Saturday 28 November 2015

26. Narrative Theories

VLADMIR PROPP
Russian Critic and literary theorist.
He thins that it’s possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions.
Films such as Star Wars fit his model perfectly but a significant number of other films, such as Pulp Fiction, do not. The model is useful as it highlights the similarities between seemingly different stories.

PROPP’S CHARACTER ROLES
HERO: SEEKS SOMETHING
VILLAIN: OPPOSES HERO
DONOR: HELPS HERO BY PROVIDING OBJECT
DISPATCHER: SENDS HERO ON THEIR WAY
HELPER: SUPPORTS HERO
PRINCESS: REWARD FOR THE HERO, NEEDS PROTECTION FROM THE VILLAIN


TZVETAN TODOROV
EQUILIBRIUM —- DISEQUILIBRIUM —- NEW EQUILIBRIUM

ROLAND BARTHES
ACTION: Narrative device in which a resolution is found through action.                       Like a fight.
ENIGMA: Narrative device that teases audience with a puzzle to find the                        resolution.
SYMBOLIC: (Connotation)
SEMIC: (Denotation)
CULTURAL: Narrative device that the audience can recognise as a culture.

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
BINARY OPPOSITIONS
HOMESTEADERS     –     NATIVES
CHRISTIANS     –     PAGANS
DOMESTIC     –     SAVAGE
WEAK     –     STRONG

24. Key elements checklist for opening

What key elements we would need to include in our Film Noir opening to conform to the expectations of the genre, audience and a film opening
Checklist:
-Film titles
-dark alley (setting for the murder scene)
-mysterious murderer in long trench coat and hat
-knife (weapon of the murderer)
–build up tension by score (mysterious Film Noir themes music) page 6 : Final transgression
-strong contrast street lighting
-transition into daylight showing the bodybag of the victim
-showing the crime scene investigated with the detective doing his job and holding his character as a cold hearted anti hero status
-crime scene tape
-at the crime scene the femme fatale, elegantly dressed observing the detective to plan on seducing him with her charms

25. Storyline of the whole film

In the start, a man wearing black is walking in a dark street, he is following another man with the intention to kill him, he succeeds and escapes the murder scene without being seen. The day after the case is being investigated by Detective Will Carlson whom is faced with a very difficult situation as there are no witnesses. After some investigations in the area he finds out that the victim is the son of mafia boss in Brooklyn, Luigi Palazzetto, at this point Detective Carlson narrows it down and realizes that the murder was planned and that it must have been someone who is fighting a war against the Palazzetto family in Brooklyn. He meets Alison foster (Palazzetto), who in reality is the sister of the deceased son of Luigi Palazzetto, she was sent by her father to find out who killed his son and to then kill him before the detective found him and sent him to jail. She obviously falls in love with Mr Carlson whom loves her as well, but then he finds out about her past as a Hit-Woman. However,  he doesn't realize that she is part of the Palazzetto family. Alison's heart is broken and she starts going crazy, she follows the detective around secretly with hope of finding the murderer of her brother. In the end Detective Carlson finds the murderer hiding in his basement, he arrests him and brings him back to his car. Alison, who is parked right behind the detective's car thunders out of her car, brings out her revolver and shoots both in the head.

Thursday 19 November 2015

19. Target Audience

I believe that our movie genre would be more liked by fashion people, specifically trendies, stylers and hipsters. As Film Noirs are very classy and trendy at times, people who are more into sport and action movies might not enjoy them as much, although some hardcore viewers could enjoy it because it contains guns, violence and alcohol consumption.

21. Producer, distributor and exhibit

Producer – e.g – Heyday Films Distribution – e.g – Warner Brothers Display – VUE, Odeon, Cineworld +Independents   I chose these because they are well reputed companies with good track records. Their names have been put next to some very good films and thy fit our genre and audience.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

20. Pearl and Dean Audience

On the Pearl and Dean website, they categorize various types of audiences based on age, gender, whether they go to the cinema with the family and their class systems. On their graphs it shows that the 55+ age group is by far the one that "visits" the cinema more often. They also clearly show that when in case of a family movie, it is more often the mother who brings the kids to the cinema.
I think that considering that we chose Film Noir as our genre, we should try and make our film be suitable for both older audience and younger. Generally I would think of older people wanting to watch a film noir but there have been more recent film noir movies that had a huge success, such as Inception and Sin City.

