Continuity Task

Research into Focus Groups

Researching Music

As neither me nor Sophie are very musical and we don't really know anyone to ask who would be able to create a piece of music for us, we have decided to look around online for some pieces and we will ask the owner for permission to use them in our opening scene so that it is not classed as copyright.

Sophie was allocated to carry out this task and if you click here you can see her post on it.

I will be listening to the pieces of music that she has found later on tonight as we can not listen to them at school because the school has blocked the sites. From there, we will decide on what we like and then we will ask the owner for their permission. We have decided where we would want music to be in the background of.

Cinematography

Cinematography from emlouiise

Animatics vs. Storyboard

Animatic vs Storyboards from emlouiise

The main reason why me and Sophie chose to do an animatic over a storyboard is because neither of us are particularly that good at drawing, due to this we thought it would look better and be clearer to understand if we made an animatic storyboard instead.

Example of an animatic:

Example of a storyboard:

Continuity Task

Night stab from Cal Ives-Keeler on Vimeo.

In the continuity task we struggled again with timing which explains why we do not have any sound or transitions, because we did not have time to add them in once we'd put it together. In our group was me, Sophie, Cal, Elliott and Ruby. Cal was the cameraman, I was the director, Ruby and Elliott were the actors and Sophie helped me with where they should be and what they should be doing.

Editing techniques in film noir

IMG 5030[1] from Emily Smith on Vimeo.

Experimenting with Foleying

After doing some research with foleying, me and Sophie have decided to experiment with foleying for possible noises for our opening scene for Silent Temptation.

Here we are experimenting creating footsteps:
















The recording of the footsteps noises that we made while foleying:

I am wearing heels while recording this because I will be wearing heels in the actual scene of filming, this way we can make it sound as realistic as possible.

Here we are experimenting creating heavy breathing:











The recording of the heavy breathing noises that we made while foleying:

For the heavy breathing noises I made sure that I'd done quite a bit of running beforehand of recording it, this way it sounds more natural than if I hadn't.

Foleying Research

Miss Humpleby has posted a bit about foleying onto her blog, and after reading into it me and Sophie are considering doing it. We;re not 100% sure that we will include in our final edit of the opening scene to our film noir, but we may play around with it anyway just in case. If we choose not to include any foleying into our final edit, then FindSounds will be helpful.

Research on foleying:

Neo Noir

Typical Film Noir characters

Typical femme fatale

A woman of great seductive charm who leads men into compromising or dangerous situations and an alluring, mysterious woman. There is a sexual attraction between her and the anti-hero, however he is more obsessed with her than she is for him, this usually what leads to both of them being punished in some way. The femme fatale most often dies. They are usually trapped in an abusive relationship, most likely with the villain, and their life is tragic, they see the anti-hero as their escape from this for a better life. 

Typical anti-hero

The anti-hero is a leading character in a film, book or play who lacks some or all of the traditional heroic qualities, such as altruism, idealism, courage, nobility, fortitude, and moral goodness. He usually has some kind of flaw, but manages to attract the femme fatale of the film, however he falls for her more than she does for him which usually leads to a heartbreaking end when she dies. Usually working-class, being working-class ad ordinary he is someone the male target audience can relate to or wish to be like him, he is an 'everyman'. He has a checkered, messed up past. 

Typical villain from film noir

The villain is quite often psychotic and detached in some way. He sometimes is in love with the femme fatale, and as soon as he is worried or gets wind of her leaving him he is determined that no one can have her, especially not the anti-hero so he decides to punish them both, he ends ups killing the femme fatale. These villains are not your usual villains, they are two dimensional and are just plain, black and white nasty.

Sometimes there is a supporting character, often known as the Girl Next Door, who offers a conventional and domestic portrayal of what women should be like. She usually helps the anti-hero investigate and work out where the femme fatale has gone and how she died, she sometimes ends up in a relationship with the anti-hero which is better and more genuine for him.

Identifying the conventions of film noir

Film noir codes & conventions from jonsaward

This slideshow highlights the basic conventions of a film noir, but after looking through it I have gone into more depth as to why some of them are the key conventions.

