Editing: All my editing will be done using the Mac editing software or Abode Photoshop for my stop motion styled shots. I will be using quick cuts for some of my film to add more to the mood and make it appeal more to my selected genre.
Sound: For sound I will be using the album for experimental band Wolf Eyes, I have chosen this album as it’s got the perfect atmosphere for my film, eary, scary and dark in feel. The album is presented as 8 different tracks that all flow into each other sort of like 1 big track. I will be cutting bits from each track that I feel will create the best mood for my film.
Effects: the effects I will use will be applied using the Mac editing software or using Adobe Photoshop. I wont be applying a heavy amount of effects as I feel they can make a film look tacky. I will use effects to help with the flow from scene to scene but I wont have any lighting effects.
Location: Ballynahinch 1st Presbyterian Church. I will be shooting in the actual church itself, the church hall, this includes various small rooms and the kitchen. I will also be shooting at my old house for the asylum patient scene. Finally ill be shooting on the main roads for the car travelling.
Props: mobile phone for scanning device, candles to add light, cars for driving and a white shirt for the straight jacket.
Make up: N/A
Sound:
Diegetic sounds are: The actors talking
The pane of glass smashing
Cars engines, various other ambient sounds
Non Diegetic sounds are: The soundtrack throughout the whole film
Lighting: Mostly natural light, some from candles and on camera flashlight
Camera Shots: POV, close up, long shot, whip pan, pan, eye level and Dutch angles.
Monday, 19 May 2008
Screenplay
INT/EXT: WALKING TO CHURCH. NIGHT
LS - Night, THOMAS and BILLY are walking towards the church and the crime scene.
BILLY
Evening Thomas
THOMAS
Evening Billy, what we got?
BILLY
Murder victim, male, young teens
THOMAS
Got ID?
BILLY
Not as of yet
THOMAS
Determined COD (cause of death)?
BILLY
Possible asphyxiation were not sure yet
INT: ENTERING CRIMESCENE. NIGHT
MS – Night. Thomas and Billy are greeted by an officer who lets them into the crime scene to investigate.
OFFICER
Body is in here
INT: INVESTGATING BODY. NIGHT
POV – Night. Thomas and Billy hear glass smashing.
(Glass SMASHING)
THOMAS
What was that?
BILLY
Billy – Sounded like glass smashing
THOMAS
BILLY
Possibly, you go ahead and check it out
Thomas – Squatters?
LS - Night, THOMAS and BILLY are walking towards the church and the crime scene.
BILLY
Evening Thomas
THOMAS
Evening Billy, what we got?
BILLY
Murder victim, male, young teens
THOMAS
Got ID?
BILLY
Not as of yet
THOMAS
Determined COD (cause of death)?
BILLY
Possible asphyxiation were not sure yet
INT: ENTERING CRIMESCENE. NIGHT
MS – Night. Thomas and Billy are greeted by an officer who lets them into the crime scene to investigate.
OFFICER
Body is in here
INT: INVESTGATING BODY. NIGHT
POV – Night. Thomas and Billy hear glass smashing.
(Glass SMASHING)
THOMAS
What was that?
BILLY
Billy – Sounded like glass smashing
THOMAS
BILLY
Possibly, you go ahead and check it out
Thomas – Squatters?
Evaluation
The task I set myself was to make a thriller, neo noir inspired short movie based around a murder, investigating the murder and the problems that result from this.
My film was inspired by the Manhunt video game and the Saw films, using the Manhunt style and the Saw lighting I had hoped to create a dark crime thriller.
Technically my film did work, everything I had planned to do shot wise etc worked fine, although I wasn’t happy with the cameras ability to make a bold contrast between light and dark, which was going to be a key feature in my film, with the Mac editing software I could get around this obstacle, this would involve adjusting the shots gamma and contrast to get a better colour and contrast between light and dark. I had several problems near the start of pre production with location scouting as I couldn’t locate the perfect location that I wanted to make my film feel and look like the Manhunt game. In the end I found a church that would do and then with a lot of pre production work on the Macs, this included adjusting the shots gamma making it lighter and darker where necessary, adjusting the contrast making it a bolder contrast or a suttle contrast between the shots colour, by doing these various effects I could achieve the dank feel I was going for at the start.
