link to my evaluation website 

Above is our final OTS, Fallen Angel

Above is our continuity task

Production - Distribution - Exhibition

Production

As our film would not be seen as a 'blockbuster' it would be produced by a small company such as Clerkenwell Films who have produced many films and programes such as Misfits which because of the themes throughout could be closely compared to our film. The budget of our OTS was extremely low as spoken about in Jacks blog post, however if an authentic production company was creating the film the budget would still be low around a couple of million pounds.

Distribution

I think if the film was advertised through social media aimed at the target audience / the trailer played before films with the same target audience it could be quite successful. As the target audience is a specific group I don't think typical advertising such as posters or tv ads would be as successful as aimed digital advertising.

Shutter Studios 

As Shutter Studios is also new socail media would be a good way of marketing to get themselves more well known; this video explains why social media is so important.

Exhibition

In his blog post Jack has spoken about where our film would be exhibited if it was produced, he stated that as it is an indie film it would be shown in cinemas such as Cinema City Norwich as they are known for supporting small studios and films, I agree with this as the themes and context featured in our film make it appealing to quite a specific audience (as spoken about in my previous audience post) meaning it would not create a lot of revenue for big Cinemas such as Odeon or Vue so they wouldn't show it, where as Cinema City would.

Here is the link to Jacks blog post:
http://jgrimshawasmediaproduction2016.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/where-would-our-film-be-showed.html

Audience demographics - Girl Interrupted

We decided to compare our OTS closely to Girl Interrupted as they both have strong female leads with themes of substance abuse and phycological issues. This is the YouGov profile for Girl Interrupted, from it we can see that our audience is mainly 25-39 year old females of social grades a-c1. This information was helpful before we made our OTS, it would also be helpful if we needed to promote and exhibit our final film as we would know who exactly to aim our promotion at.

We also looked at Pete Buckinghams audience demographics model to try to figure out what type of person would be seeing our OTS. We have decided that our OTS would mainly attract film fanatics as it wouldn't be a blockbuster so wouldn't appeal to impressionable socialites or impulsive materialistic's, it is also rated 18 so it wouldnt appeal to modern parents or youth of today. We think because of the violent and graphic themes throughout the film it wouldn't appeal to hero seekers or fun lovers as it is quite a heavyhearted film. 

Reflective comment: This research was very helpful and made evaluating our work a lot easier however we could of considered other theories such as The Maslow hierarchy of needs which suggests that while people aim to meet basic needs, they seek to meet higher needs which are outlines in the diagram opposite, although the information from this theory would have been helpful whilst making our film it is extremely helpful to consider throughout advertising and the distribution, for example; making an audience think they will be left out if they don't see the film and will be an outcast is taking advantage of the need humans have to feel like they belong and are part of society, which is discussed in Maslows theory,

Feedback on draft 2

Fallen angel- 2nd draft

We have improved our OTS by adding in the soundtrack and voice overs, we have also added our credits that I have done a previous post about. We recreated some scenes as the acting was poor and it was reflected in the feedback we got on our last draft, having feedback made it a lot easier to find and fix faults in our OTS. This version also includes our studio ident that I created and Jack edited, we are both very happy with our studio ident and think it links the OTS to the film noir genre.

NEXT: We are going to create a survey about our OTS and use social media to show it and to collect survey responses, we are going to put the survey and Vimeo on both of our Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts, we decided to use social media as we both have a lot of followers on both and we wanted to show it to a bigger audience than our media class like we did previously.

Studio Ident

As I have used Photoshop a lot in the past we decided I would take main responsibility for creating the ident. Although I made the ident we discussed ideas before hand and decided on 'x & o studios' and that we wanted quite a simple ident. I then experimented with different colours and fonts etc, this colour was easy to decide on as it will be shown over a the first shot of our film so the colours couldn't clash with the colour scheme of the shot.



11/02/16

We have decided to change the studio ident as we feel it could be a lot better and fit better with our films aesthetics.

We brained stormed a few ideas and came up with the name 'Shutter Studios' and from this I took photos of blinds from different angles and with different lighting. However i thought the photos weren't that interesting so I recorded myself simply opening the blinds and we have decided we are going to use the video in black and white and crop it down. We are yet to experiment with fonts etc for the studio name to be written with.

