put across what our main characters feels about the mystery and the treasure hunt.

The music is copy-right free; it will be used at the start to see the mysterious, film-noir mood. The music we chose effectively portrays the mood of our movie as it is sort of dark and gloomy. The music will be something that also matches the actions and fits in with what it is seen on screen.

Mise-en-scene by Rita

We used the Orwell Bridge as a background and the fields because they tied in well with the gloomy day, which added to the dark film noir effect as he filmed the characters in the car. We also used the atrium in the college as another location in which Spencer gets the first letter from Olivia, because the atrium is a room full of people and Spencer was sat there alone which helps us portray how alone he is.

As for costumes, we dressed Spencer in fairly casual wear, as he is a teenager, but we tried to dress Olivia in more formal clothing with the skirt and a blazer which we wore underneath her coat. We only had one main prop which was the pink letter with the picture inside the Olivia always used to communicate and lure Spencer around.

　

Synopsys

Spencer valentine is an eighteen year old guy with a burning desire for some excitement in his life. He picks up a pink envelope that falls out of his coat pocket. He notices his name on it.
The country is currently shaken up over the mysterious deaths of male teenagers in the region, this is the main topic of conversation, even in the lessons but to Spencer this is no more than atmospheric sound.
He opens the pink envelope and takes out a picture of a bridge, on the back written it say’s “February 1st 2010 at 12pm. don’t be late”.
Curious, two days later Spencer goes to the nearby bridge that was shown in the envelope. He meets Olivia who invites him to play a game with her, giving him another pink envelope; this raises more questions for Spencer than answers. Olivia claims that money will be given to the winner of her treasure hunt game.
Spencer isn’t so willing to believe that this is anything more than a joke but still decides to open the envelope that was given to him. With the second envelope he gets a set of photographs which together lead him to the next location through clues.
The clues lead him to different locations under a time limit.
He then comes to meet another young man named Eddie who is playing the same mysterious game that Spencer is. Though soon after the meet, Eddie is dead. The reasons for his death are unknown.
Spencer finds himself drawn to Olivia when they meet again. Assuming the feeling is mutual he ends up placing all his trust open her.
Gradually the deaths surrounding the young male adults start to stir interest upon Spencer and soon he finds out by news reports that the deaths are all related to a game.
Wondering if Olivia knows anything about the strange occurrences, Spencer decides to confront her. He goes to the next meeting place at the time and date planned though Olivia doesn’t show.
She evaporates as soon as she materialized. This leaves Spencer wondering if she was nothing but a product of his fertile imagination.
One year later, Spencer walks down the college corridors to his art class. A pink envelope is passed into his hand as he walks pass a girl who was walking in the other direction.
The familiarity of the girl causes Spencer to stop and stare as she walks away, but not for too long as Olivia doesn’t leave business unfinished.

Analysis of film Opening sequences

Fight club
The beginning of fight club I love. Mainly due to the enigma that sets. The camera seems to be of a continuous scene through only what can be a field of electricity pylons. Though, we later find that it’s an inside sequence of shots flowing through the inside of the human mind and out through the nostrils to the end of a gun barrel placed uncomfortably inside Edward Norton’s mouth. It leaves so many unanswered questions straight away within the film fight club. It also inspired an idea for our contemporary noir to use our previously filmed exchange footage to use as our opening scene which too, would leave an enigma on how/why has our protagonist male died.

