The opening sequence of a film noir.

My group for the final piece is me, Laura, Dylan and Muhaimin. We are currently in the first stages of planning what we will be filming at the end of january. We have decided that I will be the art director, Laura will be editor, Dylan will be camera man/director and Muhaimin will be the writer/producer. Our first ideas are.. having someone tied up in a chair, beaten up, someone being in a straight jacket, rocking, someone in a cell...


Our idea has now been finalised. We will have a man tied in a chair, beaten up with random flash backs throughout. The main story will be about a man who has got into debt with wrong people and they want there money. A femme fatal will be used in the sequence. She will whisper in the mans ear 'You shouldnt have messed with me' or something along them lines.

The exchange - video

The exchange, Hannah, Laura, Kamal and Dylan.

BRIEF: You are to shoot and edit a short sequence in the style of a film thriller involving THE EXCHANGE of an important item (envelope, tape, microfilm) from one character to another. This sequence must be shot in no more than 12 shots. You can film in any location of your choosing on the college campus and use just the camera top microphone to record the sound no dialogue is to be used. The footage will then be edited and you will need to choose some appropriate music and titles will be added to complete a short sequence.

The exchange.

The brief for the exchange was we had to film a small sequence of something being exchanged. This task had to done to look, feel and sound like a film noir. We were not allowed any diologue. Unlike the preliminary, for this one we had to complete pre-production work, such as, location finders, risk assessments, call sheets, plans of the location etc,

In my opinion the exchange went alot better than the preliminary for me. I felt alot more confident and comfortable with the camera and the filming itself. Us, as a group made fewer mistakes than my first group. There was a slight problem with match on action in this exercise, when Kamal is looking around at the top of the steps his eyeline does not meet with Laura's as she is walking around the bush. We decided to have two exchanges in our sequence which made more work. I think that we adhered to the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule line. I think that our sequence flowed and was easy to follow. The music we chose suited the type of film we was aiming for. Our sequence had film noir qualities such as a femme fatale, the setting of a bar, the location we used in the alley way, the costume and the music. Over all in my opinion i believe that the exchange went very well for our group, we thought about all of the different rules and made sure that we had plenty of handles to help us when we got to editing. I am very pleased with our Exchange.

The preliminary - video

The preliminary, Hannah and Muhaimin

BRIEF: You are to complete a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180degree line rule.

The preliminary

In the preliminary we was aked to film a simple sequence of shots. This had to include someone walking down a corridoor, opening a door, walking in and exchanging some dialogue with another person. We had to follow rules such as the rule of thirds and the 180 degree line rule. There was also match on action and continuity we had to consider. We had to amke sure all of the shots looked good and were filmed correctly.

Mine and Muhaimins preliminary went okay although there was some things we could have improved on such as, our first shot was too long and would not have kept the audience entertained. This could have been avoided if we cut down the shot and only filmed what we needed. Our pan of Marc as he walked into the room was also a bit lengthy and the pan was not as smooth as it could have been. We could have broken up the shots by cutting to a shot of chris sitting at the table. When the two were exchanging diologue, match on action was not achieved, Chris' hands were clenched in one shot and then open in another. We should have been clear ont the way his hands were positioned when we were filming. Handles were also a problem in our preliminary as the last few shots are very short and snappy. We had only filmed the bare minimum. The head room we left could have also been improved by lowering the camera slightly. However, we nearly always stuck to the rule of thirds, and we never broke the 180 degree line rule. Our preliminary went okay, other than a few little mistakes that we learnt from.

First blog entry

This has been started a bit late. But in this entry i will summarize everything i have done in media studies since we started in september. We started off by getting introduced into what the media actually is and what sorts of media there are e.g. prints, tv and radio. We was then set the challenge of researching film noir. What it was, how is started and who started it. We have watched a full film noir and watched opening sequences of film noir's to help us with our final piece. During this time we also had the opportunity to experiment with the camera equipment. We learnt about types of shots, framing, handles, match on action and continuity. We then had to do our first piece of filming in groups of four. The preliminary. This was a simple way to practise all of the things that we had learnt in class and put them into action. It was somebody walking into a room, sitting down and exchanging some dialogue with another person. We then started on our exchange. This was made slightly harder than the preliminary. We had some flexibility with this. We had to have a situation where something was being exchanged by two people. This had to be in the style of a film noir. With this exercise we had to complete all of the pre-production paper work. Location finders, risk assessments, call sheets and storyboards. We then had to film it and edit it. Which brings me to what we aredoing now. We are now in the early stages of planning our opening scene of a film noir. I am in a group of four. There is me, Laura, Dylan and Muhaimin. We have came up with a few ideas for what we can do and we are now building on a couple of them.