Planning OTS: Researching Directing

Due to being one of the designated Directors of our OTS I thought I should look more into the role of an Director.

A director is: a person who is in charge of an activity, department, or organisation.

 

Above is a video I watched on YouTube which made directing clear and I am now more confident to film my role as one of the directors.

Planning OTS: Arranging When To Film & Props

Arranging to film: I have started a group chat between me, Emily, Danny and Zach to arrange when to film and anything else that we will have to sort out. Here's the chat:

Today we double checked with them that it is still okay for them to be in our OTS and as soon as they said yes we got to finalising dates of when to film. After trying to film on a certain date one of them couldn't make it therefore we have arranged another date which we can all do (25/01/14). When it gets closer to it we will arrange times etc.

Props: When discussing the Femme Fatale's (who will be played by Emily) outfit we needed to borrow an appropriate skirt and knew our friend had one so I texted her to ask her if it would be okay to use and she said yes it would be fine.

Planning OTS: Lighting Research

For the lighting in our OTS we are quite restricted due to filming outside therefore not being able to use lighting considerably. In the wedding dress shop we may have an opportunity to play around with the lighting more though.
Here is the video I watched to gain some insight on lighting in a Film Noir piece:


After watching this I feel more confident about lighting for Film Noir and will be able to do a decent job.

Planning OTS: Cinematographer Research

What is a Cinematographer?
A cinematographer is in charge over the camera and lighting whilst working on a film, television production or other live action piece and is responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image.

Do we need one?
Advantages: Possible chance of better shots, improved lighting etc
Disadvantages: With the size of our group being small with only the two of us it would be hard to recruit another member to help with this, as I am already being both the camera women and the director and Emily featured in it and was the co-director. Another disadvantage is that me and Emily are neither blessed artistically so wouldn't be best suited for the job. 

Verdict?
We have decided for our OTS a cinematographer wouldn't be necessary.

Update: We have shown our first cut to a focus a group and one of the comments was the the lighting and filming was impressive. I am happy that the decision not to have a cinematographer didn't effect our OTS in a negative way.

Planning OTS: Copyright, Film Classifications & Ethics

For this I created a Prezi:

Copyright website: Click Here
BBFC website: Click Here

Planning OTS: Detailed Timeline

Done  / To Do / Currently Doing

• Week beginning 6th January -  filming / Planning shoots / capture of photo images for phot storyboards / Uploads of footage / evidence of this added to blog
• Week beginning 13th January - final week for getting all footage shot and uploaded / editing and creation of raw footage / editing to complete the first' Cut'/ creating studio & production idents/screens
• Week beginning 20th January - editing images - to produce first cuts ready for feedback
• Week beginning 27th January -first  focus group work (collect feedback from within the group & HY/MO) / re-editing / planning and completion of any reshoots / planning construction of sound
• Week beginning 3rd February - construction of sound / titles / final edits of film OTS
• Week beginning 10th February - exhibition and distribution of 'first cut' of final films shared on digital/social networks for the purpose of focus group feedback - use surveys/ questionnaires and allow time for feedback / work on Blogs to ensure all the above is evidenced: talking head, reflective note, production plans, slideshares.....
• Week beginning 17th February = Half term - complete focus group research / complete Blogs / plan final improvements to productions in response to the feedback
• Deadline for completed Research & Planning Blogs and First Drafts of Productions is the 28th February (Friday after half term)

Planning OTS: Our Target Audience & Different Types of Audiences

Different types of audiences:

Mine and Emily's target audience: We've decided that the most suitable target audience for our Opening Title Sequence would be Film Fanatics. Film Fanatics are mostly male, age range 25-44 and they pre-plan their trip which would be most likely review led. We chose them because we think that, that age range is appropriate to our genre (Film Noir) as it is a more mature genre compared to others.

Planning OTS: Risk Assessment

Although me and Emily aren't a massive production company like ITV etc we still looked into and discussed risk assessments. For this we managed to find some copies of a risk assessment for studios (Riverside Studios) and did our own risk assessment using their structure.

• Here is some pictures of the risk assessment we used:

Planning OTS: Final decision on our Production Company name

• Non-linear Productions 

We chose this one as it represents our company being alternative therefore is suitable.
Here is our logo for our production name that Emily made for us:

This is our rough copy that Emily created for us. We are going to alter it slightly when we make the final one. For example, we are going to remove a line to make it flow more which will make it look more appealing. 