Lock stock and two smoking barrels.
This wasn’t an opening scene which inspired me but I am a fan of a great British film and this one in particular has to be one of my favourites. Its black comedy delving into the underbelly (bit like a noir-ish story plot, without the pessimistic ending) of society in London and use of quite wit throughout the film as well as a fantastic story behind it makes it an unmissable film which keeps you engrossed within it so that you don’t miss any of the action.
The reason I liked the opening sequence is that it amused me. The cockney banter being dealt out to bacons’ (Jason Statham’s) punters on the black market is hilarious and really makes you feel like your one of the punters being haggled due to the good use of mid shots, once the police arrive though they ‘scarper‘. which kind of looks similar to the opening scene of transporting which is another fantastic British film.

my treatment & synopsis of a contemporary noir

Synopsis of ‘15minutes of fame’

A woman is desperate for fame and will do anything for it and I mean ANYTHING. So when the chance arises to go to an opening of a new bar in London with her friend she jumps at the opportunity, knowing full well that she will be rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.
As the night continues she is getting close and comfortable with a rising star of British tennis. He believes her to be single; she knows that he’s not. Whilst he leaves to talk to his agents and sponsors she slips a drug into his drink. This way he won’t remember the evening’s events and she can blackmail him with any story that she can muster. If he doesn’t succumb to her desires then he has two ultimatums.
1. To keep his normal life he must pay a large sum of money….or too ignore the threats she will
2. Sell her story for the 15minutes of fame that she has always wanted.

Treatment of ‘15 minutes of fame’.

To make this truly a contemporary noir the editing will be non-linear with enigma’s set within the film that aren’t making too much sense at first until nearer the end. Maybe he has wronged the femme fatale before but is unbeknown to this. Maybe there is more than one person involved within the blackmail?
Jump cuts will help to aid the feeling of unease, felt by viewers from previous noirs, within scenes such as the spiking of our males drink as well as low key lighting and maybe the use of a ‘hard’ light in some scenes at the bar and the morning after within the apartment.
The cinematography will incorporate shots such as high/low shots to show the shifting of power from the male protagonist (the tennis player) to our femme fatale.
Two shots and over the shoulder shots will enable to capture the meeting and conversations throughout the night and Dutch tilts to express the feelings felt from the morning after.
The clothes worn will be a modern twist incorporating old styles of the 1940’s such as pencils skirts and pea coats whilst modern stylists will be within the technology such as cars, phones, modernistic furniture and lighting seen within the club.
The sound will be between digetic and non digetic sound as well as adding atmospheric sound to aid the feeling of desperation felt by the tennis player when he hears the blackmail delivered to him by the femme fatale.

Title faces of noir

Title faces

Title faces of film noir are of a bold text. Some of the later versions displayed italics within them such as the Maltese falcon but the later versions were more of a plain and ordinary type. Seeing that our noir is meant to be more of a contemporary spin off then the title fonts that I am going to use are going to be of bold font, evenly spaced out like that of taxi driver and la confidential.

