Codes

Code de-coded>Below is the code that we shall use for our film both coded and de-coded. To make this code I used Wingdings 3 on the computer. We figured that this was a clear but confusing code to use which would be fun to play with.


Hades


The code above translates into:
I enjoy killing. It is the most thrilling thing a human can do. Killing a human is better than life itself. I promised my identity but I am sorry that I cannot provide that for my own safety I have to remain free. I will continue killing until I have died or been killed. My legacy on this earth is these killings and I shall live on forever as the man who outsmarted the world’s greatest police.
Hades

The four letters.

Both I and Eden decided to write two letters each but in the same style and offer help and advice to one and other if they needed. The first two letters have been written by Eden explaining about the first victim who was killed and explaining about the cryptic letter he has handed to the police. The third and fourth letters have been written by me about the killer’s code he sent to the detectives and how after nine deaths he still hasn’t been caught. The letters are written to portray a sarcastic and manipulative character that is playing a game with the detectives.

Here are the four letters shown in order of appearance in our film:

Letter 1 – 25th March 1951
I killed him. It was me. That man outside Raymond’s Revue Bar.
2 nights ago.
I will KILL AGAIN.
Hades.

Letter 2 – 7th April 1951
3 down all by my hands. I know who you are detective Capri.
I will find you. You can be my trophy.
I am smarter than you Capri figure this out (Cipher hand out)

Letter 3 – 9th September 1951
This is my sixth one and you STILL can’t figure out who I am can you. I’m just one of those riddles which everybody gives up on.
I bet another month and you will do the same.
And oh, have you cracked the code yet?
You’ve had almost 5 months surely you must have worked it out by now.
I thought detectives had to be clever, but maybe I was wrong.

Letter 4 – 15th May 1952
So I’m up to 9 now. I’m known as a mass murderer except I’m not.
Still nobody knows who I am. I’m sure you’ve given up by now and think ill just go away or eventually turn myself in. But I’ll have you know now I won’t disappear, I never will and you’ll never forget who I am. HADES.

Finalised weapon

Finalised Weapon

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Title ideas.

Final titles and styles;

We decided to create our own titles with the help from video co-pilot in after effects. Below are the titles that we will definitely use and the styles that we are going to test when editing. Taking the editing process into account, we may add more titles depending on how much time we have left but we will evaluate the possibilities when the time comes.
The titles that we will use for our companies are:
‘13 Films’
‘Little and Large Productions’
‘Red Onions’

The links below are the styles that we are interested for these three titles:

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/soft_shadows_3dmax/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/the_ring/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/blueprint_reveal/

The title that we are going to use during the trailer is from the same website but called:

'Ancient Titles'
The title that we will use at the end will be XI due to this being the film name. We like this specific style: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/ancient_titles/ because we thought it related well to one of the main features in our film which is coded letters.

Final Cast

Casting on Prezi

Final Film Name

Final Film name on Prezi

Photograph Storyboard feedback

Similar to our sketched feedback we showed the photographed storyboard to several people to judge how well the project is going so far. Below are some of the comments made about the photographs.

‘Make sure that you use the shots you stated that you will in the photographs’

The comment made simply says that we have stated a different shot to the one that is in the photograph. We know this was the case for the shots such as the bird’s eye view over the crime scene because at the time when we did the photo it was very difficult to get that shot and we opted for the safer shot instead. The comment made is a fair one and it would be something we need to change if we were to re-do the storyboard.

‘Try to make the storyboard reflect your film a little more’

This comment was made a few times and by myself during the photo’s but at the time it was too difficult to organise everybody with suits etc. so we decided on doing it in normal clothes with location that we know well. The comment didn’t take us by surprise and we expected to hear it a few times and again it just shows us that we would have to work on the photo’s a little more if we were to re-do the storyboard.

‘Well planned and good photographs’

This very positive feedback gives us a very good indication that we are on the right track and maybe a few tweaks need to occur here and there but mainly we are making the right decisions and choices, most importantly the trailer at the moment is appealing to our audience

Scans of our photographed story board.

