EDIT 1
This week we began logging and capturing our footage. The exterior scene seemed to come out fairly well and it will now be a job of determining the pace and adding on approiate music. There seemed to a small amount of trouble with the interior scene but hopefully we can devise a solution.
EDIT 2
On this edit we added on the dialogue and music to accompany it. In places the sound wasn't loud enough and our voices were drowned out which meant that we probably had to re-record the dialogue. Also the first music choice we had, 'Mausum Escape', sounded a bit too much like indian music and meant that it probably didn't fit in with the tone of our film.
EDIT 3
On this edit we re-recorded all the necessary sound such as dialogue, voice over, the struggle and light switches and placed it on our film. We also put on titles for the first time and this meant that we thought the film was starting to come together.
EDIT 4
After showing the film to our lecturer, he commented that the pace of the film (the editing and high tempo music) made it seem more like a trailer than the opening of a film noir. Our group experimented with different music as a result and found that a slower tempo track, 'Clues' (our eventual final choice), worked better as it gave the film a darker more mysterious and possibly more threatening tone. However some of our shots still seemed a little jumbled in terms of narrative and the pace was a little eratic.
EDIT 5
Our director suggested that we could place the interior shots first to establish the character and then proceed to the exterior shots rather than cutting between them. This helped to establish our main character and made it clearer that the exterior shots were a flashback.
EDIT 6
We had arranged all the scenes and had finalised the music and voice over and proceeded to screen it to some of our fellow classmates. Their response was mainly positive but they did point out a couple of sound errors which needed to be corrected as well as tidying up a few transitions. They seemed comfortable with the story and the enigma of what the motivation was for the 'stalker' to lay the trap on this man and which of the characters was killed at the end of the struggle.
FINAL EDIT
We made the necessary modifications to sound and cuts as well as finalising the order and look of our titles. We then screened the film to the rest of our class for feedback which would enable us to write up our evaluation.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Filming
On wednesday 5th February and wednesday 12th February we filmed our film opening. On the whole everything went according to plan and our careful planning paid dividends and empahasised its necessity.
On the first wednesday we filmed our exterior scenes on location at Alexandra Park. Thankfully the weather was perfect, if a little cold, and we did not have to alter any of the shots we wanted to get. We were careful to get as much coverage as possible and ended up with around 11 minutes of footage for what we plan will be only around a minute of screen time. Chloe was in charge of sound recording whilst the rest of us alternated the use of the camera depending on which of us needed to be in shot as an actor. As planned we each used a variety of high and low camera angles, dutch tilts and long, wide and mid shots as well as several close ups. We tried to use natural lighting to give a more realistic effect to this segment.
On the second wednesday we used the studio for our interior scene. The use of the studio allowed us more control over lighting and the general look of the piece. Because Chris was required to be in shot constantly he was unable to use the camera but instead served as an overviewing director and held sway over each decision. Chloe was once again in charge of sound recording whilst I operated the camera when I was not on screen with Emily being in control when I was in a shot. We utilized additional props that were available to hand to further decorate our desk to make it look more authentic whilst we used external props for the key narrative devices. The shoot took around 4 hours because we required more footage than for the exterior segment.
On the first wednesday we filmed our exterior scenes on location at Alexandra Park. Thankfully the weather was perfect, if a little cold, and we did not have to alter any of the shots we wanted to get. We were careful to get as much coverage as possible and ended up with around 11 minutes of footage for what we plan will be only around a minute of screen time. Chloe was in charge of sound recording whilst the rest of us alternated the use of the camera depending on which of us needed to be in shot as an actor. As planned we each used a variety of high and low camera angles, dutch tilts and long, wide and mid shots as well as several close ups. We tried to use natural lighting to give a more realistic effect to this segment.
On the second wednesday we used the studio for our interior scene. The use of the studio allowed us more control over lighting and the general look of the piece. Because Chris was required to be in shot constantly he was unable to use the camera but instead served as an overviewing director and held sway over each decision. Chloe was once again in charge of sound recording whilst I operated the camera when I was not on screen with Emily being in control when I was in a shot. We utilized additional props that were available to hand to further decorate our desk to make it look more authentic whilst we used external props for the key narrative devices. The shoot took around 4 hours because we required more footage than for the exterior segment.
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Our Location
These are photographs of the wooded area to the rear of Alexandra Park. I felt the secluded nature coupled with the slightly ominous trees would create a good visual style for the scene involving the discovery of the package. It also has a similar look to the opening of the film Michael Clayton which was one of the titles sequences which influenced the script.
All of our crew scouted the location two weeks before filming and deemed that the location met all of our projects' criteria both creatively and in terms of safety and availability.
