Shooting schedule

Here is our shooting schedule for our production:

 

 

Thriller video final cut

Potential Locations and Chosen Locations

The first location required in our production was a dressing room, this is a key area where the character Scarlett is slowly revealed to the audience, this turned out to be one of the hardest locations to find.

We first thought of using a local theatre such as Maddermarket theatre in Norwich, we rang to confirm that this was okay but a few days later they rang back telling us they were unavailable for us to film.
We finally ended up using Holly's (portrays Scarlett)  hallway to film, we styled part of the hallway to replicate an old fashioned dressing room and by using tight shots we were able to shot well.

As our thriller is a 1940s film noir it became increasingly hard to find outside locations, this is due to the 21st century shops and high number of people wearing modern day clothing. After a numerous about of locations scouting we were able to find some locations which captured the 1940s feel of our thriller, these were located in the city of Norwich.
To the left is a shot taken from Elm Hill, this location would be used to capture Scarlett walking towards her location, we believed the location had a vintage feel to it, the cobbled walkway, Tudor stylised housing and small old fashioned shops. It also had authentic lights which would allow us to create an artificial light onto our characters without appearing modern.
Although this location appears to be perfect in picture we discovered a numerous amount of problems on location, the main one being people, due to Norwich being a popular city there were a large number of shoppers and tourists walking through this area, this means it would be very difficult for us to shot. And although the benefits do out weight the cons we decided not to use this location and instead used a near by location which was a simple stone wall. An example of this can be seen on the right of this location being used in our final piece.

We also required another location similar to the one mentioned above for a shot of Scarlett walking to meet someone, we need this location to look as though it could be connected and nearby to the other.

We found an alleyway called "Little Steps" we believed this location would be good to shot in as it supplied conventions of film noir; steps, these could be used to either show are characters descent into hell or their rise up. Also the stone walls and and iron gates give an authentic old aged feel.
This area also has the old fashioned styled street lamps, which will help to create the harsh lighting needed. Unlike the other location this one had very few people walk through it which will make it a lot easier for us to shot and also quicker. The only drawback of this location is that it has modern day buildings at both entrances, one entrance comprises of a modern shop while the other a block of flats but, as we have decided to film in black and white these colourful buildings wont stand out to the viewers eye. We did decide this location had many more benefits and so decided to film part of our production here.

The final location we are going to use is Norwich City Hall, this is the location which Scarlett has been travelling to and will meet the unknown lover.
This location has a certain authenticity to about it which allows the viewer to relate it to the 1940s, it shows wealth with its overwhelming size and a sense of sophistication. It poses a large amount of enigma as to whether it is a public building or house, which will help to add to the growing amount of enigma surrounding the ending of our production.
The main disadvantage of filming here is that as it is a public building, there are a large number of people walking along the footpaths outside day and night and these people will be wearing modern day wear which, wont fit in with our film noir. We decided that this location was so naturally authentic that we had to use it, shooting here took a long time as we have to film a few seconds at a time when people weren't walking through.

Feedback from our rough cut

By asking others what they thought of our thriller, we were able to edit it to these standards.

Fonts

Shown here are examples of fonts used during the 1940's on thrillers which inspired our final choice. 

As you can see from the fonts above capitals appear in over half of the posters, I believe capitals appear harsh and gritty and although are thriller has harsh actions in it, I do not wish for capitals.

Fonts

Through research I was able to find fonts which were more desirable to our production, these appear glamorous and fit with the authenticity of our work.
I like "Riesling" this font shows old glamour which fits our production but I believe it may appear almost too glamorous and slip away from the other conventions in our piece.
"Antique book cover" may be too much of a simple font and not fit with the film noir.
"Dalmais" although this font is in capitals and as mentioned above I dont wish for capitals to be used, I thought I would try capitals with a different font and although it may fit in with our proudction I dont know if it appears too Broadway.
And finally "Upper East Side" I like this font, although it is simple it does pose a certain glamour. 

