Research poster

Below is the image of a research poster which we created, based on the opening of 'Casino Royal' and how it uses conventions of Film Noir. We commented on shot types, camera angles, costume, lighting,  mise-en-scene etc.

Font decisions

I was aware that the decision of my font was important, as each font has completely unique connotations. Especially with our Film Noir sub-genred thriller, when a suitable font (1930's style) is difficult to find. We actually managed to find a number of suitable simplistic fonts which we were aware may work well within the contents of our thriller. Yet the one we found to be most effective was 'Belta Regular' - it was simplistic yet stylish, it emphasised the glamorous and stylistic aspect of the beginning yet was not over exaggerated or too much. I couldn't think of another film which used the same font either, which was promising due to the fact that often films are associated with the fonts used and that is partially how they are remembered.
Such as the 'Saw' films, the font is so unusual and iconic that when the audience think of the film, often that font comes to mind. It sticks in the audience's head, especially due to the slightly haunting aspect of it. In this case our font is disimilar, it is not haunting nor outrageous yet is extremely simplistic - it simply fades onto the screen for a couple of seconds and fades off. This in itself presents an eerie feel, as if the situation is delicate and fragile therefore anything could happen. The use of it placed in empty space throughout the shots also emphasizes this, the font is so subtle that with a blink it could be missed - therefore the audience must pay attention since some of the fonts appear in slightly unusual places in unusual angles. This presents the idea that boundaries shall be broken or that the film will not be fully conforming to the Film Noir genre, a suggestion that the audience may be surprised which will provide interest from the audience.

The pure white font is almost sinister since it is so pure and simple that the audience can almost predict that the plot will not end quite so glamorously. The white mixed with the flickering candle light behind in this shot, also is symbolic of heaven aka death. Therefore from one of the primary shots the audience may be made aware that the plot will take some kind of sinister turn, the suspense of this creates an interested audience. 

Shooting Schedule

Below are images of our shooting schedule:

Final cut of thriller

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Prezi was a particularly good piece of technology since it enables so much flexibility in the form of presentation. Without prezi there would be no oppurtunity to create any research/work in such a flexible and creative way, since it creates such a fluid and modern way of presenting information. It is one of my favourite forms of presenting due to the oppurtunity to embed a variation of images and add a unique design and various pieces of font to create an interesting presentation. 

During both research and evaluation, YouTube played a vital part. YouTube provided such easy access to such a wild variety of film clips or trailers, which enabled us to gather information and connotations of a film in a very short space of time. It also meant that we did not have to go out and buy a variation of DVD's in order to carry out research, which before technology developments would of quite obviously been the case. We were able to upload and therefore share our thriller's in a viral manor. It also meant that we were able to freeze the thriller on a particular shot, giving me the ability to point out a variation of connotations and denotations of that shot, which otherwise would be difficult to talk about and therefore detail may be missed out. It also shows digital literacy to possible future employers/university's when these video's and multi-media products are embedded within a blog.

When choosing sound effects and investigating suitable fonts 'Dafont.com' and a huge variation of copyright-free music sites such as 'artistdirect.com' meant that a variety of necessities when creating a thriller, were easy and quick to access. The music websites were especially useful, since without them locating a vast library of copyright-free music and soundtracks would of been almost impossible - especially when having a very particular piece of music in mind - violinist suspense music. It resulted in me having a number of possibilities for a soundtrack piece and therefore enabling a large degree of flexibility.
'Dafont.com' produced a huge range of fonts for a variation of purposes, we found many fonts that especially suited to a Film Noir style (that would otherwise of been very rare to find). We then had a selection of possible fonts to use, so had the ability to swap them around in order to see which was the most appropriate.