Getting actors was also a bit tricky as my film mostly required the older generation to act in my film, and seeing I don’t know any older men this was my first problem. Fortunately my mum knew several willing actors through the church who were quite happy to act.
The second problem was when they were available to shoot, although my film did take place mostly at night time it was still hard to timetable my film so all of the actors were available on near enough the same time as many of them do have full time jobs and families to worry about. In the end though we did get it sorted but it meant that I would need to shoot bits and pieces over various different days etc. Another issue was actually getting time to shoot in the church, as it being a church its open most days of the week for various church related activities, in the end the only days I was able to shoot were Saturday night and a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday, the rest of the time the church was doing stuff.
For some of the scenes I needed to have eyes scratched into the walls as they would tie in parts of my film, like who scratched the eyes and was it linked to the murder, the flashback of the asylum patient with the same eyes scratched on the walls of his room would wrap this up for the audience. Now I couldn’t just go about scratching eyes into the church walls, they wouldn’t allow it, so I had to think of away around this. After much thinking I though what if I were to take stills of the room, like stop motion and draw the eyes onto the walls using the Photoshop software, after doing a few trial pieces this proved to be a great idea and it worked perfectly.
When I set out to make a short film I had imagined it to be a dark crime thriller which mise en scene similar to that of the videogame Manhunt, and the lighting of Saw. I feel that I did achieve most of my vision, I’m pleased with the mise en scene and how it appeared although I’m not happy with the contrast between light and dark, but that’s down to camera quality, and it’s something to my knowledge I couldn’t change with the equipment I had. I’m fairly happy with my vision I had at the start and my films final outcome
Unfortunately the audience didn’t react to my film in the way I had wished them to, many of them were confused by the eyes on the walls and the cloaked person popping up everywhere and half of the time they didn’t understand what was going on as far as the storyline was, many people even found it to be more comedy than dark crime thriller which was quite upsetting. I feel this feedback I received was down to my own fault, I didn’t make the story clear enough and I feel I should have done better to make the story more clear. It was clear enough to me, that’s why I though it was fine, but I didn’t think about how the audience would interpret it.
Over my production I encountered various problems which were quite large blows to my film in how it would appear and feel towards the audience, at the start of filming I thought time wasn’t going to be an issue and I felt I could get all my story fitted into those 5 minutes, but as time progressed I found that it was going to be harder to include everything I wanted into my film, in the end I did have to cut out a few scenes but I made sure to try and keep as many of the key scenes as possible to prevent the audience getting too confused by the story
The problems with getting time to shoot in the church was overcome by my mum talking to various church goers to see when the church would be free for me to shoot, these times were then given to the actors and I asked if these times suited for the filming, most of them could make it on the various days but on a couple of occasions work kept them back or there was an emergency thing going on in the church preventing me from acting. The eyes on the walls were overcome by me using my Photoshop skills to paint the eyes in and by using still frames instead of moving image. This was a lot harder and time consuming to do than it sounds and I found it was hard to seamlessly link up the frames to make it look like one flowing moving image shot, in the end though I feel I overcame this problem.
From this experience I found that if you are making a low budget short film its better to see what location and what actors you can get before you plan your film, something I found out, I made my story up then had weeks of panicking trying to find a location and actors. Don’t leave all the filming to the last minute get the bulk of it done as soon as possible, as it can take longer to edit that what you had planned, but if there is anything you need to change try and shoot it again as soon as possible don’t leave it until the last week etc. I found that you can always improvise, if you have a problem with the editing or the shooting phase there is always something you can do you overcome it, it might not look as perfect as you wanted it to but its better than nothing. Don’t make your story too complicated as it won’t fit into the five minutes that you have, make your story simple but good at the same time. this was a problem I found which had a big impact on my film in the end.
My film was inspired by the Manhunt video game and the Saw films, using the Manhunt style and the Saw lighting I had hoped to create a dark crime thriller.
Technically my film did work, everything I had planned to do shot wise etc worked fine, although I wasn’t happy with the cameras ability to make a bold contrast between light and dark, which was going to be a key feature in my film, with the Mac editing software I could get around this obstacle, this would involve adjusting the shots gamma and contrast to get a better colour and contrast between light and dark. I had several problems near the start of pre production with location scouting as I couldn’t locate the perfect location that I wanted to make my film feel and look like the Manhunt game. In the end I found a church that would do and then with a lot of pre production work on the Macs, this included adjusting the shots gamma making it lighter and darker where necessary, adjusting the contrast making it a bolder contrast or a suttle contrast between the shots colour, by doing these various effects I could achieve the dank feel I was going for at the start.
