Character Planning

Character planning

 

When thinking about the characters for our trailer we discussed and planned what they would look like, represent and be like. Our trailer only had 2 main characters and then a voice of another character.

Detective Swanson- Our main protagonist detective Swanson, we want to come across as a mysterious character. As he is a detective audiences will assume that he is a innocent and good guy. Although certain factors will be pointed out and this will create curiosity as to what he is all about. He should be dressed giving a noir feel but also a detective. Also he will come across as quite weak and quiet but also maybe vunerable and also is the typical conflicted hero, he's just doing his job and accidentally got involved in the wrong crowd. Although he isn't the one who has committed the murder, though audiences maybe assume that he is the murder.

Scarlett- Our femme fatale Scarlett is the murderer. She will be a typical feisty and desired femme fatale character. She will have the red lipstick, big blonde hair and the fur coat and will be the very dangerous women that everyone wants. She should also be quite mysterious, but also her name 'Scarlett' should help connote the feeling of evil, danger and darkness. She will be typically double-crossing and promiscuous. She will be the sex factor in our film trailer.

Cheif inspector Larry- We won't see Larry in the film trailer but you will hear his voice. We hear him interview Swanson and he mentions Scarlett, as he is Swansons cheif inspector. He will be quite assertive which you can tell from the way he speaks in the trailer. But as you don't see much of him and you only hear him there isn't much to know about him. The name 'Larry' connotes as if he is quite stupid and never gets the right guy, which will fit in with him being the one interviewing Swanson when he isn't the one that's commited the crime either.

Narrative

The Narrative

A trailers narrative enables the viewer to understand the story line and helps you to grasp an idea or prediction as to what will happen in the film. The structure can be a main feature of a narrative as the way that the storyline is told is important to consumers some viewers may or may not like complicated story lines. There are some theories that individuals have on specific narrative which can become apparent in similar genres of film. Such like theorists Todorov, Tzetvan,Claude Levi and pam cook.



I thought it would be more usful to apply the theories to a few of the previous film noir trailers I had analysed.

Shutter Island

Shutter island follows a typical film noir narrative, that follows the theory of vladmir Propp, which is that narrative have the same character types that preform certain actions and portray certain aspects which are the same all the time in any film this enables you to recognise the characters.

The trailer doesn't follow a linear narrative, this is because it's a trailer which shows the best parts of the film not nessacarily in order to attract the audience and give a sense of mystery. Though the film itself follows a linear narrative, which allows the tension to build for the audience as aspects are hidden from the audience throughout. 

This film is a restricted narrative as the main character is narrating the beginning of the trailer.

 

Memento


Memento is a classic film noir murder story. Linking to theorist Pam cook, she says about the structure of hollywood film narravtives ''linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma.''


The flashbacks which take olace in the film help relate to this of Tzetvan Toorov, he states narratives always have a structure. Though this structure isn't a linear narrative as the flashbacks represent the scenes of his past and where the main character is in the present state of the film.
Not having the film/trailer as a linear narrative helps create enigma. This theory is stressed by a theory; Ronald Barthes he states that enigma codes are intentionally put into narratives to give a pleasurable way of ending a story.

This film is a restricted narrative within the beginning of the trailer which indicates it's about the protaginists experiences as the narrator uses many personal pronouns. 
 

  

 

Workshop

Tyneside pop up theatre.

All the year 13 media students attended the media workshop at Tynside pop up theatre for a day. In groups of 6 we created a trailer for a Noir style film. Our group created the trailer for 'Gandalf's Sparrowhawk.'

We were given the script and as a team we had to create this trailer in just a few hours so it then could be edited. It was really good fun and gave us a chance to experiment with sounds, props and improvise with what we had and this helped us to get a feel of what we could produce for our trailer and how to do this using the different camera angles and the different effects.  Also from this we got a chance to have a go at editing and using different camera angles experimenting with everything.We got to use different items that were easy and accessible to us to improvise for other uses for our trailer. For example for the horse we used 2 of our team members then covered them in a brown sheet to act as our horse. The whole workshop overall was really beneficial and helped everyone a lot and was great fun as well and will help us to create amazing trailers!

My partner ryan wasn't in my group for this workshop , he was in the other group. But showing the other video again shows the potential that we can achieve also even better working together.  

Reece location shots

Reece location shots

We used our school stage to take the photos for our film poster and magazine front cover. It was a great place to create a photo shoot as it's a big open space and has a plain black background, it was very useful to us as we could easily improvise to achieve what we wanted, although what we wanted was just simply a plain black background. From it being so dark we were able to attain strong shadows. Also if we wanted it darker then we could close the curtins to get it darker and open them more if we needed it lighter. 

