Production - Update

During last week i achived my lighting certificate so i can use the lighting equipment for our production, chris ha recently done some reaserch into prop hire and location finding whilst i have been working on producing some of the paper work including the production schedule and risk assesment sheets. i have also looked again on ebay at type writers however i have found that its quite hard to buy an affordable one which works. As a last resort me and Chris discussed about the journalist writting down his thoughts on a pad of paper and fountain pen. This, however would be a last resort as we want to keep the type writer convention within our production.

Production - Script draft 4

NEWS FLASH
By MARC TIMKO & CHRIS HALES
Script Draft 4

1. INT – JOURNALISTS WRITING ROOM - DAY


The room is dark with a Smokey hue, it's around 8 in thw morning.. In one side of the room there is medium sized desk with a classic type writer in the centre. Before the desk is a small wooden chair with an overly large coat hooked on the back, and besides the type writer, a used ash tray, a small note book and a fountain pen.


BEGIN TITLES – SUPERIMPOSE


A light from down the hall turns off, and after a few seconds MICHAEL LANG walks in holding a measure of whisky in one hand. He enters the room with an un-tucked and creased shirt with black suspended trousers. He appears to have a straight face and seems uninterested in his drink holding it a slant. He walks up to his desk, gets comfortable and prepares his type writer whilst taking constant sips of his whisky. Once ready he finishes his drink with a large final mouthful.

END TITLES

The First paragraph is written onto the type writer

MICHEAL

(V.O.)
It was the Seventeenth of September 1947 when a successful young man by the name of John Leyden was


MICHAEL stops wipes his brow and takes a obvious gulp

MICHAEL

(CONT’D)

Brutally murdered in cold blood by an unknown offender, reason unknown.

Again MICHEAL pauses; he squints his eyes a little and slowly clenches his right fist. CUT TO hand.

MICHEAL

(CONT’D)
And it’s my Job to find out why. Because the worst thing was, he was my friend.


He takes the near empty bottle besides his table and takes another large draught of whisky before slamming the finished bottle on the table, quickly standing; he grabs his old fashioned phone dials a number quickly.

MICHEAL

(Causual)Tell the Boss I might be late for work.

MICHEAL pause and listens to the man on the phone

MICHEAL

(ANNOYED)
And don't tell me it's the 5th time this week. Stories like this don't write 'em selves you know, you need some eager beaver like myself, to do all the work for you (40s Slang).




He slams down the phone, grabs his coat, notebook and pen and rushes out of the door slamming it behind him.

FADE TO BLACK

 2. EXT – MURDERSCENE OF VICTIM - DAY 

It is late afternoon. A young man is lying on the floor with his mouth open a little. He has three bullet wounds to the chest and an apparent broken nose with blood streaming from it. There’s a shadow of a man on the wall in the background holding a gun in his right hand and a cigarette in his mouth, he is also wearing a 1940s styled het. The man appears to look at his victim for a short while before the sound of (S.F.X.) sirens appears in the background; the man flees from the scene.

Production - Health and saftey form, still needs a few finer details

Health and Safety

Scene 1 – Location – Office, Chris's house

Hazard	Who’s involved?	Risk	Control
Light	Actors and filming crew	Light gets very hot quickly, so there may be the risk of an item setting alight if too close.	Isolate lighting rig away from any items at risk of setting alight. Remember to always use the serge protector
Wires	Actors and filming crew	Wires from equipment such as microphones and lighting rig may cause the risk of someone tripping over	Try reducing the risk by laying the wires flat to the ground. Also inform actors and crew about the possible risk.