Sound- research and problem solving

As our story is told through voice overs we have no diegetic sounds which creates a lack of atmosphere, to fix this we are going to add foley sounds such as the needle hitting the table, doors slamming and there are others we are going to play around with, I think adding these sounds will create a much more interesting factor to our film because most of the noises will be distorted because they are during flashbacks. Sounds during the 'happy' scenes will seem muffled to fit with the effect we have put on those scenes, and the sounds during the 'bad' scenes will be amplified and unnatural almost, again to fit the effect and mood of the scenes.

We are also going to add a soundtrack over the film, unfortunately neither of us are musicians which puts us at a slight disadvantage however to over come this the soundtrack will not be the most important aspect and will be used to create the atmosphere. We have been looking for a soundtrack that hasn't got copyright attached, this is very difficult as we want the soundtrack to follow the mood of the production but it is very difficult to find one that fits perfectly.

As I have been really struggling with finding a soundtrack i decided to do some basic research and found a blog post about 'how to choose the perfect soundtrack' on a film and media university blog.
On the blog post I found the 'rules' to finding the perfect soundtrack were;
How to choose the perfect soundtrack

1. Use similar shapes- meaning the soundtrack should represent the mood/scene/props for example during a fight scene having fast paced music will create maximum impact. 
2. Its okay to be silent- having silence in certain senses can cause a dramatic wait and/or tension, however if misused it can seem unintentional and ruin the quality of the film.
3. Don't go for epic- your soundtrack should compliment your film and not over power it.
4. Get Permission- using copyrighted material is against the law and can cause your film to be removed from any server or may result in a lawsuit.
5. Break all the rules- sometimes not using a conventional soundtrack can work extremely well the video below shows how effective it can be. Although I think this is very interesting and creates a huge impact I don't think it is suitable for our production, but I'm glad I read about it.

Jack has done a post about his experience researching soundtracks, this is the link: Sound Experimentation- Jack Grimshaw

Fallen Angel- first draft

This is our first draft of our OTS. It is lacking sound as we are still trying to find a good soundtrack and are yet to record our voiceovers however we want to get feedback on our composition and aesthetics of our OTS.
NEXT: When we have received feedback on this draft of our OTS we are going to add in the soundtrack and voiceovers and work on anything pointed out in the feedback.

story board

This is our rough story board, some details are missing but this covers the basic outline of our film. Having this will make it easier for us during filming, I expect certain aspects of the story board to change but only if it will improve the quality of our work.

Film Classification

http://jgrimshawasmediaproduction2016.blogspot.com/2016/01/film-classification.html


Whilst I wasn't present Jack Grimshaw researched and did a post on film classifications as it is a very important part of producing a film.

Production plan

Jack and I wrote the narrative plan together and edited it as we went along,



Characters: Ella - Niamh
                    Alex - Matty

 *Voiceover throughout*


Ella is in her bedroom, distraught, crying, shaking etc. opens book however we hear her thoughts rather than her speaking, this will create intimacy between Ella and the audience.


Ella: I met a boy. everything was going well and I really thought he loved me. but it didn't last... it never lasts...
   
FLASHBACK TO WHEN THEY MET
fade to black


INT: Ella’s room


Ella: Dear Diary... this will hopefully be my last entry, I don't know how to escape this, I can’t get better, he won’t change, he doesn't love me and I don't blame him.


FLASHBACK TO WHEN THEY WERE HAPPY / CUT TO AN ARGUMENT SCENE


Ella: we were so happy together then i started noticing things about him changing


QUICK FLASH TO HIM STRAPPING HIS ARM UP


Ella:  he stopped telling me he loved me, he barely even looked me in the eyes.


FLASHBACK TO THEM LAUGHING / HIM WALKING AWAY


Ella: I knew I shouldn’t have let him talk me into it, but I can’t say no to him


 FLASHBACK TO HIM PREPARING HEROIN FOR HER


Ella: after that night I couldn’t resist it, the urges became more frequent and more severe


FLASHBACK TO HER PREPARING IT HERSELF


Ella: he stopped seeing me and spent all of his time with her.


