Evaluation

http://heathermcdonaldh.wix.com/heathersmediastudies

Final OTS

This is our final productuin

Final Version Of Our Film Noir Cinderella Movie

Opening title sequence

To help us with our opening title sequence, we used josh's emaze that he created. http://jcasmediaproduction2016.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/i-previously-did-some-research-on.html

We created our titles for our film noir based on the film Falling angel.

Before we had tho layout, we asked for feedback on what people thought of the title sequence, we realised there was to many titles and they covered up the characters in the background too much, so we decided using less titles and moving them around makes it much better.

Reflective comments:

I think josh did really well in finding information about title sequences and it helped us out on how to do our own. 

Vlog

Vlog Positives and Negatives from Matthew Levesley on Vimeo.

This is us, reflecting on our positives and negatives on our film noir production 

Production log

we have nearly finished our production, last wednesday we did some more filming as there were scenes missing and ones that weren't perfect. we have now finished all our filming and now doing the final editing, we showed the class what we have produced so far and Matthew designed a questionnaire  for the class to give us feedback. Matthew is now producing a slide on emaze with the feeb back we got.

First Draft- The secret

This is our first draft, we have quite a lot of improvement and there is sounds that are not in such as the gun shot, also there is me falling over and my shocked face that needed improving. we have made a questionnaire to get feedback from.

Researching Editing Techniques

While i was researching into mise-en-scene, Josh researched editing and then wrote this, here is a link to his blog post http://jcasmediaproduction2016.blogspot.co.uk  

Editing:

When researching online about the editing used in film noir's, I wasn't able to pinpoint a website that clearly described in detail the way that they were edited after being filmed. This is because that back in the time when they were made, technology was limited and very little amounts of editing could actually be done. It was most likely done during the actual filming progress.
After using vimeo to watch some more film noir's, it is clear to see that techniques which fall into the editing section are simple things such as eye line match, and shot reverse shot, along with the soundtrack and voice, not to mention that most classic film noir's were shown in black and white.

Our Piece:
For our final production, we plan to stick to the basics when it comes to editing; we will obviously put a chosen soundtrack over the top of our piece along with a voice over of the everyman. In terms of editing camera shots, we will stick to the conventions and include some eye line matches along with shot reverse shots. Enhanced editing doesn't stick to the conventions so we plan to keep things simple and just make the piece black and white so that our audience can recognise the genre.

Giving each of our group members different aspects of film noir's to research has been good for us because its meant we can all be independent and know exactly what we have to find. We've then given each other feedback and explained exactly what we've found out. To improve this, we could've worked a bit faster as we spent a few lessons each researching different aspects.

Script- Credit to Josh and Matthew

Josh and Matthew did the script.

Josh Coe: Tony (Everyman)

Heather McDonald: Victoria (Femme Fatale)

EXT. Road. Night

(Tony leaning against wall looking at empty wallet)

Tony: 

(voiceover)
(hopeless)

I lost it all, she took everything I had. I'm left with nothing but dreams, of what could have been.

(Tony tosses wallet away and walks off)

OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE 

Tony:

(voiceover)
(desperation)

Theres only one thing left to do, she deserves it.

(Tony stands behind wall to hide)

Tony:

(voiceover)
(with love)

This is the route she walks everyday, I'd never forget.

(Victoria becomes visible walking through the alley, a cigarette in hand)

Tony:

(voiceover)
(with hope)

She still looks as beautiful as she did the first time I saw her.

(Victoria walks past Tony but can't see him)

Tony:

(voiceover)

(more hate)

 She's blinded from the world, she deserves this.

(Victoria continues walking as Tony appears from the darkness)

Tony:

(aggression)

Hey Victoria!

(Victoria turns quickly and shock fills her face)

Victoria:

(Gasps)

(Tony pulls the trigger and the camera looms on the cigarette burning out)



I am happy with what Josh and Matthew came up with, i decided to leave it to Josh as he does A-Level Creative Writing and eve though i do it aswell, script work is not my strong point. Even though its very short but that is what we wanted as we didn't want a lot of talking. Now the script is done, we can now start filming as before Josh started on the script, Matthew was having trouble on what to write and we couldn't film until it was done.

Film Certificates- Credit to Josh

Josh researched into the film certificates and found this information.

http://jcasmediaproduction2016.blogspot.co.uk

We think that it would be good to do some research on the certificates that films are given. After this research has been completed we can judge what certificate we think our film should be given related to the content in it.

Universal:

The universal symbols means that people who are shown this film or plan to watch it should be over the age of 4. However, it is impossible to predict what may or may not upset a certain child, or what content they may be scared of. Universal films generally contain nothing offence or worrying, with practically no reference to drugs, sex and very little to violence. Films rated with this certificate are usually aimed at children.


