Our opening follows the trades and conventions of film noir, for cinematography we used some shots such as the Dutch tilt which is a shot that film noir is known for, we used to show the femme fatale walking away from the protagonist after causing some damage.
We didn’t really use many high or low angles shots which would have helped we portray the authority of our femme fatal compared to that of you protagonist.
For mise-en-scene, our location was the Orwell Bridge on a gloomy day, this contrasts film noir as it is usually based in urban areas and mostly at night.
Our characters were the typical film noir characters such as the femme fatale and the protagonist, a moan bored of his life and in need of money. After he is contacted by Olivia, the femme fatale, she proposes they play a game together, which then turn into more than that when she is found to have been killing guys with her game as a method of luring them into her company, she also wears the high heels and the red lipstick. This is also a typical film noir narrative as the two characters meet, get involved in something bad that come to an end where usually one of them dies.
As for sound we used both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. We used dialogue which was a short conversation between the two characters. We also used voice-overs, like film noir, which helped us portray Spencer’s thought processes as the story goes on, it helps answer any questions that the audience may have. This also adds more mystery to Olivia as we don’t know what goes through her mind.
The music that we used was suitable for the our neo-noir as it fit what was happening onscreen, Our choice of music does challenge that of film noir as it is more upbeat, contrary to piano and jazz music that is usually in classic film noir.
The editing used is non-linear like in a number of film noirs such as Sunset Boulevard when the movie open with a dead body in a pool and ends with the same scene after showing what lead to the death.
We used an editing technique that challenged film noir by making our femme fatale look ghostly in one of the shots as the put her pink letter in Spencer’s bag without him noticing.
Overall our film noir does maintain the classic noir ideology which is that the world isn’t as bright and colorful as we may think it is, there is a dark side and starts somewhere, sometimes with even an innocent character such as Spencer.
2. How does you media product represent particular social groups?
Our Film noir is more suitable for young people, it also has a strong female character, who isn’t diminished thought the film as seen in a large number of other movies. She is completely in control of both Spencer and the situation as she can lead him into the palm of her hand just with a pink letter; there isn’t a lot of verbal communication from her, that helps portray her strength. It shows the audience that the woman doesn’t always need to be half naked to be the strong one, it shows that the man isn’t always in power also.
Moreover if going with common stereotype our characters are young and troublesome, like most other people. By acting in ways out of the boundaries of law and social norm.
The main idea of our film noir was that there is a more dark gloomy side to the lives of young people, and that bad things can happen to the most innocent of people and if Spencer knew how things would have turned out he probably wouldn’t have made some of the choices he does. It would be appealing to teenagers and maybe feminists.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?
The Metrodome Distribution would have been good to distribute our film, it is a more serious movie and it is a local production and it is quite British and that is symbolized with the our chosen locations which was the bridge and the fields around it, and isn’t a high budget movie, but it does have the potential as it is an interesting story, and the audience could connect with our characters in some level. Metrodome have also distributes Shifty (2008) which is a fairly local movie, which was also made by new producers. Although our film would probably get less people watching it at the cinema as they usually choose to go watch the big Hollywood movies in the cinema as they attract the audience with big Hollywood stars and big names and bigger budgets, because they audience know that they will probably get their money worth’s of a cinema experience when they have seen other similar movies, this puts our film noir at a disadvantage because it is a small production with unknown people, however our audience would probably watch it on DVD or, if distributed by BBC on television where people don’t have to pay for, this may encourage them to watch it, to find out what it is about.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The typical audience for our film noir would probably be and younger audience for about 15 to 25 as this is a bleak film noir which wouldn’t necessarily be suitable for an audience much older than that as the characters are around that age, it has some romance in it also, which would be more appealing to a female audience . Our audience would be mainly working class as they go to cinema more often, probably both male and female, and people of any ethnicity and sexuality. If analyzed by the British Board of Film Classification our film noir would probably be classified as a 15 because of the nature of the narrative and maybe the nature of the language the characters may use. Making in it a 15 would make it available to a wider audience, as opposed to an 18.
5. How did you Attract/address your audience?
We targeted our audience by using a weird narrative, it is a bit different from the type of thing out there. The idea behind it was to show the not-so-pretty side of things and making in film noir while keeping the film modern.
The editing was discontinuous which as we played with the timeline, to again add mystery to the narrative, make the audience want to know more, the music also helped us almost make the audience uncomfortable, which film noir does often for example in Sunset Boulevard (1950). The pace was very quick, as was the music, and there were a number of different shots that we used to portray what was happening and their expressions.
The locations were the College and the Orwell Bridge, these are two places our audiences know, and can relate to also because it is set in a college.
We used the film noir ideology of the ‘ugly world’ which again some of the audience may relate to. We also used enigmas which would keep the audience constantly wanting to know more.
6. What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For research on the definition of film noir and pictures I used mainly Google and Wikipedia, as they are what I usually use for any research. I watched a few clips of film noir on YouTube, so that I knew exactly what it was all about. I posted my finding and work on my blog which is was on Blogger. We edited suing Final Cut pro and compressed our files, the played them using QuickTime.
We used the following equipment:
Canon Hv20 Dv Camcorder, Yoga Shotgun Mic, Boom pole, IPod earphones, Velbon Dv
7. Looking back at you preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn in the progression form it to the full product?
Our preliminary exercise was relatively weak as we didn’t pay much attention to some of basics of film production. Our main problem was with cinematography, we filmed without putting on handles which made editing very difficult, we also broke the 360° rule which again made editing harder and we were unable to use shot-reverse-shot for the conversation. Although we still had some problems such as the microphone being on shot, we got round that by using another shot..
According to our audience they wanted know what was going to happen next, they liked our locations, and the shot where the music is turned off. And felt like it was “Agricultural Noir” as it challenged the urban setting of Film Noir and brings new meaning to it such as the dark areas are not just in the cities anymore.
They however felt that the dialogue could have been better written and voice-over could have been improved and better synchronized. The audience overall felt that our product suited the codes and conventions of film noir in terms of style, narrative and characters.
From the exercise I picked up organizational skills and planning skills can be used in other subjects.
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