Closing Blog Post

This blog is now complete and is ready for assessment.

Looking Back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Here is the list of my previous targets:

1.      I need more detailed analysis in my evaluation about how I constructed my sequence using the program.
2. I need to be more organised when it comes to updating my blog as I struggled to keep putting up posts throughout the whole process.
3 .I need more consistency of sound during the editing process. (working with Adobe Premiere Pro)

I felt that I have met these targets as I have certainly improved in terms of organisation and the post production side of my main task. This is partly due to my confidence levels that have helped me in producing a higher level piece of work than before.

editing my piece

Certainly I feel that the consistency of my editing has become more fluent as I have learnt how to use the program Adobe Premiere Pro with the help of video tutorials and more practise than I had when I did my preliminary task. When undertaking my preliminary task, I felt quite panicked and rushed to get something in rather than creating a decent looking clip, which I learnt from and planned my time more effectively as not to rush, or miss certain key deadlines.

my google calendar for January

Planning and preparation was the most important part of this task as without it, my piece would have not been as good as it is now. Without the whole process of storyboarding, shot lists and a real script it would have not been possible to edit to make it look fluent and natural. Locations and actors were probably the most crucial part to this as it took a while to find willing actors and gain permission for a location. Originally we wanted to film it in some sort of bar location as it would be more realistic. We also were going to include dialogue in the bar as well as background chatter but due to various technical problems we had to redraft scripts, shot lists and re organise dates of filming to make up footage. This actually worked out far better than we had originally hoped.

Like I have said earlier, organisation of timing played a key role in aiding us through the process as during college time and the holidays, everyone had a lot to do in terms of coursework and spending time with family so it was hard to not only organise my time, but everyone else’s time to finish the filming process.

Luckily, I have some friends who study media studies at A-level and above and was able to get further knowledge from them regarding appropriate framing and technical skills that would help me during my main task. Certainly other blogs from various filmmakers on the internet made it easy for me to learn about the film style of Noirs and help replicate a similar feel to my piece by incorporating key shots I had also found during research such as the shots of feet. I invested in a large tripod and a portable 500 watt halogen light to help my film look professional and more authentic as a film noir.

I think that this task gave me a chance to become more creative with my editing as I had more time to do the process as well as being able to experiment with various ideas like brightness and contrast. Since it was a film opening and the conventions were completely different to the preliminary task to demonstrate continuity editing, I had to use more features of Adobe Premiere Pro in order to make titles appear on different frames and stay for a certain length of time. This wasn’t too hard but as always, things take a little bit of experimenting to get right. What I probably found most difficult about the post production stage was the addition of a soundtrack to my piece and a voiceover. It was a lot harder to edit in audio after I had unlinked the original audio and put in music or a voiceover to fit accordingly to the footage I already had. We also experimented with video transitions which often didn’t work the way we had expected to and made the opening look slightly ‘cheesy’. We eventually decided on a simple fade over as it fitted quite well with the conventions of film noirs where frames were blended into each other by kind of overlapping the frames whilst changing the opacity of each one.

 

the media group I set up on facebook

Another thing I had to consider whilst producing my film opening was having my target audience constantly in my mind. One thing I did to kind of combat making mistakes or being unsure about how things work was by posting up different versions and tester clips of my opening during the editing process. By doing this I was able to gain instant feedback to suit my audience’s needs more and improve my piece. Any comments they made were taken into consideration and ultimately changed how parts of my film turned out as it determined the outcomes of my decisions.

different version of my piece I posted onto youtube

I would have to say that the biggest thing I have learnt from this task is the importance of planning as during my previous task, my organisation was quite poor and this heavily affected how my piece turned out. By creating new and improved versions of the research and planning part and posting it onto my blog, I was able to keep on top of what needed to be done and felt more confident when it came to filming the actual piece. I utilised the blog more often than I did before which I would say definitely helped me feel more confident with organisation and planning towards my piece.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of contructing this product?

Here is another 'Prezi' that I made, demonstrating my use of technology throughout the research, planning, production and post production part of the Main Task.

How did you attract/adress your audience?

