Evaluation

For my final production film, I aimed to make a live-action film split into two genres. The first, in film noir, conveying a teenager’s boredom. She then falls asleep and has a dream of enjoying the London nightlife, and this leads to the second part of the film, fast-paced colour film of this teenager getting ready for her adventure. In my statement of intentions, I vaguely mentioned the mid section dream. However, I felt that my film’s story line was weak and needed something else. I also planned to use a German expressionist genre for the first half of the film, but I realised that this genre would relish under a horror or gothic film, and my film is not at all like this therefore I have gone for a similar genre of film noir, where I felt I could still use the genre to create a depressing atmosphere.

Through my film, I wanted to show an exaggeration of the stereotypical teenager living in London: Young and vibrant, and desperate to go out and have fun. I feel this image was created, but perhaps in an over the top manner.

Following this order of film, I therefore split my filming into 3 sections. The first: film noir. The second: her dream, and the third: fast-paced colour film. Before starting the filming, I made a photo storyboard illustrating each frame of the film, however this was one major problem I had with developing my film as I didn’t stick to my storyboard, so found myself changing and experimenting with things on the spot.

A second problem I had was with my shooting schedule. As the first part of the film is in a film noir style, I had to make sure that the natural lighting was accurate for this, therefore having to shoot just after sunset at around 6. This limited the flexibility of my filming, and caused problems as the main actor had to schedule around this time. Furthermore, as the days became shorter, this time was changing all the time and again caused further chaos.

A third problem I had was producing a 5-minute film, a time that seems shorter than it actually is. I discovered that producing a film of this length is very challenging. I therefore changed my plot slightly, adding in the dream sequence in the middle, which originally wasn’t there.

I had to use final cut throughout the editing process and I feel that I have developed my skills in this. In my film, I experimented with fading sound out; I also used slow motion and speed up often. I just feel generally more confident when using this software.

I also feel I have developed my skills using a camera. As I needed the first half of the film to be very still, I used a tripod, a piece of equipment I had never used before, so I felt very satisfied that I could experiment with this equipment, changing the angle and panning of the camera. In contrast with the first half of my film, I wanted the second half to be fast-paced, and thought using a freehand camera would help this. Therefore throughout my film I have developed my skills using a camera by freehand, and with a tripod.

Statement of intentions

Statement of intentions

The aim of my practical production is to create a short live-action film based on a girl who is extremely bored at home as she thrives on going out and exploring London nightlife. She falls asleep out of boredom, and has a dream of going to a party. This then comes true as she receives a text, and gets ready for her adventure. I am going to explore two forms of genre within the film. The first, a film noir style for the duration of the first half of my film, and the second in a formalist, fast paced colour film style with elements of comedy.

To create a German expressionist/film noir style, for the first half of the film I will use black and white film, to illustrate an early 20^th century German expressionist film, and help slow down the film. This form will consist of various lighting. Deep shadows of chiaroscuro, and natural lighting. I will use this form of genre as I feel the techniques and connotations of the genre could express well a depressed and tiring mood, suitable for the first half of my production.

For the second form of genre I will use, a formalist fast-paced film with elements of comedy, I will avert back to colour film to gain that sense of modern film and a lively atmosphere. I have chosen to use a hand-held camera because this part of the film is a more frantic style; therefore by switching to hand-held you are moving away from the stillness to a phase of excitement and rapid movement. I will use special effects, two in particular, in slow motion and speeded up respectively. Slow motion will help to exaggerate and emphasise movements and details, while speeded up will make the film more interesting by adding variety to the film. Both will modernise and illustrate a formalist film, and will add relevance to the music track that will be playing throughout the second half of the film. This song I have chosen is “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black eyed Peas. I chose this track because it is related to the theme of the film-Going out and having a good time. It’s up beat tempo will create a positive mood and the film is fairly new, so will add to the modern look of the second half of the film. They are also a well-known group around the globe, so will again give this part of the film a modern image.

The German expressionism period during the early 20^th century refers to a number of related creative movements in Germany before the First World War, during the 1920’s. This expressionism period was short lived and faded slowly within a few years. However themes of German expressionism were adapted into later films. This genre was then developed into the genre known as film noir. Lighting and scenery were two parts of this film that was used frequently in later film to effectively enhance the mood of a film.

Film noir was derived from the German expressionist genre of the 1920’s and was estimated to have started in 1941 after the film The Maltese Falcon (1941), until the late 1950’s. Film noir was based on the anxiety, pessimism and suspicion amongst the public that were apparent during and post World War Two. Noir was very similar to a German expressionist style as it used many of these techniques including chiaroscuro, skewed camera angles and expressionist lighting to create a tense mood effective for the film.

I will be taking inspiration from the following German expressionist films: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem (1920), Phantom (1922) and Schatten (1923). All of these films were highly symbolic and stylised German expressionist films. They all used absurd sets consisting of geometric designs on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows and objects. This combined with strong lighting of shadows of chiaroscuro, and darkening the outer edge of the shot to leave the centre highlighted to help create a mood and atmosphere of madness, insanity and betrayal, the themes of these films. F.W Maurnau was one successful German Expressionist filmmaker during the 1920’s. His two known films throughout this period were Nosferatu (1922) and Sunrise (1927). Particula­­­­rly in these films, Maurnau focused on atmospheric lighting and harsh contrasts between dark and light. Originally, he used normal and realistic sets, which made his horror films even scarier. Silhouettes and shadows were an important part of expressionism, and he was able to create an effective mood using these techniques. This is similar to my film, as I will be using strong shadows of chiaroscuro and experimenting with contrasts of black and white to express a depressed and tiring mood. I will also be using a realistic set (a home). An obvious music video I have taken inspiration from is the music video of the song that will be played during the second half of the film- I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. This video shares the same concept as mine- getting ready to go out. The video uses a lot of quick shots, as well as detailed close-ups, both of which will be used in my film.

