Sound Techniques

 

We have been challenged by our teacher to create some foleying techniques that we would use in our productions. As a class we watched the opening of Priest (in silence) and had written all the sound devices that we think we may have heard. When it came to watching it over again (this time with sound) we realised that there were so many more sound effects in the background that we would not have understood unless we could hear. The video below is showing a way in which foley artists are used in the media industry and one way that they add the sounds.


I found this extremely useful to watch as it gave me ideas in which I could create some foley sounds. The picture below is of the white board that we had written all the 45 sounds we had heard in the beginning of Priest. Our aim is to now create as many of these sounds as we can and attach to our blogs.

Here I have added a Prezi of my own to show different types of sounds and techniques. I have included definitions for all so that the audience can understand the vocabulary, as I found it tricky when I first discovered it.

Research for OTS

For this OTS production to be as effective as possible I will need to research many aspects of the time era such as male and female costume, furniture and props and fashion/makeup. I would like to set it in the 20’s but have the film noir aspect of a femme fatale introduced with heavy makeup and similar dress including head piece and cigarette holder.

Below is my slideshare of the research I have found and produced. This will help me to choose a style of dress and understand what kind of make up they wore.

Research for OTS - 1920's from CharlotteLouiseB

1920s fashion from Hailey Wheeler

Mise-en-Scene Planning

I believe that mise-en-scene is a very important part of a production as each prop, appearance and costume should have a reason or meaning to be in the frame. I would like the femme fatal to be seen as a male protagonist being broken and believing her innocence after a murder. Therefore, acting like a male protagonist, adding in the film noir typical conventions and making the production a success I think that i have a lot of props to research and purchase for this 2.5 minute production.

Props

I would include an old fashioned dresser into the frame with a mirror attached because that is where the femme fatal will be sat removing her foundations (make-up). Researching 1920's dressers now they look much more antique with more drawers, a  sharp wooden effect and a glossy finish. However, mine is more Victorian based and is completely white-washed. Although the film will be black and white and therefore the dresser will not seem so much newer compared to other props such as the flapper dress the femme fatal will be wearing. The mirror attached to the dressing table will be used for camera and composition for almost over the shoulder shots with the actress. 

I would like to get some whiskey and a whiskey glass to use for the real production to try and shoot through the glass and work on a kind of kaleidoscope image. I am hoping this effect would work or to shine light through it to create a disco ball-lighting effect around the room. As the location is my bedroom the walls are painted a very light pink-peach colour and therefore looks similar to that of dull walls. I cannot change the walls however, as the film will be black and white they will look almost grey in colour. My curtains are also a grey colour which will be okay to use as they let light in and may work well with the lighting side, I will experiment this on the run-through without all props. If this doesn't work I may have some older and thicker curtains that do not let as much light in.

I really want the femme fatal to be extremely broken and act as though she was very devious following the evening I will be filming. Therefore, I would like her make-up to be extremely heavy as many women wore in the 1920's. I would like to research the general outfit from the 1920's flapper and femme fatal to make sure she is not shown as the girl next door. At the ending many may feel that she is the girl next door because she will be admitting to all her mistakes including what happened that evening. I want her outfit to be very flirtatious as though she really has gotten somebody in trouble, deep trouble. 

I will need to purchase a fake weapon, which i would like to be an old shotgun as she will be looking over this during the start of the production as a reminder of what she has done. I would also like there to be some homemade polaroids scattered around the room, especially on the mirror where the femme fatal can pull them off in disgust at what she has done. These polaroids will include photographs of a desirable anti-hero that she had fallen in love with, and yet ruined everything with a single gun shot. On the dressing table there will also be an old style hair brush and something for her to take her foundations (make-up) off with. Becoming a different person.


Equipment 
I am going to need different equipment for this production such as my microphone, my Nikon D5200 and fish-eye lens to make her look secluded, tripod and possibly both of my flash's to add more lighting as I do not have the radiant lights at home. 

OTS Planning Ideas

As I am now working alone on the OTS production I have decided to steer away from my original idea of a Great Gatsby party leading with a murder and have decided to take an different route for the filming aspect and have more complex camera and composition effects. I am going to stay with the style of Great Gatsby and have all the props based around the 1920's. 

The story

I am going to have a femme fatal character throughout as the central protagonist because I like the idea of having the femme fatal from the start to draw attention to her mistakes instead of the everyman. I would like her heavily made-up and taking away her foundations to become a girl next door character by realising her mistakes but being unable to change them. I would like to have just the femme fatal and voice over of her mistakes because it adds enigma to the story, ending on a cliffhanger. 

Adding to the conventions of film noir

Film noir was around in the 1940's however I have decided to set the OTS in the 1920's, the Gatsby era. The idea of film noir was to show men that women are being included in more male role responsibilities and many men did not enjoy this. The film producers wanted to show men that women need to return to their original gender roles. Therefore I am going to turn my femme fatal into a wreckage of disaster and go with the moral convention. 

