killing conscience

First draft coursework evaluation

How we used Noir conventions to influence our film.

Film noir is a type of film that arised in the united states in the 40's and became very popular in the 40's/50's. The themes of film noir were made of conventions like paranoia, despair and bleakness. The films emphasize on cynical attitudes and the sexual motivations, especially by the women. Noir openings tend to be very secretive. They tend to start at the end of a tragic happening in which the audience doesn't really understand how any of it has really happen which intrigues them to watch more and to find out what has happened. The story lines tend to have many twists in turns in which you would never expect. We had to challenge these conventions for our noir because we had to make it contemporary and suitable for our target audience which was around our age group. So taking the knowledge we knew about noirs we incorporated it into our narrative, by using the 'whodunnit' concept. [which is the same enigma as film noirs] but we based it in a typical teen environment. A house party. Something that teens can relate to, but we just exaggerated what would really happen by someone dying, as this makes the film worth watching. We also used MES to get the tone of Noir across. The moody strange feel where the audience isn't to sure what is to happen next.

Double idemnity, directed by Billy Wilder in 1944.is one of the most popular classic noirs to date. The film opens with a man walking in the dark with smoke embracing him. He is on crutches for reasons in which we do not know. A car drives franticly in the dark streets. He goes to a hotel, finds a room and sits down with beads of sweat down his face,looking stressed. He then records a 'confession' He admits killing a man. After that it leads into flashbacks.

This is a typical noir opening. It has every convention they could possibly need to make a confusing yet interesting start to a film to keep the audience interested and wanting to find out more. This film opening in comparison to ours is rather different. It still has the confusing element and the who has done what question. Our opening starts with a male who wakes up and realises a girl is dead next to him. He then paces his room wondering [with the help of voiceovers for the audience, which is one of the conventions we used from typical noir films] how this could of possibly happened. Our opening is different in the fact we have snippets of flashbacks from the night before in small chunks giving the audience a bit more of a sense what will be contained in the film. But not enough to find out what has happened to the girl in the bed. In which they would have to watch on for to find out. This approach is good as it stays to the conventions of noir, but strays enough to make it a contemporary noir.

As we were making a contemporary noir, we had to make sure we put the noir/neo noir conventions in there, but also mix it up enough to appeal to our modern audience. We used the typical conventions like flashbacks and voiceovers [mentioned previously] Both of these conventions give the audience a snippet of information that will get them involved into the story line. Voice overs tend to let's the audience into the mind of the main character so they can understand even more the story but from their perspective. We also had to think about thinks like:

Mise en scene

For this we didnt want to make the characters to typically noir, so we put a modern twist on things. For example the femme fetalle wouldn't be dressed in a tight long black coat and heels, as people don't tend to wear that anymore. So we stayed with the black and white theme, and some red lipstick and red nails for a noir flair. Same with the male, we stayed with the black and white theme, but just in the form of modern teenage atire. The props aswell, There was no typical guns and old fashioned cars. It was all about the simplicity. Like cigarettes which is still a cool noir convention, but a lot of teens do that now still. We had to capture the essence of noir but still keeping to a modern feel. As the art director, I was in charge of the props and costumes used. I looked at teen programmes now, like skins, inbetweeners etc. Then at noir films for example Sin city. A contemporary noir. I had to make sure I got a happy medium because we still needed the eerie feel to be there but with a modern look.

Cinematography

For the shots we made sure we tried to keep to some of the noir feel. Like dutch tilts for obscure shots. High and low angle shots to make charecters to seem more or less vunrable. And close ups to show the emotion. We kept to this is one of the noir conventions we could keep to to give a seedy, moddy tone to the filming. The Dutch tilts and askewed angles are perfect to give a confusing atmosphere in our filming. It keeps the audience on their toes. The close ups used mainly for Kira and Bens shot's to show the emotion in their faces because they're the main characters so you want to see how they're feeling. To distinguish the difference between reality and the flashbacks we used different kind of shots. We used jolty akward shots for the flasbacks to make them seem less familiar, like he is piecing them together one by one. Whereas the reality shots are all smooth cuts with continuity.

Lighting

Lighting was something we we're going to make a big deal out of. We borrowed a huge filming lamp as we were potentially going to have lots of shadows and lit up faces to make it seem more edgy and cool. In the end, for the time we were given [as we had to reshoot we were on a very tight schedule] We didnt have time for this. So the only time we used lighting at is best is the example of the light shining on ben at the high angle shot of him on the bed. This makes it seem like a spotlight. Like all eyes are on him. He's under pressure to try and figure out what happens before he gets caught.

Sound

Sound was an interesting one. We kept to the typical noir in the sense that we used voiceovers. But the music we used for the background wasn't typically noir. It was more neo noir as it had a seedy undertone to it which is perfecct for a noir feel. But a modern one. Obviously you wouldnt find that in a classic noir film but for our audience we've chosen it fits really once. It's one of the biggest compliments we had when we screened our film to everyone for the first time. So we have challenged the noir codes and but made sure we stuck to the important ones we needed it to be put in the noir genre.

