2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products? Film Noir is argued to be a movement rather than a genre, developing conventions where gender is manipulated to be empowering females, where women would have been subservient in the 1940’s. We have kept to the old Film Noir conventions but developed them by modernizing the conventions like ‘Sin City’ as it uses animations and colour to attract a modern audience. We used standard conventions but with a modern twist, trying to develop Film Noir so that it would suit today’s audience. We challenged the conventions of a thriller by subverting the music; as generally non-diegetic music is used to build atmosphere and tension; Jazz music was used to contrast to the action, additionally this connotes the female’s power, as these actions would be repeated on a daily bases, camera angles help connote her power using P.O.V.’s. A voice-over was replaced with dialogue and non-diegetic sounds, to suit a modern audience. We kept it black and white for the opening challenging standard thriller conventions, as people prefer watching coloured films, because of this we can modernise the film by using colour for the remaining time. Also adding in more modern changes with modern police and reporters helping to widen our target audience. The sub genre is made apparent by the contrasting gender with most thrillers having males as the dominant role, also using expressive lighting to create a sinister atmosphere, also connoting the female’s significance, and black and white. Sin City was our main influence, however we broadened our understanding with, LA Confidential and BatMan. Although they are not black and white, they connote the darkness and power much like our piece. Ideas of corruption as shown throw both films; we wanted to portray this in our opening, as it is a common convention of Film Noir. To sum up I think that I have got a good mix of developed and challenging conventions. The reason for this was to make the Film Noir be attractive for a younger audience, with use of low angles and close ups connoting the female’s significance. Also how I have used my research of other thrillers to help influence my work, this is the section where I needed to experiment with other thrillers, as it would allow me to challenge my pieces conventions, helping it suit a wider audience. Example of a close up of the antagonist in the opening.
3. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Film Noir is set in the 40’s when women were subservient to males. Film Noir represents the female gender to be dominant, unlike many thriller films which often represent males as the more authoritative gender. The use of low angles and close ups help connote her powerful status, PO.V.’s allow for the female to have much more screen time than the other males, this helps connote her significance in the opening, we found that this was essential to connote her powerful status. This is a low angle shot of the two characters, where the angle of the shot connotes the females dominance. P.O.V that allows for the female to have more screen time, also connote the dominance.
4. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Whereas close ups and high angles connote Tom’s weakness as he left helpless, in comparison to Heather’s complete power, this was mainly in the last scene on Tom being tortured. Where people where gambling, close up’s were a great way to show facial expression as in many shots we wanted Tom’s fearfulness and nervousness to be connoted through series of close ups, The use of camera clearly represent’s the difference in dominance, as Tom’s character is presented as weak once faced with the female character, connoting her dominance. High angle shot to connote the gamblers weakness, contrasting to the females dominance. A shot to connote the gamblers nervousness. The screen is separated into 4 this connotes the gamblers weakness not only from the other gamblers but with the antagonist. I used camera angles and distances to help connote the female’s dominant status, as females are stereotypically subservient to males in thrillers. My piece due to its genre, challenges stereotypical assumptions, and uses camera and lighting to empathise the female’s power and males weakness.
5. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Independents could invest in the film; this is because Film Noir has a niche market, ultimately making it pointless to release it in mainstream cinema. Therefore DVD and TV is where the film should be distributed. Our piece uses German Expressionism, as we used expressive lighting to create large shadows that connote the female’s dominance in comparison to the males. Additionally the film could be released as an Art House film, delivering to a niche audience. Film Noir was prominat in the 40’s therefore it would needed updating to compete in the 21st century market, with a modern twist on the conventions, in context of today’s society. Due to the film being in black and white, set in the 40’s, and my target audience research, I think the audience would be a middle aged adult. The Internet would be a good way to gain a new target market, as few people are familiar with the genre, therefore the Internet may attract a wider audience to our modernised genre. Film Noir being a niche genre, distribution is limited therefore linking into other genres is a good way of reaching a wider audience. Art House and German expressionism are two separate genres with similar conventions that I can help use to reach that wider audience. We began to incorporate German Expressionism into our opening, but we where unable create large empowering shadows. This is something that we needed to think about for the opening/full film. As it would be a useful feature to help connote the females dominance.
6. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? Due to the violent nature that is shown through the Femme Fatale, the film would not appeal to anyone below the age of 15. Therefore we used our research on BBFC, to rate the film 15, as the content is more suggestive than scary. On a wider scale Film Noir generally has an older audience, on the other hand it fits in the Crime Thriller genre, which will help widen the audience suggesting that those who are younger may enjoy the overall film. Modernising our opening so that it is more similar to thrillers nowadays will attract a wider audience, as it will not be too specific to Film Noir. Our piece is not gender specific as the crime genre is mainly male orientated, however, the film empowers the female gender which contrasts with similar thrillers. Gender is very important in Film Noir and is one of the only genres where woman are the more powerful. The audience could be any where from 15 to 80, but with a modern twist I hope to target a younger audience, which will make the Film Noir’s genres audience wider, this is related to Film Noir fitting into Crime Thrillers. Also because of the dominant female gender, the film is not gender specific as it has conventions that will attract both male and female. We did not do enough research on other similar Film Noir’s and whom they attract, this is something I could have done to work out a more detailed target audience. This is a shot that will appeal to a female audience as men as shown to be the weaker gender.
