My Cast

Luckily I know a few people who do drama and are quite good at it aswell, so it was quite easy for me to find my cast that would fit well in the acting, portraying personalities and the appearance of the character.

This is Rhea (aged 17), she is the waitress in my film noir and the one who is secretly in on the crime, helping Jack by hiding the gun which could prove as evidence. She is not the most revealed of characters, her face never actually being shown in the OTS. Her age does not hinder her performance as the waitress and her voice fits perfectly, calm yet confident. The photo of her to the left is showing what she is wearing in the OTS, a simple shirt and black skirt, a typical uniform of a waitress back in the 1950's ish. Rhea has studied drama for about 3-4 years as a main subject and even though I didn't cast her as my main femme fatale, she still makes a very professional and well acted actress.

This is Erin (aged 16), she plays my femme fatale and has no past in studying drama professionally or as a subject. I chose her as my main female role as she looked the part and could act, which are the main two things. Her character, unknowingly to her, is being conned and tricked by both Jack and Nik. Her outfit in this scene is very floaty and seductive, the cream colour emphasising her skin and body which she uses to entice men. Her body language is very open and confident in this photo but in the scene of the restaurante/bar she is very closed and close to herself as though she is scared or worried about something.

This is Jack (aged 17), he plays my Anti-Hero character and is the main role in the film, his power taking charge over the situation in the end of the OTS. Jack has been studying drama for about 4-5 years and performing arts for about 2 years and is very experienced in the drama and acting side of things. Jack worked perfect for the character, he portrayed the characters non-caring attitude coming across in this very quiet yet sinister man, a lot of mystery being projected from his personality. His appearance looked the part and very luckily Jack in real life has a really odd yet quirky yet individual wardrobe, and he had the perfect outfit for his character, which was an added bonus. I really like this photo as his pose is full of attitude, his stance strong and rooted, the contrasted wall being a nice backdrop to him.

This is Nik (aged 17), he plays my anti-heroes partner in crime, or I guess you could say he's a bit of a sidekick. Nick has been studying drama for about 4-5 years and has done about 2 years of performing arts so has a lot of drama knowledge under his belt. He assists Jack by sleeping with Erin to then give Jack a reason to shoot Erin (as Jack and Erin were a couple). They then meet up at the end which reveals that they were actually conning and tricking her. He plays his character well, giving this loving and affectionate way to Erin in the flashback, yet contradicting himself and secretly being one of the men who organised to kill her.
Also, as some research in to my two male actors, I watched them act in a play and watched them do some filming for a friend of mine, so I could get used to their acting techniques, to help me decide their script and even what kind of personality their character should have.

To know when two of my main cast were free from lessons and were able to film, I got their timetables off of them so it was easier to organise my time around them, beings as they were doing me a favour by filming. My other two friends who played the girls in the OTS had similar times off of school to me so it was easier to organise.

Task 3

Wanting another theory on how the media works on a mass audience. The hypodermic syringe effect I hear you say? Everyone run, the media is coming!
The hypodermic syringe effect theory is what you'd call something that injects ideas (a bit like a syringe) attitudes and beliefs from the media into its audience, sometimes the audience being just a big powerless mass who have little to no choice in what way they are being influenced by. For example, you see a cold refreshing bottle of drink with a catchy tune accompanying it in an advert. Then what do you find yourself doing? Reaching into the fringe for something to refresh that sudden thirst of yours, preferably for that drink you just saw. In the 1950's Blumer was writing about the media and commented on how people such as Hitler and Stalin had used the media as propaganda, using films, poster art and radio etc to influence and persuade people to vote and side with them, which comes to no surprise why people thought the media was being used as an evil tool if it fell into the wrong hands, capable of persuading millions to follow them. I think that when it comes to elections, no matter how many posters that cover Britian's roadside's (even though it does help), people will still have their own opinion (and will stick by it), and they are not likely to be really influenced by it, at least not so much to change the final outcome of an election.
The theory is particularly popular in society with politicians, because they like to see it as a reason why society has become more violent, instead of blaming it on themselves. An example being in the theory is that of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, as before every one of his murders he would watch a clip from his favourite film - Star Wars - to get himself excited. This evidence proves the hypodermic syringe theory to be slightly true, even though the film Star Wars very clearly meant different things to him than it does to most people.


