Evaluation, question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation, question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation, question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation, question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

Audience feedback for The Correspondent

After finishing editing The Correspondent yesterday, we held a small press screening to collect some feedback on it. We asked them to consider things such as the lighting and sound, acting and story coherence. The feedback we collected is accessible here, and could help us if we were to make changes to our film or make it again.

The Correspondent -- Extra Credits & Acknowledgements

Special Thanks

Yossef Levi & The White Hart

Joel Speed

Music Acknowledgements

"Intro" by alt-J

"Breezeblocks" by alt-J

"Bloodflood" by alt-J

"Tiptoe Through The True Bits" by Los Campesinos!

"Prelude 3.0 (instrumental)" by Slipknot 
"Rise to the Sun" by Alabama Shakes

The Correspondent

Here is the finished product: our short neo-noir film, The Correspondent.

Editing Day 9

Today was the final day of editing before we completed the final cut of The Correspondent. Here is our final video diary:

Editing Day 8

Today we started on our final cut of The Correspondent, working on the things detailed previously that we have to address before our film is finished.

The Correspondent (Rough Cut)

We have finished our first, rough cut of The Correspondent, and it is available below.


We are happy with how the footage seems to be shaping up. We still have a number of things to improve, however. A basic rundown of what we need to address in our final cut is as follows:

1. Cut unnecessary shots down / make editing of scenes snappier
2. Addressing background noise of shots
3. Addition of music and improvement of sound effects
4. Addition of credits
5. Colour-correction of all shots

Music Ideas for The Correspondent

Since the outset of our task, we have wanted to create a neo-noir, and have been eager to get away from the jazz cliché of classic noir films. This has led to us all researching rather different music to try to determine what might work well within The Correspondent. Below is a playlist compiling some of mine and others' ideas for music we could use. We ended up going mainly for rather ambient, indie music, reflecting the neo-noir theme, but tried to accommodate some more tense/upbeat music for hit points in the film.

Editing Day 7

Today we aimed to complete (and succeeded in completing!) the rough cut of our short film. We finished off editing the handover scene, and put together the final couple of scenes in the couple of hours we were afforded today.

Final Ancillary Task 2 — Film Review

I have created a final review for The Correspondent as the second of my two ancillary tasks. Taking inspiration from EMPIRE and AMAZEPOP's informal writing style, I adapted it slightly to make it slightly less humourous and focused more on intertextual references. (click to enlarge)

Further film review analysis - online magazine

Having analysed a review presented in EMPIRE Magazine and its online counterpart, I thought it would be interesting to analyse a review of an exclusively-online magazine. I wrote a freelance review for one such publication, the first magazine edition of AMAZEPOP, a few months ago. The magazine features mostly music news and reviews, but also a few film reviews. It is laid out very similarly to the magazine version of the Hitchcock review I analysed, with a quantitative percentage score in a small font at the very bottom. The in-house writing style for EMPIRE Magazine is relatively informal, and it is similar to AMAZEPOP; this style may not be the most effective for reviewing our film noir short because of its tone, but it might be interesting to experiment with different styles.

Final Ancillary Task 1 — Poster

Following the reception of audience feedback regarding the credit placement on my final poster, I present my final design for the poster for The Correspondent as one of my two ancillary tasks. (click to enlarge)

Editing Session 6

Today we have been editing principally scene 5 and started on scene 6. We particularly like the shots we took for scene 5, the prelude to the handover scene, and have experimented with what works and what doesn't including match-on-action shots. We were filming in a pub which means some shots couldn't be used due to noise or interfering customers!

Online film review analysis

Wanting to further research how professional film reviews are laid out, I decided to look at whether  EMPIRE Magazine's website had a notably different format to their magazine reviews. For the sake of consistency, I looked for their Hitchcock review; the way the online version of the review has been laid out is very interesting, and reflects the different ways people use online reviews as opposed to magazine reviews.