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Research and Planning: 

Our research and planning was carried out on Blogger. The site a technology relating to the media allowed us to publish our work online and also share with others. The website allowed us to easily upload written, photo and video work and edit it according to teacher comments, the use of a blog is also relevant to the media industry which allows us to broaden our knowledge.

We are also able to use many different media formats to display our work; YouTube allowed us to embed videos onto our blogs for examples of other media and we were also able to upload our productions onto YouTube which gave us a wider knowledge of the media industry, and allow us to become part of the digital citizenship.

Another example being Prezi, an alternative website which allows us to upload our work to the blog in a mind map format, this is an easy way to display different types of media contexts which are easily to read, they also show a wide range of diversity. When planning our thrillers in groups the use of prezi's allowed us to invite others to become part of the prezi and collectively work together. 

Production: 

A Canon HD camera was used to film our production. By using a HD camera we were able to give our clip a glossy finish instead of it being pix-elated, which allowed it to look a lot more professional. The use of this camera instead of the more expensive types gave us a more simplistic design when having to shot, it was easy to find our way around the device giving us a lot more time to shot. 

The camera itself was incredibly light weight which us allowed us to film for long periods of time as well as making the shots smooth and clean cut. 

With the use of the screen we were able to re watch footage on location  to know if we have to re shoot, this saved us a lot of time when it came to editing.  

With the use of an SD card we were able to transport and store footage in a light weight, small and convenient manner, giving us the ability to easy save footage and watch it back on the computers.

Post Production:

For editing we used the software Adobe Premiere Pro, this software gave us a lot of control, we were able to edit in a non linear manner which allowed us to edit at any second throughout the product, this became extremely helpful as we were always adding, removing and shrinking shots.
Other benefits of Premiere Pro are; it allowed us to colour correct any chosen shot, this came in very helpful as our shots were a mixture of light and dark due to darkness falling on location, we could also change the grading to make the clips appear authentic. Another benefit being the ability to add sound both diegetic and non diegetic, this allowed us to edit sounds in the backgroup of a certain clip allowing the production to run without distorted noises and add soundtracks to suit the mood of the clip.
A final benefit of Premiere Pro is that it can edit and finally produce the production in HD, this gives it a more professional and glossy finish. 
Throughout using this software I developed my skills from my preliminary so that I know comfortable with having to edit shots. 
Another software we used was After Effects, this was were we produced the opening graphic of our company name, this allowed us to widen our skills and produce an eye catching graphic. 

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

"They tap into our most primal fears: Fear of the dark, fear of death, fear of betrayal, fear of a loved one being harmed, fear of strangers.  And as all writers know, the only way to frighten a reader is to frighten ourselves, to draw upon our own fears." Joseph Finder.
“The way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.” Hitchcock.

Thrillers, the point of a thriller is to tap into the fears that the audience have, Hitchcock produced Psycho and The Birds, these are both prime examples.
We have used fears as a way to appeal to an audience who find themselves fascinated to watch these fears come true and not live out that fear in the real world. 
In our production we have presented both a female and male fear of having a broken marriage, once married the couple both dread the prospect of betrayal or loss, this can attract a certain type of audience who wish to escape their life to see how others react.
Females have always been presented as weak, this is a fear that many women continue to have during this era, we have projected this fear into our production with the female character being followed through the urban area by her husband. Many women still wont walk alone at night due to this fear of someone following them and them remaining defenceless.
Males fear the power that women can have over them, they like to have the upper hand, in our production by representing the wife Scarlett, as a femme fatale character we are able to lure the husband Ray, into female criminality. 
As Hitchcock and Joseph Finder we have represented both male and females fears in our production to draw them in.
As our production appeals to both males and females equally, we have used this to present both of their fears as equally terrifying and although are production is aimed at the sophisticated older generation we have presented the fear of loosing the one they love as a way to appeal to them.  