"He really loved the power that Darth Vader had to intimidate and influence those around him," muses Dietz.
 Never got banned.
Dr. Park Dietz must have one hell of a bedside manner. A forensic psychiatrist who's interviewed, and testified at the trials of, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Hinckley, Andrea Yates, and many of the most notorious murderers of the last 30 years, Dietz is an expert at deciding whether the perpetrators of violent and unusual crimes were sane at the time they committed them, and he's known for his ability to understand the extremes of human behavior from the inside out. Last night, I caught a documentary on A & E called Conversations With Killers, in which Dietz recalls his intimate encounters with some of the most infamous criminals of our time.




 

It is obviously easy to find reasons why the hypodermic syringe theory could never apply to everyone equally. But do you think it could work sometimes? What about you - can you think of any media texts which you feel have had a big effect on you and made you behave in any way differently?


In my personal opinion, I think the theory is a little simplistic in the way of how it stereotypes everyone, taking into no account of individuals, like me for example. Yes, the media is a big influence in many peoples lives, an example being how looking ''perfect'' has now become a big pressure on young people, skinny models and air brushing of photos in magazines, morphing the ideas of both girls and boys of what beauty should look like.

Research into chosen song - Screamin Jay Hawkins I put a spell on you

Information found on Wikipedia -

Jalacy Hawkins (July 18, 1929, Cleveland, Ohio — February 12, 2000, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an African-American musician, singer, and actor. He was famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You", and would often use macabre props onstage, making him the one of few original shock rockers.

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to the AllMusic Guide to the Blues, "Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad." The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon." The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track" that became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales, although it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts.

The performance was mesmerizing, although Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session. Afterward he had to relearn the song from the recorded version. Meanwhile the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that had embellished the original performance; this was in response to complaints about the recording's overt sexuality. Nonetheless it was banned from radio in some areas.

Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage. Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes". These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price." On Notorious B.I.G's posthumous release, Life After Death, the song "Kick In The Door" heavily samples the saxophone line in Screamin' Jay's song.

I have chosen to use this song because I really love it and I think the freedom of it refelects the rebellious nature of the men and the flirtatious nature of the women of the Film Noir genre. I don't think you were allowed to have over 30 seconds or 20 seconds of a song that is copyrighted, but I played mine through a record player, which counted differently and so I had about 30 seconds of the song and also I edited the song slightly by cutting it because it was too long and so I joined two bits of the song together and apparently if you adapted the song on a music editing software such as garage you can put the song on without getting in trouble, but don't hold me to that.

One of the things I worried about was if it would fit in with the film noir genre. A film that the song has featured in is a film called Stranger than Paradise. But I think that it would fit in with how it suddenly changes from the suspense to the relief that the tension is over but the confusion of why he just shot her, what with the weirdly jubilant music as Jack struts away with confidence. Its such a large contrast and thats what worries me, but I enjoy it and think that you need some quick changes sometimes, a bit of spice in your life.

Perhaps another idea for a song could be James Brown - its a mans world, because it would be quite ironic how in my OTS, the men are the dominant and more powerful ones, in the more higher situation, and he is singing how its a mans world.

Textual analysis of three different Neo-Noir OTS's

A few words I have learnt and will use to analyse the films :

Chiaroscuro- is the contrast between dark and light, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also used in cinematography to indicate extreme low-key lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films. Much of the celebrated Film Noir tradition relies on techniques Toland perfected in the early thirties that are related to chiaroscuro (though high-key lighting, stage lighting, frontal lighting, and other effects are interspersed in ways that diminish the chiaroscuro claim).

Monochrome- is the different shades of one colour. Neutral colours in monochrome images are called grayscale or black and white. "Monochromatic light" refers to light of a narrow frequency.

Verisimilitude- is the quality and sense of realism in something.

