Little Red Riding Hood Evaluation

At the beginning I felt thrown in at the deep-end seen as this was my first media production I had directed therefore I believe there are many things that I would change when it comes to the real production.

Choosing Conventions

At first Autumn and I had struggled as to which fairytale we wanted to do and how we could make it more neo-noir. After many mind maps and storyboards we had decided upon Little Red Riding Hood. We believed we could create a very mysterious production and change the concepts of the fairytale into film noir. Therefore we decided upon trying to change the characters roles around slightly, we wanted Little Red to be the anti-hero, the wolf as the femme fatale and the axe man as the girl next door. We wanted to create a dramatic production and yet keep the scenes almost the same as the fairytale. We had to decide upon who would be acting for us and considering no other young people we know live near to us and the location we were using in such little time we just decided to use ourselves. Our location was perfect for the forest scenes as it looks dark and spooky with natural sounds like whistling trees and cracking branches, we decided to film it at Sprowston Green. Throughout my blog you will see the use of many kinds of planning techniques such as script writing, storyboards, comic strips and mood boards. We spent hours on perfecting scripts and what camera angles we were going to use rather than perfecting our final.


Research
Between us we had researched the full Red Riding Hood fairytale and Autumn had even looked at the film of the fairytale that was out in 2011 starring Amanda Seyfried. I had enjoyed watching these clips because they showed dramatic and action scenes, and how they had positioned their camera.


Planning
For our planning we had created many mindmaps and storyboards the position where the scenes will take place and what characters will be involved. We had spent hours planning the final shoot including holding a photo shoot a few nights before. However, when we had started the photo shoot in October around 7pm the sky was already extremely dark. I am very happy that we had looked into the timings of the evening and realising when to do the final due to weather conditions and how dark it is outside. Then, we had decided to film in the holiday so that we could do it slightly earlier of a time of 4pm. As we chose the timing three hours earlier it was much brighter outside and therefore our cameras had picked up more focus still gave the glum and eerie feel to the film.


Organisation
I believe we organised the production very well however if I were to do it again I would take many different takes of the same scenes so that we had more to work with whilst editing. As I was playing the main character we agreed that Autumn would do the majority of the filming and we would leave the camera on the tripod filming whilst in a scene together. I had organised all the props that we had borrowed from out drama studios in sixth form, I believe we picked the best props we could find without having to purchase any. I had also been in charge of creating the comic strip and storyboards. I believe we worked well together in the time we had.


Production
We agreed that because this was our first production we would try all different camera angles and lighting (as best a lighting we could work with in a forest). We had tried to use pan shots, low and high angles, close-ups and using the 180 degrees. I believe our set continuity task was edited extremely well. Autumn edited the whole production on iMovie, I believe Autumn did the best. We both had difficulty on adding the sound on iMovie to fit in with the production and then discovered that it was actually extremely loud compared to the characters dialogue. I think even though we had little time and difficulty having the same time together that for our first ever production this went really well considering neither of us has ever taken media before. We both really enjoyed taking part in both the filming and (bad) acting of this production and it was definitely worthwhile. There are however many things I would change about the production including how the ending finished so fast, I would add more scenes and drama in and how the music was too. I would have liked to attempt to create our own sounds a little more, even though we did foley the gun shot at the end by clapping together. I would have liked to use different actors instead of ourselves as well as I believe we would both be able to concentrate on the editing and actual filming of the production a lot more. We are

Feedback
We are now receiving feedback from Survey Monkey after I had created a short survey and shared it on some social media sites. I am just waiting for a good number of people to have anonymously taken art in my feedback to show the results. I shall keep you posted!


Conclusion
I think we did try really hard to have a good piece of work and as this was both our first production without having any prior Media experience i think it was a really good effort and our work did pay off. There are many pieces i would change like perhaps planning our script and also including different people to play the characters rather than us as we arent the best actors,  this would allow us to have more control over our production. We are now in the process of receiving feedback as this will allow us to capture what we can improve and how other people see our work.
With more time and as our knowlege of media grows i think me and Charlotte will improve with our filming and editing.


Continuity Task Feedback

For the feedback of our video I have decided to create a Survey Monkey with a few short questions on to share through my blog and social media. These questions include about the camera and composition, lighting and props. Hopefully, after a few days we will start to see many results and so will be able to analyze them on our blogs through the use of screen grabs. We both understand that if we were to do it all over again there would be many improvements to make, however we would like to just get some quick feedback on the first video we edited and created together. So please could you look in the link beforehand watched our short video and then kindly complete our survey, it shouldn't take more than five minutes altogether and would help us so much. The link is below, thanks. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FLS3BMD

Our Fairytale Continuity Task

This is our neo-noir version of the fairytale: Little Red Riding Hood. I have taken this from my Vimeo account along with other blogs and posts i have created. We both felt thrown in at the deep-end seen as we have never done anything with creating videos or media since creating this. Therefore we did find it terribly difficult but we both know that to create a good final that we need to put so much time into practicing different skills to get our best. Enjoy.

