Final Products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdgLSPS5PI

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When starting this topic I had heard of film noirs but was not confident on them and had never actually seen them. So in our lessons we started from the beginning with the history of film noirs, and then went on to watch four in the lessons, Double Indemnity, Brick, LA Confidential and The big sleep. Watching these films really helped in the beginning stages, it really gave me an insight to what film noir actually was and how it worked. This gave me and my group the opportunity to use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real film noirs.

We started this by setting our film in the 1950’s which is when the film noir period was. A huge convention of film noir is the fact that it is in black and white, as a group we chose also to put our film in black and white so it gave the proper effect of a film noir also it worked a lot better than it did in colour.

We learnt in our lessons and through our own internet and film research about the conventions included in the films.  We have come up with a dark storyline including murder and affairs which is developing the typical plot line of a film noir. Also we wanted to include the stereotypical characters; we have used the main male and femme fatale idea from film noirs. However we have challenged the conventions by having another woman who in the end in fact turns out to be the femme fatale when no one would have expected it, we did this to make the story more interesting and give it a slight modern twist.

Venetian blinds p lay a huge role in many of the film noirs, so we wanted to make sure we included this. We chose to do this near the end bringing suspense to the big ending. The blinds create striking shadows and a closed in effect on our two characters Nancy and Martha, the blinds show them both now caught up in this and they cannot get out of it.

When it comes to camera shots and angles we have tried to include many different ones. In a film noir you would see canted angles and distorted pictures so we have taken this and used the low slightly tilted angle developing it from the original. This is seen when Nancy visits Martha.

When it comes to costumes film noir is set in the 1940’s to 50’s so we wanted to take this into consideration. They would wear structured blazers, long skirts, shirts for the women and suit and hat for the men. We really tried to use this convention and have used costumes which as a group we felt would match our characters and the time period. One main costume that was used was fur coats for the women, this shows glamour and elegance with a touch of power from the women.

We have challenged the conventions of our film noir as many are American and set in built up urban streets. We have stuck with the English accent as we didn’t want it to look fake and we wanted to show a different side to a film noir. Also are locations are rarely anywhere but the office and the houses yet in some there is the built up housing area so this shows the film noir conventions.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

All three of the products we were asked to make all link together well, the film then the film poster and then after the film is seen comes the film review.

For my poster I have photographs we took as a group, they work on my poster really well. I have used the photograph of Nancy and Martha as it adds mystery, leaving the viewer wondering what the women’s connection with each other is and what will happen in the story. The poster is in black and white which fits in with the film and shows the continuity. The characters are also wearing the costumes they do in the film and I feel that the way Nancy is slightly in the shadow and Martha much more in the light shows a bit about their personalities from the film.

The other ancillary product was the film review; I wanted to make sure I continued the same kind of photos and ideas throughout all three products. I have used the same photographs as the poster, yet I created three different versions. One is with Nancy and Martha one Nancy and Clark and then the last one is just Clark, I did this to show my ideas and purely so I could actually decide. Out of the three I like the ones with Clark in as I am aiming to make it not look too similar to my poster and they give a different feel. All three link together well with the photographs but with the film review I have kept the photos in colour, I liked the way it looked and thought it separated from the poster and film.

All of my products link together effectively, I had the same ideas running through and made sure I kept this throughout. I am really happy with how they turned out and overall I think my poster and film work the best together. The poster is simple but still reflects the characters in the film and I think is quite eye catching.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

On Thursday the 22^nd of March we had a screening of our films at school. We had an issue with the laptop being jumpy and making the film really dark but it was still watched. Also we hadn’t finalised our whole film so it didn’t have the finishing touches on it. The media department gave everyone who came to watch post-it notes to write there feedback on.

We also wrote our own feedback on the other group’s films. It was actually really helpful to watch the other groups and write feedback on there’s. It gave us something to think about and made us think whether we could make the same improvements to ours or what we liked best or thought they could do better.

I think that working on a film for this long began to be hard to see that it was something good. We had spent a lot of time filming and changing things around and trying to work out what would actually work with time restrictions. Also when the only three characters in the film are acted by the members in the group it is very easy to be extremely critical and not like our performances. So when this feedback came back to us a few days later we were really happy, we looked at the comments and thought about what they had said also took it on board.

