observing the forms and conventions
The first thing we were told was that our film genre was "Film Noir", i wasn't sure what it was and so had to research into it, and so i recorded my findings on my blog
http://meganasmediablog.blogspot.com/2009/10/film-noir-0.html
We analysed the opening sequence of Casino Royale as it used conventions of Film Noir conventions very effectively.
So what are the
conventions of
FILM NOIR?
ANTAGONIST AND PROTAGONIST
- i have both an antagonist and a protagonist in my OTS, the twist is that the audience aren't sure of the antagonist's motives, and aren't sure about the protagonist's state of mind..
does she know who's following her?
are they the same person?
is it a dream?
it is the past or the future'''?
Having a protagonist and an antagonist makes the audience side with one half, generally with the protagonist (good side), in the case of my OTS the protagonist is the one that falls, and i feel this breaks conventions of a typical Film Noir piece.
TOM & JERRY are not typically film noir :'D
hoever they are a good example of a protagonist/antagonist coupling, Tom is attempting to harm Jerry and so represents the antagonist side (bad) while Jerry is the victim but also the hero and always escapes Tom's clutches, he is the protagonist that the audience supports.
HIGH CONTRAST AND DRAMATIC LIGHTING/SHADOWS
In my opening title sequence "Doppelganger" i used as much dramatic lgihting as i could, i used the heavy street lamps in the alleyway location to cast shadow across my actors face, to highlight emotion change (fear, panic), this is highly effective as it lets the audience see the actor's emotions and encourages empathy.
It also highlights the characters
outline/profile, making the perosn intimidating or showing their
stance as defencive or shrunk.
SOUND
- i found in the film noir clips i watched that footsteps played an important role in helping identify the femme fatale, and so i put my femme fatale in high heeled shoes, this made her look and sound intimidating to the audience. During the editing process, i removed diegetic sound and heightened the volume of the footsteps, making it more noticable and hard-hitting to the audience,
- i decided against using music in my OTS despite the fact jazz music is frequently used in film noir films, this was because i felt my storyline required little information to be given away, i wanted to confuse my audience about the appearance of two identical people, and so i felt music could give away too much about the storyline.
My opening Title Sequence & FILM NOIR
- i felt i did well in securing the film noir conventions in my opening title sequence.
- from the beginning i succeeded in not giving away important details to the storyline, from showing my OTS to other people i realised i had succeeded in confusing the audeince and getting thier attention as they weren't sure of the charcter's purpose, intentions and deeper feelings.
- my OTS was set in an urban area with dramatic lighting which fit the film noir conventions.
- the main character is quickly introduced and as fear and panic is introduced with the text message and the character's reaction, the antagonist appears in an effective way ( knife, footsteps, grin, pursuit ).
- a "hook" is introduced as the audience realises both antagonist and protagonist look exactly the same yet are completely different in thier costume and mannerisms, this provokes questions and confusion, which i what i wanted to achieve.
- instead of music i used long notes merged together (a forboding noise), paired with a heart beat in places to add to the tension, which i then speeded up at the appropriate moments to provoke fear in my audience.
- the OTS gives the audience an idea about what is to come but not of the full picture, they safely assumed that the protagonist would be the main character of the film but instead she is murdered, and so this leads on to the idea that the antagonist is a big part in the storyline but maybe a new protagonist will be introduced, or in a twist of events the intimidating antagonist is actually the hero, in a "terminator" style where the threatening figure turns out to be working for the greater good.
TARGET AUDIENCE
who is my media OTS aimed at and
how did i fit thier criteria
In the end i settled with a 15 certificate, it allowed me a large audience and i could include the knife and the struggle at the end of the OTS which children under 15 may find uncomfortable.
And if the film was to be continued i'm sure more modertae violence would be involved, not enough to put it into the 18 certificate however, as that would greatly shrink my target market.
before choosing the certificate i wanted for my OTS, i decided to do a lot of reasearch into certificates to see which would be most suitable.
i found the BBFC website very helpful.
As far as i can remember, i targetted a female, teenage audience. i did this by having a teen actress as both characters, but considering the possible thriller/sci-fi/horror genres that could be moulded in, i could open the target market to males who also enjoy those types of genre, consider films such as tomb raider or resident evil where the storylien appeals to a man but attracts a female audience with an actress playing the dominant part.
- Men may also enjoy the film as they may like the "femme fatale" and her "alluring mannerisms.
i originally planned for my age certificate to be "15" and i felt i've achieved this, my OTS contains moderate violence but no extreme horror or sexual content, this allows me a large target audience, and with changes my OTS and the film could be opened to an even wider audience (lower to 12 rating).
therefore to have a successful film means to choose the target audeince carefully, or the film won't be appealing and then nobody will go to see it or purchase DVD's etc.
When making the OTS, choosing the target audience is very important, as it can seriously alter the size of the marketting capability. For instance, a certificate "U" film would probably allow the bifggest audience as ANY AGE would be able to see it.