Parental Guidance:

This symbol means that children should be supervised by a parent or guardian when watching a film or TV show that is rated a PG. Films that are rated PG aren't always necessarily aimed at children to watch with the parents, some could just be aimed at adults but with very little offensive or disturbing content, meaning that if supervised children could watch it with their parents.


12A:
A film that is rated a 12A is something you will only see in a cinema. A film rated 12A means that it is aimed at people who are aged over 12, so the content will not be suitable for children. However, if someone under the age of 12 wants to see a film rated 12, they are allowed to do so as long as a parent or guardian over the age of 12 accompanies them to the cinema. Films or TV shows that are rated with this certificate are likely to include some brief scenes of violence, threat, drugs, sex and bad language.


12:

If a film is rated 12A in a cinema, when it is released on DVD, the certificate will change to a 12. This is because accompanied viewing cannot be enforced at home, so as a result of this retailers aren't by law allowed to sell discs that are rated 12 to anyone who doesn't have proof to show their age. As mentioned above, a 12 film is likely to include the same things as a 12A, the certificate is just changed for cinematic viewing.

15:
A film that is rated 15 means that no one under this age can see it at a cinema without identification, and it cannot be sold be retailers to anyone under this age without proof. Films with this certificate will undoubtably include some explicit scenes of violence, threat, drugs, sex and bad language, and possibly some scenes that some people may find offensive or disturbing.  


18:  

A film with an 18 certificate means that you have to be 18 years of age to see it at the cinema, and also 18 to buy it in store. The thing thats separates an 18 from a 15 is the persistence of the explicit scenes, and the duration. A 15 may include one scene of strong violence, where as an 18 may include several scenes of strong violence, making the film as a whole more explicit.


Our Piece:
After a discussion with my group about the content of our media piece, comparing what we will include to the research I have done above, I think our piece should be rated a 12. I think this because in terms of explicit scenes, our piece is limited. We don't include any strong scenes of violence or bad language, which means that the 18 and 15 certificates are eliminated. I don't thing that the Universal or Parental Guidance ratings suit our piece because the general content of our film will be related to an adult audience, and will not be understood by children. The 12 certificate is right for our piece because it relates to the brief references of of threat and violence; also the scene of our femme fatal smoking a cigarette is likely to not be understood or seen by children.

I think that Josh has done a good job here, and him researching this information has helped us with our film and giving us more information and helping us out on picking what certificate would be best for our film. 

Research of Camera and Composition - Credit to Matthew

Whilst I was researching mise-en-scene , Matthew did some research on camera and composition and came up with this information. http://mlevesleyasmediaproductionschs2016.blogspot.co.uk

The cinematography of film noir shows the dark, gritty, and often deceiving visuals are a reflection of the characters, who themselves are dark, gritty, and deceiving. In noir, the cinematography is the main way to tell us about these people and the world they inhabit. As the films were often low-budget, there wasn’t time or money to fund expensive camerawork.
Camera Techniques that are conventional and will be used in our production:

• High Angle

• Focus Pull

• Tracking

• Mid shot

• Over the Shoulder shot

• Close up

• Distorted angles

• Characters and cameras positioned to clearly display shadows

Here are some examples of camera and composition that is conventional for a Film Noir; they will also feature in our production.

With this post that Matthew created, i think it is good and well written and helps us out with our production to show us what camera angles are what, however, i think he needs to add more information about the pictures and add more pictures.

Our mise-en-scene

I previously  did a post on researching into mise-en-scene, here is a link to my post researching into mise-en-scene. After i did this research, i looked for what we were going to use. For my dress i ordered a red dress off prettylittlethings.com as the dress was cheap and looked the part for a noir film. Matthew, Josh and i all chipped into pay for the dress.

With josh's suit, we were looking at suits online to see if we could find a cheap one, then we thought that he still had his prom suit and could still fit in it, so we decided to use that. josh also had a gun that he had from when he was younger that we used to kill me.

As this is a noir film and researching into it, i found out that the femme fatal smokes, so we needed to get cigarettes. Matthew got the cigarettes for the production. I also found an old box that we used in the filming so show that 'The secret' was in the box.

With the lighting, Matthew brought a touch with us to use as a spotlight or extra lighting that we needed as we were filming in the dark and we also used the lighting from the street lamps as our main light.



(i still need to add the photos)

In Depth Sound Research - Credit to Matthew

I am the sound manager for our production; below is the different construction methods and how they will be included within our production:

The research for this was found on Ms Humplebye's blog (shown in blue)

• Diegetic / non-diegetic

Diegetic means within the 'world' of the film: captured during filming footsteps / voices/doors opening and closing

Non diegetic means added afterwards in post-production and editing - for example SFX / explosions/ a score/music/creaks and sounds impossible to record on set.

