BLOW OPENING REVIEW

To me blow had something’s that seemed to be taken from a film noir as it had a very gritty storyline and a damaged main character who you were supposed to feel sorry for but also question at the same time it also had a voiceover the entire way through.

The opening starts with scenes of men and women and children farming the ingredients to make cocaine as it is a key part of this film it makes sense to start with this it then gets to the part of the scene where George Jung is sitting with some friends talking about the cocaine a voiceover then comes in and it begins to tell his story right from child hood this is where he tell you how he didn’t want to be poor like his dad it then progresses onto his movement away from his family and how he then discovers drugs.

SOUND

can you hear me knocking a song by rolling stones is used in this opening as it is a song that was very popular around the time that cocaine was becoming popular in America and being introduced into the mainstream this is just something that seems to make sense to me as a viewer because it seems to be chosen for authenticity reasons more than anything else.

EDITING/CENIMATOGRAPY
the length of the shot when you first see George Jung is about 25 seconds long it is a mid shot of him which zooms in on him as he is speaking instantly showing you that this is the main character and that is the reason that this shot was chosen and the dialogue was done to match this kind of shot.

MISE EN SCENE

Once again when you first see George it is a very important moment as the room he is in is very bare and plain with just what seems like some meat freezer curtains hanging up i suppose the room was made to look like this to enforce to the viewer that nature and shadiness of the business this character is doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOEutK7H1GM

JAWS OPENING REVIEW

SOUND

The music in this opening scene is a non diagetic piece of music that speeds up as the attack gets more brutal and closer to its conclusion this is put in the film to make the watcher become more and more uncomfortable with what they are watching and also this kind of music tends to get the heart racing.

CENIMATOGRAPHY

During the attack the shots of the woman being attacked by jaws are all just slightly below the surface of the water i think this has been done as it couples with the music in making the viewer feel uncomfortable. At 3:26 in the film there is a close up of the woman with a large scope of the sea behind her this shot is put in to show the pure vulnerability of her.

MISE EN SCENE

the giant body of water  is a key setting for this scene as it is put in as it once again couples with the music and the shots during the attack in making the viewer feel uncomfortable as they see this huge empty body of water and realise the woman will have nowhere to run to. The fact that the woman is nude in this scene make me think that the reason she is nude is because it is reinforcing how vulnerable she is.

EDITING

after the attack there is a 6 second establishing shot of where the attack just took place showing it is all over and the viewer can begin to reflect on the scene they have just seen setting up the movie brilliantly as the seems a calm after the storm when in fact it is more like the eye of the 

storm
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8SnZmUjhAA

MY FILM IDEA

Starts with a man walking down a road and seeing an old enemy and having a flashback as to why they don’t like each other the film then flashes forward to a scene of him sitting in front of a dead body he then gets up and proceeds to narrate as to why he is in this situation picking up key items and explain their part in his enemies murder he then hears sirens and runs this would be where he would begin on his run from the law. Whilst trying to explain his story as to why he done what he done.

BRICK ANALYSIS

Brick is a film that helps to carry and reinvent some of the classic noir techniques in brick a teenage boy is the anti hero who is like an anti hero should be very morally questionable, he is looking for something he has lost this starts out as his ex girlfriend he is then looking for “Brick” after the death of his ex girlfriend after that point he is fighting to find something out, who is brick? This movie is a great example of a modern noir, not only the dark and edgy plot but the execution of action, deliverance of dialogue and classic cinamatic techniques. The snappy dialogue and exchanges pair with shot reverse shots keep you involved and engaed in the conversation and the action. Brendan’s an anti-hero like Sam Spade (the postman always rings twice), aggresivly inteligent and ruthless in his convictions, an outsider and loner with few friends, a model noir anti-hero. The Fem Fetal of the film ,Laura is just like phyllis dietrich in double indemnity; playing innocent and victimised but truly a dangerous and minipulative woman who tricks brendan all the way. Low key lighting is used in the more dangerous and suspenseful scenes like when Brendan is in the strange underpass drainage type area.

 One reviewer said  “ you will not see a cooler film this year. Witty, gripping and massively original, Brick is this year's cult hit, hands down. As Brendan would say, "Don't heel it.” The reviewer also mentions this film is a classic example of how noir has evolved and he dubs this film a “Smart noir”

MES is used in this film just like a film noir would use it by using shadow, darkness and poor lighting to conceal characters. There is an urban setting like most noirs and the classic characters dress in the conventional way the femme fatale in Brick has piercing red lips and near enough every scene and figures of authority are always in suits or uniform.