Planning OTS: Filming

We have borrowed a tripod and camera from the school to be able to film our OTS over the next couple of weeks.
Me and Emily have planned to film the night clips on Thursday 2nd January. Whilst planning this I realised we have a complication of props; we don't have a pistol available which we need for the 2nd and we resolved this as Emily remembered that she her Grandad possibly has a suitable gun we could use. We also struggled to find suitable hats therefore they may not be possible to obtain for our OTS.
-I print screened this conversation for evidence but it can't be found anywhere.
We have planned to film the daytime clips sometime in after the week beginning 13th January due to me going on holiday which means we won't be able to film.
Whilst deciding when to film we made our plans also around the other actors who will be in the OTS; Danny and Zach.

• Update: After discussing it with Emily we have decided to wait to film the night shots to also the week beginning 13th Jan so we can prepare better (props etc) so our overall OTS will be more authentic and overall, better.
• Whilst I am away Emily was going to ensure we were prepared ready to film for when I got back.
• 15/01/14 today we arranged to film on the 25th of January as that date works best for us all. For a more updated post on filming go to: this post

Planning OTS: Title of our OTS

Other Film Noir names:  

These images I managed to find after looking for some inspiration for the title of our piece on Google. Looking at these it has made me aware of the kind of names that are given to film noir films. 

After discussing it with Emily we narrowed our choices down to three: 

• Brutal Desire 
• Bloodthirsty Weakness 
• Silent Temptation 

Me and Emily decided in order to make a final decision we would get our peers opinions on it and to do this I made this survey using Survey Monkey. I also put this onto my personal blog on Tumblr to get some more opinions on it.

Click here to take survey 

Results: 

Here are our results. We have gone with Silent Temptation as it was most popular and also the one we both preferred. 

Planning OTS: Script and allocating tasks

Script:
For the script we firstly discussed whether we would use voiceovers and where to have who speaking. Once we decided the basic things I wrote down a rough script:

This is the finished, detailed scrip I wrote:

- At the beginning when Femme Fatale running away from killer - Femme Fatale (voiceover): I should learn to control my weaknesses, I destroy everything I touch. - whispered gravely (said with a hint of fear and sadness)
- After following the Anti-Hero into the wedding dress shop - Femme Fatale: Thank you for sorting out my wedding dress so last minute. - an apologising tone (apologising for killer's rudeness and her appreciating her helpfulness)
Killer: Yes, thanks. Come on now. - gruffly said (not genuine, demanding and rude)
-Killer storms off towards door banging into Anti Hero-
-Femme Fatale walk slowly, seductively brushing past Anti-Hero-
-Anti-Hero watches Emily walk out in a lustful way-

If any changes are made to this script I will add another one onto this post with it alterations.
Update: This is the final script that we used. To ensure we said the correct things in the right way I printed it off the night before.


Allocating tasks:
For allocating tasks me and Emily have started to do this to enable us to achieve more with our time together in our lessons. For example, I have linked the detailed post of our storyboard animatic which she did for us whilst I was allocated the task of the Planning OTS: Moodboard, Locations, Props & Sound post as well as this post, which Emily will link onto her blog.

Planning OTS: Experimenting with Foleying

Me and Emily have decided to experiment with Foleying to see if it can create the ideal gun shot/foot steps/heavy breathing that we could use in our piece.
Here is us experimenting creating a gunshot sound using a staple gun and also a ruler against a table:
(ENTER PICTURE)
This is the video of the noises that we managed to create:
(ENTER VIDEO)

Here we are creating the footsteps against the pavement:

This is the video of the noise that we have created:


Foleying research: footsteps from Sophie Mace on Vimeo.
As Emily will be wearing high heels when filming we have ensured that she was when filming this.

Here we are experimenting creating heavy breathing:

This is the video of the noise that we have created:


Foleying research: Heavy Breathing from Sophie Mace on Vimeo.
When experimenting we had to ensure that the heavy breathing sounded realistic therefore Emily ran around to make sure it sounds realistic.

Planning OTS: Foleying Research

After researching Foleying me and Emily are considering doing it, even if we chose not too in the final edit we might play around with it anyhow. If we chose not to the website FindSounds will be helpful for us.
Research on Foleying:

Planning OTS: Moodboard, Locations, Props & Sound

Moodboard:
 I found this ideal one online, from -link-. I chose to use this one as it saved time which enables me to be able to discus other things such as locations, sound and props etc with Emily whilst together in the lesson. I chose this specific one because I think it captures the key conventions of a Film Noir film such as the dramatic lighting, smoke, cigarettes, pistols etc.

Locations:

• Wedding dress shop: This will be available to us to use as Emily's auntie owns it so when it comes to filming we can organise it easily. 

