Henry Thyng AS film noir coursework: April 2011

How does it develop or challenge forms & conventions of other media products?
The majority of the classic and contemporary film-noirs we researched such as 'Double Indemnity' (Billy Wilder 1944), 'Brick' (Rian Johnson 2005) and 'Memento' (Christofer Nolan 2000) all had non-linear storylines which are widely recognised as a noir trademark. We decided to go down this route because with the other films we researched that did this the tone was immeadiately established and they tended to go very quickly into the main story with a disturbing enigma to encourage the audience to watch on. For this we used a familiar technique but the pace of our opening changed quite regularly with the chase in the middle of it. This was what made it differ to the openings of the films mentioned which had a fairly continuous slow pace and somber feel throughout.

Our production was in colour like the majority of contemporary noirs but the lighting was perhaps not as low-key as in some other films although we were able to produce some familiar 'noir style' high contrast lighting in the shot under the bridge and the main characters individual dialogue to the camera.

One of the main inspirations for our idea was the film 'Brick' and certain aspects of our storyline such as the drugs, gangs, doomed love and 'getting in with the wrong crowd' aswell as heavy emphasis on youngsters share similarities. The use of a 'femme-fatale' was another common noir feature we adopted. The opening as well as the rest of our film is from the perspective of the main protagonist although dialogue in our opening was kept to a minimum. We decided against voice-over narration which is a common feature of many film noirs in favour of a piece to camera by our main character near the end of the scene. This meant we were able to be quite artistic with the lighting by focusing a spotlight onto his face with a red filter over it meaning his face was partially covered and what was visible was shown up in red against a black background. This gave the shot a very moody and unnatural look.

On the editing we tried to be as creative as possible to make it uncomfortable viewing for the audience, similar to films like 'Brick'. When we showed the flashbacks we had to distinguish them between real time and we tried to do this by showing them in black and white though not in 'noir style'. For one of the flashbacks we superimposed a close-up of one of the attackers. All this was done to try to emphasise the 1st person perspective from the main character. This did work fairly well although for some shots such as the opening shot we maybe should have cut out quicker to make the action more continuous.

We tried to use a wide range of different shots but we could have maybe made more use of unnatural shots such as extreme close-ups or dutch tilts that are often associated with film noirs. We made good use of the locations available to us especially the bridge where we were able to fully make use of the light underneath to create some silouhette. One thing we struggled slightly on was finding decent music to fit with the changing pace of the sequence. The tracks we found for the slow paced parts worked well as they created a tense, depressing atmosphere but also sounded modern and were not too dramatic. The music we picked for the chase was suitably fast paced but we struggled to find anything that had a suitably downbeat tone, as a consequence some argued that it was to upbeat for what was happening in the opening.

How are particular social groups represented?
Obviously we were trying to represent youngsters and fairly typical real life situations. We tried to make it as contemporary as possible and that is one of the main reasons why we chose to represent teenagers however I feel we were fairly successful in not representing particular social classes which could have been controversial. The representations of this age group does appear negative but this was unavoidable with the storyline. The representations of gender are similar to many of the classic noirs with the presence of a manipulative femme-fatale who has a hold over the male characters, this represents the female character as the one with the power thus going against more widely held perceptions. The place being represented was obviously in a city environment and we felt a park was the most appropriate place as they are often seen as areas of vulnrability and we were also able to avoid any potential negative representations of certain social classes. The fact we were representing people from our own age group meant we didn't feel the need to dress up very differently to how we normally are although one of the characters was wearing a hood which may help to reinforce widely held perceptions that people with hoods are more threatening.

We made sure the music we picked was fairly modern to fit in with the rest of the environment although as mentioned earlier the techno music used for the chase was possibly a little too upbeat compared to something a little older sounding. We tried to reinforce and maybe slightly exaggerate the perception of the park we were filming in by using areas that would appear more isolated (e.g, the tree lined paths or the bridge) than an area with open space. The main message behind the film was that mixing with the wrong people and being easily led or manipulated by others can get you into trouble and put you on a downward spiral (hence the title 'Slow Burn'). Another message that might have been created could be that people who earn your trust can potentially let you down although in the opening sequence that we produced not much is given away making it hard to pick up on these ideas.

