Continuity Task

This is the first video we had created as a team, and the last. But I will evaluate the differences that I have made and how I have improved on narrative, camera angles and composition. This will become aware on my evaluation website. 


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

OTS and Survey

It would be much help if you would watch my short production and fill out my short survey as part of my evaluation for media studies at sixth form. Thank you for watching!



PROHIBITION from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.



And the survey.

The Target Audience

I believe that the production that I am creating would be a 12 certificate as there will be use of mild weaponry, sexual scenes and smoking/drinking. It is said that film noir is mostly aimed at the male character due to the crime scenes and therefore I believe this too would however, there is a rise of females that enjoy black and white films recently.

The screenshot below is from YouGov to determine what the audience type is for the film noir: Double Indemnity. As you can see it is mostly males aged from 55 that prefer the film. I agree this would be correct as the film is from 1944 and therefore I did not assume that it would interest younger customers due to the release date, although those that take media or photography may be more interested in watching this noir. I agree similarly that males would be interested in my noir production due to it being about crime and completely black and white. The records also show that my assumptions are correct, it also shows that the two biggest professions that people watch this are in is law and media and publishing. 

The next screenshot below is from the same website on YouGov, however this is showing the typical audiences for the film Gone Girl. Now this film is much more recent from 2014 and as you can see from the statistics below does not appeal at all to those that are interested in Double Indemnity. The film below appeals more to females from the ages of 25-39. This film however is not a film noir or a black and white film, this production is a thriller based on a young couple that have many secrets. I have chosen to contrast these films because even though Double Indemnity is a film noir I do not feel the audiences with mine would be the same because it is a lot more recent. Due to the storyline of Gone Girl with the main character seeming like a victim yet turning out to be the villain in the story is why I had chosen this film to contrast audiences with mine. In my production the femme fatale will seem to be the victim at the start when she is miserable and heavily drinking, however when the voice-over comes in then the realisation that actually she has some dark secrets that have been exposed and that she is the villain not the anti-hero. 

I found the below Slide-share very interesting and helpful when it came to looking at who my target audience will be. This made me think about some factors I need to look into as to who will be interested in my production. I felt it made me think more about gender, age, occupation, sexuality and the importance of education. As the above website did YouGov. The very last part of the Slide-share is very important and interesting as it talks about different types of audiences as opposed to mainstream, the succeeders and reformers. 

How media producers define their target audience from mattwako

National Readership Survey (NRS) demographic categories

Social Grade	Social Status	Occupation
A	upper middle class	higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	skilled manual workers
D	working class	semi and unskilled manual workers
E	those at lowest level of subsistence	state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

The Demographic classifications in the UK and the ABC1 grades refers to the social grade definitions, which are used to describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle antics, statistical research and analysis. The national Readership Survey is a non-profit but commercial British survey concerned with monitoring, analysing and providing estimates on the number and nature of people who read Britain's newspapers and consumer magazines. The social grade definitions by the NRS are widely used as a generic reference series classifying and describing social classes, especially for consumer targeting and consumer market research by the advertising UK media and publishing sectors. 

The Pete Buckinghams Audience Types research is extremely useful when thinking about audience types for a production. All this research has made me really think about who i believe would be interested in my film due to the storyline and how recent it is. 

Conclusion

I believe that from looking at all this research I have found out who my target audience would be I feel it would interest females more than males due to the little crime and the thriller between the character of the femme fatale. I also feel the 'impulsive materialists' will enjoy the production due to enjoying more of a mature nature in the sense of film-dinner-drinks. 

Feedback from Survey Monkey on my First Draft

This Slide Share shows my feedback and comments from what unknown others thought of my first drafted production. I had shared this on social media and therefore would not know many of the participants, making it fairer.

Survey Monkey on Film Noir First Draft from CharlotteLouiseB

Difficulties

As some of you already know I have been having problems uploading Movie Maker films into Vimeo, thus not being able to add to my blog. I have also had great difficulty when I had updated my laptop to Windows 10 it had deleted some of my video files therefore I have not been able to get them back. Below is the video I used to be able to change Movie Maker to an mp4 file, thus making it large enough to add to Vimeo.


I had then had problems accessing the smaller videos I had prepared such as the shisha smoke and thr calligraphy for the title and credits. I will add these on too afterwards. However some of the scenes had been deleted from Windows 10 and therefore will need to add other scenes, this shouldn't take too long!

Quick Storyboard and Chosen Soundtracks

I have produced a quick storyboard and thought about what foley sounds I want to incorporate into my production. Here I have photos of my storyboard and ideas whilst writing them up. There are also some quick sketches involved too.

Storyboard Ideas from CharlotteLouiseB

Reflective Comment:

I had some issues when it came to saving my photographs on my laptop due to my email and phone device. Therefore it took me slightly longer to upload because I needed to use my camera to photograph them again and add them onto the blog post. So I have had to add them into a Slideshare to show them to the audience. 

Final Props and Costume

 

The social media aspect of looking for props worked! I managed to get all props for no cost at all from a generous lady not far from Norwich. She has allowed me to borrow a headpiece, flapper dress, black T heels, beads, dress gloves and a scarf. This means that the femme fatales costume is finished apart from the make-up I would like to add. I am still searching for a hat for a my male character, the everyman, but if I cannot find a cheap option costume then I will get my actor to wear a suit and boots. Making sure that I use much smoke as effect. I have added photographs of the props below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very happy with the props I have chosen and discovered however, I would like to think about smaller things I will be needing such as whiskey glasses, decanter and such. I have also got a cigarette holder and a shisha stick so I can add smoke into the production as this is a typical convention of the time period and flappers.



Mise-en-Scene Update

I have already purchased some small items that I can use for the filming such as: a sequinned/feather headband, a cigarette holder, a shish-a stick (for the smoke) and a glass jar that looks similar to a decanter. I ordered the majority from Amazon and the glass decanter is from Hobbycraft. I am still yet to find a size 12 flapper dress for my actress considering the ones that I have come across are extremely expensive for a small production. The next step is to ask on social media to see if any one will lend me the dress for the filming of the production, as it will not be worn afterwards. I will add photographs of the props I have so far during the week including the location I am going to use. 

I have created a Pinterest board for my media studies called: '1920's' this includes props and costume of what was around in the Roaring Twenties. This is the biggest inspiration I have along with The Great Gatsby film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. My Pinterest can be seen below:

http://pin.it/K15CFOW

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.

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.


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.

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 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. 

First look on Film Noir

What is film noir?

Film Noir means ‘dark film’ in French. This is a term that is used to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas; particularly those that have sexual motivations. The term Film Noir first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946. It was in France during the post-war years that the term was used to describe a certain set of Hollywood films that were saturated with a darkness and cynicism that was not seen before. These movies include: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), Laura (1944), and Murder My Sweet (1944). Many of the classic Film Noir films are classed as melodramatic.

How did the films reflect the war?

The films reflected on the war as it was a run-down time, Film Noir show the insecurities and tensions throughout these Hollywood films. As it was the time of the World War people were feeling much more aggressive which lead to the crime and thrillers of all these early films. Some of these films have a moral to teach to the audience, that they believe woman and men should both get back to their original gender roles.

Primary moods of Film Noir:

• Depression
• Suspicion
• Paranoia
• Evil
• Guilt

Introduction to film genre study #1 film noir from shanovitz

This Slideshare was the first one I looked at to understand the use of Film Noir and about characters as a short introduction to this unit.

Reflective comment:

I would also like to see what I can find on Youtube or on Vimeo about Film Noir and the characters.