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.

Exhibition

As my film would be a low-budget production it would less likely be filmed in larger cinemas such as Vue and Odeon. I believe it would be shown at film festivals such as the Fresh Film Festival, the Molodist and the Motovun Film Festival. The Fresh Film Festival is an international student film festival that is held annually in August, I believe they may exhibit my production due to it being a student feature. The Molodist festival is a competition devoted to students productions and therefore my production would fit in well due to the film festival taking films from all over the world. Another film festival that I believe my production could be exhibited at is the Motovun Festival as it is dedicated to low-budget, independent films.

Although I can see my production in a film festival there are many other ways of having a low-budget film exhibited such as film 4's film festivals and online sharing. Online sharing includes Netflix, Amazon Prime, Love Film, Now TV and many others. I agree my production would fit with online sharing because they all have independent film categories that are low-budget and are not always shown in cinemas. These include international independent films. As I said before I don't think my production would end up in a large cinema, however I could see it being in a much smaller complex such as Cinema City. My opening title sequence was made with virtually no money and therefore would be classed low-budget along with an independent film. Working with Cinema City would be great for my film because they help smaller production companies with a smaller budget, the cinema also attracts film-fanatics that I believe would enjoy my production.

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. 

Improvements Made

I have made some improvements from the given feedback from the anonymous on Survey Monkey. Some of the improvements however I could not change due to either budget or the time given. A couple of people had said for the title and casting section the paper looked too plain and rushed. One person even suggested making the paper look a bit dull and dreary to match the time period, therefore I had remembered that using tea and crumpled paper I may be able to achieve this target. However, I hadn't done this technique in years and so had Youtubed different ways of making this work. The video below is the one that I am going to use.

I will be using the oven technique as I  like the small indentations and darker spots, also the darker saturated colour around the edges makes it more realistic. I will add my own video on shortly of how I decided to create the look. I am going to use a5 white paper though, due to my title sequence being in a smaller proportion.

This is my own video:


HOW TO MAKE OLD FASHIONED PAPER from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

I created this video on how to age paper, I didn't use coffee as I did not want a look that is far too strong, I wanted a natural yet rustic feel to the paper.

1. Firstly, I cut my paper in half for the size I needed, fetched four tea bags, turn on the oven and boiled the kettle.

2. Pour the hot water into a glass jug or bowl, making sure not too add too much water as you want the water rather strong, you can add more tea bags if needed.

3. Make sure the water is not too hot so leave it to cool for 5-10 or you can just put it in the fridge if in a rush like I did.

4. Grab a bowl and pour the contents of the jug into it. Completely soak the paper on both sides.

5. When the paper is soaked you can leave to soak for five minutes for a stronger look but I wanted a more subtle look. Now put the paper on a baking tray and put in the oven.

6. How long you leave it in the oven determines how dark, rustic and crumpled you want it. I tended to leave each tray in for between 3 to 5 minutes.

7. Bring out of the oven, using oven mitts and ta da!

Below is how mine turned out. Perfect.

THE FINAL TITLE SEQUENCE DEMO from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

More Drinking Scenes
Other improvement ideas from the survey included: more drinking scenes to show that the femme fatale was at a loss of control and that the drink should be darker in colour to look like it was whiskey, a well known drink then. Therefore for the final I have added in another scene of drinking before the femme fatale removes her gloves to show she just wants to down a drink and forget things, especially what she has done. I could not add any other shots of her drinking in because the film can only be 2.5 minutes long. However, I believe this may be enough including the voice over I have created.

The drink itself was water originally however someone on my survey suggested to make it a better replica to have a darker looking mixture in the decanter. Therefore I had decided to add green tea bags in to make I look darker in colour, similar to that of whiskey. Some people suggested I also buy some bottles/decanters that were old fashioned and with labels to make the mise-en-scene more realistic, however upon searching for these, they became very expensive due to them being under antiques now. This did not fit my budget.

Adding Enigma
I feel that there wasn't any enigma or storyline to the first drafted production as I hadn't time to add in the anti-hero scenes. However, knowing this I have worked on some scenes with my anti-hero cast. The scene is underneath a street lamp outdoors with him smoking and smiling at the camera, almost as though the femme fatale was filming it. In the last scene of him he pushes the camera away playfully showing that they had a good relationship. This will be shown as a flashback of her life with him.

I will add this scene into the video by an over the shoulder shot as I did with the title sequence before hand, the femme fatale will be looking through her polaroids and stumble upon a photograph of him, this will zoom into the video and the audience will be able to recognise who he is. I may even add a scene of her ripping up the photograph of him in the ending showing her aggressiveness.