Sketched storyboard feedback

We showed several people our sketched storyboards and asked for their opinion about the style of drawings and the information given. This is the statement that an 18 years old male said:

‘Several good drawings but lacks finer detail, try to include facial expressions’
This statement tells us quite simply that our storyboard lacked that finer detail that maybe we should have included, therefore if we were to re-do the sketches it would be something worth considering for mainly our own benefit as they will show details that we can include in our final trailer. The next statement was from a 17 years old female and she said:

‘Nice idea but makes sure you complete all areas required’
Looking at this statement we noticed that two areas in our sketched storyboards were not completed and this was down to us as a pair not knowing what music to choose for our trailer and how long each shot should be, but saying that we should have had an idea at a time but instead we left the options blank. The last statement we are going to include was from a 18 year old female and she said:

‘Make sure all of your characters are the same size in every shot’
This is very true for several of our drawing because the characters seem to change height or weight in the blink of an eye and again if we were to re-do the sketches it would be something that we would have to make sure that we got right. All of these comments that we have included have been very helpful for us as a group because they were taken directly from our primary audience and we know have an indication that we are on the right path and that they think the trailer is starting to take shape and look like something they would want to go and see.

Sketched storyboard.

Shot types (written).

1 Approval Screen Fade to black

2 Logo’s for 3 companies, they will appear one after another: Little and LargeRed Onions
13 Films Fade to black after each other

3 – Close up, tracking right Close up of a moving car tyre, the car comes to a halt and the character steps out the car only revelling a foot. Track towards the characters feet. Screeching of the car tires and crunching of stones under the character feet.

4 – Close up The camera stops at the characters feet and fades away. Fades to black

5 – Long shot Long shot of a female singer on stage performing in a 50’s club. fade50’s jazz music playing while she sings.

6 – Over the Shoulder The camera will follow our detectives as they chase down a suspect through an ally. The camera will slow down as they run past a male citizen in the ally. Pan towards the male citizen.
Pitter patter of the feet as they run along the floor

7 – Medium shot The slowed down shot will emphasise the male and will tell the audience that he may be important. Fades to black

8 – Close up The camera will come back to the man standing outside the car and move slowly up from his feet towards his knee. Fade to black

9 – Three shot This shot will show a conversation between the chief commissioner and the two detectives. Pans towards the door.
Shouting at the detective ‘catch this psycho he has killed two people already how many more?’

10 – Medium shot Another detective burst into the door and tells of a third victim. Cut
‘A third victim has been found with a very similar symbol and code’

11 – Close up Once again the camera returns to the characters outside the car and continuous to reveal more. This time the camera stops at a bloody knife in his right hand. Fades away
The beginning of the letter starts to be read aloud, the voice finished on shot 15.

12 – Shot reverse shot The camera shows the detectives and the coroner talking about the lacerations sustained on the victims and who they are. Crane shot

13 – Birds eye view Showing a deceased body with the two detectives around it inspecting the bodies’ right hand. On the hand there is a number four carved out in roman numerals. The deceased body will be the person focused on earlier on in the trailer. Zoom to the numeral

14 – Extreme close up The camera will focus directly on the right hand and make that the focus point of the shot. Cut
‘Four murders with four roman numerals all on the right hand. Copycat or one serial killer’

15 – Long shot The camera will focus on a model having a photo shoot similar to Marilyn Monroe Dissolve

16 – High angle close up The camera will focus on the female model being stabbed to death by the serial killer. Flash

17 – High angle two shot The two detective look over a letter that was addressed to them with the envelope on the table beside them. Zoom

18 – Extreme close up The camera pans down the letter and as the detectives finish the letter they meet with the voice over to finish the letter. Fades to black
Voice over from the letter.

19 – Close up For the final time the camera will go back to the person outside the car. The camera will stop at the characters lips that are shaded by the low key lighting. Fades to black

20 – Birds eye view The detectives lay out 9 files; 9 photos and 9 newspapers across a table. Each file will come out quickly like a montage. Cut

21 Title of the film

22 – Extreme close up The lips whisper at the screen. ‘Let’s make it 10’

Shot types (scans).

Shot list (written)

1: Approval screen

2: Logo’s for the three film companies that are incorporated into our film.