 

 

We took advantage of the fact I was going to New york and set the scene of our film trailer to be in New York city as that would give the trailer a real typical American film noir. Therefore before I went I had planned the shots that were needed such as shot off the empire state building to get that amazing view to set the scene within the trailer. But also a range of pictures of the skyline and all the buildings to add to the magazine as a background to set the scene again but also link the promotional packages together.

 

 

 

 

Near by side road would be work really well for my trailer. It gives that abandoned feel and helps connote that danger. As its a side road it was perfect as there wasnt really any cars about but also had the curb so that we could use this as a base to easily film our walking parts.

 

 

 

 

Character representation

Representation

These are quick sketches and ideas of what our femme fatale and male protagonist are typically going to look like.  

Magazine front cover analysis

Magazine front cover analysis

For my magazine front cover analysis, I  looked and analysed three different film magazines. From this I will take various aspects and conventions from each as influences for my magazine front cover.

Film poster mock up

Film poster mock up

This is our mock up for our film poster. We acted upon voxpop and audience feedback and this is our latest mock up poster. We decided to involve the main character but also the femme fatale but with them looking away from each other to give the impression that maybe they don't know each other or something is wrong between them. We wanted to show the idea of them being together but maybe not knowing each other or connoting tension between them, giving the idea to the audience as mystery. Then with the shadow and silhouette it helps show the film noir gere, but also it links to the name of the film. 

Script

FLASH BACKS

Black screen

Penguin productions

Black screen

Int: office

Detective Swanson in black room match is struck detective lights cigarette detective exhales smoke

Title screen flashes up amongst smoke letters fade out apart from A

Sound bridge of feet walking (pan)

Narrator DS (VO)

It all started as a normal investigation

Cut to DS at desk

DS (VO)

Then is all changed

Int: room

Scarlett looks over shoulder towards the follow (eye line match to hand on the floor

Hand (body) on floor blood appears

Int close up of feet walking skewed shot

Fade into ds walking in rain

Ds (VO)

It wasn’t meant to be like this

Cuts to Int Street

Ds standing on street and the Scarlett walks past she look back at him he doesn’t acknowledged

Int office

Ds is a mess

Cuts to film title

Cuts to social networking

Cuts to coming soon

Titles

Production Company name

Me and ryan thought about a name for our production company, and we came up with the name 'Penguin Productions' it's a catchy and friendly name, but also penguin's are black and white which links to the classic colouring of film noir.




Film Title




Me and ryan came up with a few film titles relating to our film. Me and ryan then carried out a survey on our film titles within our school asking people what name they like best and what is most appropriate regarding the name of our film. To do this we gave them a copy of our synopsis and then asked them which film name they liked best and created a tally chart which we then turned into a pie chart to show our results, we found from this that 'Flashbacks' was the most popular name.
The name flashbacks relates to our film as in the trailer there are flashbacks of difference scenes keep appearing and flashbacks of different characters appear therefore it links well to the film name.

10 point plan

10 point plan of the trailer illustrating the structure:

· Production company logo

· Black Screen

· Silence

· Sound of match strike, then burn of cigarette. Then main protagonist face appears

· Film title flashes up black background white text (red shadow of person)

· Start music

· Back to interview room shot of ashtray

· Voice says “phrase” about the woman,

· Then cuts to women introduce her

· Cut of male dying low angle shot

· Back to interview room male all roughed up hands on head, and then a lot of cigarette ends in the ash tray

· Fade out of trailer

· Social media

Synopsis

 

Synopsis

A detective who was just doing his job finds out that everything is not what it seems. When investigating a murder, he falls in loves with the victim’s wife and from this point onwards everything has now turned bad.

What is film noir?

What is film Noir?

Film noir is used to describe a type of film that has a style that has been marked by a mood of pessimism and fatalism. The classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low key lighting and a black and white visual style, as the term 'noir' is French for black. They could also involve sub genres and have many conventions and a lot of iconography to them.

Magazine front cover mock up

 

 

Magazine front cover mock up

 

 

 

 

Looking at previous empire magazine front covers we came up with this quick simple mock up for our front cover. We using Empire because one of the most popular movie magazines currently. Film noir is a classic and is making a new and fresh comeback with a modern twist. Empire has previously had modern film noir's on their front cover such as inception, the dark knight rises and Public Enemies.  

 

 

 

 This is an influece of ours for our magazine front cover . The background being the new york scene which we wanted to show a classic film noir. But we liked how it's quite blurred aswell with the contrasting light and dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ancillary task- film posters

Film Posters anaylsis

Public enemies- This modern film noir, straight away suggests this genre as of the costume, mis-en-scene and the props. It gives the idea gangsters, with the 50's car to show this time period. The male protaginist in the forground is wearing a trench coat and a fedora which suggests the 1950's film noir. Also a theme being about crime, the gun and all the dark colours and the misty surroundings and grey scale help re-enforce this and it helps suggest that the film is about crime and a unnormal situation, also the american flags in the background help this as it could be related to the goverment. Also the star characters in this film is seperated on the poster maybe suggesting that these characters in the film are enemies therefore linking to the films title.