Analysis of the Exchange

1. My responsibilities for the making of the exchange was that I played the character Spencer Valentine who is destroyed by the femme fatale. I also did the editing of the film. This involved trying to keep the transition between the shots continuous.
2. I felt my contribution was very good though I also believe the whole team contributed very well. We all helped out with each others roles giving our own opinions between the shot types and shots taken, also when it came to editing everyone’s opinion was taken note and many times were used. I felt my editing between the exchange of the letter was good though I feel that next time I do begin to edit I think I may try to plan it before/during the shooting so that I have a rough idea on what the film will look like in the end.
3. New skills I have learnt during this production would be that the whole concept of editing has improved in the sense that I can now start putting ideas into play before many shots have been taken. Also I have a better understanding of the software that we use to edit with on the apple mac’s. it doesn’t feel as confusing as it did to begin with. Before starting the programme my skills within editing were none so I am quite happy with the improvements I have made as an editor.
4. The overall technical quality of the finished project I felt was good. The more we started the filming the more ideas came flooding through that were improving on idea’s that had already been made such as a shot from above of the exchange. This wasn’t used in the final piece though as we thought that it didn’t make the scene flow continually. The non-digetic sound used I felt added atmosphere to the scenes being watched whilst the editing kept the action taking place continuous. If the project was allowed to be completed again then there wouldn’t be much I would like to change. Maybe introduce a few more shots to add more to the story. Also try to film without so much disruption as this proved to be difficult amongst other students needing to get to class. This caused many of our shots to be re-done because some of them became useless with someone walking into our shots. Maybe a change of location could be taken into account next time also.
5. The editing felt effective and I believe looks effective as it keeps the flow of action continuous. Our cinematography incorporated noir like characteristics of shots such as a Dutch tilt to show the audience that our male protagonist had been killed. Jump cuts were used to cancel the scene to bring up titles and a fade out to close the scene completely. An upwards tilt is also used upon the femme fatale. This was also used to try to express to the audience how superior she is compared to our male character featured in the scene. The location used, we felt would be great as it’s an open space which was very different to the closed spaces used within the original film noirs though other aspects of film noirs were including within the exchange therefore making it a more modern re-make, a contemporary noir I believe is what this is called. The lighting was from the ceiling lights as well as natural light. The narrative wasn’t hard to understand as it clearly indicated the male character perishing at the hands of our femme fatale whilst leaving an enigma on how did he die and is he dead at all? The intertextuality and representation I believed was shown within the scene. Characteristics of film noir were intertwined with the story bringing old characteristics of noir and placing them into a new environment of modern locations and clothing which will be seen in our later productions.
6. This areas weren’t of my purpose but I think that the idea’s I did introduce along with the others were used and used well. Such as different ideas for new shots and changing the angle of the camera to include more of a background ect………………..
7. The feedback received for the exchange was actually pretty good. The initial impressions were good. The initial impressions by the audience were good. The non-digetic music used was seen as a great piece and helped raise suspense within the film. Our narrative was also praised and was seen that it left great enigma’s. why was josh killed, who is the femme fatale and what role does she play?
The editing was also seen as good and that it kept the film in continuous flow.
Our weak areas were that one vital shot had been missed. During the film a letter is passed to Joshua and once opened, the card reads BANG to represent death for our protagonist. The shot missed was the expression on Joshua’s face when he opens it. This could have encapsulated the surprise/worried expression which could clearly indicate to the viewer that the letter would only bring something bad.
The shots used were Dutch tilts to give a distorted look after the death of Joshua. Close ups to show the characters. Long shots and other shots were used but it was felt that one of the more important ones were missed which was the expression of Joshua.
The use of mise-en-scene were praised. The use of costumes were seen as a great similarity to the film noir genre’s.
The suitability of stylistics(visuals and audio) to film noir thriller genre was seen as a positive replication of the film noir’s and has film noir stylistics.
The narrative was seen as easy to understand and that it leaves a great little enigma which is how has josh died and why?
Suitability of creating a representation of typical noir characteristics was answered as yes by everyone.
Production values and technical ability was answered as yes by everyone.
Does the work meet the brief? Everyone exclaimed that it did.
I feel that the piece of work we produced met our target audience who are those who love the noir genre and enjoy its stylistics/characteristics presented in a modern way.
8. What went wrong, I felt, was getting used to how a film can look a lot different on camera then it can do within your mind. Some scenes couldn’t work as well as we had all hoped and also filming in a busy college didn’t help neither as this proved difficult in a few shots in which some students walked into the direction of our shots. Also some vital shots were missed like expressions as a story can be told within the expression/eyes of an actor. Though what I felt went right is what I also said didn’t worked…the location. Even though there were difficulties the corridor used added great lighting and a great meeting place as it allowed the exchange to go completely unnoticed to the public eye which is what we were hoping. The clothing chosen by our actors really emphasised the feel of noir. Our femme fatale really looked like a femme fatale and our male protagonist who was taking the fall looked like a private eye. All that was needed was a trilby hat and a modern day Humphrey Bogart would have been within our film.
9. I feel that the noir stylistics are there. Our exchange saw the defeat of the male by our femme fatale which is a usual occurrence within film noir. The rest of our project is a story of pessimism and betrayal which in the end will see that no good comes from game playing with a femme fatale. I feel that film noirs shown such as the Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity, within our media classes were a helpful aid to have had. This allowed the world of noir to be viewed and notes to be taken which in the end will help our project stand out as a contemporary noir as well as our own individual research.

