Second Rough Cut

After evaluating the first rough cut and receiving feedback from our focus group, we re-filmed the dark room scene and edited some of the errors with continuity for the Pecc Street scene, including cutting and cropping the car out of one of the shots with the anti-hero looking at the body.

Before:


After cutting shorter and cropping the top of the shot:


Here is the second rough cut of our OTS with the revised changes:



For the next edit, we will be adding the names of the cast, director, producer, film title, as well as all non-diegetic sound including foleying, music, dialogue and the monologue. We will also refine some of the editing including speeds, contrast, cutting, and transitions. We aim record, edit and add all of the non-diegetic sound to our OTS by next week. We will add text to the OTS after this.

Title Font Research

Morrighan and I have been compiling research of possible font styles to use for our opening sequence film title. Between us, we have been looking at authentic title fonts from traditional film noirs, neo noirs and other fonts in the film noir style. The fonts used for traditional film noir film titles are generally narrow, rectangular, capitalised, and bold. They are in light colours which contrast the dark backgrounds, and are very large in the centre of the screen.

We also considered designing our own font, and I have found a website which allows you to do this.
http://www.myscriptfont.com

I also found a tutorial of how to use this website:

Film noir/neo noir style fonts which we have researched:

Film noir style song title font from Spica music video

Film titles from traditional film noir and neo noir opening sequences

First Edit of Final Footage: Focus Group Feedback

Feedback On First Cut from morrighan humpleby on Vimeo

Morrighan and I presented the first edit of our final footage to our focus group to find out;

• If there were any errors of continuity that we had not noticed ourselves, so that we can amend them.
• If the final footage of our opening sequence is in keeping with the traditional film noir style/genre.
• If there were any camera angles/shots that they liked especially, so that we will keep them throughout our edits.
• If there were any camera angles/shots that they felt did not work well for our opening sequence, so that we will consider editing them out and replacing them with better footage.
• If the narrative was easy to follow. (We had asked the focus group this in our previous presentation, however due to the changes and improvements we have made since then, we wanted to be sure that this did not complicate the narrative so that it became difficult to follow.)

Evaluation of Feedback

From this presentation, we found that the focus group were satisfied with the idea of a monologue layered over our footage to explain the story, as no criticisms were raised from this plan. One issue raised by the focus group was the shakiness of the camera during the pan down to birds eye view shot on Pecc Street. Morrighan and I had also previously noticed this, and have applied a steadiness action on iMovie. However as this did not make much of an improvement, Morrighan is locating the additional takes of this shot that I filmed, so that we can look for the steadiest version, and replace the shaky one. It was helpful to know if the shakiness was detectable by an audience, as now Morrighan and I know it is important that we replace it.

An issue which we did not detect ourselves was the lack of fluidity with the transitions of the first and last shots. Our production company title was also accidently timed for too long so that it continued onto the first shot. We have fixed this since the presentation, however this mistake has encouraged us to study our edited footage more carefully before presenting and uploading it so that errors like this do not appear again. To make the first and last shots more fluid, we will apply a fade transition to the first shot, as this can be soft as the tension has not begun to build yet at this point. The transition for the last shot should be more abrupt and quicker than the first transition, as it is the most dramatic shot of the opening sequence; when the femme fatale is murdered. The shot should also be quick as a foley generated gun shot sound will play in time with the transition, and as gun shots are quick and rapid, the transition which accompanies it should be too. Therefore, the transition should be a quick cut to black, as this also signifies the femme fatale's death, as black is what she will see when she dies, and it is a colour related to death/mourning. The title should then fade slowly from black, as this continues the theme of mourning and contrasts the quick shots during the tension building, now that the suspense has ended.

The focus group felt that the narrative made sense and were able to follow it, which was helpful feedback as Morrighan and I needed to check that the changes we made to the opening sequence since the rehearsal footage did not over-complicate the narrative. The focus group also liked the canted still images that I photographed and Morrighan edited of the dead femme fatale. Because no issues were raised with the speed, transitions between them, or amount of images, Morrighan and I will make little to no changes to them. Finally, the panoramic shot of the wall montage could have been cut shorter, as the take is prolonged at the end. Since then I have made this change.

