The Evaluation Of The Tailors Jacket
G321 foundation portfolio
The Curse Of The Tailors Jacket
by Dave Swales
Question 1
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Challenging Film Noir Conventions!
Film Noir Conventions:
*Black and White (Stereotypically)
*Flurecent Light
*Protagonists/Good Cop Bad Cop
*Femme Fatale
*Canted Camera Angles
*Flash Images (Modern Noir)
To challenge the conventions of film noir I decided to apply digital efftects to bring out the contrast between the shades of black and white. The opening shot of the street light being drowned out by smoke was perticularly challenging, trying to get the light to be 'too bright' without getting completely covered by smoke. Editing the film in FinalCut instead of iMovie helped as the contrast setings on the colour correction tool helped the saturation of whitest whites, against blackest blacks.
SubGenre's?
There's a slight underline of comedy amidst the main plot, giving the audience the impression that
our hero hasn't got a clue. I used this convention to appeal to a wider audience, as noir tends to lean towards an elitist viewing group. By advertising the film as a comedy it's still open, but by using noir conventions there's stilll something there for noir fans. An example would be where Detective jones is knocking on the wrong door 6000 times.
This is based loosly around the style of the Coen brothers films.
The Big Lebowski as an example. The main group of characters are completely hopeless but still striving against crooked business men, angry daughters and Germans.
Through many plot twists and turns they get closer then further away all the time, making the flow entertaining to watch but still a relatively complex story line.
The rest of my story for The Curse Of The Tailors Jacket would follow the same style of complex story line but allowing how stupid the lead characters are to keep viewers entertained.
Question 2
How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
The only social group identified in the clip is dominent males.
The two lead characters are playing the typical Good Cop Bad Cop routine, Jones being the Bad Cop, rough and un-shaven, while Peter's is clean shaven, wears glasses, and even tries to persuade Jones to stop smoking. This links to the audience mainly who come to watch film noir movie's as the protagonist is the Bad Cop, who would lead the m ajority of the film, much like Russel Crowe in L.A. Confidential.
Question 3
What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
DISTRIBUTION
T.V.
THIS KIND OF FILM IS MORE THEN LIKELY TO BE PLAYED ON T.V. STATIONS SUCH AS 'DAVE' OR MAYBE EVEN 'FILM4' AS IT WOULD BE AN INDIPENDANT FILM.
CINEMA
THIS FILM (AS MENTIONED PREVIOUS) WOULD BE INDEPENDANT AND WOULD PROBABLY BE RELEASED BY MIRAMAX, AS THEY HOLD A REPUTATION FOR FIRST TIME DIRECTORS OF INDIE MOVIE SUCH AS QUENTIN TARRENTIO AND KEVIN SMITH. TWO DIRECTORS WHO HAVE ENJOYED MASSIVE SUCCESS AMONG THE INDIE FILM SCENE, AS WELL AS INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS AND KANES FILM FESTIVAL AWARD NOMINATIONS.
With the ever growing popularity of downloading movie's illegally, this would be something I would have to take into consideration. This would also effect the content of the film I was making. The film would inevitabley end up online, so I would have to make a movie worth downloading, so internet adverts and trailers for the film would be imperitive. Possibly leaking an unedited version of the film myself, no soundtrack, special effects etc. Just as a teaser for all the seeders and leachers who are sat waiting for the film to be uploaded.
Question 4
Who would be the audience
for your media product?
The spacific target audience for this fimlm would be people who enjoy watching comedy's with a little more depth to them. Idealy the 'SPACED' generation of film goers. People who look for intertextual referances to other films/T.V. Shows/Video games. One of the things discussed during the writing process for this scene was a gun fight, in which bullet time could be applied. Bullet time is a feature from RockStar's Max Payne video game. It enables the character to slow time down to analise the entire situation before making a reaction, but due to the popularity of 'Matrix' spoofs I decided to leave it out, so not to copycat jokes and referances from other films.
As well as film goers this is aimed at die hard noir fans. The more the story unfolds, the deeper and darker Detective Jones ends up a twist of lies, deciet and danger. The leading lady (who never managed to meet the 3 minutes time limit) applys sex appeal, which would entise more men to go see the film.
Question 5
How did you attract/address
your audience?
The noir aspects of the film would appeal to the hardcore film goers. The film features all the conventinos that a noir movie would entail, such as canted camera angles, fast shots and filmed in black and white. The film is rough around the edges, giving the impression that its alot older then it is. Giving the film a more classoc look was a decision I made because of the type of films I like are either classic, or have that vintage look, like it was shot using film and put together 'the old fashioned way'.
The audience is asked to be put in possition of our hopeless lead Detective Jones. I useless 20-something bumbling his way around the case of the murders at Whitby Street Tailers. He's an easy character to fall into because he's a 'likeable idiot'. Stereotypically any detective lead role in a comedy is usually an idiot. A prime example is Dan Akroyd's character in Dragnet. (DUUUN da DUNDUN!)
What the audience and critics thought!!!
Sally Pickford: The good things about the film were your use of conventions, i.e. canted angles, the location with dark low key and smoke, the sound was good (sound track). To critisize a little bit more of the story would have been better and if we had more time at the end for the blood effect to work.
Liam Griffith: The film met the conventions of a film noir. It consisted of typical film noir ideoligy. The film was interesting to watch. I believe it was succesful in attracting its target audience.
Question 6
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process
of constructing the product?
Through workng with Final Cut I have learned how to cut, edit and apply effects and soundtracks with over dubbing (voice over). I also learned how to apply the 'Sin City' movie effect using the 'Colour Crome' tool. What I did was I copied the image to that two of the same image played at the same time. Colour Crome removes colour, but if I inverted the colours, the colour I originally selected to be removed would be all that was left. Make the other image black and white and the film would play a black and white image with a blue shirt. Clever stuff!!!
Question 7
Looking back to your preliminary task,
what do you feel that you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that throughout the entire process I have learned to overcome all the difficulties set by the prelimer
I feel that throughout the project I have learned how to overcome the difficulties set by the preliminary task. Working on my own was both challenging and rewarding. Writing the script and story boarding was simple enough due to previous expiriences working on outside projects, but what I enjoyed the most was the filming aspects of the work. Being my own camera man give me, as a director, a first hand look at ho the film should look and feel. Planning and going on sight was fantastic and I feel I have gained a better education of thecorrect use of the cameras and how to apply them 'in the field'.
I also really enjoyed getting to grips with Final Cut and learning about some of the effects it has to offer.
In conclusion I feel that the project was a massive learning curve, with lots of insight for the future.