THE EXCHANGE

The Exchange

Following our preliminary exercise we were asked to film a brief exchange between two characters. We chose to make the exchange drugs. We took what we learned from our preliminary exercise and used it to sucessfully film our exchange. There was no dialouge between the two characters as we aimed to make the two actors movements and looks accurately portray a story.



                   Evaluation of The Exchange

For out planning phase of this shoot, we had to complete a health and safety sheet, outlineing various possible dangers in our filming enviroment. There were none however and we were cleared to film in our locale.

B: Evaluate the finished peice of work taking on board the feedback I gave you. You must mention the 180 degree line rules, framing (rule of thirds), match on action (continuity), shot reverse sgot, focus, sound, camera movement, and handles. Remember to use the evaluation sheet I provided you and if you mention everything on the handout and mention the above you will produce a strong evaluation. REMEMBER to be as positive as you can but if you have made mistakes do not try to hide them. Mention that you made a mistake, identify exactly what it was and then if you did the exercise again how you would rectify the mistakes and you are then showing LEARNING!!!! Give as many examples as you can to illustrate your points.

SOLO EVALUATION

GROUP EVALUATION

Roulette

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

(Number 7 is also answered in our commentary.)

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

http://prezi.com/8mujn1pu5sag/group-evaluation-q2/

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11948005/media

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

(Question 5 is answered in this prezi too.)

http://prezi.com/s4zywatse__i/as-noir-roulette-audience/

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11952579/media2

7. Looking back at your preliminary tast, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product.

(See number one.)

PRELIMINARY EXCERCISE & EVALUTATION.

In our preliminary exercise we had to demonstrate a basic understanding of certain filming techniques, these were the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and matching on action. Our task was to film a character walking along a corridor, opening a door and then having a brief conversation with the person inside. This was to give us basic understanding and experience prior to our contemporary noir openings we would later film. We put together a storyboard and scripted basic dialogue so our actors could remember their lines. Later we cut and edited our shots together using Final Cut.

                                     Evaluation of our preliminary.

During the shooting of our preliminary exercise, we had to demonstrate our basic knowledge in four areas, these were, cameraman, editor, sound man and director. We each took it in turns to do each action.

Whilst filming we took into account the 180 degree rule and managed to never brake it, this shows in our finished cut which clearly shows our understanding of the rule. We also learnt that the actual shots we were making would look more visually appealing if you shot using the rule of thirds and this we took into account in every shot, we would frame our shots so the actors in them would be on thirds. As we had around an hour to film our exercise, match on action was simple to achieve, there would be no irregularities between scenes. Although around half way through we show our actor walking through the door with no indication of another person approaching him and then in the next scene we clearly see a man outside the door. To improve this for our contemporary noir opening, we will make sure there are no members of the public are in our backgrounds.

Our shot-reverse-shots worked well, we managed to frame the person talking clearly and get the back of the recipients head and back. We ideally could have made the shots longer, a lot of the talking is done on the way to the table and this unfortunately restricted the dialogue to a few words during our shot-reverse-shot. Ideally we should have made our handles longer as during our shot-reverse-shot the dialogue seems cut together too fast and makes it seem unnatural.
 We used a panning shot when our actor moved to the table, this was done steadily but unfortunately we just cropped out his head in part of the scene, to prevent this in future we can either move the camera backwards or zoom out a little bit. Our focus throughout the exercise was superb, we didn't use depth and field and kept the entire picture sharp.  Sound was also not an issue, we managed to capture all our lines clearly and didn't accidentally lower the microphone so it was visible in our shots.  

Dear Blogger.

Dear Blogger,
                      I have been ill for just under a month now, but things are looking up.
Today I woke up at a reasonable time and my cold/flu is becoming manageable. I promise blogger, before this Easter break is over, I will fill you with all my outstanding work and complete it to a high enough level.

BLADE RUNNER IN REVIEW

We were screened 'Brick' and then had to do an analysis on a contemporary film noir.

I chose instead to analyze Blade Runner (The Final Cut).

1. Characters: Are there any typical Noir characters in the film?

Replicants :
                   Leon Kowalski   :  Has Mummy issues
                   Roy Batty           :  White hair
                   Pris                     : Flexible
                   Zhora                  : Snake woman

Police:
                  Rick Deckard   :Retired Blade Runner
                  Gaff                 : Origami
                  Bryant              : Police Chief
                  Holden             : Interviewer at start

Misc:        
                  Rachael            : Experimental Replicant
                  J.F. Sebastian   : Toy Maker and professional loner.
                  Dr Eldon Tyrell : Gets an eye massage from Roy.

2. Narrative: What are the storylines, construction and typical Noir scenes?

Huge advancements in bioengineering have allowed scientists to create super humans they refer to as 'Replicants'.  A riot in an off world colony has made Replicants illegal on earth.  Deckard is called out from retirement by his former boss, Bryant, after a fellow Blade Runner was shot administering a test to Leon Kowalski.

Deckard is briefed on the four Replicants he has to retire and is partnered with Gaff. After much investigation and following clues and leads, Deckard successfully retires all four Replicants.


In the beginning Holden is seen administering a test to a replicant, he is smoking and drinking. Leon is paranoid about the test, a key characteristic of film noir.



