Treatment
Cinematography
We decided to use a wide range of shots that will add to the film noir effect,
We used a long panning shot of the bridge because it not only shows the location but it can also be used as an establishing shot as show the beautiful scenery. This shot was quite lengthy, in contrary to our second panning shot, of the atrium which was a point of view shot of our male character, the speed represented the fact that he was looking for someone, but most people in the shot weren’t important.
In the car, while the characters were talking we filmed the conversation from either side and from the back. This was so that when editing we could use the shot-reverse-shot technique for the conversation. This was a medium shot. This helps show facial expressions of both characters, which is quite important.
We also had an extreme close up of the radio when Olivia enters the car and turns off the music, the close up was so that the audience could see the action, which was quite empowering for her.
We filmed a shot of Spencer in the atrium in which he was sitting down and Olivia was standing in the background by the wall, she then walks up to him, puts and envelope in his back and walks away. For this shot we kept Olivia to walk as far away from Spencer as possible within shot so that when it came to editing we could give in a ghostly effect, which added to the mystery.
In the car we also shot the conversation scene from the back, we positioned the camera in the boot of the car. This gave us another angle on the conversation that could be used later on.
Editing.
The editing techniques used for our final piece will try to make the film noir filming a continuous flow to make the viewer feel like they are there in first person viewing the action taking place.
The beginning shots are taken from our 1st piece, The exchange. What we are trying to go for here is a flashback scenario. Showing the viewer what is going to happen and then relaying back to how this situation happened.
Black and white is used for the beginning to make the viewer aware which is the flashback and which isn’t. This stylistic has also been used to refer back to the old noir stylistics.
Our opening scene of the flashback shows Spencer, our male protagonist, sitting alone unaware that the femme fatale is behind him lying in wait.
When she approaches him to place an envelope into his bag a use of jump cuts are used to speed up her movement towards Spencer. In doing so it also develops an eerie perception to be made….Is she real?
The sound within this scene is either digetic or non-digetic. At the moment the decision hasn’t been made on whether which one will fit.
The shot of Spencer opening the envelope fades out and the next shot fades in to show that time has passed between shots. That scene also show the unveiling of the Orwell bridge and the next shot to follow will be its graphic match of the Orwell bridge….hopefully.
In general the transitions between shots will be to link the sequences being shown. The use of Cuts which will be used to change locations/ scenes within the film. The next shot will be of the Orwell bridge and a panning shot towards our male character. This shot also allows the graphic match but also starts an opening to the scene and the meeting between Spencer and the femme fatale.
Motivated cuts will also be used, like those scene in the beginning with Spencer sitting, to try and keep the viewer constantly anticipating the next shot….hopefully!
Sound
The sound on our film noir is dialogue, atmosphere voice over’s and music.
The dialogue is quite simple and relatively short as most of the film is mysterious.
In the dialogue, Olivia the femme fatale asks Spencer to play the treasure hunt game. It is quite posh dialect as Olivia is ideally, a posh, rich character. Although she keeps he sentences short and mysterious, and never gives away too much information.
The music is copy-right free; it will be used at the start to see the mysterious, film-noir mood. The music we chose effectively portrays the mood of our movie as it is sort of dark and gloomy. The music will be something that also matches the actions and fits in with what it is seen on screen.
The voice over’s will help us put across what our main characters feels about the mystery and the treasure hunt.
Mise-en-scene
We used the Orwell Bridge as a background and the fields because they tied in well with the gloomy day, which added to the dark film noir effect as he filmed the characters in the car. We also used the atrium in the college as another location in which Spencer gets the first letter from Olivia, because the atrium is a room full of people and Spencer was sat there alone which helps us portray how alone he is.
As for costumes, we dressed Spencer in fairly casual wear, as he is a teenager, but we tried to dress Olivia in more formal clothing with the skirt and a blazer which we wore underneath her coat.
We only had one main prop which was the pink letter with the picture inside the Olivia always used to communicate and lure Spencer around.