Editing

The editing was really important for, once again our flashbacks and reality shots. Our best shot we used was the cross fades we used fo express the passing off time when ben is pacing the room to make it seem as if he was pacing for a long time. Also to make the flashbacks seem more jolty we cut certain shots in the middle and then put them together so there were quick cuts in between them.

Representation of characters

The people we represent in out film is teenagers. It's all about the modern teens who get drunk, party with friends and generally mess around. The typical sterotype of houseparties and going nuts and not remembering what happened when you wake up in the morning. We havent got anyone over 22 in our film because we wanted to appeal to a younger audience as we've taken the simple idea of partying teenagers and added the extremity of someone dying giving it the drama and more interesting so they'll watch on. Plus the younger market tends to go to the cinema. We two main people we have represented in our opening is the hero and the girl, Ben and Kira. Kira is portrayed as the typical girl who will go for anyone and passes herself around a bit. No one cares about her because of what she is seen as, basically a typical bitchy whore. We portrayed kira like this because we wanted to make it so anyone could have a motive for killing her if no one really liked her. We portrayed Ben as a typical average joe, just wanting enjoy himself at a party but keeps getting bugged by kira who just won't leave her alone. He's not the sort of person who would get into any trouble. Which is why we used portrayed him in this sense because it's more interesting when someone who usually stays into trouble gets into the trouble.

In our opening, we portrayed teens as party animals who get themselves into trouble. This is a true and false view of them. Because not all teens go to house parties and get drunk and can't remember the night before. But for our age group we were trying to target it seemed perfect, because as this ag they do go out drinking and going a bit crazy. We thought that by using this image of teens they could relate to it.

Who would distribute our film.

Our film would be classed as a typical British film. Low – budget that wouldn't have much advertisment or a big cinema release. But That's the sort of idea we went for. A Company like film four to produce or fund it. Because their films can be revolutionary, for example slumdog millionare. Wasn't tipped to be that important of a film, very low budget. But is now a worldwide hit. It's a chance we would take. It's the sort of film that would be advertised more by word of mouth, small ads on internet websites etc. Which is fine because the way people can watch films these days have expanded much more from just the cinema. Internet, Phones, Mp3's etc. So watching a film in the cinema [as nice as it is] isn't the most important thing anymore. Which means potentially our film could still earn enough money to break even. It deffinitly wouldn't be the typical hollywood blockbuster. But alternative films are on the rise of popularity as time goes on, which would be perfect for our film. If it became popular enough it could go on to DVD or even film festivals to win a minor award.

How did we attract our audience and how does it represent the age group we chose.

We our trying to attract a young audience with our film opening. We did this by using young actors that teens can appeal to and relate to in the film so they find it interesting. It was easy to know how to attract a younger audience because we're all young ourselves so we knew that a house party would appeal to people are age.

Costumes and props were very important to make it appeal to our audience. The clothing was all very modern, all stuff from the highstreet that they could go and buy / or could own themselves. Everyday casual wear. But keeping to a black and white theme to keep it to a partial noir convention. The props used were really imprtant. Cigarettes, tobacco, condoms , lighters etc. All the contents of a teenagers handbag really. Even though it's a noir we needed the props to be modern because having the typical noir props like a gun wouldn't be realistic for this modern day and age.The theme of partying and having a good time is attractive to young adults and that would attract them instantly, as they would relate to the experience. We've used the sterotypical representation of the drunken youth when it comes to the social groups. It shows teenagers lives to an extent and gives an overview of the type of things that can happen. But this stereotype isn't such a bad one. Skins is a very popular tv show filled with teenagers doing drugs, drinking and other anti social behaviour, and that's one of the most watched TV shows in britain. [which our film coincidently was compared to, skins with a noir flair] It's hard to put our film in a gender specific group. It may sway more towards Males because [typically] men like thriller type films with men as the hero. [Whereas women are typically meant to like romantic comedies] Though it isn't particiulary advertised for men, women could just as well enjoy the film too. It represents middle class typical teens, having a good time. The BBFC would class this as a 15 because of the slight swearing that is in our narrative and the mild horror which would be contained througout the rest of the film.

The two main people we have represented in our opening is the hero and the girl, Ben and Kira.The preferred meaning of Kira is portrayed as the typical girl who will go for anyone and passes herself around a bit. No one cares about her because of what she is seen as, basically a typical bitchy whore. We portrayed kira like this because we wanted to make it so anyone could have a motive for killing her if no one really liked her. We portrayed Ben as a typical average joe, just wanting enjoy himself at a party but keeps getting bugged by kira who just won't leave her alone. He's not the sort of person who would get into any trouble. Which is why we used portrayed him in this sense because it's more interesting when someone who usually stays into trouble gets into the trouble.