Our next focus group presentations will be to receive feedback on the re-shot footage and improvements/changes we have made to our opening sequence after self and focus group evaluation. We will also present our music, monologue and foley sound effects to the focus group after we record and add them to the footage to see how it is received by an audience, and to identify any necessary changes.

"Text taken from Morrighan's blog: Me and Courtney also filmed one student in the classes feedback about the footage. We didn't plan to, however when I was editing the first feedback video, she came over and complimented our work however said that the dark room scene let it down a bit, so I decided to film her and ask only her some questions. We took this as an opportunity to ask her questions we didn't think of, or forgot to to ask the first group of people. Though she isn't our main target audience it didn't matter too much as it was only about the filming and if the narrative makes sense. We will later do an interview with a few people that are the main target audience to check they like it and if it needs any changes."

Updated Shot by Shot List

After evaluating our rehearsal OTS, Morrighan and I made changes to the previous shots we used, which we discussed changing in this video. We made a list of all of the shots that we would use for our final OTS footage which we took to our shoot.

After our first rough edit, Morrighan and I spent a media studies lesson together making an updated list with all of the finalised shots that we used. Morrighan then presented this using Slideshare:

Camera angles slide from Morrighan Humpleby

First Rough Cut

Rough Rough Cut from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.

This is the first rough cut of our OTS. We have filmed all of our scenes, however I have noticed some errors with the footage, which I have evaluated here:
http://codonnellasmediaproductionschs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/first-edit-of-final-footage-criticisms.html

Overall, I think that the non-linear order of scenes is very effective and has been presented in a clear way due to the editing transitions we have used to present flashbacks. I am especially pleased with the wide variety of shots we have used, as they keep the OTS interesting and professional looking. The acting, cast, and costume presents the traditional film noir characters conventionally, and most of the mise en scene is appropriate for the film noir era. The only issues are with some modern mise en scene and locations, and with the shaky camera operating. We will present this rough cut to our focus group for them to review and give us constructive feedback.

First Edit of Final Footage: Criticisms

During the first edit of our final footage we noticed some issues with our mise en scene and steadiness of our shots.

Modern Plug Socket
The first issue we found was with the mise en scene used for the dark room scene, as our film is set in the 1940/50s, yet a modern plug socket takes up most of a shot. This modern object is very noticeable in the shot due to the high contrast of the white plug socket against the shadowy room; which draws attention away from the developing tank which we are filming to a flaw in our mise en scene, making the shot less relevant and authentic to its era. We have discussed this problem with our teacher and have decided to reshoot this scene.


Screenshot of plug socket in scene


I researched 1940/50s plug sockets which were appropriate for our era

Whiteboard
In another shot within the dark room scene, the large dry erase whiteboard in the dark room is visible. I researched when dry erase whiteboards were introduced to the UK to see if it was within the era our opening sequence is set, but found that it dates to the late 1950s and early 1960s. As our opening sequence is set between 1940/ early 1950s, to include the whiteboard would make our mise en scene inaccurate.

Modern Car
Another recognised continuity error was a modern car passing in the background of a shot from the Pecc Street scene. As the car is so modern, it would not be seen during the 1940/50s, and therefore must not be in our opening sequence. However, a re-shoot was not required for this error, as I filmed multiple takes of this shot, which I have replaced this with. Because Morrighan and I liked the acting and camera angle for this particular shot, I also cut and cropped out the car continuity error, so that the footage could still be used for our opening sequence.


Screenshot of car in the background of Pecc Street scene

Instruction Posters
We noticed that the very visible A4 posters with instructions for the students who use the school dark room to follow were unrealistic for this scene. Although they are not unsuitable for the 1940/50s, we decided that a journalist who captures and develops photographs for an occupation would not need instructions to remind him how to do his job; therefore making the posters unnecessary and creating discontinuity for the mise en scene against the narrative. This is just one of the factors that have encouraged our decision to re-shoot the dark room scene.

As we have noticed so many important continuity errors with mise en scene, we feel that a re-shoot to amend them is definitely required, as our current footage for this scene is not at all accurate enough with our mise en scene. For our re-shoot of this scene, we will be filming in a new location - the photography studio. We have chosen this location because:

• There are no windows, making is a suitable dark room
• 3 of the walls are completely clear and free from mise en scene interference
• There is special artificial lighting equipment and available (hidden) plug sockets for if we take the dark room's portable red lights to this room

However there is no table/surface within the room to develop the picture, which means we will need to bring this along, as well as a line and clips to dry the photographs, the wall montage, and all necessary developing equipment to lay on the tables.

