LOCATION

Two members of my group, Kieron and Melissa went to our initial decision of location to show it's
aesthetics and whether it is suitable or not. We were so glad we did this filming and the extensive check around the location as we actually came to find that it was not as appropriate as we firstly assumed. This old street has been greatly modernised to an extreme where we realised it was most likely not even possible to do our recording here.. contemporary cafes and the arts college were what damaged the mise-en-scene. Although the area near the arts college and Saint Georges Street ect. is the location included in our concept board and where we explained to our media class we were going to film, we've now uncovered that this is in fact not appropiate. It was disappointing, as what attracted us to this location were the dark, chilling archways/ alleyways which were aged and suitable for the era of the film, as well as creating excellent framing and mysterious lighting. 


As you can see Kieron and Melissa later moved onto another location, Elm Hill - a extremely known place, featured in blockbusters such as Stardust. They simply followed a road called Prince street which lead them here. We had already discussed this location and it had also been mention within our media class - and we knew it would create the correct mise-en-scene, and were also hoping it would have enclosed areas where we could gain that dim, gloomy lighting. We wanted this as it would aid us in creating a concealed ambience. After inspecting this area we discover it was actually perfect! 
Luckily it hadn't been particularly modernised, and everything still appeared authentic. It also included a coffee house, in an old thatched roof house, this was valuable to us as there's a scene in our filming where our femme fatale were enjoying a beverage. Obviously we had to go and investigate this area too so it would continiue with the correct vibe and aesthetics we intended.
Overall this location looks very promising!

TODAYS LESSON, RECORDED PRESENTING

VIDEO PROJECT PRESENTATION 1 from fLIX.TV on Vimeo.

Fair to say it didn't go so well.
Fair to say we've established I'm a terrible group speaker.
I may have rambled, not looked at the audience or camera and generally done a rubbish job, but it's the concept that counts right? To be completely honest I thought my prezi was detailed and provided a lot of useful information about our project, I probably just didn't express that particularly well...
Definitely hoping the next presentation goes better..I wouldn't count on it.


Anyway, today was in fact extremely successful.. in a way, as we received lots of useful feedback, some positive, some critical but thats exactly what we hoped for!


The rest of our class suggested that perhaps we weren't making the best choice with our setting idea, suggesting that it will be busy and the old fashion - film noir setting would be ruined. We will without a doubt take this on board, one of our solutions was to go early morning when it was quiet - we thought this would also be nice lighting maybe making it seem late evening which is was we initially wanted. They also suggested that our scenes atmosphere would be ruined by modern shop displays - our answer to this was to try and work our camera angels so these aren't visible, although we are quite confident that our location doesn't contain many modern stores.
 We also gave a brief overview of our plot and narrative, in which we explained how we would break and follow some conventions to follow a more modern direction, such as experimental camera angels. We will follow out some more research to discover whether these decisions appeal to our target audience. After watching other groups presentations it was clear our group was full of some really brilliant ideas! I offered positive feedback, and also asked insightful questions, for instance I was interested in ways other groups planned to follow or break conventions, a couple of their ideas were to alter the colouring - changing the traditional black and white - eg. change saturation. Some groups were extreme on breaking conventions, opting for a neo-noir OTS, this is a contrast to my groups subtle way of breaking them. We're in favour of our own subtleness, as we're fond of traditional film noir and would quite like to follow conventions, in particular the black and white high contrast, dim and mysterious lighting, 

This particular photograph from; 

GenaroFlacoArroyo, 

a cinematographer provides me with much inspiration as how we want the colours of our film opening to look, it's an atmospheric control of lighting which can in turn control how the audience feels. 

aswell as these conventions we will also include a romantic/criminal story line which involves an anti-hero and femme fatale.

STORYBOARD..KIND OF.

We got told today to create a storyboard however in a different form I was familiar with, not to say I don't like the idea. We were to draw our still shots onto post it notes - ones which follow our decided plot - which we would then scan in and produce a video of them. 

It allowed us to think of a variety of shots and angels, we tried to be very specific and went into dept, which in turn prepared us extremely well for the actual filming. 

So as a group we came together to discuss all our ideas, which in all honesty were all over the place and a mess to start of with, however we were satisfied with our final decisions which will believe will produce a successful OTS. 

Shot of femme fatale - crying, distressed, hands on face, from a highish angle at an almost side profile angle - as if from the corner of a room but as high of an angle - TITLE OVER TOP.