I have learnt that every individual picks out different bits of the film and notice different things to what maybe you had noticed before. We had a few comments on our venetian blind shot which we were all incredibly pleased with.  I think it brings the film noir elements in. it was a shame that the laptop was effecting our film as it could have looked better than it actually did and that affected our feedback.

I also asked a family member to discuss my film for me to give me some insight to what a different age range thought and whether it would appeal to them. I did this to gather a range of comments.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The first research stage of our topic was actually watching the film noirs in class; we watched them on the screen of video as they are quite old. Watching these films really helped ideas for our own film and to actually get to grips with film noir. Also I used the internet to do my own research for film noir; I looked at websites of presentations and also went on YouTube to look at trailers for film noirs. This really helped me to gain an insight of the history and popular films.

The planning of our project took place as a group; we all sat down and talked about ideas for a plot of our film. We wrote notes and then came up with a storyline. Once we had devised our plot line we drew out a storyboard, deciding what would go in each scene, settings and some camera angles. This helped us in deciding a script, props and locations. We then drew out our final story board we had separate bits of paper and each drew and wrote what was happening. We wrote about costumes, locations, lighting and camera angles, this really helped when it came to writing our screen play.
We all sat down at the computer and wrote our screen play together, we used Microsoft word to do this. We used a simple black font and then did locations props and costumes in red. We put a key at the top telling what each colour meant and highlighted the appropriate areas. This helped make the screen play clear to understand and really helped when filming. 

When we had written this we also did our character profiles. We wanted to decide what the characters were really like before acting as them. We used character profile sheets to decide and then went on to film our interviews. We used a HD camera for the filming and set it in the studio using the studio lights. This worked well; we then downloaded them onto the Apple Mac computers. We did this so we could add all the different clips together using Final Cut Express. This was simple as the clips were good as they were so there wasn’t much editing involved.
When deciding on our costumes for our film we used from the Drama department at our school, we did this because when we were looking in there we had found many different costumes that fit into this era. We also made sure that the costumes suited our characters.

As our planning for our production, I looked up a few different which I have included on my blog. I looked at their logos and they were very striking and bold. As a group we sat down and put in different ideas for the production company name and the final decision was ‘A Stickman Production’. We decided this would go at the beginning of our film and we simply wrote the title. This didn’t look very exciting at all, it was plain and simple but didn’t have an eye catching effect. So we decided to change it and we decided that we would have one of our group write it on black paper in white and we filmed it on the camera. We then downloaded and put it onto the Mac computer; we downloaded it into final cut express and put it on the beginning of our film. We added an affect to make it be unwritten which looks much more interesting than the original.

For our film we filmed with a HD camera and most of the time we used a tripod. We used the tripod for our filming so that we got a clear effect and the camera had no shake to it. This actually worked really well and made it easier for us to pan and using tracking with the camera. We used all natural lighting for our film, and got some single source lighting from the sun which is a convention of film noir. We filmed a lot of separate clips for our film and then downloaded them on to the Apple Mac computers. We did this by using the log and transfer key. It was easier having separate clips as we could decide what needed to be cut out of them and what we would use.
The editing process was done on the Mac computers using Final Cut Express. As a group we sat together and decided every element we would include.

When doing the film review, in our lesson we had looked at many in different magazines to get ideas. This really helped and also evaluating them helped decide what I would put on my own. When evaluating them in groups of two we used a HD camera to film ourselves talking through the film review. Also I wrote two of my own film reviews on Brick and LA Confidential, doing this really helped me get the idea of how to write one and what language is needed. I realised that it shouldn’t be too long and needs to be interesting. I wrote these using Microsoft word.
Next I took photographs with my group for the film review. I had the idea that I wanted the image across the whole page and the text on top of it. I wanted the photograph to be the main focus. We used a Nikon camera to take these photos in the studio with a single source light and used a soft box on it. I then downloaded the images and decided what ones I wanted to use using windows photo viewer. When I had decided I opened the photos in Adobe Photo Shop CS5, I am familiar using this programme so it was quite simple what I was doing. I added curves to the photo to give the colours more depth, I then added the film review using the text tool and made it white on the black background. I think it looks really effective and isn’t too long that it would bore the reader.