In terms of production, technology was so important. During filming it was important to use a good quality in order to produce an effective thriller, so that movement would not be blurred and the audience would feel that what they are watching is realistic and therefore engrossing  We used a simplistic yet HD video camera in order to meet this aim - the small size of the video camera meant that it was easy to carry around and maneuver unlike the more old-fashioned video camera's that a few years ago, film makers would have to endure. This enabled us to walk to a variation of locations which were reasonably far away as we did not have to worry about the weight or difficult in terms of lifting the equipment around. The camera that we used had a long-life battery which enabled us to film for a long period of time, without having to worry about the battery dying and leaving us with a lack/minimalistic footage. It gave us the opportunity to to shoot for a long period of time, capturing a huge variation of shots within a reasonably short space of time (we did not have to return to locations on regular intervals in order to get a sufficient amount of footage). By using an SD card within the camera meant that transferring footage from the camera to the computer to be edited was so easy. Considering before tapes of film would have to be paused and played in the right place exactly from one machine to another. 

The flip-able screen meant that two of us were able to view the footage as it was recorded and therefore be considered by everyone involved in teaming - the footage is also seen as a video not just through a lense which ensures us to visually see exactly what that piece of film looks like/any errors that may occur within it.

Technology played such a vital role in editing 'Scarlett' (quite obviously) without the computer and modern software the quality of the film produced would of been undoubtedly different. We used 'Adobe Pro' in order to edit our footage into an actual film - adding a variation of effects, titles, deleting and cutting clips etc. The software enabled me to see one clip that could feature within the plot line on one screen at the same time as placing it in chronologically, in the right screen. The software is easy to maneuver with a variation of tools. One of the parts I consider most useful was the effects on the sound, it can be manipulated to build at very varied points in collaboration with the footage. It can be faded and cut in order to create an abrupt effect (such as when Scarlett slams the music box) or faded with non-diagetic music in order to create a smooth loop which goes unnoticed by the audience yet enables a short clip to be replayed as if an entire song.
In terms of footage, I found it very simple to catergorise film clips, select those to particular folders and then select the strongest of clips from those. With 'Scarlett' from primary planning, I was aware that I strongly wanted the thriller to be edited into black and white to truly fall into the Film Noir genre. I had an idea of huge buildings and slightly dimly lit alleyways, glamorised by a simple yet stylistic greyscale effect. Due to this editing software this was able to happen, yet I was also to view exactly what it would look like in colour.
With our thriller we posed some concern on the lighting throughout, since a variation of shots were taken when the night rapidly fell dark and we were worried on the basis that the clips may look out of place beside each other and lack a chronological impression if the lighting jumped from night to day time. Yet again, by using contrast and brightness editing, this was far less noticeable and the scenes don't seem to jump or jolt. There were two particular shots that seemed out of place due to the actors being featured going in an awkward direction, in this case I was able to edited the shot and flip it horizontally to ensure that it fitted more suitably. This would have no way been a possibility yet again if technology was not as advanced as it is.

In terms of evaluation, the use of technology made such a difference. In one window I had the ability to have YouTube open in two windows - one featuring my preliminary and one with 'Scarlett', therefore as I wrote up my evaluation I had the ability to create fresh ideas from certain shots, screen shot them and then add them to the explanation.

Q5:How did you attract/address your audience?

Q5ff

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Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Which cinemas are most likely to distribute the thriller?

Based on the targeted audience the line of cinema that we would aim to exhibit our thriller would be most likely Cinema-City. Primarily because this line of cinema's produce a very stylish and 'comfortable' cinema experience, providing appertisers and refreshments that would suit our niche market of 20-35 year olds and ever so slightly appeal more to the female target audience. It creates the most comfort, I feel, in terms of cinema seating/experience which means that the audience are able to focus purely on the film in hand. When it comes to thrillers, the more ivolved and engaged the audience are the more effective that it will be when creating/building tension. It is also owned by the company 'Picture house' which aim to "Screen a range of features from art-house, independent, classic, documentary and world cinema films to Hollywood blockbusters."