3. Atmosphere and tone: How do you feel about the characters and their world?


The first scene is a shot over L.A. There are lights and fires from as far as the eye can see.
Always raining
Multicultural society, huge Asian presence.
At least three different languages spoken throughout the film. English Chinese German
Even now, with flying cars, people still use bicycles.
Chinese Graffiti in the ghetto

Rick Deckard :





4. Use of Cinematography: Any Noir camera camera techniques in evidence?
5. Use of Editing/Titles: Any Noir editing techniques or story construction in evidence?
6. Mise-En-Scene: Typical Noir locations, props, costume, lighting and performance etc?
7. Sound! Pay attention to the use of music, ambiance, voice over and sound effects?
8. Ideology: What are the messages and values of the film?
9 Audience: Who do you feel that the target audience are? Why do you think this?

I am now going to watch it whilst I take notes.

FILM NOIR IDEA.

Opening shows Al hanging from  the ceiling gently swinging in a cold breeze, whilst Adrianna walks away leaving Al to die. (It is heavily implied Al dies)


Al's band, The Triangle Delights, are playing a gig to a crowded room,  a woman in red (Adrianna) is standing by the bar smoking LUCKY STRIKES. She elbows her way through the crowd and throws a napkin at the band with her phone number on. Al follows the girl frantically amongst the crowd and outside into derelict buildings, he enters a run down pub and finds a corpse of a man lying on the bar, there are numbers tattooed across its neck.

Weeks pass and all Al can think about is the girl and the body he discovered. He uses the numbers that were tattooed on the corpse to play the lottery and wins the jackpot of £2.8 million. He tells no one about this and does not claim the prize.

Al goes back to playing gigs with his band. Instead of the woman in red, the person he saw at the abandoned pub was waiting at the back of the room, leaning on the bar fixated on Al through the bands entire set. The band are booed off like usual and Al leaves through the back door.

Al plays another gig the following day, the man is back. After the gig he confronts the man. We learn that the man only refers to himself as 'Smith'. Smith knows Al was the last person to see Adrianna, but Al is even unaware Adrianna is missing. Spooked by the whole thing Al again makes for the door and escapes to his shack.

FILM NOIR MUSIC SELECTION.

ONE.

TWO.

THREE.

FOUR.

FIVE.

Analyzing film openings. 1

hhng

SUNSET BOULEVARD IN REVIEW.

WIP

NEO-NOIR. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?

The typical femme fatale, Jessica Rabbit.

Venetian Blind effect.

Who framed Roger Rabbit was directed by Robert Zemeckis and was released in 1988. The story follows a private detective called Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), as he tries uncovering the truth behind the murder of Marvin Acme, the owner of ToonTown. What makes this movie different from many others is that it features live action as well as animation combined into one film.

Rumor has it that Jessica Rabbit, the wife of famous cartoon actor Roger Rabbit, is having an affair. R.K. Maroon, concerned about his top actor Rogers recent dip in performance, hires a private detective (Valiant) to snoop on Jessica Rabbit. Valiant captures pictures of Jessica Rabbit playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme, the core owner of ToonTown, a place where all the toons live.

Valiant used to have a brother but he was unfortunately killed by an evil toon some years previous, this has led the detective to despise toons and acquire a fondness for Wild Turkey. Having no compassion for the toons, he has no trouble releasing the photographs to R.K. Maroon and Roger Rabbit. Having seen the pictures Roger gets mad as holy hell and flees the office, which in turn, makes him the prime suspect when Marvin Acme is found dead the next day. A safe dropped on his head. Toon style.

Roger turns up at Valiants office not soon after and after initial disagreement with housing and protecting Roger, the weasels pay a visit.  .

                                                           NOTES 



Eddie Valant - Private Detective
screencap of venetian blind effect
Drink - Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels
Dark Alley, with a backdoor entrence to private club
CLUB - Valiant is paranoid about the toons because one killed his brother

Jessica Rabbit - Femme Fatale
Frosted Glass on door to Valiants office
Valiant lives and works out of his office
Judge doom uses weasels as his henchmen
Car chase
Eddit calls Deloris to collect his belongings (paranoia)

NEO-NOIR. TAXI DRIVER.

Taxi Driver was directed by Martin Scorsese and was released in 1976. It follows Travis Bickle ( Robert De Niro), a Vietnam veteran with a low opinion of the world. He suffers from insomnia so gets a job at a taxi rank working long 14 hour night shifts. One of his fairs, Betsy (Cybill Shepard), catches the eye of Bickle and he manages to arrange a date with her. Being so detached from the world, both emotionally and socially, he takes her to his favourite day light past time, the porno theatre. Betsy is extremely offended and leaves right away. Being disgusted with what he sees on the streets, Bickle becomes vigilante, he plans to kill the senator. A theme from a typical film noir is paranoia and Bickle being a Vietnam veteran, it's understandable why he would be paranoid. In Vietnam some of the soldiers took drugs such as Speed to stay awake long periods of time in fear of getting poked to death by a big nasty Vietnamese bayonet, that along with all the booby traps the Vietnamese laid down it's easy to see why Bickle flees the Senators rally at first sign of agents detecting him and his murderous intentions. 

A young prostitute gets into his cab one night, trying to flee from her pimp, but instead of driving off he waits for the pimp to catch up. The pimp makes the young girl get out of the car and hands Bickle a screwed up twenty dollar bill. This man is now marked and Bickle returns later in the film to take him out. Upon his executions he tries to find a bullet for himself but is unable to, he slumps on a couch waiting for the feds to show up and throw him in the slammer, but he is hailed as a hero. Like filme noir after the second world war, this neo noir uses the pessimism from the Vietnam war to accurately portray a disturbed veteran, the lust for fire power that our main character has only shows us that he is not only mentally unstable, but is mentally unstable and has four shooters. Iris is the femme fatale in this film, Bickle risks his life to save her, not out of sympathy or sexual desire; but just because it's what Bickle has trained to do. Wash the streets clean.