SCRIPT FOR OUR FILM NOIR

Below are screen caps of our script for the opening scene. It was created by me using a program called Celtx, as this provides a handy and easy to use template for script writers. This was just a rough guide for our actors and on the day we found it worked better if Eve said less during the final scene. However, the rest of the scenes remained pretty much the same.

 

GROUP TREATMENT

The opening sequence will begin with a black screen. The ambient sounds of a restaurant will be heard and then Al will speak over it. The speech will give the impression of being diegetic, as it will fit in with the restaurant noises and sound as if it is part of a conversation. This will create an immediate enigma as the viewer is thrown straight into a situation but cannot actually see what is happening since the sound is contrapuntal. The scene will then change to a low angle point-of-view shot of a dirty room. The location is dark, secluded and quiet. Cutting suddenly from the black screen to this will shock the audience, as the room will not be pleasant to look at. The only sound will be diegetic, this will be the character breathing heavily to create a sense of danger. There will then be a cut in which will be a close up shot of Al’s hands tied up with rope. There will be blood on his hands, showing he has clearly been involved in a struggle. The diegetic heavy breathing will continue. The shot will then change again to a big close up of Al’s eyes as he tries to keep conscious. His eyes will be opening and closing, and later in editing we will make it so the image fades in and out in order to really exaggerate his struggle. Again, diegetic heavy breathing will be the only sound. The lighting for this shot and all the others win the abandoned house will be very dark and there will be a lot of shadows. This will really accentuate the horrible location, making the viewer feel very sorry for Al. The colours will be quite dull and dark, also adding to this feeling. These three shots will be quite fast, as they don’t contain much detail. Their main purpose is to let the audience know that this character is in trouble. The shot will completely fade out to lead onto a flashback, which will take place at a well-lit restaurant. The whole feel of this scene will contrast strongly with the scenes in the abandoned house, showing that this was a much happier time. It will be a mid shot of Al and Eve sitting at a table, they will be framed well in shot as they will both be on vertical thirds. They will both have drinks and the male character will be anxiously playing with his glass. The female character will be dressed in a sophisticated way, giving her the air of a confident femme fatale. The shot will not be very long, but it has to be long enough for the audience to grasp what is happening. The next shot will be back in the abandoned house so the lighting will go back to being very dark and shadowy. It will be a long shot, showing Al tied up on one side and Seth emerging from the shadows, later followed by Eve on the other side. This will establish to the audience everyone who is involved in Al’s situation. The actors will be framed on thirds on either side of the shot, in order to get the best composition possible. Half way through the shot we will begin to hear sirens, which will be diegetic, although we will have to add them in the editing. As well at this, the characters will be talking, which is also diegetic sound. After Eve and Seth depart, the final scene will be a close up of Al’s face as the sirens get louder and louder. We will be able to clearly see his is terrified. The noise will be diegetic, this will be the sirens and his breathing. This scene will be very short, and will just give the audience a hint of his feelings at the time. Then we will cut to the titles, which will mark the end of the opening sequence.

Overall the editing for our opening sequence will be quite quick and choppy to accentuate the danger Al is in (excluding the restaurant scene). The pace will be fast as we want to get all our shot in the allocated time, but they will have to be slow enough that the audience can grasp what is happening. We will only be using two locations, but they will be complete opposites. The abandoned house will be dark, eerie and make the viewer uncomfortable, whilst the restaurant will be light, friendly and make the viewer feel more at ease. The two locations will juxtapose each other in order to keep the viewer alert and on the edge of their seat as we switch between the two. Our characters are quite classic noir characters so we will be dressing them in that sort of style. For example Eve will be wearing a dress and heels in order to give the femme fatale feel. Since Al will have been through a rough time he won’t look as pristine as Eve, and in the abandoned house scenes he will have fake blood on him in order to enhance this. As well as fake blood we will need rope to tie his hands with, drinks for the restaurant scene and sugar to represent the drug Eve puts in Al’s drink. The majority of our sound will be diegetic, however, we will find an appropriate song to put with the titles, as these silent would be quite uninteresting to the viewer. This will be the only non-diegetic sound in our opening.