3: Close up tracking towards the right following closely to a car tyre.

4: Close up of the serial killers feet outside the car.

5: Long shot showing a female singer on a stage singing towards an uninterested crowd.

6: Over the shoulder shot of the detectives chasing down a suspect through dark ally’s. The camera will show mainly the suspect fleeing.

7: A medium shot slowed down by over half to emphasise the importance of the person the camera is focused on. The shot will show the male’s upper body and facial features.

8: A close up of the trouser legs and knee’s from the serial killer outside the car.

9: A three shot will be used to show a conversation between the detectives and the chief commissioner.

10: Medium shot of a third detective explaining of another murder.

11: The close up on the serial killer will continue and stop at the bloody knife in his right hand.

12: Shot reverse shot showing a conversation between the coroner and the two detectives. The shot will be a mid-shot and only showing the top halves of their body.

13: A bird’s eye view that shows the whole crime scene in its entirety. In the background will be forensic teams and photographers examining evidence etc.

14: Extreme close up focusing on the victim’s right hand and the symbol carved onto it.

15: Long shot showing a model being photographed in a similar way to Marilyn Monroe. The long shot will show the photographers in the foreground and the model in the background.

16: High angle close up focusing on the model’s scared face as she is being brutally murdered.

17: High angle two shot showing a letter that is addressed to the detectives from the mysterious serial killer.

18: Extreme close up of the letter that the detectives are looking at.

19: Close up of the serial killers lips outside the car. Emphasising the dirt of his face and the sweat around his mouth.

20: Bird’s eye view of a large table with 27 documents lay out on the table. They flash up quickly like a montage.

21: Title of the film

22 Extreme close up of the serial killers lips.

Shot list (scans)

Violence against women

Throughout our research we did come across the issue that women are always targeted and we noticed that it wasn't just in film but in everyday life as well. To maintain the film noir look we did include several dead female characters as this was the norm in the 1950's but to challenge the violence against women we also incorporated several dead male characters to make sure that we do not discriminate against one particular gender.

Violence against women is a very serious topic and our 16th shot shows a female character being 'stabbed to death' however we are going to ammend this shot by showing a shadow or silhouette of the action in order to not offened any body whilst they watch our trailer.

We have at this time already drawn and taking the photographs for our storyboard and are therefore going to leave them how they are. The storyboards state that the female character will be stabbed but this will not be the case and we will in fact show the shadow or silhouette as we have stated.

Prop research.

Prop Research on Prezi

Code Research

'Code' Research on Prezi

Film Names research

When choosing a film name you want something that stands out and it quite easy to remember. The most memorable ones for me are the ones that directly relate to the film itself and therefore you remember them more.

An example of this is ‘Toy Story’ the title already tells you about the film, it suggests that the film will be based around a toy or toys and that it will be there story that you are going to watch. This easy to remember title relates to the film and therefore we remember it easier and we also remember the film easier.



Another example and a more recent one is ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ again this title tells the audience what the film is exactly about and in this case we can tell that the film is about Apes rising against humans or something similar. The title although long is easy to remember and therefore we have the possibility to make a longer title if we needed to.



We decided that when we finally came up with a film name we should create a few then sit down together and finalise them until we have the best one we could think of that not only fits the genre but is also memorable. We will both come up with the film names together so then we could discuss them as we go and share our thoughts on each one.

Weapon Research

Before we created our shot list we needed to decide on how our serial killer will actually murder his victims. We looked at several different types of weapons before we chose one. We wanted a weapon that would be easily obtained by anyone.

