The most important thing...The Script!

In todays lesson me and Jenni made our script for our OTS! As we were making our script, we were talking about location at the same time. We first of all thought that we should have our location in the woods because we can capture the eerie and creepy atmosphere that you would get when filming at night in the woods. However, I will talk about location in a different post, because this is our SCRIPT!

Location: Woods (most likely).
Scene: Conversation between femme fatale and clumsy detective.

(Femme fatale falls to the ground - camera falls into the pile of leaves - POV shot)

Clumsy Detective: Are you alright Miss?
Femme Fatale: (Panting and shaking) Ummm...Urgh....
Clumsy Detective: Have a sip of brandy ehh? (Passes the flask with the brandy in)
Femme Fatale: (Takes flask and drinks from it) Thank you very much.
Clumsy Detective: That's alright Miss! Shall we take you to the station?

(Fades out to interrogation room)

Location: Drama Studio.
Scene: Awkward conversation between Femme Fatale, Detective and Clumsy Detective.

 Detective: (Looks serious at the femme fatale) Why were you at the scene of the crime?
(Shot back at clumsy detective looking awkward)
Femme Fatale: (Flirting with the detective) I was taking a stroll sir...
(Shot at clumsy detective from femme fatale as she is warning him not to say anything)
Detective: (Looks at the clumsy detective) Are you hiding anything that we should know Miss?
Femme Fatale: (Laughs in a flirtatious way) No dear Sir...Why would you think that?
Detective: (Looks at her in silence for a few minutes) You seem too suspicious...That is why!
Femme Fatale: (Flirting a bit more) You must've got it wrong...I'm not hiding anything!
Detective: (In a serious manner) Don't try and be smart with me! I will find out who did it!
Femme Fatale: (Still flirting with the detective) Well...you should be interrogating the other person involved...
(Shot to clumsy detective looking worried)
Detective: (Looks at her for a few minutes and then starts concluding the conversation) Fine...you can go Miss, but remember, I will find out who did it!
(A few moments of silence - let the atmosphere get tense)
Clumsy Detective: (Worried and feeling awkward) We'll let you know...
Femme Fatale: (Scoffs) Alright then...whatever...(Struts out of interrogation room)

TO BE CONTINUED...

Todays lessons...

Today we basically just carried on with our practical!

Me and Jenni are making good progress and we are maybe about half way through planning so that we can start filming in the christmas holidays!

We have found actors! This has been done by using an 'advert' on facebook to see if anybody wanted to be in our OTS and 3 people replied wanting to do it. Whats even better is that the actors, who are sixth formers, look older than they actually are so therefore we can use make-up to our advantage!

We have finished our animatic! And Jenni has finished one of the many tasks on researching about audience! All we need to do now is find two suitable locations, finalise and establish a target market and make a script and then we can start filming!

Tara!

Feedback from our Pitch.

For one of our lessons we had to present our first pitches for what our OTS is going to be. Because im working with Jenni, i made the concept board and Jenni did the plotine. I must admit, when i was going through my concept board i did miss out quite a few pieces to try and keep everyone awake! but i have got it on prezi below if you want to see the whole thing!
Jenni did the plotine. In contrast, Jenni went through it very precisely to make sure that everyone knew what we are going to do. Therefore, she didn't miss anything out!
The feedback we got was very useful because it made us think more about what we could do. For example, what lighting we are going to use, how we are going to make it look authentic and when we are going to start casting and shooting our OTS.
Next time, we are going to finish our story board so that we can see what we are doing in a more clear way.

See you soon.

Looking into Film Noirs...

For mine and Jenni's OTS I thought of looking at characters and what we need to think about when casting for these different characters. 'The anti-heros in film noir were a metamorphic symptom of societies evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict, purposefulness and sense of injustice' reference: http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html. This therefore means that there were rarely happy or optimistic endings in film noirs. Therefore, when thinking about our OTS we need to think of a sad and depressing storyline. The femme fatale in classical film noir films, is seductive and will try to get her own way however possible. Also, the character has to be promiscuous so when writing the script we must write it so that she seems that she is promiscuous. In our OTS we were going to have four characters, detective, detective's assistant, femme fatale and the victim. We have chosen these characters because they will make an interesting plot and storyline. In normal plot and storylines in a film noir film, were often non-linear and twisting. The narrative was frwquently complex, maze-like, confessional and first-person voice-over narration. This is effective because it can emphasise pieces of dialogue which, when emphasised, will make it dramatic and effective.

Analysing another persons work...

The blog i am going to analyse is http://a2mediastudiesdaisyconway.blogspot.com/.
I like the layout of this blog and therefore this is why i have begun to analyse it. It's got a simple background, although, i think it's a bit too bold and eye catching. But the good thing is that there isnt that much of it to make it too eye catching and therefore distracted....if that makes any sense :P
Also, there is a lot research into what she wants to do. I think that this is good because then you definitely know what you are about to do. I mean...you wouldn't go into something without knowing what you were getting yourself into.
Although, the only bad thing is that she hasn't got any useful links which could help reference what she is saying. Overall, i think that this is a very good blog.

