OTS: Final Script Version 2

Quick Information

After the first edit of our Noir film, we decided to get Max's brother Sam to narrate, this was becuase although we had Greg acting as our Everyman we needed an older person with a more narrative voice. Sam read the original script I created and improvised some lines to make it more dramatic, or changed the tone to suit the mood.

SCRIPT

(Open with Pan across radio, with added static, across and up to pictures of ex-girlfriend)

(Cut pan across desk, all the props laid out on the desk, while Greg used the typewriter)

(Cut to Greg placing cigarette in ash tray, Hard Sell appears, then fades and Greg picks up cigarette)

 (Greg picks up cigarette and starts to smoke)

"I did a lot of inexcusable things"

(Cuts to side view of Greg blowing out smoke)

"But I lost a lot during that time"

(Cut to Greg looking, and then putting down the cigarette to rub face)

"I lost my girlfriend, my job, I was in desperate need of money"

(Cut to Greg still rubbing face, to then continue writing on the typewriter)

 "It was at this low point in my life I started to work for an old friend. He came to me looking for someone he could trust"

(Cut to over the shoulder view of Greg typing)

 "Someone reliable. Who could do what needed to be done"

(CUTS TO FLASHBACK OR DRUG DEAL UNDER STREET LIGHT)

(ELEVEN SECOND FLASHBACK)

"It was simple. They gave me the money. I gave them the drugs"

(Cuts to low angle of Greg continuing confession on the typewriter)

"I had been dealing for a while now slowly rising in the ranks. Gaining more and more respect from the boss, for my hard work"

(Cuts to Greg picking up whiskey and having a sip)

 It seemed like things were on the up...till she came along"

(CUT TO FLASHBACK OF EVERYMAN'S FIRST MEETING WITH FEMME FATALE)

(FIVE SECOND FLASHBACK) 

(Cuts back to Greg continuing to drink whiskey)

"When she left she always gave me that look to say I was nothing, but, it lingered"

(Cuts to low angle of Greg still typing)

"When she left she always gave me that look to say I was nothing, but, it lingered. Maybe thinking oneday I could be something more. It was after a few pickups that we started to talk. Started to get closer"

(Cuts to over shoulder view of grep typing)

"In such a small amount of time you'd learn how much a woman with truly hate her husband"

(Cuts to mid side shot of Greg typing)

"Say what you want about the Boss but he lived up to his fierce reputation. He didn't seemed phased about the barrel of the gun being pointer directly into his face"

(Cuts to low side angle of Greg picking up the gun)

(Cuts backs to a mid side angle of Greg holding, and observing the gun)

"You could never tell, but if he did fear death, his fears were about to become a reality"

(CUTS TO FLASHBACK OF ARM SHOOTING A GUN, THEN A FADE TO BLACK)

Finish

OTS: Camera and Composition

In our opening titles sequence we used multiple shots, with different camera angles so that the Everyman is seen using all of the props on the table. Shots such as high and low angles are used to show how the Everyman is feeling, or what he is focusing on meaning the viewers attention is drawn to that object aswell.

Low pan across the desk

In this scene the camera slowly pans, from right to left, across the desk. The camera is angled so that you can see the Everyman using the typewriter, while panning across all the props such as the gun and the whiskey. Since these are unusual items to have on a desk it could draw in the viewers attention.

Although the Everyman is in shot, you can't quite see his face, this angle is used to create mystery and he will be revealed later on. Although we used this angle to create mystery around the Everyman's identity and revealing all the props for later shots. It could be seen as the Everyman being in a vulnerable situation, masking hid identity by hiding in his office.

(CLIP GOES HERE)

In this clip we used the camera dolly Max and Greg created. This made it a lot smoother that doing a hand held pan across the table, because this made is a lot more shaky and would occasionally reveal a bit too much of Greg's face ruining the mystery

a problem with the dolly was that occasionally the front left wheel would come off the track because the camera was a bit heavy, to overcome this we decided to have Max feeding it half the way across from the right, then I held the other side making sure the camera was steady and wouldn't fall off. This was slightly annoying because it took two men to operate rather than one, but was easily overcome and didn't affect filming noticeably

This is a link to Max's blog about the making of the camera dolly:

http://mshepherdasmediaproductionschs2016.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/camera-dolly.html

In this Max has explained what materials they used, and what the process of making it was. There are all accompanied with pictures of the dolly being made.

