In my group i was given the role of Editor. This meant i had the responsability of editing my film once all filming had taken place. I chose this particular role because it is something that generally intrests me, also i have used an editing software previously.
I was also givin the task of writing the script for our piece. I completed this, but as a group we decided to go in a different direction with one of the characters so me and fellow group member Caroline Chicken tweaked to our vision.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Music
Every piece of properly released music, in current times is copyrighted; this means that you have to ask the artists permission to use it or pay the person that owns the piece to use it. To get around this problem we used a piece of un-copyrighted music.
We chose that particular piece because of the mystery and weirdness it instills in you when you listen to it.
We chose that particular piece because of the mystery and weirdness it instills in you when you listen to it.
Group meeting: changes
During production we made quite a few changes to our piece; we ended up deciding that our location we previously chose was not suitable for the whole group to film at due the distance in which are group live from each other. I believe that the location we have decided to use for our project is an improvement on the one we chose previously.
We also made a few tweaks to the script deciding to make the Levi character a lot less vocal than we originally intended. We done this so we could give a much more mysterious air to the character.
We also made a few tweaks to the script deciding to make the Levi character a lot less vocal than we originally intended. We done this so we could give a much more mysterious air to the character.
Vengeance 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 hits Miller over the head with a brick)
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.
Done by me with credit to Caroline Chicken
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 hits Miller over the head with a brick)
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.
Done by me with credit to Caroline Chicken
Group meetings
To keep eachother updated and on course to completing the project our group held team meetings. This was a time; usually before a lesson where we could all come together and help eachother, show people work and share ideas etc. We all took specific roles during the production; but tried do do as much of the work as a group as possible.
Pre-production
Before we undertook this project there was paper work that had to be filled out; this included:
- A call sheet
- A risk assessment sheet
- Recky of the location
- And a conteact sheet.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Final evaluation
Final evaluation
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To make sure our film opening was noir like, we sat down as a class and watched several openings from both contemporary and classic noir, these included films like Brick, Double indemnity and a few more.
To really get a feel for Noir I decided to go a step further and watch a whole Noir film. I chose to watch the Maltese Falcon. I think that this gave me a better understanding of the genre and helped me in the long run.
I think that my film opening fits in with contemporary noir; I believe this because it uses all the ECMS from Noir but with a new modern storyline so we can attract our target audience. I also feel that my group kept very close to the codes and conventions of Noir; using double crossing, money, undercover police and a shady underworld character.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my groups film opening as I previously stated we put a very modern twist on the noir genre. In doing this we had to use a character that wouldn’t have been typical of more classic film Noir; a drug dealer. This character helps us to connect with today’s youth and bring the genre more up to date, whilst also using an underworld character; something that is more typical of the genre. We decided to make the ‘hero’ of the story an undercover police officer. The reason we came to this decision is purely for the fact that there aren’t that many private investigators around these days; this character also helps in our direction to bring the genre more up to date. The only other character in our piece was a femme fatal. When Noir films were first made women didn’t have that much power in society so a femme fatal character back then was something that wasn’t seen often in real life, nowadays that is not that case so a femme fatal character is something harder to pull of. We decided to still include this crucial Noir character, making her the character that actually double crosses our protagonist.
We tried to keep our film as close to real life as possible so shots, locations and characters were all as realistic and as close to what real life is like as possible, for example:
· Drug dealer- Shady, untrustworthy and violent.
· Policeman- trusting and smart.
· Location- offices (police station) and a small enclosed part of a forest (drug deal).
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When distributing our product I think that we would look to use a British distributor. An example is Revolver entertainment; the people that distributed Kidulthood, I made a point of that because I feel that the direction we would take our film is the same as the kidulthood/adulthood films went.
My groups film would be in all big British cinemas, especially urbanised areas, as this is where its set and where the people that can relate to and that would enjoy this film live.
I believe that when my film eventually reached television it would end up being shown on channel 4; I think this because it is a more up to date, current station showing cutting edge programmes; due to that fact I think a younger generation of people would be tuned into this station compared to the ITV for example.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When we started our project my group all decided that we wanted our film to be rated a 15. We done this so that we could get a reasonable amount of language and violence, but still include most of the teenage audience. We feel that this is a film for teenagers purely for the fact of the storyline and urban gritty feel is what is popular in film for British teenagers at the moment.