Our text especially focus' on gender. In the opening Kira is the one following everyone around begging them for a chance from them. Ben stands her up and doesn't want to know her. And at one point, cameron actually pushes her to the floor. We represented gender in this way because we wanted kira to seem like the weaker more vunrable character. And having men, especially, pushing her around it makes her seem sterotypically weak. A woman who can't last on her own. So you feel sorry for the character. Especially because in our opening we haven't confirmed what she has done so it seems everyone is doing it for no reason.

The opening sets a dark mood which gives it an eerie feel of 'whodunnit' We would need an active audience who would want to participate in the storyline. Because noir's tend to be quite complicated, if you miss one slice you could be confused for the rest of the film . The crime thriller type has to have full attention to it so you can understand the plot as it slowly unravels itself.

Looking back, what have I learnt

Our preliminary/exchange sequence deffinilty help build up skills to the point of our final end product of our film noir opening. They are all very different productions. The preliminary, the first ever try of filming and editing, was used to help us find out way round a camera and an editing machine. The exchange was like a mini version of our film opening . Because we actually had to think of an idea and use get to grips with different camera angles and sound and costumes etc. The important elements of noir. So when it came to our final we had pretty much covered everything so we were ready to make a proper start on a real contemporary noir opening. We had to make sure that week by week we had completed another task or we would get behind with the filming. Which in the end we had to refilm twice as our first shots did not came out how we expected. So we had to catch up a lot of our work afterwords, but luckily got everything done just in time. Things like rule of thirds where you frame a shot I also learnt of as well. Different angles and shots, things i've never really thought of before. I never realised how a type of shot can perceive a certain character in a particular light. I personally have found a way of using ECMS to create a meaning in the film. For example certain things people wear can create a certain mood in a film. The errors made in our previous excersizes were corrected to. For example in our exchange sequence we had a problem with continuity, so with this film we made sure each time all the shots joined to give it a realistic feel.

What I found out about technology

In the early stages of resarch the opening I found out about some brilliant internet blogs and sites that write about noir characteristics which was really helpful to get some information about the conventions we should use for our opening. Youtube was great to look at some film openings to give us an idea of what kind of thing we had to make. When producing the opening I found out a lot about final cut pro, the programe we used to edit the whole thing. Garage Band, is a music programme which we got lots of ambience sounds off and also edited some sound clips together in which we needed. We added reverb and echos to the voice Ben hears in his head. This gave it an eerie tone which we needed for that particular scene. I'd never used either programe before but both helped tremendously for our finishing process.

We used a Canon HV30 DV camera. Which once you get used to it, was very easy to get around. We were still learning things about the camera towards the end of the filming process! We only realised at the end there is a light attatched to the camera which we used for the scene with ben sitting on the bed to give a spot light affect. All eyes upon him. We had to get to grips with auto focus to make sure the scenes were as clear as possible, especially as we were using a dark room. The Yoga shotgun microphone and boom was very helpful. We had a lot of speech and ambience we had to record. We learnt how to use the mic in different situations. For example when it was speech we'd use the boom to get a clearer sound. But for ambience we could place the microphone where we needed it and it would give a perfect ambience effect. [we did have problems with the boom being in the shot occasionally, something we learnt to look out for as the filming progressed.] We used a Velbon DV – 7000 tripod. This was very handy. For our pans especially. It gave a smooth movement instead of a jolty hand held shot we got using it freehand. [which sometimes we needed for the flashbacks but the real time shots we wanted flawless movement] This was especially useful for the shot when ben is pacing. We placed the tripod and camera on a cabinet and without that we couldnt have got such a still, high angle shot so perfectly. We used the usual programes like Facebook to keep in contact with each other. Google to research noir information we needed.

p.s the layout is'nt working properly which is why there's large spaces and different size font.

Editing techniques

Here is a video our editor made [Ben Halliday] about the type of editing techniques we used in our sequence

A killing Conscience, the whole story.

The film opens with a girl, kira and a guy, ben in bed. The guy awakes, opens the curtains and catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He sees blood. And wonders where it could possibly have come from. He looks behind at the girl he woke up next too. He takes a closer look and realizes she is beaten and bloodied. He paces the room franticly, what can he possibly do? What is going on? He sits with a cigarette at the end of his bed and starts to think.

He gets a flashback of the night before. The party. He tries to piece together different parts of the night, but they all merge into one. He comes back to reality and starts to think. Once again, he goes back into a flashback and tries to remember everything that happened that night. When he comes back into reality again, he hears footsteps and the door opens.

It's one of the girls from the party. Sarah. She walks in and sees Kira on the bed. Ben slams the door shut and covers her mouth before she screams out in terror She wants to know what's going on. But the disbelief of Sara makes her escape, run down to the rest of the drunk teens and tell them what has happened. She tells Ben to wait where he is. But he's frightened. Frightened he will get the blame. He climbs out the window, down the trellis at the side of the house and gets in his car parked outside and drives away franticly.