Animatic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k4abKaKFDc
Chris-
Creating an animatic is a very useful piece of pre-production work as it gives us an insight into what our final film opening will look like when all our chosen shots are put together. From creating an animatic we have learnt what our film will look like alongside sound, and with the help from Chloe (our editor), we have had the chance to consider the length of each shot and the order in which they appear.
After I had completed the storyboards, we cut each frame apart and arranged it together to form a look-a-like of our final piece, but in storyboard drawings. We then applied 2 of our music choices to add extra atmosphere and make the animatic seem more realistic and like the final piece.
The music choices were from our final list of 4, but because we haven't made a final decision yet we decided to incorporate 2 of our choices here to see which one is best suited. The first piece is by Jan Hammer ("Clues") and is slow and more noir style, whereas the second piece by A R Rahman ("Mausam and Escape") is more for a running pace but has an Indian style.
As you can see our animatic runs over 3 minutes, but in the real film the shots will be shorter and the action in each scene will be quicker than it's shown here. Also we decided after creating the animatic that the personnel titles will appear at the beginning of the film and we would have no music, or very quiet background music on the final scene where the 2 people exchange their dialogue and get into a fight. This is because we want the dialogue to be heard clearly and the gunshot to shock the audience with a loud effect.
At the end of our animatic we have also added the 2 gunshot sounds we wish to use. We found the gunshots on a sound-effects CD in the Suffolk College library, and they have proved very useful as we wouldn't be able to create a gunshot sound ourselves (for obvious reasons!).
Chris-
Creating an animatic is a very useful piece of pre-production work as it gives us an insight into what our final film opening will look like when all our chosen shots are put together. From creating an animatic we have learnt what our film will look like alongside sound, and with the help from Chloe (our editor), we have had the chance to consider the length of each shot and the order in which they appear.
After I had completed the storyboards, we cut each frame apart and arranged it together to form a look-a-like of our final piece, but in storyboard drawings. We then applied 2 of our music choices to add extra atmosphere and make the animatic seem more realistic and like the final piece.
The music choices were from our final list of 4, but because we haven't made a final decision yet we decided to incorporate 2 of our choices here to see which one is best suited. The first piece is by Jan Hammer ("Clues") and is slow and more noir style, whereas the second piece by A R Rahman ("Mausam and Escape") is more for a running pace but has an Indian style.
As you can see our animatic runs over 3 minutes, but in the real film the shots will be shorter and the action in each scene will be quicker than it's shown here. Also we decided after creating the animatic that the personnel titles will appear at the beginning of the film and we would have no music, or very quiet background music on the final scene where the 2 people exchange their dialogue and get into a fight. This is because we want the dialogue to be heard clearly and the gunshot to shock the audience with a loud effect.
At the end of our animatic we have also added the 2 gunshot sounds we wish to use. We found the gunshots on a sound-effects CD in the Suffolk College library, and they have proved very useful as we wouldn't be able to create a gunshot sound ourselves (for obvious reasons!).
Group Treatment
Treatment for mise-en-scene - Emily Locations: The man running in the flashback (Peter) is going to be set in the back of our college, at a park called ‘Alexandra park’ we choose this place for our exterior scene because it has a lot of trees and it would be good if it was sunny as you'd be able to see shadows through the trees for our shadow man. Also not many people go down there so it would not be a problem when we have to come to edit to get rid of the diegetic sound. When the man is sitting in the room we have chosen to use the studio in our college because it’s very dark, there are lights already there and it's a good place to give out shadows and it would be very effective for our venation blind effect.
Costumes: Both exterior and interior we our going to have our main man who is running (Peter) to be wearing wrinkled clothes and black clothes and a little stubble on his chin because it shows that this man is in his late teens and he is not experienced in making rational decisions in life. The shadow is just a black figure so it does not require a lot of costume but my plan was that we get the actor who is playing him to dress all in black and not put any light on him to make him more of a silhouette.
Lighting: When we come to the interior (Peter in the room) it is going to be darkness and then it has a few seconds of the Venation blind effect over his face. When it is exterior in the park we are going to use natural daylight on the man running but with the shadow we will need some lighting so that we can put a shadow effect on him on the ground so that it appears that the shadow is bigger and more powerful then this man.
Performance: In the beginning when we see the man in the room his facial expressions is relieved to show that he has just gotten away from something and he escaped. But when we go in and out of the flashbacks you see his face getting more anxious and nervous.At the ending when he is in the room you see his face relaxed and calmed then there is a lose up of his eyes which seem scared and nervous like he has released something.
Props: I made up a list of what props that we need in this movie and we all discussed who would bring in what. Below is a list of all the props we will be using both indoors and outside in the woods. Some of the things we need are available from college, but we have to supply most of them ourselves.
