Health and Safety Checklist

Here is the health and safety check list I have carried out for all shoot locations:

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

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.

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

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.

Order of Filming

Today Morrighan and I went into the city to research and purchase possible mise en scene for our opening sequence. We also visited the library and planned the order of which we will film our scenes using one of the computers. Below is the post that we discussed and wrote together. As the narrative is non-linear and features flashback scenes, it would be difficult to film chronologically. Therefore planning the order of our filming is crucial for finishing the project in time, and for the continuity of the OTS.

Order of filming

1. Anti-hero taking photos of dead body
Location: daytime on Pecc Street
Actors: anti-hero and femme fatale

2. Flashback to how the femme fatale died
Location: night on Pecc Street
Actors: femme fatale and villain

3. Anti-hero looking at wall montage of photos
Location: lighted darkroom
Actor: anti-hero

4. Developing photographs, zooms in on photograph to discover how femme fatale died
Location: lighted darkroom
Actor: anti-hero

Order of scenes when finished
1. Anti-hero looking at montage of wall photos
2. Anti-hero taking pictures of dead body
3. Developing photographs, zooms in on photograph to find out how femme fatale died
4. Flashback of how femme fatale died

Next we wrote the narrative with a brief plan of the voice-over which will overlay. We decided that we wanted the beginning of the opening sequence to be silent apart from maybe a few lines of dialogue, and with a voice-over from the anti-hero throughout it. We felt that beginning to explain the voice-over would help our narrative plan make sense to our focus group when we present it to them.

Narrative 1:
1. The anti-hero is looking at pictures of the femme fatale from when he stalked her, then finds out she died or already knows, which leads onto the next scene. On the voice-over it should explain how much he loves her, "she looked beautiful in every picture I took of her, she'll always be beautiful." This creates the relationship between them.
2. The anti-hero takes pictures of her dead on the floor. Voice-over expresses anger of how she was taken from him, and foreshadows his hunger for revenge. This establishes her death and the anti-hero's emotions towards this.
3.Cuts to the picture of her face being developed in the darkroom. Voice-over shows less important for this scene, but continues to show feelings of infatuation with the femme fatale.
4. Flashback of how the femme fatale died. Short sentences to convey pain and tension.

After writing and discussing this narrative, we were concerned that it may be too difficult for the audience to follow, so we created another possible narrative order:
1. Anti-hero in darkroom looking at montage pictures of the femme fatale.
2. Steps back and round the developed picture in the tank, hangs developed picture on line. This zooms in or cross fades the picture on the line to the scene where the femme fatale is dead.
3. Zooms out or cut to birds eye shot of dead body and sees anti-hero taking pictures (which explains what he has just developed).
4. Cuts to flashback of her death.

However Morrighan and I decided that the original narrative order was much easier to follow and will therefore continue to use it. We will film a practise of the narrative in order to ensure that it is not to complicated for the audience to understand.

Morrighan and I planned to meet up tomorrow with our actors to film a practise opening sequence, testing diegetic sound, location, natural lighting, environmental conditions, narrative, camera angles and composition, and acting.

Locations

Morrighan and I have decided that we will be shooting in the school's darkroom, which we will light so that we can film. We have chosen this location as the anti-hero character will be developing photographs in the scenes in this room, and therefore using a real darkroom makes our opening sequence more authentic and realistic. Morrighan took the role of researching the locations to shoot the street scenes, and this is the post she made.

Considering Age Demographic and Audience

At this point in our project, we have decided that we our opening sequence will be rated a 12A or 15, because there are adult themes (seduction, murder, smoking, gangster violence), but nothing too violent or explicit that it would be rated an 18. I have researched the BBFC website so that I can be familiar with the British classifications of film rating standards, ensuring that the rating we choose for our film is accurate.


BBFC 12A

Audience:
12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The 'A' stands for 'accompanied' or 'advisory', as children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult, and is used for cinemas only.

Language:
Non-aggressive and infrequent strong language may be used (such as f****), for example in puns. There may be moderate language such a b*tch and tw*t. No discriminatory language.

Sex and nudity:
There may be nudity if it is brief and infrequent, and sex can be briefly or discreetly portrayed. Comedic moderate sex references or innuendos are acceptable, but no crude sexual references.

Violence:
Moderate violence is allowed, but should not dwell on detail. No emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justifiable by context. Action sequences and weapons may be present, and there may be long fight scenes. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds should not be glamourised. Sexual violence, such as scenes of rape or assault, may only be implied or briefly and discreetly, but must have strong contextual justification.

Dangerous behaviour:
Drug use should not be glamourised or encouraged. Dangerous behaviour such as suicide or self harm should not dwell on detail or be presented as painless. No discriminatory behaviour.

BBFC 15

Audience:
Not suitable for children under 15 years of age. 15 rated DVDs can not be purchased or seen in the cinema by them.

Language:
No limit of use of strong language. Aggressive or continued use of strongest terms (such as c***) are not acceptable. Discriminatory, homophobic or racist language may be used, exploring related themes. Must not endorse this language or behaviour.

Sex and nudity:
Sexual activity can be portrayed without strong or graphic detail. No constraints on nudity in non-sexual or educational context, but in sexual content there should be no strong detail. Strong references to sex, but nothing too crude.

Violence:
Violence may be strong, but should not dwell on injury and pain details and nothing too gory. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence, but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discrete and have a strong contextual justification. Easily accessible weapons may not be glamourised.

Dangerous behaviour:
Drug taking may be shown, but their misuse must not be promoted or encouraged. Unlikely to accept the misuse of easily accessible drugs such as solvents. Dangerous behaviour such as suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.


Analysis:
After this research of BBFC ratings, I think that our opening sequence is most suitable for a 12A audience. This is due to the quick flash of blood in our opening sequence which is not emphasised, and that no gore or violence is shown. The gun prop that we will be using is an acceptable weapon for films of this rating, as it is not accessible to 12 year olds. There is an assault scene where the femme fatale is stalked and pushed against a wall, but its detail is not dwelled on. However there will be lots of footage of cigarette smoking as it is conventional for film noirs, which could be interpreted as the promotion of drug use, as BBFC did not specify which types of drugs are allowed/restricted. BBFC did not state which age rating allows mature psychological themes, such as the stalking of the femme fatale by the anti-hero. I will research this further.

**Edit: On 15th January 2014, BBFC announced that they will be reconsidering the age ratings of films due and their psychological impact on their audience. These ratings are yet to be revealed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-bbfc-has-announced-new-film-classifications-for-teens-but-can-the-ratings-war-be-won-9062688.html

Foleying

Morrighan and I took part in a sound foleying experiment; creating the sound effects that we specified for our opening sequence. This is a presentation of our findings.



We researched the art of foleying using this video, as well as found inspiration from the methods of sound creating seen in the video:



Definition: Foley is the reproduction of non-diegetic sound effects that are added to film, video, and other mediums in post-production to enhance audio quality. A person who creates these sounds is a foley artist.

Health and Safety

I have created a visual mind map to present the health and safety factors which need to be considered for production.

By courtneyodonnell

Narrative Planning

At lunchtime, Morrighan and I brainstormed the common narratives of film noir together to help us decide which direction our film noir narrative will head. These were our ideas:


By courtneyodonnell

We decided to write a narrative focusing on the revenge of an anti-hero against the death of a femme fatale. This could involve romantic elements, as he could be infatuated by her, and there could also be a gang or single villain that commit the murder. We will develop our ideas further, but for now, this is an adaptable basis idea.

**Edit:
Morrighan and I discussed the narrative theory which our OTS complies to, over Facebook. We considered the narrative for the rest of the film when we concluded that our follows three theories; dual narrative, non-linear narrative, and Barthes' enigma codes.

Non-linear:
The chronology of scenes for our OTS and overall film are non-linear, as the OTS itself features flashbacks to the death of the femme fatale, and these flashbacks will continue throughout the film.

Dual narrative:
Our film will be following the lives and perspectives of the three main characters, in order; the anti-hero, femme fatale, and villain. Although it is narrated by the anti-hero for most of the OTS and film, the other characters' lives are still followed. The characters' lives also cross-over and meet at many points in the film.

Barthes' enigma codes:
The audience finds out events and information regarding the plot at the same time as the characters in the film (predominantly the anti-hero). This makes the anti-hero a more relatable character, and creates an enigma for the audience to follow and stay interested in.

Soundtrack Planning

For our soundtrack Morrighan and I hope to create our own original composition. I have basic piano skills, but Morrighan plays the saxophone and one of our main actors, Andrew, plays guitar; both at a very high grade. We will definitely be using Morrighan and Andrew for our composition of a jazz film noir piece of music to play throughout our OTS.

Morrighan and I have collected a selection of 1940/50s jazz music to inspire our composition, which are suitable for the film noir genre due to its slow tempo, low pitch and bluesy feel. We will experiment with the different tempos and instruments alongside tension building and calm points within our OTS so that the music and film work in harmony.

I have created a YouTube playlist of our chosen inspirational soundtracks:

Mood Boards

Morrighan and I created three mood boards presenting our research of film noir character styling and location.


Film noir costume


Film noir location


Femme fatale hair and make-up

To achieve the femme fatale character look, her make-up should include:

• Sultry smokey eyes
• Voluminous, short, loose curls
• Deep red lipstick, varying in tone
• Thin, precise, arched brows
• Flawless skin with a peach glow

I also found these tutorials helpful and inspirational for recreating the femme fatale make-up look:

Research Into Neo Noir

I have created a prezi exploring the neo noir genre in preparation for choosing the genre of my OTS.

Continuity Task Feedback

After presenting the unfinished first edit of our continuity task to our focus group, we recorded their feedback using handouts and by filming their comments.

Handouts which Morrighan photographed:


Presentation and comments from focus group:


In conclusion, the general response from our focus group was that the beginning clip was prolonged and should be cut shorter. We should experiment with using more transitions for our next edit, as we were lacking in this area, and for next time, we should use more than one camera for a wider variety of shots and a better understanding of the 180 degree rule. The main issue identified was with the mise en scene shoes, as the rest of the costumes were suitable for film noir characters, apart from the modern converse trainers worn by the femme fatale and redemptive woman characters. We will attempt to edit these out of our final edit.

Analysis of Film Noirs

Analysis of Sin City:

Analysis of Double Indemnity:

Research Textual Analysis

Double Indemnity, 1944

• Director: Billy Wilder
• Set in 1938
• Film noir genre
• Based on the 1943 novella of the same name by James M Cain
• Nominated for 7 academy awards but did not win any
• Citied as a paradigmatic film noir and set the standards for this genre
• Stars Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G Robinson
• Budget of $980 000 and box office of $5 000 000

IMDb review

Wikipedia page

Plot: An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

Narrative:
In 1938, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause.

Trailer:

OTS:






Reviews:

• http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-double-indemnity-1944
• http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=132362
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/reviews

Quotes:

Walter Neff: "Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?"

"Suddenly it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me. I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man."