Media Coursework Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Film Noir as a genre has always been given a number of meanings; however there is a basic guide line that I have learnt which is ECMS, (Editing, Cinematography, Mise-en-scene, and Sound). With the research I have done on other film noirs, such as Sin City, Brick, Detour etc, I have tried to use the codes and conventions, from these films and incorporate it into mine. In comparing mine to I see that obviously that they would have a larger budget then me if I was truly creating this into a film.
The characteristics I followed, were things like the Femme Fatale, the use of lighting, in film noir’s is usually very dark, also starting the film at the end, which presents an enigma that helps draw the audience in. In terms of how well I followed them, I feel I did pretty good seeing as the lighting was very dark, except from that one source of light which helped cast some beautiful shadows, the female character we only see in the flash backs still help the audience think that she has some connection with the main character getting into trouble thus creating a Femme Fatale.
In terms of developing or challenging the genre in itself, I feel that the actors which were in their adolescence, helped bring down the age of film noirs, as people tend to think of them as for the older audience. The voiceover in my piece I feel, was very stylized as I wanted both part to sound the same, so it kind of throws the audience, challenging the genre in that perspective.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The people my media piece represents are those in their mid to late teens, this is a time in people’s lives when things are new to them; they tend to experiment with things such as drugs and sexually as well. Seeing as that I am also in this age range I could create a piece that truly speaks to those of my generation. The people and places in the film, represent ordinary places in a normal town or city, thus connecting with the audience because it is realistic and they can relate to it. Those that aren’t represented are the more elderly, as a stereotypical view on film noirs is full of those above the age of 30. They messages that were meant to come from the character’s, are the basic morals of people , love, respect, greed and the usual what happens if your bad, you get your comeuppance.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
If this was to become a full motion picture, based on the budget that would be given, the distributer I would have in mind is like Film 4 as they are usually associated with art house films, the reason for this is that they have some influence in their television programme, also many films of the same type have gone on to be very successful. In terms of where the film would get exhibited would be small independent cinema’s, and only a very few at first, however by word of mouth and critic reviews it could become very popular, thus a larger income would arrive allowing the creation of more copies, and so on. Also things like film festivals are also a popular place for a screening of the film. TV channels would be things like Film 4, BBC and the time slot, I feel would be at a later time such as 9 o’clock, seeing as the film is within the boundaries of a 15 it would be unsuitable for the younger audiences.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The typical audience for this film I feel would be the majority cinema ages between 15 and 25, seeing as the characters are all within that range. Also the film is aimed at an active audience since I want them to feel something as they watch. This film would provide them with intellectual puzzles, emotional pleasures and such, all to stimulate them into a form of diversion, an escape from their lives or an emotional release from their pressures. Under the BBFC rules the piece I have made would come under the rating of a 15, this is perfectly fine as it includes the majority of the cinema going audience. The response to the showing of the film opening was very positive, the only real things that they didn’t like was the titles, the blue glow they had seemed to put people off them. The music everyone agreed that it really set the tone of the piece, also the lighting and shots used were also really good.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The way I felt that I had to attract our target audience was to create a film that contained those of the same, age, the ideas placed out would be relative as to what happens in their time, so things like drug abuse, sex and growing up and learning that you have responsibility. The styles, used where to really make the point hit home hard, also the pace, of how it builds up, then comes to a dramatic close, which will leave the audience wondering whether or not the main character has died due to the results of his actions. The costumes are simple, not too designer and not to poor, so that everyone can associate with these people.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In terms of using the technology at our disposal for the research stage, using things like the internet and blogs, really do help and speed up the process of searching for information, and with the blog, it’s a place that you can save your work and not risk losing it. During the planning stage, blogs were still helpful in the same way, but creating an animatic helped me visualize how it would go thus helping me decide if I want to change anything or not. In the production stage the GIB-ARM we used, made a brilliant opening shot, the one single light helped cast sum nice shadows. Learning how to use the camera as well as the tripod then applying it really for the final thing was quite nerve racking but I got the hang of it. The editing software Adobe Premiere Pro was very easy to use and offered a wide variety of effects, to help make the piece more smoothly.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When the preliminary exercise was first done, the first mistake I had done was not leaving enough handles and taking far too few shots to work with; I seemed to have done it in a rush. Since then I have learned to slow down, take plenty of time, leave at least 5 second of extra time, and too take loads of shots. Also in terms of lighting and sound, we had not been able to use them and control them to a certain extent, yet in the noir opening, I was able to create the mood that I deemed fit to the situation. The planning as well wasn’t really an actual issue, however this time round; it was very important to get everything right and settled so that when the actual filming and editing came, we were prepared for it. Organisation had also improved, with our exchange work , I was not very good at it, but because I had previous experience I was able to keep up to date.
In terms of my contribution to the whole group I feel that I did very well, since we only had 2 members, I was able to carry half of the work load and made sure that me and my other member where happy with what we had. Also my roles as director, cinematographer and editor, I think that I played those individual roles just as well as the group that had 4 people in it. My technical skill had also improved vastly, as I was the one in charge with the equipment and the software

