Blaine Kenneally's A.S. Media Evaluation

Evaluation

'When considering any particular style or genre, it is always important to consider the basic themes and ideas you are trying to communicate.'

Film Noir was born out of the convergence of many ideas, and was only named retrospectively when critics noticed a thematic correlation.

Therefore, Film Noir is essentially a...

We were aware that semiotics constitute everything of which Film Noir is composed...

...and realised that all conventional aspects of Film Noir, from lighting to lipstick, were simple signifiers which accumulated to produce a resultant effect.

With this knowledge, we began to construct our OTS, always aware that every detail was important.

One particular convention that I looked at in detail was that of the

We first decided on three characters to fit our 'thriller' narrative, and then, as I devised the characters' individual personalities, we assigned them Film Noir roles.

We were conscious of the fact that simply immitating a genre could become incredibly boring for an audience, so we aimed to utilise the conventions of Film Noir in unique and interesting ways.

Therefore, when devising the character of the antagonist, I decided that a Femme Fatale could fulfill this role. We were challenging conventions by taking an iconic, conventional character and placing her in an unconventional position of power in order to interest the audience. The unconventional position of power would mainly be conveyed by the voiceover script, which mainly features the Femme Fatale issuing demands.

This technique works well, because, in focusing on the Victim, the audience can see for themselves the drastic effect that the Femme Fatale has on him; she is a much more dominant character, and so all the Victim can do is run.

Because we were setting our OTS in the present, we ditched certain aspects of the conventional dress, but retained others.

Our volunteers weren't chosen simply because they suited the part, but because of what social memes they, as individuals, represent.

As the focus of our piece, the ANTAGONIST had to stand out from the other characters. In casting a younger woman as an authoritative Femme Fatale, we have juxtaposed a mostly positive social stereotype with an extremely negative cultural icon. Visually, the audience simply see a young woman with an unusual sense of style, but from the voiceover, they are given the impression of a very powerful and experienced leading figure. Because the character doesn't initially make sense, the audience become more interested and engaged in the OTS, and are prepared for the immersion of the actual film.

The area we chose worked well because it contained certain features that we used to our advantage, such as the damp cobbles, which gave the frames texture and depth when lit by the yellow street lamps.

Here are some excerpts of my blog post about the scouting process.

Below are some stills comparisons between our OTS and iconic British Film Noir 'The Third Man' to illustrate our stylistic imitation of the genre.

I also utilised the conventions of Film Noir heavily when writing the script for the dialogue in our OTS. I wanted convey the themes of criminality, power and pressure whilst maintaining ambiguity. To do this, I had the characters refer to an event or job in a certain way, but never overtly describe the details. Personally, I feel this was very successful in providing an appropriate and mysterious context for our film.

Overall, I feel that our research into semitoics, our understanding of it, and our subsequent attitude towards it helped us greatly in the construction of our OTS.

In considering every detail and its effect, we created a final product that utilises and challenges conventions without ever making it obvious.

It is this subtlety that allows for an audience to feel immersed, and this is showcased in the quality of our final product.

When creating any kind of media product, it is always of utmost importance to ensure that you have an audience to target.

We also indidvidually researched the work of the BBFC, and the meaning of its classifications, but it was Tom who suggesteed categorising our OTS as a fifteen based on the following conditions, as posted to his blog.

After categorising our film, we decided more specifically on our target audience.

Qualitatively, we were aiming our product at Post Modernist and Hedonist audiences (as explained in ATTRACTING & ADDRESSING).

Quantitatively, we were targeting people from bracket C1 and above. We thought individuals in higher professions would be more educated, and would take more of an intellectual, post-modernist interest as a result.

• Although our OTS only alluded to violence, we would have included actual violence and possibly sex scenes later in the film, had we been shooting an entire feature.

• Exhibiting a film with such features without giving the film an appropriate rating would be reckless and irresponsible, possibly upsetting younger audiences.

• Therefore, giving the film a '15' rating allowed us to responislby include dark themes and allusions in our OTS that would build to explicit features later in the film.

• We were all in agreement that our film would be narrative-focused, so sex and violence would be included as secondary features of less importance and prominence. That is why we decided against the '18' rating.

