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!).
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
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
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Who is the group and Writing the Script
When creating the film noir opening, we got into a group of 4. Each of us have 1 specific role that we take responsibility for, though we all take part in decisions and ideas for every area. Chris:
Director and actor (the main character in our opening) - responsible for the entire film and to make sure everything runs smoothly and how we planned. Also the main cinematography person.
Emily: Art director - responsible for the mise-en-scene, gathering props and finding a suitable location.
Josh: Writer and producer (and back-up actor for the 'Shadow' character if no other actors can be found) - responsible for writing the script, producing call sheets and a production schedule.
Chloe: Editor and Sound: responsible for gathering suitable music and sound effects needed, editing the film and applying a certian editing style, and choosing appropriate titles.
My Task
After several production meetings in which we discussed and adapted our own ideas, we have finalised on an idea for the script. I then personally went away and formatted it into our final script.
The story consists of a man who discovers a large sum of money contained within a package in the middle of a forest. The package belonged to a dead man. When he brings the package home with him it is revealed in a series of flashbacks that it was placed there as a trap and that an unknown assailant has now caught up with him. The two meet in a violent confrontation with the audience not clear about who has won thus creating an enigma.
Director and actor (the main character in our opening) - responsible for the entire film and to make sure everything runs smoothly and how we planned. Also the main cinematography person.
Emily: Art director - responsible for the mise-en-scene, gathering props and finding a suitable location.
Josh: Writer and producer (and back-up actor for the 'Shadow' character if no other actors can be found) - responsible for writing the script, producing call sheets and a production schedule.
Chloe: Editor and Sound: responsible for gathering suitable music and sound effects needed, editing the film and applying a certian editing style, and choosing appropriate titles.
My Task
After several production meetings in which we discussed and adapted our own ideas, we have finalised on an idea for the script. I then personally went away and formatted it into our final script.
The story consists of a man who discovers a large sum of money contained within a package in the middle of a forest. The package belonged to a dead man. When he brings the package home with him it is revealed in a series of flashbacks that it was placed there as a trap and that an unknown assailant has now caught up with him. The two meet in a violent confrontation with the audience not clear about who has won thus creating an enigma.
Initial Film Noir Ideas
Synopsis for Noir Opening
We begin with a shot of a darkened room. As the camera moves around the room various shadows come in and out of focus and with the assistance of dooming music the main titles are rolled. As they finish, there is a shot behind of a man sitting at a desk with a laptop. On the laptop he types in the name of the film.
There is a close up of his face which is cast half in shadow and he has a look of both guilt and excitement. He begins to type. As he writes, the narrator begins to speak and it is established that it is the writer speaking. He begins talking about the story he is writing and on cue the scene dissolves into another location.
The new scene is a dark secluded wooded area and there is diagetic sound of natural wildlife. Before you can catch your breath a man runs into shot looking highly agitated and seemingly out of breath. He looks around frantically and then moves off again quickly. The camera moves off in another direction.
Another character is established in another part of the same area. At first their face is not seen as they keep to the cover of shadows and low hanging branches. After a few seconds there is an over the shoulder shot which establishes that the ‘Stalker’ now has a clear view of the other man. However, the other man is not yet aware of this.
Gradually the man becomes aware of the second presence and breaks out into a sprint. At the same time the music breaks out with increased volume and intensity as the editing quickens and the actions of the fleeing man become frantic. The ‘Stalker’ pursues him forcefully.
Eventually, the man outpaces his assailant and takes refuge in a slight dip in the terrain. He listens out carefully for any noise and when he hears nothing but the usual chattering and chirping of birds he begins to relax.
As he looks around he notices a small flower drooping in the ground. When he examines it more closely he realises it is stained with blood and the background music becomes dooming. The man looks around slowly, with a resigned look, and comes face to face with the ‘Stalker.’
We cut to close ups of the men’s feet as they struggle urgently. After a few seconds a ripping sound is heard and the man’s feet become still. The drooping flower drops to the ground softly.
The scene dissolves as the flower hits the ground and we are once more confronted with the writer at his desk with his laptop. He sighs. An over the shoulder shot is established and when he flips his laptop down another person’s shadow is revealed. The figure walks into the dim light without the writer looking up. It is the ‘Stalker.’