FLASHBACK: ALEX AND OTHER GIRL WALKING DOWN A ROAD AND IGNORING HER, CHIAROSCURO LIGHT


Ella: I’m sorry Alex, i hope she makes you happy.


“DEATH” SCENE: SHE PICKS UP A HANDFUL OF PILLS WITH A BLOOD COVERED HAND/ARM, KNOCKS OVER ANGEL STATUE WHICH BREAKS

TITLE APPEARS

Initial ideas and inspiration

For our opening title sequence we have decided to have minimal acting, much like in the Se7en we have decided this as we think by using composition and camera effects we can create very interesting shots, We plan to do this by using props, lighting and editing throughout the extract.







The credits in the opening title of Se7en are very simple but very effective due to the use of layering and slight movement. Most of our opening sequence is going to be shots of diary entry's with voice overs and possibly flashbacks, as our story progresses the diary entry's are telling the story and the story gets darker the diary gets messier and the pages resemble the atmosphere.

Narrative planning

We decided to base the plot around a love triangle as this is very stereotypical within Film Noirs and we want our production to be Neo Noir.
We decided to use Tzvetan Todorov narrative which is very mainstream for film narratives, and it fits in well with the story line of our movie however we have modernized it and changed it slightly. Our storyline hasn't been finalised yet however we know we want to follow this narrative, which follows the following structure;

The characters are going to be the most obvious change to a typical Film Noir, we will have a Femme Fatal, Everyman and Girl next door, however the femme fatal is a Male and the Everyman is a female. We have decided to switch these gender roles to give our story a more modern and rememberable aspect. 

This is our groups evaluation of our film, in this video we discuss the strengths and weaknesses we had.

Continuity task- Cinderella

This is the finalized version of our film noir Cinderella movie.

cinderella SKUPINA STUDIOS

Fairy Tale Challenge - initial planning

My group and I discussed many different fairy tale ideas and decided on Cinderella as we all know the story well and think we could adapt it to a Neo Noir film with ease.

Development

To transform Cinderella into a Neo Noir we had to change the plot slightly for example, in place of the fairy God mother is a 'pill' , instead of a ball Cinderella goes to a house party this is when the prince falls in love with her, Cinderella leaves her phone at the party and the prince asks the 'ugly step sister' who claims the phone is hers to unlock the phone instead of trying on the glass slipper. The ending is the most unlike the original story, in the typical story Cinderella and Prince Charming fall in love and have a happy ever after, in our film they believe they will have a happy ever after but sadly the prince gets shot by the Step Dad as he wants the prince to marry his real daughter the 'ugly step sister' who is our Femma Fatal.

Casting 

Prince- Matty Levesley 

Cinderella- Niamh Gallagher

Step Sister- Heather McDonald

Step Dad- Jack Grimshaw 

Extras: as our group is quite small we asked some of our friends to feature as extras in the party and a police officer. 

Camera- As there are different scenes requiring different actors we all filmed certain sections. We used a camcorder to record the film and an iPhone 6 for the still photos. 

Director- We didn't want one person to take charge so we worked as a team to direct each other. 

Editing- I took it upon myself to edit the storyboard in Photoshop, I made the photos black and white with red detailing much like typical film noirs. Matty and Jack are going to edit the film while teaching me and Heather how to do it.

Storyboard

 niamhx

Audience

Peter Pan

Due to the classic storyline this film appeals to children and Disney fans, also as it contains action this will attract older teens and males. As there are different actors it will borrow interest from other films and shows. Due to it being well known story it will alway have a big audience and will always be a loveable film. A lot of the people that this appealed to before release would mainly want to watch it to compare to the cartoon version, these kind of people are those who grew up with the cartoon (which was released in 1953) and at sceptical about the new version. 

White chicks 

White chicks is a action/comedy so it has quite a specific audience although as contains two actors from Scary Movie which is a similar genre it will appeal to fans from that movie series. Although White Chicks does contain Action which is usually aimed at males, this film is generally seen as a 'girly' film and is a lot more popular with female audiences. 

Mama Mia 

Mamma Mia fits into a range of genres for example it is a musical but it is also a romance/ comedy so it appeals to a wide range of  people. The songs in the film are all sung and produced by the famous band Abba so the film has borrowed interest from Abba fans.  