Diary Entry 2.

Well...this lesson we started doing our presentations for our concept boards. Our concept boards must be completely filled with what we are doing for our project. So, i am going to start on my concept board now and upload it to my blog. I will fill you in with any more information as I go.

Ciao...x

Diary Entry 1.

Hello!
Well today we all made notes about what to put on our concept maps! For full details please see the previous post. Anyway, for our media we have to film and edit 3 minutes of an opening title sequence. This title sequence must be categorised in the film noir genre as that is what we have to do. On thursday's lesson we have to create our concept maps. This is why we have all our notes which is on the previous post so that we can look at that and use it for our concept maps.
Well...that's it! I'll be making a new diary entry tomorrow to say what I've been doing!
Ciao! x

Notes for the Concept Map.

• TITLE
• Genre - Film Noir
• Plots: Order/Stricture of narrative
• Narrative: Story
  Both the narrative and the story have edits, titles and transitions.
• Storyboard
• Cast - Character; Accents; Mannerisms; Representation - Style; Props; Costume
• Set
• Mise-en-Scene - Lighting
• Signifier/Icon (something with connotations larger than the object)
• Connotation - Suggestion/Implied/Meaning
• Denotation - Emphasised/Explicit/Factual/Stated
•  Sound - Diegetic/Non-Diegetic; Effects; Foleying; Synchronous/Asynchronous; Ambient; Contrapunctal - Amplifies action with sound  that is in contrast with the action
• Camers - Shot; Pace; Angle; Transitions
• Mood
• Style
• Target Audience - Demographics (Factual data - Gender/Age/Class) (Analytical); Projected/Preferred - Who it is aimed at; Audience groupings
• Traditional - Fixed/Wont take risks
• Post-Modern - Interlectual approach/Open-minded and influenced to change
• Hedonist - Risk taking/Experimental
• Hommage - Humourous/Honour other films
• Pastiche - Serious/Non-Humourous
• Niche
• Mainstream
• Conventions - (Established or expected rules of the genre)

Film Noir. Mise-en-Scene.

Mise-en-Scene is very important to the viewer whilst watching a movie that bases everything on the conventions of film noir genre. Mise-en-Scene mean everything in the shot. This would include the location to what the character would be wearing. Normally, the hero would be wearing casual clothes which would not be that smart because at the time period which film noir genre was used mainly, was a time where the lower class just about had enough money to feed themselves and keep themselves healthy. This is why the hero would wear scruffy costumes instead of the smart costumes like the villians. The villians would wear smart costumes because they would want to be seen as wealthy, and in this era that would normally have been the case. Fedora's would have been fashionable in this era because it would show the villian as a person of wealth and class. For example, in the film noir movie, The Killers, the villians right at the beginning don't take off their fedora's because the feel that they shouldn't have to take of their hat in a diner. Which would have been a place where they would not have hung out otherwise. Location would have been important. For example, the diner in the movie, The Killers, is small and simple until the villians come along. All of a sudden, the viewer feels that something bad is going to happen because the diner is a normal, simple place where people dressed in everyday clothes would meet up and at a reasonable time in the day. This also has the effect that the villians have gone to this diner for information rather than to have something to eat.

Film Noir. Diagetic and Non-Diagetic.

In this genre, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds would have been used quite frequently. Obviously, non-diagetic sounds would not have been done on the computer because in the 1940's and 1950's this kind of technology wasn't around and therefore there had to be another way of doing this. This way was called floeying. Foley was a way of putting in sound that couldn't have been put in otherwise. This would have been recorded at the time of the film making. For example, stabbing someone would obviously not have been done the way it's written down and therefore the crew had to find a way of putting in this sound. This was done by stabbing a cabbage because it sounds similar. Diagetic sound would obviously have been used to let the viewer hear speech.

Film Noir. Representation (Suspending Disbelief).

In the film noir genre, women are represented as the lower individual because in those times women would not have been seen as an equal to a man and they would not have the same rights. Therefore, the woman in the film noir genre was seen as a sneaky, promiscuous character who would do anything to get her way and wouldn't care who she hurt along the way. The femme fatale is therefore a seductive woman whose charm ensnares her lovers which would often lead them into comprimising, dangerous and deadly situation which were most associated in film noir during the 1940's to the 1950's. Their responsibilities of women were to look after the children, the keep of the house, working in the kitchen and to cater the men when they got back home from work.

On the other hand, the men were shown as competely different individuals because in those times they were the income and they were the ones that had to keep the money coming into the home because obviously, the woman would be working at home and raising the children. However, in film noir villian would normally be a male character because the viewer would imagine it being more realistic if it was a man because they were always the one who were outside of the house. Also, the hero would be seen as a man because it would have been easier to make the woman the seductive character instead of the male. So, this type of man would have been vulnerable and that is one of the main reasons the seductive femme fatale character would have been able to get him to do anything she wanted. The viewer also can see that the male character has an unfulfilled passion or desire that not even themselves are aware of.

Film Noir. Icon(ic).