Remember there is also sound which seems to be Diegetic which in reality had to have been added non-diegetically for example animal noises when the sound technicians may not be able to capture to order on set

http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm

Our production will only include diegetic sounds to try and recreate the style used with original Film Noirs as they were not advanced enough with technology to include SFX. Sounds such as the gunshot will be used with Foley sounds (explained below) and the diegetic sound of footsteps will be amplified to add to the mood that we are aiming to create.

• Synchronous / asynchronous

Synchronous sounds contribute to the realism of film and also help to create a particular atmosphere - for example a door clicks as it is opened on screen but HOW it does so will affect how the audience respond e.g. loudly / creaking / squeaking

Asynchronous sound effects are not matched with a visible source of the sound on screen. Such sounds are included so as to provide an appropriate emotional nuance, and they may also add to the realism - a classic example is rock and roll music over a Vietnam war scene, or an argument scene with a soundtrack that includes the audio of a television crime programme those arguing were 'watching'

http://filmsound.org/marshall/

Our production is aimed to be as realistic as possible, because of this, asynchronous sound effects will not be used. The main synchronous sound that is likely to be included is the streetlights flickering on and off to represent an 'eery' atmosphere.

• Contrapuntal/parallel  sound

(Parallel sounds are what we expect to hear with that Genre or Images / Contrapunctal sounds are sounds that do not seem to fit the Genre/Image: E.G. in a fight scene one does not expect to hear classical music but it can be used as a juxtaposition to amplify how the audience experiences emotion/reads meaning. / rock music with a fast pace over the scene would be considered Parallel sound.

Although contrapuntal will create an amplification of audience emotion, it will not meet the idea of conventionality within our production which is the aim.

• Foley Sound

The Foley Sound of the gunshot will come from a wheelie bin lid slamming close; this may need to have a change in editing. To represent the increasing heart rate of the Everyman, a finger tapping on the table has been recorded as none of us can use drums.

researching into Mise-en-scene

Lighting

John alton photographed more than 100 films in his career with over 20 of them being Film Noirs, including T-Men (1947), He Walked by Night (1948) and The Big Combo (1955). All three were quintessential Alton pictures, with low key lighting where often a single light source was used to get harsh crisp shadows. film noir use 3 point lighting which all focus on one point, the main light is called a key light which is the one that is most bright. you also have a fill light which is opposite the key light which helps fill in the shadows left by the key light. lastly there is a back light which separates the main focus and the background. in film noir the most prominent light is the strong key light and back light, fill lights are not as dominate as they want to exaggerate the contrast to create the low key look, however having a little bit of fill lighting will add something interesting to your shadows. film noir generally uses hard lights as it leaves sharp edge shadows. For ours we are going to film in the dark and under a street lamp and i will be smoking under and the lamp and the light will emphasis the smoke.

Costume and Props

in film noir you will often see cigarettes or cigars and normally the femme fatal is smoking. we also see that the femme fatal wears a smart dress which is normally black or red and the would normally wear red lipstick which shows a sign of danger and the men are dressed in smart black suits and there is normally a gun involved. With our film noir i am wearing a red dress, with red nails and red lipstick, Josh is wearing a suit and will have a gun. I will be smoking as well.

Location 

Film Noir is normally set on a a dark street or in a city, sometimes they can be set in a bar or somewhere associated with the mob. Most Film Noir films are set in Los Angeles as they are based in america. For Our film Noir, our location is on a street at night with street lamps and we are also using an alleyway. 

Reflective comment
Having carried out the research, I feel more confident about creating our own film. As i am in charge of costume and props, I feel that i have a clearer idea of how to style our cast. I am going for smart clothes with iconic highlights such as red. I need to be careful to avoid any costume items that are clearly contemporary.

Beginning narrative idea

For our final piece I will be working with Josh Coe and Matty levesley. We have started planning our narrative and looked at different ideas of a storyline. We started by talking about how many characters we want and discussed different ideas for a story. From this we were then able to write out a general synopsis of what our story is.This is just a starting idea so we will build on this idea to develop and improve it in multiple ways. The name for the Everyman at this time is Micky.

Foley Sounds we created

Here is our completed video showing all of the Foley Sounds we created. We first recorded all of the sounds ourselves onto an iPhone, then uploaded them onto a computer, then finally uploaded them to iMovie and edited 
them with a title to display the sound. With the use of iMovie, Matty, josh and I were able to improve our skills with editing sound on iMovie and we may use some of the sounds in our Film Noir.