A desk (available at college)
A chair at the desk (available at college)
A angle desk lamp (available at college)
A fan (for the desk, available at college)
A black folder, a pad of paper, a few Biro pens and a mobile phone (to decorate the desk)
2x large brown envelope packages (1 to use and 1 spare)
A drinking glass and water
A fake knife and a fake gun
2x black & white photos of our main character walking, and a paperclip to hold them together
An A5 black notebook with a date in it
A magazine cut-out collage of a nameless address and phone number
A fake ice-cube (or real ice from the college cafe if they have any)
A piece of paper with 'Shadows Present' handwritten in bold onto it
The main character's costume and the shadow man's costume (as described above)
Treatment for editing and titles - Chloe
The initial ideas for the editing style of our film noir opening would be cutting shots to create a short, sharp and precise appearance. The effect of this would make the scenes seem more intense with lots of things going on in each one, and also to put the audience on the edge of their seats with anticipation. We also decided, as a group, that the speed in which the Man was travelling would affect the speed in which the shots would appear on the screen. For example, the part where the Man is running at a breathless pace, the shots would be fast also. And where the Man is dead in motion and lying on the floor, the shots would be left long to create a slow pace.When the cuts occur between the Man running and when he is in the isolated room, we decided it would be best to use a sweeping transition to illustrate a change in location and a change in the Man’s emotional state. A sweeping transition may seem to calm and unsuited to the action on the audience will be viewing, but we wanted this transition to not be too noticeable as it may break the audience’s trust and belief that our film is real. Late after a piece of voice over from the Man, a series of location cuts begin. These will be between the Man running through the woods, and the same Man sitting in a darkened room alone. Each shot-after-shot will be fast and chaotic as to disorientate the audience and make them watch carefully, as the shots unveil more of the Man’s problems and secrets.Whilst in the editing suit, we as a group decided that in the shot sequence between the woods and the room locations, the ones where the Man is running could be put into a black and white or tinted blue effect to show the grimness of the woods and also as a nice touch to show that this is directly from the Man’s memory. Also, it ties in with many of the traditional noir films, as they were all in black and white because of the time period they were filmed in.For the titles, we have decided that the personnel titles would be shown before the action begins, and then the main title of the film would be displayed at the end. The personnel titles would feature our group names and roles, and would drip-fill with red one by one onto a black background. This would represent blood and murder, and is used on other film noir, crime or who-done-it mystery films. The main title would be best positioned at the end as we discovered that most opening film sequences come before the main title appears. This also ensures that the audience stay seated throughout until they uncover the name of the film they are watching. We decided that instead of following the same format as with the personnel titles, we would have this written on a piece of dirty, torn paper that drops onto the floor. It has yet been decided who drops this piece of paper on the floor, but it would probably be the main character Man as he is dying. The font of our ‘Shadows Present’ main title would be in a handwritten style, but bold and clear enough for the audience to read. The colour of the writing would either be black or deep red, to represent blood again.
Treatment for the sound - Chloe
As a group, our first ideas for the sound were to have a continuous soundtrack accompanying each shot. We ideally want this piece of music to be contrapuntal to the action on screen as it would show that we haven’t just picked a piece of music at random, and that it was clearly planned and prepared for. We wanted our music to be orchestral yet modern, and to make it sound creepy and odd. In the editing suit a few days ago, as a group we decided on a list of top 4 music choices that suit our demands. One of our top choices is called 'Mausam and Escape' by A R Rahman. It has a fast pace towards the end of the piece, which will be the part of the song we will use for the running scenes. Although we have had some doubts about whether it sounds too continental for a film noir, despite it's suitability in regards to pace. Other sound that would be recorded would be diegetic as we would leave the camera-top microphone on. For the sound where the ice-cube crashes into the glass that the Man is holding in the room, we may have to make it pleonastic as to demonstrate the Man’s loneliness and that every small sound can be heard and is amplified. For the sound that would be impossible to retrieve for our opening, such as a gun shot, we will have to result to finding a sound affect that suits our film. Sound effects can be easily found on the Internet or on disks in sound libraries.We have realised that it is important to get the music and the sound right for a our opening as it will be used to create the atmosphere of a film noir, and can keep the audience intrigued into watching more.
Treatment for Audience and Influences for Opening- Josh
After conducting our surveys which were targeted at the age group suggested by our brief, 15-24 year olds, we found what the common tastes seemed to be. Firstly, they were on the whole unaware of the term film noir and many of them listed their favourite genres to be comedies or action films. This meant that a film that simply copied many traditional film noirs would simply not interest a modern audience, in order to catch their attention we need to put a different spin on it.
The first thing to do is to not film it in a black and white visual as another fact that came out of our primary research was that many people seemed to be put off by a film being in black and white. By keeping the film in colour we will need to be more creative and careful with our lighting techniques.