• The '15' rating would also work as a marketing tool, indicating the the film is mature, but not vulgar. As a result, certain adults would be encouraged to view it, and young adults also interested would not be unfairly ostricised for their mature tastes.

• Because the visual content of our OTS is actually very simply, all the audience is given in terms of narrative is the voiceover, and this is ambiguous in itself.

• Subsequetly, the audience are drawn to question the identity of this character around whom the entire narrative revolves, and they become interested in her story.

Effectively, beneath its subtleties, the voiceover of the Femme Fatale is shouting out to the Post Modernist/ Hedonist audience and encouraging curiousity, so that the audience become immersed.

We discovered more about our audience when we began to interact with consumers for feedback on our product.

Tom wrote a questionnaire, which he handed out to a variety of different people, and we also held individual and group feedback sessions to get a mixture of specific and general responses.

Not only did these sessions allow us to revise and improve our OTS, but they gave us a deeper insight into what our audience expected, and why this would appeal to them.

http://blainekenneallyasmedia.blogspot.com/search/label/target

INSTITUTIONS

Both distributors stress the importance of quality above quantity, and OPTIMUM in particular mentions an interest in classic cinema. As a modern independent that utilises classic conventions, our theoretical film as a feature may be perfect product for OPTIMUM to consider distributing.

Both distributors also have a catalogue of films that would appeal to people within our TARGET AUDIENCE, and so they will be experienced in the methods of marketing that work well in attracting such people.

The best way to guage our learning and development throughout the course of the practical is to look at the changes that have taken place between our preliminary continuity task and our final OTS product.

The source of most of the problems we encountered was our very amateurish method of work; a continuity task was very much something that was made in the moment - it was not envisaged beforehand, but was simply improvised when we found a suitable location.

Whilst this method had worked for the simple continuity task, we realised it would never be suitable for the production of our actual OTS. With high ambition and limited time and resources, we wouldn't be able to afford to improvise or experiment in the moment. With this realisation, we decided that...

PLANNING

We needed first to ENVISAGE our OTS so that no time would be wasted later on; we aimed to be as EFFICIENT as possible with the time and resources we had available.

This process began with a group planning session, the result of which was this extremely basic storyboard, which I drew up after the session.

The next step in the process was to turn our ideas into shots we could actually achieve, so we began to draw frames of key scenes, such as these

Finally, I translated these storyboards into lists of shots that I could carry whilst filming and tick off as we went.

Aside from being a good way of planning, this method also helped us to clarify our ideas.

With each stage, from notes, to diagrams, to script and storyboards, we were becoming increasingly selective, and were readily shaving off any unnecessary ideas.

By the time we had our final plan, the job was a lot easier because we knew precisely what we were doing.

Overall, we learned that the processes of filming and editing are made much more secure if you've already spent time envisaging the result.

• TOM (Experience in business) - Market research, methods of distribution, target audiences, sound, film classification.

• JAMES (Technical know-how) - Editing, mise-en-scene, cinematography, rendering and uploading any types of media.

• DANIEL (Interest in practical side of media) - Researching film roles, opening credits, explaining the titles, explaining camera techniques.

• ME (Experience in drama) - Character development, scriptwriting, storyboarding, and research into semiotics, representation and stereotype.

The term 'media' itself is the plural for 'medium', which means 'a particular way of conveying information.' Technology is always important in the media, because it changes the forms of existing media and creates new ways for information to be produced and communicated.

Ironically, throughout our task, we seemed to learn more about technology because of the restrictions of the provided equipment, rather than through our use of it.

• The camera did not record well in low-light, resulting in footage that is very dark and often difficult to watch. Whilst this worked for our OTS, it would not be suitable for many other purposes. This problem could be solved either with better lighting, or by using a camera with a higher-quality, large sensor.

• The winding mechanism created a noise that is audible in the recorded sound. As a result, any diegetic sound we have sounds less-than-perfect. This could be avoided with the use of professional sound recording equipment.

