Deciding on the Title Font and Effect

Once we had decided on the name of our Film Noir, Voluptuous Vehemence (which, in very basic terms, means 'sensual violence/intensity'.) Eloise and I felt that this title would conform to the conventions of a Film Noir. The alliteration would also add rhythm to the title.

We asked to use our peers as a focus group to decide which font they believed conformed the best to the Film Noir genre and also which was most attractive in their opinion. We did this by creating a video on iMovie where the same title would appear but with various different fonts and took a vote afterwards. The above font is the final choice.

The two effects displayed above were chosen by Elly and I to decide between. However, the typewriting style effect causes the letters to overlap in a way that makes the title unclear, and so that assisted us in deciding on the simple swiping effect.

Things We Need To Consider

4 Areas to Cover

Health & Safety

• Consider actors' health and safety (location, props, dress code)
• Vision & movement issues during filming (restriction particularly during motion- etc. tracking, panning)
• Risk assessment
• Notions of protection

Ethics

• Right & wrongs VS responsibilities

Film Classifications

• Links to audience
• bbfc.co.uk states criteria (U, PG, 12A & 12, 15, 18, R18)
• Notions of protection

Copyright

• You cannot use someone else's work

Original Planning of our OTS

Here is a post from Eloise's blog that shows how we had looked at mise-en-scene in regard to the Neo-Noir Femme Fatale apperance.

Continuity Task

Continuity task final edit from morrighan humpleby on Vimeo.

The continuity task was completed in order for us to practice both the Film Noir conventions (lighting, music, costume, props etc) and various camera techniques including the 180 degree rule and match on action etc. This also allowed us to recall/learn how to edit using iMovie. For myself, it was only recalling due to the editing I did during my GCSE Media Studies course.

After having watched it ourselves and then presenting our work to a focus group (consisting of our class peers), we became aware of some areas for improvement. These included:

• Mise-en-scene; Ailbhe (our actor whom played the 'girl next door' character) was wearing converse because we didn't prepare more conforming shoes for that character. This was the point most recognised by our focus group.
• Non-believable acting; A few of the sheets we handed to our focus group commented that the acting was too 'wooden'and therefore non-believeable. This is due to the rush of organization as we didn't have long to plan and complete this task, and so we didn't have time to find more professional actors.
• Fluidity; Another issue brought up a few times was that the beginning didn't flow enough and peers suggested that we could improve by making faster cuts at the beginning, which we then took into account and adjusted on iMovie.

All of the above points will be considered when Eloise and I begin the process of creating our opening title sequence.       

Narrative Planning of our Opening Title Sequence- Stage 1

After having planned our initial storyline, Eloise and I (a.k.a. 'BB Productions') had the idea to find a poem to use as the speech for the anti-hero's narrating voiceover. We found one that we really liked and thought conformed to our storyline, however it was copyrighted as it was found on the internet. There was a contact email address on the website in case of people wanting to ask permission, and so we conducted this email to send to the poet:

Within just a few hours of sending this, we were very thankful to recieve a reply from the poet! 

This is the poem that we have recieved permission to use in our OTS, called Collusion of Silence by Matt Castaneda. We have decided to only use the first verse in our OTS, however, if we were to make the whole film, we would have used the rest of the poem for when the anti-hero commits suicide (which is our idea for what would happen if the film was full). The following poem is copyright to Matt Castaneda:

Collusion Of Silence

© Matt C.

I live everyday with everlasting shame,
with everlasting regret,
with everlasting pain,
Why? What have I done to beget?
I don't forget, like a tight corset
of the pain that tightly constrains my soul
and turns my heart into deep, dark coal.

So there's nothing left to do,
except load this bullet and blow straight through.
For every somber moment,
every haphazard mistake,
every broken promise,
every failure,
all my doubt,
all my lost hope,
all my poisoned love,
can go straight through
the bullet hole I just blew.
Now, they can escape to the surface, 
in hopes of a higher purpose, because I'm sadly through. 

One bullet, one dream, one doubt,
and the one fire no one helped to put out.
So say goodbye, 
and don't forget to say hi 
to my demons passing by;
For I am Satan's now,
no matter how hard I cry.
No one can hear me anymore, 
forever suffering, forever silent, forever I die.

Source: Relief From Feeling Alone Poem, Collusion Of Silence http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/collusion-of-silence#ixzz2mYN7cike 
Family Friend Poems