Further Feedback

To receive further feedback, we each tweeted a link to our vimeo post of our final piece, along with another link to survey monkey containing a survey we created. Below, you can see the tweet from my personal twitter, along with the survey that goes along with it:





















By doing this, we got even more feedback for our piece which allowed us to see what the audience thought about the Film Noir, and what aspects in particular they liked. We also decided it would be a good idea to show our piece in our forms, and get the members to fill out our survey on online to receive ever more feedback. Below is the record of feedback we got:

   










Unfortunately, we didn't receive a huge deal of feedback, but from what we got we were able to get an idea on what people thought about our piece. Generally, all of the feedback we got was really positive and people were giving us good comments about our piece. We are very happy with this, and feel our piece as a whole is now completely finished.

Production Log - Final Piece

With a few days left to complete our Film Noir production, we need to change a few things from the draft we previously did to make our production complete. For example, we need to edit the voiceovers to remove the sound of Matthew's voice. When we originally recorded the voiceovers he spoke and it is clear to hear in the film, so editing that out will improve the quality of our sound. Another thing we have to do is edit the footage shown in our first draft so that Heather's stumble is not noticeable. We've already re-filmed some of the footage so adding that in will eliminate our audience noticing Heather's trip. A final thing we may experiment with is where in our production the titles come up. Currently, they appear midway through the production, but after the comments we received from our survey we may analysis how it works at the start of our film instead.

Production Log

Last Friday, we decided to show our first draft to our media class. Because we have managed to get a draft done before our final piece, we thought it was a good idea to show everyone and get some feedback. To record the feedback, Matthew made a quick survey on google forms which we handed out to the class. This allowed us to get some enhanced feedback as people gave us ideas on different ways that we could improve our film.
The google form Matthew did is below, as well as images of our class watching our production. We will now bring all of our feedback together and find an interactive way to embed it onto our blogs.

The Secret (First Draft)

After completing all of our filming, and a considerable amount of editing, we've successfully made a draft of our final piece. Bear in mind that this is not a completed version, and we plan to edit the piece more to improve certain aspects of it. For example, there are a few foley sounds missing that we need to record and add, such as the gunshot, but the purpose of this draft is to get a reaction from people. We will be showing it in class tomorrow, and handing out questionnaire's for people to fill out. This will allow us to see what the general reaction is from our class, and allow us to see the piece from someone else's perspective, giving us further ideas on how to improve it.
Our first draft is embed below through vimeo:

Below is the questionnaire we are going to show the class. Matthew created the questionnaire himself using google forms, so credit goes to him for it.

Reflection:

We feel that showing our draft to our class is a good idea because it allows us to get some quick feedback using the printouts Matthew created. Our next steps are to look in detail about the feedback we received and use it to further edit our piece to turn our draft into a completed piece.

Studio Ident - Credit to Matthew and Heather

Here is the studio ident we used and created for our final piece. It is a screenshot from Matthew's blog, because him and Heather were mainly responsible for creating it.





































Reflection:
We had split up the tasks at this point, so whilst I was carrying out some research, Matthew and Heather were able to spend some time designing and editing a studio ident to embed into our Film Noir. The method of splitting up tasks is again shown as being useful here because we were able to get more work done and move further towards completing our film. To improve this task, perhaps they could've spent a bit more time on it. Having said this, I think the studio ident is very good and fits the convention for a Film Noir. Although the rabbit makes it seem slightly childish, the way we have presented it makes it appear more sinister which allows it to fit in our Film Noir.

In Depth Research of Opening Title Sequence

I previously did some research on an opening title sequence of a Film Noir. Having filmed and partly edited our piece, we've decided that we should do some more in depth research on the opening title sequence of a Film Noir. The post I previously did is here.

With this research, I'm going to analyse the same title sequence as I previously looked at before. However, this time I plan to analyse each part of the opening title sequence, and look at how the opening credits are shown to give us an idea an how we are going to edit them onto ours. The Film Noir I am analysing as before is the film 'Fallen Angel' from 1945. I've decided to show this as an Emaze presentation so that it is easier to view. The presentation can be seen below.


Reflection:
I think that this analysis of an opening title sequence of a Film Noir will be very useful to us when we are editing our piece because we will be able to use this Emaze presentation I have made to look at each title shown in a Film Noir. To make this better as a whole, I'd of liked to made the writing a little easier to read, but I am still new to the software of Emaze so am very pleased I've managed to create a full presentation and embed it on my blog successfully.

