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.

Our Filming Location

I previously did some research into locations, and took some pictures of possible locations for our filming. As it turned out, we ended up using a completely different location for our filming, which I've taken some pictures off, they can be seen below.
The post I did previously can be seen here.

In the end, we decided that this location was better as a whole for our Film Noir recreation. After discussions and previous research carried out, we knew that our location needed to follow certain conventions. After analysing the possible locations I'd looked at, and looking at the pictures taken, we came to see that it came across as being far too modern. There were a lot of houses around the area, not to mention the fact that it could get quite busy, which would have been an issue for us when it came to filming. The location we actually filmed at wasn't far from the ones I'd previously researched, but this one gave our production much more of a Film Noir feel. The long dark alley way that the third picture shows was a big factor for us when it came to matching the conventions because the lamp post allowed us to create shadows down the alley way, as well as enhancing the cigarette smoke.

Reflection:
Overall, we are very happy with the location was chose, and we all think it works very well with our production. From this, I learnt that the easy option isn't always the best one, because we could of quite easily have used some of the locations that we'd already got in mind, but we took a risk to try something new, and it worked really well. The production has been given an extreme Film Noir feel thanks to this location. It made the lighting very easy to for us to work with, and naturally enhanced the cigarette smoke for us.

Research into Mise-En-Scene - Credit to Heather

Whilst I was carrying out research on location and Matthew was adapting the narrative, Heather did some research on mise-en-scene, and talked about the costume and props typical for a Film Noir. Her post can be seen in the screenshot below.

Reflection:
Splitting our group up to work on different aspects of research was very useful and proved effective for us because we were all able to come into lesson and work independently on different aspects of research. This also meant that if any of us had any free time, we knew exactly what we needed to be doing. We all learnt how much easier it is if we trust each other to do different parts of our planning and research, and how much quicker it can prove to be. To improve this post, Heather could add some links about the websites she visited, but the research she carried out is good.

Production Log - Actors

After discussions within our group about what are next steps are to be, we've decided that it could benefit our grade if we looked at the possibility of hiring professional actors. This would also help stick to our conventions of a Film Noir because the actors need to look somewhat older than teenagers because in classic Film Noir's they are always older. The website we found to hire actors is called Star Now, and can be accessed by clicking the words 'Star Now' below:
Star Now
However, after looking on Star Now we discovered that in order to fill out the forms necessary to hire professional actors you have to be over the age of 18.
This is a set back for us because we really wanted actors to play the roles of our characters for us, but after further discussions together, we've decided that we will play the roles ourselves. Heather will play the femme fatal, whilst I will play the everyman. Although this isn't exactly what we wanted, we are glad we have been able to fix the problem.
Our Film Noir has failed to meet one of the conventions because of the age of our characters, so it has now became a Neo Noir because of this. We will still do our best to match all of the other conventions of a Film Noir, but overall the genre has shifted slightly.

Reflection:
This was a major setback for us, but we managed to find a solution quickly to help fix this problem. From this, we all learnt that we have to expect the worst, and plan ahead in case anything wrong does happen. In this case, we weren't expecting something like this to happen but we managed to work our way round out. To fix this problem further, we could have looked at other possible websites for hiring actors, but we anticipated that the same issue would appear on each one because of our age, so we decided that taking the responsibility of acting on ourselves would be the better thing to do.

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.