The femme fatal will be drinking whiskey and sobbing about the past acting as the anti-hero broken down as in the conventions of classic film noir. This shows that the OTS will begin at the end. The production will be filmed in my bedroom as I have white washed old-fashioned wardrobes and a dressing table with a mirror, making it more realistic for the time period. I also believe along with heavily drinking there should be an element of smoking and soft smoke going past the lens as femme fatal were shown as danger including smoking, drinking and trouble. As the film production will be captured in my bedroom only, i will not be able to add elements of darkness and alleyways as many film noir films include, however I would like to include deep contrasts between shadows. I will try this with use of different lighting to show emotion for the femme fatal. I would also like the whole frame to be in black and white as all original film noir films are.

OTS Research

We were set a challenge in lesson to find a couple opening title sequences that inspire us. I looked on the website Art of the Title and found a couple that I would like to explore and perhaps use some sections in my own ideas and production. 

I found the OTS to the film Seven 1995, now this is not a film noir however there are sections that are inspirational and imaginative that I like. The OTS can be seen below.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/#

This film is a 1995 American neo-noir psychological thriller film with a strong A-list cast including Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Morgan Freeman. I enjoy this OTS because it is very dark and gloomy, creating a cold atmosphere. There is much use of close-ups during the OTS such as the fingers, the diaries and pictures throughout. I would like to base my camera on close-ups with the femme fatale being broken, with tears running down her face, whiskey in glasses and the polaroids of her old lover, the everyman she had killed. The diaries are also a brilliant idea which i may include but I feel that past love letters may be a better idea from the everyman, making her tearful. I would also like photo's of her lover from old style polaroids that I will hand make.

Another technique I really like about this OTS is the titles and writing. Most opening title sequences have font titles rather than sketching and scribbles like the killer has written it himself. I would like to either like the femme fatale to write the cast and titles on a piece of paper with beautiful calligraphy or I would like to try to scribble it and add it in later on like the film Seven. The music throughout this OTS is much too eerie for what I am trying to capture but fits perfectly with the idea behind the film.

Another OTS I have found is called I Wake Up Screaming 1941, this is an American film noir. The credits are spelled out in lights superimposed over the New York Skyline. As seen below.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/i-wake-up-screaming/

There is no story behind the short title sequence and as it is so old there is not much to it. However, I very much like the font and think it is very interesting. At the beginning there is the production company, Twenty Century Fox and I believe I should add something similar for the Top Hat Production of mine. I would like it to look similar and nothing much to it. The kind of music used in this OTS is similar to what I would hope to find for mine. I will be looking for a free music archive for something similar along with some dance jazz music as I am thinking of adding some flashbacks.


I will add pictures and screenshots of examples later.

Awards

Our teacher decided that we would all vote on the best productions starting 1-5. Every member of a team had to vote for their favourite productions. Autumn and I didn't believe it when we came third out of five productions. I was ecstatic when finding out the scores. Now, I feel we can create a very moving and very effective final production in the next couple of months. This score has made me very excited to start our production.  Below you can see the slideshare of the scores.

2015 media production as fairy tales position votes + comments from Elaine Humpleby

Little Red Riding Hood Introduction and Peer Assessment

Below I have a vimeo of myself introducing our short film to the class. We had decided to peer assess all the short productions for internal feedback. I believe both giving and receiving the feedback was very helpful considering in our class we have past media students and therefore was easy to pick up the terminology and what we should be looking out for in a good production. Enjoy.


Introduction to Little Red Riding Hood Neo-Noir from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

And now below we have the peer assessment vimeo of what people thought of our presentation. We had comments such as 'the ending was far too short' this was our fault as we had left editing far too late compared to when we had planned. Other comments included: 'I really liked the sinister sounds' of which we created with sound effects on iMovie and 'I liked how the colour changed to black and white but I think you could have used a different transition'. All comments were taken into account and we can work on them when we create our real production. This video is below.

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. 

Generic Conventions of The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia is a neo-noir crime thriller based on the murder of Elizabeth Short, of who was the victim of a much publicised murder in 1947. Her death is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angele’s history and he body was left mutilated and sliced in half at the waist. The film takes interest in the investigation of her death.

Composition

This photograph below is from the 2006 version of The Black Dahlia featuring Scarlett Johansson. In this scene Bucky realises that he actually loves his LAPD partner’s long-time girlfriend Kay Lake and not actually the femme fatale of this film, Madeleine. Kay however is said to be the girl next door in this noir film. He has come to be with her, where he feels he belongs. This is the very end of the film.

The way Kay is looking back through her apartment it is as if she is asking for forgiveness from Lee as she is now with his partner. Now this composition is very different to that of a general film noir in the 40’s/50’s as usually it is the everyman in the foreground with the femme fatale or girl next door in the background. In the usual noir the everyman would be in the foreground as though the other woman is in the back of his mind or as though she is always watching him. Whereas, this is a different snap shot for a general film noir, as is that the film is actually coloured (saturated) rather than the typical black and white.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene in this film is rather typical to that of a normal film noir as Kay and Madeleine both have cigarette holders and the smoke from them trail their posture in a glamourous way. The photograph of Madeleine in the photograph below shows the costume she wears almost throughout the film.