Steadiness

Another error that we noticed within the footage was the steadiness of the mid to pan down shot where the anti-hero is looking at the montage. The tripod that we were using from the photography department (where we were filming) did not have a panning lever or very high legs. Therefore to try and keep the camera steady, I held the tripod raised so that it was high enough to film the anti-hero's upper body, and tilted the tripod manually. After watching the footage during our first edit, we found that the pan down is diagonal rather than straight as a result of the difficult tripod we used. This is a different shot from the straight pan down shot which follows it in the next scene. So that these two shots are fluid, we will bring a tripod with a panning lever to the re-shoot; enabling us to achieve a straight and steady pan down shot.

Progress Timeline

Morrighan and I have created a timeline together using Prezi to organise and schedule our progress in producing our opening sequence. We have been referring to the timeline throughout production, as well as editing it by adding and removing necessary/unnecessary steps. This will ensure that we use our time sensibly and efficiently to prioritise the most important steps of production. The timeline also allows us to check if we are working on time to finish our project by our deadline, as we have created individual deadline dates for ourselves. This will allow us to notice if we are falling behind in our progress, so that we can amend this.

Costume and Mise en Scene Outcomes

Morrighan and I spent the morning-early afternoon styling our actors with costume, hair, make-up, special effects and their mise en scene, for our first shoot on Pecc Street. I photographed the actors in their full costume, and Morrighan edited these with a black and white filter to show the final film noir style look.

Styling Before First Shoot on Pecc Street

Here is the evidence from before our final footage shooting for the Pecc Street scene, where we are styling the actors in costume, hair, make-up, and special effects.

Morrighan curling her hair for her femme fatale role

Andrew testing the wound special effects

Using tissue paper, liquid latex, and foundation

Me doing Morrighan's femme fatale make-up

Andrew wearing his anti-hero costume

Focus Group Feedback

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties with our camera, the footage that we shot of our focus group watching, asking questions and giving feedback to our opening sequence rehearsal was not recorded. This is a screenshot from the 30 seconds of footage that did record at the end of our presentation to the focus group.


Presenting our opening sequence to the focus group

We presented this final edit of our rehearsal; improved with editing transitions, our production logo and our film title.


Morrighan And Courtney Practice from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo

Some of the main questions that we asked the focus group after they watched the opening sequence were:

1. Was the narrative of the opening sequence understandable and easy to follow?
Response: They all understood the basis of the narrative and could distinguish each character's traditional film noir role; the femme fatale, anti-hero and villain.

2. Were the camera angles and editing transitions interesting and fluid?
Response: The scene where the villain follows the femme fatale was uninteresting due to the overly long tracking shot and lack of interesting shots. There were no issues raised with our editing transitions.

3. Overall, is the opening sequence conventional to the traditional 1940/50s film noir style?
Response: With the mise en scene and costumes that we specified for the final opening sequence footage, it will meet the traditional film noir conventions.

4. Which BBFC age rating should our opening sequence be classified as?
Response: The majority of the class said 12A would be the most appropriate rating, however one person said it should be a 15 due to the wound we will be showing.

Upon evaluating the feedback, Morrighan and I agreed with most of the responses, as we also feel that the tracking shot in last scene is too long, that the opening sequence should be classified as a 12A, and that our range of shots should be expanded. It was helpful to receive feedback on whether the narrative was easy to follow and if the opening sequence was conventional to traditional film noir, as these were the possible problems that we were worried we may have needed to solve. Conferring with the focus group was an effective way of answering our questions and getting a practice reaction of the opening sequence as a whole from a real audience. It would have been much easier to reflect on our feedback if the camera had filmed properly, or if we had taken notes from the presentation/given out a questionnaire; however despite these hindrances, the focus group still responded with little feedback for Morrighan and I to reflect on. This suggests that this way of presenting may not have been the most effective way to encourage responses. We will consider other methods of asking for feedback for our next focus group presentation.

