Thursday, 7 February 2013
Scripting
The scripting process should take a relatively short amount of time, as we decided not to have to much dialogue within our Film Noir, and to actually split the scenes we were storyboarding between each other and then bring them collectively together to form the whole script.
Georgia Sharp created a rough draft of the Script, and we all looked at it, took it away and made our own adaptations. I personally felt this worked quite well as we could focus on the storyboarding process and let the scripting process run alongside.
We split the script into the various scenes that we needed to film, with stage directions for the actors, as well as how to deliver their lines. This became very useful when we began the filming process as we were able to look into the various links between our characters and those of the Noirs we have studied in class.
When I looked at the script, I felt that I need to incorporate some quips and witty lines in order to make the flow of the text better as well as to include a strong convention of many Noir's for example in L.A. Confidential when Ed Exley says "A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker" - at which point Jack Vincennes tells him that it is actually the famous actress Lana Turner. This comedy makes it a lighter point to relax the serious nature of the plot and to refocus the audience where they could have been lost before.
A couple examples of the sections of our screenplay script we crafted, and the witty quotes I used to bring the text together are;
Spoken by Zoey to Hawke (Femme Fatale to Anti-Hero)
You obviously don’t know what it’s like to be an a-grade garter [spits the word] in this a-grade drug racket.
I used 'garter' as it's a feminine item of clothing that can be stereotypically negatively linked to 'ladies of the night', as well as the repitition of 'a-grade' to represent the type of establishment these people are linked with i.e. A grade Drugs - being very dangerous and illegal drugs.
I’m coming to make sure the wrecking ball doesn’t get too full of himself [gestures towards Kaine]
By using the phrase 'Wrecking ball', this gives the impression that there is an unstoppable force that throws itself into every situation, similar to 'a bull in a china shop'. This gives the audience an impression of what the character is like and also a prewarning/foreboding as to what he's going to do.
She’s no Kitty Collins that’s for sure.
By having Hawke say this line, shows his intellect (which separates him from the 'Chav' groupings to keep the audience interested). This also shows the target audience, as people who know of Kitty Collins, a character in another Film Noir called The Killers will be able to relate to this witty line.
Georgia Sharp created a rough draft of the Script, and we all looked at it, took it away and made our own adaptations. I personally felt this worked quite well as we could focus on the storyboarding process and let the scripting process run alongside.
We split the script into the various scenes that we needed to film, with stage directions for the actors, as well as how to deliver their lines. This became very useful when we began the filming process as we were able to look into the various links between our characters and those of the Noirs we have studied in class.
When I looked at the script, I felt that I need to incorporate some quips and witty lines in order to make the flow of the text better as well as to include a strong convention of many Noir's for example in L.A. Confidential when Ed Exley says "A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker" - at which point Jack Vincennes tells him that it is actually the famous actress Lana Turner. This comedy makes it a lighter point to relax the serious nature of the plot and to refocus the audience where they could have been lost before.
A couple examples of the sections of our screenplay script we crafted, and the witty quotes I used to bring the text together are;
Spoken by Zoey to Hawke (Femme Fatale to Anti-Hero)
You obviously don’t know what it’s like to be an a-grade garter [spits the word] in this a-grade drug racket.
I used 'garter' as it's a feminine item of clothing that can be stereotypically negatively linked to 'ladies of the night', as well as the repitition of 'a-grade' to represent the type of establishment these people are linked with i.e. A grade Drugs - being very dangerous and illegal drugs.
I’m coming to make sure the wrecking ball doesn’t get too full of himself [gestures towards Kaine]
By using the phrase 'Wrecking ball', this gives the impression that there is an unstoppable force that throws itself into every situation, similar to 'a bull in a china shop'. This gives the audience an impression of what the character is like and also a prewarning/foreboding as to what he's going to do.
She’s no Kitty Collins that’s for sure.
By having Hawke say this line, shows his intellect (which separates him from the 'Chav' groupings to keep the audience interested). This also shows the target audience, as people who know of Kitty Collins, a character in another Film Noir called The Killers will be able to relate to this witty line.