Getting actors was also a bit tricky as my film mostly required the older generation to act in my film, and seeing I don’t know any older men this was my first problem. Fortunately my mum knew several willing actors through the church who were quite happy to act.
The second problem was when they were available to shoot, although my film did take place mostly at night time it was still hard to timetable my film so all of the actors were available on near enough the same time as many of them do have full time jobs and families to worry about. In the end though we did get it sorted but it meant that I would need to shoot bits and pieces over various different days etc. Another issue was actually getting time to shoot in the church, as it being a church its open most days of the week for various church related activities, in the end the only days I was able to shoot were Saturday night and a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday, the rest of the time the church was doing stuff.
For some of the scenes I needed to have eyes scratched into the walls as they would tie in parts of my film, like who scratched the eyes and was it linked to the murder, the flashback of the asylum patient with the same eyes scratched on the walls of his room would wrap this up for the audience. Now I couldn’t just go about scratching eyes into the church walls, they wouldn’t allow it, so I had to think of away around this. After much thinking I though what if I were to take stills of the room, like stop motion and draw the eyes onto the walls using the Photoshop software, after doing a few trial pieces this proved to be a great idea and it worked perfectly.
When I set out to make a short film I had imagined it to be a dark crime thriller which mise en scene similar to that of the videogame Manhunt, and the lighting of Saw. I feel that I did achieve most of my vision, I’m pleased with the mise en scene and how it appeared although I’m not happy with the contrast between light and dark, but that’s down to camera quality, and it’s something to my knowledge I couldn’t change with the equipment I had. I’m fairly happy with my vision I had at the start and my films final outcome
Unfortunately the audience didn’t react to my film in the way I had wished them to, many of them were confused by the eyes on the walls and the cloaked person popping up everywhere and half of the time they didn’t understand what was going on as far as the storyline was, many people even found it to be more comedy than dark crime thriller which was quite upsetting. I feel this feedback I received was down to my own fault, I didn’t make the story clear enough and I feel I should have done better to make the story more clear. It was clear enough to me, that’s why I though it was fine, but I didn’t think about how the audience would interpret it.
Over my production I encountered various problems which were quite large blows to my film in how it would appear and feel towards the audience, at the start of filming I thought time wasn’t going to be an issue and I felt I could get all my story fitted into those 5 minutes, but as time progressed I found that it was going to be harder to include everything I wanted into my film, in the end I did have to cut out a few scenes but I made sure to try and keep as many of the key scenes as possible to prevent the audience getting too confused by the story
The problems with getting time to shoot in the church was overcome by my mum talking to various church goers to see when the church would be free for me to shoot, these times were then given to the actors and I asked if these times suited for the filming, most of them could make it on the various days but on a couple of occasions work kept them back or there was an emergency thing going on in the church preventing me from acting. The eyes on the walls were overcome by me using my Photoshop skills to paint the eyes in and by using still frames instead of moving image. This was a lot harder and time consuming to do than it sounds and I found it was hard to seamlessly link up the frames to make it look like one flowing moving image shot, in the end though I feel I overcame this problem.
From this experience I found that if you are making a low budget short film its better to see what location and what actors you can get before you plan your film, something I found out, I made my story up then had weeks of panicking trying to find a location and actors. Don’t leave all the filming to the last minute get the bulk of it done as soon as possible, as it can take longer to edit that what you had planned, but if there is anything you need to change try and shoot it again as soon as possible don’t leave it until the last week etc. I found that you can always improvise, if you have a problem with the editing or the shooting phase there is always something you can do you overcome it, it might not look as perfect as you wanted it to but its better than nothing. Don’t make your story too complicated as it won’t fit into the five minutes that you have, make your story simple but good at the same time. this was a problem I found which had a big impact on my film in the end.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Statement Of Intentions
The main theme I want to send to my audience is a psychological crime thriller, this will be inspired by the neo noir style. This includes low key lighting and Dutch angles. My characters won’t apply to the conventional neo noir characters, this being femme fatal, my film wont apply to these characters as I don’t have any females in my film.