I felt that I was successful in attracting my audience, as when I showed my film opening to my selected target audience and class of 17-20 year olds, I got very positive feedback. Although some thought it may be appropriate for a slightly older age group. They recognised that it was a Film Noir, despite them not seeing many of these kind of films. This also helped to capture their interest as they said it was unlike most films today. I expected them to be a bit confused because of the use of enigmatic codes. However they said that they understood it an thought that I intended to create a sense of mystery and tension between the two characters.They thought that the combination of the camera work and music connoted this kind of sexual tension and that the woman was a little sinister and dangerous. Here is a short video clip of of the feed back I got back from a member of my audience, showing a preferred reading as well as print screen from face book comments from my video I uploaded:

Who would be the audience for your media project?

Age: 16- early 20's

Gender: Mixed (male and female)

Ideally I would like my film to appeal to a wide range audience of a similar age to myself (16-19, perhaps early 20's) who are creative and indiviual people as film noir is often though as movies for 'arty' people, rather than being a main stream kind of film genre. These kind of films would appear in cinemas like the Midlands art centre or the Electric cinema in Birmingham as they screen more 'Indie' films and tend not to show mainstream films produced by large companies. I therefore aim for our Audience to to be Indivualists (Psychographic) who like to stand out from the crowd and think for themselves rather than mainstreamers who don't like to be different.

I also aim to an audience of the social grades B to C1 (Demographic) who are deemed as 'more ' intelligent as I want my audience to be able to guess what is going on rather than having a simpler more mainstream film that tells the audience exactly what is going on and is far more simple.

They have the less liklihood of fitting into the other Psychographic groupings remaining like:Traditionalists, Hedonists and Rebels.

What kind of media institution might distribute your particular social groups?

here is a brief two minute explanation of what kind of media institution would distribute my film and why:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here is a 'prezi' in response to the above question:

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

Here is an embedded video of a directors commentary, over my sequence explaining how my media product uses the conventions of most film opening, Film Noirs and how it differs.

Final Cut: One Too Many

here is my final cut of my film opening!

Updates: Voiceover scripting

Today we filmed our voice-over to go over the dialogue part of the sequence. When we did it we had two different versions of the original scripting and then a more improvised version. Here is the different version of the script:


It all began on a cold winters night, when I saw here. Brunnete, legs for hours.
I asked her is she cared for a smoke . 
She took one, but I didn't get a thank you.
 She took a drag, her lips like forbidden fruit. 
She said I was trying to hard. 
Jeez! Dames. 
They rip your heart out without blinking an eye. 
Those beautiful eyes, when I looked into them I felt like a helpless baby.
And then... it happened, she kissed me slowly and then asked me to come home with here.
 I would have done anything for here. Anything


We also used two different actors to speak the dialogue just to get a wide range of audio footage that we can edit into our sequence. We should be able to meet the deadline which is on Friday! I have really enjoyed the process of filming and editing so far! The only problem I had was remembering how to capture the footage as with the previous filming I had used my own camera and the footage came off and SD card rather than capturing it from a DV tape.

Updates: Voiceover Scripting

Due to feedback off our audience we decided to cut out the dialogue but keep in the shots. This was extremely difficult and we thought that it didn’t really work much at all. Instead we thought of the typical conventions of film noir and eventually we have decided to do a voiceover of roughly about 20 seconds of dialogue of the man. We looked at other voiceovers that we found particularly interesting like ‘In search for a Midnight Kiss’ which is a kind of neo noir film and used a voiceover at the beginning of the film that describe about the importance of a midnight kiss and how you sacrifice everything in the year solely for that kiss as you believe it brings you everything you need. Voiceovers in Film Noirs were a way to tell the audience what the character was thinking or feeling, basically an exposition. We noticed they use alot of dramatic similes and metaphors which are slightly cheesy.

Here is the new script of what we think will fit with our shots:

-       It all began on a cold winters night, when I saw her. Brunette and legs for hours.

-       Care for a smoke? A thank you would have been nice.

-       She takes a drag from that sweet cigarette. Her lips like forbidden fruit waiting to eb bitten. She said I was trying to hard.

-       Dames. Jeez. They rip your heart out without even blinking an eye.

-       I asked her ‘so, what do you do?’.

-       She replied ‘I play all day and at night, I try not to get bored’.

-       Those beautiful green eyes were my weakness. When i gazed at her for the first time, i felt like a helpless baby.

-(when they kiss). And then...... it happened. She kissed me slowly and then asked to come back to mine.


we are planning to record this as soon as possible.

