Tell-tale...

I discovered as soon as i told one person about our task of making a film noir OTS, everybody knew! i musnt complain because these people who found out without me even i informing them have given me some WOW objects to borrow!

The first person who came to me let me borrow some 1950's magazines and a book which is quaintly called "Christian Dior's little dictionary of fashion" - "A guide to dress for every woman". Lovely. To really make use of these borrowed finds, i have going to scan them so i ca look at them for longer than i actually have them. Unfortunately the magazine is a big as a newspaper today, so the sides of the scanned images have been cut off, but i am making sure i scan the most important part of that page!

This 'every Thursday' magazine was on sale on September 18 1954. Other than noticing her fringe, what also caught my eye was that compared to the magazines sold today, this specific mag is very simple with not too much fuss - probably explaining the way women were back in the 50's.

You should never judge a book by its cover, so i happily looked inside to look for inspiration to how women were back then for my curiosity. This is my finding:

WOW. Glamourous! I did notice that the blonde woman compared to the brunette is shown as much mor beautiful and glamourous eventhough the brunette is the 'queen'. The man seems to be more interested in the blonde much more than he is into the brunette.

This was from an article called 'Notes on Coats' - very catchy. I have got a coat very simlar to these so im very pleased.   

Everytime i read old 50's magazines and newspapers, you always get a sense of the woman being very 'house-wife-ish'. However, in film noirs, the women are shown as very powerful and independant - they do not need a husband to survive.

Please excuse the awful ebay-like photo i took of the glasses i was given to borrow. They are silver framed with gold swirly detail. Im hopeing these will suit my actress, if not, it doesnt matter as i could concentrate on something else - it would be nice to do a close-up shot. The specs have VERY thick glass on them, and i hope the light doesnt bounce off of them too much because it would look ridiculous and wouldnt fit the glamour and class of the character im trying to portray.

This is just one double-page from the Christian Dior dictionary. The photos in this book has given me lots of inspiration on how i can take the photos showing my costumes. The best way to capture my 1950's costumes is to shoot the photos the 1950's way!

The preparation before the filming.

I have organised to be filming my full film noir OTS tomorrow, but there are some important things on a list i need to tick off before i actually start filming:

- Take a picture of a city scene which will be the background when the credits are up. I will take this overlooking Norwich, as it has a very historical feel to it. I am taking this VERY important photo at around 2pm, which at this time of year, it will be getting slightly darker and the fog will be very interesting.
- I will then be taking pictures of the costumes my characters will be wearing. This will include the two women, the killers outfit and the man's poker costume and also the clothing he will be wearing when he is being followed by the killer. Im aiming to make these pictures quite interesting and arty, so they could also go into my photography folder. I will take them in black and white, which will add to the old-fashioned factor!
- Just before i start filming, i will do LIGHT TESTS, taking pictures of how the light coming certain places will shine onto my characters faces - and seeing if they create a mysterious and suspisous atmosphere. It might also help me to have these photos in my photography folder.
- I will then do the main and most important task on my mind right now - actually filming my OTS. I am filming it at my dads house as he has a smalled table and a good enough size room  - one that will give the feeling of being enclosed into the poker game. There are VERY importand things that i am having to remember:
                              - To remember to bring the cards, a white hankerchief (to wipe the sweat off my characters nervous forehead) and black gloves to my dads house. The black gloves are very IMPORTANT because they will hide the colour of the killers nail varnish, something that i will show during the poker game. I must do anything that will hide the possible identity of the killer. If the audience guesses who the killer is, they wouldnt want to watch the film because they would know how he was killed.
                              - Woman number '2' who is the blonde, i have to remember to get her to wear pearls as she will touch them during the poker game. Pearls show wealth, class and the fact that she may like money and luxuries - a reason for her to be the killer.

                              - I have been lucky enough to have borrowed some very old, some very expensive-looking vintage glasses. These glasses are probably mid-50's and are silver - another thing which could show the wealth of the woman. I am wondering which woman-character i should get to wear them - they do seem more innocent to me - so probably the blonde woman. However, i may try out both looks to see which one looks more realistic. I have to be careful because the lenses are really thick and i do not want to blind my actress!

                             - I also have to remember to BRING MY STORYBOARD with me when filming, it is my guideline and links my planning to my production.                                    


Wish me luck on my production!

