Film Progress - creative journey

Casting

After having completed the storyboard and script I had a confident idea of how to go about creating the movie. I collected a few friends to play the actors within my movie, a total of 5 actors to play 5 characters, additionally I needed my own direction of how the movie would be filmed and how to follow the storyboard in collaboration with the script and Tony Cash provided the role of cameraperson.

I gathered my actors in early October and gave those with speaking roles copies of the script to prep them for the film. Casting actually became a problem throughout the production of the movie as certain actors had conflicting schedules which required the production dates to be decided carefully. A rough set of shots was filmed in late October for a rough idea of how the movie would look, unfortunately the footage captured could not be used due to low audio quality and the fact that it was incomplete, additionally the footage featured an actor who was later re-casted entirely due to schedule conflictions. Before filming my finalised casting crew became solidified:

Alistair Goodwin as Detective Gilbert (Main character)
Harry Kelly as Detective Patmore (Secondary Character)
Amy Morris as Olivia Garnet (Femme Fatale)
Lee Bradley as Charles Graves (Background character)
Bradley Lee as Ned Henry (Corpse)

Location

After having a reliable cast I decided to go out with my partner and find a suitable filming location for the movie. I explored a few areas around Tamworth for my movie, initially I was thinking of an area near a river which I had visited on a Duke of Edinburgh walk and though would be suitable, however upon revisiting the location I found the ground to be much too wet and sludgy to have any kind of filming equipment or footwear on. I decided to have the location at a nearby nature reserve in Amington, which is very close to the houses of all the actors involved, which made it convenient and the ground was suitable for equipment and footwear. The location is surrounded in many tall trees and quite murky surfaces, there is also a small swamp-like lake on set which will appear in the film as a local landmark in the story, I chose the area because it seemed like a suitable location for a murder crime scene and I felt that It's muddy appearance would invite a dark Film Noir style atmosphere to the movie.  (add pictures of location here later)

Production Schedule

Upon having my cast and location sorted I had to find out which days would be suitable to get the footage. I found that the entirety of my cast was available every Sunday for filming, so I scheduled the filming of the movie every Sunday, however in the end I only needed a single day to collect all of the footage required.

Filming Footage and Role Allocation

After having everything ready I started filming in mid November, with myself as the writer, director and later the editor and Tony Cash as the cameraperson who took care of capturing the footage. After having audio problems in our practice recording in October we decided to make use of a voice recorder suspended on a sturdy stick to capture audio better and later overlap it with the footage to get a better audio quality. In addition Tony provided a pop filter for the voice recorded to reduce the risk of background noise. As we pressed record on the camera we suspended the voice recorder close to the actors while still out of shot in order to get decent quality audio capture. After completing all of the footage recording which additionally required audio recordings at the same time we recorded voiceovers off camera to be placed onto scenes later in editing.

Editing








When filming was finished and it was time to edit I put the footage and audio onto the computer and went through all of the files in order to separate the blooper footage with the footage we were actually going to use in the film. After doing this I imported all the files we were going to edit together into Adobe Premiere to start editing.










After importing all the clips and audio I dragged them all into the timeline in the order they are supposed to go, with the footage accompanied with the audio it was recorded with.

I then synced the footage and audio up appropriately, which you can see in the pictures shows the audio more spaced out as it has been synced with the footage accurately.

After having placed all of the clips and audio into the film and having synced it all I started to add filters to all of the clips in order to give it the black and white film noir colours and some colour edits to make it seem darker since the original clips were quite light.

 

Before adding all the filters I created a second save of the film for applying the edits, this way I wouldn't ruin the project by adding the filters.

Throughout the course of editing the film I noticed that a specific clip had dragged on for an uncomfortable amount of time and it made the pacing of the entire project slow down and it seemed unprofessional. In order to try and correct this I added in a clip from earlier in the project with no visual dialogue, named "over shoulder shot" so then the audio could be heard and it would seem as though the character was talking off-screen without it being a voice-over, remaining diegetic sound. The images below shows the image repeated on the timeline as well as what the clip looked like.

Towards the end of editing the project I found that we didn't have enough footage to sync up to one of the audio voiceovers, which we recorded without a clip in collaboration with it. In order to correct this I took a camera and tri-pod out the following Saturday and simply captured a close up shot of the main character as it was him talking in a voiceover. I did this to make it seem as though the character was in deep thought during his voiceover as earlier in the voiceover he wasn't in the shot and it was focusing on another character.