Here is an example of the opening of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ where we took some inspiration from (it starts at about 1 minute 26 seconds) : 

Mock Up of Final Piece: With Dialgoue

here is the final edited piece but with the dialogue at the end. We also got audience feedback from this to see whather they liked it or not!

Mock up of Final Piece: without dialogue

here is my media film fully complete which I have uploaded onto you tube and then to facebook, we also put the other version to get more feedback (later post). I have removed the dialogue at the end and received some audience feedback on whether they think it is too dark and whether it works without the dialogue at the end. We did this because we thought the sequence might work better if it left to the audiences imagination!

Production: Process of Editing (part 4)

TITLES:

      In the end we decided for a simple font of Myriad transparent as you can still see some of the action in the background due to the low opacity level of the font. We experimented with a number of different colours such as:

-        red as we wanted to connote danger and originally have some form of red in it. This didn’t work as well as we had hoped as it was too dark and we though it was slightly hard to read

-        blue as it looked melancholy, and grim, which we thought was a common theme of film noir and would work quite well but...


-       Yellow/ gold was our final choice because it contrasted the footage a lot more than out other choices as well as we thought that gold connoted glamour and the theme of film noirs being known as ‘golden’ Hollywood.

Production: Process of Editing (part 3)

-Today we began looking at what kind of typeface we would use for our titles.

We just wanted it to be quite simple and look similar to a font that would be used in an original noir, except with colour. I already have the idea of using red as it connotes danger, love and passion which are all common themes in film noirs.

-       I did some research and analysis of some of the opening titles for old Noir films and Neo noir films to get an idea of what I think would look best and suit my piece:

Production: Process of Editing (part 2)

-I have cut the whole sequence down to about 1.20 (minutes, seconds) which fits nicely with our chosen audio track as that is 1.24. I still feel that it needs to be shortened down and then I will figure out how to make the audio fade more at the end so when it starts the next scene of them smoking outside it wont seem so obvious that the audio has stopped. I feel very confident at the moment with how the whole process is going as we seem to being progressing well.

Production: Process of Editing

Editing is going really well. I have used my knowledge of the program adobe after efftects from the previous preliminary task to help me edit all my footage. What I hve used to help me:

-       the razor tool- this was for cutting a piece of footage into different sections. For some of my clips such as Matt picking up and putting down the drink, I cut up and made up a series of shots to help demonstrate continue editing whilst using different shots.

-       Unlinking the Audio from the footage- because I was putting music over the top of my footage rather than having the original audio I had highlight the clip by clickling on it, then right clicking it, clicking unlink, then clicking away to somewhere on the timeline to unlink the audio from the video. This meant that you didn’t hear any annoying background noise over my audio track. This will probably come in useful later when im doing the dialogue part of the opening as it will be filmed from a couple of different angles, but with the same script.


- We also used the audio gain to adjust the level of sound for dialogue and the sound track so one wasn't overpowering the other.

-       We also experimented with some video transitions as we didn’t think that some shot transitions were fluent and a bit too jumpy. Mainly a simple fade to the next shot was used as that was commonly seen in noirs to kind of overlap the two shots and fade one into the other near the end.

Production: Start of editing

Today we started editing our piece together. After we had put all the shots in order, the main thing we noticed was that we thought the footage was too grey and there wasn’t enough contrast. What we did was go to the video effect tab at the bottom left of the screen

- colour correction

- brightness and contrast effect and dragged it onto each clip and lowered the brightness to make it darker and increased the contrast so the difference between black and white would make the footage look more like a film noir. I am really pleased with the outcome so far as are my audience who I have shown bits to every now and again.

Production: How the final shoot went.

Filming went quite well today other than the fact it rained a bit. The only problem we encountered was the fact that since my female actress didn’t smoke in real life she found it hard to do the dialogue without choking. We had to do the shots quite a lot but it was quite amusing. I am really glad that the filming process is over as I cant wait to see how my piece will look when it has been edited and finished.

Final Shoot for Filming

We will be filming today! I have printed out the shot lists and the actors will be arriving at my house at 5 o’clock for filming. By that time it will be quite dark so what we are thinking about doing it trying to light it using the halogen garden lights but if they wont work then we have bought some large flashlights that will also work quite well. We are able to edit the brightness and contrast in adobe after effects so if its slightly too dark then I can edit it so combat this problem. I will post afterwards how the filming has gone.

