group meetings notes

throughout all the stages of the production we got together to put forward ideas and make decisions, both in class and in our own time. We chose our roles and who was responsable foe certain tasks and completed them. Although we had our assigned roles we all had a say in all stages of production like which shot type to use, how to edit and shared research.

Final Edit of Vengence

Coursework Evaluation

1. How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our main plot line of our opening was the attack on Miller by his Partner Grimwood, it follows a basic noir-esque back stab and breech of trust that other noir films have used successfully and we have followed this convention, like Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944) and although it is a somewhat cliqued and predictable plot device I think we managed to pull it off with an element of surprise. The iconology of the feme fetale is slightly challenged in our opening as we have represented Grimwood as a bit more regretful and reluctant in her betrayal. Like many action movie openings, our product is low fat and gets straight into the story and doesn’t waste any time while at the same time providing enigmas and provokes the audience’s curiosity (very much like Kill Bill ((Quentin Tarantino 2004))). It is not as atmospheric as other noirs like Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer 1945) or Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982) instead we get straight into the story and action like a more modern neo noir like Watchmen (Zack Snyder 2009)

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

Our product represents young gangsters in urban settings (not necessarily all young people) and young adults. We have no ideology or messages to give when representing these characters. We have represented these characters as undercover police posing as young criminals so they reflect their style of hoodies and baggy jeans.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Channel four and five would air it from eight o’clock or nine at night because of the certificate PG13. I would expect this to be so as channel four and five air movies over the weekend. Most cinemas will show our movie as we would release it globally.



4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The main audience for our film would be male teenagers, young adults and people who like dark crime movies like sin city and blade runner (most persons over the age of
13)The audience we showed our opening to liked our product, they said the narrative was easy to follow and interesting, the music was well suited to the action and the monologue was good too. Overall it appealed to them, the young adults of the audience said it would appeal to other young people. We think any class of person would enjoy it so we aimed it towards all classes but we think working and middle classes would be more interested.



5. How do you address/attract your audience?
Using actors and characters that the audience can relate to and are interesting to them, it is a fact that we are more interested in stories involving people of our own age so our actors were meant to look like teenagers to appeal to a teenage audience. The dialogue contains popular slang and casual language to reflect the language of the audience and to make it clear that these characters are of a certain background and reflect their ideology. The themes and action that we chose to include in the opening are those that the audience are curious about, the gangster themes of drugs and violence. The cinematography, sound, editing and mise en scene were all chosen to represent these themes with modern music and clothes, interesting shots and seamless editing.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I had never started a blog before taking this course and had no idea how to navigate one, now I have a better understanding and full grasp on the concept. All of the team became better acquainted with the equipment and editing program although with more time we could have mastered Final Cut Pro but there were very few problems.I am now quite familiar wit the equipment involved in the filming process like the Cannon HV3ODV Camcorder, the YOGA Shotgun Microphone and VELBON Tripod. We should have checked all equipment was functional before leaving or setting up, especially sound equipment as we found it is the most unreliable, failing to do so led us to be forced into re-filming a scene.


7. Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product
The errors I made in the preliminary exercise were not repeated in our finished product, I didn’t put too much space around the characters or make any shot too long. The key concepts from the brief were fulfilled.

Vengence Script

Miller: (monologue) when you’ve been in this business as long as I have you find that nothing surprises you. The first thing you learn in undercover work is to learn fast, and trust no on, a few years ago yeas ago I never would have believed that a detective would conspire with criminals, but I was young and I trusted her.

Location: outskirts of Alexandra Park, Ipswich

Miller: where’ve you been? I’ve been trying to ring you

Grimwood: Look, I’ve been thinking, maybe I should go alone

Miller: no way, I’m the one who set this up, c’mon

Grimwood: Where is he?

Miller: I knew this would happen. There he is. Just let me do the talking. Your late

Levis: shut up

Grimwood: so, you got it yeah?

Levis: ‘course I have, why else would I be here? Where’s my money

Miller: you’ll get it just wait. It’s all there, now clear off

Levis: who you talking to

Miller : I’m talking to you blood, don’t worry I’ll be seeing you again real soon

Levis: yeah?