Our opening will be targeted at 15-25 year olds mainly as we are going for a 15 rating. We would probably be looking at males more than females, as males are more interested in the crime thriller genre. In terms of stylistics, our opening will be slick and fast, keeping the viewer entertained. Although there are signs of violence in terms of Al having blood all over his face, this is only suggested and not shown meaning it is still age appropriate. This is also something that was quite common in classic noir films, which ties in with our contemporary noir feel. We would want our film to be shown in places where our target audience can see it, so this would most likely be in cinemas nationwide. This would also mean it could reach out to any cinema going who just happened to be looking for a film to see and took a liking to it.

SYNOPSIS FOR OUR GROUP FILM NOIR

Our aim is to create the introduction to a neo-noir film, which will be around two minutes long. We will do this in a group of three, made up of myself, Dianne Hamilton and Courtney Smith. I will be working as the producer, Dianne will be the art director and Courtney the director. Dianne and Courtney will also feature in the film as actors, as well as another male who is yet to be decided.

Our film is based around a diamond. The female lead in our film, Eve, played by Dianne, desperately wants this diamond so concocts a clever plan to get it. She is the typical femme fatale, and uses men to get exactly what she wants. She happens upon the slightly downtrodden male lead, Al, played by Courtney. She begins a relationship with him, leading him to believe she loves him. Once he is under her spell, she persuades him to steal the diamond. However, although Al is in love with this woman, he suspects something of her. After a while he realises what he has done is wrong and tries to take the diamond back. He tells Eve this, meaning to save herself she must take drastic action as her fingerprints are all over the diamond as well as Al’s. She enlists the help of her lover, Seth, who she has been secretly seeing the whole time she has been with Al. She arranges to meet Al in a restaurant, where she tries to persuade him to keep the diamond. Again, he refuses, so she drugs him. With the help of Seth, she abducts Al and takes him to an abandoned house. She ties him up and taunts him, leading him to discover she never loved him and was with someone else the whole time. Unbeknown to the audience, Eve has called the police on him, and she reveals this when we hear sirens in the distance. She has given them information that links him to the crime, enough for them to be able to arrest and charge him. She then leaves Al tied up waiting to be found by the police, running away with the diamond, and Seth in tow.

However, as I have previously mentioned, we will be making only the introduction to the film. As our film is a neo noir, in true noir style we will have the end of the story at the beginning of the film and then the story will be told in flash backs. The opening scene will begin with a completely black screen with Al’s voice saying he wants to take the diamond back. We will then see Al tied up in the house, drifting in and out of consciousness. There is then a flashback of him and the Eve in the restaurant, and we see her spike his drink. It then goes back to the abandoned house where she reveals herself and speaks briefly before disappearing with Seth at the sound of the sirens.

The target audience for our film would be 15-25 year olds, as we would hope to market the film as a 15 rating. We believe it would be most appealing to young people as they are the sorts of people who really go for action and crime thrillers. It would also probably be more popular with males, although females could enjoy it too. This is because there would be a lot of action and some violence in the film.

EVALUATION OF THE EXCHANGE

For 'The Exchange' exercise I worked in a group of four consisting of myself, Dianne Hamilton, Kirsten Day and Courtney Smith. We each has responsibilities for the exercise; Dianne and Courtney were to be doing the acting so in scenes including both of them Kirsten and I shared the filming duties. In scenes where it was just one of the, the other actor would film it in order for everyone to get a chance to film. We all helped out with the costumes and props, bringing in different things that we knew would help with the Mise-en-Scene. I feel I made a good contribution to the group, and although I struggled a little with the zoom on the camera I think I did well.

Before being able to start shooting we had to fill out all the pre-production sheets. We had to first come up with a synopsis, treatment and storyboard which we did as a group. Dianne drew up the storyboard as she is the most artistic out of all of us. We then filled out location and H&S sheets together, making sure everyone agreed with what was being put down. We worked very well as a group because everyone gave each other time to speak and share ideas.