Audience Feedback: The beginning of the film

Most people really liked the beginning of the filming but found that it was quite confusing because of the absence if dialogue. However, there will be dialogue in the later scenes and we wanted to create a subtle almost confusion at the opening so it’s all been quite positive so far. We also had feedback saying that they really liked the tension between the two characters.

We are planning on showing the same piece to people again once we have edited it as we just showed them the raw footage of the shots in order and we are perhaps thinking of using the highlight of the colour red as well as being black and white to see what people think of the effect. 

Updates

We will now be filming the rest of the piece on Wednesday using the shotlist and script from before
this will take place between 5.00 til 6.00. This will enable to meet the filming deadline which is this Friday. We will start the editing process early and gain audience feedback this week during lesson times as we are prepared for Wednesdays shoot (see earlier risk assessment as we are filming in the exact same  place as planned).

Updates

I was very ill on Friday and was unable to attend the shoot because of this. I am therefore unable to do the new shoot at the weekend and will have to do it during the wee in order to meet the deadline. In the mean time next week during lessons I will begin editing the footage I do have as to not waste time.

Planning: New Filming

Organisation of shoot

The filming will take place outside my house on Saturday the 8th of January in the afternoon. The cast will be meeting at my house and make up will be done there. However, actors will be bringing their own costumes rather than us supplying them.
Not much needs to be done in the way of preparing the set as it all takes place outside. However some source of light will have to be provided to create effect and so the actors can still see when it gets dark.


Here is the shot-list for Saturdays shoot:


1. Mid shot- Of woman leaning against the wall, putting a cigarette to her lips outside the bar and the man walking out of the bar door.
2. Mid Shot- Woman smoking and exhaling as man walks across the screen.
3.Back to the mid shot of woman smoking(17)
4.Back to the mid shot/ Close up of the woman smoking (17)
5. Mid shot- Woman going to walking back inside and man pulling her back.


6. Close Up- Of man lighting the woman’s cigarette (dialogue begins)
7.Two shot- of man in the background talking to the woman and woman in the foreground still exhaling
8. Back to the Two shot woman talking (18)


9.Mid shot- Woman exhaling and in the background there is a shallow depth of field showing a mysterious looking man.
10.Back to mid shot of woman (23)
11. Back to the mid shot (23)


12.Two shot- Of man and woman standing outside the door against the wall.
14.Back to the two shot (24) Shot/Reverse Shot
15. Back to the two shot (24).
16. Back to two shot (24)
17. Back to a two shot (24)
18.Back to the two shot (24)
19.Back to the two shot (24)- man going in for a kiss, woman rejecting him, she goes to reach for another cigarette, man also reaches for a cigarette of his own.


20.Mid Shot- Of mysterious man in the background- use of pull focus so he becomes clear
21. Mid shot- of Mysterious looking man putting on his hat .
22.Mid shot - of mysterious man walking closer the corner of the wall.


23.Long Shot – Man and woman standing at a slight angle to each other not fully facing each other , she lights up the cigarette, exhales, then grabs the man to kiss him
24.Long shot- of the mysterious man on the pavement, different angle to the one before.


25.Close up- Man Stroking the Woman’s arm- Match on action from previous shot.
26.Close up- of his feet rubbing out the cigarette
27.Close up- of the mans face as he looks up from the floor


28.Over the Shoulder Shot (from side on)- Of the man looking at the woman
29. Camera pulls out to a long shot to show the man and woman standing against the wall whilst the man takes out a cigarette and hands it to the woman.
30.Extreme Close up- Of woman taking a drag from the cigarette.

