Evaluation of practical production

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After researching film noir, I have considered how our finished product incorporates general convections of film noir itself. Our film opening does this in many ways. Firstly, the setting being in a quiet location upon a lonely pier, with two people meeting secretly, this incorporates traditional conventions of film noir, as the genre is extremely enigmatic and our film opening poses the questions of; Who are these people? Why are they here? What are they doing? Therefore adding to the enigmatic description of film noir itself.

Through the editing process itself, during which we used imovie HD6, we decided to transfer our product in to black white colouring, we did this for two reasons being; firstly it makes the film have a much more dark and mysterious feel, and that is the result we were hoping for, and also, many film noir films are actually filmed in black and white, due to the fact that many were filmed before coloured films were actually available. We thought this would act toward the age in which the original film noir films were made.

The film genre which our finished product fits into is definitely of the thriller film noir genre itself, as it doesn’t have the connotations of an action adventure, romantic or comedy, though, it does have conventions of rural detective film fiction such as Agatha Christie, the setting is inconspicuous and secretive, fitting in with the notion of mystery which all film noir should contain. We also used old sad dreary music, by Billie holiday to create this downbeat and enigmatic effect.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups which our film opening targets are not obvious within the first minute of our film, this Is because the film if it were to develop further doesn’t target a specific age, class or race. Our film does in fact strongly represent a certain type of persons, it represents enigmatic and spy like characters, ones in which you would see with in film noir itself. The film does this by not introducing the characters, for example within the first scene you do not meet the characters, you do not even see their faces.

The film opening does though however, challenge the traditional male and female stereotypical characters, with the male character who this ‘secret’ note is being passed to is actually inferior to the women who this note was sent, this is shown within the opening with the line ‘She wants to see you now’ making this femme fatale character the more dominant in the relationship, which actually challenges male and female stereotypes itself, although the femme fatale usually has a sexual power over men.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The product itself is not something that you would find in your local mainstream cinema and it does not have the connotations of a major Hollywood blockbuster as I don’t think it appeals to all types of audience, it targets a more niche and closed audience, the film opening also does not have the funding of a Hollywood blockbuster. It is clearly a low budget production, probably made by a small independent production company.

The film opening itself is something which would be presented in an art house broadcast itself, as we locate in the southwest it would be a film in which could be broadcast at the Plymouth Arts Centre or Dartington/The Barn as they deal with low budget films that could initially become quite successful. It could also be a niche film presented on a movie channel such as film 4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would most likely be a niche small spreads audience, those who in which would enjoy watching typical old detective film noir films. The film hasn’t got a specific sex in which it targets and the age group would probably fall into the older audience, seeing as they have may indulged in this type of film when they were younger. It may not appeal to the younger generation as if you consider the media today; more focus has been put into high budget action and adventure films such as Harry Potter, or Lord of the rings. Therefore the film genre isn’t something in which young people are open to seeing in their everyday Apollo cinema.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Long establishing shots have been used to establish this convention of film noir, and we have used the artist Billy Holiday for the soundtrack, the music ties in with the theme of the film with certain lyrics matching the events that are taking place for example when the note is being passed in slow motion, the music is also in slow motion.

The audience throughout the opening of ‘The Lady Of The Night’ is on looking something that isn’t suppose to be witnessed, as no one is suppose to know about the note because even when the note is passed on, barely any contact between the two characters is made. This makes the audience engaged, as they know what is going on, and it attracts the audience because they want answers, therefore enticing them further and they therefore will carry on viewing. This links back to the traditional film noir notion within our film opening we have created enigma, purpose and also suspense.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot through the filming and editing process. During our filming we used many different cameras, and we came to realise that each one worked very differently, one of the problems that we faced and over came with the use of different cameras was the issue that some cameras were programmed not to filter out the wide screen mode. We filmed the passing of the note shot first and this when uploaded had the wide screen mode switched on and therefore, when filming with different cameras that did not have this mode, when we came to edit using imovie HD we wide screen matching it exactly to the passing of the note sequence to match continuity. This made us see how editing helps a lot within the creation of the ideal mise en scene and we felt that this wide screen mode made the mise en scene much more effect full.

I have also learnt that continuity is an extremely important part of filming and that it has to be perfect. This also ties in with continuity of the story line itself as we did actually film another piece to this opening but felt that due to the camera work actually being quite unsteady and rather rushed, to put it in would not be an advantage, therefore more learning that to get some good shots a lot of time is needed.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In comparison to the creation of the preliminary task itself, much more research has gone into the creation of the film opening that we have created. Firstly we researched all the conventions of the film noir genre and these greatly influenced our finished task itself, for example the choice and style of music, the choice of shots such as long establishing shots to get an idea of the setting, and also our choice to place the opening in back and white.

Our ideas changed throughout the whole process and if we didn’t plan thoroughly through creating storyboards and looking at different possible locations our end product may not have been as successful. We faced many problems such as poor whether conditions along the way and if we didn’t have this idea of the different locations and weather conditions suited to the film of film noir; we would have faced much more difficulty.

When I first started the course itself personally I had no idea on how even a small film was made, and I had no idea of the work that needed to be put in to making a decent short 1-2 minute opening to a low budget film.
I feel that since the preliminary task itself, we have progressed greatly. Camera shots have improved greatly, as me and my partner has been able to perfectly use match on action within our piece, and this has very much improved since our preliminary task. We have also been able to edit in a soundtrack this in which we did not know how to do when creating our first short piece.

The film opening has also enabled us to get to grips in more detail with the editing process itself, such as using effects such as fades and changing the brightness and contrast its self in order to suit the specific genre. Our editing techniques have also improved hugely since the preliminary task as we have now learnt how to cut shots down to make them shorter, and we have learnt how to merge clips together in order for it to create a better product.

Overall, I am extremely happy with the finished product, and I am happy with most of the camera work, even though we faced many issues along the way, causing our film opening to be shorter than we initially had hoped for. I am also extremely happy with how the editing process as excelled, and I feel that I have learnt a lot from this task, especially through the editing process itself and how this is the most difficult and time consuming part of making a film.