My movie is about a police officer from the CSI branch who is called to investigate a crime scene in a church somewhere in the slums of an unknown area. The reason I feel the need to keep the location unknown is so people can’t relate to anything they see If I said it was in Belfast people could maybe relate to some of the settings they see, or anything they recognise. The officer has been called to the crime scene as he was the only available officer on duty at the time.
While he is gathering the evidence he hears noises coming from another room in the building and decides to continue further into the building to find out what is making the noises, he suspects it’s the murderer, or a witness. He enters the room where he hears the noise and looks towards the window and see a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building, he chases the suspect by going through another room, while in this room he sees eyes all over the walls, he has a flashback of a man in a mental asylum standing calmly looking out a window, but he doesn’t see his face. The person has scratched eyes all over the walls in his room. He was a possible suspect for a murder that Thomas was working on years ago, he scratched eyes into the walls as he thought people were watching / stalking him. When Thomas tracks the person down to the kitchen he spots him but before he can tell him to stop the person runs out the door and towards the church. Thomas follows the person into the church where he is greeted by second person they try to scare Thomas by popping up everywhere. The film ends with the asylum flashback except this time we see the patients face.
The narrative structure my film will have is non linear. The reason it is non linear is because I will have flash backs, so my story wont follow Todorovs theory as he lays it out, I will play about with it. The flash backs will help the audience understand why the eyes are there, and the audience will see the possible murder suspect. The second flash back will show a man in a mental asylum looking out a window the scene looks quite normal but there are eyes scratched into the walls. The final flashback will how the previous flashback but this time it will continue and this time the persons face will be revealed. My film will follow a typical Hollywood storyline, a start, middle and end.
Equilibrium – Thomas being called to crime scene
Disequilibrium – Hearing noises in the building
Recognition of disequilibrium / Attempt to resolve – Follows the noise
Disequilibrium – cloaked person hinders Thomas
New equilibrium – Thomas finds who murderer is
The two main influences for my film were the “Saw” film series directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan. The style in which they made the saw films really inspired me to make mine in a similar style. I like how they use lighting in the Saw films, extreme low key in some places and extreme high key in others. To achieve a similar effect in my own film I will make sure to make the light low key and high key, and make the light pick up on objects that usually the dark would hide. I also liked how they made the mise en scene very dank and look neglected. I’ll try and achieve a similar tone for my film by using old and unused locations for my settings. Also with the Dutch angles Saw uses to make their audience feel uneasy were very effective. Another great inspiration for me was the manhunt video game developed by Rockstar studios. Again the really liked the mise en scene in this game, it is very similar to the saw style, dark, dank and neglected, again I will try and get a similar effect with finding my location, making sure its an old unused building. The storyline for me was inspired by watching CSI for years. It follows the basic plot, a murder is committed, they investigate it, usually have some sort of struggle during this, and finally they solve the case. My film will have a roughly similar layout. The film genre “Neo – Noir” was also I good help when I was planning how my film would look, with the lighting and shot angles. At the start of my planning I was going to pay tribute to the Film Noir genre by making my film in B/W, I decided against this as people may find it boring and by having Neo Noir I can have the style of Noir, but the modern colored film.
I am using these techniques as I feel they are what I need to get the right feel and tone for my film, with the genre I have decided to use, I feel these techniques will show the genre of the most, they should work smoothly with the genre and should have a good impact on the audience. As I stated above I will try an incorporate similar styles from the films / games that inspired me into my film, I will not copy the style completely, as I don’t want to copy someone else’s ideas, ill use a basic template of how they used the style and form my own unique take of it to give my film more of a unique feel.
For the look and feel of my film I would like it to be similar to the look and feel of neo noir, I like how neo noir use low key lighting, I guess the saw films have a huge inspiration from neo noir. Id like my film to use mostly low key lighting, but use the occasional extreme high key to disorientate the audience. My film will rely more on diegetic sound rather than non diegetic, and for the soundtrack I have selected a series of creepy songs by the band Wolf Eyes. I feel I can create a better dark crime feel with diegetic sounds. Although saying that, it wouldn’t be bad to have non diegetic in some parts. I want my mise en scene to be very dark and dank, like in manhunt and saw.
