Shot List

So here is our shot list. :)

• Panning shot of Scarlett running down the road consciously looking back to see if she is being followed

• Panning shot of Garrett running down the same road after Scarlett

• Shot of Scarlett running towards the camera

• Same shot, but of Garrett

• Close up of Scarlett on the corner winking and giving Garrett a finger action to follow her round the corner

• Garret running around the corner (shot taken from an onlookers point of view)

• Scarlet at the top of the alleyway steps smoking a cigarette

• Over the shoulder shot from Scarlett's point of view - high angle

• Over the shoulder shot from Garrett's point of view - low angle

• Scarlett's point of view - high angle

• Garrett's point of view - low angle

• Cut in - Scarlett pulling the gun from her pocket

• Over the shoulder from Garrett's point of view (reaction shot) - low angle

• Close up of Scarlett while resisting her signature line.
• Close up of her stamping the butt out.

• Wide shot of Garrett sitting in a detective office.
• Cut in - Telephone ringing
• Close up of Garrett answering the phone.

-p

Shooting Schedule

When devising our shooting schedule there were a few things we had to take into consideration that we didn't necessarily think of in the beginning.. we honestly thought we could get straight into filming.


The first thing we had to consider was the lesson times we had and whether a camera would be free at that time and to roll over into the next period if necessary, luckily though we booked the cameras before anyone else so that wasn't too much of a hurdle. :)
Secondly we had to consider when our main actor was free because we needed him for most of the work. It wasn't actually until about a week into filming that we started using Jae because he was starring in 6 other opening sequences including his own.
In between our filming sessions we also had to slot in production meetings so that we could see the progress and whether we needed to re-shoot any scenes.
The only equipment needed was a camera and a tripod and so we didn't ever have to lug round equipment. 




Here is a picture of our shooting schedule. I'll give you a run down of what we planned. :)

So we have planned for our first day of filming on Thursday 23rd Feb. We knew that Our male lead would not be vacant so we planned this to be our "practice day" where we plan our shots and see how they look.

Then Friday 24th Feb, we would look over our shots in the editing suite to see how they look. 

The schedule shows you where we planned on filming and when. It also tells you what equipment, actors, props and hair & make up we need. And finally what we have planned on doing in each lesson time.

-p

Pitch

So Louise (Our Amazing Media teacher) wanted us to Pitch our idea to the rest of our media class (gee. thanks Louise.


We were also given feedback from the pitch and Louise took photos! (and i didn't have time to powder my nose!)


FEEDBACK FOR THE POWER-POINT PITCH: 

• good use of conventions
• detailed and informative to the audience without giving too much away.
• clear and easy to understand with pictures to explain.

• some aspects planned are not conventional for a noir film.
• More pictures need to be used

We took all the comments into consideration and were very pleased with them also. 

Here are the pictures :) 

Here is the pitch that we presented to the class and our lecturer (Louise)

-p 

Naming Our Characters

To name our characters we made a list of all the names we liked and put them in a hat.

We picked the Male name first. the first name we picked out was our favorite. 

Garrett

We then picked our females name, it took us about 5 dips into the hat until we were satisfied with:

Scarlett

We feel that Garrett is a kind of young name which would fit very well due to the fact we want to challenge  conventional aspects of a crime noir film. 
Scarlett we feel is the most perfect name we could of picked (even if it took us 5 takes to retrieve it from the hat) to name our Femme Fetale, as Scarlett is a shade of red and red is the colour of danger. (see what we did there?)




-p

Behind The Scenes Of The Preparation

**WARNING**

This Blog Contains References To Many Aspects Of Film Production

Over the past couple of days; my group have been looking at:

• Costume
• Locations
• Hair & Make Up
• Actors
• Props

Costume

When deciding on costume for the male protagonist, we decided to look at classic Noir films, where there was a detective (for instance Phillip Marlowe in "Murder My Sweet") and also Neo Noir films such as Jack in "Romeo Is Bleeding" We studied their costume and took aspects from theirs into ours. 

We gave our male protagonist black trousers and a white shirt, with a brown trench coat, to make our film seem realistic and have some reference to noir films. We also gave him a loose black tie and also black converse. We did this because we didn't want it to just be a typical noir, we also wanted to show that he was not your average detective and was young.

Then we looked at the costume for our female protagonist. We decided to not bother looking at classic noir femme fetales as we thought they had a sense of innocence compared to Neo Noir femme fetales. So we focused on a Femme Fetale called Mona from the film "Romeo Is Bleeding" She wore a business jacket with hold-ups peaking at the hem and high heels. We felt this was a great dress sense for a femme fetale as it gave off a voyeuristic gaze. We added hints of red to our protagonist as red is the colour of danger.

Actors

So now we've decided the costumes, we needed to decide on the actors. Obviously we needed one male one female. Instantly Hollie and I thought of our friend Jae Jones from our other class. We knew he would be perfect for this role and challenge as he is also studying media and he takes drama.