Firstly, accessing the review page for Hitchcock does not bring the reader straight to the full review as accessible in the magazine: it brings them to a 'landing page' (fig. 1), featuring only the plot summary, film bio, review verdict and star rating. (click to enlarge)

fig. 1

The star rating takes centre-stage, being placed directly underneath the title and is just as large. This design choice reflects the different roles reviews play online to reviews in a dedicated film magazine: people searching online for a film are less likely to want to read in-depth reviews and more likely to only want to know quick, easily-accessible and basic information such as the review score, while subscribers to EMPIRE Magazine are more likely to be more interested in films as a medium, and care more about what a reviewer has to say on the craftsmanship of a film. The full review is available online (fig. 2), but requires the viewer to click on the "full review" link.

Audience feedback for final poster design



fig. 1

I have received some audience feedback on the two poster designs I presented them with. The version with the text at the bottom (fig. 1) was favoured in terms of votes: it was described as looking "more professional" than the version with the text at the top (fig. 2). Comments on the version with the text at the top included the fact the date "stands out more on its own" and that the credits are "more noticeable". The noticeability of the credits is perhaps not something that should be taken as praise, though: with the text at the bottom Robyn's face on the poster can more easily be seen, and thus the enigma of the narrative/relationship between Scott and Robyn may hopefully be more easily conveyed. The version with the text at the bottom is more typical of a poster, and I shall use this for my final poster.  

fig. 2

Props

Below are the main props that we used for The Correspondent. 



fig. 1



 Figure 1 shows the cigarette and ashtray we used on day 2 of the film shoot. Cigarettes are an iconic noir trope, both stylish and destructive, and we incorporated Scott and Robyn (amongst others) smoking throughout The Correspondent because of this.



fig. 2



 Figure 2 shows the props that we used for the newspaper boss's desk in the agency. On the desk included the ashtray from figure 1, a telephone, a computer (monitor, mouse and keyboard), a fan and finally a mug of coffee, which Scott places down during scene I.







fig. 3



 Figure 3 is a close-up shot (taken from our first photoshoot) of Jade wearing a ring and holding her signature hat. I detailed Jade's costume in my blog post for Filming Day 1, but the hat is used as a prop in scene V when she places it down on the bar next to Scott. On the hat is a flower that portrays lost innocence.





fig. 4


Figure 4 shows Robyn smoking having exited the phone box from Scene II. We used multiple phone boxes as props/locations, which presented a few challenges! However they provided interesting shots and helped to drive the narrative forward.

fig. 5

Figure 5 shows Robyn's/Scott's desk in the newspaper agency. This is the same desk as the boss's desk, and contains some of the same things: a computer, phone and ashtray. There are newspapers and a leather file on top of the desk, alongside letters and other documents inside. In the drawer is where Scott finds Robyn's address on a letter in the searching scene.

Editing Session 5

Today we edited most of scenes 3 and 4. Scene 3 is an important one (the meet-up scene of Scott and Robyn), so we attempted to keep the editing to a minimum to allow the narrative details to be conveyed effectively. Scene 4 is a short scene and we wanted to make quick, frantic cuts to reflect the ebb of the pace in this scene.

Film review analysis

The second of two ancillary tasks I shall be doing in conjunction with our short film is a film review of The Correspondent. It is important that I study film reviews from existing publications to attain as good a grasp as possible on how to structure my review. Below is a copy of the review for Hitchcock, in EMPIRE Magazine. I have annotated it discussing the many common features of reviews found here. (click to enlarge)

Poster Finalisation

I have made some more alterations to my poster design and am nearly finished with my final poster for my ancillary task.

I have reduced the contrast slightly, to make the image slightly less harsh, alongside making the title and release date more vibrant. These two things now stand out better against the image background, which is important: the title and release date are (arguably) the most important things on a film poster. I have also changed the BBFC certificate to more accurately reflect the final content of our film short.

fig. 1

I have added credits in a small font to my poster, reflective of most theatrical posters. I initially wrote the credits in the same serif font I used for the rest of the text in my poster, but to make it look more authentic I changed it to a san-serif font, Agency FB. I am in two minds as to whether the credits should be at the bottom of the poster (fig. 1), which is more standard of film posters, or whether they should be underneath the title (fig. 2). I personally like the way they look in figure 2, as it looks a little more old-school similar to the way I put "in The Correspondent". I have decided to do a bit of audience research and ask around to determine which I will keep as my final poster.

fig. 2

Editing Session 4

We are finishing off editing scene 2, and are working on the transition between scenes 2 and 3. The background noise level of our audio could stand to be reduced to produce a better sound, and after we have sorted this (likely after we finish the rough cut) we plan to modulate Robyn's dialogue over shots of Scott for her to sound more authentically like Scott is listening to her through a telephone. We are also discussing how to end the scene properly: we filmed a shot of the road sign for "St. Mary's Court" and are experimenting with how to include this effectively. We are considering cutting it as it is not completely necessary: Robyn already states where she is during the phone conversation.
 