Little Red Riding Hood Neo noir from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

Quick Vlog Whilst Filming

This is a short video of us updating you on what scenes we are filming. By this time we had already filmed all scenes in the forest including Little Red skipping and meeting the wolf. These scenes took around forty minutes to take as we had a short period of time in which the forest would become extremely dark, as you can see from the video. After this video was taken we were heading to my house to film scenes of Little Red being wary as her grandma's house has been wrecked and when the Axe-man saves her from the wolf. Enjoy and yes I understand I could not say continuity correctly.


Quick Vlog whilst filming Little Red Riding Hood Neo-Noir from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

Little Red Riding Hood Comic Strip

 

I have created this comic strip using the app: Comic Life. This app allowed me to transform my pictures from the first photo shoot into a comic strip/storyboard of what is going to happen in our short film. This app was brilliant because it was extremely simple to use including adding own photographs, text and changing borders and colours. There are many ways to create it so that it looks like your own, and very unique.

 

 

Reflective comment:



I believe that the app itself was exceptional to use and had many simplistic and easy features that you can use. However, I found it highly difficult to save it as a jpeg. or just a simple picture. I had to play around with different ideas on my laptop to save it rather than it just opening on the app, and discovered that if I were to save it onto a word document as a print screen and then crop it I could then save it as a picture. I think I would use this software again as it was interesting to be able to create your own comic strip absolutely free and because it was just so simple.

Identifying an Audience for our Fairytale Neo-Noir

Making sure a film has the correct film rating is very important especially to parents that want to protect their children from sexual scenes, violence and disturbing images. Film ratings provide parents with advance information about the content of films to help them to determine what movies are appropriate for their children. In the case of films shown in the cinema, local authorities have the final legal authorisation over who can view a particular film. The majority of the time the local authorities have accepted the Board's recommendation for a certificate of film. However there have been some notable exceptions such as Last Tango in paris and The Exorcist in the 1970's that were classed as an X certificate, but the local authorities chose to ban the films. 

These classifications above are the regular British Board of Film Classification that were changed in 2003 compared to the ones that were in tradition since the 1980's. I believe that our film so far with planned it would come under a PG as there are no sexual scenes, just small talk and flirting. There is not much violence neither just a gun shot. However, some may say it will be a 12A or 12 because the storyline is about kidnapping. 

Props and Conventions of our Fairytale Neo-Noir

Autumn and I have decided that we wish to refuse the ideal general conventions of film noir and create our own neo-noir in the style of Little Red Riding Hood. We have discussed and agreed that we feel the photographs at least should be black and white with only red as the colour standing out. This is usually used to draw attention to the femme fatale, however it will draw more attention to Little Red, the innocent. We will edit the photographs on Adobe Photoshop together. The three photographs below are some quick examples of how we will use the red to draw attention:

The photographs are fully black and white only focusing on the red. We have decided to incorporate the convention of Sin City into our film. These images were taken in today's lesson when we were interested in playing around with colour. 

We have spoken about props for the photo shoot that is happening tonight and we have decided on using a long red skirt as a cape for Little Red. This will be in vibrant red in the photographs. We also believe that Little Red should have red nails and lips too. This may make the audience believe at first that she is the femme fatale. Leading it to mystery.

For the wolf we had rummaged through the drama studios and found a furry hat and a leather look, old waist coat. This waist coast looks dirty which is great for the wolf as he is supposed to be a wolf that is used to the great outdoors. We wanted the wolf to be walking around with a cigarette as well to show he is supposed to be the femme fatale as he will also be flirty towards Little Red. 

We are still unsure whether we are going to have the gran in the story and whether we are just going to leave her locked in the wardrobe screaming telling Little Red to run away and hide from the evil wolf. However, if we are to use the gran in the story we could use a soft, knitted shawl as it is a stereotypical grandma type of clothing. We could also add some big glasses too.

For the axe man we have decided he must have some kind of tool on him to show the film is modernised and because he is the girl next door saving the day. We think he should wear either tartan or blocks to make it seem like they are really in the forest. He should wear rough jeans and should have a dirty face and be tired out from all the work he has been doing all day.

The four photographs to the right are of some of the costumes we will be using to try and set the scene properly. This photograph was taken by Autumn.