Film Certificates

We think that it would be good to do some research on the certificates that films are given. After this research has been completed we can judge what certificate we think our film should be given related to the content in it.
The website I used to find the relevant information for this is available through the link below, I read about each certificate and summarised it in my own words to show I had a full understanding:
Film Certificates


Universal:

The universal symbols means that people who are shown this film or plan to watch it should be over the age of 4. However, it is impossible to predict what may or may not upset a certain child, or what content they may be scared of. Universal films generally contain nothing offence or worrying, with practically no reference to drugs, sex and very little to violence. Films rated with this certificate are usually aimed at children.


Parental Guidance:

This symbol means that children should be supervised by a parent or guardian when watching a film or TV show that is rated a PG. Films that are rated PG aren't always necessarily aimed at children to watch with the parents, some could just be aimed at adults but with very little offensive or disturbing content, meaning that if supervised children could watch it with their parents.


12A:
A film that is rated a 12A is something you will only see in a cinema. A film rated 12A means that it is aimed at people who are aged over 12, so the content will not be suitable for children. However, if someone under the age of 12 wants to see a film rated 12, they are allowed to do so as long as a parent or guardian over the age of 12 accompanies them to the cinema. Films or TV shows that are rated with this certificate are likely to include some brief scenes of violence, threat, drugs, sex and bad language.


12:

If a film is rated 12A in a cinema, when it is released on DVD, the certificate will change to a 12. This is because accompanied viewing cannot be enforced at home, so as a result of this retailers aren't by law allowed to sell discs that are rated 12 to anyone who doesn't have proof to show their age. As mentioned above, a 12 film is likely to include the same things as a 12A, the certificate is just changed for cinematic viewing.

15:
A film that is rated 15 means that no one under this age can see it at a cinema without identification, and it cannot be sold be retailers to anyone under this age without proof. Films with this certificate will undoubtably include some explicit scenes of violence, threat, drugs, sex and bad language, and possibly some scenes that some people may find offensive or disturbing.    


18:    

A film with an 18 certificate means that you have to be 18 years of age to see it at the cinema, and also 18 to buy it in store. The thing thats separates an 18 from a 15 is the persistence of the explicit scenes, and the duration. A 15 may include one scene of strong violence, where as an 18 may include several scenes of strong violence, making the film as a whole more explicit.


Our Piece:
After a discussion with my group about the content of our media piece, comparing what we will include to the research I have done above, I think our piece should be rated a 12. I think this because in terms of explicit scenes, our piece is limited. We don't include any strong scenes of violence or bad language, which means that the 18 and 15 certificates are eliminated. I don't thing that the Universal or Parental Guidance ratings suit our piece because the general content of our film will be related to an adult audience, and will not be understood by children. The 12 certificate is right for our piece because it relates to the brief references of of threat and violence; also the scene of our femme fatal smoking a cigarette is likely to not be understood or seen by children.

Reflection:
This piece of research was extremely good for us because it meant we had an idea of what certificate our film would fall under. I also learnt about the reasons why a film is rated what it is, and what things make the piece that certain certificate. To improve this I could have embed some films in with the certificates, and gave some examples, but I feel that I only wanted to cover what aspects made a film that rating and not include examples. Overall, this task was very neccersary for the completion of our final piece.

Researching Editing Techniques

Like the research on sound, I also decided to do some brief research on the way that a Film Noir is edited.

Editing:
When researching online about the editing used in film noir's, I wasn't able to pinpoint a website that clearly described in detail the way that they were edited after being filmed. This is because that back in the time when they were made, technology was limited and very little amounts of editing could actually be done. It was most likely done during the actual filming progress.
After using Vimeo to watch some more Film Noir's, it is clear to see that techniques which fall into the editing section are simple things such as eye line match, and shot reverse shot, along with the soundtrack and voice, not to mention that most classic Film Noir's were shown in black and white. The website for Vimeo is below:
Film Noir's on Vimeo
For our final piece, we plan to film it and then obviously edit it, but to stick to the conventions of the way that Film Noir's are edited, we will keep things simple. We will add the voiceovers, along with the soundtrack, and possibly some transitions in between scenes, but generally we want to keep things simple to match the convention and make our film seem like a classic Film Noir. We hope that from the way we edit and produce our piece, members will think it is an old film, and even possibly relate it directly to the genre of a Film Noir.

