Script

Now that we've completed our first set of filming, our next filming will involve the speech and therefore this speech will need a script for the actors to follow. So today we finalized the script so that we would be able to give it to the actors in order for them to be able to learn it in time for the filming of that scene on Saturday and Sunday.
Here is the script:

This is page 1

This page 2

Shooting Schedule- Exterior

Today we have also created a shooting schedule for our filming which we will be completing throughout the week. Through having this schedule it allows us to make the most of when we are filming. This is because it makes it clear to us when and where we are going to film and this will make sure everyone who is needed is there in the right place at the right time.

Risk Assessment and Location- Exterior

As today we are going to be filming, we had to fill out a risk assessment to make sure that we stayed safe and were aware of what hazards could be around us. This risk assessment had to then be signed by our teacher to show that we had filled it out appropriately and hadn't missed out any key hazards for us to be careful of whilst filming.

Also as we were filming outside of a school setting we needed to see what the location would look like on camera, so we put together location shots of the type of area that we were going to film in. These are our location shots and will make our film process much more efficient as then when we go there we will already know exactly wear to go and what it will look like.
Below is the PowerPoint which includes our location shots and the Risk Assessment:

As the risk assessment isn't very clear on the presentation here is the original photograph of it:

This enables you to see more clearly the initial risk and how we plan to control this as well as where we are filming and the nearest hospital to this location.

Shot List

So that when we come to filming we are able to make use of all the time we have we created a shot list and through having a shot list we are able to know exactly what we need to shoot to have enough footage in order to make our narrative make sense.

This includes not only shots we need but where we need them and also the order in which they will be shown in our opening sequence this will help us realize at what point each of our parts are coming together when filming and this will help us maintain consistency in our mise en scene and also assist us when directing the actors.

Preparation for Filming

This evening we are going to start our filming in Brentwood. We are planning on filming the exterior shots and the individual outside shots of the female character, who is going to be played by Georgia Alliston. The people filming these shots are Angel Duncil and myself. Through having two people filming it enables us to film from two different angles at the same time and will therefore give a greater variation in the shots that we have.

However as we are filming around an estate where many people live we have to be careful not to annoy or get in the way of any residents. To avoid any misunderstanding that might occur we have a letter from our media teacher to give to the people if there are any problems.

This is the letter that we will use. our teacher also left his contact details (email address) so that the residents are also able to contact him if here are any problems.

Audience Research

When creating a film we need to consider who we are creating it for and how we are going to make our film enjoyable for these audiences. This is important as if we do not think about our target audience whilst creating the film opening then not only could it no longer appeal to them, but this could then mean that less people would then want to come and see the film. This means that it would then not do well in the cinemas and this would mean that we haven't achieved the goal that we want to complete, of bringing film noir back to cinema.

Institution Research

Today we completed the institution research and his shows the type of film we are as well as the budget we hope o maintain. This is important as if we don't have the correct distributor then the audience which we advertise and encourage to come and see would be wrong for our film and would mean that people wouldn't enjoy it as much as others would, meaning it would do as well as we would hope in cinema.

Prop List and Research

Today in the lesson we researched the types of props which we would need that were specific to creating an accurate mise en scene for our opening. This was maybe slightly more difficult for our group because we have chose to set our film in the past rather than the present day. So the props that we have in our shots have to be appropriate to the time period of 1940-50.

Through having this list it means that we go and start filming this week it means that we will remember everything and be able to create the most effective mise en scene that we can in order to make the audience believe the era which we have set the film in.

Representation Research

Today we looked at the classic look that each of our characters should have in order to further portray across to the audience the genre of film noir. As the characters are an extremely important part of our opening sequence, it was important that we took our time in getting the appropriate influences and examples for the opening which we are creating- 'A Dame With a Clue'.

With this research we will therefore be able to make our opening even more realistic and more correct to the time in which we are setting our film. This further helps to avoid any anachronisms be revealed. 

Music Research

Another part of research which was completed by our group today was the music research. The music in a film noir film is vital in creating the right setting and feel to an opening sequence, as if the music isn't right the wrong mood will be portrayed to the audience.
For our opening sequence we wanted quite a serious and old fashioned feel to be cited for the audience and in order for us to create this we had to look deeply into what music was classically found in the 1940's-50's as well as in other film noir films.

We will only really need this information for when we go and complete our editing as this is when we add on this type of non digetic sound. So when we go and complete the editing we will put this information towards choosing our own modernistic orchestral piece of music. Through adding this type of music to our opening it will add tension and suspicion as well as a slightly seducing sense to our shots. 