Below you can see how the audio goes further than the footage.

After collecting all of the necessary footage for the film it was able to all be edited together correctly on the timeline. After being synced with the audio the footage of the film was all finished being edited. During post production my partner Tony and I split up to create different graphics for the opening title card and company logo for the film.

I used flash to create a short animation featuring a company logo named Cashcush Productions, created out of the last names of both myself (Cushingham) and my partner Tony (Cash). The animation was purposely simplistic, not reminiscent of any specific styles and was intended to have no genre-specific impact on the viewer.






While I was creating the company logo animation my film partner Tony was creating a title card for the film, which is called "Ruby Red". After looking up a few tutorials Tony was able to create the title card In Photoshop by layering images and text over one another and by manipulating lighting effects provided by Photoshop. The title card was created to purposely reflect Film Noir aspects, with a spotlight on the title and the title font being quite curved.

December feedback

You are making excellent progress toward the deadline and have produced a promising first edit.  I am expecting you to reach the higher grades so aspire to these.

Planning needs to be documented thoroughly on the web-log. You have done this with the script and the storyboards so now add production schedules and any other documentation. Use the Foundation portfolio booklet as a guide.

Once an edit is complete begin to evaluate your opening sequence.

Film Noir : The Pitch

Film Noir Pitch; Ruby Red.

 

Set in quite a murky location, small woods with a small open lake nearby. Quite a lot of the trees provide shade and affect the lighting of the area to be moderately dark. The film incorporates three signature characters of the Film Noir genre. The hardboiled detective protagonist, a sidekick secondary character detective and finally the memorable femme fatale character are all evident within the film’s opening sequence. Appropriate Mise en scene costumes have been collected in order to provide recognisable clichés for the characters, such as fedoras/trilbies and long coats for the detectives, a very wealthy looking fur coat and outfit for the femme fatale and appropriate suits for the detectives.

 

Synopsis

 

When Detective Gilbert, a hardboiled detective with years of experience is called in for a crime scene following connotations towards his previous cases, he finds himself indulged in a large scale homicide centred on a single ruby red ring. The targets of three cases have all been employees of the law, all found with a ruby red gem-encrusted item of jewellery found on their corpse when found. Accompanied by Detective Patmore, Gilbert must uncover the clues that lead towards several young cops’ demise, all while attempting to cope with his unprofessional interests with the alluring Olivia Garnet; a suspect in the case.

 

Characters

 

Detective Gilbert: The main character and protagonist of the film. A stern but compassionate detective who’s years of experience have hardened his exterior. Gilbert has recently been involved in two murder cases of young employees of the law, and both cases have left a significant item of jewellery at the scene coloured in ruby red. With a third murder and a third item of jewellery uncovering before him, Gilbert must attempt to remain professional while still dealing with his newly developed and unexplainable attraction towards a suspect, the miss Olivia Garnet.

 

-          Played by Isaac Turner.

 

Detective Patmore: A secondary character and sidekick to Detective Gilbert. A young detective who’s lack of experience leaves him with a laid back personality which contrasts with his newly appointed partner; Detective Gilbert. Despite his relaxed personality he is eager to view cases and seem relevant to the situation. Gilbert is talkative and usually the evident voice due to his obnoxious persistence and attempts to lighten the mood. He joins Detective Gilbert on the new homicide case uprising in the town.

 

-          Played by Alistair Goodwin

 

Olivia Garnet: A main character and femme fatale of the film. The youthful daughter of a rich tycoon in the town who’s exterior presents her as timid and helpless. Olivia is the femme fatale character who is introduced when she initially involves herself in a murder case after claiming ownership of evidence in the case to get closer to Detective Gilbert. Gilbert finds her alluring and is oblivious to her manipulative nature which he is warned of by Patmore. Olivia is well dressed and evidently wealthy, adorned in a cream fur jacket and an alluring outfit, she also has an obvious English accent which emphasises her high class status.

 

-          Played by Amy Morris

 

Ned Henry: Minor character, the corpse in the opening sequence. Ned is a recently deceased cop whose killer is still undetermined and being investigated by Gilbert and Patmore after their involvement with similar cases. Ned was murdered with a slice to the neck and was left with a single ruby red ring on his body upon his discovery.