Our exercise itself came out quite well, and our feedback and critique was quite positive when we screened it to the rest of the class. We used good framing the whole way through and stuck by the 180 degree line rule. Our technical production values were on the whole quite good, however there was one seen where there was a double zoom giving a jerky effect which weakened the piece slightly. It would have been fine if our whole exercise had been filmed in a jerky and uncomfortable way, but the rest of it was quite smooth so this mistake really stood out. I was the one who filmed this shot, meaning that the mistake was mine. What went wrong was the zoom on the camera is quite sensitive and it is hard to get a perfect zoom without it at some point speeding up or slowing down. I also had to try and catch up with the actors, meaning I panicked and clearly messed up. We watched all the footage before we left the location but obviously didn't pick up on it at the time, if we had we could have re-shot this part in order to make the whole piece a lot cleaner. Apart from that, our technical factors were considered very good. The piece was described as 'simple, but well done' and someone said 'less is more' in this case. The only editing issue was some people thought the scene where Dianne is walking up to Courtney was too long, we had already broken it up into two parts but people still thought it was a little slow compared to the rest of the exercise. They did like the cross cutting we used to break it up thought. They also thought the high contrast black and white effect we added in the editing worked quite well.

In terms of stylistic factors, we got good feedback. Our piece used slower camera work, and a tilt up of Courtney that was quite Film Noir and the class voted yes to the question of ours looking like a Film Noir/Thriller. The Mise-En-Scene was good because we tried hard with costumes, making Courtney look shady and Di like a femme fatale. The location was good, especially with the frozen icicles and the billowing smoke. We chose a royalty free song from the internet which was a slow, jazzy through back to Film Noir. Someone said this could have been a little bit more dramatic when the handover happened, but apart from that it was good and fitted with the piece well. We had quite clear narrative, although there was no close up of the handover so no one actually knew what was being passed from Courtney to Dianne. We story-boarded a close up, but must have missed it out on the day.

Overall, I am really proud of our Exchange piece, even with the jerky zoom. I think our stylistics were spot on and we had minimal mistakes. The only thing I would have done better, looking back, was shooting a few more shots so we would have had more to work with in the edit.

BREIF FOR THE EXCHANGE

In order to further test and develop our skills using camera equipment we had to produce a shot sequence named 'The Exchange'. It was to be in the style of a film thriller and involve one character exchanging an important item with another character. It had to have no more than 12 shots with no dialogue. Music and titles were to we added in the edit.

As with our last task, there were some pre-production things to be done. We had to script a synopsis, create a treatment and storyboard it. As a group of four, we had to fill out location and H&S sheets. There were also post-production tasks, mainly consisting of editing the piece and finding appropriate, copyright free music. The final sequences are to be screened to the class and evaluated following their comments. My personal evaluation of my group's piece will be posted on this blog.

IDEA FOR A CONTEMPORARY NOIR

Rough synopsis: As a college student, the hero has not much on his mind but girls and A levels. One day he is smiled at by a girl, who then approaches him as he leaves college. She asks him out for a coffee, and he agrees. They begin talking, and soon start a relationship. He thinks he has hit the top, but one rainy night she comes to his house late at night. She is crying, soaking wet and covered in dirt. He invites her in, worried and she begs him to hide something for her. He is wary at first, but she convinces him and eventually they sleep together. He then decides that anything is worth it for her, and doesn’t question what she has hidden in his house. Life goes on as usual for a few days, but suddenly the girl stops talking to the boy. He sees her around with another guy, and begins to get jealous. He remembers the package she hid, and opens it one night when he is home alone. He finds lots of packets of £20 notes. He gets worried, and there is a knock at the door. He opens the door and two men are standing there with their faces in shadow. They grab him and he is forced into a van. He is gagged and bound, and the doors are closed behind him. He feels the van move, and rolls into something hard but blacks out. When he comes around, the van doors are open slightly and light in shining through. He notices he is amongst two other young men. The doors are pulled open and all the men are dragged into a garage. They are then interrogated, and it is revealed that the money belongs to a rich man that the girl had wronged. She stole the money from him to help her family, who were suffering due to excessive government spending cuts. She was meant to be babysitting his children, but took it upon herself to earn money by stealing it from him instead. It turns out that the other men that were also tied up in the van are people who the girl used to hide the cash with. The total amount is shared amongst all three boys. They are tied up, and then the girl is brought in. She is forced to explain to them what is happening, at gunpoint. She is asked where the money is, and says it is at the boy’s house. The truth is it is spread equally, but she lied to save two lives. Or so she thinks. The other two boys are taken away, and their houses are searched. The girl and boy are left in the garage and the opening scene plays out. When he comes to, he wakes up to a gun by his head. The girl is holding it, and by her legs is one of the men who had captured them earlier. She says she has it all planned out. She’s going to run away, but she can’t leave any evidence behind. She unties him and he thinks she is going to make him leave with her. Instead, she shoots the boy, but fails to kill him. She drops the gun in shock, and slides to the floor in tears. She buries her head in her hands and the boy grabs the gun. She looks up and realises what is going on, a look of fear appears on her face as she is shot in the heart. He runs out of the garage and collapses on the floor outside.