Low key lighting and the use of venetian blinds - this is to show the contrast of dark and light, which represents that there is a bit of darkness and light in everyone.
Everyday urban locations - urban locations are used because they are cities, cities always have lots of different people there which means there is usually lots of crimes there; people find it more scary and intimidating to walk about cities at night because they are more likely to be hurt or get attacked in a dark city by themselves.
Sound - this is important for film noir because there is always, usually a  romance between the femme fatale and anti-hero and music plays in the background to reflect seduction and romance. Heavy breathing and footsteps build up tension, because you know someone is running because they are scared and afraid because if they stop they will be attacked. Voice over of protagonist, so the audience understand and know who the lead character is and who's perspective they are watching it from. 

Analysing the opening scenes of Sin City and Double Idemnity

Double Idemnity

Sin City

Research: Textual Analysis

The writing in bold is a quote in one of
the reviews about Double Idemnity on
imdb.com

Double Idemnity (1944)

1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/

• The blonde wig that Barbara Stanwyck is wearing throughout the movie was the idea of Billy Wilder. A month into shooting Wilder suddenly realized how bad it looked, but by then it was too late to re-shoot the earlier scenes. To rationalize this mistake, in later interviews Wilder claimed that the bad-looking wig was intentional.
• The door to Neff's apartment opens away from, rather than toward, the apartment. This was a violation of the Los Angeles Fire Code.
• [first lines] Building attendant: Well, hello there, Mr. Neff.
• Referenced in The 55th Annual Academy Awards (1983)
• Bill Wilder also directed films such as, Some Like It Hot (1959), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Apartment (1960).

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(film)

• James M. Cain based his novella on a 1927 murder perpetrated by a married Queens, New York woman and her lover whose trial he attended while working as a journalist in New York.
• An immediate hit with audiences despite a campaign by singer Kate Smith imploring the public to stay away on moral grounds.
• Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Oscars, but did not win any.
• Double Indemnity was adapted as a radio play on two broadcasts.
• In 1945, Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the B movie studios of Hollywood’s Poverty Row, was set to release a blatant rip-off titled Single Indemnity starring Ann Savage and Hugh Beaumont. Paramount quickly slapped an injunction on the cut-rate potboiler that remains in force to this day. PRC eventually edited its film down to 67 minutes, re-titled it Apology for Murder, and sold it to television in the early 50s as part of a syndicated half-hour mystery show.

Our analysis of Double Idemnity

Understanding audiences

Above are the different types of audiences that you come across.

Understanding narrative theory as linked to genre

What is the difference between niche and mainstream?
Mainstream is often termed as 'broadcast audience' who consume popular texts, such as soaps or sitcoms, and a niche audience is much smaller but influential. Examples of a mainstream audience; friends, TopGear, 'heat' magazine and 'Guardian' newspaper. Examples of a niche audience; 'All Out Cricket', 'Birds', 'RaceCar'. The difference between these two audiences is that the mainstream targets a very large group of different people, while the niche target a smaller group of people with a unique interest.

Media Audiences an Introduction from alevelmedia

Propp theory
Vladimir Propp was a critic in the 1920s, he was essentially interested in the narrative of folk tales. He noticed that folk tales were similar in many areas, and that they were about the basic struggles and appeared to have stock characters. Characters have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text:

• The Hero - the character that seeks something
• The Villain - who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest
• The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties
• The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
• The False Hero - who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims
• The Helper - who aids the hero
• The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain's plots
• Her Father - who acts to reward the hero for his effort

Examples of this theory: 'The Dark Knight', 'The Dispatcher', 'Avengers Assemble', 'Batman and Robin', 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Batman Begins', 'Spiderman'.

Todorov theory

Izetan Todorov was a structuralist linguist, he suggested that stories began with an equilibrium or status quo where any potential differences are in balance. This is then disrupted by some event, which sets the chain of events, the problems are then solved so that order can be restored into the world of fiction. He suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages: 

1. A state of equilibrium at the outset
2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Levi Strauss theory

Claude Levi Strauss studied hundreds of myths an legends, he found out that we as humans make sense of the world through people and events by seeing and using binary opposites, he found out narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites.