Film short title -- "The Correspondent"

After much deliberation, we have decided on the name for our short -- The Correspondent.

We chose this name for a number of reasons. A 'correspondent' is a well-known term for somebody that works for a news agency or newspaper, and hints at a distinct 'other' from the protagonist: Robyn. This harks back to titles of classic noir films such as Stranger on the Third Floor, referencing an 'other' that presents an immediate threat; The Correspondent is slightly more mysterious than this, but coupled with the right image for our poster ancillary task, should successfully create an enigma to draw in the viewer, something very important in advertising.

Editing Session 3

In our third editing session we finished a rough cut of scene 1 and decided to move onto scene 2: we have decided to produce a rough cut first before refining later. We cut the audio from some shots of Robyn on the phone and have them play during shots of Scott on the phone to speed up the pace of the scene, as well as trying to keep Robyn as mysterious as possible to the audience by minimising her screen time in the first few minutes, similarly to the over-the-shoulder shots of her we used in scene 1. We are a little worried this may be a lot longer than the guideline minimum of 5 minutes! It is shaping up well, though; we will finish this scene off in our next editing session.

Poster Ideas contd.



In furtherance of my ancillary tasks, I have produced another poster using Fireworks CS5 experimenting with a few different things, and improving a couple of things from my first two test posters.



fig. 1



I think this is an improvement over the first two and like this style. The two-tone colour scheme I have experimented with—burgundy and olive—are colours used in the final film in Jade's and Robyn's costumes respectively, and makes the poster more visually interesting. The use of this simple colour scheme would also be conducive to a more expansive marketing campaign, the colours being an easily-recognisable motif that could be used in a variety of locations and advertising media.





fig. 2



The font I used in this poster is Century Schoolbook, another serif font similar to Book Antiqua. I prefer this font to Book Antiqua as it looks cleaner and I feel looks more classic/stylish. I decided to put the title at the top, preceded by "in" (a reference to the starring actors) as it harks back to classic film noir posters (fig. 2).



Similarly to the initial poster ideas I placed, I altered the colours of the poster to reflect the style of our noir: I raised the contrast level while lowering the saturation. This contributes to the mood of the poster and better suggests the tone of the film than the vanilla image (fig. 3). It accentuates the light placement of the image: we placed the light in a fill light position to illuminate one side of Chris's face to signify innocence and had Ellie's face remain relatively dark and hidden, posed as if Robyn were whispering in Scott's ear. This is a strong signifier of her corrupting influence on Scott.

fig. 3





I intend to work further on this poster as my final poster for my ancillary task. A couple of things need to be changed, including the addition of small print detailing production at the bottom (see fig. 2 for an example of this). Also, we decided that the film would likely be rated a 12 by the BBFC, so I need to change the rating logo on my final poster accordingly.



Editing Sessions 1 and 2

We have started editing our film. In our first session we uploaded all the footage from filming and went through each clip individually to pick which ones we were likely to use and which we could bin straight away. Below is a video of our second session, where we started with editing our opening scene.

Poster Ideas



For one of two ancillary tasks we need to complete, I have chosen -- along with the rest of my group -- to produce a poster for our film noir short. I have experimented with and mocked up a couple of posters using Adobe Fireworks CS5 to see what works and what doesn't.



fig. 1



Figure 1 is a mock-up of a pretty typical theatrical release poster for a film. The text on the poster is minimalist, detailing the names of the principal actors and release date alongside the title of the film. I used this shot to introduce the titular 'correspondent', Robyn, who is looking directly at the camera (direct address) to grab the viewer's attention. Jade also features in the poster, placed behind Robyn: the look on her face suggests she plays a smaller, if still important, role than Robyn does. The contrasting nature of the characters we would hope to make the viewer question how the two of them are involved.