The use of narrative pleasures are used to attract an audience who enjoy a cliffhanger other examples in media being; Inception, the audience is still not sure if the character Cobb is in a dream or reality as the shot cuts off before the totem can fall. 
And also enigma, an example being, Pretty Little Liars (TV), the audience is never fully aware of who 'A' is and each episode only ends with more questions. 
In our production the character Scarlett is surrounded by enigma as the audience isn't able to see all of her face while she is getting ready, this is only amplified when her husband is shown to be following her. This is also what hooks the audience into continuing to watch the scene as they wish to find out what happens to the character. 
The ending to our scene is a fade out with the sound of a gun shot ringing in the background, as the last shot was of the Scarlett, the audience are unsure if she was the one who was shot, this leads to the thrill of the unknown and if they will ever find out what happened. 

People who prefer films for their style and aesthetic pleasures would enjoy this film due to the authentic film noir locations, props and costume, these conventions used are our main element of appealing to audiences. 
Those who enjoy traditional shots and styles would find this production appealing as would those who like the glamour and good use of mise-en-scene as well as lighting, we have edited the film into black and white so it fits with the stylised conventions. 

Locations used were those we thought would fit in with the conventions of film noir to appeal to those who enjoy stylish and glamours films, the shot on the right shows our classic replica of a 1940's location. The church on the left gives the shot a feel of old and traditional, the artificial lighting produces harsh light over the characters and surrounding area, all of these elements combined could appeal to audiences who wish to watch films for escapism.

We have created a glamorous character who would appeal to sophisticated audiences. As seen on the right.

Q2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our production would be more suited to an independent company in Europe, this would appeal to our niche audience.

Films with similar conventions to ours such as LA Confidential were distributed by Warner Bros, this is high end distributor while distributes box office films such as; The Hobbit, The Dark Knight Rises and Harry Potter, our film can't be placed with those.

The production company of our production would be best suited to be Working Title, they produce a wide range of films, some of these being independent features which don't become major box office hits such as; Senna and Anna Karenina, these are also very different films which show that Working Title produce a wide variety of film. A list of Working Titles most recent productions can be seen to the right.

StudioCanal who distribute many of Working Title's films around Europe would be best for our production.
Studio Canal bought Optimum, since doing so they have dominated the UK independent film industry by distributing their large back catalogue of classic British films through Optimum. This would then allow our production to be viewed by a large number of British audiences.
A list of there most recent distributions can be seen on the right.
                                                                 

Cinema city would exhibit our production as it is aimed at an independent audience and Cinema City is an upmarket/art house cinema which provides audiences with Green and Blacks chocolate, tea and wine, these are more catered to our sophisticated audience.
Currently playing at Cinema City; Alois Nebel, Argo and Arbitrage, all of these aren't playing at multiplex cinemas such as Vue due to their independence, our production would fit in with these.

Digital technologies such as Mubi can allow online users to watch our film, Mubi provides independent and old films to subscribers, this could also allow our film to be opened up to a whole new audience, I believe Video-On-Demand would be the best digital technology to distribute our production, this includes LoveFilm.
On the 28th September 2011 StudioCanal  made a deal to have their films made available on LoveFilm on their subscription at no extra coast, this shows that StudioCanal are aware of this new digitalisation and that large numbers of people are now turning to home cinema. This also means that StudioCanal may be making more deals or buying or creating their own company to stream their films to homes over the country.

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The convention of film noir thoroughly conformed to throughout our production is mise-en-scene, locations were critical throughout the making to make sure we provided the correct atmosphere for viewers. Research into other noirs was made to provide us with ideas to create an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere, which was needed for the production.

One example taken from other noirs is ‘Scarlet Street,’ this 1945 classic showed mise-en-scene which provided the tense atmosphere we needed.

The character Scarlett is seen to be leaning against a lamppost, the use of  artificial light here provides a spotlight to be illuminating the character to the audience.