 

-          Played by Bradley Lee

 

Charles Graves: A minor character who appears in the background. Charles is a cop who takes a statement by Olivia Garnet after she insists involvement in the case and is declared a suspect.

 

-          Played by Lee Bradley

Representation: The Detective

Representation

Detective

 

The detective is a blatant staple in the Film Noir movie genre, as he is usually given the status as main character and protagonist. The detective usually falls into a category defined by several unique traits and repetitive qualities which truly individualize the character and demonstrate who he is and what he’s about.

 

The detective is often introduced as a very quiet character, as he is defined by his hard-boiled attitude and is often facing inner-turmoil which makes him an introvert when observed by other people. Despite his silent and somewhat anti-social nature the detective remains confident and assertive in his abilities and is capable of getting his own way through force and persuasion. Although the detective is shown as quite powerful and masculine he has a strong weakness through the femme fatale, who is an antagonistic character who easily takes control of the detective through manipulation and deception. The detective is very gullible and a sucker for love, meaning he is an easy target for the femme fatale, made even worse by his unique passionate nature and chauvinistic attitude which deludes him into thinking he’s in control of the situation. The detective is often depicted as quite suave and sophisticated, adorned in a traditional black suit, topped off by a distinct trilby hat, if not his styled gelled back hair to give him a trait of class. The detective is often shown to be quite relaxed and in control, despite this he is often actually facing quite a deal of inner-turmoil and stress, often a result of the storyline, stemming from the mystery, this may lead to alcoholism through the detective, a significant sub-plot in certain film noirs if not a subtle note of the character as he is often seen drinking.

 

On top of the detective’s battle with his emotions he ends up managing a love-life, however to his dismay it ends up being intimate with the femme fatale, a result of the detective’s initial flirtatious nature which gives him a sense of an ego as it implies that he is in control, however he ends up losing control to the femme fatale as she dominates the relationship and effectively manipulates the protagonist unbeknownst to him. The detective is always depicted as a heterosexual protagonist, as this gives him opportunities to be sexually involved with women and panders to an incredibly large audience of very traditional conservative viewers, he is quite masculine and misogynistic towards woman, often talking in a very patronising way towards them, addressing women in pet names that may be quite degrading, somewhat referring to them as objects or possessions. Despite the fact that the Detective’s misogynistic attitude seems to come back to bite him when the femme fatale takes advantage of his male instincts and makes him vulnerable, in the end the femme fatale often gets her comeuppance from the detective, restoring his respectable hero role and making him seem like the winner in the end. Due to the general outline of the film noir genre the detective ends up getting away with his bias views towards women and receives no backlash from his actions, since the femme fatale is the antagonist and film noirs do not like to have many loose ends she is often killed off and the protagonist justified and admired.

 

Thoroughly the detective as the protagonist of the film noir genre is evident everywhere and provides room for a lot of emotional drama, romance, action, sex and mystery due to his personality in general personifying the entire film noir series in its clichés. The detective reflects a lot of the conventions of a film noir through himself since he’s the main character, which interests and excites an audience.

Representation: The Femme Fatale

Representation

Femme Fatale

 

The femme fatale is a very unique and classic character in the Film Noir film genre, nearly always one of the main characters and sometimes revealed to be the primary or secondary antagonist towards the end, deciphered throughout the story. The femme fatale is usually depicted opposite the main protagonist, commonly the detective, presented as a love interest towards him after she involves herself with the main story and becomes entangled within the protagonist’s priorities.

 