Firstly I thought of the things we traditionally see in Film Noirs. A quick outline being :

Narrative- crime, tragedy, sex and violence (but decreased a little, not so harshly shown).

Characters- Femme Fatale, anti-hero, investigator / law enforcement person, antagonist, protagonist.

Mise-en-scene- Harsh lighting, chiaroscuro, monochrome, dystopian(everythings bad/bleak) areas and urban locations, seedy bars, casinos and hotels.Shadows, costumes are suits and smart looking clothes for men and seductive glamorous clothes for women, with dramatic make-up, dark eyes and red lips.

Sound- Orchestral music, silence, eerie music, no lyrics, jazzy feel to it, heightened exaggerated unnatural sound effects.

Editing- Some lingering shots, sometimes quick cuts to make more tense.

Camera - Long shots to show the characters, close-ups to increase tension.

I decided to do my first analysis on Microsoft word as a type of table to show it in a different way, to make it a bit more interesting to look at. I then saved it, re-opened it on paint, saved it again and then uploaded it as a picture.   
                                                                                  The traditional
                                                                                    Femme Fatale

Red Riding  (2009) (a television series of 3 feature length episodes- this particular one being set in 1974)

 

Is a British Channel 4 production (based on David Peace's novel series) about a youngster journalist who is looking to try and solve the increasingly vexing case of a serial killer on the loose. It starts with a panning upwards from the earth (or could have been water). Muffling non-diegetic music encloses the audiences senses, the long lingering shot of the angel girl (photo on the left), that hints (using imagery) of something sinister, is not conventional of Film Noir, as usually enigma is used with the crime event and is not usually revealed straight away in the OTS.The angel wings are white, contrasting deeply with the darkness and bad weather, also contrasting with the meaning of how angels would be in a bright and happy place, rather than a gloomy one.

Iconography is used with props such as the anti-hero smoking a cigarette and holding a gun, both popular signifiers of Film Noir, the anti-hero being an obvious type of character. The narrative is similar of Film Noir, crime - a girl gone missing, her description being relaid by the detectives/newsreaders. The depressing storyline of a missing child not being what you would usually see in a Film Noir. The location being the rural, rainy and vast Yorkshire Moors, a huge difference between the urban areas that Film Noir would usually opt for. The main character (photo on the right) is the protagonist and anti-hero, the reason being because he had mucked up and failed in some way, a hidden secret that the audience are intrigued to know about. The OTS ending on a burning coffin with his deceased dads name on the front.

The non-diegetic guitar music, which is not stereotypically Film Noir, is very relaxing and combines with the calm feeling and look of the sets and locations. Conventional voice-overs are used, which is the anti-hero telling his narrative, instantly making the audience side with him, a near persistent narrative element that is associated with the Film Noir genre. The colour tones of the OTS are desaturated, almost sepia looking, dull browns that are monochrome, reflecting and signifying the 70's era that it was set in. The editing techniques used, being simple quick cuts, fade in and fade outs, keep the pace going and the audience's attention fixated on it.

Blade Runner (1982 - Directed by Ridley Scott)

Is about a blade runner, Deckard, who has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

Similarities to Film Noir :

• Urban landscape, settings and sets.
• A non-diegetic amplified heart beat noise (that sounds like it could be actually in the scene, increasing the suspense in the scene).
• Light (that looks artificial) is coming through the windows, creating harsh contrasted shadows.
• Harrison Ford plays the detective, the anti-hero (but he doesn't actually appear in the OTS).
• The scene in which the interview/interrogation takes place is very tense, cigarettes and the smoke being produced is a popular and iconic prop used in Film Noir that adds on to the mysteriousness of the character, the way that he stands taller and the low camera angle giving him the power.
• The thriller and drama side of the genre of the film fits in with how Film Noir was based around these things, and crime of course.
• The grey tones that look slightly blue look similar to the colour tones and contrasts of black and white in Film Noir. 
• The two characters are not very important to the narrative - one of them being the obvious bad guy, the henchman of the antagonist. They are introducing us to the film, the more important characters, the anti-hero and femme fatale etc being introduced further into the film.
• Lastly, the fan on the ceiling spins threateningly over the two tense looking characters, enclosing the attention on them, framing a few of the shots, something that looks very familiar in Film Noir.

