Film Noir

Film Noir is a genre of film.
It usually contains these conventions:

• shadowing from blinds etc.
• smokiness - from cigarettes or cigars
• neon (street) lights
• femme fetale
  - when women are first seen, they are usually partially dressed in order to portray the idea of lust and temptation.
• contains a crime
• rainy streets
• urban setting
• dark interior
• voice over from the main character
  
  

Femme fetale is usually a sexy, appealing woman who uses her beauty to catch a male characters eye (usually the detective) and then they try to kill them or purposely disrupt what they are doing in a negative way. "femme fetale" is french for fatal female, which portrays a negative attitude towards the character as we are portrayed a negative image of death.

Editing of another film

Deconstrustion for the opening of

City Of God and one other film

(step up 2: the streets)

Step Up 2 : The Streets

• Credits are white with a black background, we begin to hear the score which is a soft piano, this gives a positive and dream like atmosphere for the audience.
• the camera then cuts to a low angle shot of the street dancers, this makes them appear to be idyllic, superior and even talented.
• the camera uses a variety of cuts, all showing crowd shots. this implies that the subject involves more than one person.
• the voice over is from the main character which gives them their identity.
• slow and fast paced editing of the dancers clips emphasise the talent of the sport as well as giving it a sense of realism.
  the camera uses a sepia type theme, which enforces the idea of the main characters flash back, this then ties in with the score and the with the topic of the voice over. there are also ambient sounds of crowds and amplified camera shots which also gives it the sense of realism, the ambient crowd also makes the sequence seem like a flash back.
• when the voice over says "then she was gone" the camera cuts to black, then picks up again when she says "..including the streets" where we see a dancer which has been brightened and put against a white background, this has been done in order to make the sport seem dream like as well as something to aspire towards. then the camera fades into the title.
• the camera then cuts to a steady paced editing of a variety of shots of the city, everything appears to be "normal" like an every day thing. then there are tracking shots on different civilians boarding the tube train. the camera then tracks a character very unsteadily, this builds the enigma as we know something is about to happen due to the character being portrayed in this way. the fly on the wall shots of the rest of the passengers emphasise that the character being tracked is different, therefore creating a contrast between them.
• When characters start dancing, the pace of the editing is fast and there are varied types of angled shots, this creates confusion in the audience as it was unexpected and heightens the dramatic impact.
• A dancer then does a fit like impression of a dance on the floor and the camera goes steady as well as all the other characters keeping still, this emphasises his skill in dance and makes the audience aspire towards him.
• we then cut to the police chase where the camera is yet again very unsteady, this reinforces the idea of being rebellious. when the police lose the youth the camera goes steady again, making us as the audience lose them as well.
• the camera then begins to zoom on the escalator, the audience can see that the station is empty, the camera then cuts to medium shot of the business man, this portrays the idea he is a main part to the story line, he is also in dark lighting a slightly shadowed which creates the impression he is hiding something.
• Next there is a tracking shot of him on the escalator with the camera focusing on his suit and brief case, the camera then stops and zooms out to reveal the youths tag on the escalator wall. We as the audience then create a clear link with the business man and the group tag itself.

The City Of God Opening

• the opening begins with a blank screen and the ambient sound of a market. then cuts to a shot of a knife being sharpened with the sound amplified. automatically the audience get the impression of violence due to the knife an possibly crime. this sequence is very fast cut, this builds enigma for the audience as they want to know more about this knife.
• we then hear the ambiance of local music which creates a sound bridge for the following sequence of different shots within a town, e.g. the chickens, to the local band, to people cooking and finally people dancing. this introduces the audience to the kind of culture featured in the film.
• during the chicken run sequence the editing is also fast, there are also many point of view shots which heighten the dramatic impact as it is very unsteady which builds tension and therefore we as the audience are unsure of what will happen next.
• there are a variety of different shots used in this sequence such as the tilted camera, low view shots and high angle shots, these all emphasise the seriousness and the challenge of catching a chicken, it also creates a slight area of humour for the audience from the high angle long shot of the chicken run and how serious the gang are taking the situation.
• When the character Rocket is in the shot we get a voice over, this establishes him as a character himself.
• We then see a slow motion arc around Rocket, this reinforces him being established as a character and the situation he is in. this then speeds up to a fast paced arc around him, then there's a match on action used as he is in the same crouched position but in the past on a football field.
• when he says in the voice over " let me introduce myself" the camera zooms in focus like a camera and we hear an amplified camera sound. this automatically allows the audience to make a clear link between the character and possibly something he does or is interested in.
  