First Shoot

Today Morrighan and I are filming our first shoot, which includes the two scenes on Pecc Street. The cast and crew for this shoot are;
Me: Camera operator and director.
Morrighan: Actress playing the femme fatale.
Andrew: Actor playing the anti-hero. Will assist with camera operating when not in shot.
James: Actor playing the villain. Will also assist with camera operating when not in shot.

As Morrighan is acting in almost all shots for this scene, she will not be able to assist with camera operating or directing. However as she is executive cinematographer, I will flip the screen of the video camera of some shots to check their cinematic quality.

Morrighan and our other actors are arriving in the morning-early afternoon, so that we can finish styling the actors in time for shooting in daytime. The materials that I have prepared for this are;

• Femme fatale make-up
• Fake blood for the femme fatale bullet wound
• Femme fatale handbag and jewellery

We aim to shoot the final footage of the scenes of the femme fatale's death and the anti-hero photographing the body. I will also be taking still images of the femme fatale to edit into the anti-hero photographing the body scene. Morrighan and I are quite confident that this shoot will be successful due to our planning of our shots, mise en scene, and location, and also the rehearsal shoot that we created at the same location on Pecc Street, which made us familiar with where we are shooting and how we will shoot it.

In a media lesson together, Morrighan and I planned the shots that we will be using for all of the scenes for our OTS. Here is the list:

1. Pan right, close up of montage on wall
2. Mid pan down behind anti-hero, fade black
3. Mid Pan down, stops at birdseye view
4. Establishing long shot of anti-hero next to body
5. Close-up, low angle, looking up at anti-hero
6. Tilt up as anti-hero stands up
7. Mid shot of villain in the right third
8. Canted angles for photographs
9. Close-up birdseye view of photograph in water
10. Underneath close-up as picture is passed over camera
11. Mid static track as anti-hero carries picture to the line
12. Zooming close-up to extreme close-up of eye
13. Close-up of femme fatale next to river
14. Static track as femme fatale walks away
15. Long shot of femme fatale walking towards the camera
16. Long mid shot of femme fatale walking into shot
17. Long shot of femme fatale closer, and then walking out of shot
18. Extreme close-up femme fatale smoking
19. Extreme close-up, match on action, cigarette falls to floor
20. Close-up of villain walking
21. Static shot as villain walks away
22. Mid of femme fatale walking
23. Static mid shot of villain walking in and out of shot
24. Mid shot of villain catching up with the femme fatale
25. Close-up of villain's hand on femme fatale's shoulder
26. Mid behind shot of femme fatale against the wall
27. Close-up of femme fatale's face as she speaks

Analysis and Comparison of L.A. Confidential and Memento to our own Opening Sequence

As Morrighan and I have created a very complex narrative, our teacher suggested that we compare ours to film noir films with similarly complicated narratives to analyse how they present their narrative and characters in a way which is easy to follow. She suggested the research the films L.A. Confidential (which I have analysed/compared) and Memento (which Morrighan has analysed and compared).

L.A. Confidential analysis and comparison:



Memento analysis and comparison:



From this research, I have gained more confidence in presenting a complicated narrative and characters, and we will consider presenting them in a similar way to these films. As L.A. Confidential has quite an ambiguous opening sequence due to the use of a montage which is irrelevant at times, and a monologue which can be misleading, yet still manages to introduce its complicated narrative, I no longer think that our opening sequence should be more explanatory, as it would be unnecessary for our audience and would lessen the enigma we are creating. I am pleased that there are many similarities with the clips of our opening sequence and L.A. Confidential's, as this could be interpreted as intertextuality, making the opening sequence more interesting, and also shows that it is a professional way of presenting the opening sequence.

