Post 11: Advanced Production Skills Workshop 1

Last lesson, we were taught the style of 'Film Noir'. Film Noir is a style of film, created by Nino Frank in 1946. Although there were films made with the Film Noir style, this concept wasn't created until 1946. This style reflects American trends, in using Crime and Detective films, which was a contrast to the optimistic musicals and comedys that were around at this time.
This style was named film noir because of the dark, mysterious theme presented as such (left) in every sense, mood, point of view and tone.

A typical Film Noir story countained a cynical, heard-heartened, dis-illusioned man who encounters a beautiful, promiscuous, amoral, seductive "Femme Fatale" which literally means fatal female.
The female character would manipulate the man into commiting a crime, but they were often 'destroyed' by their plans, as they would fall in love with the man, and consiquently ending up with nothing. So, although Film Noir broke the convention that women were weaker than men, they still loose everything, and they suffer.


The Importance of Shadows in 'Film Noir'.

In class, we watched 'Rebecca', which show's us the importance of Shadows in film noir. Shadows created the illusion of mystery and show's the scale of importance on characters, shadows can created a special awareness, which makes the audience aware of the main character, by casting a shadow on everything else in shot.

There are two main types of shadows in Film Noir, Cast shadows and Attatched shadows.
Cast Shadows are the type of shadow when you put something in front of a light source and it casts a shadow, like a typical shadow from a person or object.
Attached Shadows is when a person or object is lit to highlight their importance, thus creating a shadow on anything that isn't of importance.

In class we also watched 'Lemon' by Hollis Frampton. In this video, Frampton play's with light on a lemon, to show the shape and texture of the lemon from different angles of lighting, and the different shadows that are cast upon it.

After watching this, we got into groups and created our own version of 'Lemon'.
After a few failed attempts, where are hands were seen in shot, which we had to correct, we created

Post 10: Job Roles Research

Task 1: Director: During Pre-Production, their job is to read over the script and to organise run-throughs with the actors, they are in charge of casting the actors, creating a shooting schedule and a call sheet. They are also in charge of a shotlist with help from the cinematography department.

During production, their job is to get the performance they want out of their actors.

Camera: During pre-production, along with the director, they are in charge of creating a shotlist. This department also create the storyboards, an equipment list and they book the equipment that will be needed for shooting.

Production: Their main job role is to film! They are in charge of deciding shot sizes, setting up the camera, framing and the composition of each shot.

There is a link between the Lighting and Sound department, as each roles share similar tasks.

Lighting and Sound: In pre-production they share the tasks of creating a risk assesment, the share the equipment list and technical recce's with the camera department. The sound department is in charge of soundtrack and any music they want to have permission from the labels and copyrights, the microphones, any voice overs they want to use must be done before production, special effect sounds and guide tracks.

In Production, they set up the lighting and sound equipment, the sound department monitor sound levels and positiong microphones.

Production Design: This department puts costume, makeup and set together. In Pre-Production, they are in charge of the location recce's, purely because it is important for the set designers. Then there is costume design, hair and make-up deisng and set designs or moodboards.

In Production they are in charge of continuity, i.e. taking pictures of the characters in costumes and make-up so they get it exactly right for the next shot, and monitoring the script.

Post 9: Script Feedback

When Becky Knapp came to visit again, she told us to assess each others scripts. We all had a look at everyone's scripts, and we had to give critical feedback on how they could be improved. Becky also had the chance to look at our scripts and gave feedback.
This feedback gave us the appropriate information to start improving our scripts even further.

My version of my script:


The general feedback I recieved was positive, my peers said they enjoyed my script, but was confused as to what genre it was. The format of the script was wrong, it was in the wrong font and I didn't have a front page cover for it.
When Becky talked to me about my script, she said there was some genre confusion, between comedy and drama. For a short film, she said it would be wise not to have the both, as we don't have enough time for character and plot development in the space of 5 minutes.

After this, we decided to work on Jenna's script, as her's was easier and more developed, so we could produce a better short film in the time we have.

Post 3a: target progress

1) Naturally, I am a creative person, but throughout the year I have been trying to push the boundries on my creative skills. I have shown this through script writing for my short film coursework. First of all, the idea for my script came to me in a lesson, a little bit out of the blue. But after hearing feedback, it changed significantly. So when it comes to my creativity, noticeably, I have been pushing myself more so this year, but can still use some work.

2) My second target was to keep up to date with homeworks and blogger deadlines. So far, I have been on time with my homeworks, and my bloggers haven't been too bad. There are times when my blog posts aren't completely finished, but they are still done to an extent. Last year, I was lazy with my blog posts and homeworks, which meant when it came to doing them, it was all last minute. Now I feel up to date and confident that my work is done.

3) When we were first told to use photoshop, I had no idea how to use it. So I was asking for help all the time. Since then I have used photoshop on many occasions, here is an example of this independent work:



4) I feel that my blogger has improved significantly during the course of the year. It is much neater, and more organised, and I am also fairly up to date, if not a few minor things missing. But compared to last year, I have become more organised and committed to making my blogger look presentable.

5) I haven't had the chance to really show my improvment in my interpersonal skills yet, as we haven't started on the coursework. But I have improved on taking all feedback on board.