fig. 2



Figure 2 is more indicative of a teaser poster. There is less writing on this poster than in the theatrical poster mock-up (fig. 1), and the face of the character depicted is not shown. This still was taken on-location at Reality Checkpoint, Cambridge, during the shooting of Scene III. It is colour-corrected to how we wish the final film to look, and this coupled with the low shot and pose of Robyn hints at subterfuge et cetera. I also wanted to see how the inclusion of a tagline might work or not work. I decided to go for "Read all about it." as a darkly humourous play on a well-known archaic phrase shouted by newspaper boys in the 19th and 20th centuries: it further suggests the film, or events within, are worth reading about.

The font I used for these two posters was Book Antiqua. I like this serif font as it looks quite newspaper-like but I will keep looking to see if I can find a more suitable one.

Robyn & Jade Character Photoshoot

In order to have some high-quality stills featuring the characters for our short to complement some of the stills taken on-location, we decided to use the school's photography studio and take some shots of our actors. Lauren studies Photography at A2 level and she took the photos below. These could be very useful when it comes to constructing our posters as one of our two ancillary tasks.

We wanted the pictures of Robyn alone to hint at her mysteriousness and seductive powers; we shot her in moody low-key fill lighting, illuminating only one half of her face. This is a commonly-used sign in films to signify multifacetedness.

We wanted the stills of Jade to portray her as innocent, but perhaps hiding a dark secret. As the girlfriend of the dangerous 'K', we shot her wearing expensive-looking yet intriguing jewellery and in a black dress, similar to her costume in Scene V, the prelude to the Handover Scene.

We took some stills of both Robyn and Jade together, and experimented with proxemics and lighting to signify certain things about the characters. This shot is particularly effective: we have Robyn in the foreground with Jade (artificially) blurred slightly in the background. Robyn is using direct address to capture the attention of the viewer while Jade seems concerned and is looking away.

Filming Day 2

We have finished our second day of filming.

Video Diary


Scenes filmed

• Scene I — Opening scene
• All shots
• Scene II — Phonebox scene
• Scott's dialogue, in office
• Scene VIII — Searching scene
• All shots

Characters & costume

fig. 1

Robyn is focused on in this first scene before Scott arrives. She is wearing her signature red patterned coat over glamorous clothes (fig. 1). We shot a large number of shots with part of her obscured or with her face not visible (utilising shots such as over-the-shoulder, and techniques such as fragmentation) to keep some distance from the viewer. 



fig. 2



Scott is wearing a white shirt and loose tie (fig. 2). We dressed him semi-formally as we wanted to get across Scott's eagerness to please and fit in during his internship, but that he feels out of his depth. We aimed to apply these character traits to Scott to endear him to the viewer as the protagonist. 



fig. 3



In Scene I, Robyn interacts with the unnamed head of the newspaper agency (played by Lauren). We wanted to keep the viewer at a distance from this figure, so we framed her with her face obscured in certain ways, such as keeping her out of focus when talking to Robyn. We shall also attempt to darken her face in post-production. We took a few shots of this character for possible poster ideas, including fig. 3, which we shot through the grill of a desk fan. Different posters of single characters are often featured in marketing campaigns for films in large or important regions, eg. in America, where the budget for advertising would be larger than in smaller territories.

Scenes & issues

We had originally wanted to film this scene in the basement of our friend Dominic's house, as it was relatively dark and was conducive to a noir atmosphere. However, we couldn't manage to get the desk down into the basement successfully! We relocated the scene to Dominic's bedroom, moving his bed and some of his belongings out of the way (fig. 4) to get the desk in the right places. We used the same desk in two different locations, one for the boss of the agency and another for Scott. This led to a lot of moving around (fig. 5) but we feel the shots we took paid off.

fig. 6

After we finished filming I applied some of the filters we have looked at using in our final edited short to a couple of stills from the day, perhaps in use for posters as mentioned above. Fig. 6 is an altered version of fig. 3, and more closely reflects what the image for one of my final posters might look like.

Filming Day 1

We have successfully completed our first day of filming!