Femme fatale looks up - past camera, eyes still.

Close up of woman's face.

Flashback to her in bar/café with two friends - table in view, drink and the shoulders of her two friends either side. Facial expression - none, looking into nothing - 'sense of being trapped' - camera zooms out; see one of her friends putting on her make up - one talking to our femme fatale. Shot stays for a few seconds.

Shot of friends exiting café, kissing goodbye

Close up shot of our femme fatale saying good bye to her last friend - kissing her on cheek - she catches a glimpse of something.

Eye line match - our anti hero, standing up against wall, smoking - possibly a tilt, from foot to head.

Possible close up of different features on our anti-hero - clothing, oil stains on vests.

Close up of mouth smoking and blowing smoke. 

Close up of eyes

Shot of friend leaving our femme fatale - in view; her chest upwards, on one side of frame, her friend walking off in distance on other.

Long shot of her standing on cobbled street - she catches herself, establishing her femme fatale character once more.

Moving object shot - femme fatale walking into the shot past our anti-hero still up against wall.

Shot from anti-heroes eyes, watching our femme fatale walk past.

Shot of femme fatale from in front, seeing her intentionally ignore anti-hero and rummage in her bag, walking quickly.

Shot of lighter falling.

Close up as lighter hits floor - slow motion.

Long shot, as if from the café entrance, looking onto where femme fatale has just walked - anti hero in view, picking up what femme fatale has dropped and in distance, femme fatale walking away still rummaging in bag.

Shot of femme fatale rummaging in bag, gets out cigarette holder and looks for lighter.

Shot of anti-hero; bent on floor. 

Shot from other side of anti-hero standing up [camera moves up as he does] and lights cigarette with lighter - taking another toke on his cigarette - puts lighter in pocket - beginning to walk quickly away from camera and towards femme fatale.

Shot from front of him walking towards us with femme fatale in view - ''this yours miss?'' - see femme fatale half turn.

Shot from side profile [long shot] - seeing his hand outstretched handing her lighter - she takes the lighter, lights her cigarette looks down at his feet.

Tilt shot, showing femme fatale giving him the 'once over' - ends with shot of anti heroes face where he says: ''where you off to?''

close up of femme fatales face - ''is it any of your business?''

Shot of anti heroes face - ''no but you can't blame a fella for being interested can you,'' - his eyes look over her.

Close up of femme fatales face - ''What's your name?''

Close up of anti heroes face - ''Your interested [grin], ######''

Close up of femme fatales face - ''Oh, no, just being polite.''

Close up of anti heroes face, - ''What's your name? See you're not the only one with manners''

Close up of femme fatales face - ''No? Well I've got things to do, I might see you around.''

Long shot of femme fatale walking away from anti-hero.

Close up of anti hero - takes a toke on his cigarette and looks away to the side of him - an intended way of making him look as though he's not interested but seeing if anyone's seen what's just happened.

Close up of femme fatales face walking away - a toke on her cigarette and a smile.

The dialogue we have chosen will be performed by our actors in a number of different senses and tones; 

flirtatious

uninterested 

awkward

nervous

who knows.. we'll experiment to see what is most suitable. 

Of course things could easily change, maybe we get to our location and realize that particular angel and framing may possibly not work, however it's nice to have some freedom. We aren't the type of group who will be able to stick exactly to our plan - we're always coming up with new, inventive ideas. 

As I say, further into development we may choose to alter certain ideas, however I will cover all of this later in my evaluation. 

Deconstruction of a Neo-noir OTS

I watched the OTS for three different neo-noir films in an attempt to see how the directors have chosen to modernize and beak conventions to appeal to todays society.  


Neo-noir (from the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black)
An important feature to Noir films is that they contain the traditional elements of a film noir; 
Crime, tragedy, non-explicit seduction
Characters: 
anti hero - the protagonist - male 
femme fatale - melodramatic - seductive
law enforcer 
antagonist 
Lighting: 
heavy contrast 
chiaroscuro
monochrome 
Mise-en-scene: 
bars and casinos 
dystopian setting 
Sound:
orchestral 
heightened sounds effects
Editing: 
realism
verisimilitude 
slow - builds suspense 
lingering shots
establishing shot
panning
tracking 
POV - occasionally - distortion  