Saturday 14 November 2015

18. Good opening scenes

- Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola
- 8 ½, Federico Fellini
- La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick
- Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino
- Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
- The Shining, Stanley Kubrick
- Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick
It is really hard to state the characteristics for a good opening scene, in my opinion, there aren't any. All scenes can be incredible if filmed well and performed well by actors, the music is key to set the mood e.g. The Shining, in some cases, suspense is the key factor e.g. Inglorious Basterds. Sometimes directors take the risk, and attempt to create a mind-blowing start of a film e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is a risk because in the case of the audience not perceiving it the way the director wanted, this could cause their loss of interest for the rest of the film. Although in case of success, it produces something hardly reachable for anyone else.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

9. Pitch for our film

Our group piece is a Film Noir piece. It is to be dark and gritty and in a Sin City sort of vibe. (Without the rubbish acting and storyline). We want to cast Denzel Washington and Leonardo DiCaprio to act in our piece, but alas, the non existence of our budget may stop us. It is to be full of murder and intrigue and ladies. Going on traditional Film Noir themes, (highlighted in other posts), we will convey a dark and troubled image of the world that we have created.

Monday 9 November 2015

17.Justification for mood board choices

We wanted our mood board to convey the imagery sent across in films such as Inception and The Dark knight because they were a resounding success. The ‘darkness’ and cold overall feel of the films create a long-lasting effect on the cinemagoer and add to the suspense and build up of the story lines. Film Noir often relies on some static pillars to establish the theme. These are often things such as: An Urban Location, A Bleak View of Humanity and a Smoking or Drinking Habit.
The films are dark, not only in composition but also in theme and style and leave the viewer with a distinct lack of emotion for the location and setting and leads to their immediate involvement in the story and action.
We wanted this effect in our opening as the location options are severely limited by where we live. (Boarding School)

13. Graphic breakdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDpjSr9VhG0

I think this video helped a lot to realize how many titles are needed in an opening sequence of a movie.

Sunday 8 November 2015

15. 6 Screen shots of opening scene ( The Big Sleep)


 This scene is an example of a way to make the audience understand where this scene is located and it already gives a name of a character. We could use something like this to make it very easy to understand where the scene is taking place.


 As soon as Mr Marlowe (detective) walks into the house of General Sternwood, one of the 2 daughters of the general walks down the stairs and meets Mr Marlowe, she is very attractive and seems interested in Mr Marlowe.

 After a brief conversation with him, she deliberately falls into his arms. She seems to like Mr Marlowe and tells him that she finds him cute, her behavior is "wild" as Mr Marlowe later describes her (especially because the behavior of women was very marginalized at the time, 1940s).



 Mr Marlowe is at last allowed into a sort of greenhouse to meet the general, whom tells him to sit down and offers him a drink (cognac) and tells him he is allowed to smoke if he wants to.

 Mr Marlowe and the general start to have a bit of chip chat before Mr Marlowe asks the reason of his invitation. Mr Marlowe does accept the drink and takes a few sips of his cognac.

Mr Marlowe lights up his cigarette and answers the General's questions.





14. Opening scene analysis of Chinatown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpk3C3B68Ys
In this scene we get the first appearance of the main character (Jack Nicholson) who is showing one of his clients the photos he took. These pictures show probably the client's wife betraying him with another man. The man is obviously annoyed by the photos and Jack Nicholson offers him a drink. Although we are planning on a slightly more active opening scene there are a few things that we might take from this, like the use of Alcohol and Tobacco.

12. Key details that we will need for our film noir

To make our opening scene a film noir scene, we need to have very dark lighting, high and low camera shots, have a high contrast and try and make long shadows. we could also use extreme close ups to heighten the intensity of a scene.

11. Identifying traits of a film Noir

Identifying traits for a film Noir:

In order to be a real film noir, a film must have at least one criminal (bad guy), usually a murderer. An investigator (good guy), women are an essential part of film noir, usually there are women of both “sides”. This genre is easily recognizable due to its dark and oppressive lighting. These films are usually presented in urban cities. The characters usually consume both tobacco and alcohol rather heavily.

16. Moodboard


Thursday 5 November 2015

8. Film noir jelly baby slaughter






John MacBardly is a 35 years old jelly baby, in the last 3 years he has been dealing drugs for drug lord Phil Heisenburger. John's last transaction didn't go smoothly, he lost almost all the money and the product, Now Phil wants to kill him, and succeeds in doing so. Investigator Liam Nichols happens to walk on the murder scene only moments after the deed had been committed. He thinks that the murders had escaped, but that wasn't the case, Phil was in fact hiding on the roof, he waited for the right moment and then committed the second murder of the day.