Iconic images and motifs are important to the film noir genre because they show us more about the scene and the characters. The visual motif is so iconic that homages and parodies are almost universally delibarately monochrome using a transition between colour and black and white where necessary. A big iconic image would be the gun. Like I've said in the signifier post, the gun will tell us a lot about the character and their background. For example, it will show the viewer that the person holding the gun and using it to distress people and delibarately make them uncomfortable because that is the type villian that they are. But if we saw the hero with the gun we would know that they would probably be using it to save another human or to kill the villian. Typical icons in the film noir genre would also be the fact that it's in black and white and not in colour. This is quite effective because we can see the dark and light shadows between characters and it tells us a lot more about the character that what they are wearing.

Film Noir. Plot.

The plot in the film noir genre was very complex which included a promiscuous female lead who tries to intise the male lead who is normally not in a good social class. The male lead normally has a confusing background and has got into trouble with people through illegal activity. This could aslo be because the female lead is trying to get the male lead into trouble by the sexual tension between the male lead and the female lead. Although, the overall tone of the genre is bleak, defeatist and pessimistic. This suggest a sliminess - noone in the film that uses this genre gets more than what they should get and noone gets what they want. Usually, the ending is sad and no character is fulfilled and everything is low key. It's often what we don't see that sets a suspense and mysteric atmosphere.

Film Noir. Signifier.

In Film Noir, signifiers were a big signal for the viewer. The signifier would be a range from a gun to what they are wearing. For example, when a man walks in to a diner and he hasnt taken off his coat or his hat, we immediately think that they are rude, arrogant and thug like. This has the effect that they are not the good person  in the movie. They are normally the villian who has another sidekick character who dresses in the same way but ends up doing all the work that villains conventionally do. The gun for exaple would be a massive signifier because it shows the viewer that they have a much higher status that someone who is working in the diner. A gun was usually used to set a scary atmosphere.

Film Noir. Narrative.

In the film noir genre, narrative has been used to tie the whole story together. As the narrator is tying everything together, we can understand the story better. In this genre, narrative is used to bring together real life events and memories, while the unusual side-by-side view of temporalities gives the viewer a premonition of what will happen or of what has happened in a flashback. The leading male usually addresses the spectator as an impersonal 'you' to give the effect that the listener is smug, unsympathetic and ubelieving. This is because the listener wont sympathise with someone who has lost their life or about to lose their life by thugs who are dealing in illegal games. This then gives the impression that the listener is being talked to and that the lead male character has a chance to explain themselves. Voice-overs and flashbacks were persistent, stylistic and narrative elements when film noir was first around in the early 1940's to the late 1950's. Often, we need to inquire how much the narrator knows and whether they are telling the truth. Voice-over is a key narrative aspect in the following movies: Mildred Pierce, Gilda, The Lady from Shanghai, and Out of the Past.

Research into Film Noir.

This is a post about Film Noir. If you scroll further down on my blog you will see a prezi which looks at film stills from this genre. So, Film Noir means 'Black Film' deriving from the french word 'Noir' for Black. The most distinctive part of this genre is the crime which is put accross in a stylish manner. This genre was first around in the early 1940's to the late 1950's. Films such as Casino Royale and Blade Runner utilise this type of genre. The common plotline to Film Noir genres are murder investigations, the female and male characters which have been wrongly accused of a crime and complicated plots are further ensued by flashbacks and flash forwards with the narrating tying in together, which makes us assume that we can trust the male character. The film noir genre is not like the average film you get nowadays! Film noir is filmed in black and white mainly and with a sense of mystery and tension in the camera shot instead of films which are in colour. The visual motif of the film noir genre are very iconic because they can tell us quite a lot about the character. For example, if the character is holding a gun and hasn't taken of his hat whilst walking into a room, we think that he is superior and quite thug looking. But, if we see a character who is trying their hardest to prevent something horrible from happening to another character then we see them as a hero. Characters personalities and what they have to use tell us a lot about them. The tone and outlook of film noir must be bleak, defeatist and pessimistic. The normal ending to this type of genre is that noone gets more than what they deserve and they always get what's coming to them. Commonly, there is a lot of sexual tension between the hero and the female lead. This makes the viewer want to watch it so that they can end up together even though we know the hero might have some sort of terrible dilemma. Film noir also keeps the viewer guessing right to the end. This is to show tension so that the viewer is interested in watching the rest of the movie.

About Me...

Hey...
As you may have guessed my name is Emily and I'm 16 years old. I'm half Greek, my Dad is Greek, and I lived in Greece for the first eight years of my life. I then moved to Norwich with my older brother and my Mum so that we can be closer to my other family. I'm taking Economics, Psychology, Graphics and Media!! This is my first time doing Media so hopefully I can do pretty well but we'll have to wait and see! I love hanging out with my friends and shopping!! and now I get my EMA I can go shopping and do other cool stuff!! I love going to them parks especialy thorpe park and alton towers...they're both really good places to go if you love big rides! I have had a little experience in media at middle school where me and my friends did this after school club called film club! I know...inventive right?? But it was really good we got to make the movie, edit the movie and do everything ourselves using the apple macs!! It was awesome!
I'm just so interesting that I have nothing else to say!
thanks for readin'!