Video Diary
We decided to do some behind-the-scenes filming to help us document our thought processes, what worked and what challenges we faced during filming.



fig. 1

Scenes filmed

• Scene II — Phonebox scene
• Robyn's conversations
• Scene III — Meeting scene
• All shots
• Scene IV — Office reflection scene
• Shot I only 

Characters & costume



fig. 2

The characters featured in filming today were primarily Scott and Robyn, shown in costume in fig. 2. We wanted Scott to look semi-formal, dressing him in a monochrome outfit, with a shirt and loose tie. Robyn we wanted to look sophisticated, and we adapted the trope of dangerous women in red by dressing her in a red patterned coat.





fig. 3

Jade features in a single shot, and she is shown in costume in fig. 3. We dressed Jade in a dark coat so as to keep her character mysterious, but we also gave her a hat with a flower to convey innocence—although the hat and flower are also dark in colour, to convey perhaps innocence lost or tainted. We leave this ambiguous for the time being in the narrative, further fleshing her characeter out in later scenes.






Scene II


fig. 4

Our shots for the phonebox scene were filmed at St. Mary's Court, Cambridge. Ellie took a photograph of four phoneboxes on the street (fig. 1) while doing a bit of location scouting in Cambridge before the day we went out and filmed, and we liked the location very much. In the background was a church with cobblestone walls, which is very indicative of Cambridge architecture and contrasts more traditional cityscape backgrounds nicely.




fig. 6

fig. 5

The shooting for the scene went well, and we managed to get a few nice-looking stills which we could also use later for posters (fig. 4). However, filming in a phonebox did give rise to some issues (fig. 5 & 6)!
In addition to occasionally cramped filming conditions when trying to get good shots, the cable for the microphone we used did not reach very far, so we had to reframe a few shots to take this into account. We are happy with how the scene turned out, though.



Scene III (and IV)


fig. 7

We filmed scene III—and had planned to long before filming started—at the 'Reality Checkpoint', or the lamppost in the middle of Parker's Piece in the centre of Cambridge (fig. 7). It is a rather recognisable place within Cambridge and, being the only light source in the park at night, conducive to a noir look: they create great low-key lighting and appear in many classic noir films. We had hoped to film right underneath the lamppost, at the intersection of the park's two large paths, but there was a consistent heavy flow of pedestrians (and bikes!) so we decided against it, instead filming on a corner of grass next to the intersection. You can get a sense of how busy it was in the video diary.




fig. 8

Aside from the occasional interfering passer-by, we had minimal problems filming this scene. We did film at dusk, and the shoot went on for a good hour or so, so we may well need to rectify this in post-production for the sake of continuity. The shot of Robyn smoking at the beginning of Scene IV we managed to quickly film right underneath the lamppost. Again, we took some stills that we may be able to use for posters (fig. 8).

Film Poster Research

As part of our coursework alongside our final film noir short, we have to complete two ancillary tasks related to our film. I have chosen to produce a film poster promoting the film as well as a film review in the style of a well-known publication magazine/website.

In light of choosing to produce a film poster, I have analysed some posters of both classic- and neo-noir films. (click to enlarge)

Scene VI — The Handover Scene

Pivotal scene of the short, in which Scott comes face-to-face with the leader of the drug racket (known only as "K") that Robyn has asked him to hand a suitcase back to: she told Scott that the suitcase was full of money that the drug lord was owed, but unbeknownst to Scott, she has given him an empty case, hoping that he will be the scapegoat for the money she has stolen.

1. Possible ext. establishing shot of the two through the bar window, before cut to profiles of both Scott and "K". Scott sits down, entering the frame, significantly more visible than K.
2. We initially planned for the following few shots to depict conversation immediately after Scott is seated, possibly using a split-screen effect to show over-the-shoulder shots of both characters, similar to those used in films such as Tarantino's Kill Bill (see right). We have since discussed this decision and, while we are fond of the split-screen effect, we think that withholding conversation for as long as possible would be conducive to building tension, and we want this scene to perhaps be the most tense scene in the short.
3. ECU of Scott's hands clasped together on the table, fidgeting nervously. The use of extreme close-ups would help raise the tension, a technique often seen in noir films, thrillers et cetera to do so.
4. ECU of a glass of water for Scott, possibly with a drop of water running down the side. We have discussed the so-called 'strudel scene' from Inglourious Basterds, and like the effect that extreme close-ups in silence have on the tension level of the scene.
5. OTS mid shot of Scott picking up his glass of water to begin to drink.
6. Match-on-action mid shot of Scott drinking to alleviate his dry throat due to his nervousness. We hope that this shot, by highlighting how out of his depth he is, will serve to humanise Scott and endear the viewer to him.
7. Mid shot of Scott over-the-shoulder of K. K addresses Scott with a simple "so?", and Scott remembers the briefcase, fumbling to pick it up from his feet and put it on the table.
8. Slight zoom/jump cut to CU on empty suitcase as K opens it. Scott is oblivious to the lack of money in the case, making the viewer fear for him.
9. CU on a very worried Scott, asking K what is wrong.
10. Cut to K (keeping 180-degree-rule in mind), reply: "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