As well as that our primary research indicated that a lot of people require several 'action' scenes in a thriller which indicates that they prefer a faster paced story and avoid any pondering. I tried to incorporate this into the script by introducing a fast paced opening with our main character fleeing from an unknown pursuer as tries to make off with a mysterious package containing a large sum of money. This was intended to get the film off to fast start. However it was also important to maintain many of the traditions of noir in order to keep the film in this genre, so the scene where the two men are in the room together will emphasise many classic film noir lighting techniques and the dialogue throughout the piece will be noir like in both its subject matter and wording.
Our influences for the more traditional noir characteristics in the piece were classic film noirs such Citizen Kane, Detour and Double Indemnity for the feel and visual styles including how they put the camera in different positions to create interesting angles. Also, some of the dialogue in our piece references these kind of films. However, the wording is slightly updated and our props and costumes have been modified to fit into today's fashion criteria.
Looking at more recent noirs influences have included both the George Clooney thriller Michael Clayton and the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men. Michael Clayton starts out with its main character sprinting through a wooded area with his expression indicating that something very unexpected and dramatic has happened hence his fleeing which serves as a hook to the audience. Also, in No Country For Old Men the main protagonist steals a suitcase full of money and intends to make away with it but finds that a killer is now on his trail. The plot plays on the age old question of whether you would take an abandoned bag of money if you simply came across. The idea of an ordinary man making one bad decision and then having dark repercussions is a constant theme in film noirs and helps us to further our film's connection to noir traditions.
As a group we wanted some feedback about film noir to help us with our project. The feedback would be gained through primary research in the form of a questionnaire, as this way we could tailor the questions to ensure we would gain the useful answers we wanted. Emily devised the questionnaire and went out to ask people for answers. She asked 7 people in the 16-25 age range as they are the main cinema audience and they are who we would be aiming our noir towards. She also asked people aged 40, 28 and 14 to see if our film would appeal to a wider audience range as well. My job was to analyse the results and below is a table showing what I found out explaining how the information we gained from each question was useful to us.We will attempt to incorporate our findings when creating our opening sequence to make it more appealing to our target audience of people aged between 15 and 25. The question about black and white films (question 2) will be particularly useful when we are in the editing suit and are choosing to add any effects to our film. Our results show that black and white films aren’t a popular choice and that they would turn off/over the TV if they saw one was on. Our role in creating our title sequence is to get people to stay tuned in and watch on to resolve the enigma(s), but if our audience would choose not to watch it just because it was in black and white, then perhaps we shouldn’t add that effect. Question number 5 also proved interesting with the results as it shows how people can be interested and ‘hooked’ in a film opening even if there isn’t any music to accompany it. We will still use music in our opening piece as we feel it’s the key to creating the right noir atmosphere, though it is useful to know that we won’t be turning away our audience if we chose to have loud sound effects, plain speech or dead silence instead. Although the resuls we gained were useful, there were still some things we could have done to gain even better results. Firstly we could have asked a bigger sample of people to gain more accurate results with defined replies on each question. However, I think the outcome would still contain similar results, and wouldn’t be of any further use to us. Also, we could have more questions requiring a more detailed answer (open questions) to gain more feedback from each person we gave the questionnaire to. But they may not have been as keen to fill it out if they had noticed how detailed it was. Overall, I am pleased with the results we discovered as they’ll be very useful to us in the future.
Costumes: Both exterior and interior we our going to have our main man who is running (Peter) to be wearing wrinkled clothes and black clothes and a little stubble on his chin because it shows that this man is in his late teens and he is not experienced in making rational decisions in life. The shadow is just a black figure so it does not require a lot of costume but my plan was that we get the actor who is playing him to dress all in black and not put any light on him to make him more of a silhouette.
Lighting: When we come to the interior (Peter in the room) it is going to be darkness and then it has a few seconds of the Venation blind effect over his face. When it is exterior in the park we are going to use natural daylight on the man running but with the shadow we will need some lighting so that we can put a shadow effect on him on the ground so that it appears that the shadow is bigger and more powerful then this man.
Performance: In the beginning when we see the man in the room his facial expressions is relieved to show that he has just gotten away from something and he escaped. But when we go in and out of the flashbacks you see his face getting more anxious and nervous.At the ending when he is in the room you see his face relaxed and calmed then there is a lose up of his eyes which seem scared and nervous like he has released something.
Props: I made up a list of what props that we need in this movie and we all discussed who would bring in what. Below is a list of all the props we will be using both indoors and outside in the woods. Some of the things we need are available from college, but we have to supply most of them ourselves.