Scene 2 – location – Corner of Brickwall (night)

Light	Actors and filming crew	Light gets very hot quickly, so there may be the risk of an item setting alight if too close. If raining do not use rig outside! (rig may get damaged or may cause a electric shock)	Isolate lighting rig away from any items at risk of setting alight. Remember to always use the serge protector If raining do not use rig outside!
Wires	Actors and filming crew	Wires from equipment such as microphones and lighting rig may cause the risk of someone tripping over	Try reducing the risk by laying the wires flat to the ground. Also inform actors and crew about the possible risk.
Passing citizens/children	Camera man Actors Director Other roles on shoot.	Children may mess around in front of camera, putting equipment at risk	Get a member of the film crew to seal down the area of filming so pedestrians cant intersect filming.

Production - Production schedule template ready to be filled out

Shooting schedule (Template)

Contact Numbers 

PRODUCERS

Chris Hales - 07543550041

Marc Timko – 07966380785

Behind the scenes recorder (Chris Maundrell)-

ACTORS

Actor One (MICHEAL LANG) - Kieran Parish

Scene Number – 1

Location -

Shooting Begin –

Shooting Ends -

Props needed for scene

Type Writer

Whisky Glass

Whisky substitute

Bottle of whisky

Medium sized wooden table

Small wooden chair

Paper

Fountain pen

Costumes Required

MICHEAL’S

Unironed white shirt

Black Braces

Black shoes

Black trousers

Long trench coat (Black)

- Start filming -

Shot –

Time Allocated for shot -

Production - Second Draft of script (Grammer improvements and name given to victim)

FADE IN

1.     INT – JOURNALISTS WRITING ROOM

The room is dark with a Smokey hue. In one side of the room there is medium sized desk with a classic type writer in the centre. Before the desk is a small wooden chair with an overly large coat hooked on the back, and besides the type writer, a used ash tray, a small note book and a fountain pen.

BEGIN TITLES – SUPERIMPOSE

A light from down the hall turns off, and after a few seconds MICHAEL LANG walks in holding a measure of whisky in one hand. He enters the room with an un-tucked and creased shirt with black suspended trousers. He appears to have a straight face and seems uninterested in his drink holding it a slant. He walks up to his desk, gets comfortable and prepares his type writer whilst taking constant sips of his whisky. Ones ready he finishes his drink with a large final mouthful.

END TITLES

The First paragraph is written onto the type writer

MICHEAL

(VO)

It was the Seventeenth of September 1947 when a successful young man by the name of John Leyden was

MICHAEL stops wipes his brow and takes a obvious gulp

MICHAEL

(CONT’D)

 Brutally murdered in cold blood by an unknown offender.

Again MICHEAL pauses; he squints his eyes a little and slowly clenches his right fist.

             MICHEAL

                (CONT’D)

And it’s my Job to find out why.

He takes the near empty bottle besides his table and takes another large draught of whisky before slamming the finished bottle on the table, quickly standing; he grabs his old fashioned phone dials a number quickly.

MICHEAL

 Tell Louie I might be late for work

He slams down the phone, grabs his coat, notebook and pen and rushes out of the door slamming it behind him.

2.     EXT – MURDERSCENE OF VICTIM

A young man is lying on the floor with his mouth open a little. He has three bullet wounds to the chest and an apparent broken nose with blood streaming from it. There’s a shadow of a man on the wall in the background holding a gun in his right hand and a cigarette in his mouth, he is also wearing a 1940s styled het. The man appears to look at his victim for a short while before the sound of (SFX) sirens appears in the background; the man scarpers from the scene.    

                                          FADE OUT

Production - First draft of script

FADE IN

1.  INT – JOURNALISTS WRITING ROOM

The room is dark with a Smokey hue. In one side of the room there is medium sized desk with a classic type writer in the centre. Before the desk is a small wooden chair with an overly large coat hooked on the back, and besides the type writer, a used ash tray, a small note book and a fountain pen.

BEGIN TITLES – SUPERIMPOSE

A light from down the hall turns off, and after a few seconds MICHAEL LANG walks in holding a measure of whisky in one hand. He comes enters the room with an un-tucked and creased shirt with black suspended trousers. He appears to have a straight face and seems uninterested in his drink holding it a slant. He walks up to his desk, gets comfortable and prepares his type writer whilst taking constant sips of his whisky. Ones ready he finishes his drink with a large final mouthful.