Storyboard Video.

With me trying to use different media to show the production of my OTS planning i have created a video of the order i am planning to follow (i might have to add some good shots if i film them without plan). Please excuse the wobbly filming! I have also made a flat copy of this story board so i can have it in my hand when i am filming my OTS - it will make sure i try to follow it as much as possible as a guideline.


storyboarding mov from Olivia Smith on Vimeo.

Storyboard.

I have drawn each of my frames on serparate post-it notes so i can rearrange them and order them in a way which workds well. After arranging the order i would like them to be filmed in, i took photos of them in the right line-up:

Some of the pictures arent clear enough to understand what is written on them, but hopefully on the video i am about to upload which will go through the series of frames lining them up one after the other. I will try and keep on the frame for as long as it would when i film it on the real time. Eg, there is a shot which lasts for 3 seconds, i will film the post-it note for 3 seconds. 

Carrying on...

Second questionnaire

For my second data collection, i wanted out what my target audience thought about my plot. Like the previous questionaire, i asked 30 people, 15 male and 15 female. After telling them about my plot, i also collected the data a different way. I made one table for males and another for females. The questions are very basic and general. I didnt want too much detail as i wanted it simple and easy ro analyse. I layed it out as a tally chart. Here are the questions that i quickly jotted down as i thought of them in my head and they are also yes or no questions:

Here are the tally charts which show my data:

Here is the frequency chart which is the number of males and females of said yes and no to my questions:

It looks as if males liked my ideas better than femals, however i still got a good response from females. I think i am doing the right thing having my target audience males and females. I am pleased with the results and i think with all of this data i collected, it will help me to keep in mind what type of audience i am targetting at and how i will target them.

Questionaires?

I have made a quesitionaire that will help me to find out what my target audience is interested in. To make sure i aim directly at my chosen audience, i have decided to make two! I have made a list of questions that my target audience will answer and then i will change the date into separate pie charts for each question. My first questionaire is about what my target audience likes to see in film noirs and my second questionaire will be about what they think of my plot. I asked 30 people altogether, 15 of them were male and the other 15 were female - to make a fair and realistic outcome.

First questionaire
Here is the first questionaire i have made that will hopefully help my find out what 16-25 year olds like to see in the film noir genre. I have made sure that the people i asked had seen a film noir!:

When i was organising what questions i was going to ask, i made sure i stuck with the idea that the peple i asked HAD ro be 16-25 ( target audience) otherwise it was poinltess me asking my questions and my data wouldnt relate to the future production of my film noir as i would be targeting it at the wrong sort of audience.

I wanted to find out this because evernthough we have to make a film noir, i could add parts of another genre in there so my target audience would be more interested. The data here shows that comedy is the most popular film genre. Unfortunately i havent scripted any humour in my film noir and the actions of my characters are serious. However, the second most popular genre is drama, which luckily my film noir will have a lot. I also have to keep in mind that these are my target audience's favourite genre, they may also like the other genres.

This was a very general and important question to ask. It told me if my target audience would even be interested in watching my OTS. If the data showed that they didnt like film noirs, i would have made my OTS less conventional of a film noir and more modern. However, the data showed that they did like them so i can take the chance of making my OTS partly conventional to target my chosen audience. My OTS will be partly conventional and partly unconventional so it will target most of 16-25 year olds. My target audience likes film noirs.

This question would show me how often the film noir genre was watched by my target audience. It did show me that they didnt watch them more than twice a week, but it could be possible that my target audience watches them once a week. So my target audiece would want to watch my OTS more than once a week, i have decided to not make it so conventional of a film noir - adding the drama genre in it also.

This question would give me the answer to what i could focus on or exel in when making my OTS. The result of this question was the storyline. It is the reason why most people would watch the film and also what would be on the back of the DVD for them to buy it.

I wanted to ask this question to my target audience because i wanted my OTS to be memorable. The pie chart shows that the actors are the most memorable thing. Everthough my actress is very pretty, i need to make her actions memorable as i have no dialogue coming from my female characters. My male character will be memorable as he is the only male in the OTS and he does have dialogue in this film noir. The second most memorable thing that my target audience notice is the costumes. This is probably because they arent from this era, and its interesting to find out what people wore in the late 40's to early 60's. I am definately making each of my characters recognisable from my costumes as i am having one actress playing two women characters - so i have to make each woman completely opposite but still portaying the fact that it is the same person. The costumes also show the wealth and class of my charaters. It also shows that my male character is a rich buissnessman. However, when my female killer is following my male victim, she mustnt be recognisable but my audience must know that it is a woman. I will do this using heels and nail varnish (shown when gun is being pointed).

