Evaluation

My evaluation can be found here

Focus Group Results

Here is a screenshot of my partner's facebook page. We decided that as our audience are rather young and our budget to make the film would be low, we should use social media to promote our film. We created a survey and posted that along with the link to our OTS, to try and gain feedback from people of a young age.

Here are the questions and the responses we received:

Preliminary Task/ Continuity Task

Preliminary Task from Calvin Smith on Vimeo.

OTS feedback

Calvin + Emily Initial Feedback from SCHS TV on Vimeo.

Our final OTS

Scarlet Symphony OTS from SCHS TV on Vimeo.

Setting for our OTS

We used three different settings for our OTS, Calvin's house, another friends house and a street.

In each setting we tried to make it look as real as possible as if it was in the 1980s. In the houses we eliminated any product produced pre-80s and substituted them with iconography used in film noir, for example in the scene with the femme fatal getting ready we left lipstick and a cigarette packet on the dressing table.
When we were filming on the street we made sure that we'd got perfect lighting which came in the form of shooting under a lamppost at night, and made sure that we didn't get any cars in the background which would have ruined the atmosphere.

Props for our OTS

Props we used:

• cigarettes
• vinyl record player
• lipstick

Changes to our OTS

Whilst creating our OTS we made a few changes along the way, sometimes do to the difficulty of an idea and some to improve aspects of our sequence.
We added a scene with a cigarette burning on the floor first of all. This was mainly due to the lighting of it and to add an enigmatic atmosphere to the scene.
We added a part in one of the scenes where it looks like the male character and the female are exchanging something as opposed to just talking and walking away. We decided to do this because it makes the scene look a bit more dark, and like the two characters have a set agenda and aren't just talking randomly.
We also added stills to the first scene, mainly to mix the setup a bit, so that its not just film. Also this effect makes it look a bit more like a crime-scene and not just a guy laying on the floor.

Copyright

As our OTS will be a silent film, we needed to create a good enough soundtrack for it to fill the gap where there would usually be audio.

 "For all other AS and A2 video, copyright audio MAY NOT be used. Soundtrack must be original or from a royalty free source. could however mean that the students perform an existing song/piece of music themselves- as the audio is made by them."

This was taken from one of the OCR websites. Although we know that we're not allowed to use someone else's song for our soundtrack, we've mashed together two songs and edited them slightly so that they match each other and our OTS. Therefore we've created our own soundtrack and won't be infringing copyright laws.

Lou Reed - 'Perfect Day' and Iggy Pop - 'Nightclubbing' are the two songs we've used for our OTS. They fit the desolate, moody and atmospheric vibe that we are aiming for in our OTS. As well as this, the lyrics in Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' contrasts heavily with the scene in which it's used in our OTS, which puts a strong emphasis on the footage. Iggy Pop's 'Nightclubbing' is used during the scene where the femme fatale is introduced, as it has a mysterious and almost seductive vibe.

Test Shots

These are our test shots for modifying the scene with the cigarette. We decided that it would look more effective if our femme fatal walked from behind the camera after the cigarette has been dropped, and still use the smoke from it as a lighting effect. We wanted to shoot the femme fatal dropping the cigarette as she walked past but we found that too difficult as it didn't drop properly. As these are just test shots, they will look better in our OTS as it will be shot at night and so the smoke will look more prominent.

Test Shots

This is the first footage we have got for our OTS. Due to a lack of supplies, the footage is somewhat shaky and not to the standards we are looking for. Therefore, I used the footage as a test for an editing technique needed for our OTS, which is the sepia effect described in the OTS description post. After much time experimenting with the sepia effect and levels on iMovie HD, I came to the conclusion that the effect seen in this footage is the effect I would like to be prominent in our OTS.

OTS production: Initial OTS pitch presentation

First Draft Storyboard for OTS

basic first plan for OTS

the effect of silence in OTS

In my OTS I will use silence to create effect and tension for the audience.
I've taken this idea from a modern film called The Artist. The Artist focuses mainly on expression and music which would usually only be in the background if dialogue was used, I like this because it creates more tension and also the effect of mystery it will have on the audience links well with the effect of mystery which the plot and the characters have already started.

iconography associated with film noir

Women:
For the femme fatal the iconography is usually the colour red: red nails, red lipstick and red dress. her clothing is usually formal but sexy. Black and white colouring is often used for the femme fatal to represent mystery and danger.
For the girl next door the iconography is usually pure, the colour white is used a lot and the girls usually have blonde hair. This is to fit the image of an angel to emulate innocence and care.

Smoking is also an iconic mark in film noir. It can be used to show risk and danger, and also helps the lighting look better.

For our OTS
We will be using the iconography associated with the femme fatal character by showing her smoking, dressing her in dark clothes and using a fur coat. As you can see from the image above, the femme fatal is holding fur which would represent class and the setting of an older film. Further more, there will be a heavy accentuation on the red lipstick the femme fatal will wear.

film noir and women

Film noir first came into the public eye in the early 1940s. This was a time when the position of women and men were changing, due to the war and the shift in expectations in gender. The two main roles for women in film noir is the femme fatal and the girl next door, This is mainly due to how men saw women as more dangerous and successful and it shows how many men feared and disliked the concept of a woman doing well and so they generally make the successful woman the bad one and the more needy, kind female the good one.

In our OTS
We will be showing the female gender as dangerous and mysterious. Our only female character will be the have the femme fatal personality because we thing it signifies the idea of Film Noir more, also it will make the OTS more interesting and by having a dangerous character it makes the audience want to watch more than just the opening.

key elements of OTS sheet

shot list for OTS

description of scene for OTS

this is an image of initial idea I have created for our OTS. The plot will be as follows:
a man gets involved with a woman who proves to be very dangerous. the woman turns out to be a person who goes around from man to man leaching off of them, and then once she's done she arranges for their murder. the audience don't know who has murdered the man in the first scene but that links to the mystery of the sequence.