Her hair however compared to that of a typical femme fatale is rather flat and pulled back when usually it is all tied in curls. The cut of this shows very much of Madeleine’s curves and cleavage to make her seem sexy and exotic, making men surround her. Similar, to that of the mythical mermaid sirens. The men all wear suits and costume in this film as well due to them being in LAPD uniform making them look smart. Even though this is a very new film noir (2006) the costume and acting is that of the same as the typical in the 40’s/50’s. The femme fatale is extremely independent and feels powerful, she believes throughout the film she will get as she wishes.

Narrative Structure

The narrative structure of The Black Dahlia is very similar to that of a normal film noir as you have all the characters needed: everyman, femme fatale, girl next door and villain. The film starts with the ending but not in the way that typical film noirs do because they do not have the slow flash backs as such. However the ending where the femme fatale gets murdered and then the everyman ends up with the girl next door is the approach of film noir films, generally speaking.

Reflective comment:

I will need to add a sound caption and a small amount of music from the film such as when the femme fatale appears and it is more of a seductive feel. I would also like to add the trailer or short clips of the film itself.

Generic Conventions of Double Indemnity

I have created my first Emaze, I created a presentation using this software as I wanted to learn some new skills and software bases. This is all about the simple conventions throughout the film, Double Indemnity. I have added many photographs to this to make it slightly more visual and for the sound convention I have added a two-minute video from Vimeo as an example of the voice-overs that Walter had done throughout the film. This merges real-life with memories for him. 

Reflective comment:
I understand that the Emaze is slightly too big for the page and so i need to work out how I am going to make the size a lot smaller. Also I never added anything about the editing from Double Indemnity as I didn't know what to include. using Emaze was very difficult at first however, once I had the basic skills it was easy to create something like this. 

Generic conventions of Film Noir

The generic conventions are split into five different sub-headings: Camera and composition, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, narrative and characters. We have watched three Film Noirs so far which include: Double Indemnity, The Killers and The Black Dahlia and so with these we have looked at their generic conventions.

Camera and composition

‘Composition’ describes the placement of relative objects and elements in a work of art. It is about the angles that the photograph has been taken in and how props have been set-up. A good composition is one that has enough detail and has a good balance. However, too elements can be distracting and lead the audience’s interpretation to confusion; meaning that the correct props for the storyline is vital.

For example, the photograph to the left is one that I had taken recently with my Sony Cyber shot. I had taken this photograph with her back towards the camera to show her flawless skin and the pearls around her neck. The pearls are part of the mise-en-scene though as they are props. I had taken this at such an angle to show her ‘pouted’ lips and that she was either in part-shock or slightly scared as this was taken outside in a graveyard. I could have made this slightly more Neo Noir by adding red lips (like Sin City) on her or a slight saturation of colour on her dress, which was navy.

Editing

Editing in media is all about how someone combines the clips together, how they are joined together, what software they use and special effects that may be added. I had played around with this slightly when I made my Media and Me vlog but I only used Moviemaker, I would like to try other software when we create our own project, perhaps iMovie.

Sound

Sound in media is all about what you can hear whether it is music, voices, voice overs and sound effects. Many film industries now use folioing  Anything can class as sound on a film, whether it is Film Noir or not.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of scenery and props for photography or in the media industry, therefore the setting of the scene. ‘Mise-en-scene’ in French means ‘telling a story’. When applying the term to media and the film industry it refers to everything that appears beyond the camera including, make-up, costume, props and composition. In Film Noir the main things they tend to focus on is the costume and make-up of the femme fatale and cigarette smoke.

On the photograph to the left there is a photograph of a typical femme fatale, this was taken off Pinterest. The typical mise-en-scene for a femme fatale would be having smoke around her for the seductive atmosphere. She would be wearing heavy make-up and typically red lips, especially in Neo Noir film. The femme fatale is also often skinny and white, as she is to represent the women during the war being far too evil and getting their own way, as many of the men did not enjoy. The lady on the photograph to the left has longer hair than most femme fatale’s however the other costume and make-up makes up for the longer hair. When it comes to creating photographs and the beginning of our film I really want to play around with the costume and make-up of a femme fatale.

Narrative Structure

There is much narrative structure in Film Noirs and typically all fit in with each other. The most important storyline and structures would be that:

· They start with the end, often with the protagonist broken

· They usually include flashbacks or voice-overs

· The start often gives the entire plot away, making it less mysterious

· The characters however have their own mystery and stories

· It is usually from the protagonists perception

· They tend to have slow motion scenes

·The femme fatale usually ends up either being killed or in a lot of trouble

· The everyman ends up in trouble

· The femme fatale seduces the everyman making him do things he will later regret

Conventions of Film Noir from kellymorris92

I used the SlideShare above to see the typical conventions of Film Noir, I found this really useful however I do not agree with Character slide because I don't believe in every Film Noir there is detectives as the protagonists or corrupt police.

Reflective comment:
I need to add either my own Slideshares or Prezi's about each film we had watched and about their conventions. I also would like to find some video examples possibly on Youtube about the Titanic folying as could not do so on the school computers due to it being blocked. I would also like to blog about the different type of characters in Film Noir.