A desk (available at college)
A chair at the desk (available at college)
A angle desk lamp (available at college)
A fan (for the desk, available at college)
A black folder, a pad of paper, a few Biro pens and a mobile phone (to decorate the desk)
2x large brown envelope packages (1 to use and 1 spare)
A drinking glass and water
A fake knife and a fake gun
2x black & white photos of our main character walking, and a paperclip to hold them together
An A5 black notebook with a date in it
A magazine cut-out collage of a nameless address and phone number
A fake ice-cube (or real ice from the college cafe if they have any)
A piece of paper with 'Shadows Present' handwritten in bold onto it
The main character's costume and the shadow man's costume (as described above)
Treatment for editing and titles - Chloe
The initial ideas for the editing style of our film noir opening would be cutting shots to create a short, sharp and precise appearance. The effect of this would make the scenes seem more intense with lots of things going on in each one, and also to put the audience on the edge of their seats with anticipation. We also decided, as a group, that the speed in which the Man was travelling would affect the speed in which the shots would appear on the screen. For example, the part where the Man is running at a breathless pace, the shots would be fast also. And where the Man is dead in motion and lying on the floor, the shots would be left long to create a slow pace.When the cuts occur between the Man running and when he is in the isolated room, we decided it would be best to use a sweeping transition to illustrate a change in location and a change in the Man’s emotional state. A sweeping transition may seem to calm and unsuited to the action on the audience will be viewing, but we wanted this transition to not be too noticeable as it may break the audience’s trust and belief that our film is real. Late after a piece of voice over from the Man, a series of location cuts begin. These will be between the Man running through the woods, and the same Man sitting in a darkened room alone. Each shot-after-shot will be fast and chaotic as to disorientate the audience and make them watch carefully, as the shots unveil more of the Man’s problems and secrets.Whilst in the editing suit, we as a group decided that in the shot sequence between the woods and the room locations, the ones where the Man is running could be put into a black and white or tinted blue effect to show the grimness of the woods and also as a nice touch to show that this is directly from the Man’s memory. Also, it ties in with many of the traditional noir films, as they were all in black and white because of the time period they were filmed in.For the titles, we have decided that the personnel titles would be shown before the action begins, and then the main title of the film would be displayed at the end. The personnel titles would feature our group names and roles, and would drip-fill with red one by one onto a black background. This would represent blood and murder, and is used on other film noir, crime or who-done-it mystery films. The main title would be best positioned at the end as we discovered that most opening film sequences come before the main title appears. This also ensures that the audience stay seated throughout until they uncover the name of the film they are watching. We decided that instead of following the same format as with the personnel titles, we would have this written on a piece of dirty, torn paper that drops onto the floor. It has yet been decided who drops this piece of paper on the floor, but it would probably be the main character Man as he is dying. The font of our ‘Shadows Present’ main title would be in a handwritten style, but bold and clear enough for the audience to read. The colour of the writing would either be black or deep red, to represent blood again.
Treatment for the sound - Chloe
As a group, our first ideas for the sound were to have a continuous soundtrack accompanying each shot. We ideally want this piece of music to be contrapuntal to the action on screen as it would show that we haven’t just picked a piece of music at random, and that it was clearly planned and prepared for. We wanted our music to be orchestral yet modern, and to make it sound creepy and odd. In the editing suit a few days ago, as a group we decided on a list of top 4 music choices that suit our demands. One of our top choices is called 'Mausam and Escape' by A R Rahman. It has a fast pace towards the end of the piece, which will be the part of the song we will use for the running scenes. Although we have had some doubts about whether it sounds too continental for a film noir, despite it's suitability in regards to pace. Other sound that would be recorded would be diegetic as we would leave the camera-top microphone on. For the sound where the ice-cube crashes into the glass that the Man is holding in the room, we may have to make it pleonastic as to demonstrate the Man’s loneliness and that every small sound can be heard and is amplified. For the sound that would be impossible to retrieve for our opening, such as a gun shot, we will have to result to finding a sound affect that suits our film. Sound effects can be easily found on the Internet or on disks in sound libraries.We have realised that it is important to get the music and the sound right for a our opening as it will be used to create the atmosphere of a film noir, and can keep the audience intrigued into watching more.
Treatment for Audience and Influences for Opening- Josh
After conducting our surveys which were targeted at the age group suggested by our brief, 15-24 year olds, we found what the common tastes seemed to be. Firstly, they were on the whole unaware of the term film noir and many of them listed their favourite genres to be comedies or action films. This meant that a film that simply copied many traditional film noirs would simply not interest a modern audience, in order to catch their attention we need to put a different spin on it.
The first thing to do is to not film it in a black and white visual as another fact that came out of our primary research was that many people seemed to be put off by a film being in black and white. By keeping the film in colour we will need to be more creative and careful with our lighting techniques.