We were able to select locations very similar, as our protagonist walks towards her location, she passes through a number of conventional noir locations, this includes the staircase which can symbolise either her rise up or fall.

Another example is the use of black and white and large buildings, the large buildings give a vast sense of emptiness, an example of this is from ‘Casino Royale,' although Casino Royale isn't a classic film noir, it still uses many conventions of a typical film noir.The lighting is able to give the building a sense a foreboding, we were able to replicate this, to make the viewers worried for Scarlett as she waited outside the large building. 

The black and white gives the film a sense of old age, it can also help to set the mood of a film straight away, after watching the opening to 'Casino Royale' we decided this was the best way to go with our production. It also provides an old age glamour that cannot be achieved in colour. 

The use of shadows, a convention we tried to input throughout our production, towards the end of our opening we showed the shadow of Scarlett running up the stairs, this shows two conventions. (shadow and stairs)

An example of a shadow being used is shown to the left in, 'The Killers' a noir heavily influenced by German expressionism, in this case it may appear as if the character has two personalties due to the shadow. 

Shadows are used in a variety of ways, the main one to add enigma to the setting or character. 

As you can see our use of shadow provided the scene with a lot more enigma resulting in the viewer becoming suspenseful and on edge, Scarlett appears to be running up the staircase off camera to the left, this allows the viewer to be aware she is there without having her on camera. This conforms to the thriller genre as being one of the main conventions to frighten and inform. Scarlett's shadow appears to be disorientated against the staircase, this provides viewers with the feeling she is rushing to escape or meet someone, it could also symbolise the confusion and complexity of the character and her feelings.
We have also captured this shot at an angle as it adds to the emphasis we are trying to place on this distorted character by making the shot itself appear disorientating. 

When showing the character Scarlett getting ready, there is a shot of her reflection in the mirror applying lipstick, this shot supplies another reflection of her to the right due to angle used, this gives the audience the idea of two faces, the good and the bad which can be translated into a fragmented personality, the fragile wife and the glamorous, fatale femme fatale.  

Our protagonist Scarlett is based upon the character Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes love interest in the 2009 film) 

When watching the film viewers sympathise for the character and find her glamorous and delicate, as time goes on it becomes apparent that she is the femme fatale character who uses seduction to get what she wants and isn't entirely bothered by the consequences. this is also how we wanted the character Scarlett to appear, by having most of the opening scene showing Scarlett applying make-up and preparing to leave, the viewers find her beautiful and are drawn to her. The action of removing her wedding ring and placing it in the jewellery box forces the viewer to believe that she may not be so delicate and like Irene, she is a femme fatale. 

 We also replicated the use of the hat from the character Irene, it can be 

portrayed in two ways, to add to the femininity of the character or to create moral ambiguity by covering up a portion of the characters face, both of these are conventions used in film noir, so by adding the hat to the character Scarlett we created a larger enigma.  

Moral ambiguity is a crucial convention of film noir through the use of lighting, half of the characters face is bathed in light while the other is in darkness, this represents inner conflicts. In 'Casino Royale' the first time the viewer sees James Bond is through moral ambiguity, this makes viewers confused as to whether he is on the side of good or bad. 

We decided to use this idea for the first shot the viewers get of the character Ray, the use of darkness represents his inner conflict, the love for his wife vs. hurting his wife due to her actions. The light reflecting on him gives the idea that he was once a good man and deeply in love with his wife but due to recent actions, the darkness has overshadowed those feelings.              

The viewer is led to believe that Scarlett is someone of great wealth, this can be shown in her clothes and her house, the image on the left shows her leaving her house, this classic Victorian 4 story town house is only shot for a few seconds but gives the viewers enough time to take in her home environment and wealth, she is also wearing a fur coat and a long lace dress. 

A convention of the thriller genre isn't usually corruption in the upper class but, in the film noir context this is much more common.