Rough idea for the opening sequence: The opening sequence would start as many Film Noirs do, with the end at the beginning. The main character will be gagged and tied up in a dimly lit garage. He will talk about his situation using voice over narration, giving an insight into the storyline. The audience will then view the story from the start, with an introduction to the main character, his friends and the femme fetale. The audience sees that the main character goes to college, and the relationship between the main character and the femme fetale is set up.

EVALUATION OF THE PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

For the preliminary exercise we worked in a group of three. I worked with Dianne Hamilton and Kirsten Day. In order to be sure there were enough people to act and film we teamed up with another group, who acted for us. In return, we did acting for their exercise.

Before we could even begin filming we had to create a storyboard and a script. We all created individual storyboards and then compared them. As a group we planned a final storyboard which detailed what each shot would be and the camera angles. We then drew up a rough script which consisted of a simple conversation relating to what the characters were doing that evening. This meant that it did not take away from the filming techniques we were trying to show. Once this had all been sorted we had to collect our equipment and set it up correctly. We were using a camera, tripod and microphone in order to capture the sound of our actors talking. There were a lot of wires involved so we carried the equipment together to avoid anyone tripping over anything. Once everything was set up we began filming. In order to make sure everyone had a fair shot at filming we each did two shots and then swapped over. Whilst one person was filming, the other would hold the microphone and the other would note down the shot timings. This was really helpful when it came to editing because we knew exactly where the shots were on the tape and which ones we wanted to use. When it came down to editing we took turns and each had input. This meant that by the time it comes to editing our final piece we will all know how to do everything involved and can identify out strengths and weaknesses in order to work more productively as a group. As a whole I think we did really well, and each helped each other to succeed. I feel I learnt a lot and so did the others in my group. In terms of skills, I learnt how to use an external microphone which I'd never used before. I also learnt how to edit in Final Cut Pro I think I did quite well with the new skills, and didn't really struggle.

Focusing more on the actual exercise, the technical quality is quite good. However, there are a few mistakes. During the first part we were shooting in a corridor and because of the amount of equipment and people we were quite restricted with space. This meant that when the actor reaches the door their head gets cut off. This was somewhat unavoidable, so it would have been nicer to have used a wider corridor or different setting. Once we were inside the room we had a lot more space so the shots in the room are much better. However, as the actor sits down he lets out a little laugh. The exercise would have looked a lot better if we had re-shot that, as it looks somewhat unprofessional. The sound is good and even throughout, however there is a small blip around 24 seconds where we clearly left the shot too long. This was something that went wrong in the editing process and we clearly missed when reviewing the final exercise. In future, I would want to pay much more attention to the sound to be sure things like this don't happen. I also think it is a little jumpy during the conversation, there seem to be a lot of shots for such a short amount of time. I think we were trying to show all the shots we could do, but in future should probably stretch them over more time. The conversation was quite fast, and we should have probably asked the actors to talk a little slower. However, I feel the composition is quite good and the actors are framed well in the shots. The mise-en-scene was good as the actors look like college students and it is clear they are in a college environment. The narrative works well as it is clear they are friends talking about their plans for later on. We didn't really have a genre for this as it was just a simple exercise. Also, it was not screened to an audience so we do not have any audience feed back. Due to the fact it was essentially a warm up exercise the point of it was more to practice and enhance our skills, not to please others. I feel our ideas came across well and we followed our original storyboard. We also showed examples of the 180 degree line rule and made sure the actors eye contact lined up to make it look like a realistic conversation.

Overall, I am quite pleased with out preliminary exercise and think we did really well for a first try. There are obviously mistakes and things we could have fixed, but some of these we only found after completing the exercise. The only different thing I think we could have done would have been to use less shots, and slow things down a little to make it look calmer and less sudden. I think the text at the beginning is a little long too, especially since the exercise is quite short. Apart from that, I am quite proud of what we achieved and think our group worked really well.