Miller: yeah

Grimwood: I just wasn’t going down for this one.

Miller (monologue) I suppose it’s never too late to learn a few new lessons I the end, but this isn’t the end, and it’s never too late for vengeance.
credit to Yaz Jamie Josh Caroline

second storyboard pg3

second storyboard pg2

second storyboard pg1

film noir research findings pg2

credit to Yaz Ryan

film noir reasearch findings pg1

credit to Yaz Ryan

good film openings, Harry Potter

The scene opens with a slow fade effect onto a sign with an owl sitting on it, its night time and the sign says “Privet Drive” giving us a vague idea of the location. The camera pans to the right and not a lot can be seen clearly through the dark and mist but a few trees and an old man walks out of the mist like a ghost. He walks onto the street and takes out a lighter and holds it out above his head, with a slight movement of his wrist the light from the lamp posts is sucked into the lighter, he does this to all light on the drive. When this is done we hear a cat meow, he looks down at it and addresses it by name as if he were talking to a human, “I should have known you would be here, Professor McGonagall.” The camera pans left off the cat and focuses on its shadow, which stands and transforms into a shadow of a human and a middle aged woman steps into the shot and greets Dumbledore.

The two of them start walking down the street side-by-side, their conversation is very enigmatic and listening to their talk of rumours good and bad makes the audience feel they are eaves-dropping, McGonagall speaks with a Scottish accent and Dumbledore an English accent. A new character is mentioned, Hagrid, who is bringing a boy to them. McGonagall questions Dumbledore’s decision to trust Hagrid to do something so important and the audience can’t help but wonder why and Dumbledore reassures her that he would trust him with his life showing he is well acquainted with him. Immediately after Dumbledore’s line about trusting Hagrid a loud engine noise is heard and the next shot shows a bright light in the sky above the two professors, the shot changes to show a huge hairy man in a long coat riding a flying motor bike and it’s bright head-light shines in the professor’s faces. We gather that this giant man is who Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking about, a zooming close-up on his body and face as he greets the professors shows he is carrying a baby in a sling.

Hagrid hands the baby boy to Dumbledore and he and McGonagall walk further down the street together. As they walk McGonagall is once again doubting Dumbledore’s decisions, “are you sure it’s safe leaving him with these people?” she seems to be very concerned for the baby’s wellbeing, she goes on: “I’ve watched them all day, they’re the worst sort of muggles imaginable…” she tries to continue but Dumbledore interrupts saying they are the only family he has as they walk into a driveway, they are standing at the front door of the house when McGonagall gives us the most tantalising clue as to the importance of this meeting “this boy will be famous, there wont be a child in our world who doesn’t know his name”. This line of dialogues is designed to really grip the audience and have us all wondering what has happened to this baby and why Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid are involved. As Dumbledore puts the baby on the doorstep a short close up on Hagrid shows him teary eyed and sniffing and Dumbledore turns to him and says, “there there Hagrid, it’s not really good-bye after all” does this mean they intend on seeing him again? The scene ends with Dumbledore putting a small envelope on the wrapped baby with the address clearly indicating the location and Dumbledore saying good luck harry potter and a close up on the baby’s face and a cut on his fore-head that looks like a lightning bolt.

Representations of the characters in the scene are in keeping with the genre of adventure fantasy and they are all clearly wizards and witches. Professor Albus Dumbledore is represented as an elderly man possibly in his 70s, he wears wizardly robes and a pointed hat and he had grown his beard and hair long. His entrance into the scene is eerie and mystical; stepping out of the fog and dark like a ghost and putting the street lights out with his magic lighter, it all makes a big impact on the audience. Professor McGonagall is very similar to Dumbledore, he also wears strange robes and seems quite old, but not quite as old as him. Her entrance onto the scene is even more dramatic than Dumbledore’s she seems to have the ability to turn into a cat, showing she has great power at her disposal. Hagrid is somewhat different from the two professors, he is younger than both of them but not by much, he calls Dumbledore sir so he is clearly respectful of him. His looks are quite shocking he looks to be about nine feet tall and wild long hair and beard but from what little we see of him it is clear he’s a bit soft as he weeps a bit when they leave baby harry on the doorstep. His entrance onto the scene isn’t as mystical as the professors on his flying motor bike but it’s very memorable and quite funny to think of that huge man delivering a baby to a doorstep like a stork.