What kind of institution might distribute the product.
The distributors of this film would have to specialise in 'gritty', low budget, british dramas and neo-noir style productions, instantly ruling out any of the American giants e.g 'Universal Pictures'. Companies like 'Metrodome Distribution' who distributed 'Donnie Darko' or 'Optimum Releasing', distributors of 'Made in England' and 'Brick' would be appropriate for that reason. This is because they would need to know how best to market and promote the film to its target audience and they would have to be affordable. Similarly if it was to be shown on T.V a channel with a predominantly young audience and a reputation for promoting new ideas and being less stringent the types of content (e.g language) and ideas that its programmes may show.'Channel 4' or 'BBC THREE' would be ideal for these reasons. 'Film 4' could also be considered as it is a channel which specialises in feature length movies and has shown many lower budget British made productions in the past. The film would probably have to be shown after the watershed as while the opening may not do the storyline and tone would suggest that scenes of violence and strong language would often appear. It may however be useful to screen it at a film festival before releasing it to the mainstream to gain feedback and acclaim from critics and audience which would assist in finding a distributor Certain aspects of the plot and messages in the film would probably also result in it being shown late.

Who would the audience be?
The characters, storyline, plot, music are all aimed towards an age group of around 15-19, the fact it was produced by people of a similar age group backs this idea up. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) gives films a minimum age rating according to the content the film possesses - language, sex scenes and scenes of violence or drug use are main areas that would restrict the age range. With the storyline we had scenes such as this would be fairly prominent and would give the film a certificate 15 or possibly 18 depending on the frequency and graphic nature of these scenes. Although we would probably aim for a '15' rating as are target age group is 15-25 year olds. Therefore the BBFC rating would very much limit the amount of younger viewers. Older viewers would also be limited as many may find the plot and themes hard to accept and they would obviously find the characters harder to relate to.

As mentioned we tried not to represent particular socio-economic groups in our production although, taking VALS into consideration, the plot and themes of the film may have a greater influence on more deprived working class groups as they are maybe more better able to relate to the types of situations being experienced by the main characters. However we aimed to produce a storyline that would appeal to all social groups regardless wether or not they can personally relate to it although while we tried not to show it the vast majority would probably see it as a working class setting. Groups such as 'achievers' or 'believers' are probably the least likely to watch as they would be least likely to approve of the content. The preferred reading would be one that may serve to highlight the consequences of mixing with groups of people and doing things that could land yourself on a slippery slope, or one that shows not everybody you know can be trusted, we tried to get these messages across by encouraging feelings of fear in the audience. If there were any oppositional readings they would probably come from people against the idea of showing things like violence and drug use on screen who may think that by showing it we are promoting it, this should be unlikely though because of the institutions which would promote and show the film.

How did we attract/address the audience?
The characters, issues addressed and themes in this film are clearly related to people of our age group so these were meant to act as a base to initially attract our audience which we could then build on with our locations, music, style etc. We tried to have a storyline and characters that were easily relatable for a group of people a similar age to us. The first shot we see is of one of the characters walking alone through a park and this soon develops into the chase. We felt the use of a park as the location for the opening would be the most appropriate because they are widely seen as areas of high school crime and potential danger from certain groups although a back-alley at night may have been more appropriate for creating a sense of looming disaster and establishing a more negative tone from the start, the park was maybe a little too 'soft' looking in daylight. This would also be good for reinforcing the elements of drugs and gangs that would appear later in the film. The bridge did however make up for this to an extent although it only appeared briefly.

The theme of love was created quite early on with the use of flashbacks to give some idea of why what was happening in the opening was going on. The theme of gangs was less obvious but could still have been interpreted from the chase but the element of drugs was hidden, this could have helped to attract the audience at an early stage although we felt it was important to have a sense of enigma in place.