This is of importance because not many cinemas appreciate art-house/independent films, and our thriller is an art-house type since it is not made for a mainstream consumer but more for creative purposes, exploring a classical, reasonably small sub-genre of thriller. The cinema looks visually stylistic, effort has been made to keep the medieval building in good condition, added with glamorous windows and a placard naming the cinema. Therefore the audience attracted to this cinema are likely to be attracted to our thriller. There would be little point in exhibiting our Film Noir in Vue Cinemas or Odeon, as these are for more family/teenage mainstream films with extremely large budgets and expensive CGI and 3D effects, featuring numerous A-list actors. It would not be suited to the target audience at all. For example Great Expectations was recently released in Cinema City - a very classical, romantic story based in a different time completely for a niche audience, looking for a reasonably interlectual movie.  Despite featuring a couple of A-list actors such as Helena Bonham Carter, it poses similarities between our thriller such as an underline forbidden romance, some glamorous characters (Ester) and the theme of a ruined marriage.

Which film distribution company would distribute ‘Scarlett

How could digital technologies offer new distribution opportunities?
Considering the targeted audience, all of the audience should be more than used to social networking and exploring digital technology. However aiming for more mainstream technologies, such as YouTube for promotions/a trailer, and Video-On-Demand services eg. LoveFilm. Especially since LoveFilm is most appealing to young people/ our target audience, due to an elder demographic having a preference to DVD's and very young people would have little access. It is perfect for stay-at-home saturday night movies, for those who have outgrown partying/need to wind down from work, therefore would make a clear access point for our targeted demographic. The film would therefore be spread out to the audience that we were aiming for. Also technologies such as the internet should include reviews on the film, therefore creating an internet buzz.

Would your status as a student film-maker offer opportunities for distribution?

Being a student film maker would give me the opportunity to go to a range of student film festivals throughout Europe, displaying my film to eventually a wide range of people creating and generating interest about it.  At these film festivals are people extremely passionate about the film industry and therefore would appreciate art-house or unusual films slightly more, if it was interesting with good editing, camera work and themes etc. There are many film festivals that are only open to students as the industry aim to get young people involved, therefore there are more film festivals open for me than if I was much older. Not only this but the audience would expect a student film-maker to possess a good imagination and therefore new/versitle ideas.

Box office mojos information
In terms of distribution LA Confidential (1997) had a very large domestic gross of $64,616,940 and it was released worldwide. Ideally 'Scarlett' would be distributed worldwide in order to reach the largest niche market possible (obviously there will be possible viewers all over the world including America) yet since the film is more focused on artistic and creative aspects, more than appealing to a large demographic on order to generate a large amount of money at the box office, the European market is much more suitable. However LA confidential had many variations from 'Scarlett' for example many A-list actors (Russel Crowe) and a huge budget with a much broader (worldwide) target audience. Therefore from this I can expect that our thriller wouldn't be distributed worldwide as it avoids certain aspects that LA Confidential include to appeal to a massive audience, including
an American audience. However our thriller is aimed at a niche, more art-house and therefore European market, it would have a similar target audience in the sence that it would be aimed at various multi-cultures.

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q1 In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We took a great deal of inspiration from 'The Third Man' as it includes classic Film Noir traits such as the antihero/ villain dressed in all black therefore presenting him as an evil, dark character. So many tilt shots / creative shots are used throughout to put the audience on-edge and feel uneasy, which I found to be very effective therefore we included a number of tilt shots and birds eye shots in our thriller. The use of the hat prop to partially conceal his face and therefore identity presenting an enigma was another idea that we found to be effective therefore we adapted this with our character of Scarlett. Adding a glamorous white headpiece which just concealed a corner of her eye, only this suggested perhaps a lapse in sight/ judgement and also a Femme Fatale with an unusual aspect of purity. Also I took inspiration from the long dark coat, concealing the body and presenting the character as a general enigma, it suggests that the person is secretive and a mystery therefore the audience are left craving to know and understand the character's story. The actor of Tom (the character of Ray) therefore was dressed in a reasonably long, dark jacket which lead to him looking intimidating and enigmatic. The dim lighting, not only in this shot of Harry but throughout 'The Third Man' adds so much enigma and mystery to the plot. Often the characters faces and body's are either partially or completely hidden, and therefore tension is built because every person and therefore member of the audience has 'the fear of the unknown'. If they cannot see what is going on, they are bound to feel much more vulnerable and intimidated by the fact that they don't know if a threat will appear.