The femme fatale is introduced to the film noir genre in many different ways, as there is an enormous field of traits that can be given to the femme fatale which are dependent on the specific character portrayed through the convention. Commonly the femme fatale is introduced as a very independent, enticing woman who is more outgoing and assertive than the other women around her, these unique qualities attracting the antagonist’s attention. As the story progresses the femme fatale proves to be a dangerous individual who is revealed to have malevolent, selfish motives and a manipulative quality over men. The femme fatale brings new traits to the female gender, as it was introduced as a brand new turn for the gender, breaking from the generic roles women were given at the time and presenting them as a more independent group who are more liberated and intelligent than they are given credit for. The femme fatale finds confidence in their gender and doesn’t let it hinder them, something which men have attempted to do to women for countless generations. Because of this the femme fatale commonly defies the control of men and rejects the idea of a nuclear family and marriage, as they find it confining, dull and demeaning. The femme fatale uses her feminine qualities to her advantage, such as working woman stereotypes to her advantage, playing innocent and timid, while simultaneously playing on male weaknesses by exploiting their sexual vulnerability and helpless desire for women. Despite the femme fatale’s evident independence and strength they are still commonly seen as objects to possess by men in the film noir genre, the males in the movie commonly becoming ensnared by the woman’s glamorous persona but then attempting to control the woman and solely make her theirs. This is where the femme fatale is unafraid to murder, the femme fatale commonly poisons men with her desirability, and manipulates them to do the dirty work for her, however she is also very vindictive and is not afraid to cut all ties to a man and effectively end them if she feels suffocated or controlled like a piece of property. When the femme fatale’s are introduced they are often given English accents and desirable outfits, to give them an image of authority and wealth, as American audiences see English accents as high class and immediately dub the femme fatale as a very important person just from this simple first impression.

 

The femme fatale character type has paved a new medium for female independence and empowerment, however despite the fact that the women are portrayed as very powerful and wealthy they are also portrayed as the antagonist, being shown as devilish and evil. The femme fatale simultaneously gives a positive role for women and also a negative role, despite the fact that she is given power, assertiveness and a new sense of confidence which was previously unavailable to women it also personifies women themselves as very vindictive, single-minded individuals with very shallow perceptions and untrustworthy intentions. The femme fatale, after all is an antagonist so despite her seemingly empowering attributes she is still the villain in the story and so is antagonized thoroughly throughout the course of the film, making the audience slowly resent her. Conservative, old fashioned audiences may grow to resent the femme fatale even before her role as a vindictive villain is evident, some audiences may see her eccentric and independent nature as threatening. During certain film noirs the femme fatale becomes strikingly defensive, protecting her status as a woman while still trying to seem respectable, often using her manipulative abilities on the defense rather than the offense to try and sway the blame to other people or even the person accusing her if she is nearly caught in her actions.

 

Sadly, the femme fatale’s independent and empowering persona isn’t always one to be looked up to, as stated before she is technically a bad role model in several aspects due to her villainous and poisonous nature. On top of this the femme fatale is nearly always victim to “The Hays Code”, which is a code that states that justice must be served in the end and the villain must get their comeuppance. Audiences do not like to be left unknowing of the fate of very important characters, so there must be no doubts about the fates of our antagonist, this case being the femme fatale, who from the very start of the film is regrettably fated to lose or die in the end. This provides a sense of justice for the viewers, as up until this point it may have tried to empathise the detective to a male audience, and so when the femme fatale lures him in and takes advantage of him, the entire male audience feels betrayed and vulnerable just like the protagonist. This fact makes the femme fatale’s fated demise in the end all that much more satisfying to the male audience and even the female audience who did not enjoy the femme fatale’s interpretation of women from the start.

Identifying an Audience

Identifying an Audience

 

With anything there is always a wide range of audiences with many different perspectives when viewing a piece of material, these audiences have many different opinions that can be positive, negative or just befuddled with what they’re looking at. Modern audiences have a lot more independence and scepticism then it comes to being spoon fed information, they will often take it upon themselves to prove newfound information as fact themselves rather than take the word of the media. When technology was new and unexplored many audiences took what they were given and had little eccentric opinions on subjects.

 

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 was a perfect example of audience reception being incredibly confused and panicked. The broadcast essentially described an alien invasion and without much guidance other than the radio broadcast itself the majority of the public was understandably confused and terrified by the catastrophe. At this point is completely alien for the media to purposely lie to the public, it was unknown to them to say anything except for fact. This ended up becoming an aberrant reading of the situation, as in truth the broadcast was an audio play which was not supposed to be taken seriously as a genuine announcement, and it was instead an original storytelling which had gone on air. Mass media had confused the public due to their broadcast which was completely unlike their other broadcasts which would just display the truth on air, so audiences took this new knowledge as truth.

 

There are four different ways a person can interpret material, reading them in several different ways, either understanding the media, not understanding it or interpreting it completely differently. This stems from Stewart Halls’ encoding Theory, which states that there are many different ways to read the same text due to varying perspectives and ideologies.

 

Preferred Reading – This is what the director of the material wants the audience to think, it is the reading which is intended to the public and the message that is supposed to be grasped.

