Positives and Negatives

Vlog Positives and Negatives from Matthew Levesley on Vimeo.

In this video we outline the positives and the negatives of the Film Noir experience.

Actors Profile

After casting the Actors (as stated in the previous blog post)

Josh Coe:



Date of Birth: 16th November 1998 (aged 17)

Height: 5'9"

Hair Colour: Brown

Gender: Male

Role: Tony

Reason for Hiring: We needed someone with a great deal of Film Noir knowledge to perfectly fulfil the needed role; I therefore decided that the leading role should go to either me or Joshua. After an informal audition, Josh suited the character's role better as he was able to be serious and portray emotion almost effortlessly.

Positives when filming: 

• Took directions well
• Acted with a straight face, never broke character
• Suited the clothing and props

Negatives when filming:

• Body position at times could have been more appropriate

Heather McDonald:

Date of Birth: 14th May 1999 (aged 16)

Height: 5'5"

Hair Colour: Brunette

Gender: Female

Role: Victoria

Reason for Hiring: As stated before, actors were needed with strong Film Noir knowledge to perfectly portray the characters. A female character was needed and Heather met the criteria we were looking for.

Positives when filming:

• Effectively used the props appropriately and realistically
• Took directions well
• Looked like a genuine Femme Fatale

Negatives when filming:

• Many scenes took more than one take to complete

Creating The Studio Ident

The production company name was created by shuffling my playlist and choosing a song title which would be suitable; the song Rabbit Hole by Jamie T came up and we decided to use this.
Heather used her artistic skills to come up with what the ident should look like.

I drew the rabbit head for our ident as shown below:

The swirls around were an idea for what the hole should look like, this was cropped out in photoshop.

Heather came up with the idea of a light in a dark room to represent a hole; we used an empty classroom with the light off, a phone flashlight and my iPhone for the camera. Below is the photo taken by Heather:

I cropped both photos, put them together and added a downloaded font from DaFont. With the help from Heather, I adjusted the text shape and style to create the finalised studio ident:

Mise En Scene Research - Credit to Heather McDonald

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

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

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

Storyboard

Our next step towards the final production was doing a photoshoot for the storyboard in the locations that Josh had planned. When it came to the photoshoot, I took the photos and positioned the characters. Heather then edited them on photoshop making them black and white, Josh then took them and made a slideshare that is attached below, it then explains exactly what is happening in each photo. 

Media photoshoot from Coey1611

The lighting was not an issue as it was shot during the daytime, to get a more conventional Noir atmosphere, we will need to film during the night; we have learnt that this may cause issues as the footage is not going the be as clear to see. To prevent this from happening, a flashlight will be used when necessary.
Camera angles are greatly important to portray the mood and atmosphere for the audience. We have learnt that in order to create the correct mood in each shot, the camera angles must be perfect (for example a high angle to make the character weak-demonstrated in the first slide). The composition of each shot is equally as important-in the background of some shots, civilians' houses are visible which will not be acceptable for the opening of our film.
For audience understanding of the film, accurate props will be needed: clothing, gun (rather than hand) and, to meet the codes and conventions of a Film Noir, cigarettes will be needed and used.
From this, I have learnt that to fully portray the aspects within our film, we each need to prepare fully within the research and planning-we will be able to work effectively without a great deal of challenges. 

Recreated Foley Sounds

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


I thoroughly enjoyed this process as it allowed us to test and experiment what we are able to do ourselves; after the experience, I have been made aware how many different, minor sounds we need in our Film Noir to give it a realistic effect. A problem that may face us is to recreate these in a realistic and conventional manner for the opening title sequence of a Film Noir.

Production Log 12/01/2016

In today's lesson, the three of us went out and took still photos for a storyboard. This allowed us to visually display how we intend the production to go. Heather and Josh edited it and put it onto SlideShare whilst I added to the script to try and finish it. We aim to film and record the voiceover within the upcoming days.

The Storyboard

The Script

Deciding our Narrative Structure

When deciding on what narrative structure as a group, we had sheets that had definitions of possible narrative structures and from this we decided if they were suitable for our idea and if they would be good for it as a whole.

These were out two options. We decided that the 'Vladimir Propp' narrative wouldn't work for ours, as there is far too many characters compared to the amount that we plan to use, however we might include some of the character ideas. After looking at the 'Enigma Code', we've decided that this would be a suitable and effective narrative to follow. The sense of mystery is perfect for our story and would make the audience question the events of the opening which is exactly the idea.

Beginning Narrative Idea

For our final piece in Media Studies I am working with Heather McDonald and Josh Coe, and we have started to plan a narrative for it and tried out different ideas for a storyline. To start, we discussed ideas for a story and talked about how many characters we would have and what the general idea would be. From this we were then able to write out a general synopsis of what our story is.This is just a starting idea so we will build on this idea to develop and improve it in multiple ways. The name for the Everyman at this time is Micky.

'Micky is staring in the mirror with a gun... Flashback:

He was a successful person, but he had a big secret.

He employs an assistant (femme-fatal) who finds out his secret but agrees to keep quiet by blackmailing Micky.

Leaves him broke.

In his anger he kills her.'