Special Effects: Fake Wound

To create the fake blood and wound for our femme fatale after she is shot in the chest by the villain and photographed on Pecc Street by the anti-hero, I have been researched tutorial videos demonstrating the techniques used for making this type of special effect.
The main materials used to create fake wounds and blood are:

• Wax
• Liquid latex
• Food colouring
• Make-up
• Tissue paper
• Spirit gum

Mise en Scene

Morrighan and I took a trip together to the city centre to research possible mise en scene and purchase any that we would like to use in our opening sequence. We prepared a shopping list of the mise en scene we needed beforehand, and then browsed vintage boutiques and fairs and high street stores with vintage style products. We tried to visit as many vintage stores as we could so that our mise en scene was authentic to the 1940/50s era, and we also found them to be reasonably priced. Looking at vintage products also helped us to realise what suitable mise en scene we may already have at home or can borrow from friends/family, as I already have vintage pearls and a 1950s bag, and Morrighan already has a 1950s camera. We decided to use a black and white filter over the images to see how they would look, as this is the filter we will edit onto our opening sequence.

Here is the shopping list and ways which we will retrieve the mise en scene for out OTS, which Morrighan has presented using SlideShare:

Mise en scene from Morrighan Humpleby

Here is the mise en scene which we researched primarily when we went shopping. I have presented this using SlideShare:

Mise En Scene Shopping from courtneyodonnell

Film Title: 'Forlorn Obsession'

Morrighan and I had been discussing possible titles for our film over Facebook since the beginning of our project so that we had considered as many necessary titles as we could. However since I had just finished developing the characters, narrative and plot for the rest of the film and discussed this with Morrighan to see if anything needed changing, it helped us to choose an appropriate title. The title of the film is very important and must be relevant to the content and genre, as this is one of the factors that helps an audience to choose to watch a film.

I researched existing classic American noir titles on Wikipedia, and noticed that the words 'Dark' and 'Stranger' were frequently used. However I feel that they are too stereotypical, and we wanted our film title to be more poetic. They were also not relevant enough to our narrative, which was very psychological and obsessively romantic. Morrighan and I then decided that it would be appropriate for the film title to include the word 'obsession', as both the villain and the anti-hero are obsessed with the femme fatale but in different ways; as the anti-hero is infatuated and obsessive with admiring and protecting her; like a muse, and the villain is obsessed with maintaining an illusion of success after he lost all of his money and selfishly and desperately makes her stay with him. Morrighan suggested 'Sexual Obsession', which is relevant but not appropriate enough to the narrative, as the obsessions are driven by greed or love, but not sex.

We decided that both of the obsessions are desperate, as the anti-hero is desperate for her love, and the villain is desperate for her to help him keep up his successful image. I searched the synonyms of 'desperate on Google and chose the words I liked, which included 'desirous' and 'forlorn'.



We decided that 'forlorn' was the perfect word to use for our title, as both of it's meaning's accurately describe the anti-hero and the villain's different meanings of obsession; the anti-hero's definition is highlighted in yellow and the villain's is highlighted in orange. Therefore our final film title is 'Forlorn Obsession', as it summarises our plot appropriately and relevantly without revealing too much to the audience before watching it. The words also describe our psychological and obsessively romantic theme, and are dystopian and enigmatic to suit our film noir genre.

Shot by Shot List

Shot by shot list from Morrighan Humpleby

Morrighan created a PowerPoint with the camera angles and editing transitions for each scene that we discussed and wrote together before filming our opening sequence rehearsal. After filming our rehearsal, we decided that we don't want to use all of the camera angles that we planned, as they were not all effective. We will create another PowerPoint updated with the changes that we've made just before shooting our final opening sequence footage.

**Edit: Updated shot by shot list: http://codonnellasmediaproductionschs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/updated-shot-by-shot-list_10.html

Mise en Scene: Making a Car

Morrighan wrote the post for the car mise en scene which we made together. You can find this post here: http://morrighanasmediaproductionsschs2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/making-car.html

Character Writing and Casting

I wrote this post so that Morrighan could use it to finalise our cast which we discussed together, based on the actors meeting the characters' specification. Linked, is the post that she wrote for this.

Femme fatale:
The femme fatale must be attractive, sultry and enticing, as she has attracted the anti-hero's attention by her appearance and how she carries herself in public; which is all he is able to learn about her whilst observing her from a distance. She is the least focused on of the three main characters, but presents the most character development as the anti-hero discovers her confident, independent, flirtatious and ambitious personality with each piece of evidence whilst investigating her murder, which she uses to manipulate rich and powerful men for her own gain. This persona, along with her dramatic death, make her true to the traditional femme fatale characters seen in film noir works. The actress playing this role should be a mix or delicate and strong, as she is not physically powerful, but is intellectually manipulative and dangerous; therefore she should be petite but also styled sultrily and independent.