The Red Riding

It starts with a tilt shot, which builds suspense as we view some obscure, unknown images. The lighting is dim accompanied by the dark images until we suddenly hit the brightness of some white wings, which seem to be attached to a little girl. We later discover that the storyline is based upon this young girl going missing, and in the OTS we meet the distraught parents. After seeing the young girl we realise the tilt shot was coming up from underground, we therefore presume the poor girl is dead. Evidently, the narrative conforms to the conventions of traditional film noir; crime, however it is a lot more darker than what they would used to be. The sound throughout this scene is also very distorted which deprives the audience's senses, they become apprehensive and hooked.
   Moving onto the next scene we are shown a close up of a young man who we recognise as our anti-hero, and this is a common shot used to establish his character. Similarly to traditional noir films, a voice over of the anti hero is heard meaning we prepare to take the journey and empathise with him. This shows the modern alterations, this would be very untypical for noir films of the 40's/50's era. 
    While he's talking we learn some interesting things about the life he has lead, for instance he explains how his dad has died and that he is returning from London after ruining his chance to work there, this naturally causes the audience to ask questions and wonder what could he possibly have done to damage his chances? We become suspicious of him and believe he is hiding a secret. From learning this about his character it parallels closely with what they traditionally were; they always had a flaw, tended to be failures, which is the impression we gain as well as what he's actually admitting to. The mis-en-scene of this opening scene is him sitting in a car, driving along a extremely long road (which the camera is tracking) whilst in reasonably heavy rain. The area is rural with not much to see - Yorkshire. This creates a dull, dystopian setting, which in reality is suitable for the narrative. As driving, the man is inhaling his cigarette, a classic signifier of film noir. Adding to the bleakness is the colours, the car scene is slightly monochrome with low saturation with a variety shades of brown, although this does represent the year it was made; 1974. This is slightly different to what the strong contrast between black and white used to be in film noir. An additional modern feature to this films OTS is that some of the sound heard is an acoustic guitar which is contemporary, and strangely suited for the character, as he seems quite rugged. 
    As we meet the girls parents we're revealed to the protagonists profession; a newspaper reporter, and he is covering this kidnap/murder case. The editing throughout also remains fairly simple as what it always was - simple fade ins and outs.  

Blade Runner

I immediately got a different impression from this, firstly its science-fiction, within seconds we're introduced to flying cars, it seems entirely different to anything associated with film noir. The whole situation is different to traditional as there's electrical music and drones of machines heard in the background, which creates the sense for the audience that they are actually inside a machine. Another break of convention regarding sound is that there is no voice over, no character to relate to. 
   We are introduced to two characters, however it is confusing whether either are actually the protagonist or antagonist. We see a man who we initially believe is possibly a law enforcer, even doctor, on the other hand his personality emits the opposite; he also seems to have the mind of a criminal, evil and manipulative. This character is the one asking the questions, attempting to understand the other man's 'emotions' so he says, however we can tell there is underlying tension. The man answering the questions seems a victim at first, however unexpectedly and shockingly shoots the other man. We now  associate as him as the 'bad' one, however the impression is that he's only a henchman of the antagonist. It's hard to establish characters for either men which then suggests are either of them actually important? The mise-en-scene throughout this scene includes a number of electrical devices, some of which are attached to the man answering the questions, as though he's being examined. This helps maintain the modern, scientific setting, extremely unconventional. 
   Despite this, the film does stick to conventions in a few minor ways... For example the lighting is very similar, being that it's dark, there is strong contrast and lots of shadowing and silhouettes. A gun and cigarettes are the ultimate signifier's used in film noir, and of course we see both of these - the man asking the questions smokes while doing so, in a arrogant manner. 


Mulholland Drive

This was the most complex OTS our of the three, and I came to the conclusion that it has a fairly confusing, chiaroscuro narrative. We first see a shot of a number of couples dancing to jazz music and a young blonde woman seeming to have a fun time. The scene is full of brightness ,the woman seems to have a bubbly, smiley and innocent personality, this is what the film is trying to portray the swinging 50's as. This scene contrast greatly to the next, which is a shot of a dark, obscure figure, accompanied by low, droning music. This then switches to a blurred shot of a car, the focus being on the strong break lights, a tracking shot follows the car which creates much suspense. So the shots included vary a 
great deal, all of them being very different.
We are then introduced to what appears to be the femme fatale, she, like the traditional character seems mysterious. Her appearance is highly different to the young blonde woman, she is dark haired wearing dark red lipstick, seems demanding, and these features are what help us define her character. The man we then continue to be introduced to is holding a gun, this also is very traditional signifier used in film noir's, we recognise this man as the antagonist. These two characters are of different class to the women and others who were dancing, and with this scene being so completely different to the different one, it in fact creates a chiaroscuro narrative. 
From just watching the OTS it's extremely hard to try and predict where the storyline is heading, and with later research into the film it seems as though even with watching the entire film, it still remains confusing. It is perhaps trying to suggest that there is two sides to a femme fatale, and innocent and a dark secretive side.