Foley Sound

Definition:

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.

In the video above two men describe how they created the audio for Toy Story and many other famous animations and the importance of this technique they use. They also speak of the animation progress that happens alongside the audio.

Peter Pan

Activity 1:

The Darling family children receive a visit from their fairy tale hero, Peter Pan who takes them on the adventure of a lifetime. The children fight the war with Hook, meet the lost boys, fall in love and explore Neverland like they never could in their stories.

 

Activity 2:

• The female is leaning over the male character who has blood on his face, the background and male are blurred and the focus is on the girl.It seems like they are about to kiss.
• The female (Wendy) is closer to the camera and the male is slightly behind her. The characters are central and take up most of the shot.
• The lighting and colours haven't really affected what is visible however the background is blurred so the audience focus on the characters.
• The shot is an extreme close up of the characters. The camera is most likely on the surface they are laying on as it is at the same level as them.
• For this particular shot I think there is only one camera but in this scene there are many different camera angles so a lot of cameras would be used.
• The shot is filmed from this angle to show the intimacy and I think the purple/blue colour scheme gives the shot quite a gentle and innocent feel. If the shot was filmed from a different angle there wouldn't be as personal and intimate. Having the female in front of the male makes it seem like she is protecting him.
• The lighting makes it seem like its coming from a pink night sky
• The body language makes it seem like the female is about to kiss the male, which seems quite personal so they probably have a loving friendship/relationship.

Neo Noir research

Neo noir from niamhx

I have a lot more content to post but I thought I would out it on my blog so it wasn't as empty, will be finished by Wednesday night

Neo Noir- examples

Misfits and Sin City

Zombie Noir was a one off episode of the popular British TV drama Misfits. In this episode a female character has come to believe her life is a Film Noir, because of this she has the common life of a typical Femme Fatal, for example she manipulates the men around her by exploiting their need to protect her causing them to do exactly as she says which eventually backfires and ends with her death.

The story line follows the basic Film Noir pattern although it has a few twists, the episode does not start at the end which it usually would in a typical production, also the everyman/anti-hero kills himself because of his actions whereas in typical Film Noirs the everyman gets punishment from someone else. Other aspects are also very typical for a Noir such as the cigarette smoke and  having certain scenes in slow motion to distort the image, the dramatic music when there is tension between characters, the importance of alcohol for the everyman and the Femme Fatals behaviour.

One of the most obvious ways of telling this Neo Noir from a film noir, other than the fact there are zombies as main characters, is the scene is only in black and white when focused on the Femme Fatal, otherwise it is in colour but it is slightly faded to give it a dramatic atmosphere.

 

 

Sin City is a lot more like a typical Film Noir ,It opens with dramatic jazz music playing in the background along with police sirens, while a woman wearing a red dress walks into the black and white scene. We then hear a man speak in a voice over which is very common in Film Noirs. He has a very dramatic and manly voice which makes us think he is the hero of this story, he describes what has happened using the past tense which again is very common. They start a conversation in which he is very complimentary which make it seem like he is interested in her. The lighting in this scene is coming from the doors behind them which create a lot of shadow, this makes the atmosphere a lot more dramatic

and is a very typical way of using lighting unconventionally. For 5 seconds there is a white silhouette of the characters kissing, this is a modern technique and sets it apart from other Film Noirs. Before he kills the woman, in his voice over he is saying that he told her he will protect her and take her away from her problems, also that he loves her which is very typical but then he shots her and holds her until she dies, pathetic fallacy is used by the rain becoming heavier when she dies.


Blade runner is a science fiction neo noir film made in 1980 and set in 2019. Although its set in the future Blade runner has a lot of typical film noir conventions, such as the use of mise-en-scene to create atmosphere and feeling for example there is a lot of smoke in the air from either factories or cigarettes which gives the scene a sense of mystery, the use of dull lighting creates this too. The contrast of neon lights and dull set is quite typical in Neo Noir films and is very present in Blade Runner, the buildings and signs have very neon elements but the overall colour scheme is very dark and dull which is very Film Noir like. The sounds in Blade runner are very typical for Noir films, for example Voice overs of the every mans thoughts/ him explaining the storyline and dramatic music to create tension and cause the audience to become aware of the mood of the scene, the music itself however is quite modern. Although the storyline is very modern and science fiction like the 'everyman' seems to have an average job in the clip. 