The use of alleyways as a location was particuarly inspirational, constantly the characters are shot running down alleyways or travelling by foot alone. This works well as a claustrophobic location, also the mix of the shadows creates a very mysterious and threatening environment for the audience to be placed in. So when selecting our locations, the alleyway was a clear idea from primary planning. Especially the shots of shadows along the brickwork, creating a three dimensional effect therefore involving the audience further. This inspired our scene where the shadow swifts along the stairway, yet I found that using the stair as a setting created an even better visual effect as it slides along the steps, exaggerating the swift and fast movement building tension. 

The overall character of Scarlett was loosely inspired by the character of Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes' love interest) who takes the role of the Femme Fatale often leading Sherlock astray. Though a Femme Fatale, like the character of Scarlett she is not particularly promiscuous yet takes on the role of a dangerous and very glamorous/classy Femme Fatale. Though this is not necessarily typical of the sub-genre, most Femme Fatale's lure the protagonist in using their sexuality and that is what leads to their downfall. Yet I found this slightly more reserved character type more effective as the fact that the character does not need that in order to gain power, creates her as stronger and a slightly more intimidating character. Scarlett's touch of innocents creates the assumption that she can do no wrong and is therefore not a threat, yet the mysterious running away in the night and the enigma behind why someone would be after her contradicts this. The innocence leads the audience to doubt her danger which helps to twist the audience and shock. The dark pink shown here in this image of her is similar to the use of red in the character of Scarlett, it may be slightly bold and therefore powerful but there are underlined femininity and soft aspects. The character of Sherlock also is completely in love with Irene which allows her to completely take control over him, despite his strong character and being a man whom everyone looks up to and admires yet he is completely domineered by a woman. This idea we followed through our thriller, Scarlett is not a feeble weak woman but has the power and control over Ray to lead him to act irrationally (following her in such a hurry). The audience may assume that both characters are too innocent, therefore may question their true morals and personality, doubting and untrusting them.

I also took insipration from the character of Roxy from the film 'Chicago' through her lifestyle, she's very glamorous and aims for an amazing life - which she reaches. Throughout the film her life reaches high points featuring fame and theatricality - presenting an aspirational lifestyle to the audience therefore when they consume the film they find the character's lifestyle desirable and are transported to this different world.  This is what inspired me when creating our own thriller, I wanted to create a piece that seemed so glamorous and perfect that the audience would watch it and become involved due to the fact that it's a lifestyle that they longed for. Chicago also constantly uses the connotations of the colour red, as shown in the advertisement poster - the aspect of danger, lust, brightness yet femininity. Red was a very important aspect of our thriller, though my preference of the opening is in black and white due to the more stylistic feel the mere name of 'Scarlett' attaches all the connotations of red anyway. The stylistic aspect of the film was a  big inspiration, such as slow over-the-shoulder shots, looking theatrical and dramatic shown below. The dark hair, eye make up and lipstick produces a classical feminine character. Both characters are strong and dominate the boring stereotype of the weak and feeble woman, a damsel in distress waiting to be saved by a man. Velma Kelly murdered her cheating husband and does not hide her pride over it, likewise Scarlett carries out an affair quite publicly which would be completely outrageous and unheard of in the 1930's. 