The reasons I have chosen my film to look this certain way is because I feel it’s the best way I can express the genre I have chosen through the mise en scene. Ive looked into the various mise en scenes of the films that have inspired me, I then want to try and create a similar likeness but with my own unique bits added in.
Statement of intentions
The main theme I want to send to my audience is a psychological crime thriller, this will be inspired by the neo noir style. This includes low key lighting and Dutch angles. My characters won’t apply to the conventional neo noir characters, this being femme fatal, my film wont apply to these characters as I don’t have any females in my film.
My movie is about a police officer from the CSI branch who is called to investigate a crime scene in a church somewhere in the slums of an unknown area. The reason I feel the need to keep the location unknown is so people can’t relate to anything they see If I said it was in Belfast people could maybe relate to some of the settings they see, or anything they recognise. The officer has been called to the crime scene as he was the only available officer on duty at the time.
While he is gathering the evidence he hears noises coming from another room in the building and decides to continue further into the building to find out what is making the noises, he suspects it’s the murderer, or a witness. He enters the room where he hears the noise and looks towards the window and see a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building, he chases the suspect by going through another room, while in this room he sees eyes all over the walls, he has a flashback of a man in a mental asylum standing calmly looking out a window, but he doesn’t see his face. The person has scratched eyes all over the walls in his room. He was a possible suspect for a murder that Thomas was working on years ago, he scratched eyes into the walls as he thought people were watching / stalking him. When Thomas tracks the person down to the kitchen he spots him but before he can tell him to stop the person runs out the door and towards the church. Thomas follows the person into the church where he is greeted by second person they try to scare Thomas by popping up everywhere. The film ends with the asylum flashback except this time we see the patients face.
The narrative structure my film will have is non linear. The reason it is non linear is because I will have flash backs, so my story wont follow Todorovs theory as he lays it out, I will play about with it. The flash backs will help the audience understand why the eyes are there, and the audience will see the possible murder suspect. The second flash back will show a man in a mental asylum looking out a window the scene looks quite normal but there are eyes scratched into the walls. The final flashback will how the previous flashback but this time it will continue and this time the persons face will be revealed. My film will follow a typical Hollywood storyline, a start, middle and end.
Equilibrium – Thomas being called to crime scene
Disequilibrium – Hearing noises in the building
Recognition of disequilibrium / Attempt to resolve – Follows the noise
Disequilibrium – cloaked person hinders Thomas
New equilibrium – Thomas finds who murderer is
The two main influences for my film were the “Saw” film series directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan. The style in which they made the saw films really inspired me to make mine in a similar style. I like how they use lighting in the Saw films, extreme low key in some places and extreme high key in others. To achieve a similar effect in my own film I will make sure to make the light low key and high key, and make the light pick up on objects that usually the dark would hide. I also liked how they made the mise en scene very dank and look neglected. I’ll try and achieve a similar tone for my film by using old and unused locations for my settings. Also with the Dutch angles Saw uses to make their audience feel uneasy were very effective. Another great inspiration for me was the manhunt video game developed by Rockstar studios. Again the really liked the mise en scene in this game, it is very similar to the saw style, dark, dank and neglected, again I will try and get a similar effect with finding my location, making sure its an old unused building. The storyline for me was inspired by watching CSI for years. It follows the basic plot, a murder is committed, they investigate it, usually have some sort of struggle during this, and finally they solve the case. My film will have a roughly similar layout. The film genre “Neo – Noir” was also I good help when I was planning how my film would look, with the lighting and shot angles. At the start of my planning I was going to pay tribute to the Film Noir genre by making my film in B/W, I decided against this as people may find it boring and by having Neo Noir I can have the style of Noir, but the modern colored film.
I am using these techniques as I feel they are what I need to get the right feel and tone for my film, with the genre I have decided to use, I feel these techniques will show the genre of the most, they should work smoothly with the genre and should have a good impact on the audience. As I stated above I will try an incorporate similar styles from the films / games that inspired me into my film, I will not copy the style completely, as I don’t want to copy someone else’s ideas, ill use a basic template of how they used the style and form my own unique take of it to give my film more of a unique feel.