• The tripod was also rather problematic, because it was only a basic model, and had undergone a lot of ware and tear. As a result, it was difficult for me to pan and track smoothly when filming, which is evident in some parts of our OTS

• These problems wouldn't have arisen with more modern, professional tripods, because these are made with higher quality materials such as carbon-fibre and stainless steel, and they have anti-dust coatings so that joints will not get clogged or become difficult to use smoothly.

Wondering what actual filmmakers would do in this situation, Tom did some research, and discovered some information on ADR, as described here in an excerpt from 'filmsound.org'.

Of course, we didn't just learn from our restrictions. Here are some excerpts of James' blog to show the editing knowledge he shared with us.

STYLE &

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SIGNIFIED

are also incredibly important in Film Noir, as they allow the dire themes and circumstances to be reflected much more viscerally in the visual medium.

SIGNIFIER

Blog excerpt-

Colour has positive connotations.

Although the monchromatic colouring was originally a necessity rather than a stylistic choice, it definitely emphasises the bleakness of the narrative.

Just as there is no hope or happiness in the protagonist's world, there is no colour; no positivity, in the film the audience see.

LOCATION

Our OTS

The Third Man

This was another aspect we considered deeply. We wanted to film in an urban environment that was traditional, but also looked legible as a present-day location.

SEMIOTICS

THE CONCEPT OF

BECAME IMPORTANT AT AN EARLY STAGE

We discovered from our research that a good understanding of semiotics could be the key to conveying all of the ideas that Film Noir is known for in a very short space of time.

'MELTING POT' OF IDEAS

The Third Man

As we established our basic ideas for the look of the film and the feel of its simple narrative, it became clear that we were envisaging something that was a

THRILLER

Our OTS

at root, but with a strong

The Third Man

FILM NOIR

tint.

SOCIAL GROUPING

CONVENTIONS

As a middle-aged man, the TEMPORARY PROTAGONIST or Victim is a similar age to that of our target audience. He is also in smart-casual dress, and he tucks an iPhone into his jacket at the beginning of our OTS, so he appears to have similar day-to-day thoughts to those of the audience. Therefore, he represents the audience as they watch, and due to instinctive empathy, the audience are placed into his shoes, and made to feel just as panicked as he does.

The ANTAGONIST'S ASSISTANT, or Goon, was probably the easiest character to consider. Because of the amount of fear that exists in the news and media at present with regard to middle aged men, particularly in cases of rape and peadophilia, there wasn't much we needed to do to make the audience unnerved by the character. Popular social memes had made our job easier; all we had to do was place our volunteer in the shadows, and tell him to give a subtle, menacing look. Everything else; the curiousity, the tension, the fear, is all created in the viewer's mind, from the impression of dangerous men they are fed by the media day in, day out.

COSTUMES

As mentioned above, we knew that attention to detail would be the best way of convincing a viewer of our professionalism. Therefore, it was incredibly important that our actors wore appropriate dress for their role.

CHARACTERS

OF FILM NOIR

We quickly became aware that Film Noir was incredibly iconic as both a style and a genre, and it was clear that we would need to use these cleverly and efficiently in order to create a professional Film Noir OTS.

And the Femme Fatale required some kind of shawl to ensure that she looked comfortable in the exterior scene we were filming.

For example, the Victim wears jeans to make him look more casual, indicating that he is not a formal individual.

Temporary

Protagonist

Antagonist's

Assistant

Antagonist

THE CAMERA

As the singlemost important device in our arsenal, the restrictions of our hand-held camcorder were the most glaringly obvious.

With a maximum running time of only 2 minutes and 30 seconds , we needed a way to convey large amounts of information in a short space of time.

Femme Fatale

Victim

Goon

TRIPOD

SCRIPT

We did not want to include the actual protagonist of the theoretical film, because the purpose of our OTS was to introduce the Femme Fatale, our antagonist.

Irrespective of the purpose of our OTS, we still needed a character for the audience to side with; a character with whom they could empathise.

This is why we included a

Temporary Protagonist

TECHNOLOGY

known as the

Victim.

During our early focus-group feedback sessions, a critique was made that led us to a technological problem, as explained below in an excerpt from my blog.