With the ending, due to the tight schedule of our Femme Fatale Emma Coulson, we decided to rewrite the ending without her. This made it so much easier to wrap up and explain the ending. We had James and Josh conversing in the alleyway, with varied focuses on them, and some interesting shot types. Similar to the suspense within Hitchcock's Psycho within the Shower scene, he used 78 bits of film in a 45 second clip. Therefore drawing on this, I though it would be effective to use a variety of shots while the characters are talking. We also re-wrote this in our group in a free lesson so that we all had input. We tried to include some witty remarks and make the delivery of the final scene interesting.
Storyboarding
During the storyboarding process, our group (Me, Georgia, Emma and Akshay) decided that we didn't have enough time within allocated lessons as we were also studying various films alongside our coursework. We decided therefore, that we would use our frees to storyboard and plan our idea.
We quickly crafted our plot in a specific way, we each wrote our own rough plot idea in our group, and then read each others, before deciding on a final exact plot. This was incredibly useful as we then had a good opportunity to decide who's ideas were better, and to draw on various pieces from each plot i.e. my idea of having a gang affiliated with the Femme Fatale.
As far as storyboarding goes, we all decided to sit together and bounce ideas off each other as we went along. We also decided to split the 5 minutes short film into different scenes and files on the powerpoint. We sectioned these into subtitled boxes i.e. editing, camerawork etc and filled them in as we went along. This was very useful as we could go back and edit them as we needed to.
In the session on the 7th Feb, we had 2 hours of which we finished our third scene. Our initial plan was to be ready to film by the 18th of Feb. We started an Excel document in which we both calculated the amount of seconds for each shot, as well as how many seconds we had left, we allowed ourselves more time for each shot, and will alter this at the end. In our group today, we planned out a series of montage shots in which our 'Anti-Hero' will be surveying some 'strange' occurance(s). I personally suggested the idea of our Anti-hero steeping out from the police stattion, with the camera positioned behind him - creating a silhouette. I also suggessted he get a cigarette out, a classic convention of Film Noir's, as well as a location idea near my house. There is an alley which backs onto some garages which could be an interesting place to hold the 'drug deal gone bad'. When thinking of locations, we found that the chances of borrowing a bar would be slim to none, we had no links, and pubs don't close till the early hours of the morning, therefore I decided to offer my Dad's café as a similar place that we can adapt to look how we want to the finer details such as decor on the wall and mise-en-scene objects/notes/clocks etc.
So far, the storyboarding has taken 3/4 sessions to plan and we still have not finished. We had the idea of beginning to plan the script, and decided between us that we wouldn't have much dialogue within the film, and would make all lines actually spoken concise and count.
He moves, they move - turn taking - chess - name reference?
27/2/2013
27/2/2013
After filming certain sections of the film and getting some experience under our belts, we did stray slightly from the storyboard so as to accommodate new spontaneous ideas, as well as to become more flexilbe with time, and failing light.
I opted to draw the pictures for the storyboard, of which we planned to scan in and add to the storyboard before putting them on our blogs. Here are some examples of my 'Alley Scene' illustrations.
L.A. Confidential (1997) Analysis
As a different way to show my analysis of the '97 Neo-Noir L.A.
Confidential starring Kim Basinger, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Russell Crowe
and Guy Pierce amongst others, I decided to record my voice describing and
talking about the various points and connotations, conventions etc.