Sound
I agree that sound is something that I need to add more to, and so I have written a script that can be added over the dreary jazz music being played. The script can be seen on another blog post. This will add background to the storyline and the audience will be able to understand the characters a bit more, adding enigma and a relationship between the femme fatale and anti-hero. I also may add a couple of foley sounds in too but only quietly such as the gulping and pouring of the drinks and the shy laugh of the anti-hero pushing the camera away from him.

Crime
One person revealed that they felt it was not noir enough due to the lack of weapons or crime scenes, therefore as the femme fatale is murdering the anti-hero I am going to add a short scene at the end of the gun aimed at the anti-hero, adding a crime sense. However, I didn't want too much crime aspects due to the femme fatale trying to think straight and be feminine. But, I did feel it needed a small aspect and therefore it will be added without the music at the end and a short quote from the script I had adjusted myself. This will add enigma and a shocking cliffhanger for the audience.

Visual
Another person mentioned that they felt due to the film period the production should have a slight grainy affect to the visual element. Therefore I am going to play around with iMovie and Movie Maker for a short grainy effect.

Writing the Script

It seemed that writing a 1920s script was much harder than I had thought. Therefore, I decided to find out some research on the language that they used in this time. I had found the below video on YouTube and had discovered exactly what I wanted the background story to be. The video helped me to think of an enigma and categorise why the femme fatale had killed her lover. The background story will be the anti-hero being a Private Detector and the femme fatale had tried to win him over to take her case: her sister in law had gone missing with her husbands money. Whilst the Private Detector and the femme fatale are working together on the case the femme fatale falls deeply in love with him, despite having a very rich gangster husband. She cried out for the Detective and they have a passionate affair. Although it seems the Detective uncovers some mystery to the femme fatales unclear story and does not want to be with her anymore. Revealing this, the femme fatale becomes jealous in anger and strikes him down, as she believes if she cannot have his love nobody can.

The video will not allow me to embed it to my blog but the link can be seen below:
https://youtu.be/Ae7GfTIvZjE 

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

First Draft Production - please fill out the survey

Please could people watch this two minute video I have created and complete my two minute survey. It will take less than five minutes of your time. My idea is set on a femme fatale that has just done a horrible thing -killed the anti-hero that she realises she loves-. The more surveys filled out the better, thank you!

I have also added this onto Facebook sites for the best results.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Q87LSNR



The First Production from Charlotte Beach on Vimeo.

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!

Tutorials

I had found these hair and makeup tutorials to really define my mise-en-scene more for costume rather than just props being used. I have many props to add to the production however, I would like to have more on the makeup and costume side of the props. In the 1920's costume and makeup were a large thing for females, you can see this on an earlier post named 'Research for OTS'. The below video is what I will use to create the rough 1920s hairdo that will be shown in my production, it is quick and simple and I can make it look scruffy as my femme fatale needs to be upset and almost drunk. This hairstyle will be perfect.




This below video I will use the simple makeup ideas as they are very sophisticated and elegant, yet very subtle. This works well with the period that it is made from. Both videos were very useful and I am glad that I decided to look on YouTube for short tutorials as these were very helpful in understanding the look needed to pull-off the time period.

Smoke Video

I have created a smoke video with two different devices: a shisha stick and a KangerTech vapouriser to determine which is the most creative yet realistic smoke to use for my photo shoots and production. However, I am finding it difficult to add to Vimeo because of the size of the file. I may have to ask my teacher for help to add it onto Vimeo or create a larger video size because otherwise I cannot add to my blog. I will try and get this sorted by the end of this week.

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.



Scheduled Timings

Here I am going to add the dates in which I hope to get important events done and finished. 

Thursday 14th January: photographs of props and dressing table (location)              COMPLETED

Tuesday 19th January: have storyboard finished and written up                                    COMPLETED

Monday 18th January: find two music tracks for the production on a music archive COMPLETED

Tuesday 19th January: find youtube videos of make-up and foleying, have smoke video on blog

Friday 29th January: have first small video production filmed (femme fatale)      COMPLETED

Friday 29th January: have every man photo shoot printed for polaroid's      COMPLETED

Tuesday 2nd February: have video of everyman and femme fatale finished (short)    COMPLETED

Friday 5th February: have final filmed (femme fatale and anti-hero)        COMPLETED

Monday 29th February: have the final film edited                                    COMPLETED

Monday 29th February: add production to the blog                                  COMPLETED

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