END TITLES

The First paragraph is written onto the type writer

MICHEAL

(VO)

It was the Seventeenth of September 1947 when a successful young man by the name of _______ was

MICHAEL stops wipes his brow and takes a obvious gulp

MICHAEL

(CONT’D)

 Brutally murdered in cold blood by an unknown offender.

Again MICHEAL pauses; he squints his eyes a little and slowly clenches his right fist.

             MICHEAL

                (CONT’D)

And it’s my Job to find out why.

He takes the near empty bottle besides his table and takes another large draught of whisky before slamming the finished bottle on the table, quickly standing; he grabs his old fashioned phone dials a number quickly.

MICHEAL

 Tell Louie I might be late for work

He slams down the phone, grabs his coat, notebook and pen and rushes out of the door slamming it behind him.

2.  EXT – MURDERSCENE OF VICTIM

A young man is lying on the floor with his mouth open a little. He has three bullet wounds to the chest and an apparent broken nose with blood streaming from it. There’s a shadow of a man on the wall in the background holding a gun in his right hand and a cigarette in his mouth, he is also wearing a 1940s styled het. The man appears to look at his victim for a short while before the sound of sirens appears in the background; the man scarpers from the scene.    

                                         FADE OUT

Production - Final Idea desision

Me and Chris sat down over one of our free lessons the discuss which of the two ideas we would like to start producing, we settled down on our first initial idea due to having a good idea and vision of what we wanted it to look like. We have also sat down and desided which roles we would take in planning the production. The roles have been listed and given out in the previous post

Production - Scripting Lesson

Within the lesson we were taught how to layout our scripts and  how to write them with correct avbreviations. We were also taught new terms and what they mean.

Perethetical - A discription of emotion, however only use if needed

(VO) - Voice Over
(OS) - Off Screen but still within the scene
(BEAT) - Tells the actor when to take a break in talking, for example a phone call which is only heard from one side --> Hello (BEAT)
(Continuing) - Dialogue between Scenes

Script Transitions

Start - Fade In
End - Fade Out
Dissolves
Cuts
Smash cuts - Action isn't sequential
Quick Cuts - Flashbacks and sudden close ups

How to write a montage;

(montage)
scene #
scene #
scene #

When writing a script you must give your scene numbers so you know when your shooting and what order the footage you have shot in.

Scene Discription

 (B.G) - Background
(CGI) - Computer Generated Image
(F.G) Foreground
(S.F.X) Sound Effect
(S.P.F.X) - Special Effects
(MOS) - Mute Of Sound
(POV) - Point Of View Shot

Production - Assigning roles

So far, between myself and Chris we have worked together on our plot ideas, and indevidualy on our research which we joined together at the end to discuss key atributes we would need to put into our film Noir.

Now however we need to spread the work load, however we need to keep in touch regularly to assess what each of us has produced. The Roles we have Assigned to one another follow below;

• Producing the story board - Chris Hales
• Producing the Production schedule-
• Risk assesment -
• Film Recce - Chris Hales
• DVD Box Cover - Chris Hales  
• Film synopsis - Myself
• Finalised Character Bio - Myself
• Script - Myself

Pre production - Characters needed for opening (Idea Two)

For the opening we would only need one Actor (The detective), the caller is not established due to the audience not being able to hear the other end of the phone call.

