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