He's so confused, why did he drive away? He's got nothing to feel guilty about. But he's already gone now so what can he do about it. He stops at a red light and lights a cigarette to calm himself down. The police, parked a couple cars down, notice his tail light is broken. They drive after him to pull him over. But Ben panics. Have they called the police on him. He doesn't know what to do! So he stupidly tries to outrun the police. It turns into a mini police chase. Ben outruns them. He knows he can't keep in his car now though. They would have his registration. He finds a river close by and dumps his car. By this point he feels as if he has gone mad. He had just dumped his car! So out of character. Why was he making such a big deal out of something he hadn't done. He starts to walk away and as he does he has some more flashbacks.

This time more specific ones of kira and who was at the party. What everyone was doing and how they were acting towards her. He remembers that one boy, Curtis is pushing her around and making her feel bad. Ben tries to stop this, which is what made her so clingy to him all night. Which he suddenly got sick of and angry. Back in reality, remembering this he wonders, 'maybe it was me who killed her' He looks at his phone, 8 missed calls. Mum 'the police called round, they are looking for you, please come home. I don't understand what's happening. No one will explain but please come home. Oh and some people from a party called, some guy Curtis in particular. They said it was urgent.'

Ben throws his phone in anger. One night of being drunk, and all this happens. Why, why him. The confusion of everything begins to get overwhelming. Could he face being in jail for murder. How could he cope without any support. His mother would never talk to him again. If she knew. He was starting to doubt himself at this point. He walks to a bridge, walks amongst the cars. Maybe this was his fate. His future. Maybe this was as far he'd ever go in life. He'd never been religious, but he started to prey. Prey to the heavens that he didn't sin. As he finishes his prayer, he jumps off the bridge, into the water below.

He slowly drowns, and as he does, he gets his last flashbacks. They all piece together now. He sees kira getting into a fight with some girls, which makes her all bloodied and bruised. He then sees curtis selling her drugs, drugs she wasnt prepared to pay for. It was strong stuff. He threatens her for money. But she declines. Which is when Ben stepped in to try and help the 'helpless' Kira. She drinks more out of everyones way and goes upstairs. Ben so drunk, goes up to find a place to sleep, and hardly notices her there.

By the time he realises it wasnt his fault. It's to late. He's to weak and fragile to swim his way to the top. He dies in the water. They attend Ben and kiras funeral. While the reverand makes a big speech about morals. And how they had not deserved their fate surely. But what happens in life cannot be stopped.

The end.

by kira knight

screening feedback

A few points made from the screening feedback:

People thought generally our video was to a good standard and fitted our teen target audience well. They liked our jerky jump cuts for our flashbacks. And our normal tripod shots for reality. They liked this because it established a difference between the flashbacks and reality.

They liked how we used point of view shots to show bens perspective on the night when it came to the flashbacks. They also liked how our scene ended with a cliff hanger. You didn't know what to expect next. Which is what film openings intensions are. To keep the audience that are watching wanting more.

They liked how we used close ups for emotion. The one of kira on the bed dead and the one of ben when he sits on the side of the bed thinking before the flashbacks. They liked how it portrayed the emotion.

The bad points they mentioned were mainly to do with our titles. They didn't think our titles and opening music suited the kind of film we had made. Which we then took in to account and changed. Our first opening titles were very bright and polished with a optimistic tune accompying it. Which we then changed to a bleaker look with a less cheery song as we wanted to set the correct tone to the piece that matched our opening.

They thought the music used in our piece was very effective for a very contemporary seedy piece of sequence. And the editing, especially the pacing at the start and the flashbacks, were brilliantly put together.

They also mentioned how they wouldn't be too sure if kira was actually dead or not. That we should of had a shot of Ben feeling her pulse or something of that description to clarify she was dead.

We took into account what they said and changed some things around to make it more appealing to our audience.

by kira knight, credited ben halliday for the scan picture

The main focus of this post is to justify the sound and music we’ve chosen for our Film Noir Opening piece. We’ve chosen a really soft, downbeat piece of music that still has quite a dark quality for the titles that sound-bridges into the first scene. This, in my opinion, creates an effective juxtaposition of sorts between the heavy, electronic, upbeat music used for the flashbacks that people won't expect. I used a royalty free sample courtesy of Apple. I added; a bitcrusher, distortion, reverb and an echo to create a really nasty sinister tone to it whilst keeping that really tragic kind of melody it has. In my opinion, it does sound really noir, but updated, which is essentially the key to our entire piece of work.Next, we have the voice-overs. The reason we collectively decided to include a voice over is because we felt that the audience may be slightly confused and needed some insight into the character’s mind. I think the way it turned out is really effective. It compliments the scene, clarifies what’s happening, sets the audience up for the flashbacks and improves their relationship with the character. The voice-over of the girl is one of my favourites though, and the way it’s edited, in my opinion is really effective. We applied heavy reverb to her voice and added delay and a really eerie echo which is not only frighteningly ghostly, but makes the audience wonder why the male character is hearing this and makes them question his innocence.Finally, the music we used for the flashbacks, is a piece by an artist named Peaches. The music had a very grimy, seedy electro feel to it and we liked that it had very subtly appropriate lyrics. The line; “seems you got a little bit more than you asked for” also builds the sequence up and builds suspension and awe, things we definitely wanted to create in this opening body of work. Unfortunately, the music, named ‘More’, we used for the flashback sequences is not royalty-free so we will have to research how to propose to XL Recordings/Kitty-Yo, the owners of the song, for permission to use the material, organise to pay royalties, etc.
By Benjamin Halliday, editor