The continuity task: Evaluation

The Continuity task consisted of three main points that we had to include in a film:

• an example of the 180 degree rule


• shot/reverse shot


• match on action

this had to be evident in a film of someone walking through a door, crossing the room and having a brief, two line conversation which was to take place between two characters. The 180 degree rule is simply imagining a line down the middle of both characters, which ever side you film from you MUST keep to or else the editing will not match and will seem like both the characters are sat on the same side of each other and talking to nothing. Match on action is simply cut from one shot to another view of the shot, for example, a shot from behind of someone walking through a door, to a cut of the the front of someone walking through a door. Shot reverse shot is when you take a shot from over character 1's shoulder facing onto character 2, then u take a shot from over character 2's shoulder facing character 1 and repeat the shots to show different expressions in a conversation.

At first there was me (Laura Spalding), Toni Brady and Ewan Murray in a group. We all had different ideas to what the filming should be based on and ended up just being Me and Toni in the group. However, we decided to keep the filming basic and straight to the point of the task to have someone walk through a door, sit down and have a conversation with someone else, using the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot.

At the beginning of our planing, everything went slightly wrong. Due to there being three of us we all took responsibility in doing different parts of the planing, such as storyboarding, written and preparing props. However members of the group were ill and had forgotten parts of the work therefore it was tricky doing the task without it so therefore when me and Toni became a group we started from scratch and had to re-do the planing which gave us less time in order to complete our production work. in that lesson, Toni and i completed the story board, written script and writ a brief plan to what we were going to follow in locations, props and actors. we decided that we would film in the common room as at the time of filming it was empty and spacious. we then found another 6former who had already done the task the year before to be an actor with Toni, then that left me to do the filming.

Completing the actual production piece was alot more difficult than i first had thought as it was hard to keep the camera steady while following Toni in the first sequence. we also had to redo the last sequence alot in order to get it right as the camera was too unsteady due to the fact we had to film on a tri pod but on a table and keep the angle right. However, i managed to get the match on action right first time which was rather lucky as i heard other groups found it difficult to do. But due to us using a double door made it easier for Toni to stay still and for me to get through and carry on the shot from a different view.

In the editing process, we deleted alot of the filming due to there being obvious mistakes such as the actors looking at the camera, or laughing etc. but in the end still kept the main parts we needed. As we had kept the storyline basic and the filming basic, we decided to keep the editing basic as well or else it wouldn't have looked right, therefore the only editing we did was cutting and pasting certain clips. however, if we had chosen a different idea and chosen to be more adventurous with the filming, i would have used alot more effects etc. as it does make the filming look alot better and more professional, but as a pair it was decided that we did not have enough time to do the effects.

Overall, i think our production piece was only okay. This is due to us having little time to do it in due to bad preperation and therefore only being able to produce something basic. If given the chance to do it all again, i would have prepared more, and made sure the group did to as well as been more adventurous with the filming and storyline. I have also learned that in order to make the production piece good i need to spend more of my own time working on it and learn to keep to dead lines. On the other hand, i was rather happy with the match on action as it was so well done, especially for a first attempt at it. Im also happy with the fact that although time was wasted at the beginnig, me and Toni still managed to pull together and at least produce something basic with the time we had left. fortunate for us we have learned from our mistakes and have learned to put more time and effort into future production pieces.

