Year 11 Film, Television
and New Media Film Noir Style Production
Self-reflection
and evaluation:
Please
answer each question using complete sentences, including as much detail as
possible.
·
Are you satisfied with the result? (i.e.
did it turn out as well as you hoped?)
I am happy with how our film
noir style film has turned out. I have loved developing the story line and
different aspects of the film and finally seeing it all come together now. As a
group we are satisfied with how the result and it came out exactly how we hoped
and planned. I am extremely pleased with Chelsea’s recording; it adds character
to our film.
·
Did the project require more/less time
than you originally thought?
The project required a lot
more time than I originally thought it would. We used approximately 4 Saturdays
and a couple days after school then edited during our class time. It was
definitely worth all the work once seeing it finalized. This was obviously a
longer task as we were only using weekends and didn’t use our class time, as we
didn’t want to shoot any of it during school. We just used our class time
effectively by editing what we had filmed over the weekend, planning for our
next shoot, updating shot lists and reviewing storyboards.
·
Would like to change or improve any
aspects of your final film (storyline, shots, editing etc.)?
If I were to re-do the film I
would re-shoot the two scenes we did during the day, as it would fit more with
the film noir theme. Although these still work they could have been improved
and possibly looked better. I am quite happy with the storyline and once we
added the voice over of Red (Scarlett’s) perspective it worked a lot better and
flowed easily. Some of the shots could have been tighter but we are happy with
the final result as it sits well with the audio.
·
If you could start the project again,
what would you do differently?
I would re-shoot the two scenes we did
during the day so it fits more with the film noir theme. I only discovered that
this would look better once we shot and night and saw how we could utulise the
lights to create harsh lighting and shadows. Other than that, we are happy with
how the film has turned out.
2.
As this task focused on the Film Noir
Style, describe:
·
How you used specific elements of
mise-en-scene to depict your film’s genre and enhance the narrative?
Lighting was the most important element
of mise-en-scene when creating a film noir style film. This is due to it being
quite popular at the time; it is crucial to have harsh lights and shadows. We
used this to create a sense of suspense and to depict who the dominant
characters were within the film. The use of costumes and style of acting were
also important to fit with the time.
·
How you used specific shot types to
convey the story using visual language?
We used certain types that focused
directly on shadows or were placed in thirds. These shots created different and
interesting ways of portraying the storyline to the readers and audience.
Several of the shots that used the thirds were done so to draw attention to
particular object or person. Our shots effectively conveyed the storyline and
enhanced the narrative.
·
Whether the intended genre is depicted
clearly or if this could be improved?
Film noir is clearly depicted through the
use of audio, style of acting, costumes and especially lighting. It is clear
that it is set during the time frame and could only be improved by shooting the
two scenes during nighttime, as it isn’t typical to have daylight in a film
noir film.
3. Personal
reflection and evaluation:
After your
previous task, you were asked to reflect upon the project and identify aspects
of planning, production and reflection, which could be improved. Please explain
which aspect you chose to focus on for this task and how you have made
improvements.
4. Reflecting
upon your completed task, respond to the following points:
·
How did other people respond to your
rough-edit? Did you use their feedback to make changes to the film?
Mr Andrews thought that we should have
quicker cuts and use an omniscient voice to make the storyline clearer. We
changed many of our cuts so they weren’t mundane and were interesting and
engaging to watch. These shots looked a lot better once we had edited them
properly and also flowed more. We also added a voiceover from the character
Red’s perspective; this was done to make the story line clearer so it wasn’t
misconstrued or confusing to the audience. This feedback was extremely helpful
and turned out better than I originally thought.
·
Did your group use the planning and
analysis tools effectively? (ingredients list, storyboards, shot lists).
We used the planning and analysis tools
effectively throughout the project and they were extremely helpful when we came
to filming. The use of storyboards and shot lists made the process quicker when
we got to our location; we knew exactly what we had to do and did it quickly.
We also updated our storyboards and shot lists throughout the project during
our class time, as there were some changes along the way.
·
Were there any problems or difficulties
during filming and how did this affect your project. (Difficulties may include;
shooting, technical, time-management, teamwork, absences or editing etc.);
We did not encounter many issues along
the way. We all had missed at least one of the filming times but whoever missed
the day we shot edited that scene so it ended up being quite fair with how it
all got distributed. Our group worked quite well together and I would love to
work with them again. All of our after-school and other commitments ended up
working well together and this made is significantly easier to work our
shooting times.
·
Discuss whether you undertook adequate
and detailed reflection to support your work? (Look at your blogs and consider
if it looks like a terms worth of work);
I could have improved my blog this term
during out project. The only problem with my blog is that because we only shot
on the weekends there weren’t a great deal of information to update during the
week with class time. Although we used this time to edit and update story boards
and shot lists there wasn’t much to post about this is why I did an overview of
each week and then individual posts about the weekend shoots. I am happy with my
blog as there wasn’t enough to post during the weeks which is why I did
overviews.