After seeing the finished product of our Exchange I felt that overall, the short film was good. Not excellent but good. There is areas that needed to be improved such as an increase in variations of shots I.e. more of them. As well as shots missed that were vital such as expressions between characters as these can truly show what is about to happen. Our vital shot missed was the shot of Joshua’s face after opening the letter.
If I were to approach the project again what I would do differently is that is that I’d plan a lot more. I’d try to visualise how the shots would look in the editing room and all the different approaches I could take in making the chain of events look continuous, especially with the added shots that would be included.

the feedback from the exchange

The feedback from the exchange.

The initial impressions by the audience were good. The non-digetic music used was seen as a great piece and helped raise suspense within the film. Our narrative was also praised and was seen that it left great enigma’s. why was josh killed, who is the femme fatale and what role does she play?
The editing was also seen as good and that it kept the film in continuous flow.
Our weak areas were that one vital shot had been missed. During the film a letter is passed to Joshua and once opened, the card reads BANG to represent death for our protagonist. The shot missed was the expression on Joshua’s face when he opens it. This could have encapsulated the surprise/worried expression which could clearly indicate to the viewer that the letter would only bring something bad.
The shots used were Dutch tilts to give a distorted look after the death of Joshua. Close ups to show the characters. Long shots and other shots were used but it was felt that one of the more important ones were missed which was the expression of Joshua.
The use of mise-en-scene were praised. The use of costumes were seen as a great similarity to the film noir genre’s.
The suitability of stylistics(visuals and audio) to film noir thriller genre was seen as a positive replication of the film noir’s and has film noir stylistics.
The narrative was seen as easy to understand and that it leaves a great little enigma which is how has josh died and why?
Suitability of creating a representation of typical noir characteristics was answered as yes by everyone.
Production values and technical ability was answered as yes by everyone.
Does the work meet the brief? Everyone exclaimed that it did.

the exchange treatment

THE EXCHANGE TREATMENT

We are using several diverse shot such as from above which can be seen as representing vulnerability of the male’s character. There are also shots from under the femme fatales feet to show a sense of power and domination: we are using natural lighting but are going to convert the video into black and white to play homage to the previous film noirs. We are going to record background sound and use it to add to the atmosphere. We will also use non digetic/ parallel sound to aid the tension within the scenes. The piece we choose needs to be dark and mysterious but also quick and fast paced so that it flows with the shots.
The opening scene starts by panning up the femme fatale. We have used a pencil skirt and heels as well as dark make up and curls within her hair. The heels we felt represented a successful, intelligent women and the skirt to make her sexy. This, we felt, gave life to our character as a true femme fatale.
Our next shot is off the male coming out of the elevator. He is dressed in a manipulative but average way. A pea coat is worn to indicate style but the colours are dark and of the usual. The next shots are of the exchange, these are short, sharp and fast paced shots to represent the pace and anxiousness of the exchange between the two, hoping that it will go unnoticed. We also have shots of the femme fatale walking over the camera to show her place of power upon the protagonist. The shots of the exchange of the letter between the two are close ups. This indicates to the audience that an exchange has taken place. Our only prop used was the pink envelope that our male character opens. The colour pink was decided on because we felt it represented femininity.

the preliminary exercise

Preliminary exercise.

Our brief was to complete a continuity task which involved filming and editing a character walking and opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character with which he/she then exchanges a couple lines of dialogue. Our shots for this involved match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree line rule.

