preliminary excersize video

For our first video i think it turned out really well. We took turns on camera work and sound so both people in the group had a chance of trying out both so we could gain experience. It starts off with emily walking down a hall. We got an amazing shot of her feet as she walks. It was hard to get the camera to pan fast enough as she walked but after practice it was fine. We then had a close up of pushing the door open. This was also a tricky shot to get so we could still see the door as she was opening it but it worked out fine. The problem we had was keeping continuity when she walked into the room because her hands are at her face. This is something we didn't pick up on, but couldn't have really changed as it's the only footage we had, so we would look out for that next time. We got in one over the shoulder shot, which turned out well.

The sound turned out really well. For the feet we had to follow emily without getting the mic in camera. Which was complicated we just had to make sure the leads weren't in the way. The dialogue was fine, we just had to practice getting it close enough to their mouths, but not so it's in shot. Which took a couple of takes, but we got there in the end.

details of preliminary exercise.

This excercise was used to help us learn the tricks and trades of filming for the later filming we would do. We did it merely to help us improve the standard of our filming skills.

Our preliminary was for us to shoot six shots of a person walking into a room and sitting opposite another, and reciting a short script to one another. The shots were split up and we tried to use many different techniques for each shot. For example, long shots, over the shoulder shot and close ups. And most important of all when filming, is not to cross the 180 degree line, which usually causes confusion of the audience watching the performance.

First of all, before we even got the cameras, we had to do something known as pre-production. This is just organizing the production so in the long run it makes our lives a lot easier when we come to shooting. Pre - production includes writing a short script, doing a storyboard to document the ideas of the exercise. Sometimes even writing down who's doing which parts. Like sound, directing and acting.

We played around with the cameras using the zoom, auto focus and getting to grips with the tripod - keeping the camera steady at the right times when filming. We also got out the microphones and played around with the sound levels. Which is much harder than it looks. Getting the right sound quality, yet not getting the mic in the way of the shot.

After all the filming had been done, it came down to the editing. In which we logged all our footage onto the computer and played around with cropping the footage and adding in transitions. All very simple to start off, so we got to grips with the equipment.

My own noir idea.

There are a group of people at a house party. Everyone is drinking and having a good time. Until one of the party goers finds one of their friends brutally murdered with nothing but a note left next to the desk table saying 'whos next' They close all the windows and doors, lock everything up and try to get hold of the police. but its a remote place and thus hard to get signal. They alll huddle but as someone else gets murdered everyone starts to get suspicious of the little group they have. But no one wants to leave until police arrive. A girl tries to flirt with the lead boy trying to solve the mystery. To get out of something everyone wonders? As murders occur slowly and surely the group of remaining people try and save themselves.


The first few minutes will just be of the party goes having fun. Dancing drinking etc. This is where you get introduced to the main charcters. Then the scene ends with the charecters downstairs hearing a loud bang from upstairs.


The editing will be continuity editing when everything at the partys going normally. But as the suspicion arises with the deaths, the angles could become more askew and strange to match the feelings of the charecters. Plus it brings a bit of classic noir to the contemporary one we're filming. The shots should be quite sharp, quirky. Out of the ordinary as it was. A lot of random focus points. Plus a mixture of diagetic and non diagetic sound. And also silence, because that can be just as important to set a scene, eg tension.

Sin City.

Sin city is one of the most modern and talked about neo - noir films. It was one of the most highly anticipated film to be released in 2008. Being a graphic novel, it had a lot to live up to for the fans of sin city, But also a lot to live up to in the sense that this film was a anticipated neo - noir. It had to stay to the conventions but also branch out to a new level. A level in which none of the old neo - noirs could get to. They had to use the new technology they had well to make effects interesting yet watchable. To much would take it out of the noir theme. But even though this film is very over the top, it keeps to, and extends the conventions perfectly, and so it seems effortlessly.

The plot is strangely in chronological order, in classic noirs, they would usually start at the end of the film, and works through to see how it got to the point at the beggining. But in this film, its as if your cut to part of the film where you have to work things out for yourselves. The classic noir directors loved doing that, confusing you and making you think whereabouts your at. It has a lot of overlapping sub plots in the film. It has three interlocking stories. ''that yellow bastard'' where Bruce willis playing Hartigan, a police detective saves a girl from being raped, but the story is left thrown in the air as he is stabbed in the back by his parter in the business. the second story then goes into ''the hard goodbye' where a very hench Mickey Rourke plays a heartbroken Marv. After his hooker girlfriend is killed and he is framed for it, he runs the streets looking for the real killer. The third, the big fat kill, is when Clive owen aka Dwight has to dispose of a body without anyone finding out, but its a tough ride to freedom.

These sub plots are all very ''whodunnit' based. They all have the classic noir story lines but using neo - noir charecteristics too.

The colours used in this film are used to define certain people or main trends throughout the film. For example the blood in this film is either a pure white or a bright glowing red. Both in which stand out from the dreary grey background. One of the charecters, ''the yellow bastard' is shown in, of course, bright yellow. He is percieved as a horrible man, the worst. He is transformed after Hartigan ruins him. He was once a normal black and white charecter. Then transformed into this.

The Dialogue in Sin City is to me, the key feature of this film. It's the same witty and cunning banter, just like in the classics. The male husky, angry tones. And the females seductive innuendos. The dialogue really keeps the classic moments of film noir back in the 40's to this neo noir film. Another very good feature is the mis - en - scene. Whats in the film. the settings the props. All keeps to the conventions of film noir. The rain, the dark alleys. Every man has a gun.

This seems like the type of film, that in years to come could be revoultionary. It has opened up a new visual to movies, and ''The spirit' has already tried to copy its way of filming. It has done an amazing job of keeping to the neo - noir ways. It uses old conventions mixed with the new techologyy to create an amazing film.

Neo - noir

Neo- noir,( from the greek neo, which means new) is a contemporary notion from the original film noir, which updated themes, which are still based around the original film noir. Things like visual elements, content and most importantly, colour. It re-defines film noir in the sense that the elements of the film are the same, but with a new spin of conventions added to it. Its something different, which keeps the fans of noir interested. Sin city is probably the most famour of neo - noirs. Relased in 2005, its famous for its art work. It is based heavily on old film noir movies, with the plot, voice overs and visuals. Black and white are the sole colours throughout the film, but theres also bursts of red, yellow and blue in some scenes. The bright colours are used for certain charecters in the story.

Murder by Contract directed by Irving Lerner(1958)

Murder by contract is a lean stark film. It opens when we meet a young man named Claude who is coming into a career as a professional hit man. Claude passes his test by his employer. He becomes more creative in taking out his targets, and soon lands a large move, which is an assignment in the West Coast. The music in this film is jaunty and warbling. It feels quite different to the usual film noir.

The maltease Falcon directed by John Huston (1941)

The story concerns a San Francisco private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time Roger Ebert