The classic characters are all in this film, femme fetal there is a sidekick type character a fellow loner called The Brain, there is a character who is just caught up in all the trouble without realising this is Brendans ex girlfriend she is similar to phyllis’ husband in the fact that they both seem to end up dead without doing a lot wrong. There is no corrupt police officer but there seems to be a similar character in the fact that the vice principle seems to take on that role.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE EVALUATION

In groups of 2-3 we were asked to create a preliminary filming exercise, For our preliminary exercise we had to make a 30 second clip of somebody walking down a hall into a room sitting down and having a 5 line conversation about something and We also had a 6-8 shot limit to create this scene.The purpose of the exercise was to familiarise us with the camera and the editing software, and also some of the rules of filming such as the 180 degree line rule and the rule of thirds.


i think that given the task we were we done well as there were no continuity mistakes we stuck to time limit and we kept to the rules of filming. In our Preliminary exercise we used a wide variety of shot types such as close up, long shot, medium long, two shot and over the shoulder/reverse over the shoulder shots.  one of the over shoulder shots felt uncomfortable to me as it did not show the girls entire head where I would have liked to show all of it. the dialogue was not very good as we did not write a script so it was improvised and this did not work so if there was something i wish we had have done different it would have been a written script.

PRE PRODUCTION PAPER WORK I COMPLETED and ROLE SPECIFIC TASKS

In our group i undertook the role of cameraman but I also did some acting in the film and had a large part to play in the editing of the film, picking effects to go over clips to make them look like flashback sequences and various clip placements. A selection of music was gathered by a member of the group and we all had our say the piece that ended up in our film I was the one who placed it in and adjusted it accordingly to any other factors and sounds in our film the final thing I done in editing was to place our titles in making them fit into screen and not take away from the action.



For the preproduction i wrote up the original voice over script which somebody else then integrated into the main screen play. i also done a rough copy of the storyboard so that we could then get a idea of the shots we wanted to do this was then done in neat by our art director

<--- neat version of the story board.









I completed a production schedule so we knew our filming dates. I then found our locations with help from our art director who allowed us to use her home as a film location, I then did a risk assessment for one of our locations. After editing I then as well as every other member of the group done an evaluation sheet taking down thoughts of our film from other classmates and our tutor.

REPORT ON EXCHANGE EXERCISE

In a group of 4 we were asked to create a exercise to be called the exchange where we would use our current  knowledge of filming and editing to develop and learn new techniques and stylistics so that when we came to make our final piece we would have more experience editing and filming . This project further increased knowledge of group work and also got us familiarised with the group we would be in for our final project.

Our task was to create a minute long clip with a minimum of two characters that would exchange an item in our case it was a envelope of money. The scene wasn’t allowed any dialogue but non diegetic music over the top, in order to set the mood for the action. We needed around 8-12 shots to create this scene, in our clip we had 11 different shots . In this exercise we used a wide variety of angles including, close ups long shots cut away shots and also shots through objects such as a fence, which creates effects which are similar to those which are used in classic noirs, this shot also made the character look much more menacing almost giving the effect you get when you see a criminal in a film walking though or up to prison bars.

In our piece we kept to the 180 degree line rule, so our piece made sense and kept continuity. Even though we kept to this rule our group we did have a slight problem with continuity where the held object switched hands, we realised this as we edited and that shot was eventually cut from our final piece as it caused too many problems.

overall I would say our exchange exercise was a good learning curve helping us to bring in a wider variety of skills to our final piece, it also fit the brief very well keeping to the restraints that were set and I am pleased with the final outcome as i believe it was a good attempt at making something feel like a thriller. 

If I could re-film this piece  without the restraints I would film a larger number of shots so we had plenty to create our piece out of also to act as a safe guard to any clips that did not have good continuity so they could easily be replaced with another, I would also keep track of shot continuity throughout filming, which would have prevented the lack in continuity which we experienced in one of our shots when we came round to editing.