Final Task Storyboard

Today we started to create the storyboard and put together each of our ideas of shots that we should include in order to help us put together an opening sequence which resembles that of a film noir genre,
This meant that key types of shots we thought we should include, that are classic to film noir were:

• Reflection Shots
• Tracking Shots
• Dutch Angle Shots
• Blocking Shot

Through having this storyboard it enables us to know exactly what and how we are going to shoot each scene, so therefore gives us a guide as to the filming. This will help us to make our filming sessions more effective and this means that we can make the most of our time that we have in the setting. 

This is quite vital as to get to our settings we have to travel, which takes time and to fit the mise en scene of film noir we have to film at night which again only gives us limited times of the day to film.

Film Noir Mood Boards

Today in lesson I created the mood boards. These showed inspiration for the key parts in Film Noir, such as, costume and classic shots. Through completing this mood board it means that when we go to complete the filming of the opening sequence we have ideas in our minds as to what we would like each of our shots and characters to look and feel like.

Titles Research

In the lesson today I researched the opening titles of film noir in more detail. I looked at both old and modern influences of titles and how they looked on the screen. This then helped me to come up with the ideas and suggestions for our 'A Dame With a Clue' titles.

Film Noir Codes and Conventions

The thing that I decided to complete first, once the feedback was completed, was to look into influences for our narrative, what types of ideas you get throughout a traditional film noir and how we were going to try and make ours original. I did this because at first I did not completely understand what went into a film noir. This is due t the fact that it is no longer such a popular genre to be in the cinema. I therefore decided that it would be extremely important for myself to research the genre and learn as much as I can about it.

After I finished this gathering of information, I then found it much easier to understand what needs to be in a film noir for people to be able to recognise the genre. This therefore made it easier for me to then research and decide upon key factors in our final opening sequence, for example the titles and audience which we should aim our sequence at.

Film Pitch Feedback

After completing our film pitch we were given feedback from our class. We had to carefully look through all of this feedback and look at what we could do in order to help us improve the opening sequence. There were 6 main sections which we were given feed back on, these were:
1. What is the genre?
2. Who's the target audience?
3. Does it introduce the character and setting?
4. Does the mood and style fit?
5.  Is the narrative interesting?
6. What films is it similar to?

This was our feedback which we received:

Now when we plan and begin to actually shoot our film opening we will concentrate on all of the mentioned above an through doing this we will be able to make our film opening as realistic, professional and able to fit the genre as possible. 

Film Noir Film Pitch

In this lesson we pitched the film idea to the rest of the class, all the other groups also had to pitch their ideas to us.
For the pitch to be accurate we had to agree upon a name and a final narrative. We decided that an appropriate name for the film was 'A Dame with a Case'. We decided this fit well with our narrative, because it is the female character that goes to the detective about a murder. The pitch which we showed to the class is below:

After we completed the pitch we collected in all of our feedback and started to look through it together and this helped us to get a general idea as to what we needed to improve whilst planning and filming. 

Once we had a quick look through our feedback we had to then watch the other groups and give our personally feedback on theirs, so that they could also have others opinions.

Film Opening Pitch

This lesson we were put into our groups. My group consists of Georgia, Angel, Luke and myself and then we each had to each pitch a film opening. Angel pitched a Si-fi film and Georgia pitched a Film Noir film and I pitched a Romantic Drama film. This is my pitch:

In the end we chose to go with Georgia's idea of Film Noir. We chose to go with this idea because we together thought that it was original and different to what many people would do and we further liked the idea of bringing an old genre into the modern day.
After we had decided upon which film opening we were going to complete we then begun to delegate tasks so that we would be able to create a informative pitch for the rest of our class to understand for and help us improve our opening.
This final film pitch to the class will take place next lesson, but it will be different to the first round of pitches as our pitch will be in more detail than before and we will complete the pitch together, taking it in turns to talk and explain our film idea.

Opening Titles

Whilst in lesson today we begun to concentrate on how and in which order the titles in films are shown. We also looked at the font and graphology and how this was vital in helping  the audience understand the feel and the genre that the film is going to have for the rest of it.
We then had to go away and look at a title of titles of our own choice and the film that I chose to look at the titles from was The Addams Family.

Sound in Film

This lesson we looked into more detail the sound that you find within films. Even though previously we only learnt about the main two of digetic and non-digetic sound, today we looked into more depth about the types of sound you hear within these two categories.