I decided to ask this question because i wanted to make sure i was doing the right thing having a women as the killer and a man as the victim. As half of the people i asked are male and the other half are female, the outcome was fair. The data shows that 16-25 year olds think that having a female as the 'bad-guy' is better. It is very conventional thing in film noirs.

This pic chart has shown me that i am also doing the right and conventional thing of having my OTS black and white. This also gives more of a sense of mystery which is key for me to portray. There are more black and white film noirs than there are colour (mainly because of the time they were made) eventhough this is the case, some of my target audience still like colour film noirs. I have still decided to keep with my idea of having my film noir black and white.

Overall, the process of collecting this data and putting it into pic charts has given me more confidance in what i deas i have already sorted. i have to try and focus on the results of this data collection when making my OTS, however to make my OTS better, i may not make it around the data i found out. It may be better for my OTS to do things that arent always what my target audience are interested in if it means improving it and making it all work together.

P.S. If you cannot see the pie chart results, just click on the photos for a more close-up version of it.

My characters profiles.

The Man

He is the only male character in my whole OTS which makes him think he is the dominant one, but in truth, he could be the less powerful as the women are sort of united, there is a sense of togetherness between them because those women want to beat the arrogant man. He is dressed very slick and smart, with a business-like persona. He is always thinking business - he likes money and women.

The Blonde Woman

She is a femme-fetale. She is more innocent compared to the brunette, however she does'nt give too much away. Very sweet and girly - butter wouldn't melt - or so we think... She uses this sweet impression to her advantage. She dresses in black, with pearls and diamonds. Plainish make-up. A different nail varnish colour to the brunette.

The Brunette Woman

 

A femme-fetale. She looks more devious that the blonde - but is she really? We may never know. Just like the blonde and the man she like expensive and material things. Red lipstick, red nail varnish and a flick in her hair.

 

What all the characters have in common

 

Very well dressed, devious and cunning. They hide what they know, and try to find out what they don't. They love winning, expensive possessions and money - so much so they would cheat and kill to get it.

 

What Certificate?

Here are the possible certificates that i could aim to get for my OTS, i have also noted what the film should include or not include to be given these specific certificates and what each one means:

Suitable for all

The films that are marked with this should be suitable for children aged four years and older. These film should be postive and shouldnt show any violence, threat and horror.

Parental Guidance

General viewing but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. The term 'parental guidance' is used because parents are advised to consider whether the film is unsuitable for thier child.

Suitable for 12 years and over

The content of the films marked with this sign have inappropriate content for children younger than 12 years of age. Parents might find the content not suitable for their child.The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work.

This category only exists for cinema films. A child may watch a film in the cinema that is under this certificate if they are accompanied by an adult. This adult would judge whether the content is suitable for that particular child.

                                                    

Only suitable for 15 years and over

Film that have this certification arent suitable for an under 15 to watch in the cinema. Under 15's also cant buy or rent these films.

Only suitable for adults

No-one younger than 18 can see this film in cinema and they also cant buy or rent these films out. The content is too harsh and inappropriate for children.

R18

These films marked with this logo are only shown in licensed cinemas, or supplied in licensed adult shops and to adult no younger than 18 years of age.

                                      

I got this information from the offical website of the 'British Board of Film Classification' (this logo is on the certificates) here is the link which i will also apply to my long list of helpful hyperlinks:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

I have been thinking a lot about what certificate i suspect my film noir OTS will be, and i think it would probably be a PG or 12. There will be no swearing, or gory violence (when the trigger is pulled the screen goes black) - quite innoccent. But what could make it a 12 would be the suspence, loud creepy music and the idea that my victim will be followed.

Note: I also need to do a questionaire finding out if my audience is interested in my plot!!!!

CHANGES!