As well as that our primary research indicated that a lot of people require several 'action' scenes in a thriller which indicates that they prefer a faster paced story and avoid any pondering. I tried to incorporate this into the script by introducing a fast paced opening with our main character fleeing from an unknown pursuer as tries to make off with a mysterious package containing a large sum of money. This was intended to get the film off to fast start. However it was also important to maintain many of the traditions of noir in order to keep the film in this genre, so the scene where the two men are in the room together will emphasise many classic film noir lighting techniques and the dialogue throughout the piece will be noir like in both its subject matter and wording.
Our influences for the more traditional noir characteristics in the piece were classic film noirs such Citizen Kane, Detour and Double Indemnity for the feel and visual styles including how they put the camera in different positions to create interesting angles. Also, some of the dialogue in our piece references these kind of films. However, the wording is slightly updated and our props and costumes have been modified to fit into today's fashion criteria.
Looking at more recent noirs influences have included both the George Clooney thriller Michael Clayton and the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men. Michael Clayton starts out with its main character sprinting through a wooded area with his expression indicating that something very unexpected and dramatic has happened hence his fleeing which serves as a hook to the audience. Also, in No Country For Old Men the main protagonist steals a suitcase full of money and intends to make away with it but finds that a killer is now on his trail. The plot plays on the age old question of whether you would take an abandoned bag of money if you simply came across. The idea of an ordinary man making one bad decision and then having dark repercussions is a constant theme in film noirs and helps us to further our film's connection to noir traditions.
As a group we wanted some feedback about film noir to help us with our project. The feedback would be gained through primary research in the form of a questionnaire, as this way we could tailor the questions to ensure we would gain the useful answers we wanted. Emily devised the questionnaire and went out to ask people for answers. She asked 7 people in the 16-25 age range as they are the main cinema audience and they are who we would be aiming our noir towards. She also asked people aged 40, 28 and 14 to see if our film would appeal to a wider audience range as well. My job was to analyse the results and below is a table showing what I found out explaining how the information we gained from each question was useful to us.We will attempt to incorporate our findings when creating our opening sequence to make it more appealing to our target audience of people aged between 15 and 25. The question about black and white films (question 2) will be particularly useful when we are in the editing suit and are choosing to add any effects to our film. Our results show that black and white films aren’t a popular choice and that they would turn off/over the TV if they saw one was on. Our role in creating our title sequence is to get people to stay tuned in and watch on to resolve the enigma(s), but if our audience would choose not to watch it just because it was in black and white, then perhaps we shouldn’t add that effect. Question number 5 also proved interesting with the results as it shows how people can be interested and ‘hooked’ in a film opening even if there isn’t any music to accompany it. We will still use music in our opening piece as we feel it’s the key to creating the right noir atmosphere, though it is useful to know that we won’t be turning away our audience if we chose to have loud sound effects, plain speech or dead silence instead. Although the resuls we gained were useful, there were still some things we could have done to gain even better results. Firstly we could have asked a bigger sample of people to gain more accurate results with defined replies on each question. However, I think the outcome would still contain similar results, and wouldn’t be of any further use to us. Also, we could have more questions requiring a more detailed answer (open questions) to gain more feedback from each person we gave the questionnaire to. But they may not have been as keen to fill it out if they had noticed how detailed it was. Overall, I am pleased with the results we discovered as they’ll be very useful to us in the future.
Monday 2 February 2009
Analysis of 2 Film Openings
So, what makes a good opening sequence? There are many different things that a title sequence must have to ensure it's quality, and since I'm creating my own sequence, this research would be very useful to me. Below I have come up with a list of 7 key points to consider:
Cinematography: A mixture of interesting shots must be used to capture the audience's attention.
Narrative: The opening must have an enigma(s) or a mystery attached to ensure the audience will want to watch on.
Sound: Dialogue, music and sound effects can all be used to set a certain atmosphere and interest the audience.
Characters: The main character(s) in the film must be interesting and well set-up in the opening. The audience must be able to relate to them and establish a relationship with them.
Mise-en-scene: This includes the location, props, costumes, performance ad lighting. They must all be carefully thought out to create the right impression and atmosphere
Editing: The pace, rhythm, transitions, titles and special effects must also be carefully planned to introduce the film well and keep the audience's attention.
Genre: The opening must include the correct characteristics that meet its genre e.g. a noir opening would include shadows, darkness, dodgy characters etc. to ensure the audience know what they're watching.
Cinematography: A mixture of interesting shots must be used to capture the audience's attention.
Narrative: The opening must have an enigma(s) or a mystery attached to ensure the audience will want to watch on.
Sound: Dialogue, music and sound effects can all be used to set a certain atmosphere and interest the audience.
Characters: The main character(s) in the film must be interesting and well set-up in the opening. The audience must be able to relate to them and establish a relationship with them.