Synchronous Sound- This is where the sounds heard in the scene match the image which is being viewed. E.g. If you see a character playing a piano, you hear piano music.

Asynchronous Sound- This is where the image on the screen doesn't actually show the thing that is making the noise. E.g. A heartbeat being heard in the background, but you don't actually see a beating heart.

Ambient Sound- This is the background sounds that help establish a location, these sounds together create a soundscape. E.g. In a scene in a park, you hear children playing, leaves rustling and birds in the background.

Sound Bridge- This is when sound from one scene can help lead in and out of another, so acts as a transition. E.g. Background music blending into an alarm clock going off.

Voice Over- This when you add someone talking on top of a scene, but the characters can't normally hear them. They are normally saying the narration of the story or they are saying whatever the character is thinking.

Film Music:
Symphonic- Performed by a large orchestra. Normally used in Dramas.
Melody- This is a distinctive tune played. Normally used in Teenage/ RomComs.
Atonal- This is music with no established key. Normally used in Horrors or Thrillers.
Rhythmic- A percussive sound which forms a beat. Normally used in Actions.
Dissonant- This is music lacking conventional harmonies. Normally used in Horrors.

We then had to choose a film opening and then focus in on how they use the sound to portray the feeling/ emotion and the genre in that opening sequence. The opening sequence that I have chosen is from the film The Holiday.

The music used in this opening sequence is melodic as it uses a distinct Christmas song whilst the production company is being shown this starts to reveal the type of genre that it is- Christmas and that it is also a light-hearted happy film. This then blends into a symphonic tune further revealing that the film will include romance throughout as that type of music has a romantic feel when played slowly. This music in the background is non-digetic sound due to the characters not being able to hear what's going on and this shows how it is for the benefit of the audience to set the scene for the rest of the film. However as the setting which they are in is a park, ambient sound is used which is also digetic so the characters can hear it, this also continues to add to the mise en scene for the audience. However as it zooms out you realize that the whole thing has been has been digetic sound as it is on a computer and then it goes into the rest of the scene where a phone conversation starts which includes asynchronous and synchronous sound.

Student Film Openings

Today in class we started to look at many examples of different film openings that were created by various students over the past couple of years under the same exam board as us.
We looked at what we enjoyed and thought looked professional and also looked out for what they could have improved on as well as deciding upon the mark that we would have given the film out of 60 according to the mark scheme. After looking at a couple of examples we had to next find three of our own.

Roses are Red:

I thought the way of displaying the titles was really clever, as they must have taken a lot of time on it and they paid fairly close attention to detail, for example with the title in the magazine they photo shopped it to look realistic and glossy. However the main display of titles I liked were the actors names that were shown as Polaroids and this really added to the mise en scene and therefore fits the genre really well, of a teen film as many teenagers would have photos and other items shown in this opening in their bedroom.

 However at times the camera was shaky and occasionally went out of focus specifically in the title about the music and this therefore made it extremely hard to read what the title said and this also made it a little bit unprofessional. Another improvement that could happen is that there could have been better music in the background because even though it fits the genre, it seems very dull and repetitive and finally there was a filming mistake as at the end on the mirror behind her the title of 'Roses are Red' suddenly disappear.

The Edge

I thought that the whole of this opening sequence looked extremely professional as the editing made the transition between the scenes very smooth and easy to watch. I also thought that the positioning and the movement of the titles was good as a majority of them fit well on the wall or side of a building for example and when they were in line with a character the moved with the character that was also in the shot. There was also a good range of ages, so it wasn't all just teenagers and this helped to make it look more believable and therefore professional as a film opening.

Although there was a couple of times where I thought that diegetic sound could have been used, for example the sound of his skates when he was talking or a muffled sound of the man shouting in the background with the music. This would have then made the opening even more realistic and make the view feel like they were actually there. Finally there was also one title that was repeated and this created a editing error.

Christopher

I thought that there was a good variety of shots and that the camera transitions and movements were very smooth and I especially liked the transition to the breakfast table as it was cleverly edited and looked very professional. Also I thought that the narrative of the opening was quite original and that made it quite refreshing and enjoyable to watch and as the narrative was a important to follow in this opening it was good that the titles were quite subtle and simple so that they weren't in your face or in your way when trying to follow/ understand the narrative.

However the title of the film 'Christopher' was shown right at the end which is where you would but the title in a trailer rather than a film opening. Also in the conversation that happened at the end the background noise of the wind was too loud and this made it more difficult to hear what they were saying and this therefore took away from the professionalism, especially as the rest of the speech and sound is so clear.