Pre-Production

Before we could start filming, we had to do a series of Pre-production paper work. This included the synopsis, treatment, script and story board. It was important to complete these tasks because it made things a lot easier whilst filming, as we have something to follow and keep us on track. We also had to separately contribute to a group treatment, as we focused on different areas.

Although we completed our pre-production work, we didn't necessarily follow them directly because we came up with new ideas that we felt worked best whilst out filming.

Treatment for "Bulletproof" (Editing)

(By Editor Martain Osborn)

Treatment for "Bulletproof"

Treatment for Film Noir opening. (MES)

Location: As a group, we have decided to film at the college bridge at dusk – (preferably at the end of our college day so no students will be around) Reasons behind this was to set a classic noir dark and deserted scene. We also chose the college campus as a location as it establishes that the characters are from a college age group, the same as our target audience.

Props: It will be an empty scene, so no furniture or additional props will be needed, again to give it a deserted feel. However, we will use two guns (one silver, one black) with a red laser that will one of our main focuses. Also, for the femme fatal we will use red shoes and red lipstick as this keeps up with the classic noir conventions.

Costume: As mentioned before the femme fatal will be wearing mainly red and the other two male characters will be in the classic noir style dark clothing, but perhaps with a modern twist. Costume will help establish the class of the characters – red usually portrays lust and desire, whereas dark clothing will represent “shady” looking characters.

Performance: We have agreed that we will only use close ups of character one, here we will see uncertainty and nervousness – reasons behind this is so as an audience, you can feel attached and care a little for this character, which will be important for future references throughout the opening.
For other characters, not a lot of close ups of the face will be used – mainly shots of feet and guns will be used here. This will hopefully create suspense to make the viewer want to follow.

Lighting and colour: Soft college lighting will portray normality and we will use flood lights to create a more professional shot, and to elongate shadows – a typical noir convention. We will also use this to highlight key areas and objects.
The film will be transformed into black and white during editing, only the colour red will be apparent. This will make our film contemporary, original and show lust and danger.

Composition: The scene will begin symmetrical, and then will slowly turn asymmetrical to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and distorted.

(By art director Emily Stansfield)

Treatment (Cinematography)

Framing
The opening shot of a person walking down a corridor much like the opening of kill bill with just there feet in shot. Also when the dead body is in shot. The viewer will see it completely in shot maybe with a pool of blood. Also to let the viewer know that the character is dead.

Shot size
The majority of shots will be close ups to keep the viewer guessing. With a close up of the feet then a close up of a gun. Close up of a red dot on the second character’s chest then their facial expression. No wide shot as it is inside but a two shot of our femme fatale and second character walking a way.

Shot length
The fist shot of the persons feet walking down the corridor will be on of the longest as the open title and credit will be played in between each foot step. Then a series of quick shots of the gun also the red dot on the chest person with facial expression. Then a longer shot of our two main characters walking off then cu of the dead characters face with a long duration

Camera movement
There will be no pan for an establishing shot so no pan for setting the scene the viewer will be through in to the action. The biggest amount of camera movement will be the tracking of the feet at the start.

Camera angle
Both low and high camera angles will be used to show who is in control. Who the dominant force is. High angles to make the viewer feel powerful and low angle to feel weak.

Depth of field
A shallow depth of field will be used in one shot by getting the camera looking down the barrel of the gun. The end of the barrel will be in focus, but everything around the gun will be out of focus such as the hand and body.

By cinematographer Seb Ashington

First ideas for storyboards

First Group Meeting and Brainstorm

Exchange Evaluation

After we had finished filming the Exchange, we had the opportunity to present our final piece to the class. Here they gave us critique and feed back, this gave us an idea to what areas worked, and where needed improvement.

The initial impressions (good areas) were that the chosen music created a good effect and worked well with the sequence, however, they were not too keen on the second song - explaining that the lyrics did not work. The use of the helicopter was approved by the class, who agreed it created a sense of sketchy action and urgency. Feedback of the location we used, which was down by the docks, was also positive.Good areas of camera work included the high angle shot, when we were first introduced to the location, and the dutch tilt at the beggining.

The Exchange

Our next task was called the Exchange, which was a short video production that tested our proficiency with using the cameras. Unlike our preliminary production, The Exchange was to have no dialogue or voice-overs, this meant we had to do storytelling through cinematography - it also emphisises the importance of music. So instead we had to agree upon a sound track that complemented what was happening on screen. The brief was to shoot and edit a short sequence in the style of film noir - the main focus was to be an Exchange of some sort (eg. Envelope, tape, drugs etc..) We also had to chose an appropriate location to give the production a believable, dodgy film noir feel. As a group, we decided upon an abandoned alley on the docks - in between two dilapidated buildings.

Before we could start filming, we each had to work on an idea for a sequence, make a storyboard and then select the best elements from each idea to make an overall group production. We then had to complete a synopsis and treatment so it was clear on what we wanted to achieve, although we often referred to our pre-production tasks, we did not follow them exactly because when we where physically out and filming we came up with new ideas that worked better for us.

When we were out filming, we used a wide range of shots so when we went back to the editing suite, we had enough tape to chose from. As this was to be a contemporary noir, we remembered to add in the normal conventions, such as dutch tilts, smoke and sketchy looking characters. We also decided to make drugs the point of the Exchange as this sometimes came up in classic noir, but also adds a modern twist.

When we had finished filming we had to take our footage into the editing suite and log the shots onto the computer, and also on a log-in sheet. We then chose the various shots that worked best, encountering a few problems, put them together and added titles, here we also uploaded our chosen music and tried to make it fit nicely with our edit.