Thursday, December 17, 2009

Short Flim Commentary: Noir

Section 1

My group consisted of Nick, Matt and Myself.

When we had to come up with an idea for the project we decided that Nick’s was the one to pick because he used the most detailed and since he was going to be the director we felt it was better to pick that one because it would show Nick’s vision.

I made some of the location diagrams as did Nick and Matt. We then decided to shoot over the first weekend to get it over with and be able to start editing as soon as possible.

There was some mix up with our actors and dates were changed and when it all came down to it, we didn’t get all the footage needed over that weekend. The plan was to shoot on that Saturday, but people had plans and it was “Saturday Night”, so we didn’t end up shooting that night. It would have been the best day for me because I work and ended up having to work on the days we did shoot and was only there for parts of the shooting. The next day we shot, but it was later in the afternoon and I had to work, so I didn’t end up helping as much as I wanted too.

When I got to Nick’s house which is where we were shooting, I found out that some of our actors ended up bailing out on us. It’s hard to get people committed in the first place, and now that they weren’t coming it created another barrier we had to overcome. It ended up being Nick’s girlfriend Brittney who came to help us out and Nick ended up having to act, which I believe hurt us because he had to concentrate on others things instead of just directing or acting. Tony ended up having to change roles and become the man who cheats with Brittney.

After shooting was over we began to edit and my job was audio throughout the film. I didn’t no what to choose and my first run thru wasn’t the way I thought it should come out to be. I revised my audio and thought I made all the correct matched to the actions; unfortunately I didn’t receive Mr. Bigue’s approval on the audio and was told that it was too dramatic. I thought it was perfect, but after listening to it after I must agree it’s not an Indiana Jones movie and the audio selection was too much.

A revision was made, but still wasn’t getting the approval or intent I was going for. When we learned how to use logic Matt and I worked in there and create very original beats and tones that are present in our movie. Over all I felt good about this film being viewed by our class and believe they will see our intent of noir in this film. I hope next time I can be more of a team player, and believe that my contributions will help in the film making process, so my actions need to be risen and used in order to help the group as a whole. Hopefully I can get time off next time to help more or we need to plan better with better communication.

Section 2

Our casting was good until, we got bailed on and had to find new actors. The crew we had presently in the film is sub- ins to the roles they didn’t prepare to be in. Our original idea was to have Tony be in Nick’s place with his own girlfriend playing the femme fatal, instead of Nick’s and one of our friends was suppose to be the guy who cheats on Nick with the girl. But, that all went away when we found out certain roles where unfilled and had to be replaced. But even thought we had sub-ins they did play believable roles in their place of the original actors.

Our acting got the job done, and we were still able to express the message of unfaithfulness and the femme fatale, to show noir in our film. Our acting was good and it had a whole bunch of subs, so yes I believe our acting was ideal and good.

I felt we had a strong script, but since Nick had to act his vision in my opinion wasn’t shown in the film as strongly as it should have. On paper this film look to be great, creating this totally disconcerting women who is self centered was going to be good. The dialogue was short and sweet, but we felt there was too much and two phone calls took up too much information, or time in the film. This film shows the true aspects of film noir by using the signature femme fatale. Also hand held work and blinds show the aspects of noir, but with a present day twist.

Our audio was good and matched what we were trying to convey in each scene that it is present. We used both stock footage and logic which I believe is a great tool to create original audio. In the future I want to use that program more, because some other groups had the same audio selections as we had.

We didn’t use too many props, but the ones we did use help show what had happened. We showed both phones to show the conversations, a red cup with a ping-pong ball in it to show a party, and fake blood to show Nick’s defeat. I wish we used some better wardrobe to show Nick’s faith and to show Brittney as a better femme fetal.

Lighting was the key to show the different personalities of all the different character. We used more dark lighting to show Brittney’s darkness and betrayal and more light to show Nick’s innocence.

When we were shooting we did 3 takes of every single shot to have more depth and to show different perspective. But, the problem was we didn’t have consistent lighting when we would show the different angle, so all the shots didn’t show what we were trying to convey, but adding more depth helped show the characters personalities.

Section 3

Our film connects back to film noir with our lighting and the little things we put into our project.

We made this all powerful female who seems to have a spell over males. She isn’t happy, so she tries to become happy and try something new, but in this case with another guy.