Audience
Children and teenagers

Genre
Fantasy/adventure

Editing:
Real-time editing

Cinematography:
Single source lighting
Moonlight
Mist
We see McGonagall’s shadow/silhouette transform

Mise-en-scene
Location is a typical English suburban street with nice houses
Costumes are unusual but attractive

Sound
Mostly diagetic
Classical sound track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHOoruwDwA

Preliminary Exercise

Storyboard pg4

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Exchange Evaluation

My responsibility on this project was the cinematography, I controlled the camera and after consulting the group I made the final decisions on shot types and angles, the contributions I made while being in charge of cinematography provided the production with high quality visuals. The establishing shot was criticized for being too long and the shot ended with a bit of a jerk but location was widely liked and reflected the film noir genre as a dark and dingy looking piece of ground. A lot of the shots were unintentionally in soft focus, although it is a characteristic of noir films it made the visual experience slightly uncomfortable for some but the soundtrack was highly praised as it fitted well with the actions on screen.

The editing was quite neat, only the establishing shot let us down all other cuts and transitions were good. The close-ups on the characters were admired and the actors were dressed appropriately in dark colours representing the typical noir characters. There was a wide variety of shots; long shots, close-ups, body shots and two shots and this helped to keep the action interesting while seeing things take place from different points of view. The rule of thirds was not followed in one shot but purposefully so to give a better view of the location and to put the character in a different perspective in relation to the surroundings. Very few things went wrong in this production like the focus and establishing shot but just about everything else went to plan and the only things I would have changed would have been the adjusting of the focus and maybe longer close-us but the overall production was a success. The Exchange was suitably up to date with the stylistics of film noir, followed a clear narrative, met the brief and was suitable for our target audience.

my contribution to the proposal

Cinematography:

There will be close ups on main character’s faces when they are talking and on any action that needs to be shown in greater detail, subtle Dutch angles on long shots to make the audience feel uncomfortable and high or low angle shots on certain characters to signify dominance or inferiority. Camera focus will be adjusted in certain shots to reflect the action in the scene, like in a shot of a main character loosing consciousness.

Shot sizes will vary depending on the situation, over shoulder and two shots will be used when characters are interacting and delivering dialogue. The framing of shots will follow the conventional grid reference and tracking shots will be avoided as it can look clumsy and unprofessional when attempted by amateurs without the proper equipment. We have no funds or equipment for technically complicated shots like craning shots or ariel shots.

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

The purpose of the preliminary exercise was to practice taking shots, editing and operating sound equipment, we were to use the experience gained in this exercise to streangthen our quality of other assignments. Overall the sequences were relatively smooth and the action was easy to follow, there was good continuality and the sound was clear. A few things needed to be improved though, the establishing shots of actors walking down the corridor were too long and drawn out, I should have kept action in the grid as there was too much space above actor’s heads and bodies sometimes and it could have done with a greater variety of shot angles and sizes also a few small background noises were not edited out.

The Exchange

this was an exercise to further familiarise ouselves with the filming process and practice handling the equipment. The aim of the exercise was to produce a short sequence that showed an exchange of a letter in a noir thriller style in any way we saw fit as long as it was to a noir-esque genre.