• The Winchester Model 1912 or Model 12 was a pump action shotgun that was in production for 51 years. Over the 51 year time period the shotgun was adapted with different barrel’s; gauges and grades. The gun was known as the ‘Perfect Repeater’ and although an old gun it was said to be very reliable. However considering we are in 2011 and in modern times carrying a fire arm is illegal it will be very hard to actually get this gun for starters but to also use it. Although it would fit in with the time period nicely it is just not practical.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Winchester_Model_1912.JPG


• Another weapon that is easily obtainable during this time period is ‘Rope’. The small fibres braided together form a strong and hard to break product and this product would have been ideal for our serial killer to strangle his victims. The easy to gain product would not have made our serial killer so easy to trace and therefore he would be able to use it more than once. This weapon is a possibility for our final trailer however the question is asked how he carves a Roman numeral into his victim’s hands and for that he would need a knife.


http://personal.strath.ac.uk/andrew.mclaren/Pictures/Mammut_Flash_.jpg

• A knife is a sharp cutting tool with a blade one end and a handle the other. They are very common in kitchens and are easy to buy at shops. Although in today’s modern times the knife is illegal to carry, you can buy replicas that do not have a harmful blade on them. We like the idea of the knife because it doesn’t ask how the roman numerals were cut out because as the audience you can put the two together and work it out. Depending on the size of the knife you can more often than not hide them in jacket sleeves or trouser pockets and this would be ideal for our serial killer who wants to surprise kill his victims.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Damascus_Bowie.jpg

Music Research

Within our trailer we wanted to use music that not only reflected the genre and period but made the audience actually want to listen and/or buy the track if it came available. Our research took us all over YouTube; different tribute acts and Garage band on the macs.

Due to copyright reasons if we were to use a real band or tribute act we would have to have permission and in some cases we would have had to pay them for their tracks. This said we discovered that making or finding the right music was going to be very hard and time consuming. We started our research with ideas flying through the air and not going into much detail and when we finally decided upon a female singer and we had a starting point.

The female singer was going to perform on stage similar to the actual 50’s where you see them singing on stage in clubs and bars. Therefore to fit in with the time period we needed a song that was slow and meaningful. We decided that our singer would mime while filming and then we would dub the voice over after and if we were not satisfied with the outcome we were willing to re-film that section of the film.

We looked into several tribute acts that we came across through our work and we decided to look further into their style. The first was ‘John Lloyd’ a tribute act to Michael Buble and other artists, his style was good for a different genre but however it wasn’t what we wanted and therefore we looked for an alternative. The second tribute act was ‘The Motown Sisters’ again we heard about this through work and decided to look them up on YouTube, the video can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjVBqT0NFg and although they were good in their own right, they didn’t tick the boxes for us in terms of genre and time period.

Through our research we found that the female singer crept up in a number of Noir films and therefore this was the obvious route for us to take. This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb0AeoWrepA showed us the sort of music we should try to re-create. The Tennessee Waltz by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King was very helpful and we through it would fit our genre the best but due to copyright reasons we couldn’t use the song out right and therefore we would have to attempt to re-make something similar on garage band or with instruments.

Garage Band allowed us to explore many different styles; genres and instruments. We have previously played around with the programme and have learnt the basics but in order to make something professional on the programme we would need a lot more practice which again is something we as a group are willing to do.

We knew that making music was a tough job and we wanted to spend time on making something believable and professional and the research we have undertaken has helped us decide on the path to take for our own trailer.

Roman Numerals.

Roman Numerals research

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Here is my costume research.

COSTUME RESEARCH

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Here is my hair &make up research.

make up and hair research

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Transition Research

Transition Research on Prezi

Locations Research

Locations Research

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Lighting Research

Lighting Research

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Main Character Name ideas

Main Character Names

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Location Mood board

This is our locations mood board which I have drawn by hand for our group.

Collage

Here is a collage of images made up of iconic people and objects around in the 50's.

Props Moodboard.

This is a drawn mood board showing the props which we will be using in our trailer.

Inspirational Products

Inspirational products

More PowerPoint presentations from Eden

Noir Genre Research

Deeper Noir research. on Prezi

Audience in depth

The audience we want to attract will be teenagers and young adults. This section of society is known for a fact to go to the cinema on a regular basis therefore they are a perfect group to target.

The demographic will be C2 which are skilled manual workers; D which are semi-skilled and un-skilled manual workers and E which are students or people who depend on the state for their income. These groups are our target audience and we want to appeal to them as much as possible and with myself and Gemma fitting into these specific demographic groups we will have an idea about what people will want to see in a film.