Treatment
Editing:
At first the editing will be fairly slow and simple to reflect the calm nature of the writer at his desk. Each cut should be in time to the music during the main titles. When there is a close up of the writer the shots will linger on him for slightly longer so that the audience can properly gauge his emotions at the time. When he begins to write, the shots will alternate between his face and the keyboard. As the scene dissolves the camera will focus on the laptop screen.
During the chase sequence in the woods the editing will be both cautious and rapid at different times. At first, when the setting is being established the editing will slow to allow the audience to take in the deserted isolated nature of the location.
However during the actual chase the editing will speed up to keep up with the music and help add to the tension and urgency. There may be quick shots of just feet or faces. It will be designed to make the environment look menacing and chaotic.
Cinematography:
In the writer’s location there will be low key visuals and simple shots of the writer. As the main titles roll the camera will be positioned at different parts of the room and will create more interesting shots using Dutch tilts and reflections from mirrors etc. as he begins to write there will be close ups of both the keyboard and the screen.
In the wooded area there will be establishing wide shots to give the audience perspective. When each character is shot, they will be positioned in correlation to the trees. It will be made to look like the trees are powerful and menacing using low angle shots of the trees and high angle ones of the men.
During the struggle only the feet will be in shot and the flower will begin it’s descent out of shot and then fall straight into the middle of the frame.
In the final part, the laptop will close to reveal the shadow of the ‘Stalker.’
Mise En Scene:
The writer’s room will be cast heavily in shadow to emphasise the dominant presence of the writer. Reflections will be used to increase the dim light on occasions of particular drama such as the reveal of the ‘Stalker.’ The writer himself will be wearing quite shabby clothes and look fairly ragged. The light from the laptop will highlight the writer’s face.
In the woods all of the surroundings will be natural. The two characters there will look very out of place.
Sound:
Throughout the piece there will always be music but it will change in volume and intensity. When there is a lull, such as at the beginning of the woods part diagetic sound will be more prominent and add to the naturalistic atmosphere. The music will be intense during the chase and dooming at the killing.
For most of the time a voiceover of the writer will be heard. He will describe the action in a poetic way. Perhaps the sort of language you would expect to find in a novel. He will mention the ‘Stalker’ with a mixture of distaste and reverence.
We begin with a shot of a darkened room. As the camera moves around the room various shadows come in and out of focus and with the assistance of dooming music the main titles are rolled. As they finish, there is a shot behind of a man sitting at a desk with a laptop. On the laptop he types in the name of the film.
There is a close up of his face which is cast half in shadow and he has a look of both guilt and excitement. He begins to type. As he writes, the narrator begins to speak and it is established that it is the writer speaking. He begins talking about the story he is writing and on cue the scene dissolves into another location.
The new scene is a dark secluded wooded area and there is diagetic sound of natural wildlife. Before you can catch your breath a man runs into shot looking highly agitated and seemingly out of breath. He looks around frantically and then moves off again quickly. The camera moves off in another direction.
Another character is established in another part of the same area. At first their face is not seen as they keep to the cover of shadows and low hanging branches. After a few seconds there is an over the shoulder shot which establishes that the ‘Stalker’ now has a clear view of the other man. However, the other man is not yet aware of this.
Gradually the man becomes aware of the second presence and breaks out into a sprint. At the same time the music breaks out with increased volume and intensity as the editing quickens and the actions of the fleeing man become frantic. The ‘Stalker’ pursues him forcefully.
Eventually, the man outpaces his assailant and takes refuge in a slight dip in the terrain. He listens out carefully for any noise and when he hears nothing but the usual chattering and chirping of birds he begins to relax.
As he looks around he notices a small flower drooping in the ground. When he examines it more closely he realises it is stained with blood and the background music becomes dooming. The man looks around slowly, with a resigned look, and comes face to face with the ‘Stalker.’
We cut to close ups of the men’s feet as they struggle urgently. After a few seconds a ripping sound is heard and the man’s feet become still. The drooping flower drops to the ground softly.
The scene dissolves as the flower hits the ground and we are once more confronted with the writer at his desk with his laptop. He sighs. An over the shoulder shot is established and when he flips his laptop down another person’s shadow is revealed. The figure walks into the dim light without the writer looking up. It is the ‘Stalker.’
Treatment
Editing:
At first the editing will be fairly slow and simple to reflect the calm nature of the writer at his desk. Each cut should be in time to the music during the main titles. When there is a close up of the writer the shots will linger on him for slightly longer so that the audience can properly gauge his emotions at the time. When he begins to write, the shots will alternate between his face and the keyboard. As the scene dissolves the camera will focus on the laptop screen.
During the chase sequence in the woods the editing will be both cautious and rapid at different times. At first, when the setting is being established the editing will slow to allow the audience to take in the deserted isolated nature of the location.
However during the actual chase the editing will speed up to keep up with the music and help add to the tension and urgency. There may be quick shots of just feet or faces. It will be designed to make the environment look menacing and chaotic.
Cinematography:
In the writer’s location there will be low key visuals and simple shots of the writer. As the main titles roll the camera will be positioned at different parts of the room and will create more interesting shots using Dutch tilts and reflections from mirrors etc. as he begins to write there will be close ups of both the keyboard and the screen.
In the wooded area there will be establishing wide shots to give the audience perspective. When each character is shot, they will be positioned in correlation to the trees. It will be made to look like the trees are powerful and menacing using low angle shots of the trees and high angle ones of the men.
During the struggle only the feet will be in shot and the flower will begin it’s descent out of shot and then fall straight into the middle of the frame.
In the final part, the laptop will close to reveal the shadow of the ‘Stalker.’
Mise En Scene:
The writer’s room will be cast heavily in shadow to emphasise the dominant presence of the writer. Reflections will be used to increase the dim light on occasions of particular drama such as the reveal of the ‘Stalker.’ The writer himself will be wearing quite shabby clothes and look fairly ragged. The light from the laptop will highlight the writer’s face.
In the woods all of the surroundings will be natural. The two characters there will look very out of place.
Sound:
Throughout the piece there will always be music but it will change in volume and intensity. When there is a lull, such as at the beginning of the woods part diagetic sound will be more prominent and add to the naturalistic atmosphere. The music will be intense during the chase and dooming at the killing.
For most of the time a voiceover of the writer will be heard. He will describe the action in a poetic way. Perhaps the sort of language you would expect to find in a novel. He will mention the ‘Stalker’ with a mixture of distaste and reverence.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Exchange Review
Firstly, our editing was a lot better on this piece in terms of slickness and continuity. We had good establishing shots and the story made sense to the audience. The use of cross cutting between different parts of the location was a success and enabled the narrative to be driven forward at a faster pace, hence creating more tension and possibly excitement. Additionally, the use of the flashback mechanism appeared to work and served as a hook for the audience to latch onto.
As well as that, our choice of location worked fairly well and suited the tone of the piece. It had a dark and murky atmosphere and served to supply additional characterisation to the muted performers. The location had a slightly claustrophobic feel and as a result it was easier to cross between the two characters whilst editing. Also, it fitted in with many noir traditions as many of those kinds of films have had scenes set in dark alleyways which had a slightly similar look to our chosen location.
Given that we had an already gloomy location the lighting was not a major issue as the natural light itself in that area gave off a rather doom laden aesthetic. The lack of artificial light gave the piece a more realistic impression which meant that the characters incorporated into it didn’t seem out of place or surreal. If there was one mistake with the light it was that in post production we changed the colour of the film to black and white as a nod to classic film noir traditions. However, our main coursework brief stated that we should be aiming our film opening at a mostly teenage audience and it is unlikely that a substantial number of teenagers would sit down to watch a black and white film. I would suggest that for our main piece we simply shoot it in a lowly lit style to keep in with traditions but to not change the overall colour to black and white.
Our basic rules, which included the rule of thirds and the 180 degrees line, were adhered to which gave the film a more professional look which is a marked improvement on the preliminary exercise. Also, as we had more time in length of the film and on location we were able to spend more time on establishing shots. One of the weaknesses of our fist piece was that we missed off some of the handles which meant that the film had a rather disjointed feel. On this film there was better pacing and we also added in a few Dutch tilt camera shots to enhance the noir feel of the piece. These went down well with the audience. I believe that the Dutch tilt shots and their solid incorporation into the piece showed a step up in technical skill.