Evaluation: Advert

Britney Spears ~ Fantasy

Over the past couple of lessons we had been given the brief to create an advert for a product of our own choice within the category of perfume/ aftershave, sunglasses, an energy drink or a mobile phone. Toni Brady and I chose to advertise the perfume Brittney Spears "fantasy" as we could think of many ideas surrounding the topic of the word "fantasy".
We had been given this task in order to learn how to use "imovie" on Apple Mac's so that we could use them in later tasks. This was due to the fact it is a hard programme to use when editing filming as there is so many options to choose from, therefore we were given the time to edit our filming, play around with effects etc and produce an advert that we had to present to the rest of the class.

After a lot of thought and ideas, Toni and i came to the decision to base the advert around the word "fantasy". We were targeting an audience from the range of teens to early 30's as that is the same targeted audience as Britney Spears, the singer herself. The actress we chose for our advert was young and naturally pretty, therefore it would appeal to the audience as they would aspire towards her and therefore link it to the product. As we only had the area of the school grounds to film in due to timing limits, we decided to film in an area of trees to portray the idea of a forest from a "fantasy" which could therefore portray the actress as a princess from a fantasy as well.

When it came to planning, Toni and i then came together with both of our ideas and picked out the parts we both liked; We had both designed story boards and written ideas down as bullet points. We then had to find an actress that was idyllic, they would have to have aspirational qualities in order to appeal to the audience, therefore we used Aimee Brophey from our class. It was decided that Aimee would be walking, and spinning throughout the trees as it shows she is free, sexy and confident... the qualities every girl is longing for. The setting for our advert fitted in perfectly as it was "fantasy" like and made the actress look even more aspirational. The trees were tall, full and green, the flooring was also green with sticks and flowers which reinforced the "fantasy" idea. Then as for props we decided Aimee was to wear a flower in her hair to make her look natural and happy, which would portray her in a positive way, then also we had the perfume bottle itself. We had decided to use the music of Taylor Swift - love story as it portrays the idea of a "fantasy" as well due to it being about Romeo and Juliet.

The production process was interesting as it was fun but did have its difficult areas. We were new to using the cameras therefore were experimenting with them at the same time, baring in mind that we had knowledge on the use of a variety of camera shots such as a low angle shot makes someone look superior and a high angle makes them look inferior. Throughout the advert we used a variety of low angle shots, as well as many others to enforce the idea of Aimee being inspirational. Toni and I took a variety of different shots in order to select the best ones for our advert. Editing however was hard to judge as there were so many different effects that we could use and we didn't know which film clips to keep or delete in order to make the sequence work. In the end, we were successful in creating a good piece of advertisement as our editing was really good due to the variety of shots we used and the effects themselves. On the other hand, I was not happy with our ending, we had ran out of time therefore rushed it too much as it comes to an abrupt stop and we had not edited the music correctly so it carried on running with a blank screen. In the end, I learnt in the filming process how to use a variety of different camera shots as well as how to use certain effects while editing the sequence.

Overall, our advert was quite successful as it portrayed the idea of a "fantasy" and targeted the targeted audience in the correct ways, also our editing had been done pretty well with effects and correct timing's. however we did have weakness', our ending was far too abropt and the music carried on after the advert had finnished due to it not being edited correctly which was really disapointing. If i had the chance i would of used my time more effectively and changed the ending so that it wasnt so abrupt. our ending shot was also a picture of the perfume that we had found on the internet, it didnt fit in well at all, therefore i would of prefered to of filmed the perfume bottle myself and edit it into the sequence so that it looked more appealing.

To conclude, i have learned how to practically use a variety of different shots and camera techniques while filming and how to target my audience. I have also learned how to use "imovie" and edit filming sequences aswell as adding music. My production work however had an error with the music at the end, but i have learnt from my mistake and would know what to do in furture production work. While experimenting with "imovie" i have found many different effects and editing areas which could be useful when working on my next peice of production work.