Getting My Audience's Attention
getting my opening title sequence to the people.
My raw footage and finished piece were all uploaded to youtube for freedom of opinion from the audience, this i found very effective, unfortunatly the account was hacked so a link cannot be provided but i can provide a screen shot ( seen before ). These websites are very sueful for distributing material freely and with no cost.
Much of my OTS was also revealed on my blog as part of my progress, along with bloopers to attract and entertain the audience as well as to learn from.
Now complete, my OTS could be advertised with ease on Social networking sites such as Facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, tumblr, dailybooth, bebo & facebook.
all of this is done on a
no charge, no profit basis.
Blogger was a very good way of keeping track of my ideas, i could easily record my process and identify changes to be made to appeal to the audience.
Blogger was helpful because i could sent links to friends via email or socail networking sites so they could recomend changes and also tell me what they did and did not like.
social networking sites were also useful in contacts friends to assist with the filiming, my atress offered to help when i put out a plea for help on facebook.
Social networking sites were also useful in advertising my OTS for opinions, it was placed on the internet for constructive criticism.
before making my OTS i watched th opening sequence of casino royale and clips from other film noir films - Scarlett Street, Murder MY Sweet, Touch Of Evill. This way i could see the kind of film i was making and observe the conventions being used effectively.
CRITICAL THEORIES
AIM OF THE OTS
i wanted it to end on a cliffhanger or leave the audience confused, which it did quite well. When shown to other pupils, they had many ideas how the film would contoinue which is good, becuase they would be more surprised by what ever scenario i would choose if i was to carry on the film.
Femme Fatale
The femme fatale is very important to achieve the film noir genre and i decided to include one in my OTS.
My femme fatale
- was dressed in an all black otufit that gave her an hour-glass figure, this fitted the "sexy, allurring" characteristics of a femme fatale.
- i wanted the femme fatale's alluring and mysterious character to come through, but i also wanted her to appear a bit manic, i showed this through her slow and hastened pursuits and through the manic grins and smirks.
- i put my femme fatale in high heels because this would mean we'd get the loud click of the heels when filiming, plus the heels are typical femme fatale
- she wore heavy black makeup
(again fitting the alluring femme fatale ) and then her hair was curled to give her a pretty yet "wild" look about her, to show the femme fatale is very uncomtrollable and unpredictable.
SEMIOTICS
i decided to use semitotics in my OTS, which is difficult with only 2 1/2 minutes.
i did research on my blog before hand so i could eastablish whats emiotics were and how i used them.
in the end i useD a few symoblic items and fetaures to appear in my OTS.
footsteps: the footsteps for the victim were a variety of slow and fast as she worried/fretted about beign followed, then they were heavy steps as she ran and looked for her pursuer. Her footsteps were symbolic of her emotions at the time.
the femme fatale's steps were slow and deliberate, i wanted to symbolize her persistance and confidence, that she needn't run to catch the vicitm.
A knife was used to represent violence and threat/danger etc, the blade was large and we reflected the lamp light off of the knife to make it a more intimidating signifier, also the reflection of the knife could represent that of a mirror and the identical image of the two characters.
tECHNOLOGIES AND MY FILM'S CONSTRUCTION
EDITTING
editting i found was the easiest part of the film construction. i simply had to choose from the variety of shots i took during filiming. while shooting the OTS i took many shots of the same thing so i had much to choose from during the editting stage.
during editting i used certain tecniques to back up the film noir genre, things such as making the whole OTS black and white.
i also took all the sound out and made sounds such as the footsteps a lot louder to draw attention to them during viewing.
REVIEW AND EVALUATE
i was quite happy with the result, i do not regret taking multiple shots during filming as i had plenty of shots and angles to choose from.
i constantly evaluated during filming to make sure there was at least three good shots of each part, i also watched the finished product repeatedly to check for mistakes, the only one i managed to find near the end was some sound shifted out of place, but it seemed to work better so it was left thanks to some feedback from other pupils
MEETING THE AUDIENCES EXPECTATIONS
my age certificate is a 15 and so i would be attracting audiences of that age and above.
to do this i used actresses who was aged 16, this way the audience will be interested in or can relate to them when watching the OTS.
programmes such as "hannah montanna" are unlike my OTS but similarly star a teenager, this is why it appeals so greatly to that age group.
PLANNING THE OTS BEFORE HAND
i was very particular about how the OTS would go and so devised a storyboard beforehand with details on camera angles, dialogue, lighting and movement within the shot.
see rest of storyboard here on my blog
http://meganasmediablog.blogspot.com/2010/02/storyboard.html
i asked others in the target age group for ideas and applied them during filiming, i also went out and took test shots to see if the lighting would work on camera.
FILM NOIR
Megan's Media Project
EVALUATION
I've just completed my oPENING TITLE SEQUENCE on the theme of
Film Noir for my AS Media project, now it's time to evaluate
the planning, process and completion of the project, and
everything i learnt along the way.