Our Male Lead -
Jae Jones

Our Female Lead - Me
(Patsy Cliffe)

So then we had to look for the right girl to play our female protagonist. We asked our friend Shauna from our media class, she was honoured and was happy to play our femme fatale. However Shauna was also starring in her own opening sequence, so it seemed unfair for her to focusing be on ours rather than her own. So I stepped up to the challenge and put myself forward for being the femme fetale (and I also got a B in drama GCSE, so how hard can this be?!)







Hair & Make-Up


For our male protagonist we looked at different hair styles that would look suitable for a detective. We thought about having it all gelled back, or even him wearing a detective hat, but in the end we decided to let our actor (Jae) keep his hair how it is (which is fairly long and bouncy) as it would add to the unconventional aspect of a detective. We did also consider giving him "make-up wounds" (wounds that are made up from stage make up to look realistic) but we turned against it as it's too messy.
For the female protagonist we instantly decided that she must have long curly hair. As we knew that curly hair was conventional in classic noir. We knew that she should have a face full of flawless make up to attract the male gaze (however I am playing the female protagonist so we will have to make do.)


Locations


Then we considered where we should film. (yaaay) So we jumped onto Google Earth (because we are so lazy we didn't want to walk around in the cold) We found many different places for where we can shoot our opening sequence for example: Behind Central Station, next the the Parish Church etc..
We also considered filming our opening sequence in the TV Studio in Yale College. Ellen and I went to speak to Andy about this so he could help us make our film look similar to the truth. When we requited with Lauren and Hollie we came to a mutual agreement that it would be best to film on location rather than make up the setting.  


Props


The last thing we considered was the props we needed. we made a list :)

• Gun
• cigarettes (conventional for a noir)
• briefcase
• handcuffs
• papers
• phone

Yaaaaaaaay the climax of this blog post. 

I shall leave you with some relevant pictures. 

-p

Murder My Sweet

         

Romeo Is Bleeding
(Mona Demarkov)

Male Costume
Idea

Female Costume
Idea

Location (by the Church)

Location (behind Central Station)

Props we want to use,
modeled by yours truly

Story Board / Script

Today in our media lesson, Hollie, Ellen, Lauren and I created a storyboard.




                                        
    
 The first box is part of the title sequence, which is our production company. The second box we decided would be the first shot of our opening sequence. Under each shot is what camera angle we want to use and it also describes what is happening as well. (because our drawings aren't amazing)
   
This page of our story board shows again different camera angles and how we would like to shoot our opening sequence. On this page it also shows dialogue (which you will be able to see further down.) and also more titles to make up our opening sequence. 

 The Final page of our storyboard is the office scene where we see the male character at the beginning of the film (as the previous scene is towards the end of the film due to the fact we decided on a non-liner narrative which is highly conventional in crime films.) In this scene we see the male protagonist answering his office phone to find out that his wife (the female protagonist) is back in town. This leaves the film at an open fixture for the audience to be wheeled in and also for the plot to develop.


It's really fun throwing all our ideas together :)


While creating the storyboard we also worked on the dialogue together so we could save time. We wanted to have a powerful last line for the female protagonist to say: as we felt that it would fit well with our storyboard and have an impact on the audience. So we searched the World Wide Web for a while and threw all the ideas in the air and came out with the perfect last line. Lauren then took it home to type it up.


So here is our script :) 

-p

Questionnaire - Audience Research

Hello :)


So in our media lesson We devised a questionnaire to find out our class' preferred aspects of films. Here are the questions, and the majority answers:-

1. What is your favourite genre of film? Comedy
2. Where do you mostly watch films? Cinema, DVD
3. What would you like to get out of a crime film? Action
4. Would you prefer a male or female protagonist? Male
5. Would you prefer a crime film to be Film Noir or Neo Noir? Neo Noir
6. When would you like it to take place? Post 90s
7. Would you prefer it to be British or American? American
8. What is your favourite film? (open question)
9. Who is your favourite actor/actress? (open question)
10. Who is your favourite on-screen detective/spy? (open question)

By gathering the results for the questionnaire we can gather that people enjoy action in crime films with a male character as the lead. We can also gather that the people we asked prefered Neo Noir to Film Noir. 
These questions will help us create a storyboard that will be appealing to our target audience. 
From this questionnaire we also found out how people mostly watch films; again this will help us on deciding how we want to distribute our film.

The answers to the questionnaire will help us come up with a storyboard that will intrigue our audience.

Here are some graphs to show my findings :) 


what is your favourite genre of film?

Where do you mostly watch films? 
 
What would you like to get out of a crime film?

Would you perfer a male or female 
protagonist?                                                                       

 
Would you prefer a crime film to be
Film Noir or Neo Noir?  
   
Would you prefer the film to be British
or American?
      

- P