Monday, 23 April 2012
Final OTS - WINNER DIES (Reuploaded)
Winner Dies Film Noir OTS from Abbie Hampson on Vimeo.
Reflective comments:
We had to reedit and reupload due to one of our group noticing some background noise at 0:06. It was unmissable on Vimeo however slightly disguised on iMovie, which is how we missed the mistake in the first place. However now we have noticed it, we have tried our best to edit so you can no longer hear the background noise.
Friday, 20 April 2012
Technical: Evidence: editing
Reflective comments
We have used iMovie before, and we understand how to edit footage and add music. This made the whole process a lot easier for us, as we did not have to spend time learning how to use the programme.
Technical: Evidence: creating the right lighting effect
Reflective comments:
We needed to experiment with lighting for our OTS to create the right look. We tried a number of different lights, in different places, and eventually chose one. This ended up being quite successful.
Planning: Evidence: props
Reflective comments:
In the beginning of our OTS, we needed to use a rocking chair for the doll to sit on. Fortunately, our school could provide this for us and it was available for our use. We also needed a doll to use, and a member of our group had the doll (pictured above) which we could use. These props were quite easy to acquire and were no trouble to get hold of.
Planning: Evidence: writing a script
Reflective comments
Here is photographic evidence of the script we had started to write. This was so we knew of the dialogue and stage directions in our script, and therefore we could work quickly and effectively.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Critical theory: Gender stereotypes
Normally in conventional film noirs, the women (femme fatale) are seen as:
- manipulative
- insistent
- alluring
- dangerous
- powerful
Men (anti-hero) are usually seen as:
- easily manipulated
- led into a life of crime by the femme fatale
- easily persuaded
- eager to do anything for a woman
- usually naive
This is very typical in a film noir and the conventions for these are the typical key character types in many film noirs. In our film noir, we do not have an anti-hero character. However in typical film noirs, it seems that the anti-hero character could also be seen as the victim in the film. He usually gets manipulated by the woman, who has no intention of keeping her promises, therefore has some kind of an effect of a victim. In our film we have two victims. One: the young woman who dies in the present time, playing poker with the crazy woman, and the other one who is already dead, hung up on a line as her punishment.
Our femme fatale does have some typical conventions of a usual femme fatale though, as our femme fatale is quite dangerous and powerful, and she commits a crime and gets away with it.
Focus groups audience research: Feedback
We asked for some feedback from two of the students in our class, and also our teacher.
One thing all their comments had in common was a few minor shaky parts in our filming. Although we did use a tripod for some parts of the film, there are some parts of the film done using handheld, and this is probably where the shakiness occurs. I agree with the idea that we could've improved on this by perhaps using a tripod throughout all filming.
They also commented on the fact that underneath the table of our gambling scene, there was some rubbish and things which should not have been in the frame. I also agree with this being a problem. We should've checked the scene and made sure it was all clear and looked presentable before starting our filming.
We did get positive feedback on our variety of camera shots used. We used a lot of camera shots which fit well with the conventions of film noir, making this part of our film appropriate.
The material we used in our film, such as the gambling and the flashbacks, was also conventional and we got positive feedback on that too.
According to the three people in our focus group, the lighting we used was good, however I think that there are certain scenes where our lighting could've been improved. For example during our gambling scene, I think the lighting could've been improved then.
Our continuity was considered overall good, but most of the focus group commented on the doll at the beginning of our OTS being random. We did intend for this part of the film to be mysterious, for the audience to see this as a hook and to ask questions, however perhaps we could have explained it more in the actual OTS.
The shots we used for the flashbacks were considered strong, and I agree with this.
Our sound effects matched well with the conventions and our OTS, especially at the very beginning with the creaking of the rocking chair.
If we had time, we would change the credits at the end to 'directed by' and 'produced by', and not have all the credits at the end.
One thing all their comments had in common was a few minor shaky parts in our filming. Although we did use a tripod for some parts of the film, there are some parts of the film done using handheld, and this is probably where the shakiness occurs. I agree with the idea that we could've improved on this by perhaps using a tripod throughout all filming.
They also commented on the fact that underneath the table of our gambling scene, there was some rubbish and things which should not have been in the frame. I also agree with this being a problem. We should've checked the scene and made sure it was all clear and looked presentable before starting our filming.
We did get positive feedback on our variety of camera shots used. We used a lot of camera shots which fit well with the conventions of film noir, making this part of our film appropriate.
The material we used in our film, such as the gambling and the flashbacks, was also conventional and we got positive feedback on that too.
According to the three people in our focus group, the lighting we used was good, however I think that there are certain scenes where our lighting could've been improved. For example during our gambling scene, I think the lighting could've been improved then.
Our continuity was considered overall good, but most of the focus group commented on the doll at the beginning of our OTS being random. We did intend for this part of the film to be mysterious, for the audience to see this as a hook and to ask questions, however perhaps we could have explained it more in the actual OTS.
The shots we used for the flashbacks were considered strong, and I agree with this.
Our sound effects matched well with the conventions and our OTS, especially at the very beginning with the creaking of the rocking chair.
If we had time, we would change the credits at the end to 'directed by' and 'produced by', and not have all the credits at the end.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Planning: New storyboard
We created a new storyboard with new pictures from our plan of our film. We did this so our thoughts about the film were more clear, and we could understand how we wanted the film to look and appear to the audience.
Monday, 16 April 2012
Planning: Producting meeting 03/04/12
During this production meeting we had about a week ago, we added in some music which we felt appropriate to our film noir. The music, Aubrey's Dance from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Before deciding on this track, we listened to a variety of other music and came to a decision to choose this track.
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