We felt a 15 rating was applicable to our film because of the violence that the film would contain. On the BBFC website it states that
“Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood”
Due to this fact we thought that our film would contain to much violence to fit into this category.
When we played our Noir to the class we got generally very good reactions. Most saying that this is a film that would want to watch; I think that this means the audience we aimed for whilst making this piece has been met considering our group is made up of 16-21 year olds. Some members of the group did say that our opening was a bit more thriller than Noir; I don’t believe that this is a justifiable point. When we made our film we aimed for a very new style of Noir something like Brick, which a younger generation could relate to and I believe that objective has been met.
How did you attract/address your audience?
As I previously mentioned we aimed for a teen to early 20’s audience when making our film. We attracted this audience by using typical themes from films that are popular with them e.g. violence, drugs and double crossings. The title of our film was also a means to address our audience which I think we used to our advantage; the name vengeance gives you an extremely strong clue to what type of film this is and what its context is. We also tried to use quick action-filled, very visual shots; we done this because teenagers have a very short attention span which we believe we have adhered to. Some of the members of my media group also stated to me that my groups films opening was very action packed; this is another positive point because it helps draw an audience in more and make them want to watch the rest of the film to find out what happens to these characters.
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst making this sequence I had to complete some research to find out about this genre that I had never previously heard of. This meant I had to use as many different routes to learn about this genre as possible. To start I decided to look over some students blogs from last year to give me a general feel for the project ahead. I had never previously interacted with an Internet blog so learnt a lot about it just from checking out some of these pages.
During the time when I was actually planning and making this short sequence, I came across a lot of technology and software that I had never used before so had to learn there in and outs from scratch. To help with this our lecturer done lessons on how to use the equipment and even gave out a kind of “dummies” guide to all of the filming equipment. This now means I no how to use all the equipment that we were expected to be able to use during the course. We used Apple Macs during the editing stage of our production; I had never previously used these machines and their software but found them easy to pick up after a quick five minute lesson.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think that since my preliminary exercise my filming skills have improved ten fold, for example in my prelim I made a mistake by crossing the 180 degree line; an easy mistake to make without much filming knowledge. I believe that my groups film opening could easily be the opening to a Noir film and has met our objectives.
When we filmed our preliminary exercise there was hardly any planning involved, we basically went straight out and filmed it. This would have been impossible to do when making my film opening, our planning, questionnaires and research etc was crucial to making a good product. I also believe that I have become much more film minded during this project, which meant that good ideas were spontaneous and didn’t always have to come from a preset script/storyboard etc. This in turn meant that we would change our mind about a shot when just about to shoot it and end up with a totally different visual style for a shot. I think my greatest help in creating a good film Noir opening was my new understanding for the genres codes and conventions through my prior research; this meant I could get my piece looking stylistically more Noir through my knowledge.
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To make sure our film opening was noir like, we sat down as a class and watched several openings from both contemporary and classic noir, these included films like Brick, Double indemnity and a few more.
To really get a feel for Noir I decided to go a step further and watch a whole Noir film. I chose to watch the Maltese Falcon. I think that this gave me a better understanding of the genre and helped me in the long run.
I think that my film opening fits in with contemporary noir; I believe this because it uses all the ECMS from Noir but with a new modern storyline so we can attract our target audience. I also feel that my group kept very close to the codes and conventions of Noir; using double crossing, money, undercover police and a shady underworld character.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my groups film opening as I previously stated we put a very modern twist on the noir genre. In doing this we had to use a character that wouldn’t have been typical of more classic film Noir; a drug dealer. This character helps us to connect with today’s youth and bring the genre more up to date, whilst also using an underworld character; something that is more typical of the genre. We decided to make the ‘hero’ of the story an undercover police officer. The reason we came to this decision is purely for the fact that there aren’t that many private investigators around these days; this character also helps in our direction to bring the genre more up to date. The only other character in our piece was a femme fatal. When Noir films were first made women didn’t have that much power in society so a femme fatal character back then was something that wasn’t seen often in real life, nowadays that is not that case so a femme fatal character is something harder to pull of. We decided to still include this crucial Noir character, making her the character that actually double crosses our protagonist.