After having a talk with a teacher about my idea of how i am going to have one actress playing all of my characters, i came to the conclusion that it isnt going to be easy to create and it might also be hard for my audience to follow. So i have decided to have one female actress playing only 2 woman characters and a male (probably my dad) playing the man. I will only have 2 femme fatales. I have decided to have one person to play both of my characters because i would like it to show that rich women want just one thing and i think it could give the impression of two sides of one woman. It will show the power women have over men. I have devised a plan have both of the women being completely oppposite in every way (exept black clothing as it is classic film noir), here are the characteristics of each woman:

Woman 1 - Brunette, red lipstick and nails, black dress, dark eyeliner, seductive, devious, confidant, snobbish
Woman 2 - Blonde, pink or natural lipstick and nails, black dress, natural make-up, sweet, nervous, uncomfortable

EITHER ONE COULD BE THE KILLER!

Each number links back to my post-it note storyboard as i have labelled them woman 1 and woman 2.

I have decided to change the idea of having an actress to play the male character because it would be more realistic and easier to film. It will help with the scene where the killer is following the victim after he has been in the telephone box.

Task 1: How many ways did i access the media yesterday?

Well, looking at my list, i would probably say A LOT. From the first second i woke up to the last blink i had before i went to bed, i was in some way doing something media-based. Instead of filming me drawing the mindmap and uploading it onto here, i have just had to draw the mind map on a prezi - i know, BORING. No excuses, i need to find out how to upload videos because my blog is pretty bare of them. But using the helpful arrows and frames that prezi.com has to offer, i will make sure it is 10 times better than it would have looked if i had of drawn it. Eventhough we were only meant to write about how we come across these different types of media, i also wrote about what type of media is used to create these medias. Wow a lot of media words used.Take a scroll down and have a good look! Bonne Lecture!

Speak!

I am not planning to have very much speech in my OTS, as im trying to make it as mysterious and eery as possible. Im trying not to give anything away to quickly. I want questions to be left unanswered - so the speech that is present is very'open'. By this i mean that what the man is saying could be about anything. It is up to the audience to guess what they think is going on. The only dialogue will come from the man (who is future victim) while he is on the phone in the phone box and also while he is being followed by the killer. I have planned what the dialogue will be:

"I've got it"
"I've got the money"
"You'll see it soon"
"10 minutes"

The audience will probably assume this conversation with an unknown person is about the money the man won in the poker game. In the OTS the audience will not find out who the person on the other end of the phone is but they will know that the man is the one that dialled the phone. They also will know that the man was cheating during the poker game with an extra playing card hidden in his cuff. This is dirty money which has been unfairly won. He rang somebody else to inform them that he has won the money. From this short conversation, it can looks as if the man has a dirty deal going on. It makes us wonder what the man gets in return for giving this money away to this unknown mysterious person on the other end of the phone.

The audience knows that the man is a cheat and probably not a very nice person. They may also think that the two women that he was playing against in the poker game werent very nice either - due to their snooty, mysterious and unexpected ways. Maybe the audience will like that the man has been killed? Nobody likes a cheat.

Good'ole Vogue Magazine.

As i was flicking through my religiously-bought Vogue magazine, i came across these photos. As the lady-like trend is the hot-spot right now, 1950's-inspired designers are splatted all over the pages. Prada and Louis Vuitton have mainly sported this trend in these two seasons, adding frills, lace and bows to the most well-made and wanted dresses on the catwalk right now. The glasses these models are wearing are obviously inspired by the 1950's which are embedded with real gems but fake lenses. Obviously these glasses wont be sold in Specsavers any time soon and are not for everyone, bu having some black ones in my OTS will make that lucky character stand-out from the crowd and could help that character look completely different from the other femme fatales. I need to get my hands on a pair!

There is also another important thing that i saw on these frocks which i need to keep in mind when dressing my actress: The dress are either on the knee or below it - for my OTS i will stick to this rule, but to make my actress look sexy and sophisticated i will definitely have to create curves. These outfits that the designers have put together are very 1950's but it resembles the sweet and conservative 1950's, and not the sexy, mysterious and seductive 1950's film noir women i want to portray. I do have to say though, if i had these outfits in black - absolutely perfect!

These photos above are photos that i also found in vogue and a few other glossy magazines. They are mainly from film reviews. They do show the wealth of the women, and the independence they have. Their poses and expressions help this. I especially like the black netting going over one models face with her wearing dark eyeliner and red lips - very sophisticated and classic.

Feedback.