We also made Nick this totally trustworthy guy who is blinded by everything and believes everything she tells him because she is more dominant over him.

Shooting at night time also shows Noir and how it’s dark and there is all this secrecy in the air. With different light settings we showed how different characters reacted to their surrounding. Many different shadows were used and the lighting was change to create a perspective the audience might not notice, but it’s to show different traits of different characters.

Audio selection shows us how the tension is building up and character traits. We see Nick’s faith in the end with the tension building up, and finally show his defeat. The ending music also show her getting away and as we see Nick the music get lower and we see her walk away with the man of her choosing.

Overall our film shows the different aspects of Noir we study with in class and we put into our film. I think that it’s New Noir because it’s totally not in black and white the whole time, but shows the aspects of noir. Defeat, fragility, betrayal, and the power of women over men. This film shows theses themes it just the audience who had to see them and look for them in the film.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Story Analysis



This is a parody of many press conference that happened in the world of sports in 2008.
Justin Timberlake is going thought the piece jumping from place to place asking questions and how the athletes react to it.
This is a parody of the unintelligent sayings or events that happened in 2008.
Time goes in order from the Superbowl which takes place in February to Roger Clemens Court Case which was in November that yr.

Chinatown



I felt that I did a good job on how fragility affect Katherine in the movie Chinatown, by showing the different states that she gets into and how she is affects the most by it. We as a group didn't do as well as we could of, we didn't put a research question and this makes me think that our presentation wasn't as organized as others. I made the connection on how fragility : a state of being broken or shown as fragile affect Katherine. But, I didn't show how the different set ups affect her even more. If I would have done that I would have made the connection even more clear. But, showing how every part she's in she's affected by being broken shows how vulnerable she is. But, overall I feel that I have a better understanding on how fragility affects people in Noir.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Film Noir Short Film Treatment:A Not So Happy Anniversary

Title: A Not So Happy Anniversary

Producer: Nick Medina

Member:Nick,Matt,&TJ

This has been adapted from Nick's Blog.

Genre: Film Noir

Log Line: A boyfriend goes crazy and kills his girlfriend after he discovers that she was cheating on him.

Treatment:

The boyfriend, Tony, and girlfriend are hanging out together at the boyfriend’s house on a Friday night. They are sitting on the couch watching TV. They are having fun and giggling with each other. Then they begin to talk about their senior prom. The girl is excited and tells the boy how she can’t wait to get her dress and pick out his tux with him. The boy then kisses her. She leans on him and they fall asleep on the couch together.

The next day the boyfriend calls his girlfriend. He asks her if she wants to go out to dinner with him that night. She replies that she can’t be with him because she is grounded. The boy loves his girlfriend so he doesn’t question her. He leaves his house and drives away.

The boy is hanging out with three of his friends at Anthony's house. His friends are Matt, Nigel, and Anthony. They talk about who they think is going to win the World Series. They argue between the Yankees and the Phillies. Then they begin to talk about the hottest girls in school. Matt makes fun of the boy’s girlfriend. They then talk about a party they are going to that night. They talk about how drunk they are going to get. Tony says he can’t because he is going to surprise his girlfriend that night for their one-year anniversary.

When it gets dark, the boy leaves his friend’s house. He goes to pick up flowers. He then drives to his girlfriend’s house. He turns onto the street where she lives and sees her car out in front. He gets out of the car and slowly walks to the front door. He opens the door, as it is unlocked. He creeps into the house searching for his girlfriend. All the lights are off.

The boy enters the living room and turns on the lights. He sees his girlfriend with Matt. The boyfriend immediately drops the flowers at his feet. The boyfriend races over to Matt and picks him off of the couch and punches him. The girlfriend screams. They get in a fight and both fall into the lamp, knocking out the light. Matt is unconscious on the floor as the boyfriend rises up from behind the couch. He slowly walks towards his girlfriend and picks up a metal decoration on the mantle. The girlfriend is unable to cry for help. The camera cuts back and forth between the two. The girl backs up until she reaches the wall. The boy walks up to girl and begins to hit her with the statuette. From a worm’s eye view, we see the girl fall on the floor with blood on her head. She is dead. The boy leaves the house and drives away into the distance.