1- The rule of thirds and framing I felt could have been better as some shots seemed to fall out such as the eyelines. Next time I want to take more notice with each shot and try to visualise what the rule of thirds may look like within the scenes.
2/3- shot reverse shot seemed good though there were only two shots used within the film that had this in which causes not much to compare with. The 180 degree rule was kept to my surprise also as at one point I though I had broken it.
4- The eyelines sometimes varied but it seemed to be kept at the right level throughout.
5- Focus was clear though it took getting used too using on the new cameras.
6- Dialogue was supposed to be kept quite simple so therefore the discussion is quite short though it seems the sound that was recorded was ok. It was clear and understandable.
7- I felt the camerawork wasn’t great but ok for a first time cameraman as I hadn’t filmed before. The one thing I believe I should have done is to take more shots than I had done.
8- The continuity could have been better. A prime example would be at the beginning when Caroline puts her hand to the door followed by the second shot of which is a close up of her hand pushing the door opening. For a second maybe, it takes for her hand to reach up and open it. I felt this breaks the continuous flow of the scene. Whilst filming I felt that I left enough handle time before and after shooting though I could have done with more footage to fall back on encase some shots were not working. Also there are a lot of jump cuts between the shots which kind of disrupts the flow also.
If I had the chance to do the preliminary again, I’d plan it a lot better making sure the dialogue was a bit longer and that the range of shots were a lot more then just the few that I used. This way I’d have more to fall back on encase some did not look great.

Brick. A contemporary noir

Brick. A contemporary film noir.

Brick, directed by Ryan Johnson is classed as a neo noir has all the quintessential characteristics that evolve around the previous film noirs. Based on the same detective themes that Dashiel Hammet has written within his detective novels.

Brick follows on with a who-dunnit themed story with the opening scene of Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon -Levitt) staring at his troubled ex girlfriend Emily (played by Emile de Ravin) laying dead at the bottom of a storm drain. Brendan chooses to hide the body which later becomes a handy tool for Brendan to use later on. Previously a few days earlier Brendan receives a phone call from Emily craving his help exclaiming that “I didn’t realise the brick was bad”.

This sets the tone and also hands the viwer to enigmas within the first 20-30mins. What is the brick and why is Emily dead. Brendan is portrayed as the ‘hard boiled’ protagonist like the private eyes of films such as double indemnity who goes out of his way to save Emily from self destruction and when he fails he sets his goals to uncover who killed her and why was she killed.

The high school set was chosen to bring a difference to the previous film noir sets. Instead of the claustrophobic meeting places and dark alleys seen in past noirs, it’s replaced with open spaced areas of California and its bright sun has cancelled out the previously dim light cities of films such as double indemnity. Though the claustrophobic meeting places haven’t been fully cancelled as this capitulates what many film noirs contained. We can see this within the film but the scene that stands out is the meeting that Brendan has with his head teacher. The office is dark with the blinds shut with light being allowed through in very small amounts with the two sharing the space with soft smoke flowing through the air. It’s as if it were imitating a detective’s office with Brendan being the victim of continuous assault of questions and demands.
Brendan’s road to finding out the murderer brings him close to many characters including the pin. A local drug dealer who runs his business from the basement of his mother’s house. His henchman tug, Dode the stoner and of course the femme fatale‘s, supposedly all still of the age of students.
The brick is later found out to be a drug, which is like heroin. This has become popular and craved for by others including the pin. A later drug run see’s that one of the bricks was taken and attenuated allowing more to be sold but of a less quality in strength. This proves to become a cause of great insecurity between tug and the pin as both believe that the other made the steal. These two are who Brendan cleverly uses to pin the death of Emily on.
The type of shots used such as the Dutch tilt and focus within the characters feet as well as high/low shots and a lot of close ups proves an obvious imitation of those used in previous film noir’s.
Clever fades are also used to give the impression of time changes while quick jump cuts causes anxiousness to specific scene’s in which Brendan wakes up after passing out.
The use of non digetic sound is very eerie and this can be felt during the opening scene of brick where Brendan’s ex is lying dead. The use of chimes is used within that scene. Also another scene that uses digetic sound really well I felt was when Brendan is running from someone that has been sent by the pin to attack Brendan. Brendan’s footsteps are hurried whilst running whilst the henchman sent; his footsteps seem slow and heavy which clearly indicates that he is the chaser.