We tried to keep our film as close to real life as possible so shots, locations and characters were all as realistic and as close to what real life is like as possible, for example:
· Drug dealer- Shady, untrustworthy and violent.
· Policeman- trusting and smart.
· Location- offices (police station) and a small enclosed part of a forest (drug deal).
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When distributing our product I think that we would look to use a British distributor. An example is Revolver entertainment; the people that distributed Kidulthood, I made a point of that because I feel that the direction we would take our film is the same as the kidulthood/adulthood films went.
My groups film would be in all big British cinemas, especially urbanised areas, as this is where its set and where the people that can relate to and that would enjoy this film live.
I believe that when my film eventually reached television it would end up being shown on channel 4; I think this because it is a more up to date, current station showing cutting edge programmes; due to that fact I think a younger generation of people would be tuned into this station compared to the ITV for example.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When we started our project my group all decided that we wanted our film to be rated a 15. We done this so that we could get a reasonable amount of language and violence, but still include most of the teenage audience. We feel that this is a film for teenagers purely for the fact of the storyline and urban gritty feel is what is popular in film for British teenagers at the moment.
We felt a 15 rating was applicable to our film because of the violence that the film would contain. On the BBFC website it states that
“Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood”
Due to this fact we thought that our film would contain to much violence to fit into this category.
When we played our Noir to the class we got generally very good reactions. Most saying that this is a film that would want to watch; I think that this means the audience we aimed for whilst making this piece has been met considering our group is made up of 16-21 year olds. Some members of the group did say that our opening was a bit more thriller than Noir; I don’t believe that this is a justifiable point. When we made our film we aimed for a very new style of Noir something like Brick, which a younger generation could relate to and I believe that objective has been met.
How did you attract/address your audience?
As I previously mentioned we aimed for a teen to early 20’s audience when making our film. We attracted this audience by using typical themes from films that are popular with them e.g. violence, drugs and double crossings. The title of our film was also a means to address our audience which I think we used to our advantage; the name vengeance gives you an extremely strong clue to what type of film this is and what its context is. We also tried to use quick action-filled, very visual shots; we done this because teenagers have a very short attention span which we believe we have adhered to. Some of the members of my media group also stated to me that my groups films opening was very action packed; this is another positive point because it helps draw an audience in more and make them want to watch the rest of the film to find out what happens to these characters.
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst making this sequence I had to complete some research to find out about this genre that I had never previously heard of. This meant I had to use as many different routes to learn about this genre as possible. To start I decided to look over some students blogs from last year to give me a general feel for the project ahead. I had never previously interacted with an Internet blog so learnt a lot about it just from checking out some of these pages.
During the time when I was actually planning and making this short sequence, I came across a lot of technology and software that I had never used before so had to learn there in and outs from scratch. To help with this our lecturer done lessons on how to use the equipment and even gave out a kind of “dummies” guide to all of the filming equipment. This now means I no how to use all the equipment that we were expected to be able to use during the course. We used Apple Macs during the editing stage of our production; I had never previously used these machines and their software but found them easy to pick up after a quick five minute lesson.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think that since my preliminary exercise my filming skills have improved ten fold, for example in my prelim I made a mistake by crossing the 180 degree line; an easy mistake to make without much filming knowledge. I believe that my groups film opening could easily be the opening to a Noir film and has met our objectives.
When we filmed our preliminary exercise there was hardly any planning involved, we basically went straight out and filmed it. This would have been impossible to do when making my film opening, our planning, questionnaires and research etc was crucial to making a good product. I also believe that I have become much more film minded during this project, which meant that good ideas were spontaneous and didn’t always have to come from a preset script/storyboard etc. This in turn meant that we would change our mind about a shot when just about to shoot it and end up with a totally different visual style for a shot. I think my greatest help in creating a good film Noir opening was my new understanding for the genres codes and conventions through my prior research; this meant I could get my piece looking stylistically more Noir through my knowledge.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Film openings
Snatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfdOgTWoxM&feature=related
I like the opening of this film because it really throws you off, when you see the four men dressed in typical Jewish dress you really don't expect them to be a team of gun toting thieves. I like the opening of this film because it goes straight into the action now long storyline to get into like in other films. It also introduces the characters in a comical fashion giving it the feel of a sitcom almost.