 

 

 

Film Noir research

Socail and Historical context 

'Film Noir' is a term used to describe Hollywood crime dramas originated in 1930s but became popular in the early 40's- late 50's. Film Noir films were created to return home life to how it was before the war having the man as most powerful and the woman being a stay at home housewife, this was no longer the norm as during the war women became a lot more powerful due to them being the only ones at home while their husbands went to warm the men also became dependent on the women to produce equipment and keep the country afloat, many men, especially those in power, were not happy about this.

Film Noirs are typically very dark and over dramatic, they often use dramatic lighting, shadow effects and silhouettes to create mystery and set an atmosphere. As they were popular after the war they used the fact that people were a lot more comfortable with violence and death to their advantage, Every Film Noir has many deaths, usually the main characters and although there is a lot of violence in the films they are never gory, the deaths are quite clean and quick.

Typical Film Noir shot

The basic narrative structure is as follows;

*starts at end*
Everyman is broken or dying
*flashback*
Everyman gets approached by gangster
Everyman falls for Femme Fatal, usually the gangsters girlfriend, due to the Femme fatals seducing
Femme Fatal asks everyman to kill gangster (or asks for a crime as a favor)
Everyman does crime, then realizes Femme Fatal has used him
Femme Fatal rats on the everyman
Femme Fatal gets punished for her actions, she usually dies

*back to present time*

Everyman some how ends up dead or dying, sometimes he ends up with the girl next door but not often

Film Noir plots are very predictable, the majority of them start off at the end with the 'everyman' broken or dying, there will be a voice over of him saying something meaningful or perhaps on the phone to someone explaining what hes done, then show a flashback of how the 'everyman' got to where he is now.

Lighting and mise-en-scene 

There are many repeated traits of a Film Noir, for example they are always in black and white, if not they are called a Neo Noir. 

The lighting in Film Noirs are very important, as they are in black and white it is harder to use lighting in certain ways. Rooms are often filled with smoke and white light to create foggy atmosphere, this helps set the scene and makes it more convincing. In Film Noirs windows are often used as a light source, for example in a room the Everyman and Femme Fatal will be near a window which will be the only light source, this creates gives the impression that it is a secret and no one should know, this photo is a perfect example.

Shadows are often used to exaggerate the emphasis on the character, having a shadow in the composition creates a mysterious atmosphere which is very important in Film Noirs. The composition of the film is usually very clean cut, there will always be smoke of some type in the air.

Camera angles and editing

Camera angles are often used to create a tension for the viewers, extreme close ups and uncomfortable angles such as looking up at the character or looking down a street at an odd angle are often used.  Often in scenes there will be an obvious focus such as a gun or the main character, this is just to make the audience know where they should focus or who to think about. 

As Film Noirs were created in the 40-50s there wasn't a lot of editing skills available so the films are very lightly and simply edited. They use a lot of sudden cuts between shots, this gives the film quite a harsh feel. 

Sound

Classic Film Noirs start with a long opening scene which will have dramatic jazz music, this was a very popular music genre at the time however it was quite controversal as it was new and different to what was normal until then. throughout the film there will be scenes which have dramatic music in the background to create tension for the audience. This is the Double Indemnity opening scene, as you can tell there is dramatic music, they create this effect by using a lot of brass instruments. 

My top 10 films- prezi

Media and Me

Above is my media and me Emaze, it is a short video with a bit about me and experience I have with  media. This was my first time using Emaze, I found it a bit difficult to figure out but I think that it is a really good and interesting way to use presentations and will definitely use it again!

Our sweded film!!

On the left is the Babadook trailer which uses as lot of obvious camera tricks, special effects and skilled editing. I personally think the trailer is quite creepy and thrilling, and I know many other people feel the same.
On the right is our sweded version of the Babadook trailer which uses a lot of varied camera angles, virtually no editing and no special effects. As a group we are really happy with the final video as we put a lot of effort into it and it has paid off. We were told in the task to not take it too seriously and make sure it is funny, which we have definitely achieved.

Our film has been posted to Youtube, Twitter and all of our individual blogs.