 

 

 

 

 

Drive- This again mordern film noir isnt a typical film noir but still follows alot of the conventions. It has the street in the background which is a typical mise-en-scene for a film noir, although it's not that dark it still conotes mysterious but added with a blurred background so it helps you focus on the main protaginist and he stands out more and helps suggest the neo nior feel. The actor isnt directly staring at the camera either and added to the big bag that he's carrying and the leather gloves comes together to create suspicious and curiosity and could suggest crimes yet doesnt give too much away. The main focus actors name is also standing out in a pink contrasing colour. There is also a quote from the times newspaper on the film which will attract people too it and with it mentioning it received an award for best director aswell with a pull quote grabbing your attention. Lastly the landscape form of this poster attracts my attnetion as most film posters are portrait so by it being landscaoe it grabbed me more and therefore i think that our film poster could be landscape.

 

 

 

Pirates of the Caribbean- Although this isn't really a film noir, it is a good film poster to analysis. It involves the three main protagonists and we recognise them straight away as being famous actors but adding to this it has their names in contrasting colours at the top. With this their costumes and help add to the feel of pirates and crime also as their is a gun shown. Each character is looking directly at the camera also so attracts your attention but their facial expressions look serious suggests what is to come in the film but not giving too much away. There is also a separation between them as we can see that each character is on a different level, maybe connoting that Orlando bloom could be the conflicted hero as he's higher up but then makes you think added with one women she could suggest a femme fetal involved. With in the picture of the characters they are shown to be amongst the misty rough sea with the pirate ships which again suggests what is to come in the film and what it's about. The films title is on a old wooden sign with a skull relating to to the film. We also can see the credit block and when the film is to come out both in contrasting colours to stand out, but also it's in red and so is the headscarf which connotes evil and as the rest of the poster is dark the red especially stands out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

poster ideas

 

 

Mock up film poster ideas

 

 

 

 

 1-This is our first idea of our film poster. It based on the public enemies film poster. We like the idea of it having the main protaginist in the middle of the screen with his suit and giving the idea of being maybe in control and makes you think of who this character is and what he is about. Also instead of the american building the idea of a plain dark wall behind was better and it made a better impact on the main character as the background came across as quite distracting in the public enemies but also could give too much away about the film as we wanted ours to be really quite mysterious and nothing to be given away.

 

 

2-This is another idea based on our trailer.The background being in the street like a typical film noir is based. This time we involved the femme fetal as well, but the characters are on opposites sides of the street to suggest the feeling that they don't know each other which could suggest what thoughts about the film and create curiosity. Also we have the street lights, which will be bright and react with the dark scenery around making an impact as it will be based on a night time scene.  We looked at the film poster inception, our idea isn't much like this one but we liked the idea of the street and the dark misty background and the small amount of lighting but then with the film name being in a contrasting colour, being red connoting evil which could be foreshadowing whats to come in the film. You don't really get what the movie is going to be about from this poster, but from the pull quote ''the dream is real'' it then gives you some sort of idea to whats its going to be about and makes you curious.  

3- For another idea again we choose the format of landscape as it's different but also went better with what was going on in the poster. With our film being called flashbacks we wanted to show the thought of flashbacks in our poster. We seen the white stripes- seven nation army music video and seen the repeition of a triangle and faces appearing and really liked the thought of this and then looked at the girl with the dragon tattoo film poster as it had the two faces close to each other and we liked that aswell as an influence. so we came up with this idea, of the triangle in the middle then with our shadow appearence from the 'A' and then the two faces of the two protaginists faces coming from the triangle. The lighting will also be quite similar as well as we want a dark background and the characters relativly dark and shadowed too linking to the film noir theme but then in the middle be bright but then the actuall shadowed person in the middle to be a dark shadow standing out.  






 

 

This last option will be our chosen idea for our film poster, it links most to the film title with the flashbacks and the different layers. It also involves a few different influences therefore we could mess around with it to find different ways but also the best way to show our film using colour, layout and the actual pitcutre.


This is a voxpop of our focus group when we presented our film poster chosen ideas. The rest of the class gave valuable feedback in which we have took into account and then continued to make our film poster better. Someone said that from our film poster ideas they couldnt  tell what the film was overall going to be about,it give you a few ideas but in response we said that we didn;t want our trailer to give much away and so there is alot of mystery within it and so will make you curious and want to go and see it, which also follow the convenions of a film noir.
Also it was suggested that we should move the format of the film title to down the bottom from this we choose to involve the traiangle in the middle of the page to became the A within 'flashbacks' we really like this idea and will involve it in our next draft.