                                               The other ancillary product was to make a film poster. When taking pictures for the film review they were also for the poster. I wanted the poster to be eye catching as it was selling the movie. I also wanted it to be in black and white to show it is a film noir. I again used Adobe Photo Shop CS5 to create my poster. I made the image of Nancy and Martha black and white and didn’t include Clark in the poster. He is in the film review and I think it leaves some mystery to what else is happening in the film. I then added the title and actors names using the text tool. I put them in red to show danger and maybe love and I think it works really well with the black and white. I also included the 15 age rating as it has scenes of murder and the text at the top of the poster using the text tool. I didn’t want these two sections to be the main focus so brought the opacity down on them. Overall my film poster is my favourite out of all three elements, I think it links in well with the film and is quite eye catching while giving a sense of mystery.

Evaluation Preparation

Editing

The next stage after our filming process was to edit our film, once we had filmed everything we began to do this. We used a small HD camera to film which we then plugged into the Apple Mac computers to download our clips. We simply selected the clips which we wanted to use and moved them into Final cut express using the Log and Transfer button.
We would then sit and edit our film all together around the one computer, we would watch it then crop down bits we didn't like and add effects we all thought would work.

The main effect which we used on our whole film was black and white. We decided to make it black and white as we wanted to include that element of a classic film noir, we had also chosen the time period of around the 1950s which black and white works well with. We managed to create this effect by (as shown in the image) selecting 'Effects' then to 'Video Filters' to 'Colour Correction' and then finally to 'Colour Corrector'. This was easy to do and then you would select 'Colour Corrector' on the left hand clip.

This would then take you to a screen like the next image. The screen has the two colour wheels and then the whites, mids, blacks and saturation sections below it. These sections were easy to change and all was needed was moving the cursor along to the effect you wanted it at, this would show on the opposite screen so that it was easier for us all to decide. We then moved the cursor on the 'Saturation' section down to the end on every clip to get the black and white effect which we were aiming for originally. We were happy with how this turned out.

We then decided that although the black and white effect looked good and worked well with our film that maybe it needed something more to it as at the moment the clips all looked a bit grey and didn't bring the depth of the colours out. We decided to add another effect to our clip to give it a darker and more interesting feel. We looked at many different effects under 'Video Filters' and then we chose one under the section 'Stylize and the filter right at the end called 'Vignette'. As you can see it gives the image a darker edge and looks better.

We also cropped a lot of our clips down. When we uploaded the clips to the computer some bits were good and some bad so we would cut the bad out, also if we felt the section of the clip was unnecessary and was taking up to much of the 5 minutes then we would cut it out. We cut our clips by using then cut tool on final cut express this is found on the toolbar on the right hand side where I have put the arrow and you simply select that then select the section of the clip you want to cut and select delete.

We also used music and sound effects on our film to give it the final touch and finish to the film. We were happy how this made it sound like a real film and made it more interesting. We got these sounds of a website who we would email to get the permission from after making our account.

In our film we also tried to use many different shop types. We used many including two shot and extreme close up, I have gone through the film and selected all the different shots we used shown in the photos. We also used camera tracking, panning and zooming which I couldn't show on the photos.

As I have mentioned before Venetian blinds play a big role in film noir. As this is a major convention we wanted to make sure we included this in our film. On the left is our venetian blinds and on the right is a scene from Mildred Pierce where they have included venetian blinds. I am really happy with our shot and think they are a lot more obvious and striking compared to the more subtle ones of Mildred Pierce.

Another convention of Film Noir is Single Source lighting. The left hand photograph is our scene where Clark is going to Nancys house, the single light source from the sun works really well and really defines the shot. I have compared this with the lighting in Brick and the light coming towards the camera from behind the character Brendan.

Film noir films are known for being in black and white and being quite dark. The lighting is also dark and a lot of low key lighting is used. Our film is also in black and white and in the particular scene of Nancy and Clark our lighting is very low, which works well with the light from the door. I have compared this with the low key lighting used in the last scene of Double Indemnity where he is confessing his story.



Film Review

In our lesson we analysed different film reviews to get ideas for our own. I have included this video above.