Fairytale Neo-Noir Script Work

Autumn and I have started writing up a draft script of when we film our short film next week. We have decided to keep it short but sweet as we do not wish to make it too long, only a couple of minutes to keep the audiences attention. Here below are some photographs of Autumn's note book of the draft:

As you can see we have colour coded it. The red pen is obviously for Little Red Riding Hood, orange is for the wolf and blue are the stage directions. We found this much easier to coordinate when running through our lines. 

Reflective comment:
I still believe that we need to tweak this to give the short film it's full potential and to making it slightly longer. We also did not know what the wolf should say to Little Red because he should be flirting with her to get what he wants (her as his dinner). We also need to add much more detail and media terminology to create the best effects. I enjoyed this task because we could add our own imagination and how both Little Red and the wolf should act.

Planning Fairytale Neo-Noir

We have decided as a group (Autumn and I) that we are going to create a modern 2015 neo-noir of Little Red Riding Hood. To do this we will need to add film noir aspects into the short film therefore we have decided to change the characters around so that they are stock characters: the everyman (anti-hero) will be Little Red who is harmless, the wolf will be the femme fatale and the axe man will be the girl next door. We have decided to have Little Red as the everyman because she is very quiet and does not get into any trouble therefore having the femme fatale as the wolf trying to seduce her into having her as his dinner works perfectly because he is top of the food chain and that is his plan after all. The axe man in the original story ends up saving Little Red and her gran from the wolf so I have decided to make him the girl next door. Obviously the characters being different genders makes it slightly neo-noir. But we would like to get creative and make the film and photo shoots black and white and only have the red cape of Little Red's that is coloured a vibrant red, we realise this will be very difficult to do for the entire film. We have created a storyboard that can be seen below: 

These are photographs of the storyboard Autumn and I have drawn up about specific scenes we would like to include in our short film.

Scene 1: 

Little Red Riding Hood leaves her house. We have thought about using my front door as the setting and have it set in the evening when it is dark and gloomy. We want to capture this scene very mysteriously and would like to play with shadows.

Scene 2:

Here Red Riding Hood will be skipping into the woods, we have decided to use the Sprowston woods outside my house as it is hidden and discreet.

Scene 3:

Red Riding Hood bumps into the wolf and he startles her. This is where the scene will become much more dramatic and the audience will start to realise the stock characters. The expression on Red's face will need to be a dramatic shocked face to represent what will be coming soon.

Scene 4:

The wolf tries to seduce Little Red showing once again who the stock characters are with the wolf being the femme fatale this shows how we are creating this much more neo noir than original. I believe that the wolf should be smoking to create the atmosphere and seductive femme fatale.

Scene 5:

Little Red ignores the wolf and carries on her journey not aware that the wolf is behind watching her every step. We are thinking of eyeline-match here to show the wolf constantly watching her every move and many shadows with him in the background. This will create a dramatic yet horrific atmosphere for the audience.

Scene 6:

This will be our continuity task of having Little Red walking through a door and greeting the wolf in her grans rocking chair and having a short discussion. This will be a trial and we will most likely take this in the photography block and the studio.

Scene 7:

This is where the wolf if in the grans living room and is sat in the rocking chair still trying to seduce Red to be with him, when we all know his plan is to have her as a meal. Rather than a date. Here we could use many shadows in this scene and the smoke from the cigarette the wolf is smoking.

Scene 8:

This scene is when gran is screaming from the wardrobe that the wolf has locked her in. She is screaming for her granddaughter to run away and hide.

Scene 9:

The axe man turns up at the grans house as he hears the screaming and rescues Little Red and the gran. In this scene we could use many close-ups to show intimacy and the courage from the axe man.

Scene 10:

This scene will include a happy ever after for Little Red as we believe the everyman should get his chance with the girl next door. This scene will also have close-ups and focal zooms, for intimacy.

Reflective comment:
The next thing we will be doing is looking at writing up our script for the actual film we will create ourselves. However I will need to create the photo shoots over the week too as will need to create some photographs in the evenings in our spare time.

Job Roles in the Media Industry

I have been researching job roles in the media for some time now and realising just how many there are, thousands of jobs just in the media alone. So many are jobs the usual people do such as accountants and receptionists, even caterers. Therefore, I have put together a small Prezi about three of the most interesting roles I believe there are in media: unit skills photographer, make-up and hair artist and armourer. Please enjoy my Prezi.



Foleying

Foleying is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film and video in post-production to enhance audio quality. These sounds can be anything from footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. Every film uses foleying especially animation as the videos are created with no sound, the sound and effects are added on top of the video afterwards. Therefore I have found a foleying example that is also one of my favourite films. This video below is of foleying directed in Toy Story, how they do it and the importance of foleying. Please enjoy.