COMPLETED SCRIPT

COMPLETED STORYBOARD

GROUP MEETING NOTES ON EDITING STAGES

Tuesday march 8th

• We added Light ray effects added to the flashback of the dead body give mysterious look to it.
• We added car sounds to the main (street) flashback create an urban effect 
• We lowered the sound from the main flashback because it was a windy day and the sound gear picked up too much unwanted noise
• We moved the flashbacks of the dead body to make it fit to the character, because it didn’t fit in because it didn’t make sense being flashback straight after flashback.
• We added an effect called “over drive” To the flashback of the fight scene  and we changed the white and gray colours to create an effect so it was clearly a flashback.
• We shortened the fight scene and sped it up to make it appear more violent and more physical to the audience.

Tuesday march 15th

• We put a fade on the shot where Ashley is opening the bathroom door and we also put a fade on the flashback where the door is being opened in order for the shot to swap over nicely and smoothly from the present to the flashback.
• We put on the title of the film “Bill” and also the production titles such as “ a teleport production” and “BXU” which are our production companies.
• We added a bit of non diegetic music at the beginning of the scene, this is our start off point for music in the scene.
• We deleted the close up shot of Ashley as it appeared too quick on the edit and so was unappealing to the eye.

Tuesday march 22nd

•  We recorded the voice over and cut and paste it onto our film noir style opening
• We typed out and researched the audience views via a questionnaire 

Tuesday march 29th

• We changed the colour on a clip of Ashley as the colouring stood out compared to the other clips as it was too red/orange. Because of the colour difference we altered the orange clips with a colour altering effect.
• We placed the voiceover clips in the correct place so it made the best out of the scene, we placed a large section of the voiceover on a large shot so that the clip appeared less boring to the audience.
• We decreased the volume of the music where the voiceovers were also playing so the voiceovers were audible.
• We faded the music just before the voice clips so the alteration in music was not too noticeable
• We added character titles in so the actors are known within the opening sequence, we placed the titles over the shots on an invisible background so the titles linked in well with the opening scene.

STORYLINE AND SYNOPSIS FOR MY FILM NOIR OPENING

Synopsis for opening

Open with a man sitting in a corner, head in his hands covered in a hood. The man appears emotional as he throws objects from nearby over the room. He sits in the room as he thinks. As he thinks he has a flashback, seeing a man walking down a road and seeing a girl, their eyes meet and the problems begin. The film goes back to the man in the room he has various flashbacks which could link to the story which will follow, leaving an enigma for the audience.




Synopsis for rest of narrative 

Later on the man is getting ready for a party with some of his friends, they talk about the girl he saw earlier that day anf he finds out from his friends that her boyfriend is a physco drug dealer.
At the party the guy and girl begin to talk then they get together, the boyfriend bursts in on them and hit’s the guy then proceeds to chase him out the house where he catches him and they both fight. During the fight the guy picks up a metal pipe that’s laying on the ground and brutally attacks the drug dealer, killing him in the process.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (classic film noir review)

This is a film set in LA which tends to be a classic location for film noirs.

In the first scene the classic stylistics of film noir were instantly on show with venetian blinds in the very first scene, also in the first scene , also the main character Walter smokes in the first scene, smoke in noirs is usually used in noirs to shroud characters to make them more mysterious. Despite rain being used in noirs a lot this film only uses it once however the time it is used works well as it is used at a moment of peril. The femme fatal Phyllis appears at the start to be trying to get her husband insurance.

Walter is a damaged man from the start this is obvious as he limps into a building and begins to explain how much of a mess he is in. Walters first encounter with Phyllis they blatantly flirt and there is a chemistry between them he then comes back later that night telling her he wants to be with her they then hatch a plan to murder Phyllis’ husband when he goes on a business trip on a train the plan was to make it look like he fell to his death off the train. On the way to the date they planned to murder Phyllis’ husband there are two obstacles his daughter told Walter that despite the fact that he is a selfish man he is a good father and a good man however it did not take Walter more than 10 seconds to shake it off, the other problem is that Phyllis’ husband breaks his leg this delays the plan and so Walter has to fake a broken leg when he impersonates her husband on the train.




 The murder happens and they pull it off well. Because of the insurance taken out just before Phyllis’ husband died a man called Keys investigate not suspecting foul play at first but his instincts end up telling him something is wrong he eventually figures it all out after Walter and Phyllis turn on each other because of the stress leading to Walter killing Phyllis the film ties together with Walter going back to his office like at the start then it going back to present time and keys discovering Walter in his office who says he would rather go to Mexico than face death but his wounds from the confrontation with Phyllis are to severe and he collapses in front of the lift.