Scene V — Prelude to Handover Scene

These shots lead up to the "handover" of the suitcase. Scott arrives at the bar where he is to meet the drug lord/dealer, and his girlfriend warns Scott, trying to tell him to leave while he can.

1. Mid establishing shot of bar interior, Scott at bar smoking. Good hit point for music?
2. Pan up to profile CU of Scott smoking. He turns his head worriedly towards the camera: somebody is approaching him.
3. Back to original mid shot, into which Jade (the girlfriend of the drug lord) enters. She sits at the bar next to Scott, but does not address or look at him.
4. Long shot from end of bar. Jade receives a martini, aware of Scott's presence but still says nothing.
5. CU of bar. Jade places martini glass back down in front of her, having taken a drink, with a lipstick print on it. Jade begins to speak off-camera to create emotional distance.
6. CU of Jade, continuing to speak. She warns Scott not to go through with the handover if he values his life, and to get out as soon as possible.
7. Cut back to bar shot. Pan and focus shift to shadowy figure at table. Ominous music would be effective here to highlight the danger of this character.

Scene IV — The Office Reflection Scene

This scene follows the meet-up, and Scott is sitting alone in the office waiting for the phone to ring as the signal to meet with the drug lord. The shots planned are as follows:

1. CU of Robyn still in park, taking a drag on a cigarette.
2. Match-on-action of a nervous Scott exhaling. We decided to use a match-on-action to link the two scenes together, and to highlight the change in setting. Office is darker than in previous scenes, keeping continuity with earlier scnee of park at dusk.
3. ECU of Scott's watch, just before 10pm, in anticipation of Robyn ringing the office.
4. 'Horror shot' (low, distorted shot) of phone on office desk; silence.
5. Off-kilter ECU of phone beginning to ring multiple times.
6. Cut to long shot of Scott leaving the office, leaving the phone to ring. Robyn said she would only let the phone ring three times, but the phone does not stop ringing...

Scene III — The Meeting Scene

This third scene follows Robyn and Scott having planned to meet. This scene fills in more of the plot, although Robyn is an unreliable source and so is not telling the absolute truth. In this scene, Scott agrees to meet up with the drug lord that Robyn is supposedly tailing, as she says it is 'too dangerous' for her to make the meet herself. She plays on Scott's gentile manner and feigns innocence. She tells Scott to wait for her signal by phone back at the newspaper agency office.

(in chronological order from left to right)
           1. Static long shot of a lamppost in a park later at night. The scene, as with all our 'night' scenes, will be filmed at dusk and darkened in post-production: we learnt last year that this method leaves picture quality much higher than having to lighten shots that are too dark. Robyn enters the shot and leans against the lamppost [location: Cambridge].
            2. Fragmented shot of Robyn, and we see Scott walking up the path to meet her. She stays still as he approaches, suggesting resolution in Robyn and naïvety in Scott.
            3. Close-up of Robyn's face, staying still and listening to Scott approaching. We initially had this shot placed before the shot of Scott approaching her, but we felt that the new order established events more concisely and allowed for smoother transition, into...
            3a. Pan round to profile view of Robyn, who addresses Scott.
            4. Cut to profile view of Scott. The conversation that follows will continue to use these, or similar, shots.

Planning - Colour

From the outset of planning our film noir short, my group and I had decided that experimenting with certain traditional aspects and conventions of film noir—in other words, creating a neo-noir—would be more challenging and rewarding than creating a simple pastiche of classic noir; we subsequently came to a conclusion regarding time setting, deciding on approximate time period of the 1990s.
 