For the look and feel of my film I would like it to be similar to the look and feel of neo noir, I like how neo noir use low key lighting, I guess the saw films have a huge inspiration from neo noir. Id like my film to use mostly low key lighting, but use the occasional extreme high key to disorientate the audience. My film will rely more on diegetic sound rather than non diegetic, and for the soundtrack I have selected a series of creepy songs by the band Wolf Eyes. I feel I can create a better dark crime feel with diegetic sounds. Although saying that, it wouldn’t be bad to have non diegetic in some parts. I want my mise en scene to be very dark and dank, like in manhunt and saw.
The reasons I have chosen my film to look this certain way is because I feel it’s the best way I can express the genre I have chosen through the mise en scene. Ive looked into the various mise en scenes of the films that have inspired me, I then want to try and create a similar likeness but with my own unique bits added in.
My movie is about a police officer from the CSI branch who is called to investigate a crime scene in a church somewhere in the slums of an unknown area. The reason I feel the need to keep the location unknown is so people can’t relate to anything they see If I said it was in Belfast people could maybe relate to some of the settings they see, or anything they recognise. The officer has been called to the crime scene as he was the only available officer on duty at the time.
While he is gathering the evidence he hears noises coming from another room in the building and decides to continue further into the building to find out what is making the noises, he suspects it’s the murderer, or a witness. He enters the room where he hears the noise and looks towards the window and see a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building, he chases the suspect by going through another room, while in this room he sees eyes all over the walls, he has a flashback of a man in a mental asylum standing calmly looking out a window, but he doesn’t see his face. The person has scratched eyes all over the walls in his room. He was a possible suspect for a murder that Thomas was working on years ago, he scratched eyes into the walls as he thought people were watching / stalking him. When Thomas tracks the person down to the kitchen he spots him but before he can tell him to stop the person runs out the door and towards the church. Thomas follows the person into the church where he is greeted by second person they try to scare Thomas by popping up everywhere. The film ends with the asylum flashback except this time we see the patients face.
The narrative structure my film will have is non linear. The reason it is non linear is because I will have flash backs, so my story wont follow Todorovs theory as he lays it out, I will play about with it. The flash backs will help the audience understand why the eyes are there, and the audience will see the possible murder suspect. The second flash back will show a man in a mental asylum looking out a window the scene looks quite normal but there are eyes scratched into the walls. The final flashback will how the previous flashback but this time it will continue and this time the persons face will be revealed. My film will follow a typical Hollywood storyline, a start, middle and end.
Equilibrium – Thomas being called to crime scene
Disequilibrium – Hearing noises in the building
Recognition of disequilibrium / Attempt to resolve – Follows the noise
Disequilibrium – cloaked person hinders Thomas
New equilibrium – Thomas finds who murderer is
The two main influences for my film were the “Saw” film series directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan. The style in which they made the saw films really inspired me to make mine in a similar style. I like how they use lighting in the Saw films, extreme low key in some places and extreme high key in others. To achieve a similar effect in my own film I will make sure to make the light low key and high key, and make the light pick up on objects that usually the dark would hide. I also liked how they made the mise en scene very dank and look neglected. I’ll try and achieve a similar tone for my film by using old and unused locations for my settings. Also with the Dutch angles Saw uses to make their audience feel uneasy were very effective. Another great inspiration for me was the manhunt video game developed by Rockstar studios. Again the really liked the mise en scene in this game, it is very similar to the saw style, dark, dank and neglected, again I will try and get a similar effect with finding my location, making sure its an old unused building. The storyline for me was inspired by watching CSI for years. It follows the basic plot, a murder is committed, they investigate it, usually have some sort of struggle during this, and finally they solve the case. My film will have a roughly similar layout. The film genre “Neo – Noir” was also I good help when I was planning how my film would look, with the lighting and shot angles. At the start of my planning I was going to pay tribute to the Film Noir genre by making my film in B/W, I decided against this as people may find it boring and by having Neo Noir I can have the style of Noir, but the modern colored film.
I am using these techniques as I feel they are what I need to get the right feel and tone for my film, with the genre I have decided to use, I feel these techniques will show the genre of the most, they should work smoothly with the genre and should have a good impact on the audience. As I stated above I will try an incorporate similar styles from the films / games that inspired me into my film, I will not copy the style completely, as I don’t want to copy someone else’s ideas, ill use a basic template of how they used the style and form my own unique take of it to give my film more of a unique feel.