The ways in which it is not similar to Film Noir :

• It is set in the future (2019), its main genre type being science fiction.
• Flying cars - not a sense of realism.
• Weird electronic sounding non-diegetic music (sounds like machinery and modern), which is not traditional of Film Noir, but fits in more with the time that the film is set.
• The way sounds are mixed.

Most of the clip of the OTS of Blade Runner that I found on YouTube -

Las Vegas Footage from Bethany on Vimeo.


 I took this footage whilst on holiday in Las Vegas on a monorail. I had intended to use it with a previous idea as the beginning of the OTS to show some of the titles/credits as it moves across the Las Vegas strip. The previous idea and the reason I had wanted to involve the bright and beautiful views of Las Vegas was because of its history, how gangsters had been the main developers of the gambling side of it.  Which links in with how Film Noir sometimes embraces the genre of gangster film. As in early mob films, there is some overlap with film noir and in the forties and fifties the gangster genre died down and was replaced by film noir, however in the seventies there was a revival of mob films.

The choice of music (Elvis Presley-Viva Las Vegas) is not the song or music that I would put over the Las Vegas footage if I were to have used it in my OTS because I dont think it fits in with the seriousness and crime feeling of film noir, instead it sets the scene in an upbeat way. I chose the music to put over it because of how Elvis Presley had gone to Las Vegas a lot of times and was very well known there as a celebrity and for his fantastic shows. I also thought it fit in with the footage as the song is basically about Las Vegas
" Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shoot a seven with every shot
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas,Viva Las Vegas"



 

The other possible song choice (that I found when I searched film noir style music and songs- http://www.film-noir-alley.com/film_noir_music.html) could have been used in the Las Vegas footage because of the time it was released in (the 50's) and because of the jazzy feel to it, the sexy voice being similar to that of how a femme fatale would lure the man. The song was from the crime/film noir/drama film 'Dark City' (released in 1950) which was about some gamblers who "took" an out of town sucker in a crooked poker game. But this event leads a shadowy vengeance to close in on them. The use of dark streets and a sexy night club torch singer Fran Garland, lends ambience to the film.

First reactions of Editing

I have started to edit my Film Noir OTS and decided to show it to three people to get their first reactions, constructive good points and different ways I could improve.

Rhea (aged17) : ''I like the fact that you're using different angles that look interesting, building and creating more tension. The colour tones and textures fit in well ".

Erin (aged16) : ''Colour tones fitted in with the old style of Film Noir, and because the camera wasn't the best of quality it made the moving images look sort of gritty, which looks effective''.

Sam (aged 18) : ''I can tell that you have looked a lot more into continuity than I usually do, and you make sure everything runs smoothly and makes sense. But, it needs to go into something more as it doesn't entice me, as him walking up stairs doesn't seem to lead to anything''.


Final Cut Express

I will be using Final Cut Express to edit a few of my scenes, using the more advanced editing skills. For example, in one of my scenes I made the mistake of having a very recent and modern car just being visible. To get rid of this continuity error (beings as I wanted my OTS to be set in the 1950's) I would need to crop the frame to cut out the car from the shot.

Mine and Lee Cooper's first Continuity Task

Continuity task for AS media from Lee Cooper on Vimeo.


 This is what me and Lee filmed together, using Erin (another sixth form student) as another actress. We both were a little rushed for time as we missed the lessons in which other members of our class were filming the continuity task, as we were both on holiday. We both agreed that it wasn't as successful as we wanted it to be and thought it wasn't quite up to our standards, as we thought we could have used more interesting camera angles and shots.

 From this first try at the continuity task, I have realised I need to plan it a bit more before I film, so will be doing a storyboard for it, and I know I will need to use more interesting camera angles and shots, working on my own, so I can have my own take on it and add my own originality to the piece, perhaps incorporating some Film Noir conventions.