Goodfellas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfdOgTWoxM&feature=related
I like the opening of this film because it really throws you off, when you see the four men dressed in typical Jewish dress you really don't expect them to be a team of gun toting thieves. I like the opening of this film because it goes straight into the action now long storyline to get into like in other films. It also introduces the characters in a comical fashion giving it the feel of a sitcom almost.
Goodfellas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJmbvcYKXdI
I chose this particular opening because it is one of my favorite films and also because it has extremely good opening. Some people call this one of the most violent openings to a film ever. with a character being murdered within the first two minutes of the film. I like it again because your being thrown immediately into the action without even knowing anything about these characters. I think this is the direction i would like to go with in my film opening.
The Exchange
This is my exchange, in my group were Jamie Brittain, Yasmin Ryan, Martain Osbourne and Emily Stansfield. In this Exercise we were asked to go out and film an exchange of anything between two characters. Our group decided that me and Jamie would be the actors and that Martain, Emily and Yasmin would film it. The basic storyline of the sequence is just a basic drug deal but we wanted to give it a more edgey feel so used some shots of texts and police helicopters etc.
When we had shown our piece to the class we got some feedback from them about it. The class for the most part enjoyed our exchange, saying that we had good shots; our overhead extra long shot of Jamie walkin to the meet and the fact that we got footage of an actual police helicopter.
We chose to use to different songs for background music in our sequence. We firstly used a song from a video game called; Grand Theft Auto 4, this song went down well with the group. Our second song was a grime song called dealers by Devlin; me and other members in my group thought this song was perfect for our piece due to the fact that the lyrics relate to what was happening in the action. The group gave us mixed reactions about the song choice but i believe this is purely for the fact they didnt get the lyrics and therefore didnt see the relevance.
When asked if our piece fitted the brief we got a good reaction from the class that we had done what we were asked of.
Preliminary exercise
This is mine and fellow student Yasmin Ryan's preliminary exercise. We were given a quick brief on how to use the camera equipment and told to go out an film a short sequence of shots of a conversation between two people. I think that overall our sequence went quite well but we did come across two stumbling blocks; we forgot about the 180 degree line and there is a shot mismatch when our first female character leaves on the left hand side of the screen and then re-enters on the right. Our second mistake was a jump near to the end of the sequence where we simply just didn't shot the shot properly and had to cover it the best we could with our limited amount of shots we had taken. These mistakes were not major though and didn't affect us terribly, these are things that i will make sure don't happen in my main project and is a lesson learnt.
Definition of Contemporary Noir
Contemporary or Neo-Noir is a genre of film that uses the same stylistics as classic film noir but with up to date themes and now usually not in black and white. A film is usually classed as a contemporary noir if it was made after 1970 but still retains the classic noir style. Although there is a much wider range of story lines used for Contemporary noir ranging from android hunters in the sci-fi neo-noir; Blade runner, to a group of colour named bank robbers in Reservoir dogs. During film Noirs hey day most of the films were independently made, this is also true of most contemporary noirs. Some of the more famous neo noir films include:
- Blade Runner
- Pulp Fiction (also another name for the books that Noir films originated from)
- L.A Confidential
- And Taxi driver
3 examples of classic film noirs
The Maltese Falcon
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is a private detective investigating the murder of his partner. He is then approached by a woman called Ms Wanderly (Mary Astor) who asks him for protection. Sam then becomes involved in the criminal underworld meeting dangerous people all in the quest for a statue called the Maltese Falcon.
The film features dark locations, henchman, criminals, money, double crosses and murder.
Director- John Huston
Released- 18th October 1941 (USA)
Double Indemnity
Walter Neff (Freddy MacMurry) is an insurance salesman that meets a woman named Phyliss Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) an instantly falls for her. She then tells him about a plan to kill her husband and claim on his life insurance for a big payout. Neff then learns that Phyliss is seeing another man behind his back. Neff ends up killing her but only after being shot himself. The film ends with Neff admitting his crimes and collapsing in a hallway.
The film features double crossings, money murder, a femme fetal, jealousy and Investigators.
Director- Billy Wilder
Released- 24th April 1944 (USA)
Strangers on a train
Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is a famous tennis star that meets Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train. Bruno offers Guy an exchange of murders, suggesting that a complete stranger can get away with a murder. Bruno thinking the deal is sealed kills Guys wife; who he was in the middle of a messy divorce with. Bruno expects this favour returned and when it is not he threatens to frame Guy for the murder. The film ends with a fight between the two characters, with Bruno being killed and then being identified as the murderer.