Reflection:
As I've mentioned before, splitting up the tasks between our group has been very effective for us and worked well, because its meant that the research we've done has moved forward quickly, and meant we can film our piece quicker, which in the long term will give us more time to edit. To improve this piece of research, like the one on sound I would have liked to cover more detail, however with the editing aspects of a Film Noir, there is very limited amount of things to talk about so I think the main areas have been covered. From this task, I learnt about the simple form of editing in a Noir, and it gave me a full understanding of how simple we must keep our editing for our production.

Foley Sound

To make us more aware of the use of sounds in films, and to help us realise the large variety of sounds that are needed in our final piece, as a class we watched an extract from a film called 'Priest', which is a fantasy horror film from 2011. At first we watched it with no sound, and listed ideas of the sounds that we expected to hear throughout it. We then watched it with sound, and compared it to the list that we had already made, adding the ones we hadn't noticed or expected. This list can be seen below:

Now, we will attempt to recreate the sounds that we have listed, using the 'foley' technique, which means to naturally create the sounds ourselves, and edit them in a way to make them actually sound like what they are. 

Reflection: 

For our group, this was a useful task and will continue to be as we recreate the sounds. From this, we are learnt about the importance of sound effects in films, and how they are emphasised in different ways to have a different effect on the audience and enhance the production itself. In terms of our final piece, this made it clear to us how important the use of sound is, and made us think about how we are going to incorporate foley sounds into our Film Noir.

Research of Opening Title Sequence

Now that we have looked at different variations of narrative structures as well as knowing our genre, it was time to do some research about Film Noir's. To do this, we each picked a classic Film Noir and analysed the opening title sequence, noting down the conventions. The website I used to do this, is called Art of the Title. Here, I found a large variety of different opening title sequences, and by looking up Film Noir's, I was able to find 'Fallen Angel' from 1945, which is a classic Noir.
The website to Art of the Title with the Fallen Angel opening title sequence can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Fallen Angel Opening Title Sequence

After watching the opening title sequence of the Film Noir 'Fallen Angel', there are some clear conventions that are unique to a Noir.
In terms of camera, and the way each shot is composed, its very basic. Noir's are different in the way that the opening titles last for one or two minutes, and whilst they are being shown very little is happening in and around the scene. For Fallen Angel, it follows exactly this because for the whole duration of the opening sequence the camera doesn't actually move, and instead editing is used to display each title. The camera is placed at the front of what appears to be a bus, which is travelling along a main road. The road signs that it goes past are enhanced and edited in a way that titles are visible on them. An example of this can be seen in the screenshot below:
As you can see here, the shot is composed very simply because the camera doesn't move. The titles are edited onto the road signs, and made easy to read for an audience. This carries out throughout the whole opening title sequence, so in terms of camera, the shot used is very simple, and the editing around it allows us to read the titles on the upcoming road signs.


The sound used throughout the titles of Fallen Angel is very typical Noir style. Just by listening to the soundtrack, it gives us an old classic feel, which we will have to try and recreate to match the soundtrack convention for our production. The music in Noir's is generally composed using saxophones, pianos, and trumpets. This soundtrack is played throughout all of the opening title sequence, and fits well with the titles. The soundtrack also helps to create an atmosphere so early in the film.
Very little can be analysed in terms of mise-en-scene, because there is so little happening in the titles. As mentioned before, the camera is placed still at the front of a bus, so all we can see is the road in front. The whole clip and film is in black and white, which is obviously edited in. Film Noir's are always traditionally in black and white, so we will ensure that our production follows this convention.

Reflection:
We each analysed an opening title sequence of a Film Noir, and all did a blog post on it. This was a big step for us in terms of our research, because we were able to analyse each others posts and talk as a group about the conventions we found, and how we plan to match them. The conventions that I've talked about above, were similar to what Matthew and Heather found. This was good because it showed that we all had a good understanding on how identify the conventions of a Film Noir, as well as knowing exactly what they are. We all learnt from this that splitting the tasks between us is good and can be very useful in terms of research, especially in this case because we got triple the amount of research and three different classic Film Noir's analysed. Our next steps are to look out the ways to recreate sounds, and possibly start further planning with out production and look at locations we could possibly film at.