Throughout 'Chicargo' the setting and locations are amazing visually - tall beautiful buildings, elegant dressing rooms, stages full of glittery costume and red lighting. For cinematography lovers, Chicago combines theatricality and film by using all sorts of media devises. The locations I took inspiration from, the tall buildings with dim lighting and flawless settings excites me as a member of that audience, as if being placed into a world of perfection and the utmost glamour. This escapism I knew I wanted to apply to the thriller, therefore when Scarlett reaches the large hall at the end, we made sure to get a well-filmed extreme long shot capturing the vast size of the building; which makes Scarlett seem as if she's only a piece of this world of style and glamour. Chicago often uses staircases as a setting, such as when Billy Flint and Roxy are giving a speech to the press - because it's symbolic of people being beneath them, ie. in our thriller Scarlett is presented as upper-class and very glamorous in a time where there will ofcourse of been people less fortunate than her therefore may represent her social status.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Primarily when we began filming our preliminary task I was very excited at the thought of using the camera and it's equipment such as the dolly to menuver it, believing that it would produce good quality shots every time with ease. Yet throughout my preliminary task I realised that more difficulties arise than what you would expect, the dolly became fragile and brought great difficulty to filming in actual fact. For example this shot of Chloe's feet as she walks towards the camera is incredibly jolty and shakey due to a dolly wheel being slightly faulty. When it came to experimenting with the camera and different creative angles we tended to stick to the more simplistic camera angles that we had more experience and felt safer with ie. mid shots. This developed as we began thinking about how to create our thriller, by creating our preliminary task we became aware that on certain surfaces dollys can be almost impossible to use correctly - creating a smooth and effective shot. Therefore when choosing locations often they were places that we had visited and trusted, believing that the passers-by would be minimalistic and the paths would be smooth.


The preliminary task lead to much more confidence with directing the camera than I had primarily, especially since we had chosen to do a classic Film Noir film, therefore unusual angles such as birds eye and tilt shots are used throughout. With our preliminary we did not have to deal with certain shooting issues that we did with our Thriller. A majority of this was to do with the different locations, since with our preliminary everything was shot indoors at school when most students were occupied in lessons. Whereas when filming our thriller we had to consider the weather conditions since it was partially located outside, in other words rain or extreme weather would have an impact on the shot/ may damage the camera or costume. However we found that in the alleyway that the forceful wind added an aspect of building tension and pathetic fallacy - it's appropriately dramatic, as if a moment before a storm therefore foreshadowing that something negative is about to occur. One of our key parts of location was the City Hall steps - I was certain from the primary stages of planning that the huge staircase and beautifully old-fashinoned, grand wooden doors would set the scene for our film. On the other hand with our preliminary task locations were barely thought of, we selected a clear and empty school corridor and decided to set the thriller in that space. This was convenient at the time yet did not possess many connotations, create stylistic shots or add any layers to the task.