Throughout the A Level course and making the film noir, I have looked at many different film reviews for ideas and written my own. I wanted to create an effect like different magazines do, with a striking image and then the text next to it. I didn't want to include a lot of text but just give a short and to the point film review. I made my film review in Adobe photo shop CS5 and came up with different ideas.

This is my first film review I did. The actual review on each one is the same i just wanted to play around with the background and positioning. This first one is just Clark (James Bell) I like this one as I think it is simple and as this character isn't in the film poster it creates other ideas about the film and shows more. I like where the text is and I think it doesn't look to much to read. Also the image is the main focus.

This is my second review, again with the same text and font yet a different background. I like the background on this one as i think it shows the characters and what they are actually like in the film. Martha is looking down on Nancy and Nancy is giving all her attention to the camera. I like the positioning of the text, i think it works with the image and is an easy read. I included the one with inspiration from Empire magazine and think it works well on the page.

This is the last film review idea that i did. The photograph is of Clark (James Bell) and Nancy (Beth Robson) and shows that Nancy seems more into Clark by staring at him and he just isn't acting interested. I think this photograph works really well as it gives what would happen in the film away but just the right amount. I have also included the same set up of text yet this time with the one behind the text and changed the opacity so it wasn't so bold on the page.

Final Poster

As said on the previous post we came together to take the photographs. The next section was alone, I have spoken previously about ideas for my poster and decided what kind of thing I wanted, we then took the photographs and I decided against. I have used Adobe Photo Shop CS5 to create my poster.

The image on this page is of four poster ideas I did, as I was working on them i changed my mind. in the first image is the photograph of me and Jess with the title BLACKMAIL at the top of the page and then the actors names below all in the same red and font. I didn't like the title being so far away from the photograph so I moved it down shown in the next photo along with the actors names which I much preferred. I then included the text at the top of the page and made this in a smaller grey font. This font is saying the production company and age rating. I like this text at the top as doesn't leave the poster plain and empty but gives it more. I also added in the age rating of 15 at the bottom right hand corner in a circle. It is not really visible in this image as it kind of blends in with the background. So in the final image I made it in white and the circle around in red but changed the opacity so they didn't deffer the eye from the poster. I also changed the opacity from the text as the top as I felt it wasn't that important. I have included my final poster at the bottom of this page. I think it is eye catching and the photograph on it works really well, the red gives it a more interesting twist and suggests danger from the two women. I tried to capture the layout of real film posters by looking at some and getting ideas.

I also wasnt sure which effect i liked on my photograph. I opened the photo in photo shop first and changed the curves and brightness and contrast to give the photograph a deeper feel and colours stronger. I then made it into blac and white and really like how it turned out. I then looked under filters and decided i liked the filter 'Film Grain' as it gave the photograph a sort of old fashioned feel but in the end it didnt actually work in the poster so i took it off and the poster looked clearer.

Poster

As a group we came together to take photographs for our posters. We all decided we wanted the same kind of shots but to make them different and change them around. We worked within the studio with lights and a Nikon camera to create a good effect. Below are some of the images that we took and how we took them. I then edited them on Adobe photo shop CS5.

Production Company

For our film we needed to decide on our own film production company, we wanted to create our own name and idea so we could add it to the start of our film and our posters. Below are some companies I looked at.

WARNER BROS
Warner Bros or Warner Brothers is an American film and television production company. Warner Bros is very well established and has been around since around 1903. The logo is a simple yellow and blue shaped outline with the initials WB in the centre the font is bold and large and easily stands out against any film poster or title.
I looked and researched warner bros and found that they have realeased a Film noir Classic Collection which contains eight films. I chose to look at warner bros as the films created were are inspirations. They produced Mildred Pierce which is a film I researched and influenced me in making our film. They also produced The big sleep, one of the first film noirs we watched in our lessons.



20TH CENTURY FOX
20th century fox is also an American film production company. It is one of the major companies and was founded in 1935. The image used by the company is very bold and powerful and really shows how they see themselves as a big contender in the business.20th Century Fox also produced many film noirs, including Laura and Fallen Angel. This is helpful as they are similar to what we are making and have huge experience across many films.



We then sat down as a group and had a conversation about ideas for production company names. We all put in different ideas and mixed them together, using names and initials. We then decided on 'A Stickman Production'. As a group we wanted this at the start of our film so we wrote it out on the macs and put it at the beggining.