The film features Murder, fights, police, frame ups and guns.
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Released- 3rd July 1951 (USA)
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is a private detective investigating the murder of his partner. He is then approached by a woman called Ms Wanderly (Mary Astor) who asks him for protection. Sam then becomes involved in the criminal underworld meeting dangerous people all in the quest for a statue called the Maltese Falcon.
The film features dark locations, henchman, criminals, money, double crosses and murder.
Director- John Huston
Released- 18th October 1941 (USA)
Double Indemnity
Walter Neff (Freddy MacMurry) is an insurance salesman that meets a woman named Phyliss Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) an instantly falls for her. She then tells him about a plan to kill her husband and claim on his life insurance for a big payout. Neff then learns that Phyliss is seeing another man behind his back. Neff ends up killing her but only after being shot himself. The film ends with Neff admitting his crimes and collapsing in a hallway.
The film features double crossings, money murder, a femme fetal, jealousy and Investigators.
Director- Billy Wilder
Released- 24th April 1944 (USA)
Strangers on a train
Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is a famous tennis star that meets Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train. Bruno offers Guy an exchange of murders, suggesting that a complete stranger can get away with a murder. Bruno thinking the deal is sealed kills Guys wife; who he was in the middle of a messy divorce with. Bruno expects this favour returned and when it is not he threatens to frame Guy for the murder. The film ends with a fight between the two characters, with Bruno being killed and then being identified as the murderer.
The film features Murder, fights, police, frame ups and guns.
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Released- 3rd July 1951 (USA)
3 examples of contemporary noir
The Spirit
Murdered policeman Denny Colt comes back from the grave as the spirit, a hero on a warpath with the film’s villain the Octopus. The octopus’s mission is to wipe out central city which is foiled by the spirit.
The film features femme fetals, dark locations, double crossing, henchmen and murder; all features of the film noir genre.
Director-Frank MillerJanuary 2009
Blade runner
Set In the future humanity has created replicants; robots that look like humans. Deckard is a Blade runner, whose job it is to hunt down replicants. Blade runner is the film of Deckard hunting down 4 replicants that escaped and are trying to hunt down the creator.
Blade runner is a film set in a dystopian future filled with dark rainy locations, mystery and murder.
Director-Ridley Scott
9th September (UK)
Reservoir Dogs
Mr. White, a professional criminal; Mr. Orange, a young newcomer; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy killer; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown; and Mr. Blue are 7 men hired to pull of a bank robbery. When they fail they realise 1 of them is a police informant. But who?
Reservoir dogs is a story of double crossing murder and money.
Director-Quentin Tarintino15th January 1993 (UK)
Murdered policeman Denny Colt comes back from the grave as the spirit, a hero on a warpath with the film’s villain the Octopus. The octopus’s mission is to wipe out central city which is foiled by the spirit.
The film features femme fetals, dark locations, double crossing, henchmen and murder; all features of the film noir genre.
Director-Frank MillerJanuary 2009
Blade runner
Set In the future humanity has created replicants; robots that look like humans. Deckard is a Blade runner, whose job it is to hunt down replicants. Blade runner is the film of Deckard hunting down 4 replicants that escaped and are trying to hunt down the creator.
Blade runner is a film set in a dystopian future filled with dark rainy locations, mystery and murder.
Director-Ridley Scott
9th September (UK)
Reservoir Dogs
Mr. White, a professional criminal; Mr. Orange, a young newcomer; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy killer; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown; and Mr. Blue are 7 men hired to pull of a bank robbery. When they fail they realise 1 of them is a police informant. But who?
Reservoir dogs is a story of double crossing murder and money.
Director-Quentin Tarintino15th January 1993 (UK)
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
characteristics of film Noir
Film noir uses a low key black and white visuals. This type of visual is associated with German expressionism; which is where Film Noirs roots are. The storyline of most film Noirs involves crime; be it murder, gangsters or robbery etc. There is usually also an element of double crossing or revenge in Film Noir.
Characters in a typical film Noir are:
Characters in a typical film Noir are:
- Femme fetale- a female character that is usually extremely good looking and dressed to kill. These woman usually lead the male characters into danger and double crosses.