The certificate of the film will be a 15. This will enable us to create something that is accessible to the teenagers we want to reach out to. However with the film being a 15 the language and violence will have to be toned down a lot due to restrictions from British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

The restrictions from the BBFC can be found at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/ and they go into great detail about what is acceptable and what is not for the age certificate. This will be of great use to us when we come to put the final trailer together because we can check against the guidelines if the film would pass or not.

The gender focus will be both male and females as we have discovered through personal research that the two genders equally like the idea of film noir and neither one really stood out for disliking the genre. This said we will try our best to appeal to both genders through the means of posters; websites and the final trailer but it will come down to the individual’s thoughts about the trailer.

Pitch.

This shows a brief overview of the genre of our trailer, our target audience, what type of people and particular social groups that we will be representing, and a summary of the plot of the film we wish to create.

In depth Questionnaire Results

We gave out our questionnaire to 25 different people spanning across 40 decades of age. However only 17 actually responded and gave us their answers. The results are mixed and somewhat disappointing for us and the film noire genre as a whole. The seven questions were for us to understand how well the genre is known in today’s society and it was meant to give us in depth feedback. According to one response the questionnaire was too in depth and we found that a lot of the responses couldn’t complete a lot of the questions. Below is the collected results summarised in the easiest way possible with open and closed questions.

Question one asked for the participant to simply define Film Noir as a genre. The responses varied quite a lot with one response cropping up a little too often. Two participants accurately responded to the question with good detail while six participants answered with a straight ‘No’. In the middle of these responses were answers that maybe knew the genre but couldn’t define it accurately. This lack in knowledge of the genre worried us as a group because it seems that the genre is not meant for today’s society and that the times have drastically moved on.

The second question asked if the participants felt that there was a gap in the cinema market for Film Noir in this modern society. Seven participants responded with ‘Yes’ and a lot of them explained that we should modernise the genre. Out of the 17 responses only two of them felt that there was not a gap in the market and the other eight either left blank or were not sure. This reassures us that doing a film noir is the right option a large proportion of our audience does feel that there is a gap for the genre we want to do.

Our third question was a closed question and asked if the audience would watch a film if it was in black and white. A remarkable 14 responses said they would watch a film in black and white with only 3 stating that they wouldn't.



Similar to the previous question the fourth one is also a closed question. We wanted to find out if our audience would rather us to update the genre with mobile phones etc. Or if they would rather see the old style 1940’s style. We received 11 responses saying we should update the genre while only 6 wanted us to maintain the classic style.



The fifth question was quite a difficult one for the participants to answer but we needed to know how well the genre was known so we asked them: What conventions would you see during a noir film. We understood that we probably wouldn’t receive that many answers for this question but to our delight we received 5 really good answers that gave us at least two conventions. Although 12 participants failed to answer incorrectly or at all we still feel that there is a glimpse of hope for the genre and that we are heading in the right direction because of the few people that do know a little about the genre.

Question six was set up to find out what noir films the participants had seen before if any at all. The question was a closed question with room to specify the answer they gave. We concluded that 6 people gave responses that were films classed as neo noir or film noir and 11 out of the 17 hadn’t ever seen one. This does show us that there is an audience for the genre although only small in today’s society but bigger than we anticipated.

The final question was a closed question trying to find out if the participants would pay to see a noir film at the cinema. The results were nothing like what we expected. With 6 participants leaving the question blank and only 3 answering ‘no’ it was a clear wakeup call that people did want to see the genre once again and that they would actually pay money to see it as well.

Questionnaire Feedback

This is an example of one of our questionnaire results and it is one of the better ones that we did receive.

In depth Film Noir questionnaire

Above is the in depth questionnaire we created to find out how much our audience actually know about the genre.

Questionnaire Results.

These are the results which we got from our first questionnaire, we have put them into charts so it is easier to read the results.

Questionnaire Results.

Here are the results from the questionnaire in tally form.

Genre Questionnaires

We decided to create a questionnaire to ask random selected people about their views on different genres. This was to give us a clearer idea on what type of film trailer to create.

Our Logo

This is the logo will we be using for our production name. It is unique and simple so that people can remember and recognise it easily. We have kept it within the style of the theme of our blog with suitable colours (grey) which relates to the genre of Noir film which we will be creating.