SHOOTING NOTES

During shooting we decided to make a few changes:

When we shot the street scene we decided to take more shots than we had planned, we planned to take a total of 4 shots, however we decided to take a wider variety of shots in order to have a greater choice, in total we took about 8 or 9 different shots for that scene.
Because of this when we started editing we had a wide choice of shots and so we could keep continuity and interest in that scene as the shots weren’t too long.

When we shot the main part of the opening we kept to the main storyboard of ideas, however we used different shot types again in order to create a better, more interesting clip.
We also tested different coloured light filters in order to create a better lighting appearance but decided that the natural colour of the light appeared the best.
Also during the first long shot we filmed, we used a piece of card with strips cut out in order to create a Venetian blind effect. We did this in order to keep to the stylistics of classic film noir apparent in our contemporary noir opening

QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS

From the research we undertook we found out that for the age group we are aiming at would prefer a contemporary style noir that contains modernised aspects, however contained some of the classic characteristics of film noir, such as an enigma and a possible twist at the ending.

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.