Detective

Name: Harry Marelowe (Reaserched Film Noir characters names and conjoined a popular First and sirname together)

Characteristics and Atributes

• He is a middle class private detective who lives in New York in a small flat
• Lives on his own
• Enjoys drinking spirits and smoking
• Flat is quite messy and disorganised

Props and costume

• Wears a shirt, braces and black trousers (wearing black and white)
• Before attempting to go out he puts on a trenchcoat and hat
• Owns a small pistol
• Usualy holidng a ciggarrette

Pre production - Plot Idea (Idea Two)

The secound idea me and Chris came up with revolves around a private detective who is trying to ultimately track down a Fraudster who ends up also being a multiple killer. The opening revolves around a Middle class male character waking up and getting ready to go out socialising down the pub, however just before he walks out of the door he is interupted by a annonomoys call from a wealthy upper class man ( You dont however know this), who is asking for his help in preventing a annonomous villain from stealing large sums of his money. The Detective reluctantly excepts his offer after saying "you will be paid handsomely" (the detective repeats this when said to him over the phone.

Pre production - Finer Details (Idea One)

Now that we have created a draft story board for our first idea we need to look into the finer details of the opening, mostly of which are props and editing.

Props 


The most important prop in my opinion (apart from the costume) would be the old fashioned type writer. I have looked on the internet for examples which are relatively cheap to purchase. I found the best place to purchase classic props are auction sights such as ebay due to there being a vast range of items for cheap prices.

Here's an example which costs under £20 (postage and packaging being the main downfall) Its also nice that its German, which would fit with the film Noir Genre

Other smaller props such as whisky glasses and blind will also need to be purchased/ used to create a real authentic Film Noir Feel. 

Pre production - Story Board (Idea one)

I produced the storyboard to help in planning the rest of our planning work, like the production scheduling and script. It will also help when we get to the editing of the final movie as we will be able to see where each of the pieces of footage should go in the sequence. Please not that this is not the final story board which is going to be used, it was made to help produce an idea for the first scene.

Pre production - Characters in opening (Idea one)

We only need two characters for the opening, the murdered victim and the journalist. Now, I am going to produce to Character Profiles to fit both of the acting roles. I created one, which i made earlier which still fits the idea in which we settled on, i still however need to create one for the murdered victim.


Newspaper journalist 


Name :Michael Lang - I researched typical names from the 1940s - 1950s and looked at popular names used in film Noir, of which included a regularly used name of Michael

job/occupation - A Newspaper journalist, who after discovering a murder of a close friend decides to use his journalism skills to help him self and the police discover who committed the murder.

Appearance and attributes

• low/middle class newspaper journalist who lives in a flat in new york
• Smokes 
• has no enemy's until plot unfolds and gets involved in discovering the murder 
• wears unironed shit with brown trousers and brasses 
• Appears quite lonely due to living on his own in his flat
• When out in the city, wears a large trenchcoat

The murdered Victim 

Name: James Short 

Job: A Young intelegent trainee who has a bright future ahead of himself, however gets involved in his dads troubles and gets murdered by a organisation to inflict as much pain as possible to his father.

Appearance and attributes:

• Wears a smart shirt, jacket and shoes with a casual hat
• When seen, he has 2 bullet hole wounds his hat has also fallen off and his mouth is open towards the floor 

You dont find out much about who he is personaly due to him being killed off very quickly, however from the way he dresses you can assume chracateristics.

Research - Making Fake Blood

A recpie for fake blood i came accross whilst doing my reaserch which may come in helpful

• Combine 1 part water with 3 parts golden syrup
• Add drops red food coloring gradually and mix gently by stirring.
• Add a thickener.
• Let the mixture sit for ten minutes in a warm environment.

Pre production - The opening (idea one)

Between myself and Chris we came to the conclusion of having a Moulon rouge styled opening scene with the journalist at work in his flat using a type writer to type up the start of his report. The camera will slowly zoom in (simple film Noir method) and zooms in on the piece of paper on the typewriter. The title of the film then appears on the paper after zooming in enough. The man then sits down at his desk with a whisky and starts typing up his report. As he starts, a voice over narrates what is being typed up on the page, (a bit like his chain of thought), The scene then ends with a fade to and a downwards tilt of a murdered man with 2 shot wounds to the chest on a pavement.