  

  This is the wedding dress shop that we are going to be filming in.
  Update: When filming I forgot to take pictures of the interior

• Cobbled street: Luckily Norwich has various cobbled streets so me and Emily soon will organise to go look at what street would be best to fit our vision. As well as visiting them physically we have also used Google Maps on street view to enable us to narrow the list down to the top two to go visit:    

         

Princes Street, Norwich

Elm Hill, Norwich

These are the only locations that we are planning on using/needing. Once me and Emily have researched and made a final decision on what cobbled street out of the two we are going to film on I will update this post stating what one/where. 

Update: After researching me and Emily have decided that Elm Hill will be most appropriate for us to use to film.

Props:

• Costumes for three main protagonist's; Killer, Anti-Hero and Femme Fatale.
• Engagement ring - Emily has a ring suitable to use.
• Pistol - research where to find one/borrow one.
• To be continued if more is needed -

Killers costume: 

This is the kind of look we are thinking of for the killer.

Femme Fatales costume: 

This is the kind of look we want for the Femme Fatale. Although this may different we hope to keep the long dress and curled hair.

Anti-Hero costume: 

The idea of the suit is what we are looking for in our Anti Hero's outfit. The suit would ideally be bedraggled to create the everyday man look.

Engagement ring: 

It's hard to see but the Femme Fatale in this picture has in fact got an engagement ring on and is positioning it on the love interest to put it on display. This kind of framing is what we are going to use in the scene in the wedding shop.
For the actual ring we are going to use one Emily already owns. We desire a fairly basic one. What we aren't looking for is a ring that doesn't resemble an engagement ring because it needs to be evident. 

Pistol: 

This is the kind of pistol we want to use. 

Sound:
For sound we have talked to Billie Bell a fellow student in our year who is going to sort out a piece of music for use to use in our OTS. For other smaller sounds such as a gun shot I am going to research folioing for me and Emily to see if we would like to use it. Post on research to be found here.

Planning OTS: Detailed Allocation of Tasks

In order for our production to run smoothly I have made a table where we have allocated different tasks:

Update: Now our OTS is almost complete a few of these allocations changed and other posts/things have been added along the way which aren't on here so therefore whilst this being partially accurate is not 100% accurate.

Weakness: Blog post wise we haven't linked very often, which in hindsight would have saved us time but the way we have done it has worked for us well.

Planning OTS: Storyboard Animatic

Sophie and Emily FPP Animatic from Sophie Mace on Vimeo.

Due to both me and Emily not being able to draw we decided to do a photo animatic of our OTS. Over a couple of lessons we organised and put this together. Upon editing we realised a few things that would need altering when it comes to filming, a couple of things in this are also not accurate. For example, the shadow on the wall should be on the floor and will be when filmed but due to not being able to get it so for the photo we had to make do. The locations and costumes etc are also not accurate due to restrictions of being in school whilst doing it. The shots/angles aren't very clear in this but our detailed text storyboard explain clearly what shots/angles will be used. A detailed post which annotates what will happen clearly can be found here: Mine and Sophie's animatic storyboard- FFP

Here is a picture of me and Emily sorting through the pictures we took for the animatic and deciding which ones would be best suited:

The next step for me and Emily is to create a list of the roles for this project which we will put on our blogs and we are still yet to decide a name for our OTS.
We have started to allocate specific jobs to be able to achieve more. Emily was allocated to do the detailed write up of this post which can be found here. Whilst Emily was writing this up I was completing other research to help us.

Planning OTS: Pitching The Idea

After writing down all our initial ideas I created a questionnaire in order to find out whether people think it would work etc. Here is the questionnaire:

For feedback,  we asked people we knew who has an interest in Film Noir. Overall, we got very positive feedback back, it was liked, they thought enough of an enigma and hook would be created, many would go and see it and finally majority felt the Femme Fatale should die. 

Planning OTS: Initial Ideas

On our first and second lesson of planning me and Emily managed to deicide, the plot of our OTS and also the rest of the whole story. We also discussed locations, actors to play the roles and costumes for mise-en-scene. We decided what shots and camera angles we are going to use, what the transitions are going to be like, whether they would be fast, slow, fade in, fade out etc. We also managed to sort out where we would like music to be in the background, and spoke to Billie Bell who goes to our Sixth form about whether he could sort some music out for us and he is seeing what he can do. We have also composed our script and decided where to use voiceovers. Throughout planning we have been careful to make sure it doesn't follow the conventions of a trailer as this can be easily done.