Editing update, Titles

For A Killing Conscience, our Film Noir Opening Sequence, we've chosen a really simple typeface and layout that clearly displays all information whilst keeping that noir feel.
First, we experimented with flashy reflective titles that whooshed, spun and flew across the screen with white backgrounds and modern black, glossy text which we all thought looked amazing, not stopping to think; "does this have anything to do with our noir?". Well, after screening our opening sequence to an audience, we realised that the glossy, professional titles don't work with our piece - some actually said they were confused because the titles set the film up to be something
it's not. We couldn't help but agree and swifty deleted the title sequence in search of a new one.

Old Title:

Collectively, we sat around as I went through title ideas
I thought would be appropriate and we ended up finding a really sleek, simple, noir-themed one which is dark and shady and it fits out work perfectly. On a black background, the text appears to be typed as letters appear one-by-one on screen. The typeface and colour we decided to use is white Gill Sans which is a modern approach to the old noir typewriter style typeface. Information such as the production company, acknowledgments, and name of our film are displayed seperately, which I really like; it gives the audience time to digest and fully-read the information and looks a lot better than trying to pack everything on in one go.

Here's a screen-shot of the title style we've decided to go with:

By Benjamin Halliday, editor

Group meetings

First group meetings

Our first group meeting was when we started the project to get our initial ideas together. But after we had got all our ideas in we had to keep meeting or talking every now and then to make sure we where on the same page as each other, understood what was going on and when we were filming next etc.
It was also very helpful if anyone had any other ideas that we could have added into the shoot. Because everydy we realised there was new things we could pop into it to make it better.

After our first shoot, we looked back on the footage and realised it was nothing like how we wanted it to be. It was really dissapointing and we started to panic. As that shoot had taken us about 10 hours to do, and we were running out of time till it had to be finished. We had a meeting and we had to decide what to do. As we knew we couldn't have stuck with just the footage we had or our film opening would look terrible. So we came up with another day, time and location for our next filming session. We had to come up with a whole new idea that would be just as good as our last one, but also work. It also had to be a reachable target for the time we had left.

Luckily it all worked out. The panic was finally over.

Group meeting at the editing stage
In the editing stage we had to have more meetings of how to piece everything together that we had filmed. But because there was four of us, we couldn't all bundle round one computer as there were other things we had to do. So we had two at a time round a computer. Ben at all times as he was the main editor. When we were not editing we decided we should do blog work and finish off little tweaks that we needed. Before the editing we all decided on what kind of idea of what we wanted it to be. But as the editing went on we'd all sit together at a certain point and screen it so we could all decide how it looked. This process really worked as we finished it and we all loved how it looked. And in between we got work done which was perfect.
by kira knight

pre production work, shot list

shot list written by Amy meitiner

pre production work, first draft of shot list

Shot list written by Amy meitiner

pre production work, voice over

credited to Ben halliday, Amy Meitiner and Kira Knight

pre production work, log in sheets

Credited to Amy Meitiner and Kira Knight

pre production, video risk evaluation sheet

Pre - production paperwork

Pre production was a very important part of making our film. Without it we would have had no structure or order when making the film

The pre production we undertook included storyboards, resarch and shot lists.

Research was one of the first things we did. We looked at past neo noirs and contemporary noirs to get the sort of feel of the film we had to make. As none of us had made an opening sequence before, let alone one which was of a contemporary noir nature. We did surveys to get information of what sort of thing people of our age group would want to watch. So we could get our idea perfect for our film.

We had to write a quick synopsis of our film, this was about 150 words just so we had our idea on paper. We then wrote wrote a more detailed synopsis, which was more helpful in a sense because as it had more detail, thus it was easier than having to remember every little idea.

Then again, this is what the storyboard was for. We had the type of shots, the duration and what kind of sound would be on it, followed by a quick description of what the scene was all about. This was important mainly to know what sort of sound we would have under the scenes we were shooting, and the duration of the shot.

The shot list was probably the most important of our pre-production work. This is because it had all the shots we needed and the description written down. We did it for every shot we needed. So if we forgot anything we could go back to it everytime and it would be perfect because we'd look at the shot type, what was happening in the scene and where it was being filmed.

I never realised at first how important pre production could be. I thought it might just be extra hassle. But without it, we would have had no idea as a group where to start. It gave a lot more structure to our filming and deffinitly saved us in times of trouble.

credited to Kira Knight

questionare and findings.