- Private eye- These characters are normally the lead in film Noir; they are usually ex policeman, an antihero or washed up.
- less important characters usually include; police, gangsters, henchmen and others associated with the criminal underworld, good or bad.
The film Noir genre uses a variety of editing and camera work techniques. A favorite camera angle of the genre is a Dutch tilt, this is where the camera is tilted to it's side to create diagonal angles to confuse and make the viewer uncomfortable.
Light is also used to good effect in film noir, for example shadows are used to create mystery or conceal certain things or even people from view; a staple of the Noir genre.
Friday, 5 February 2010
History of film noir
Film noir is a genre of film generally set around the criminal underworld and involving some sort of mystery or enigma. The first acknowledged film noir is 'stranger on the third floor' released in 1940, the films new dark and gritty cinematic style set it apart from other crime films. The film noir genre originated from German expressionism and had it's heyday during the 40's and 50's. Film noir in French literally means film black. All these films were black and white and make big use of shadow. Film noir came to Hollywood in the second world war when directors from Europe had to leave their country's.
Famous directors in this genre include Billy wilder, Fritz Lang and Orson Welles.
Famous directors in this genre include Billy wilder, Fritz Lang and Orson Welles.
Maltease Falcon
To find out more about the film Noir genre i decided to watch a film noir classic "The Maltease Falcon", staring Humprhey Bogart and Mary Astor.
Here is the link for the theatrical trailer for the Maltease Falcon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRSCV2qc2IY&feature=related
Here is the link for the theatrical trailer for the Maltease Falcon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRSCV2qc2IY&feature=related
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
My film Noir
Film title-crossed/reload
Synopsis
The film is about a young man that has just started up in the drugs industry selling cannabis. He is double crossed whilst going to ‘reload’ (buy more drugs). The story then develops with the protagonist trying to find out who double crossed him; including dirty cops, rival gangs, femme fetals and friends worse than enemy’s.
The story concludes with our protagonist finding out he was double crossed by his best friend.
First 3 minutes
In the first 3 minutes my protagonist is walking down a street at night (monologue). He reaches the meeting point and notices a police helicopter; but dismisses it. When his dealer shows he is acting shifty which raises his suspicions. Then 2 men show up and a scuffle breaks out; with our main character having his reload robbed and being K.O’d. He gets up in a daze and notices a wallet, it is one of the men that robbed him; the man is a police officer.
My film will have a gritty dark look; to in keep with the noir genre. It will include monologues, rain dark quiet settings but within an urbanised area. In my film I am aiming for a cross between the noir genre and a newer more youth focused film such as kidulthood.
Synopsis
The film is about a young man that has just started up in the drugs industry selling cannabis. He is double crossed whilst going to ‘reload’ (buy more drugs). The story then develops with the protagonist trying to find out who double crossed him; including dirty cops, rival gangs, femme fetals and friends worse than enemy’s.
The story concludes with our protagonist finding out he was double crossed by his best friend.
First 3 minutes
In the first 3 minutes my protagonist is walking down a street at night (monologue). He reaches the meeting point and notices a police helicopter; but dismisses it. When his dealer shows he is acting shifty which raises his suspicions. Then 2 men show up and a scuffle breaks out; with our main character having his reload robbed and being K.O’d. He gets up in a daze and notices a wallet, it is one of the men that robbed him; the man is a police officer.
My film will have a gritty dark look; to in keep with the noir genre. It will include monologues, rain dark quiet settings but within an urbanised area. In my film I am aiming for a cross between the noir genre and a newer more youth focused film such as kidulthood.
Review of Sin City
Sin City
We were asked to watch a contemporary Noir film, I chose to watch Sin city. I chose this film not only because it is an excellent example of contemporary noir but also because it is a very popular film.
The most striking example of noir characteristics in sin city is the lack of colour in the film, there are only two actual colours in the film; red and yellow, the rest of the film is in black and white. This is done so the examples of colour are striking and stand out, for example blood.
The characters are also typical of a film noir; Marv played by Mickey Rourke is a tough guy that’s been set up to Jackie, a crooked cop that beats his girlfriend. Due to the fact that the characters are so typically Noir the storylines that they bring with them are also typical of the genre.