An example of corruption in the upper class is in 'Layer cake,' set in a high end London town house, Daniel Craig's character appears entirely normal but he is secretly a drug dealer, ideas of corruption in high society were taken from this.  

  

The soundtrack used throughout our production isn't one which is typical of a film noir, this challenges the usual conventions. Although it is different, I believe it works with our production as the fast paced sound creates the build up we wish to make to her meeting with her secret lover.
Our production shown below can demonstrate the soundtrack we used.

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

User Ratings

From the data collected above, I can see that LA Confidential that the film was rated similarly with both genders and ages throughout, although the highest rating was with males under 18 scoring 8.8. This shows that this film is aimed more at males, this may due to the female character.
Where as Black Dahlia scored highest with both females and males aged 18-29 at 5.7, this shows that like our film it is has an audience both equally male and female.

Actors

Establishing what actors we needed to use appeared as a complication to being with as there wasn't a male in our group and we needed someone to play the role of Ray, the silent character who follows his wife in the streets.
In our group Holly voulenteered to play the role of Scarlett, this was practical as she owned a red lace dress which was required for costume. Also, she is shorter than the people in the rest of the group which can make her appear even smaller than the daunting character Ray.
As mentioned earlier, Ray was difficult to find but one of Holly's friends, Tom Battell, offered to play the role. As he went to a different school, it was hard to outline a time that we could all film the production together, which resulted in a small time slot to film. In the end we did manage to get all thr required footage.

Thriller video - Rough cut

The rough cut displays that through the use of transitions we were able to make the production flow without being too fragmented, this was shown from 1:41 to 1:55.
I'm pleased with the amount of shot types, for example at 0:13, the angle allows the characters personality to be portrayed. and the tilt shots used at 1:20.
I believe the final piece should be in black and white due to some shots having bad lighting, this will allow this problem to be minimalized, and it will fit in more with the conventions of a film noir thriller.
I also think that the ending shot should be changed because it doesn't fit in with the music and the tension that surrounds the rest of the thriller.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Q7 by

Storyboard

Characters, Costumes and Props

Scarlett and Ray

Ray will be portrayed by: Tom Battell
Scarlett will be portrayed by: Holly Duffield

If thrillers were a tube map

The picture above represent key themes of conventions of film noir linking themes as a tube map. Providing the information this way allows the reader to pick out information easily and see which films have the same features. Examples above are; venetian blinds, detectives, voice over and femme fatale.

What features of film noir do we see in L.A. noire?

L.A. Noire, a video game released in 2011 set in Los Angeles during 1947, uses many features of film noir that can be seen in films such as 'LA confidential' and 'Chinatown'.

The player will become the role of detective Cole Phelps who works his way through different police departments such as, homicide, solving cases. A detective is seen as one of the main characters used throughout film noir, an example of this is in the 1941 'The Maltese Falcon'. He is easily distinguished as a detective by his outfit, Cole Phelps is seen to be wearing a suit and hat in dark colours, he and other characters are also seen to be smoking, this is major prop used by both male and female in film noir.


 L.A. Noire is set in an urban setting, these are more notorious for crime than rural areas, the city appears to be very dark with many elongated shadows, this adds enigma to the game and was also used in 'The Third Man'. While the character is driving around the city, film noir films are seen to be advertised on the outside of cinemas, this advertises to gamers the film noir style.
A voiceover is used to explain a scenario, character or location while this isn't being used, expressionist jazz music is being played, a voiceover is used in film noir as it is able to describe the situation a lot more effectively.

Once a case started more features were provided, the font appeared in an old style and at an angle, this fitted in with the time period of 1947. The landscape as mentioned above, appeared but at night time providing more shadows and the city appeared dirtier.
The detective and his companion are using a torch to look for clues on one of the scenes, this only reveals part of the scene, this was used in 'The Third Man'. The camera is always seen to always be moving and using a lot of different angles, this is typical of a film noir. An example can be seen on the right.