26/02/2014 CONSTRUCTION: PUTTING THE FOOTAGE TOGETHER

In class we started to put the footage together and start to make our film opening.  We discussed which order we thought the footage should go in and then started to put it all together.  We decided that the first thing to do was to crop down clips to the lengths and to the bits we wanted to include and then start to put them into the final part.  We put some of the footage together and we pt in some cuts to get from one shot to the other.  One of the other things we worked on was to decided how to get the titles and production company logo into the footage.  We choose to use some of the out of focus shots to put the titles over.  One of the things I thought of was how the titles would appear on screen.  I thought that we could have it after the sound of the gun shot went off the screen would go black, then blood would start to flow down the screen to make out the words of the film and finally the words would then freeze over.

25/02/2014 CONSTRUCTION: WORKING THROUGH THE FOOTAGE

In class we started to go through all the footage that we had recorded to work out which bits we didn't need and which bits we would use in the final piece  We went through a lot of footage and worked out a lot of things we can use and pieces of footage that we can't use.  The pieces that we couldn't use were mostly out of focus or too short to use.  There were only a few pieces of footage from the stuff we filmed that we couldn't use but most of the things we had filmed were good and are going to be used in the final cut

11/02/2014 PLANNING: CALL SHEET

Call Sheet #3 - Wednesday 12th January 2014

Film Title – Film Noir Short Film
Unit Call Time: 11.00	Filming Starts at	11.20
Main Crew Contacts	Email
Thomas Stevens Kate Bradford George Flack Charlie Myers	01ThomasS@claremont.surrey.sch.uk 01KateB@claremont.surrey.sch.uk 01GeorgeF@claremont.surrey.sch.uk 01CharlieM@claremont.surrey.sch.uk
Name			Prop/Equipment
Kate Bradford			Camera from Media, Tripod, picture of woman
Charlie Myers			Fedora hat, black shoes, black trousers, dark trench coat, old newspaper
Thomas Stevens			Fedora hat, black shoes, black trousers, dark trench coat, walking stick/cane
George Flack			Fedora hat, black shoes, black trousers, dark trench coat, fake cigarettes

Location

Claremont Fan Court Scool
Claremont Drive
Esher
Surrey
KT10 9LY
Tel: 01372 467841
Directions: The school's Claremont Drive entrance is accessible from the trafic lights on the A244 at the junction with Claremont Lane/Copsem Lane/Milbourner Lane.  Once on Claremont Drive, continue straight ahead until you reach the school entrance.  The gates are usually shut and you will need to ring the buzzer t gain access

 

 

05/02/2014 CONSTRUCTION: DEVISING OUR FILM TITLE

Today we worked on the exact wording for our film title:

·         Establish the film’s genre (spy, mystery, thriller)

·         Convey the key ideas (woman with defective character and an unanswered secret)

·         Intrigue the audience through enigma (its suggests a deadly plot, our central female character carries a mysterious box)

·         Tap into intertextuality through shared knowledge of cultural codes (through using terms or images that the audience is already familiar with)

 

OUR SHORT LIST

Beyond belief, behind the wall, behind the barrel, The Berlin Brief, Operation Meisterhaus, In Cold Blood

 

We decided on using In Cold Blood because it has so many connotations that work with our plot, in particular, the reference to the Cold War and to ruthless violence.  The Cold War was a war between America and Russia where no actual fighting took place, however there was a constant threat of nuclear disaster.  In our film we have many connotations to the title such as the threat to the girl when she is shot and the era that it is based in

05/02/2014 RESEARCH: FILM/ TV OPENING ANALYSIS

Today Ianalysed the opening of a television thriller Zen (BBC1).  I noticed how genre was signalled throughout the opening:

·         Images of guns to show the world of crime

·         Images of keys to refer to prisons

·         The protagonist in a dark, formal suit with sunglasses, looking formal and authoritative

·         Buildings which relate to the Italian police headquarters ‘The Questura’ clearly inscribed in the stone on the wall

The detective series featuring Aurelio Zen is set in Rome and is based on the novels of Michael Dibdin.  I noticed that the opening had a lot of visual clues to signal the Italianicity of the drama such as

·         The red, white and green vertical bands in the background with connotations of the Italian flag

·         Silhouetted images of St Peter’s Dome as well as a bird’s eye shot of St Peter’s Square which are iconic emblems of Rome, renowned the world over

·         Repeated images of Fiat Cinquecento cars.