We asked ten random people, aged 15 - 21] their views of films so we could could an idea what would attract our audience for our film opening we are making. We found out from the results that horror and thriller put together are popular. Even though romance came out on top, together horror and thriller came as the next popular. They believed that an opening of a film is important and a cliffhanger ending is good. [which is perfect because this is what we planned to do] Not many people had heard of noir, which meant we had to cater to their needs more. For example giving in a very modern twist to noir characteristics so it was still interesting to the young audience we are trying to attract. Themes of film were all quite popular, but murder, parties and fights came out on top. Two of those, murder and parties, is what sort of theme we want to use for our film anyhow.

So from our results, the film we are planning to make should be perfect for the audience we are making our opening for.

Credited to Kira knight

cinematography treatment

Cinematography in our film is going to be vital in our film. The type of shots we use will help distinguish the type of film we are trying to convey to our audience.

The opening shots willl all be in the bedroom. These shots will be used with a tripod to give a smooth feel. As at this point we are in real time so we will use continuity. In this, we will also use high and low angle shots of the charecters to give the impression of the charecter that we want. For example There will be a high angle shot of our charecter 'Ben' sitting on the bed with a cigarette. This will make Ben look vunrable and lonely which is what we to portray. There will be a close up of 'kiras' body in the bed dead. It is important shot, and gives a lot of detail, which is what close ups are perfect for. The shot will need to linger to give a bigger impression of the fact she is beaten, bruised and dead.

In contrast to this the flashbacks we will use will be very gritty, uncontrolled shots. We will get this effect by using a hand held camera. The handheld camera will also make it as point of view shot from bens persepective of that night. We see it through his eyes. When we edit, we will then chop them up in different places to make them even more abnormal to the audience. There wont be any structure as such. Aka, no continuity. This because they are flasbacks of a very drunk not, and in reality when people remember things it will be at different times and not in order how the night has gone. So we want to make it seem like this with our mixed up shots in different places. The shots will seem uncomfortable and confusing. Which was a convention of classic film noirs.

by kira knight

Using Copywritten Music

Breifly, I touched on the subject in the last post about using music owned by Peaches, XL Recordings and Kitty-Yo Recordings. Royalty free music would have ideally been our first choice, though we were so deadset on this song because of the noir feel, the lyrics and tone. So, in order to use this piece of music, research, communication and permission is key.Upon research, I've found that we need to obtain two licences; A synchronisation licence and a master use licence. The synchronisation licence must be gained from the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) who holds rights to a large number of songwriter's, artists and producers' work. To obtain this, I would need to mail the legal team working the company and propose to use this particular song, explain our film, and negotiate royalties with them. I would need the master use to reproduce the recording in our noir. We would need to clear this right with both XL Recordings/Kitty-Yo Recordings as they own the recording we're proposing to use. Similarly to the synchronisation license, we would need to contact the business affairs departments of these record labels and, again, negotiate prices and propose.Fees are determined by how long the song is used, how many times the song is used, how it will be used, and where the film is distributed. For us, as students, reduced fees are available. In our proposal, we would need to provide a synopsis of the film and it's budget, explain how we intend to use the song and how our body of work will be distributed. Now knowledgeable of how we could use the song "More" in our piece, we can switftly move on to complete other areas of post-production!
By editor, Ben Halliday

Second and final script.

INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
The room is dark as the curtains are closed on the large window that takes up the whole of the central wall. Clothes lay strewn across the floor; coins, cigarettes and their packets litter the side of a large desk to the left side of the room. To the right, against the wall is a single bed with two inhabitants sleeping under the duvet. One is a boy in his late teens named BEN, his head leans against the head of a girl of a similar age named KIRA.
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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
BEN wakes up, he rubs his eyes wearily and slowly gets out of bed, walks over to the window and opens the curtains. Sunlight floods the room.CUT TO:
INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
Upon the desk is a mirror which Ben looks into sleepily, he realises that he has blood on his face and proceeds to rub it off, but it doesn’t.
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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
BEN realises that the blood is not his. He is shocked and turns to look at KIRA.
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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
BEN anxiously walks over to KIRA in the bed who still hasn’t moved. She appears to be fine so he rolls her over so that he can see the right side of her body.
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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
The right side of her face is covered with a large bruise to her eye and cheek, and her lip is cut and laced with dried blood.
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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING
BEN looks indifferent and suspiciously walks over to the window and closes the curtains. He then starts to pace up and down the length of the room repeatedly. His voice over starts whilst he is pacing.BEN(Voiceover)What a stupid bitch! I fucking new something like this would happen. How did she even end up in my bed?! I told her no a million times. No one even wanted her here anyway. Looks like we got what we wanted.