Double Indemnity (1944) Notes
Notes:
- Silhouettes
- high angle - hiding identity
- smoking - cigarettes/cigars
- hat and coat outline - clothing convention
- old town car - iconography of period/era
- minor key orchestral music
- low key lighting in lift
- high key on face - illuminates important character
- Nightime - iconography of Film Noir
- Urban setting
- Streetlights - artificial light - hidden meaning - something about the
plot/characters is fake
- 1938 era
- crossfade transition - cracked road
- flashback from confession - indication of daytime
- california - setting (hot) - in a lovely place - metaphorical for
paradise
- venetian blinds - shadows - contrast n characters - seedy room
- black tie - authority
- old interior - 1930 style house
- low angle to high angle shot cutaway following footsteps
- long looks held between characters
- character speaks - camera doesn't always follow voice
- Femme Fatale - wearing a towel when first introduced, exposed, blonde
- innocent, camera frames her to the right, pan up to reveal her
Archetypal - Blonde - innocent and dangerous
- shadow on wall as Neff leaves
- Neff sitting in car - back rolled round on screen
- low angle following him - pan
- venetian blinds - light and shaow, combining good and evil in
characters
- frosted glass door shows silhouette
- cigars - smoked in office
- slick hair - sinister impression - waistcoats/suits - power/credible
authority
- desk lamps - venetian blinds
- hat/coat stand
- offices - art deco (1920's) stylisation
- repetitive shot of ankles followed downstairs
- two shot on sofa - shows intimacy and closer bond
- drink under light - cast in shadow, mysterious
- painted nails - glamourous, wealthy, wellkept
- light on top of head 'angelic'
- white dress - ironic - black nature - foreboding
- later femme fatale wearing black - intentions clear - shift in power
- femme fatale - seductive long low shot - shows she's higher/more
powerful
- sitting under light - motives haven't yet 'come to light'
- sharp angle of his face to hers
- husband goes upstairs with alcohol - themes of abandonment
- Femme - greed - wants more money - temptation but ultimately fatalism
- daughter in Neff car -femme's daughter reflects her mothers
personality
- mid shot of car leaving
- diagetic gravel crunch - convention of Noir - rough unsteady terrain
- streetlights reflect in windows of streets - weakness in plan
- neon light of street shots - busy city - convention of Noir setting
- black/dark suit - authority/money/corrupt intentions
- daughter following similar path to mother - with a boy who doesn't
care about her
- shadow of coat hoot/hat stand
- pale blank walls - no colour or art/photos
- fedora hat - iconography of Noir detectives
- hurried/rushed phone call - narrative reveals more of story
- femme - wearing black - urgent phone call - greed - desperation
narrative themes
- voiceover - match on action with what's happening - commentary
- venetian blinds on train
- sexist - 1930s stereotype - she can't start car, so Neff does it for
her
- murder at nighttime - 'under the cover of darkness'
- shadow up stairs shows path walking
- eagle in background - mise en scene - prey/predator
- leather seats - wealth - linked to office interior of Keyes - shows
characters are linked throughout story
- venetian blinds in office - going to reveal the truth
- expensive - filigree desk - wooden - marble fireplace
- femme fatale - black hat - mourning
- connotation on Boss - death
- low non diagetic sound as he opens doors to Keyes - building tension
- smoking cigarettes and cigars - iconography of police in Noirs
- suspense - high frequency minor key non diagetic music
- darkened deep shot corridors
- rushed meetings - sharp/harsh words
- pity and sympathy felt for Femme - loveless marriage, then less as
revealed she wants husband dead, and further less when daughter reveals femme
was nurse when her mother was 'ill'.
- venetian blinds constant - Neff and Keyes are talking about what
happened on train - exposing truth - plan falling apart
- Fedora - higher class - more money job
- Neff has wider brimmed hat - Jackson is represented as lower class
with less money
- Femme - when plan coming unravelled she's wearing white top -
pure/hiding evil - as well as black glasses, hiding or covering up her true
emotions.
- "straight down the line" - obsessive nature - negative
tendencies
- smoking when Neff character is relaxed
- corruption - blaming someone else - lies and deceit - narrative theme
- Neff 'wedding band' on finger - adultery - narrative theme of sex
- venetian blinds cast shadow over Neff when looking through Keyes files
- dark suit and tie - authority - worn everyday 'professional'
- femme home alone - venetian blinds show 'shady'/evil actions
- quiet radio non diagetic music - early 1930 style
- gunshot diagetic kills both detective and femme - convention of Noir
Drive Notes
Here are my notes I made on the analysis of the Neo-Noir
Drive. I found the film very interesting and effective in terms of shots and camera movement to accommodate the actors moves. In my previous post, I included my vocal analysis as well as some screenshots to show my interest and analysis of the film further.
Drive Analysis
As part of my research into Film and Neo-Noirs, I looked into the 2011
film, 'Drive', directed by Nicholas Winding Refn and decided to annotate the
Trailer, in order to grasp some ideas for our own group project if we were to
create a trailer with our footage. I also noted the conventions and obvious
iconography surrounding the Noir genre, as well as sound, camera angles and the
impressions each character gave to the audience from the short trailer. I also
looked at transitions and connotations of colour, trying to make points on the
most important areas of the trailer. I made a photo video with my recorded
voice to show my notes and annotations.
Drive Trailer Analysis:
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