Animatic

3 Contemporary Film Noirs

1) Sin City
Sin City is a 2005 film written, produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. The film is primarily based on three of Miller's works: "The Hard Goodbye" focuses on a hulking man who embarks on a brutal rampage in search of his one-time lover's killer; "The Big Fat Kill" focuses on a street war held between a group of prostitutes and a series of mercenaries; and "That Yellow Bastard" focuses on an aging police officer who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured serial killer. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosario Dawson, Benicio del Toro, Michael Madsen, Powers Boothe, Josh Hartnett, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Elijah Wood and Rutger Hauer, among others.
The film employed the use of the Sony HDC-950 high-definition digital camera, having the actors work in front of a green screen, that allowed for the artificial backgrounds (as well as some major foreground elements, this film. The combination of these two techniques makes Sin City (along with Sky Captain, which was produced the same way) one of the few fully digital, live-action motion pictures. This technique also means that the whole film was initially shot in full color, and was converted back to high-quality black-and-white. Colorization is used on certain subjects in a scene, such as Devon Aoki's red-and-blue clothing, Alexis Bledel's blue eyes and red blood...etc.


2) Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs is the 1992 debut film of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It portrays what happened before and after a botched jewel heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino also has a minor role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker. It incorporates many themes and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue with excessive profanity and a nonlinear storyline.



3) No Country For Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 crime thriller film adapted for the screen and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name,[1][2] No Country for Old Men tells the story of a botched drug deal and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo.

3 Classic Film Noirs

1) The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film written and directed by John Huston. In 1941 San Francisco, private investigators Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) meet a beautiful prospective client, Miss Ruth Wonderly (Mary Astor). Wonderly claims to be looking for her missing sister, who is involved with a man named Floyd Thursby. Wonderly is to meet Thursby and hopes her sister will be with him. After receiving a substantial retainer, Archer volunteers to follow her that night and help her get her sister back. Archer is killed, and a huge plot ensues where, a jeweled falcon is the reason for all the killing.
With its low-key lighting and inventive and arresting angles, the work of Director of Photography Arthur Edeson is one of the film’s great assets. Unusual camera angles—sometimes low to the ground, revealing the ceilings of rooms

2) D.O.A
D.O.A. (1950), a film noir drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, is considered a classic of the genre. The frantically-paced plot revolves around a doomed man's quest to find out who has poisoned him – and why – before he dies

The film begins, the scene is a long, behind-the-back tracking sequence featuring Frank Bigelow (O'Brien) walking through a hallway into a police station to report a murder: his own. Disconcertingly, the police almost seem to have been expecting him and already know who he is. The film is mainly a huge flashback, where the main character recalls everything, from when he was poisoned; all the way to the point he kills the murderer. Once the deed was done, he dies and the detective who was listening to his story says to put on his case D.O.A- Dead on Arrival.



Touch Of Evil
Touch of Evil (1958) is a black-and-white American film, written, directed and co-starring Orson Welles. Paul Monash and Franklin Coen also wrote scenes for the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson (a pseudonym for Robert Wade and William Miller). The cast also included Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich. This movie is considered one of the last examples of film noir in the genre's classic era (from the early 1940s until the late 1950s).
The movie opens with a famous three-minute, thirty second continuous tracking shot that film critics (such as Bob Dorien and Robert Osborne) generally consider to be one of the greatest long shots in cinematic history. Beginning on the Mexico/US border, this shot shows a man placing a bomb in a car and then the journey of the car past the border crossing into the United States. The scene ends with Mike (Charlton Heston) and Susie Vargas (Janet Leigh), newlyweds, kissing. The scene then cuts to the car, containing a man and a woman, exploding.

Characteristics of the Genre

Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all film noirs; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant, basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated in heists or con games, or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. Amnesia is far more common in film noir than in real life, and cigarette smoking can seem virtually mandatory. Film noirs tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involving flashbacks, flashforwards, and other techniques that disrupt and sometimes obscure the narrative sequence. Lady in the Lake, for example, is shot entirely from the point of view of Philip Marlowe , the face of star is seen only in mirrors.

2) Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, often fall guys of one sort or another. The characteristic heroes of noir are described by many critics as "alienated”. Normal Characters are usually hardboiled detectives, femmes fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepid claims adjusters, and down-and-out writers. As can be observed in many movies of an overtly neo-noir nature, the private eye and the femme fatale are the character types with which film noir has come to be most identified.
3) Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness. The music used is eerie, it is used to make the audience become frightened and prepare them for what is coming next. The types of shots, used in noir, are usually, close ups, wide shots, Dutch tilts, Panning from right to left or visa versa. Sometimes the actors can only be seen, from mirrors, not always directly like in films nowadays.

History of Film Noir

1) film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946
2) Film Noir was prominent, during the Depression, however it had started already at the very beginning of the 1900’s, at first it was in all the major arts, but as soon as film started It quickly used the resources and created lighting and the psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène and brought it to Hollywood.
3) During the 1940’s and 50’s Film noir was making headway. World War 2 was at its thickest, many directors, artists and such had immigrated to America due to the Nazi Regime, thus bringing with them all their ideas.
4) Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Nicholas Ray, Walter Wanger...etc. They are mainly Europeans, because that was where film noir first started and they all escaped Europe, from the threat of the Nazi s.
5) Film noirs embrace a variety of genres many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that there is no such thing. Though noir is often associated with an urban setting, for example, in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road, so setting can’t be what determines it. However, because of the difference of noir certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a "style”. Other critics treat film noir as a "mood," a "movement," or a "series," or simply address a chosen set of movies from the "period."
6) +7) B-Movies, low budget films, smaller B-movies