 

Opposite Reading – This is the opposite of the preferred reading, where the message is received exactly opposite of what was intended, which often spurs confusion.

 

Negotiated Reading – A negotiated reading is similar to the preferred reading. The audience grasps the message however they develop their own opinion on the matter based on their own knowledge and get a different message to what was originally intended.

 

Aberrant Reading – This is when the message is interpreted in the completely wrong way, this may be due to a general lack of knowledge on the audience’s part however they do not manage to grasp the message whatsoever and develop a completely abnormal conclusion.

 

Another example was displayed in 1957 by Panorama, BBC; this displayed a short documentary on the harvesting of Spaghetti as a crop, which we know is not the way Spaghetti is created. This documentary follows the hypodermic needle theory, which generally states that the media can manage to brainwash the public audiences by saying certain things as facts to very passive audiences which take what they are given and they are lead to believe this things as truth. The documentary kept a very serious tone and went through the process of how spaghetti is harvested from crops before it is dried and then professionally prepared and served as food. These lead many audiences either confused or sceptic, the scandal was generally received by a negotiated audience. The audience understood that the documentary was a joke and knew that spaghetti was not actually grown on trees based on their own knowledge on the subject, these lead too many opinions and realised that the whole thing was simply a joke by the BBC. Despite this, the audiences were very passive and could have easily believed this to be fact as they are commonly lead to believe that everything on television is known as fact and it was uncommon to question that up until that point. BBC did a similar joke in 2008, with a short documentary styled advertisement about a unique group of penguins who could fly, displayed through the use of computer editing. This was a lot more recent than the spaghetti farm joke and audience at our time period are a lot more active rather than passive, meaning they are much more sceptical of the information which is commonly spoon fed to them and they are more inclined to go by things based on their own knowledge and findings rather than what other people say. Very few audiences found aberrant readings of the advert, not many actually believing the hoax to be true.

 

An advertisement was released by T-Mobile depicting the royal wedding in a much more modern and relatable image, simply named “T-Mobile Royal Wedding”. The advertisements had the royal wedding scrap the traditional ceremony and had many people who would have originally been walking down the aisle gracefully energetically dancing to a very up-beat song and outrageously expressive dance moves which would definitely not normally be in a formal wedding ceremony. The advert depicted the royal wedding in a different light in order to try and communicate a level of modern relevance and humorous portrayal of T-Mobile as a company. The advert attempted to make the royal family relatable, making them seem very light-hearted and energetic which would be empathised by young audiences. There were many ways to interpret this advert shown by various audiences. The preferred reading of the advert was to recognise that T-Mobile was attempting to portray itself as a very modern service which panders towards modern people of generally young ages by taking a very relevant stance on the royal wedding and making it seem very unique and funny. A negotiated reading would be one that understood the general idea that T-Mobile was using the royal wedding as a gateway to make themselves more relevant through a parody however doesn’t really understand how T-Mobile is relevant in any way to the advert so doesn’t understand it overall. An opposite reading would be one that takes moral offense to the advert, believing it may be parodying the traditional wedding ceremony in such a way that it is in offensive taste and it is a direct mockery of the royal family to portray them in such a way. This kind of interpretation might be existent in people with very conservative views and are protective of the monarchy, probably people over the age of 60 who have been alive long enough to appreciate the traditional forms of the country. Finally an aberrant reading would be one that fails to understand the message of the advertisement, potentially based on their lack of knowledge and may accidently interpret the advert as real footage of the royal wedding and not understand the relevance of the advertisement. Due to this advert being released in the time it was released it was easily exposed to viral advertising, the advert poked fun at the royal wedding which was a very relevant topic and so people who may have found it online or saw what company it was made by would be inclined to share it with others or talk about T-Mobile since they created the advert. Viral advertising is practically the golden result of any commercial or professional advertisement as it is insanely likely that the advertisement will gain viral popularity if it is interesting enough to be shared in such a way, gaining professional and also unprofessional attention.

Feedback November

Excellent progress Connor. I am expecting a production of the highest quality. Show initiative and start filming and editing so that you have time to improve the edit.

I am expecting you to achieve a grade A on the basis of your progress so far.

You are working at level 4 for research and planning which is thorough and impressive in detail.

 

Targets for November

Film

Conduct a risk assessment

Edit

Consider sound and titles to add meaning and atmosphere

Manage your time effectively