Reflective comment:
I have never heard of foleying before and just thought that the sound effects on films and episodes were real. I would like to create a short video of making a sound effect without use of any software such as shooting the sound of a gun shot. I believe that foleying is extremely interesting and must be a skilful job. I would like to watch some more foleying videos on the technique and on some of my other favourite films too.

Freeze Frame

The Great Gatsby Synopsis

Midwest native Nick Carraway arrives in 1922 New York, he is in search of the American dream. Nick moves next door to millionaire Gatsby and across the bay from his sweet cousin Daisy and her manipulative husband Tom. Therefore, Nick becomes drawn into the world of wealth and as he witnesses their illusions and deceit this film leads a tale of impossible love, dreams and great tragedy.

In the frozen photograph you can see both Gatsby and Daisy, Daisy of whom looks very lustful towards Gatsby as she is resting her fragile hands among her lips. Gatsby is positioned on the left in the frame, however he is not in focus. I believe the photographer has done this purposely because it shows that she is constantly on his mind, whether he likes that or not. Throughout the film the colour is very saturated this is usually done to show age to the film and they do this with camera effects and the colours that characters dress in. The distance between both Gatsby and Daisy shows they are now intimate and have been so before, Gatsby is longing over her as he is not focused. This is an over the shoulder shot which also shows he is watching her, gazing almost in this scene. I believe the shot is composed over the shoulder and with Jay Gatsby not focused because he has loved her all his life and all he wants is her back, throughout the film you can see all he does is try and win her over. If the shot were not composed from this angle I believe it would not be as capturing towards the audience. By the mise-en-scene of both characters in this freeze frame you can see both are wealthy, however both are not happy. The jewelry and elegant dress shows that she is a modest woman and is quite infatuated towards Gatsby. Lastly, the focus of the scene would be Daisy as she is in focus and so we can tell she is either about to start dialogue or there is meaning behind her smile.

Neo-Noir Film

Other than film noir there is also a much more recent genre that is extremely similar to that of film noir: neo-noir. This genre is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that use elements of film noir, but they have updated themes, content, style or media that were non-existent in film noirs in the 1940’s and 1950’s. We have looked at some neo-noir programmes and films that have many conventions of a film noir but sudden twists such as:

• Misfits Zombie Noir
• Bound
• Sin City
• Blade Runner
• Red Riding

Reflective comment:

I will adding an emaze of each film opening we have watched and include media vocabulary. The emaze will have all the conventions and unusual conventions of each film and what makes it so different to a film noir.

Film Noir General Characters

Throughout Film Noir there are a handful of characters that are especially important to the genre and the narrative. Each character plays a vital part of setting the scene and the script. The general characters are as follows:

The Everyman:

The everyman is often an ordinary individual that seems rather dull and has a normal profession such as a salesman. However, this individual gets less dull throughout the film as there is always a woman that distracts him and gets him in trouble. As the everyman is an ordinary character it makes it easy for him to be identified in the real world. When the genre of Film Noir first came about the men were often intrigued by these new American films because they can be relatable to them, (especially profession wise) making them feel they can do anything. An everyman often holds the role of protagonist but he is no hero, he is also often the narrator for the action.

The Femme Fatale:

The femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and sexy young woman whose charm ensnares her lovers. This character is linked with the everyman as she seduces him to carry out her little plan, which is often to kill her other half for his money. The femme fatale plays an important part of Film Noir because she is there to portray how many men thought women were acting after the war. They believed that they needed to send out a warning to men that all women should be brought back into their places: stay at home and look after the children whilst the men did all the work again. As you can see the Film Noir genre did not change this as many women now tend to have working roles. The femme fatale is often very flirtatious towards the everyman to make sure that she can keep an eye on him and keep her plan running smoothly.

The Girl Next Door:

This character is also typically a very young lady however; the girl next door is often polite and better for the everyman than the femme fatale is. Many get the two mixed up during the start of Film Noir films but towards the ending it is obvious which lady is who as the femme fatale often ends up killed, in danger or in some kind of trouble but the girl next door generally leaves the film harmless and possibly with the everyman.

The Henchmen/Henchman:

A henchmen is a faithful follower especially one that is prepared to engage in crime or violence by way of service. In Film Noir the henchmen are the typical gangsters of the 40’s/50’s who tend to follow the villain by way of order. For example the henchmen in The Killers are Al and Max who serve their leader and decide to murder ‘The Swede’.

The Villain:

The villain in Film Noir is the henchman’s leader and he is the one to order them to engage in crime or violence. The villain is usually against the everyman and is filthy rich with a powerful ego. The villain is often the femme fatale’s husband in some ways in which she wants him murdered to gain all his wealth, this is where the everyman comes into the scene.

Reflective comment:

Eventually I would like to add some photographs or examples of each character from both neo-noir and just film noir films that we have watched as a class.