In our last lesson, we had to sit in front of the class and present our ideas using our concept maps. I did skip a lot of the VERY detailed points as i didn't want to bore anyone and to make them feel patronised. However after i did my presentation, i was a bit annoyed as i completely forgot to tell everyone about my really interesting and different ideas that i had! I was secretly uber-proud that i did it on my own in front of everybody with no script and no definitive idea about what i was going to say. I did get some VERY helpful feedback though which i have mentioned in my previous 2 posts. People did mention how i was going to film my scenes with just one actress and what the reason for me to do that. Before this presentation i thought my OTS was going to be very typical and a conventional film noir OTS, but me having one actress and having 3 femme fatales made me realise it isn't going to be as conventional as i thought. I was very grateful for that advise. I was also asked the question - did women actually play poker with men in the 1950's? I felt a bit stupid for me not knowing this weeks into planning it, but with the help from 'Yahoo answers' i found out that.....no they wouldn't have if the man didn't like it. The men had control over the women, and wouldn't have let them play against them, it was a mans game. But in my OTS, the male character is cheating, so he wouldn't have minded playing with the 3 'vunerable and foolish' women if it means getting money from them. The women wouldn't have minded playing with the male character because they knew he had money, they wanted his attention and those particular women wanted to be independent and to be able to make money for themselves without being controlled.


Also, here is a few websites i discovered while trying to find out if women played poker back then. Please keep in mind that the internet isn't always telling the truth and i haven't used these sites to plan my OTS but having them one here would give me something to look back on if i need reassurance:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2318271_make-film-noir.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2156744_write-noir-mystery.html

Problem solved.

Here are the answered i promised i would post, i have given them a lot of thought and hopefully they work out fine in the end! I have found out that my so-called idea of my OTS to be traditional and stereotypical of a film noir isn't actually going to be a strong part of my OTS as i thought. Having one person to play all of my characters and having 3 femme fatales isn't very conventional. So here we go...

1. The reason for me to have one character playing all of my characters is to give the impression that all wealthy people think the same things and have the same personality. I don't really believe this but creating a stereotype of what a rich person is like, i think it would be interesting and good to experiment on.
2. In the last lesson we had, we were explained to about the 20 second rule. You can have 20 seconds of a certain song and its okay, you can also have that song playing out of a radio (if only my radio was 1950's!) as if the character is listening to that song from the radio. For my OTS, i think I'm going to use the 20-second rule but other music that i use i will have to possible mix it myself, by putting two tracks onto each other - therefore creating a new desired sound.
3. Ah, this problem. I do have other people who i can dress up as a character while my actress is also in the shot. So i will have to use another person but try not to show their faces or anything that might give their identity away - hence creating the mysterious and subtly unidentifiable impression of a character.
4. I have given this bit a lot of thought, i decided that at night and in winter, people wouldn't be silly enough to walk round the streets? Maybe some people would, but i also thought that i wanted to use a lot of close-up shots and of feet walking to keep the killer unidentifiable. I have realised that the time when we are all meant to be filming is in winter and there is a high chance of ice and snow to be on the ground. This could work in my favour for helping create the cold and harsh atmosphere but it could work against me as my actress could be quite cold and walking on the ice might not be the most glamorous situation she has been in! I'm not really going to get shots of just the street, i will only shoot where the victim is walking. I discovered that there is actually a telephone box in the street where i am filming! YAY, soo helpful! Behind this telephone box are railings and a big curving tree which would look very atmospheric in the dark. I probably wont get a shot of the character in the telephone box, i will probably just have a still shot of the telephone box with the audience just hearing the phone call.
5. Well, the title is in french because i do think it adds to the mystery and sophistication i am trying to portray, and if this was a real film that was being made and it would be sold on the shelves, i think it will look different from any other DVD. It could be linked to the fact that if the title is unknown to the audience, the killer is also unknown to the audience. 'L'amour est le tueur' means 'love is the killer'. Somebody did bring up a good point in feedback asking if i would give any indication of love in my OTS. I have decided to purposely make each connection with the female characters and my male character very equal. My male character will have no more of an attraction to one femme fatale to another - this is to make the possibility of the audience guessing who the killer is slim.

Hopefully these are the last of my problems, but my idea of having one person playing all of my characters will have to be tried and tested and if it doesn't work, it can always be changed. I need to see if it works before i quit, it can either go one way or the other! Bonne chance à moi!