For the look and feel of my film I would like it to be similar to the look and feel of neo noir, I like how neo noir use low key lighting, I guess the saw films have a huge inspiration from neo noir. Id like my film to use mostly low key lighting, but use the occasional extreme high key to disorientate the audience. My film will rely more on diegetic sound rather than non diegetic, and for the soundtrack I have selected a series of creepy songs by the band Wolf Eyes. I feel I can create a better dark crime feel with diegetic sounds. Although saying that, it wouldn’t be bad to have non diegetic in some parts. I want my mise en scene to be very dark and dank, like in manhunt and saw.
The reasons I have chosen my film to look this certain way is because I feel it’s the best way I can express the genre I have chosen through the mise en scene. Ive looked into the various mise en scenes of the films that have inspired me, I then want to try and create a similar likeness but with my own unique bits added in.
Statement of intentions
The main theme I want to send to my audience is a psychological crime thriller, this will be inspired by the neo noir style. This includes low key lighting and Dutch angles. My characters won’t apply to the conventional neo noir characters, this being femme fatal, my film wont apply to these characters as I don’t have any females in my film.
My movie is about a police officer from the CSI branch who is called to investigate a crime scene in a church somewhere in the slums of an unknown area. The reason I feel the need to keep the location unknown is so people can’t relate to anything they see If I said it was in Belfast people could maybe relate to some of the settings they see, or anything they recognise. The officer has been called to the crime scene as he was the only available officer on duty at the time.
While he is gathering the evidence he hears noises coming from another room in the building and decides to continue further into the building to find out what is making the noises, he suspects it’s the murderer, or a witness. He enters the room where he hears the noise and looks towards the window and see a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building, he chases the suspect by going through another room, while in this room he sees eyes all over the walls, he has a flashback of a man in a mental asylum standing calmly looking out a window, but he doesn’t see his face. The person has scratched eyes all over the walls in his room. He was a possible suspect for a murder that Thomas was working on years ago, he scratched eyes into the walls as he thought people were watching / stalking him. When Thomas tracks the person down to the kitchen he spots him but before he can tell him to stop the person runs out the door and towards the church. Thomas follows the person into the church where he is greeted by second person they try to scare Thomas by popping up everywhere. The film ends with the asylum flashback except this time we see the patients face.
The narrative structure my film will have is non linear. The reason it is non linear is because I will have flash backs, so my story wont follow Todorovs theory as he lays it out, I will play about with it. The flash backs will help the audience understand why the eyes are there, and the audience will see the possible murder suspect. The second flash back will show a man in a mental asylum looking out a window the scene looks quite normal but there are eyes scratched into the walls. The final flashback will how the previous flashback but this time it will continue and this time the persons face will be revealed. My film will follow a typical Hollywood storyline, a start, middle and end.
Equilibrium – Thomas being called to crime scene
Disequilibrium – Hearing noises in the building
Recognition of disequilibrium / Attempt to resolve – Follows the noise
Disequilibrium – cloaked person hinders Thomas
New equilibrium – Thomas finds who murderer is
The two main influences for my film were the “Saw” film series directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan. The style in which they made the saw films really inspired me to make mine in a similar style. I like how they use lighting in the Saw films, extreme low key in some places and extreme high key in others. To achieve a similar effect in my own film I will make sure to make the light low key and high key, and make the light pick up on objects that usually the dark would hide. I also liked how they made the mise en scene very dank and look neglected. I’ll try and achieve a similar tone for my film by using old and unused locations for my settings. Also with the Dutch angles Saw uses to make their audience feel uneasy were very effective. Another great inspiration for me was the manhunt video game developed by Rockstar studios. Again the really liked the mise en scene in this game, it is very similar to the saw style, dark, dank and neglected, again I will try and get a similar effect with finding my location, making sure its an old unused building. The storyline for me was inspired by watching CSI for years. It follows the basic plot, a murder is committed, they investigate it, usually have some sort of struggle during this, and finally they solve the case. My film will have a roughly similar layout. The film genre “Neo – Noir” was also I good help when I was planning how my film would look, with the lighting and shot angles. At the start of my planning I was going to pay tribute to the Film Noir genre by making my film in B/W, I decided against this as people may find it boring and by having Neo Noir I can have the style of Noir, but the modern colored film.