Over the shoulder shot

In this shot, we see the Greg using the typewriter from a high angled over the shoulder shot, this is to portray him as feeling high/good because he is writing his confession.
For this we had no space behind Greg to put a tri-pod, so instead we attacthed the camera to the tri-pod and i held it, the problem is that we still got the stool and tri-pod feet in the shot. Another slight error was that i couldnt keep the camera perfectly still

(CLIP GOES HERE)

OTS: Editing

During editing I changed the clips to black and white then adjusted the clips to be slightly blue which made the clips look slightly darker but also added some vibrancy. I also adjusted the darkness of the clips so that it would be darker depending on the scene. For the flashback scenes

For the flashback scenes I added a slight yellow tint to the scenes, cross blur transitions and added the dream video effect to make it obvious that it was a flashback.

This image shows the editing I did to make the clip black and white with a yellow tint.

This is showing the different video effects in iMovie.

This shows where I added the transitions.

This post was taken from Max's blog, this was because Max did the effects, meaning he created a post on what he did.

Max's Post: http://mshepherdasmediaproductionschs2016.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/editing.html

OTS: Company Ident

Since traditional Noir films are primarily American, me and Max decided to search for street names in LA, California together on Skype. Despite being very impressed by Christmas Tree Lane, we decided that Lakewood Productions was the best fit.

Next I went about sketching ideas for what the Ident would look like. We wanted the Ident to match the Noir feel of the film, and we decided on the below sketch:

I decided to use Adobe After Effects to create the Ident. Despite being a complete beginner to the program, I used it because I wanted the Ident to look professional, unlike a Flash Animation. Below is the first version I created:

Upon viewing this, Max thought that the entire lantern glowing looked out of place, as he expected just the light bulb to glow. I found a Youtube tutorial and learned how to make just the light bulb glow, with a good result. Below is the updated version:

Finally, we agreed on the animation and I just had to add sounds.

Naturally, with the rain effect, I needed a Rain sound effect. I originally intended to use one which also included thunder, but I then realised that without any lightning in the animation, it didn't fit quite right. I instead used a Rain sound effect from this website (Royalty Free & Free to use commercially):
http://www.soundjay.com/rain-sound-effect.html44

Next, I had to find a sound effect for the light bulb. Upon browsing, I found sound effects for light bulbs dying (or winking), in which the filament burns out. I decided on this sound effect, (again Royalty Free & Free to use commercially):
https://freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/26873/

Interestingly, this sound was Folyed. Here is a quote from the creator's description of the sound:
'Used a frequency modulation to approximate the sound of filament burning up. Second sound is a pencil eraser tapped near the base of a 40W light bulb.'

Here is the final Ident with the added sound:

I created a questionnaire about the Ident, and I showed it to the class to receive feedback. I wanted to find out whether the Ident looked professional, and whether it achieved the same effect as Famous Idents such as The Universal Studios Globe, Paramount Mountain or Columbia's Torch Carrying Woman.

These are memorable symbols that invoke an image or emotion in the viewer. For example, they are often triumphant, such as the Columbia Pictures Ident, where the woman stands tall holding the torch high in the air. These symbols invoke a feeling of patriotism, as a lot of these companies are american and those americans who watched them see the huge symbols of freedom like the Paramount Mountain, and it makes them feel proud.


This is the survey you can fill out on our ident:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZQu-ucNZkO8PutXZxn81SlhYt0tPsHv9Zt1rqpJTfyU/viewform?usp=send_form
This is the link to the post that Greg made, he made the ident and all the information contained in the post:http://gbabstockasmediaproductionschs2016.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/ots-production-company-ident.html

Blinds Cutout for Noir

Cookies and GoBos
Cookies: This stands for Cucoloris. These are a cut out of wood, metal, card or anything that casts a shadow. This stands between the light fixture and the subject. They can be bought in shops, but are also quite easy to make
GoBos: This stands for Go Before Optics, these are made out of metal or glass and go inside the light fixture, between the light source and the lens
For our blinds we decided t use the cookies design, this was because we had a laser cutter available to cut out the design on some mount board. When it came to supporting the cutout we decided holding it would have to do, otherwise the stand would get in the way of the already limited space we were working in.




 This was an example off google called 'go bo blinds' After I had this design I went onto 2D design and made this cutout. I then exported the design to a file compatible with the laser cutter. This screen shot is taken from the video linked below. But instead of making it slot in-between the light and lens, it is just a cutout using the blind design.

This is example of the laser cutter, cutting out the design. We made adjustments so that the blind separators were thicker and cast a better shadow on the walls





A useful video about noir Lighting can be found on TheBEAT website, this video contains a screen shot of the cutout we used to create the blinds shadow



Link to the video on TheBEAT:http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/lighting-for-film-noir/