The movie is split up into three separate storylines Hartigan; a detective on his last day. Marv; a man on a revenge mission for a girl killed right next to him and Dwight; a man that accidently kills a police officer. These storylines are about murder, set ups and revenge making them extremely Noir. Also it isn’t made obvious about time and date so even though Hartigans story is shown first it could be the very last thing that happened chronologically, this helps to add to the confusion of the film and the twists and turns typical of the genre.
We were asked to watch a contemporary Noir film, I chose to watch Sin city. I chose this film not only because it is an excellent example of contemporary noir but also because it is a very popular film.
The most striking example of noir characteristics in sin city is the lack of colour in the film, there are only two actual colours in the film; red and yellow, the rest of the film is in black and white. This is done so the examples of colour are striking and stand out, for example blood.
The characters are also typical of a film noir; Marv played by Mickey Rourke is a tough guy that’s been set up to Jackie, a crooked cop that beats his girlfriend. Due to the fact that the characters are so typically Noir the storylines that they bring with them are also typical of the genre.
The movie is split up into three separate storylines Hartigan; a detective on his last day. Marv; a man on a revenge mission for a girl killed right next to him and Dwight; a man that accidently kills a police officer. These storylines are about murder, set ups and revenge making them extremely Noir. Also it isn’t made obvious about time and date so even though Hartigans story is shown first it could be the very last thing that happened chronologically, this helps to add to the confusion of the film and the twists and turns typical of the genre.
The films sound track is mostly made up off jazz music, which has been given a modern twist to bring it up to date; there are also monologues involving key characters, so that you get a bit of background story between the action. These examples of sound are defiantly noir.
The camera and editing in Sin city also add to the extremely noir feel to the film, using a spiralling effect when a character gets knocked out and shadows being used throughout.
The camera and editing in Sin city also add to the extremely noir feel to the film, using a spiralling effect when a character gets knocked out and shadows being used throughout.
Contemporary Noir
To continue my Study of the Noir genre, we started looking at contemporary Noir films; films in the stlye of the Noir genre but made after 1980. To begin with i researched three of the most popular contemporary Noir films.
The Spirit
Murdered policeman Denny Colt comes back from the grave as the spirit, a hero is in a constant battle with the film’s villain the Octopus. The octopus’s mission is to wipe out central city which is stopped by the spirit.
The film features femme fetals, dark locations, double crossing, henchmen and murder; all features of the film noir genre.
Director-Frank Miller
January 2009
Blade runner
Set In the future humankind has created replicants; robots that look like humans. Deckard is a Blade runner, whose job it is to hunt down these replicants. Blade runner is the story of Deckard hunting down 4 replicants that escaped and are trying to hunt down their creator.
Blade runner is a film set in a dystopian future filled with dark rainy locations, mystery and murder.
Director-Ridley Scott9th September (UK)
Reservoir Dogs
Mr. White, a career criminal; Mr. Orange, a young newcomer; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy maniac ; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown; and Mr. Blue are 7 men hired to pull of a bank robbery. When they fail they realise 1 of them is a police informant. But who?
Reservoir dogs is a story of double crossing murder and money.
Director-Quentin Tarintino
15th January 1993 (UK)
The Spirit
Murdered policeman Denny Colt comes back from the grave as the spirit, a hero is in a constant battle with the film’s villain the Octopus. The octopus’s mission is to wipe out central city which is stopped by the spirit.
The film features femme fetals, dark locations, double crossing, henchmen and murder; all features of the film noir genre.
Director-Frank Miller
January 2009
Blade runner
Set In the future humankind has created replicants; robots that look like humans. Deckard is a Blade runner, whose job it is to hunt down these replicants. Blade runner is the story of Deckard hunting down 4 replicants that escaped and are trying to hunt down their creator.
Blade runner is a film set in a dystopian future filled with dark rainy locations, mystery and murder.
Director-Ridley Scott9th September (UK)
Reservoir Dogs
Mr. White, a career criminal; Mr. Orange, a young newcomer; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy maniac ; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown; and Mr. Blue are 7 men hired to pull of a bank robbery. When they fail they realise 1 of them is a police informant. But who?
Reservoir dogs is a story of double crossing murder and money.
Director-Quentin Tarintino
15th January 1993 (UK)
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