Yet I learnt to deliberately select locations which would add layers of meaning - such as the dressing room scene, the touch of the candles, cream walls, vintage newspaper added to the vintage feel of the opening.
From our Preliminary task to the planning and creating our thriller, I gained particular ideas on what I would like to explore with the creation of the thriller. Firstly I became aware that the sub-genre of thriller that I wished the thriller to fall under was Film Noir, since I found it so stylistic and glamorous with many creative possibilities. Such as unique costume, unusual camera angles, stylistic editing and minimalistic title sequences. It was also a genre I knew little about, therefore had the opportunity to explore and learn within the genre. The preliminary also helped develop possible character types for the thriller since with our preliminary task we based it in the modern day, with modern characters with lots of speech. The use of modern characters meant that we hardly introduced character when acting as we merely acted as ourselves, which meant that often we found it amusing and difficult to focus. Therefore we chose to involve classic characters that would almost certainly ensure pure focus and be so unusual that we were constantly Film Noir inspired. We found that during our preliminary task not having any objectives for the scene meant that the piece had little point and often we found ourselves lost. Whereas after our research within the openings of other thrillers within various films, we found that often either the character, location or perhaps some aspects of narrative/themes. Therefore when thinking and planning our thriller opening, I knew that I had to think of different aims and for the first half of our thriller/ dominant part I wanted to fully introduce the character of Scarlett.  Hence the vast shots of the character preparing herself since every prop we used had a connotation of her personality. Firstly the rouge red lipstick connotes her passionate yet dangerous side (since red connotes blood etc.), followed by the glamorous diamante earrings - slowly placed in suggesting that the character of Scarlett is careful and does possess classic feminine qualities that a woman in this era would possess. Then the diamonte earrings are a clear reference to her weatlth etc. We built her personality and character in order for the audience to identify with her, so that when she was in danger they would feel a sympathy for her therefore resulting in the tension and build up being effective. Whereas in our preliminary task there was no introduction of characters, we went straight into dialogue/plot.
Not only this, between creating our preliminary task and our thriller opening, we learnt of the importance of music. Non-diagetic sound was completely unthought of in our first task, no music or sound effects were used to engage the audience in anyway. In terms of diagetic sound we were novices also, when it came to editing our preliminary we had issues with the diagetic sound of a photo-copier in the background, different volumes of characters and clarity of speech. None of which we predicted. Therefore in terms of our planning for our thriller, I had full awareness of different sound aspects that we had to pay attention to/ be aware of. For example when filming outside the City Hall I knew that we may have difficulty with various diagetic sounds of vehicles, yet the thriller was set in the 1930's therefore there would not be loud and modern car engine noises/horns blaring. I found that my preference is diagetic sound as it sounds more realistic, therefore when desiring a jewelry box tune for the very beginning, we recorded the sound of a real jewelry box for on average two minutes then when it came to editing looped it, continuing to remove any hitches or blips in the sound. This created the impression that the piece is realistic and I believe engages the audience as if a non-diagetic sound sounds reasonably unrealistic the audience can be removed from their engaged state - simply being reminded that they are watching a film. When a thriller needs to build tension and engage in order to be effective I knew that this would be a negative thing. Yet due to safety aspects we could not use a real gunshot, therefore I searched for the most realistic sound effect of an old-fashioned gun (in order to fit with the time era) and it seems to work well. I've learnt that sound is so important when it comes to truly bringing the audience into your world, especially when that world is the dramatic, glamorous, unusal world of Film Noir.

Actors featuring in our thriller

The character of Ray was played by Tom Battell. We chose Tom to feature due to firstly his size, he is a tall broad boy for a seventeen year old and looks much more mature than his age. Therefore as the tension-builder or the possible villain (in the audience's eyes) we were aware that his size would help, and be emphasised by low-angled shots, a scary, intimaidating persona. Yet there are aspects of Tom's features which are likely to portray him not as a wholly dangerous man - which is the desired affect, we wanted to portray him as a lovable husband also and it is his Femme Fatale of a wife Scarlett that has lead him to follow and kill her. This is shown firstly in the photograph of the couple happily smiling together, the audience should understand that their relationship is not filled with hate and this man perhaps wants to regain what he has lost (his wifes affection). The removal of the wedding ring should be a strong implication that Scarlett is having an affair, matched with the lipstick appliance and dressing up, we hope that this will become apparent to the audience. Therefore Ray is not the villian of our piece. Tom Battell's curly hair and dimpled cheeks present a lovable, sweet aspect to the character of Ray that we needed to portray this, in order to put across a certain aspect of likablility if you will. Tom Battell is also a good friend of mine therefore I was aware that I could rely on him to be at our locations when he said that he would be and that he would give a good performance (as I have seen him act before). Tom was also very comfortable with us and therefore was able to work with us well when it came to shooting and he was very happy to do so, working with a pleasant actor made the filming aspect a lot easier. Tom was also about the same size as my dad therefore when it came to costume and props, we were able to easily get ahold of vital clothing which Tom did not possess which fitted him with ease.
The character of Scarlett was played by me. We done this due to the difficulty finding a female actress, also as I am very comfortable acting in general we knew that we wouldn't have many limitations if this was done. Also since it was towards my own thriller I was erged to be there on time, to have my costume and props and give a good performance - probably more so than if we had gotten another actress to take part. Yet this meant that my ability to film particular scenes was limited, though when I was off screen and we needed singular shots of Tom I was able to film shots and direct.