Analysis of Narrative Structures

Now that we have decided on our genre (Film Noir) and planned a general synopsis of our production, we looked at some narrative structures that current films follow to give us an idea on how we need to adapt our ideas to fit a structure. We discarded most ideas because they simply didn't fit the style of a Film Noir, but managed to narrow it down to two ideas which can be seen below:

The first narrative structure is 'Vladimir Propp', and the whole idea of the structure revolves around the characters. If we were to adapt our narrative to suit this, we would have to create seven different characters to build up the plot. The whole idea of this structure is that every character has an effect on the way the plot pans out, and each of these characters has a role with exactly what they do in the relation to other characters. This structure would work, however we decided that as whole it wouldn't suit our production because we are only filming the opening title sequence, so even if we designed all of these characters we wouldn't actually be able to involve them in the filming process. Another reason why we decided against this type of structure is the fact that it doesn't follow the conventions of a Film Noir. Traditional Noir's start with the end of the film, and usually feature two main characters (the everyman, and the femme fatal), but the 'Vladimir Propp' structure features far too many characters, which simply wouldn't fit the conventions of a Film Noir.

The second narrative structure we looked at fully was the 'Enigma Code'. This structure is usually related to a mystery, and used in relation to genres of thrillers and crime. It is also designed so that the audience become instantly engaged with the film, and attempt to guess the solution of the mystery. Generally, this narrative structure fits a lot of the conventions of a Film Noir, which makes it more suitable for our production. For example, the fact that the structure relates to a mystery fits the conventions of a Film Noir because they are usually about a dramatic event that has happened which we spend the majority of the film trying to figure out. Another part of the structure that relates to the conventions is the fact it is common with genres related to thrillers and crime. These genres are related and feature throughout a Film Noir so this structure relates to it well. As a whole, the 'Enigma Code' is more suited to a Film Noir, so we can relate our ideas to this structure to help us construct the plot.


Reflection:
Analysing these narrative structures was very useful for us, because we were able to get an idea on what structures actual films follow. With these structures in mind, we have been able to relate the 'Enigma Code' to a Film Noir, so we can analyse the structure and possibly compare it to our synopsis to help us have a full understanding on the layout of the plot. From this task, we all learnt how important it is to know the structure of a film, and not just attempt to create a plot for a film without an idea on the direction it has to go. To improve this task we could've analysed more structures to give us an even better understanding, but we decided to discard the rest because they didn't relate to our idea of a Film Noir enough.

Narrative Starting Ideas

Our task for Media is to recreate an opening title sequence of a particular chosen genre. For my final piece, I am working with Matthew and Heather, and we have started to plan a narrative for our production and discussed different ideas for a story. We started by talking about a genre, and landed on the idea of recreating a Film Noir as much as we can. To do this, we will need to have a full understanding of the conventions that a Film Noir has, and attempt to recreate these into our production. Soon, we will allocate roles to each of us to ensure that we have that full understanding of this particular genre of film. Research will have to be done on things such as sound, so that we know what the soundtracks generally are, not to mention the way the dialogue is embedded. We will also need to research typical camera angles used, and the way that these films were edited, and how, not to mention the mise-en-scene, such as costumes and location. Another aspect of research will be the audience of a Film Noir; with an understanding of who these films were generally aimed at, we will have a good idea on the way we need to adapt our production to suit this particular type of audience. As a starting point, we talked as a group about possible ideas for our film and also about how many characters we would plan to have and what the general idea would be. From this, we were then able to write out a general synopsis of the narrative that we want our story to follow. Obviously this is just a starting idea so we will undoubtedly build on this idea and develop it in different ways.

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

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

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

Leaves him broke.

In his anger he kills her.'

Reflection:

In terms of planning, this was a good starting point for us. We were able to pitch all of our possible ideas across to each other, and adapt each one as a group. This was also good because now that we have picked our genre (Film Noir), and created a general synopsis, we can move on to research and future planning for filming our production.

This task also had some negative aspects, which allowed each of us to learn what we need to do to improve as a group. The discussion we had about out genre and narrative took a long time, and we were quite indecisive at times about deciding exactly what direction we wanted our production to go in. With future discussions, we plan to try and be more decisive about the decisions we make, which will allow us to work faster and develop ideas quicker. If we had landed on a genre and narrative quicker, we could have adapted our piece further and perhaps starting thinking about other things such as a location for our filming, or what equipment we would use. Having said this, the synopsis above is a good starting point, and we are all happy with the ideas we have.