Examples of binary opposites:

• Good vs Evil
• Black vs White 
• Boy vs Girl
• Peace vs War
• Civilised vs Savage
• Democracy vs Dictatorship
• Young vs Old
• Man vs Nature

Genre

Conventions of Film Noir - Psycho

• Psycho has a piece of music that is used all the way throughout the film but is mainly recognised for the iconic shower scene, in Film Noir the music is mainly string based e.g. violins.
• Filmed in black and white, the limited colour range makes it feel more sophisticated, but creates a more tense atmosphere when it comes to crime scenes and the killing of the femme fatale.
• Mainly set in a less likely city of choice, this could be to make the film more disorientating as its not a well-known city, for example the city in Psycho is Phoenix, Arizona.
• Sex is usually featured in Film Noir's.
• A murder.
• There is always a femme fatale who is usually the one who has the sex scene and who gets murdered. Also, they usually have dreams that have not been achieved but are what drives them, for example the Femme Fatale in Psycho wishes to get married to the man she is cheating with and to settle down instead of having to cheat with another woman's husband.
• The man she's cheating with has money and is a liar, e.g. says he wants to get married to her.

• Everyone always have cigarettes and alcohol.
• The femme fatale has an idea which may help her to have her dream but it involves doing something wrong that will get her into trouble.
• There is something that interrupts her plan.
• Always filmed with low lighting to create a dark atmosphere.
• The narrative is typical Film Noir, the audience know the basic outline of what will happen, there will be a crime, the anti-hero and femme fatale will fall in love and the femme fatale will die. Film Noir audiences like knowing what's likely to happen, yet they don't know how it's going to happen and this is what entices them.
• Psycho has the famous shower scene with the violin piece of music in the background to go with it. This has affected a lot of films that have come after it and that are being made in the present time, it has given some films ideas for other iconic murder scenes with their own branded background music to go with it, however the idea has been inspired from watching Psycho's famous shower scene.
• The film fits the experience of what a Film Noir audience are looking for, it has all the key conventions of a typical Film Noir.

Review of the Sweded film we watched in class

My group and I have not got round to finishing and uploading our Sweded films yet but it should be completed shortly. In our last media lesson we watched some other groups Sweded films and from watching these I learnt that:

• It doesn't need to look/be perfect; just a rough, quick 4 minute video, shots/scenes could be shot once and that's the copy which will be used.
• Planning and explaining any mistakes or things you had to learn while making your Sweded films must be posted to your blog to earn more marks.
• The title of the film should be shown in the Sweded film.

After watching these Sweded films and seeing that they don't have to be absolutely perfect before they are uploaded to our blogs because we can upload them and change, edit or add something to them at any point if we state that we have done so. I am also feeling more confident with my groups Sweded film and am hoping to have it complete or as much as we cand do up on our blogs soon.

The other groups sweded films that we watched were:

1. Sam S, Sam B, Chris and Georgia's - Sweded Ted

http://asmediastudiessamshepherd2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/sweded-film.html

    2. Courtney's - Sweded Les Miserables
http://codonnellasmediaproductionschs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/my-sweded-film-les-miserables.html

   3. Morrighan's - Sweded Avengers
http://morrighanasmediaproductionsschs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/first-project-sweded-films.html

Sweded 21 Jump Street

So far, my group have filmed over half of our Sweded film of 21 Jump Street so we still have to complete and edit that. I also need to teach my self how to embed a video to my blog instead of pasting the links to them in a post.

Again, as I have taught myself how to embed the video to my blog, I able to do that and it is easier for anyone looking on my blog to view it.
Media AS swede from Sophie Mace on Vimeo.

The task was organised by me, Sophie, Cal and Ruby. Sophie was the camera woman, I was the director who organised where they stood what they said and how they did it, Cal was one of the main characters. We came up with the script together. However, one of our challenges was that we had asked James to be our other main character but he did not do media with us so it was hard to find time where we all had spare time to film the sweded film. Another problem was that we were trying to make it too perfect in such a limited amount of time, a sweded film is just a rough copy which you could do in one take. A creative idea that we had was t have me and Ruby stand behind James and Cal in the graduation scene (00.43-00.47) so that it didn't look like only those two were there when there is meant to be a whole class of them.