Planning: Filming- New Scripting

Since we have changed the location for the part of the dialgoue, we also had to change part of the script so it actually made sense. Here is the re-edited version of the script:
Scene opens with fingers stroking a glass, you can hear 1940’s style jazz music playing in the background. You can hear background noise of multiple in quiet conversation.
-voiceover exposition of man’s voice- she was blonde/brunette/a redhead,(delete as appropriate) and legs for hours (should start when he starts looking at her)
- A woman is seated at the bar, by herself. At the other side of the bar there’s is a man, looking intently at the female. He seems to be attracted to her as he watches what she does and shows the male gaze of looking at her eyes and lips.
Nothing is said but both characters look back and forth to each other (shots 1-10) until the woman pulls out a packet of cigarettes (shot 11). The man responds by pulling out a lighter (shot 12). She walks out of the door outside to go smoke (shot 13), he follows. (shot 14)
Outside the bar on the street, you can still hear the music faintly playing in the background.
(shot 15)
Woman: (lights cigarette and avoids looking at the man and leans against the wall) (shot 16)
Man: (after lighting her cigarette) a thank you would be nice. (shot 17) (walks to the other side of her)
Exposition voiceover: Dames. Jeez. They rip your heart out without even breaking a sweat.
Woman: (exhales cigarette smoke) you’re trying too hard. (shot 18)
Man: I can tell you’re flattered.
Woman: (sarcastically) Yes. I’ve never been talked to by a guy at a bar ever in my whole god damn life before. (shot 19) Do you talk to every girl you see at a bar?
Man: Only the beautiful ones. I’m sorry dollface. I didn’t realise you were so… sensitive. (shot 20)
Woman: you don’t get any points for modesty (shot 21)
Man: humph. I didn’t bring up scoring. But either way, if id known it woulda’ made no difference. (shot 21)
Woman: (drops her cigarette on the floor, sighs and moves towards the door as if to go inside.
Man: (he touches the wall she was leaning against and looks down shaking his head a bit in regret. He grabs her arm and pulls her back to face him. (shot 22)
Exposition voiceover: My heart felt like it had been run over by a ten tonne truck,(pause) then reversed on.
Man: Please, accept this humble offering (holds out another cigarette between index and middle finger) (shot 24)
Woman: (looks down at the cigarette almost in disgust but takes it from him anyway).
Man: The names Hank. Hank Leonard. (He offers her hand to her in greeting but she doesn’t respond) Pleased to meet ya’. (shot 25 last part of dialogue only cue.)
Woman: (not looking at him- looking down at the cigarette- says this quite quickly after his dialogue) What do you do Hank?
Man: I have various means
Woman: cop, huh? You certainly look like the type.
Man: You could say that’s part of it. But, I aint short on money.
Woman: (turns to him as she hasn’t been facing him the whole time- has a bit of a smile) (shot 26) and what do you do with all your money?
Man: mostly investments. You know. Stocks and shares.….. and I own a little theatre…. (shot 27- last part of dialogue cue)
Woman: I wouldn’t have thought of you as lover of the arts
Man: Im like a cake, theres always another layer
Woman: (looked shocked/disgusted) And what if I don’t like sweet things?. (shot 28)
Man: (tries to shrug the comment off) A dame like you? Okay…. Well then a diamond, so many different faces and sides of one thing. (shot 29) That better? (shot 30)
Woman: I don’t buy a lot of bullshit about diamonds being a girls best friend.
Man: friends are never worth the trouble.
Woman: I pride myself on not being in trouble. Pass me another cigarette.
Man: coming right up. ( shot 31)
Camera pulls out (shot 32)
Man: (passing a cigarette to her) Enjoy.
Woman: (takes cigarette and takes a drag) (shot 33)
Man: So (pause), what do you do?
Woman: (removes cigarette from her mouth and flicking the ash on the floor) I play all day (places cigarette back in mouth sexily)
Man: (stroking her arm) and what about the night? (shot 37)
Woman: (takes cigarette back out of her mouth) I try not to get bored. (shot 38 til end of dialogue.)
Man: (leans in to kiss the woman)
Woman: (turns away) I’m gunna smoke another cigarette (takes out another cigarette from packet cigarette packet from her clutch bag)
Man: (balls up his fist) I’ll join you (also takes out a packet of cigarettes)
Cuts away to the man we saw before. He puts on his trilby hat and moves closer to them still behind the wall but closer to the corner. (shot 39)
The woman leans against the wall . He is already ready with the lighter. He lights up her cigarette. She takes a drag and leans her head back watching the smoke as she exhales. She then grabs the man by his tie and kisses him. (shot 40) The man begins to caress her arms. He pulls away and offers him his hand. They walk together out of the frame.
Cuts away to the ally where the man in the hat appears at the corner. (shot 41) Puts his hands in his pockets. (shot 42) Looks down and then rubs out the cigarette under his foot. (shot 43) Then back up and walks away.
Music fades out.

Updates

Here is the new risk assessmet as we will be filming in a new location (my backgarden) as there is a small alley leading towards a gate which provides dark lighting, perfect for film noir.