FADE TO FLASHBACK:INT. BED’S HOUSE. STAIRS. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN walks down the stairs. AMY sits on the right side of the stairs, mid way down. she looks ill. Ben taps her caringly on the head.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN sees AMY and KIRA sit on a sofa next to each other. KIRA pours a shot.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREOn the left side of the room is another sofa. BEN sees CAMERON and EMILY sit on it with their legs entwined, flirting.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREKIRA comes up to BEN drunkenly clutching a bottle of vodka.KIRA(Inebriated)Hey babe, you look so good tonight! Do you wanna dance or something?BEN(Disgustedly)You’ve had too much to drink!KIRA(Frenzied)Too much?! Not enough! I mean just…AMY appears in front of BEN and shoves KIRA hard out of the way bitchily. AMY looks directly at BEN.AMY(Smugly)Come dance with me!

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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING – PRESENT DAYBEN walks over to the desk and picks up one of the cigarette packs, gets out a cigarette and then sits on the edge of the bed. Meanwhile KIRA’S voice is heard as a voiceover.KIRA(Echoed and overlapping)What have you done to me? I feel so alone. I just wanted a friend. You hurt me.

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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNING – PRESENT DAYBEN sits on the edge of the bed with a cigarette in his mouth.BEN(Voiceover, concerned)My god, what the hell am I going to do? I barely remember a thing! Anyone could have done this – even me…He searches for a lighter – patting down his pockets and looking around – but doesn’t find one so he takes it out of his mouth. He rubs his neck tensely then stares pensively into the air.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN sees KIRA sits on the sofa that she had previously done with AMY. However this time she is sitting with MADELEINE and sobs mercilessly on her shoulder. Then she stops and stands up defiantly and walks out of the room.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN sees EMILY and CAMERON standing in the doorway of the room flirting with each other. KIRA appears from the corridor. She walks over to CAMERON, grabs him and kneels in front of him, begging him for his attention.

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EXT. BED’S HOUSE. GARDEN. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN leans out of his bedroom window for a cigarette, as she goes to light his cigarette, he sees EMILY and CAMERON in the garden below. They intimately embrace. However KIRA runs out into the garden from inside the house and pushes them apart. EMILY stands back in horror as KIRA violently slaps CAMERON.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. HALLWAY. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN sees CAMERON walk up the stairs with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. He stumbles drunkenly.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN looks wearily into a large mirror hanging on the living room’s wall. He rubs his face indicating that it has been a long night. KIRA bounds up behind him bright eyed and bushy tailed – a far cry from the state that she was in in the previous scene. This angers BEN. He turns around.

CUT

BEN stares at KIRA, who looks fanatical.KIRA(Excited)Are you ready for your dance yet babe?BEN(Fustrated)Look, I told you before!KIRA(Frantic)What have I done?!

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREAMY sits spread out on the left side of the room against the wall. She is drinking. BEN sits on a bean bag opposite it and KIRA lays on the floor with her eyes closed in-between. BEN looks at AMY.BEN(Concerned)Do you think she’s ok?AMY turns to look at him.AMYWho cares!? She’s a dirty mess.Just as she finishes speaking AMY throws a cigarette packet at KIRA. This rouses KIRA and she opens her eyes.KIRA(Infuriated)Leave me alone, you dirty skank!!KIRA gets up and leaves.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREBEN sees various people throughout his lounge feeling the effects of his party; EMILY passed out on the sofa on the left side of the room, a boy being sick into a bucket and on the other sofa loads of girls still drinking.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREKIRA sits curled up in the corner of the room, sobbing and clutching a near empty bottle of vodka.

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INT. BED’S HOUSE. LOUNGE. FLASHBACK OF THE NIGHT BEFOREThe lights flicker on and off, and the room appears to spin to BEN as he sees everyone dancing to loud music.

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INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNINGBEN sits on the edge of the bed; he stares forward, deep in thought. He hears loud footsteps coming towards him and then the bedroom door opening so he turns his head to see who it is.INT. BEN’S BEDROOM. BED’S HOUSE. MORNINGThe door handle slowly turns, and opens an inch.

END.

By Myself, Amy Meitiner, Group Director and Producer

storyboard for film noir opening.

credited to Cameron Mears

Call Sheet For Contemporary Film Noir Opening

Date: Monday 15th February 2010
Location: Cameron Mears' house, Shafto Road.
Directions: From town, go to Norwich Road all the way down to Bramford Road, which you follow straight to Shafto Road.


Call Times
Meet in town with equipment at 4pm.
Travel to Camerons house and get there by 4:30pm
Shooting begins at 4:45pm
Expected to end by 10pm


Crew
Directing: shared role
Sound man: N/A
Production assistants: Shared role


Talent
Cameron Mears : victim, deceased
Amy Meitiner: suspect, bullying victim
kira knight: suspect, jilted lover
Ben Halliday: suspect, drug dealer


Equipment:
Sony DV1 Camera
Standard tripod for Sony DV1 camera


Props
Alcohol, Sofa, Beds, Drugs, Ipod Docking System.