We tried to make the edit as visually attractive and inventive as possible to increase the visual pleasure for the audience. The opening shot possibly went on for slightly too long considering it was only a wide shot of a character walking which could have taken some of the suspense out of the build-up to the chase. We aimed to make the chase as fast paced as possible with the camera movement and the cuts to allow the urgency of it to transmit onto the audience and make them feel they were a part of it. One thing we did to try to achieve this was have a close up shot of the character's face as he is running to show the fear but also the movement, a steadicam was used to film this. We tried to find music that was dark but also modern i.e something that could create a tense forboding atmosphere but also fit in with the time and the surroundings as well as the characters. This was an area we struggled on slightly especially as we had to use different tracks to fit in with the changing pace of the opening and the music during the chase was slightly too upbeat but it was fast and sounded up to date.

What did i learn about new technologies?
Media is something that changes constantly through the progression of technology and the aim was to exploit this as much as possible during the process of constructing this product. One of the first things we did was set up our individual blogs and this is where all the research and planning was put. With all research and planning being available online it made it easy for the group to share work and communicate and we could back up our points further by adding images and video clips of for instance a scene in a film which we thought was significant to the research. The use of the internet was also vital to research stage and youtube proved to be our most useful tool as we were able to analyse film openings and certain scenes in films which we felt were significant, if we felt they were we could embed the clips onto our blogs. We had already learned about many of the technologies for our final production in the preliminary and exchange exercises such as the Canon HV30 tape camera and sound equipment (YOGA Super Cardoid Shotgun Microphone, headphones) and the the programme 'Final Cut Pro' on the Macbook pro machines. Final Cut Pro enabled us to log and captu what we had filmed onto a group file ready to be edited. Initially we only knew the basics of editing such as establishing continuity and putting cuts in the right places but by the time of the final production we had learned how to use this software to create polished edits with music and a variety of special effects such as superimposition. For converting sound from MP3 to AIFF which final cut pro excepts we used 'Adobe Sound Booth'.

What have we learnt since the prelimenary excercise?
The practical skills I feel I have learned since the preliminary excercise include having greater awareness of shot sizes, distance and timing although shooting was something I seemed to naturally struggle with slightly which meant I did not do as much as others in the group. Teamwork was very important as our individual strengths could help the production come together, it was especially important to work well as a crew during the shooting stage. We also found out it was important to have everybody on hand to point out any errors that may have been observed during the editing stage as small things that are hard to notice can have a very big impact on the quality of the finished piece.

I feel I became more aware of the importance of checking surroundings during a shoot and being vigilant about any unwanted background noise or anything appearing in shot that is not meant to (after my mistake in the preliminary of accidently allowing the boom to appear in shot). Also I learnt to be more vigilant about any continuity problems although if we were to make this again I would try to make sure to shoot in similar weather conditions.

Time management and organisation were very important considering the amount of pre-production paperwork which had to be done compared to previous excercises because of the large number of aspects which had to be covered such as shot sizes, locations, dialogue as well as any potential health & safety hazards, however I feel I handled this part of the production fairly well. For the editing of the piece I feel I could have made more of a contribution to the practical elements despite the fact this was not my main area of responsibility although I feel I learned alot more about the software since the preliminary excercise.

My main role in the production was Art Director which meant I learned alot about finding a suitable location with the right sort of lighting and an appearance and feel that would be suitable, much of what I learned from here also came from the research. Theoretically I feel I learned how to give a production a tone and a meaning using techniques such as low-key lighting, a range of shot sizes and music which carries emotions. This came from analysing existing productions and I feel I have gained more sophisticated analytical skills for analysing films. This was important for when we were examining concepts such as; representations of people, cinematography techniques, the effects of music and lighting, narrative, messages and ideology and genre. The final production was all about putting theoretical elements we had analysed like editing, cinematography, mise-en-scene and sound into practice to enable our finished piece to have the desired effect on our audience and the exchange exercise allowed us to learn more about this before we undertook the main project. I feel my theoretical skills are probably stronger than my practical skills although since the preliminary task I have learned alot from watching films such as 'Brick' and doing the exchange excercise about various techniques that can be used during the shooting stage and the editing stage to give a production the right editing pace, plot, shot sizes, characters and representations to be as effective as possible in the way it presents itself to the audience.

Henry Thyng AS film noir coursework

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

INDIVIDUAL EVALUATION

RESEARCH AND QUESTIONNAIRE (Produced and conducted by Aiden)

PRE-PRODUCTION PAPERWORK & WHO DID WHAT