There was however a few weaknesses in the film we produced. The main ones seemed to emanate from the sound area of production. Whilst our choice of music was met with approval and seemed to fit in well with the tone of the film, some criticisms were voiced about its introduction. Looking back at the film we noticed that the music comes in at high volume almost immediately and doesn’t have a chance to build in momentum. If we did it again I think we would probably start the music at a quieter volume during the titles and slowly drive up its intensity as the main action starts to kick in. this would hopefully add to the intensity and maybe even drama of the story and give added life to the characters.
Continuing on sound, another objection which was raised was that at times during the film the sound of the music clashed with background noise, most notably the cars on the road beside the alleyway. There were occasions when there was simply too much noise and it sounded disjointed and heavy handed. In some respects it drew attention away from the characters on screen and is a problem that can be solved by more vigilant sound recording on site or possibly during post production. Whilst editing it may be possible to mix together the volume of music so that it is quieter when there is more background noise. The background noise could then be used to add realism to the film and create a more down to earth feel.
Finally, when doing our final project I think it would be best to keep the main titles as low key and non descript as possible. This is because on the exchange the bold font types seemed out of place with the tone of the film and simply didn’t sit well. It may be a case of just keeping it simple and letting the main action on screen do the talking as it were.
As well as that, our choice of location worked fairly well and suited the tone of the piece. It had a dark and murky atmosphere and served to supply additional characterisation to the muted performers. The location had a slightly claustrophobic feel and as a result it was easier to cross between the two characters whilst editing. Also, it fitted in with many noir traditions as many of those kinds of films have had scenes set in dark alleyways which had a slightly similar look to our chosen location.
Given that we had an already gloomy location the lighting was not a major issue as the natural light itself in that area gave off a rather doom laden aesthetic. The lack of artificial light gave the piece a more realistic impression which meant that the characters incorporated into it didn’t seem out of place or surreal. If there was one mistake with the light it was that in post production we changed the colour of the film to black and white as a nod to classic film noir traditions. However, our main coursework brief stated that we should be aiming our film opening at a mostly teenage audience and it is unlikely that a substantial number of teenagers would sit down to watch a black and white film. I would suggest that for our main piece we simply shoot it in a lowly lit style to keep in with traditions but to not change the overall colour to black and white.
Our basic rules, which included the rule of thirds and the 180 degrees line, were adhered to which gave the film a more professional look which is a marked improvement on the preliminary exercise. Also, as we had more time in length of the film and on location we were able to spend more time on establishing shots. One of the weaknesses of our fist piece was that we missed off some of the handles which meant that the film had a rather disjointed feel. On this film there was better pacing and we also added in a few Dutch tilt camera shots to enhance the noir feel of the piece. These went down well with the audience. I believe that the Dutch tilt shots and their solid incorporation into the piece showed a step up in technical skill.
There was however a few weaknesses in the film we produced. The main ones seemed to emanate from the sound area of production. Whilst our choice of music was met with approval and seemed to fit in well with the tone of the film, some criticisms were voiced about its introduction. Looking back at the film we noticed that the music comes in at high volume almost immediately and doesn’t have a chance to build in momentum. If we did it again I think we would probably start the music at a quieter volume during the titles and slowly drive up its intensity as the main action starts to kick in. this would hopefully add to the intensity and maybe even drama of the story and give added life to the characters.
Continuing on sound, another objection which was raised was that at times during the film the sound of the music clashed with background noise, most notably the cars on the road beside the alleyway. There were occasions when there was simply too much noise and it sounded disjointed and heavy handed. In some respects it drew attention away from the characters on screen and is a problem that can be solved by more vigilant sound recording on site or possibly during post production. Whilst editing it may be possible to mix together the volume of music so that it is quieter when there is more background noise. The background noise could then be used to add realism to the film and create a more down to earth feel.
Finally, when doing our final project I think it would be best to keep the main titles as low key and non descript as possible. This is because on the exchange the bold font types seemed out of place with the tone of the film and simply didn’t sit well. It may be a case of just keeping it simple and letting the main action on screen do the talking as it were.
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