Second day of shooting

Date: Wednesday 10th March 2010
Location: Ben hallidays house, Holbrook

Directions: 92 bus from Cattle Market bus station, takes you straight there.

Call Times
Meet at Cattle Market bus station at 9am
Travel to Bens house and get there by 9:35am
Shooting begins at 10:00am
Expected to end by 4:00pm

Crew
Directing: Ben halliday and Amy Meitiner

Sound man: N/A

Production assistants: Shared role

Talent
Amy Meitiner: suspect
kira knight: victim, deceased
Ben Halliday: suspect

Equipment:
Sony DV1 Camera
Standard tripod for Sony DV1 camera

Props
Alcohol, Sofa, Beds, cigerettes,

by kira knight

script for noir film opening [first draft]

First script draft [changed idea through filming]

EXT. HOUSE. NIGHT
A row of detached houses all similar in appearance, sit side by side. They are old and run down, much like the surrounding area. It is the early hours of the morning so it is very dark and completely silent, the only light comes from the street lights standing in front of the houses and one solitary house which has all the downstairs lights on.

INT. HOUSE. LOUNGE. NIGHT
The room is large, with two large stained sofas opposite each other. It is clear that a family live here from the photo on the wall. However seven clearly intoxicated young adults lay around the room. Three of them crowd on one sofa while one very ill man lays spread out over the other. The rest of them lay or sit on the floor. Low diegetic music plays from the stereo. It is clear that there has been a party. Alcoholic cans and bottles litter the floor – all of them empty. One very uncomfortable looking guy named DAN, propped up against the side of the sofa, stands up.

DAN
(Irritably)
Fuck this; I’m off to find a bed.

GIRL ON SOFA
There’s no beds left.

DAN
I don’t care. I’ll push someone out if I have too. I’m not sleeping on that floor, someone puked on it – I can smell it.

GIRL ON SOFA
Well good luck, Dan.

DAN
Night.

DAN leaves the room.

INT. HOUSE. HALLWAY. NIGHT

DAN walks out of the lounge and stumbles up the stairs. The hallway too is littered with bottles and cans. DAN tries his hardest to avoid them on the stairs.

INT. AMY’S HOUSE. SPARE ROOM. NIGHT

DAN enters the spare room, looking exhausted – the bed appears to be empty, breathing a happy sigh DAN throws himself happily onto the bed. He realises there is someone inside.

DAN
Sorry man, I didn’t realise there was anyone in here.

DAN pulls back the covers to find CAMERON inside covered in blood. He is dead, and has obviously been murdered.

By Amy Meitiner, producer

noir opening editing treatment

The editing for this piece will be clean and use continuity editing up until the flashbacks where, to create the effect of disorientation, things aren’t in order, shots are skewed etc. Editing to create flashbacks isn’t intended to look cliché so we’ll go about it differently – when zooming into the guy’s face (when he finds the body) a bright flash will be edited in to the scene to tell the audience we’re going into the character’s mind. The light will slowly fade into the scene where we see the suspects and the reason they may have committed the murder. As this is a flashback of a drunken party, the editing can feature continuity editing, jump cuts, discontinuity editing to disorientate the audience. The music we will reflect the action but also the noir characteristics of the piece. Upon zooming out of the guy’s face, the bright light will appear again and the zoom out will be sped up to invoke a sense of panic.

As the action is quite detailed, the opening titles will be placed before the starting scene. The typeface will be simple, but also reflect (along with colour) the noir feel of things.

Sound and music

The main focus of this post is to justify the sound and music we’ve chosen for our Film Noir Opening piece. To open, we’ve chosen a really soft, downbeat piece of music for the titles that sound-bridges into the first scene. This, in my opinion, creates an effective juxtaposition of sorts between the innocence of the white used in the title along with the scene of the character waking up compared to the silent shot of finding the girl in the bed bruised and bloodied.Next, we have the voice-overs. The reason we collectively decided to include a voice over is because we felt that the audience may be slightly confused and needed some insight into the character’s mind. I think the way it turned out is really effective. It compliments the scene, clarifies what’s happening, sets the audience up for the flashbacks and improves their relationship with the character. The voice-over of the girl is one of my favourites though, and the way it’s edited, in my opinion is really effective. We applied heavy reverb to her voice and added delay and a really eerie echo which is not only frighteningly ghostly, but makes the audience wonder why the male character is hearing this and makes them question his innocence.Finally, the music we used for the flashbacks, is a piece by an artist named Peaches. The music had a very grimy, seedy electro feel to it and we liked that it had very subtly appropriate lyrics. The line; “seems you got a little bit more than you asked for” also builds the sequence up and builds suspension and awe, things we definitely wanted to create in this opening body of work. Unfortunately, the music, named ‘More’, we used for the flashback sequences is not royalty-free so we will have to research how to propose to XL Recordings/Kitty-Yo, the owners of the song, for permission to use the material, organise to pay royalties, etc.

By Ben Halliday, editor