good openings

Star Trek
The scene begins with a wide establishing shot of the U.S.S Kelvin approaching a disturbance in space beside a sun, the camera angles and movements give a disorientated feel as it pans across the ship without giving a clear indication of up or down. In this establishing shot there are very few sound effects as this is set in space but there are beeping signals and voices over a radio. There is no uncertainty of who the baddies are in this story. The first introduction to them is a huge frightening looking ship coming through the storm, it’s a dark metallic colour and seems to be made of jagged spikes and blades and light does not reflect or shine off it while the Kelvin does. Inside it is dark and smoky everything about this Romulan ship screams “evil!” The Romulan villains invite the captain of the Kelvin to their ship after a brief but devastating attack on the Kelvin then kill him on board after interrogating him, leaving Kirk in charge, we are momentarily fooled into thinking this is our main hero James T Kirk but it’s in fact his father George Kirk. The Romulan ship attacks using spiky missiles and one particularly effective shot shows the scene from the missile’s point of view, from the Romulan ship through space and exploding on the hull of the Kelvin, accentuating the destruction. George must stay on the bridge to protect the evacuating crew and plot a collision course into the Romulan ship. Meanwhile his wife is giving birth to his son in an evacuation shuttle, there is an emotional exchange as George explains to his wife in labour that “he can’t be there” and for about 30 seconds there are sounds except for a few muted explosions and a stirring sound track. A lot of enigmas are created in this opening sequence what and who are the aggressive aliens, why are they looking for Ambassador Spock and why were they so upset when the captain of the Kelvin tell them the year? In the end it gives the audience an emotional start to the rest of the movie and there is a sense of emotional ambivalence as the audience is distraught that Kirk’s father dies but elation as baby Jim and his mother escape.

The villains of the movie are the alien Romulans, they are darkly dressed, have tattoos on their faces, no hair and sinister voices and there seems to be no females. This representation of the Romulan characters is not complicated, the producers and directors want to make it obvious that these are the baddies and their space ship is just as bold, it’s huge and threatening next to the Kelvin, it looks dirty and it arrives through a lightning storm in space and storms and lightning are often associated with doom and danger. George Kirk is a typical Hollywood hero, he is young hansom and strong looking and clearly very brave to go down with the ship to protect his crew mates, he sits in captain’s chair all alone on a burning ship, facing death and lives for just long enough to name his baby boy

The contrast in the villain’s and the human language is very apparent although both sides are speaking English, the Romulans are cool and calm while the suffering crew of the Kelvin are shown giving panicked orders and tearful goodbyes. Throughout the scene the camera jostles and shakes as if it’s reacting to the scene like a news reporter and light from the explosions and nearby sun flares in the camera lenses.

Brief

My objectives include producing a film noir opening sequence with a group, writing a treatment and synopsis of my own film noir storyline and completeing a blog that shows all my working and reasearch of film noir. my main aim is to produce a film opening, the theme is “contemporary ‘film noir’thrillers”. My work will update the noir genre but to bring the values, traditions, narrative, mood and conventions of film noir to a new audience in contemporary style and setting. I will consider and mention what sort of institution it would sit within and the cinemas and distribution pattern the film would have film and also where it will sit best in the television schedules and onwhich TV station it would be most suited to.

Neo-Noir Films

Brick 2005 Directed by Rian Johnson

Brendan Frye is a student of a nameless American High School who finds his ex-girlfriend murdered on the school campus and takes on the challenge of finding her murderer himself. After a frenzied phone call with her the day she was murdered, mentioning “the Brick is bad” Brendan suspects she had fallen in with the drug addict clique.

Sin city 2005 Directed by Frank Miller

Four tales of crime adapted from Frank Miller's popular comics, focusing around a muscular brute who's looking for the person responsible for the death of his beloved Goldie, another man fed up with Sin City's corrupt law enforcement who takes the law into his own hands after a horrible mistake, a cop who risks his life to protect a girl from a deformed pedophile and a hitman looking to make some cash.

Blade Runner 1984 Directed by Ridley Scott

Deckard is a Blade Runner, a police man of the future who hunts down and terminates replicants, artificially created humans with limited life spans. He wants to get out of the force, but is drawn back in when 4 "skin jobs" (a slang term for replicants) hijack a ship back to Earth to seek out there creators to find a way to live longer than four years. The oriental city that Deckard must search for his prey is huge, smoky and claustrophobic.