I am using these techniques as I feel they are what I need to get the right feel and tone for my film, with the genre I have decided to use, I feel these techniques will show the genre of the most, they should work smoothly with the genre and should have a good impact on the audience. As I stated above I will try an incorporate similar styles from the films / games that inspired me into my film, I will not copy the style completely, as I don’t want to copy someone else’s ideas, ill use a basic template of how they used the style and form my own unique take of it to give my film more of a unique feel.
For the look and feel of my film I would like it to be similar to the look and feel of neo noir, I like how neo noir use low key lighting, I guess the saw films have a huge inspiration from neo noir. Id like my film to use mostly low key lighting, but use the occasional extreme high key to disorientate the audience. My film will rely more on diegetic sound rather than non diegetic, and for the soundtrack I have selected a series of creepy songs by the band Wolf Eyes. I feel I can create a better dark crime feel with diegetic sounds. Although saying that, it wouldn’t be bad to have non diegetic in some parts. I want my mise en scene to be very dark and dank, like in manhunt and saw.
The reasons I have chosen my film to look this certain way is because I feel it’s the best way I can express the genre I have chosen through the mise en scene. Ive looked into the various mise en scenes of the films that have inspired me, I then want to try and create a similar likeness but with my own unique bits added in.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Research
Top image - Nice use of lighting, dark building style
Second image - Good building style, old and dark
Third image - Good use of light to draw attention to man and machie on floor
Manhunt the video game was a great inspiration for me. The style of the buildings, various settings and the lighting in this game have inspired me to make my theme in a similar style, very dark and dank and deralect.The saw films style also inspired me again with the tone and style it was made, extreme lighting in some parts them super low key in others, also with what saw is famous for is its twists and strange plots. The use of light to draw the audience’s attention so certain part is cool as well. I will try and achieve a similar effect in my film, for example using the light to draw attention to evidence etc. I understand that by having the theme and setting of my film based around a video game it might take the filom away form its realism, i have taken this to account and i will ensure that my film maintains its realism.
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Treatment
Title: Convicted
Duration: 5 minutes
Main Characters:
Main officer – Thomas
Detective – Billy
Murderer – Not mentioned
Cloaked person – No name
Synopsis: An officer is called to a crime scene in a church, while investigating the body he hears noises and suspects it to be a witness or the murderer, so he follows. He tracks the sound down to a room where he sees a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building he is in, again he follows his person, during this he will have a flashback. The person runs away from him and to the church, Thomas follows. Once in the church the person continues to avoid Thomas, the film ends with Thomas having another flashback
I will try and use Dutch angles, low key lighting, shadow manipulation and strange noises to help with the mood of my film. The genre I have chosen is dark psychological horror/ crime almost a neo noir theme, the theme will be based around the “Saw” movies and the video game “Manhunt”, as I feel they have inspired me.
Soundtrack/ Score:
Wolf Eyes – Asylum Style 8
SFX:
Lighting - Low key/ high contrast
Angles - POV, establishing shots
Duration: 5 minutes
Main Characters:
Main officer – Thomas
Detective – Billy
Murderer – Not mentioned
Cloaked person – No name
Synopsis: An officer is called to a crime scene in a church, while investigating the body he hears noises and suspects it to be a witness or the murderer, so he follows. He tracks the sound down to a room where he sees a cloaked person run into the downstairs of the building he is in, again he follows his person, during this he will have a flashback. The person runs away from him and to the church, Thomas follows. Once in the church the person continues to avoid Thomas, the film ends with Thomas having another flashback
I will try and use Dutch angles, low key lighting, shadow manipulation and strange noises to help with the mood of my film. The genre I have chosen is dark psychological horror/ crime almost a neo noir theme, the theme will be based around the “Saw” movies and the video game “Manhunt”, as I feel they have inspired me.
Soundtrack/ Score:
Wolf Eyes – Asylum Style 8
SFX:
Lighting - Low key/ high contrast
Angles - POV, establishing shots
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Task set
My task is to make a short film of roughly 3-5 minutes long, it is to include everything i have learnt throughout my time studying MIA. My film will be a psychological horrohr/crime film.
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