We wanted this to flash up at the beginning and then go onto who was starring in our film. As a group we decided in the end that this looked to boring for the start of our film so we wanted to change it, we had a few ideas and decided that instead of having it on the computer we would write out the production company name and film us doing this. We wrote out the name on black card with white tipex to get the effect we wanted and then uploaded the clip onto the Mac computers and made the speed faster.

Character Profile

The photos to the left are of our three characters in our film, we didn't use anyone that wasn't in our group for actors as using other people would be harder to arrange and would be a longer process. We also printed off sheets for the character profile and for each seperate character filled one out. Below I have included some of the questions:

MARTHA MCCAINE
Who is she : Clark McCaine's wife, Housewife.
Characteristics : Innocent and Reserved, contrasting with her evil side, nice and a pushover but takes very little to get her angry.
See's herself as : Loved by the community, a good friend.
Dress Style : Hidden and doesn't flatter her figure. Outfits for home.

CLARK MCCAINE
Who is he : Martha McCaine's husband, owner of newspaper.
Characteristics : Polite, easily stressed, easygoing.
See's himself as : Hard worker
Dress Style : Smart, Suit and Hat. Loosens outfit when leaving work / stressed


NANCY HARTLEY
Who is she : Celebrity/Actress, Having an affair with Clark McCaine.
Characteristics : Snobby, looks down her nose at people and is very honest. Envious of normal lives (like Martha's).
See's herself as : 'Perfect'
Dress Style : Long dresses, glamorous, fur.




We also as a group did interviews with each of us talking about our characters and being asked questions what they are like. This was helpful as it lets you get to know the character and makes it easier to act and get costumes/props right.
LINK : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLSh4KbUIig&feature=relmfu

Props / Costumes

PROPS

After we had finished our screen play, decided on our film and sorted our locations we needed to sort out the props that we were going to use.The first image shows the plate, cup and teapot seen in one of the very first scenes when Clark is having breakfast with Martha. The plate, teapot and cup are plain white and simple so easily fit in the shot.Next we decided we needed a glass or something to pour drinks out of. We chose this because it is simple but fits in with the times which we based our films around. This prop features in the scene were Nancy visits Clark at the office and he gives her a drink in. Also in the scene at Nancy's house it is sat on the table where her and Clark are having a conversation.The next photograph shows an image of the setup of Clark's desk. We have newspaper stories which he is reading, a cup, pen, ornament, telephone and camera with pictures of Nancy. The camera shows that he took the pictures of Nancy also it is an old style one so it was in keeping with our theme. We have also used the old phone as shown in the last picture to create this effect. In one scene Clark is on the phone to one of his work colleagues so we made sure that the telephone would be in keeping with our time period and not look out of place. Our props work well and looked effective, we made sure we remembered to keep them fitting with our time period so they did not look out of place in the shot.

COSTUMES
We then needed to decided what type of outfit our characters wear. The outfits shown on the left are Martha's, we selected these outfits down to our thoughts on the characters. The two blue suit skirts are very similar and are the outfits we chose Martha to wear in the day time scenes with plain black shoes and a white top. The flowery one is seen in the first scene at Martha and Clark's house and works well showing her housewife role with Clark. The two outfits aren't hugely flattering on Martha but give her a reserved look.
The black dress was an outfit we chose Martha to wear in our last scene. This outfit contrasting to the others and showing more of Martha giving her a more powerful look but in the end we decided not to use it because you couldn't see the dress under the coat. We chose this coat again as it contrasts against the two dresses, it is long and gives Martha an elegant feel and the fur around the neck makes Martha look much more glamorous than her other housewife role. We used this coat in the last scene to give the character a completely contrasted look.
This next set of costumes is for Nancy. We again selected these carefully deciding what Nancy would wear. The first outfit is the black dress on the left. This dress was shown in the very first scene where Clark and Nancy where at the premier together, with this outfit we wanted to show Nancy as a celebrity hence why we chose a long black dress with sequins and sparkle. I feel this costume does work but I think that we could have got a more flattering and glamorous costume to fit Nancy's personality. The next costume is the blue dress and jacket, we chose this outfit for Nancy to wear in the day and it is shown in the scene were Clark visits Nancy's house. This outfit works quite well as it fits in with the times but is maybe something more that Martha would have worn even though it is quite smart so suits Nancy in that way but isn't hugely glamorous. The grey dress was another option for Nancy to wear in the day, we filmed her wearing it in a scene in the office with Clark but in the end decided that just her in the fur coat would work and you wouldn't actually be able to see the grey dress, also the colour is a bit dull. I think the fur coat works well and is quite glamorous for Nancy.