7. 5.How did you attract/address your audience? We used questionnaires to begin with – and throughout the process to find out the audience views within the thriller genre, where the majority of people enjoyed Crime Thrillers. For target audience feedback we used Facebook and YouTube, the feedback was used to improve our piece making changes to editing and shot fluency. As its rated a 15, we used P.O.V.’s to include the audience within the section, furthermore creating a sense that the audience are witnessing something horrific. This justifies why the BBFC rate is 15, as young children would find the piece too scary. Film Noir uses P.O.V’s connote the females power but also empathise her violence. If I had the chance I would add to my research, getting a wider audience to fill in the questionnaire but also make the questions more specific. Also use the audience feedback more often as it will help improve the piece during the making processes instead of an evaluating stage at the end. Using Facebook and YouTube as a good way for me to get feedback, however it was something I needed to do throughout getting constant feedback and improvements. Also I needed to use my research more specifically as I did not find out exactly the Film Noir audience or thriller audience, this then hindered my production. But how we addressed the audience I feel we had done well using P.O.V.’s and close ups. We are addressing our audience instantly by connoting corruption using bold camera angles and expressive lighting. Audience Feedback – "I think the content of it is great how you lot have added effects such as black and white instead of colour gives it that classy look, but the transitions of when tom is getting beaten up could do with a minor tweak when heather hits him round with a bat make it more believable to make it more believable but other than that, I like how with every blinking eye that video blacks out" The beginning shots are varied which show the thought that went into shooting and storyboarding, it also makes it look more professional. In some places around 0.36 the audio from the actors are slightly quiet and drowned out by the music but the idea of it is there and the shots are good. The transitions could be smoother but the sharp effect makes it more interesting. The varied shots after 1.08 are good as they add an effect to the film and makes it more appealing to watch. I also think after 1.28, how the shots go black as he is blinking is a very effective way of showing it, makes it different and more powerful and engaging to watch. The only thing i'd say that needs improving is the sound control at 0.36, but apart from that the film is well made and shot. The dialogue at start too quite To sum up, our research on target audience was not good enough, it meant that our final product did not have the correct audience, this meant that we needed to improve our target audience research so that we knew exactly what people wanted from a thriller, also a gap that could be filled in the thriller market, hot a film that works but no audience enjoys watching it.
8. 6. What have you learnt about technologies, from the process of constructing the product? I found that the camera was very easy to learn to use, but the editing software was much more difficult and took several attempts to get right. A simple problem that we faced was the camera becoming blurred, this was not apparent until we loaded the footage onto premier causing us to reshoot and waste time. As well as this, the tripod easily became uneven making our shots appear wonky. I think the camera equipment is good; to make sure we didn’t make the same mistakes twice we did general checks on all equipment before filming for our 2-minute opening. During our editing we had several problems with the Mac’s as we were unable to get them to import the file, this was a major problem as it stopped the groups progression, we resolved this by uploading the clips separately then importing the files onto the desktop. My overall all use on Adobe Premier has improved dramatically as I now am able to use the majority of the tools for example import/ export files, crop clips and sounds and also enter new title, also it has taught me to look at certain things like shot lengths and transitions of shots which are vital in making the piece smooth and flow. To evaluate modern technology has allowed me to produce a professional film sequence, mainly being able to use a digital video camera to upload the clips to a Mac easily and us to create an advanced and quickly, this made the filming process very quick. We had our set backs with technologies but was able to overcome them. My skills on the editing software have improved dramatically as I am now able to understand why particular shots are used to create mise – en – scene. But also to asses the strengths and weakness of the group, and where we could have done things different to allow progress to carry on.
9. 7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you think you’ve learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Since the Continuity task I have learnt the importance of research and planning, although we did a lot of planning, we found it was not thorough enough as we straightaway abandoned our shot list. Our lack of planning was made evident when we finished our shot list by only getting 1-minute 20 worth of footage out of our 2-minute deadline. However as the task progressed we were able to plan a lot better sticking to our schedule and making each filming session more beneficial. I believe we have successfully completed the task set out to us, as we have met the criteria. Furthermore I think we have got some good shots that are slightly different to the normal thrillers. The final piece was much harder than Prelim Task as we needed an extra 50 seconds of filming. In all aspects of the filming process we needed it to be much more thorough, planning our shot list was going to be a priority, this was something that we did not take into consideration for our Prelim but needed to do, and especially think of shot variations because of our Genre. Film Noir has aided our genre, this is because we where able to challenge standard Thriller conventions. One of the being how gender was represented, we where able to use the camera to connote the Femme Fatales significance where in many thriller, camera would not be used as strongly to connote power. Mainly important the research and planning stages are as they will determine the rest of the project. But also how I have learnt new skills and become more confidant when using the camera as I am now able to understand shot meanings and why angles and distances are used. These are things that I did not know before the prelim task and now use for my final piece.