Whilst our method worked, in a perfect world, we would have had access to ADR suites and studios as seen above, so that our new voice actor could have synced her voice live to the footage in many different takes.

QUALITATIVE METHOD: AESTHETICS & HABITS

ATTRACTING & ADDRESSING

RESEARCH

Everyone in the group researched audiences lightly, so that we would all have a clear idea of the terminology and teachniques used regarding audiences when it came to targeting our own.

Below are some of the things we collectively researched.

As mentioned in the CONVENTIONS section, our OTS was constructed playfully in the sense that it aims to interest and please the audience in the way that it uses and challenges the iconic Film Noir conventions.

It was clear, then, that we were addressing Post Modernist and Hedonist audiences; people who would actively seek enjoyment in understanding the artistic choices of a film, and others who simply want to watch something unique and daring.

To further this audience's attraction to the film, we did the following things:

QUANTITATIVE METHOD:

THE 'ACORN' SYSTEM

The Brief

We made sure that, in our use of the

CAMERA,

Create an opening title sequence for a new fiction film in the Film Noir style.

I wrote the Femme Fatale's

VOICEOVER SCRIPT

our shots were diverse and indivdually pleasing to the eye. For example, we used canted angles, side-on tracking shots from different ranges, and POV tracking shots.

with the intent of anchoring the purpose of the OTS: to introduce the Femme Fatale as our unconventional antagonist.

For the most part, James kept the

EDITING

simple. However, he did use two different shots of the Victim's bust to blend a transition, much like a graphic-match, and he did liven the transitions between the past and present with flashes of white that worked well to convey panic and desperation.

AUDIENCE

A week before we actually filmed, we met as a group at our chosen location to experiment with the shots we had in mind and to test the equipment we had. The main worry was that the video camera would not record well in the evening, but the tests fortunately proved it was adequate. My blog post including the test footage and analysis of it can be found here:

http://blainekenneallyasmedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/pre-production-test-footage.html

Some institutions we thought might distribute our product as a feature film are...

We categorised our OTS as a '15' for a number of reasons:

OPTIMUM

RELEASING

&

AXIOM

FILMS

After this, I proceeded to turn all of our key frames and ideas into

STORYBOARDS

because they both support emerging and independent artisitc talent in the film industry, as is stated in the below extracts of information on their websites:

that were compatible with my dialogue script and the locations we were able to use.

About AXIOM

About OPTIMUM

Having a target audience allows you to adapt your product and its marketing so that it appeals to a particualr group of people

LEARNING

If the product is marketed appropriately, it will likely be a commercial success, and if it is constructed well, it may achieve critical praise.

'COLLEGIATE' APPROACH

are the organizations that make up the enormous industry that we call 'the media'.

Our continuity task, whilst successful, was quite considerably problematic in many respects, some of which are detailed in the following blog posts:

Aside from the planning beforehand, it also has to be said that we learnt a great deal from the success of our general approach.

Within our high-level plan and structure of work, there were different areas that were delegated to different people in the team. Below is a list showing some of the delegated areas of research and/or production.

Institutions became important to us when we began to look at

Here is an excerpt from Tom's blog, defining distribution and the related topics of marketing and exchange:

There was also the question as to what kind of cinema the film would be exhibited at,

http://jameswigger.blogspot.com/search/label/continuity

DISTRIBUTION.

ART HOUSE

OR

MAINSTREAM

http://blainekenneallyasmedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/continuity-task-first-attempt.html

We decided that ART HOUSE cinemas were more appropriate, and our focus groups agreed, because thes cinemas have a reputation for more artistic and independent films, and so would draw the attention of our chosen TARGET AUDIENCE.

would be the key to success.

All of our findings are displayed here:

on my blog.

As you can see, we delegated tasks to the people who would be most enthusiastic and efficient in that role, so that every aspect was of highest quality. Another advantage was that we didn't have to educate each other on how to do certain things;

A prezi translation of a mind-map from the session can be found here:

we worked to our individual strengths.

http://prezi.com/y8nlyz5njmgx/

And my blog post, including an audio recording of our discussion, can be found here:

http://blainekenneallyasmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/planning-opening-title-sequence.html