This photograph shows Clarks costume. We kept it simple with Clark, in film noirs that we had watched the male always wore a suit and maybe a hat. We took this and decided that clark would also wear a suit and hat. He wore a grey trouser suit with thin tie and a white shirt. He also had a grey hat to match the suit and black framed glasses. In some scenes Clark isn't wearing his hat or has his glasses tucked into his pocket. this adds a different edge to his costume and makes him looked relaxed. Overall we wanted Clark to look smart and ready for work which fit in the time era.

Locations

Firstly for our film noir we sat down and discussed places in our group that we thought would be suitable to use. We found this really hard as we thought that everywhere we could think of wouldnt work.

As a group we then decided on using our houses and various places around school. Using our houses as locations was easier as the times we could use them worked better whereas using some areas in school was difficult with noise and lessons taking place in the rooms we wanted.
The first image is of Clark and Martha's kitchen used in one of our very beginning scenes. We decided that this would be a good location as the kitchen size is right for the two characters conversation and it works well for Marthas character. We made sure we covered up any modern applicances that they would not have used or even had in the era we set our film in by moving them or using material. This location also works well as we filmed from the angle this picture is taken which gives a deep shot of full length of the kitchen giving depth of field and giving us chance to get our characters in the shot fully.
The next image is also for Clark and Marthas house. We used this setting in the scene were Clark is running down the stairs and then Martha follows behind. This staircase works really well as we were able to film up the stairs at a low angle if we needed to, giving real height to the shot and the turn of the steps at the tops leave the viewer intrigued more. We could also film from the left of the stairs near the banister as it was the right level with the camera on a tripod. In the end we shot the scene from just to the left of the stairs so we could catch the actors running down the stairs and then past the camera. We also wanted to make sure that the character was visable and not far away that you couldnt see who they were. This location worked really well and was in the same house as the kitchen shown above so was easy enough to shoot both scenes and get them done on the same day, also with the same lighting and bringing it together to actually give the characters a home and kind of back story.

The next location we needed to find was Nancys house where we needed a scene from the outside, a living room scene and then a scene by the front door. In the end we chose a house and it worked quite well. The first image here is the front door which we used, the door looks effective as it is tall and wooden with crosses on the window showing the hidden element to Nancy Hartley and maybe her and Clarks relationship.     We also wanted to use the hallway leading up to this front door in a scene. The lead up to the door works quite well, it leads the viewer out of the living room where another scene was filmed to out the door. the staircase down the right side adds depth to the what would be a plain long corridor. I would have preffered if the radiator was not in the shot but it does not take really any attention away from the characters. We then used the living room in the same house, we needed to make sure it was in the same location as in the scene at one point Martha is by the window looking in. The room worked well we only wanted to include Nancy and Clark sitting on the sofa together so we tried to not include the TV or any modern applicances. We also needed shots outside of Nancys house as part of the storyline so we used the same house so we could use the front door. From the outside the house looked good and worked effectively it stands tall and imposes over the characters. We needed a long shot so we could include Clark and Martha walking separately towards the house. The oval around the door way also worked well giving more shape to the door and shadowing Clark from anyone seeing him even better.  

This picture on the right is another location we used, we used this in one scene near the end. Nancy is visiting Martha at her house and they are sat in the living room talking and plotting against Clark. We chose this location because of the ventian blinds. The sofa being in front of them works really well and shows them reflecting on the characters and the floor. Venitian blinds are a typical convention of a film noir so we wanted to encooperate them to get the good effect. There were many days when we wanted to film this scene but we wanted as a group to make sure that we got the lighting right so had to cancel on a few occasions and eventually used it on a sunny day so the light would cast through the blinds. Overall this is my favourite location, the blinds work perfectly in the shot and the shadows cast on the floor and our characters add to the feel of the film.