Considered femme fatale actresses:
Elly-J, Ailbhe M, Courtney O, Morrighan H

Villain:
The villain should be insecure and in denial, as he is living in a mask of success with the extravagances that he has left to hide from other people and himself that he has lost all of his riches. His intense paranoia as he refuses to let go of the life he had and will not let others see through this, and battle with reality and illusion make his act susceptible to being foiled. When the femme fatale sees through this act and becomes uninterested due to his lack of the wealth that he had presented to her, he becomes obsessed with her in a different way to the anti-hero, as the villain is desperate for the power he'll receive from dating a beautiful woman, which motivates killing her in an act of frustration and despair; presenting erratic behaviour. Although the villain has the potential to be empathised with by the audience due to his unbearable loss, they become unattached due to his selfish means of solving his problems.

Considered villain actors:
James B, Max S, Billie B, Sam S

Flawed anti-hero/journalist
The flawed anti-hero should be a little unstable and distraught, as his commitment to finding the killer of the femme fatale that he has been entranced and enveloped by, is fuelled by vengeance and anger. His flaws include alcoholism, his unhealthy obsession with the femme fatale, and antisocial nature; which explains why he has been admiring the femme fatale from a distance (almost like a stalker) rather than approaching her. It also enables him to be more perceptive, as he is studying other people rather than building relationships with them. His kindhearted and peculiar nature in contrast to the villain's, and pursuit for justice makes him an unrelatable but likeable hero. Other characters from television shows which he compares to are Will Graham from the 2013 series 'Hannibal' and Sherlock Holmes from 2010 series 'Sherlock', due to Will Graham's costume and unstable personality, Sherlock's intelligence and regressed social development, and both of their detective skills.

Considered anti-hero actors:
Andrew H, James B, Harry F, Billie B


Sherlock solves his crimes with visual projections, similar to how the anti-hero will solve his crimes using visual flashback style daydreams.

Will Graham, Hannibal

Will Graham's outfit

Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock

Opening Sequence Rehearsal

Morrighan and I prepared a list of camera angles and editing transitions we will use for each frame, and went out and filmed a rehearsal of our opening sequence in our location on Pecc Street, with Andrew who is the actor for the role of the anti-hero. We shot the scene that requires the school dark room in my bedroom and set up the tanks and drying line for the photograph development.

The purpose of this was to practise our roles and to test;

• The effectiveness of our camera angles and composition
• Natural lighting and light from streetlights at the shooting time of 5pm in winter
• Shooting in light rain for the dystopian film noir effect
• Ease of access to the location
• The authenticity of our pistol mise en scene
• Traffic from pedestrians and vehicles, and the noise pollution of our location
• Editing
• Diegetic sound
• Acting of 2/3 of our cast

And to look for any possible complications which we may find when shooting our final footage.

This is the our rehearsal footage without music or foleying as this has not yet been recorded, and lacking some editing transitions which we will need to edit using the school computers as we do not have the correct software at home.

**Edit: Once we came back to school after the half term break, we refined our opening sequence rehearsal using the school's iMovie software and added our film title and production logo. This is the final edit of our opening sequence rehearsal:



We then recorded an evaluation video of the final edit together, evaluating the strengths and issues with the opening sequence.

Finding a Musician to Compose our Music

Morrighan and I have been enquiring with our musician friends if they would be both available and willing to perform and record a jazz piece to accompany our opening title sequence; however all of the musicians we have asked so far are unfortunately too busy, or are unable to produce music fitting the jazz genre.

I asked my good friend who is a member of a jazz band if he would be available to do this. Below is a copy of our conversation over Facebook.







Although William is unsure of whether he will be too busy with his other activities, he will try to perform a piece of jazz music for us. As he has no access to recording software, Morrighan and I will look into finding some to record his music and upload it to Soundcloud to present as evidence for our blogs. We will save the file to the school computer which we are editing our opening sequence on, and export it onto iMovie and overlay over our footage. We will cut and edit the sound file on iMovie so that it fits with our opening sequence.

As there is a chance that he will not be available to do this, we will continue enquiring with other musicians.