From analysing these different OTS's it has made me realise just how modern you could take a film noir. It's provided me with ideas and influenced me to develop some fresh, contemporary concepts for my groups project.     
  

CONTINUITY TASK

The task had to include;
Filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whoem she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180/degree rule.
i
This was so were able to experiment with the camera, show our possibly already acquired skills. Most of the things which needed to incorporated into this film I thought I was more than capable of handling, so I therefore felt as though I could guide those in my group who had never done media before.
It is clear to see we obey by the 180degree rule, theres never one point the camera passes over the imaginary axis, this is called crossing the line. The characters always have the same left/right relationship to each other. Including the match on action involved more skill slightly, however as a group we manages to achieve it efficiently. You firstly see a shot  of the young girl opening the door - close up of hand on door handle - this is then disturbed by a shot of another young women appearing shocked and in some discomfort. Following this shot you see the girl enter through the door we have previously seen her begin to open - successful match on action shot. 
Our final compulsory shot was, shot reverse shot. This is simply where one character is shown looking at another character usually off screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character - because we cannot see both characters, we assume they're looking at one another. This is shown throughout their conversation once they're both sitting down. We wanted to make it slightly more complex so we included eye tracking; the process of measuring either the point of gaze or the motion of an eye. So not only do we have a shot reverse shot, in the midst of it we include one character giving the other female 'the once over' - it creates tension. 


Later on in the short film we wanted to demonstrate our ability, so we included an added on flashback. 
It includes tracking of the male and female, two shots, over the shoulder shots, high and low angels and dramatic close ups. We even continued to show our editing skills by including slow motion and fading out of the character towards the end. The whole film was edited to be in black and white, our intention was to make our continuity task follow a noir storyline so we thought this would be appropriate. We even went to the measures of letterboxing all our clips in order to give it that 'movie style'. All editing remained fairly simplistic.
Different shots have a particular purpose, specified to affect the audience in a particular way. For example, the over the shoulder shot when we witness the male attacking the female and shaking her vigorously, we see it more or less from the perspective of the male. It emphasises her entrapment, as the hands on her shoulders are a main focus of the shot, and extremely visible - he is controlling and over powering her - we feel as though we're also over powering her as we vividly see her fearful expression from the males angle.
01.00 - another shot which explicitly shows the males power, the focal point being his arms which cross the  entire shot. It's deceiving, as the way this scene is shot, it looks as though he's applying great force, it also emphasises his authority. 

CONTINUITY TASK STORYBOARD 18th

This is extremely rough and if I'm honest,  not particularly good, however the concept is there.
We quickly photographed a number of basic shots, including everything compulsory for the continuity task so it prpeared us for what was expected when we came to film the actual thing.
This allowed us to formulate some ideas, and have a deeper understanding of the brief.

TASK 9 - shared prezi's

http://prezi.com/presentation/kmarchese@yellow.esinet.org.uk/8iakay4/

Just testing out one of these joint prezi's...
This is a different form of prezi to what I had experienced before, it's one in which we can all acess and edit at the same time; whilst editing you see an 'avatar' of your other group members if they are also currently adding to the prezi. It's a much easier way of all contributing to a group task - we're all involved.

ANALYSING SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG

I have decided to take a look at Daisy Conway's blog;
http://a2mediastudiesdaisyconway.blogspot.com/

I really enjoyed reading through her blog, simply because it seemed very humble and full of personality, as well as being informative. I think this is something I need to incorporate into my blog, it's just natural for me to write formally when it involves school, however this is my blog, I need to express my true self! I'm fond of how she includes a photograph or picture in most of her posts, which is interesting for a reader as it livens things up - even just seeing a blog full of writing is enough to put you off. She has shown a wide variety of research, capturing inspiration from other artists and combining it with her own ideas.
Her posts do NOT rant on, which I'm extremely grateful for as I have much appreciation for people who get to point. She provides no unnecessary information, and her found her blog particularly interesting to read.