Mise-en-scene: This includes the location, props, costumes, performance ad lighting. They must all be carefully thought out to create the right impression and atmosphere
Editing: The pace, rhythm, transitions, titles and special effects must also be carefully planned to introduce the film well and keep the audience's attention.
Genre: The opening must include the correct characteristics that meet its genre e.g. a noir opening would include shadows, darkness, dodgy characters etc. to ensure the audience know what they're watching.
MICHAEL CLAYTON
The opening sequence of this film is simple yet effective. It contains no dialogue and builds all of its tension through action and music. The music builds in crescendo and that along with the increased sound of heavy breathing allows the scene to build to a climax which entices the viewer to continue watching.
The scene consists of the main character (George Clooney) apparently fleeing from a situation which the audience does not yet know about. Immediately the audince is intrigued and wanting to know why the character is in this predicament hence maintaining their attention and hopefully making them want to watch the rest of the film. The camera shows us a mixture of close ups, which give clues as to the character's state of mind, and long and mid shots which help establish the location and passing on the information that he seems to be alone. In other shots he is mostly viewed from a high angle suggesting he may not be in control of what is happening to him.
The main character is also beginning to run through a forest which served as an influence to me when writing the script as I felt the visual of the trees and plants served to give a feeling of doom given their potentially looming presence. The location maintains fairly natural lighting which creates a more realistic atmosphere along Clooney's downplayed but still frightened performance and allows the audience to believe in the character.
Also on another visual note the sequence is shot with a very dark pallette, almost black and white, to give it a very film noir feel and this is something I believe we could replicate in our own film opening. In order to further build tension it also employs fairly rapid editing and only uses the dissolve style at the end of the scene as it reveals the main title which is written in simple white font with the contrast of black and white possibly being a metaphor for the theme of light against dark that runs through the film.
The scene consists of the main character (George Clooney) apparently fleeing from a situation which the audience does not yet know about. Immediately the audince is intrigued and wanting to know why the character is in this predicament hence maintaining their attention and hopefully making them want to watch the rest of the film. The camera shows us a mixture of close ups, which give clues as to the character's state of mind, and long and mid shots which help establish the location and passing on the information that he seems to be alone. In other shots he is mostly viewed from a high angle suggesting he may not be in control of what is happening to him.
The main character is also beginning to run through a forest which served as an influence to me when writing the script as I felt the visual of the trees and plants served to give a feeling of doom given their potentially looming presence. The location maintains fairly natural lighting which creates a more realistic atmosphere along Clooney's downplayed but still frightened performance and allows the audience to believe in the character.
Also on another visual note the sequence is shot with a very dark pallette, almost black and white, to give it a very film noir feel and this is something I believe we could replicate in our own film opening. In order to further build tension it also employs fairly rapid editing and only uses the dissolve style at the end of the scene as it reveals the main title which is written in simple white font with the contrast of black and white possibly being a metaphor for the theme of light against dark that runs through the film.
SE7EN
In this opening there is once again no dialogue and it instead relies on sound and action to grab the audience's attention. The music is very scattered and sounds almost broken which creates a feeling of unease with the audience. There is very little diegetic sound so as to not give clues as to the killer's identity.
Visually the sequence seems almost black and white with the setting apparently being a darkened study of some kind. Just about every shot is close up and shows little bits of what the man but without revealing the whole picture or location which is a good way of enticing the viewer to keep watching as it serves as an enigma.
In this opening there is once again no dialogue and it instead relies on sound and action to grab the audience's attention. The music is very scattered and sounds almost broken which creates a feeling of unease with the audience. There is very little diegetic sound so as to not give clues as to the killer's identity.
Visually the sequence seems almost black and white with the setting apparently being a darkened study of some kind. Just about every shot is close up and shows little bits of what the man but without revealing the whole picture or location which is a good way of enticing the viewer to keep watching as it serves as an enigma.
The lighting uses a hard key light in order to create lots of shadow which is typical of film noir. We do not see the whole room but we are aware of a table which seems to fairly realistic and adds to the verisillimillitude. All we see of the performer are his hands and these do not give any clues as to his identity thus maintaining the enigma.
The editing employs a lot of jump cuts which add to the uneasy feeling and confirm that the performer is doing something of a sinister nature. No shot lingers for more than a second or two and doesn't give the viewer's eye time to settle. The main titles are white and against a black backdrop which is typical of noir however their appearance is jerky almost as if the viewer is seeing what's really there which goes on to be a theme in the film.
Production meetings
In order to reach conclusions about our film noir opening, we meet up in our group to discuss ideas and answer any problems. Below are notes on what we discussed during our meetings:
Wednesday 7th January - Thought about locations for our film noir opening. Each took a copy of a draft of the script and mentioned anythign else we wanted to be included. We all discussed what shots should be used where in the script and finalised a list of individual pre-production tasks to be getting on with.
Wednesday 14th January - Produced a list of costumes and props we needed to fetch for our opening sequence, and discussed who would get each one. Also looked at what the main character would be wearing in each location (woods and in the dark room). All went to go and look at our chosen location, Alexandra Park, to take pictures, look at where the main character would be running from and to think about where the camera could be positioned to get the best shots possible.
Thursday 22nd January - Chris scanned the finished draft of the storyboard into the computer to create an animatic. We each prepared something to say to the class in tomorrow's presentation speech (except I was off ill so I did mine at home).
Friday 23rd January - Did our speech to the rest of our media class and showed them our finished animatic. We answered any questions they gave us and considered their comments. One of the things someone mentioned was that it may be too much to film with too little time to show it all. We took this on board and will consider shortening the scrips and including less of our ideas to make it more simple, yet still with the same desired effect.
Wednesday 28th January - We finalised all our pre-production work and Josh asked if there were any issues we found with the script. Emily reminded us of what props and costumes we needed to bring in individually, and I suggested that we used a small glass block (which I have at home) if the college cafe couldn't supply any ice-cubes to us. I also took the questionnaire results away to write up an analysis on them, whilst Chris thought about what we would do in wet weather conditions. We decided that if it was rainy on the day of the shoot, we would have to take the camera kit out during the half term holidays, or film the following week. Or we could use an umbrella to shelter the camera , though this would limit our filming abilities and we doubt the media department would allow it, though the rainy effect would add to the atmosphere of our film! We all went to the colleg libaray during break to search for sound effects CD's that could us in our film. We took out 4 in total with footsteps, outdoor atmosphere noise, indoor atosphere noise and gunshots on each. We would listen to them tomorrow. ONLY 1 WEEK LEFT UNTIL OUR FILMING DAY - WEDNESDAY 4TH!
Thursday 29th January - Today we spilt up as a group as Emily and Josh remained in the media classroom to look over the pre-production work and finish a birds-eyed view map of our Alexandra Park location, whilst Chris and I went into the editing suit to listen to our music choices. We came up with a shortlist of 4 possible music pieces, each from the CD albums that Chris and Josh found at home and brought in. We listened to the sound effect tracks and decided that the gunshots would be useful, but the footsteps didn't sound very realistic so we would try and record our own on the day
Wednesday 7th January - Thought about locations for our film noir opening. Each took a copy of a draft of the script and mentioned anythign else we wanted to be included. We all discussed what shots should be used where in the script and finalised a list of individual pre-production tasks to be getting on with.
Wednesday 14th January - Produced a list of costumes and props we needed to fetch for our opening sequence, and discussed who would get each one. Also looked at what the main character would be wearing in each location (woods and in the dark room). All went to go and look at our chosen location, Alexandra Park, to take pictures, look at where the main character would be running from and to think about where the camera could be positioned to get the best shots possible.
Thursday 22nd January - Chris scanned the finished draft of the storyboard into the computer to create an animatic. We each prepared something to say to the class in tomorrow's presentation speech (except I was off ill so I did mine at home).
Friday 23rd January - Did our speech to the rest of our media class and showed them our finished animatic. We answered any questions they gave us and considered their comments. One of the things someone mentioned was that it may be too much to film with too little time to show it all. We took this on board and will consider shortening the scrips and including less of our ideas to make it more simple, yet still with the same desired effect.
Wednesday 28th January - We finalised all our pre-production work and Josh asked if there were any issues we found with the script. Emily reminded us of what props and costumes we needed to bring in individually, and I suggested that we used a small glass block (which I have at home) if the college cafe couldn't supply any ice-cubes to us. I also took the questionnaire results away to write up an analysis on them, whilst Chris thought about what we would do in wet weather conditions. We decided that if it was rainy on the day of the shoot, we would have to take the camera kit out during the half term holidays, or film the following week. Or we could use an umbrella to shelter the camera , though this would limit our filming abilities and we doubt the media department would allow it, though the rainy effect would add to the atmosphere of our film! We all went to the colleg libaray during break to search for sound effects CD's that could us in our film. We took out 4 in total with footsteps, outdoor atmosphere noise, indoor atosphere noise and gunshots on each. We would listen to them tomorrow. ONLY 1 WEEK LEFT UNTIL OUR FILMING DAY - WEDNESDAY 4TH!
Thursday 29th January - Today we spilt up as a group as Emily and Josh remained in the media classroom to look over the pre-production work and finish a birds-eyed view map of our Alexandra Park location, whilst Chris and I went into the editing suit to listen to our music choices. We came up with a shortlist of 4 possible music pieces, each from the CD albums that Chris and Josh found at home and brought in. We listened to the sound effect tracks and decided that the gunshots would be useful, but the footsteps didn't sound very realistic so we would try and record our own on the day
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