Next we need to create a facebook chat to enable me and Emily to plan and organise things in the future for our OTS, we also need to begin to consider props and where to source them, an animatic storyboard, and the name of our OTS.

Understanding narrative theory as linked to genre:

Media Audiences an Introduction from alevelmedia

Propp theory
Vladimir Propp was a critic in the 1920s, he was essentially interested in the narrative of folk tales. He noticed that folk tales were similar in many areas, and that they were about the basic struggles and appeared to have stock characters. Characters have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text:

• The Hero - the character that seeks something
• The Villain - who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest
• The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties
• The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
• The False Hero - who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims
• The Helper - who aids the hero
• The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain's plots
• Her Father - who acts to reward the hero for his effort

Examples of this theory: 'The Dark Knight', 'The Dispatcher', 'Avengers Assemble', 'Batman and Robin', 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Batman Begins', 'Spiderman'.

Todorov theory

Izetan Todorov was a structuralist linguist, he suggested that stories began with an equilibrium or status quo where any potential differences are in balance. This is then disrupted by some event, which sets the chain of events, the problems are then solved so that order can be restored into the world of fiction. He suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages: 

1. A state of equilibrium at the outset
2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Levi Strauss theory

Claude Levi Strauss studied hundreds of myths an legends, he found out that we as humans make sense of the world through people and events by seeing and using binary opposites, he found out narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites.

Examples of binary opposites:

• Good vs Evil
• Black vs White 
• Boy vs Girl
• Peace vs War
• Civilised vs Savage
• Democracy vs Dictatorship
• Young vs Old
• Man vs Nature

Continuity Task/Preliminary Task

• After our continuity task was set our group got to work with deciding our idea and then creating our storyboard: 

  

  It is incomplete due to altering our ending when filming

• Once it was all set we arranged filming and who would play who. We used mostly whom was in our group, Elliot played the main role, Emily played the grieving sister and Ollie our friend who we recruited in played the father of the dead girl who was played by Ruby. Me and Cal both filmed and directed. 
• Cal then edited the piece together and this is our final piece:

 
 Feedback video:
Update: We never got the opportunity to show it to the class due to the editing not being finished on time.
Evaluation: Overall, I think we worked well as a group, we were organised in recruiting people to play parts and we worked efficiently together.

Animatics & Storyboards

A storyboard is a plan of the shots for production that usually contains a sequence of dialogue and illustrations. An animatic is an initial version of a film with there being a series of static illustrations edited together and presented in order. Dialogue or possibly a soundtrack is added to see how it flows.
An example of a storyboard which I found online:

An example of an animatic I found online:

From comparing the two side by side it is clear that an animatic is much more visual than a storyboard. The added sound effects/dialogue helps it come to life and enables the creators of it to see how and if it flows.

Editing Techniques

Prezi I created on Editing Techniques:

Analysing OTS: Sin City, Double Indemnity & This is England

Sin City

Double Indemnity

As a class we have analysed these two OTS. The conventions are both met and partially challenged with both.
I have personally also analysed This is England's OTS:

Research: Textual Analysis (Double Indemnity)

Double Indemnity - Where I found my facts: Imdb and Wiki

• Fred Macmurray played Walter Neff
  
• Filmed in black and white
  
• Within the Film Noir, Crime, Drama and Thriller genres 
• It's budget (estimated) was: $927,262
• Was nominated for seven Academy Awards but did not win any

This is the trailer:

I also read some reviews on the film at this site: click here

Understanding audience:

Neo-Noir

After researching Neo-Noir's typical conventions by watching several different Neo-Noir extracts I found what are to be considered conventional elements and unconventional. This is what I found:

Genre

Genre is the means by which any media texts are categorised in order to clarify audiences understanding and meaning.

Types -

• Horror
• Romance
• Crime
• Sci-Fi
• War
• Action
• Documentary
• Fantasy 
• Adventure 
• Western
• Period/Historical 
• Musical

Borrowed interest - 

Why genre? - Can advertise to the right target market.

-Viewers that go see that genre probably like it.

Why hybrid genre? - Can borrow interest to get more viewers, fans of both genres.

- Introduces other genre lovers to new genres.

Hybrid Genre - 

Comedy + Romance - 10 things I hate about you

Western + Sci Fi - Star Wars

Historical Musical - Les Miserable

Horror + Thriller - Final Destination

War + Historical - Saving Private Ryan

Key Conventions of genres - 

Action -  Explosions, Hero, Heroine, Villain, Fighting, Love Interest etc. 

Romance - A problem, boy and girl, the big 'kiss', happy ending etc.