Pre production - Film Synopsis (idea one)

A newspaper journalist has been ordered by his boss to produce a story on a backstreet murder within the streets of NewYork, to his surprise and dismay he discovers that the man murdered was the son of the owner of the flat of which he rents off. The owner has a close, almost son-father relationship with the young journalist resulting in the journalist swearing an oath of finding his son's killer.

The journalist overtime digs deeper and deeper into the murder revealing how the murder was planned and why it was committed. After gathering evidence including pictures and film footage the journalist is about to go to both his boss and the police, however is intersected by a henchman of the small organisation which organised the murder. The henchman reveals himself to the main character and reveals why he personally has a score to settle with the flat owner. (resulting in him working for the main villain)

The men both have a conflict within a desolate house of which the henchman was planning on containing the journalist, the plan however doesn't go to plan after the journalist takes over the power and gun. He is then winded and struck to the ground.

The journalist, again, goes back to his boss to drop off his evidence, however when he goes back to the flat owner he discovers that he too has been murdered in a pool of blood with 3 bullet wounds. He spots the henchman retreating to a nearby car, so follows him back to his own boss (the villain). Stealthily the journalist follows him into the building and confronts the boss after disabling his 3 henchmen. The fatherly bond between himself and his flat owner overshadows the situation resulting in the villain getting murdered.

Pre production - Planning the production

After looking up the main conventions and viewing a range of Film Noir's already made, I am going to come up with a simple plot line (The one me and Chris agreed over Facebook on) and start developing a script and shooting schedule. Along the way, I will still do additional research on finer detail of which we are going to add into the production. (For Example, special effects)

Research - Target Audience

After some research within the internet I came to the conclusion after looking at other peoples definitions of target audiences for Film Noir that they attract the attention of primeraly men 15-50 who are into artsy type movie productions and those who are into the crime scene investigation media. This however is the typical audience of today.

Back when the films were coming out on the big screen the target audience was very similar, men where still the primary audience, Film Noir at the time was still very arty. Movie producers where very experimental with film due to trying out "radical" new ideas.

Now, the argeued "genre" is much less popular than it was when it was being first produced. Film Noir was very relevent and connected to the time in which it was produced. Cigarrettes and Drink was seen as a glamorous past time and now is seen as somewhat as a risk to health. Props and storylines were also very relevent to the time, the props were realistic to the time period for example, that cars were all from the 1940's/50's depending on when the production was made. The storylines however to some extent quite similar to some of the plots being created today, especialy from the thriller and crime genres.

I did a quick questionaire to friends and family members asking them if they would consider watching a Film Noir over other well known genres; such as, Horror, Thriller, Action Adventure, Romantic and Musical. here are my results; (Overall i asked 25 people).

From these results, you can see that the Film Noir Genre was the most un popular, however one person out of the 25 did choose it over the other Genres, I went back and asked just why they chose it over the other genres and they replied, " I prefer clasic films which follow a tension building plot without being farfetched". Along with my other reaserch it made me come to the conclution that today there isn't much of a market for Film Noir films, however some people who do have slightly diffrent intrests and likes may still prefer this genre over the other more well known genres. A way of seeing how the genere is unpopular is by looking at its sales, even though film Noirs have been made in to DVD due to the demand of the changing format from VHS, they have not been very widespreadly purchased. A way of seeing this is that none of the films todate have been transfered over to the newly established blu ray disks. Blu Ray at the moment have only been adding well known and popular films to their libary of films, however Some film noir films may be added when Blu Ray has developed further and the format has established further. 



Research - Box Art/Posters For Film Noir

The Posters for film Noir where usually hand drawn representations of the characters and settings within the film. They are usually in colour, and even though hand drawn are realistic, The titles on the box are usualy bold using a contrasting colour to stand out to potential audiences; here is some examples I have found. And of which all fit the criteria noted above.


 
 
By looking and taking the conventions of the art work of the posters, it will help us later create a box cover fitting the genre of the film.