A negative I have found, although I may just be being picky, is that she doesn't include any useful hyperlinks on her page to perhaps show where she gained some ideas and inspiration. Or just general information for a reader.

MY GROUPS PREZZZZI'S

Ellen Lowe 

Copy of concept board, my part on Prezi

Kieron Marchese

Copy of Sound & Characters Concept Board on Prezi

Melissa Bartram

Copy of Concept Board - target market on Prezi

Ellen and Kieron both presented her section of the concept board to the class today and we were all thrilled to receive enthusiastic, supportive comments from the rest of our class. They said that we were covering all areas in depth, and it seemed as though we knew what direction we were heading in with great organisation.
Me and Melissa are yet to present ours yet, but will do this at the beginning of next lesson. I will inform you of how they both go!
After I have presented mine I will be evaluating myself on all the work I've completed so far, summarize our groups narrative and plot ideas, along with posting a story board to visualize this. :)

RECORDED PRESENTATION

Today we were planning to present our concepts boards to the rest of the media group, we were going to be recorded in which could then be uploaded to our blogs. Eventhough we are working as a group, we each had our own specific section of the concept to complete through a prezi, which we will all make copies of in order to present them on our own blogs. The recording will also be posted on our blogs by uploading it to vimeo and compressing it if needed! We thought recording ourselves would be a great idea as a mean of providing a different way to track our progress, and showing our interaction with the rest of the class.
We hope to gain supportive comments from the rest of the class and even criticisms so we know what and how to improve!

CONCEPT BOARD

Concept Board-Camera Shots and Typography on Prezi

These pictures are evidence of a couple of my group members completing their assigned tasks as a contribution to our whole concept board. 

IDEAS FOR CONCEPT BOARD

Me and my group are working on a concept board which essentially hold all our ideas, anything and everything we think we will be beneficial to our OTS. We can then continue to determine which will work better, and what shots, lighting, costumes and so fourth will best fit the Film Noir style.

Things we need to consider;

Title
Genre - Film Noir
Plot - Order/Structure of the narrative
Narrative - Story
Cast - Character, Representation (style,props,costume), Accents, Mannerisms
Conventions - Established or expected rules of genre
Mise-en-scene
Camera - Shot, pace, angle, transitions
Signifier/Icon
Set
Connotation - Suggestion/meaning/implied
Denotation - Emphasised/explicit/factual/stated
Sound - Diegetic/non-diegetic, effect, synchronous/asynchronous, foleying, contrapunctal,
Ambiance/Atmosphere
Mood
Style
Target Audience - Demographics (factual data, preferred audience)

I have been assigned the task of exploring camera shots and angels.

Angels have a major impact on a viewer and can dramatize, excite and amplify a scene.

MY GROUP.

I have decided to work with Kieron Marchese, Melissa Bartram and Ellen Lowe.
You will find their blogs in a gadget on my blog

This group of individuals are generally my friends, people who I have strong bonds with, which initially could raise issues of failing completion of work or meeting deadlines due to excessive talking ect. Despite these worrying issues we have found that because of how devoted we all are to media, how we all have a keen interest into the industry and share the passion to complete the work to the best possible standard, we will be a successful, devoted team.
I think we will all have something to contribute, and will never fall short of ideas, and I am confident that everyone will participate in the accomplishment of finishing work.
I will undoubtedly have to self monitor myself in order to avoid failure and remain organised and in sync with my group. This could involve regular meetings to update each other of our recent/current work, so we're all aware of who's
This project will allow us to have the freedom and enjoyment of uncovering our creative minds, however the negative side of this is getting caught up in this creativeness and falling behind on work.
Overall we need to balance our work load and ensure the whole team is by being supportive and motivated!

SPECIFICATION

VIDEO This is the specification for -
Level 4 48–60 marks A*/A High B
I am aiming high as I want to achieve and do well, so I will try and meet all the cirteria.


There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
-holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
-framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
-using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
-shooting material appropriate to the task set;
-selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
-editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
-using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
-using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
-using titles appropriately.

Marking Criteria for the presentation of the RESEARCH AND PLANNING, specification for - Level 4 16–20 marks A*/A High B

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning
Time management is excellent.

EVALUATION
The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
How did you attract/address your audience?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Level 4 16–20 marks

Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
Excellent ability to communicate.
Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation