Changing of the opening sequence to Noir

As a group, we discussed with our teacher and decided that the opening sequence would be better if it was changed to a film noir type genre rather than an action film. We were able to still retain the basic idea while changing the piece to a noir which worked really well.   

Storyboard

 

Take a Look Script

Final opening sequence

Production Blog

Evaluation

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation question 2 – How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our piece, a man named Alex Dawson who is the main protagonist walks into a pool club that he has been given directions to. Our opening sequence shows dominant ideology of patriarchy as there is a white man who is Alex Dawson and is given a lot of time on the screen as he is the main protagonist. Alex Dawson is 20 year old English Male with a girlfriend Kerry and soon a son. Works an ordinary job in an office and leads an ordinary life with a completely normal upbringing. He was successful in school and secured a well paying job which means he notices things going wrong in his life and knows something strange is going on. Our group conformed to the stereotypical characters in film noirs through having a white, middle class male play Alex Dawson as film noirs rarely contain a black male protagonist. Barthes’ theory is represented as there are puzzles that should be solved while watching the film. Also i think that people around 30 years old will enjoy the film as they might be stressed from work and due to the modernization twist. Older generations will also like the genre as it has a thriller feel to it. Men would want to watch the film as there is violence and mystery and the mental challenge the film has. Our film appeals to a wide demographic because of the different aspects the film has including cinematography, it isn't necessarily directed to one specific gender or age. Psycho graphically it attracts people who are succeeders and explorers as our film explores what really is happening to Alex Dawson although it could appeal to every type of psycho graphic. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation question 4 – who would be the audience for your media product?

                This is John; he is a male 30 year’s old living in England and enjoys watching film noirs. He really enjoys meeting new people and doesn’t like to be alone. He also lives with his girlfriend and likes to play video games online in his spare time. He also loves kickboxing and competed as a junior. All types of music are enjoyed by John especially Jazz as he believes that was the core moment of the starting point of the music that we listen today. He is currently listening to a lot jazz and has started a jazz band and is the current drummer. His style included mostly suits and blazers as he believes looking very professional and classy is one of the main factors to succeeding in life. A succeeder and aspirer, he seeks status and seeks control. He has very strong goal and is very confident. Through this he is very organised and professional as he goes to Queen Mary University to study a Masters degree in media studies and is half way through completing his degree. He plans to take a year out after finishing his studies and go travelling. John loves to watch Film noirs which contain a lot of action as he often gets excited during these scenes. He also likes to go to the cinema at least once in 2 weeks as he enjoys watching different genres of films but mostly film noirs as his mum does who got him into the genre type.       

Evaluation question 5 – How did you attract/address your audience?

        
   From the start, our film addresses the audience through the use of the titles, which show that the film followed a noir style. The use of characters within the film helps attract our audience as they unfold and shows in the opening sequence that these characters will be explored as the film goes on. We aimed to appeal to an older demographic specifically white male. Women would be attracted to this film due to them having an attraction to the ideal man being handsome, having no fear and being a family man who loves the people around him and would go to any lengths to fulfil their happiness. The film protagonist also attracts men to the film seeing that he is loved by women, men would also want to become like Alex Dawson through his actions. The film also attracts a lot of noir fans who are our main target audience through the use of black and white filter shots. We used this as this marks our film as a recognizable noir film as this would draw fans in and is a key convention of the noir genre.  The plot also helps in draw in noir fans through the use of crime, violence and mystery. The opening sequence is also set in a pool club which shows the film is going to be very classy and mature and the site of the setting immediately gets the audience excited to see what will transpire in the scene. During the opening sequence we also used a piece of jazz music which helped set the atmosphere as jazz music is often used in classical noirs; it also can help the audience realise something exciting is about to happen or make the audience feel relaxed depending on the scene and the type of music used. 

Evaluation Question 6

<br /> <div style="> Evaluation Question 7

Production Plan

Focus group, screenplay, Take a look

The questionnaire gave us information that we used to see people's thoughts on our genre which showed that people from the focus group liked our ideas.

Target audience

Preliminary task

           

It will be filmed in the classroom. The police officer is going to be interrogating the suspect as he has committed a crime however he refuses to tell. The police officer would be asking the suspect many questions about his recent whereabouts. He would also try and threaten him into saying something that could be used to find out what crime he has actually committed. The 180 degree rule will be used for this 30 second piece. This rule is where the camera can move anywhere within the half circle but it would stray beyond the 180 degrees. Otherwise cut shots between talking characters would have them facing the same direction.

The Interrogation

By Mitchell Brown, Jack Rust and Athar Azim

Door swings wide open, handcuffed man stumbles in and falls to the ground followed by an investigator who picks him up and sits him in the chair.

Investigator:

Are you still here Johnson? How many times do we have to go over this?

They are locked in eye contact.

Johnson:

I don’t know, I just love seeing you so much.

Investigator:

You think you’re funny don’t you?

Johnson:

I’ve been told so. You don’t think I am? You don’t like my jokes?

Investigator:

I don’t like you, you’re a joke. You think this is all fun and games?

Johnson:

Everything is a game officer, don’t you..

Officer cuts him off.

Investigator:

[Officer is irate] Well were done playing! You better start talking Johnson.

Johnson:

I am talking officer, in fact that’s all I’ve done since you brought me here?

Investigator:

Look I know you don’t want to be here and trust me I don’t want to be here with you, so I’m going to cut to the chase. Tell me what happened that night?

Johnson:

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Investigator:

Don’t lie to me Johnson!

Johnson:

[Hint of sarcasm in his tone.] Okay officer I’m sorry will you tell me what night you are talking about?

Investigator:

Stop playing dumb!

Johnson stares at the investigator in silence and smiles.

Investigator:

I thought you would've learned. Wait here [Moves to the door swiftly] … we’re going to need some extra persuasion.

[Footsteps can be heard in the hallway through the slightly open door, camera pans to Johnson who is still at the table. After a moment of silence he smirks]

When our group was filming, I was acting as the character, Johnson, who was being interrogated by the officer. I was acting with Jack who was the interrogator as Mitchell was filming the whole scene. We met the 180 degree rule as we made sure that Mitchell does not exceed the 180 degree rule through an imaginary line of the door and desk line. Through the editing of match on action, we filmed when me and Jack talk twice, once from my perspective and the other from Jack's. This way whenever jack was talking, it would show his face and whenever I was talking, it would switch to mines. What went well in our groups was that the script was ready and to be performed and we were on target to achieve in filming it in the time given. In our groups planning, our acting could have been better as we didn't learn the lines off by heart. Although, after we adjusted our script we stuck to it and went well. Also the camera work went very well through which Mitchell had done and filmed different shots of when entering the scene. Something that could've gone better with the camera work is that some of the shots of entering the scene were a bit blurry and that if we knew, we could've have re shot those scenes. The editing went well as we were able to put together shots effectively to make a good 30 second piece. What could've gone better is the amount of non blurred shots we had, although we were able to work round it and have a great 30 second edited piece.