We also discussed experimenting with colour in post-production, to reflect the more contemporary time setting: we did not want our short to simply be black-and-white. We had discussed the possibility of altering our film footage in various ways and wanted to see whether desaturating images and increasing contrast would give an atmospheric look. Here are three stock images similar to locations that we intend to shoot in, comparing the unaltered image with a desaturated, high-contrast version. 
 
We like the effect produced by this, and think we will eventually use it in our short.

Planning Miscellany: The Disruption of Compositional Balance & One Point Perspective

In looking for inspiration for our short (as well as in more general terms), I am of the belief that looking outside of the genre we are working in can be just as beneficial as drawing from similar films.

The idea of the 'disruption of compositional balance' is when a shot draws attention to itself as a shot in a film, deliberately used to jar and unsettle the viewer. This effect can be created by extremely off-kilter shots, shots with an object unusually-focused on or unusually-framed, et cetera. One of my personal favourite directors, Stanley Kubrick, utilised a shot technique countlessly throughout his moviemaking career that creates a similar, if more subtle, feeling of uncertainty. Kubrick often eschewed the well-established 'rule-of-thirds' in favour of the 'one-point perspective': namely, framing shots so that the lines or 'vectors' of the shot converge to a central point. Many of these such shots have been aggregated in a single video -- see below:

As the video demonstrates, one-point perspective can create perplexingly tense shots when there is nothing physically 'wrong' or 'threatening' shown. The predominant theory as to why this sort of shot incites this effect in viewers is that the converging lines that this shot creates draw the eye into the centre of the frame, mirroring how we often see things in real life. The drawing of the eye into the centre of the frame and ignoring the outer edges can, at its most effective, be rather hypnotic. I am as of yet unsure how my group and I could incorporate this into our film noir short, but I will propose we use something like this in our next lesson; we have certainly discussed previously the disruption of compositional balance and how effectively it can build an unnerving atmosphere, and this technique might be beneficial.

Scene II — The Phonebox Scene

In this lesson we continued to draft out some shots using Post-It Notes, and decided to develop further scenes involving our femme fatale, Robyn. 

 

(in chronological order from left to right)

1. Slow zoom establishing shot of Robyn, our femme fatale, in a telephone box. [Location: Cambridge] As this scene is principally involved with characterising Robyn as somebody not to be trusted, we have attempted to maintain a certain distance between her and the viewer in a number of ways. For example, she is talking on the phone to one of her contacts involved with the drug scandal she is involved with; the fact that we are outside of the phone box and looking in at her through the glass means what she is saying is muffled.
2. Mid shot on Robyn from the phone box interior. The last few words of her conversation will be clearly audible to the viewer, but she speaks using slang and codewords (taking inspiration from Brick) before quickly hanging up the phone. The shot lingers on her face, looking contemplative and malicious to further establish the type of character she is.
3. Cut back to exterior shot of Robyn in the phone box, picking up the phone again. Again the nature of the shot leaves it ambiguous to the viewer as to who she is calling.
4. Close-up of a telephone ringing. The viewer still does not know who Robyn is calling; we may experiment with the disruption of compositional balance here to jar the viewer, drawing further attention to this. (Sidenote: We found a phone befitting of the ~90s time period we want to set our short in; see right.)
5.  Straight cut to mid shot of Scott in the newspaper agency. It is now clear where Robyn is calling; the phone that is ringing is on the boss's desk, and Scott stops in his tracks as he is about to leave, considering whether or not to answer as the boss is nowhere to be seen.
6. Cut back to same shot of phone, still ringing. This repeated use of a deliberately 'awkward' or 'claustrophobic' shot we plan to use multiple times throughout our short, as it creates an intangible tension key to the atmosphere we want to create. The shot remains still (in-keeping with the long, static shots of classic noir) and Scott's hand tentatively enters the shot to pick up the phone.
7. We have yet to fully structure the conversation between Scott and Robyn, but will experiment more once we have done so what sort of shots we will use to portray the conversation best. This long shot of Robyn leaving the phone box to meet Scott will track backwards as she walks down the path, before she leaves the shot.