The whole film will be shot at my house, and the one actor I will be using is my sister, this adds convenience to the schedule of my film as I won’t have to deal with booking a location or having to arrange a given day when everyone can be there. However, as light is a vital part of the first half of the film, I will have to shoot at certain times of the day (preferably sunset), and wait on the weather.

Classic Hollywood

The classic Hollywood style generally has many stereotypical features. These are the most common features:

-The style focuses on a hero-figure.

-There is usually an obvious villain.

-Films are usually action-packed,

-The story often has a moral lesson.

-Generally uses special effects, well known-actors, and a big budget with expensive sets and costumes.

There are two main Hollywood film studios: MGM and Warner Bros. These two studios have very distinctive styles.

MGM films are generally set outdoors, on a staged set and sometimes on a fantasy like backdrop, attempting to create an effective atmosphere with the aid of a big budget. This compares to the lower budget of Warner Bros. who generally use cheap, realistic and practical sets, such as streets and offices.

MGM costumes are usually imaginative, colorful and flamboyant, which relates to their set designs. This is in contrast to Warner Bros, who again used more realistic, everyday wear clothes to reflect their budget. Warner Bros. use predominantly close-ups and medium shots and focus on facial expressions to create an intimate feel to the film. While to fully capture these elaborate backgrounds and designs, MGM use a lot of long shots within their films.

An example of an MGM production is The Wizard of Oz. A big and bold production with a fantasy-like backdrop. An example of a Warner Bros. production is The Maltese Falcon, a film noir genre.

German expressionism

During the recovery of World War 1, the German film industry was booming. However because of the harsh economic effects of the War, filmakers found it difficult to challenge the extravagant feautures coming from Hollywood. The German filmakers then developed their own style, known as German expressionism.

As photography was now around and popular as the most accurate display on real life, the public were no longer interested in realism paintings, this opened the door for expressionism. Expressionism, represents an approach to art that demonstrates a distorted reality, as well as a depiction of the artist's emotions and feelings. German expressionism invloves using sharply exaggerated shadows and silhouettes, high-contrast lighting, a technique known as chiaroscuro, disorientingly skewed set design and off-kilter camera angles, to create a mood and an effective atmosphere.It is used in many medias, including drama, architecture, music, painting, print-making, sculpture and of course film. German expressionism was hugely influencial to film noir.

Examples of early films that use German expressionism are The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu and Phantom. Alfred Hitchcock's career was well influenced by German expressionism. The shower scene in the film Pyscho, with the blurred image seen through the shower curtain is reminiscent of Nosferatu shown through his shadow, created an effective atmosphere. Adaptations of the style are seen in Tim Burton's Batman Begins, 1992. The angular building designs and severe-looking city squares creates the feeling of loom and menace evident in Lang's Metropolis.

These pictures illustrate our grave yard we created in a German expressionist style. We tried to use sharp and unusual edges on the grave stones and trees to convey a German expressionist style. We used different colours of lighting including red, green and a light blue to form different shadows and lighting contrasts. We also used long exposure with our camera to produce several special effects and different contrasts with the lighting to create a mysterious and dramatic atmosphere in our graveyard.

Famous artists

Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. It was used by all three of the artisits below. These artists are also all Baroque painters. Baroque is a style in which painters and sculptors rummaged emotion, movement and variety in their work. Chiaroscuro can be used in this style for dramatic effect.

Caravaggio

(1571-1610) Born in Milan on the 29th September 1571. He painted realism and used dramatic lighting to effect. He was also renowned as one of few artists whose lives were in some way depicted in their paintings. For example, after a terrible death in his family, Caravaggio began using darker colours to convey his sadness and despair. He used a variety of light, and forming of deep shadow. Carvaggio's main subjects were religous scenes, which he conveyed with courage. He was also the first to illustrtate people as ordinary looking. One film director influenced by the work of Caravaggio is Martin Scorsese.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn, was born in Leiden on July 15th, 1606. He was a portrait painter, and also famous for his religous subjects. Rembrandt's method of paint in touches of heavy-laden brushes is named impasto and creates a sculptural effect on his painting. He was influenced by the work of Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, an artist known fro his unorthodox use of lighting and the erotic manner he presented his subjects. The style of Rembrandt which sets him apart from other painters is that his background composition is usually dark, while his subject is illuminated, making the image appear almost three dimensional. His paintings also usually showed a narrative. Alexander Korda's Rembrandt is a film that emulates Rembrandt's etchings and chiaroscuro scenes with great effect.

Vermeer

Johan Vermeer, born on October 31, 1632, and died in 1975 was a Baroque painter who opened up interior spaces by representing long files of rooms, often with extended views through doors, windows or mirrors. Religous, poetical, musical and scientific scenes are subjects that can be found in his work. He specialised in scenes of ordinary people going about their everyday life. Many of his paintings use bright colours and strong chiaroscuro effects to illuminate an object which are reminiscent of Rembrandts style of painting. One of Vermeer's paintings, "Girl with a pearl earring", was adapted as a film, directed by Peter Webber. Little is known about the girl in the painting, the film attempts to recreate the mysterious girls life, a maid in the house of Johan Vermeer.

Realism and formalism

Realism and formalism are two different styles of film. Realism film aims to produce a film that is based on events in everyday life. A formalist film is used to entertain the audience and is generally not based on everyday life.

These two styles of film use different techniques for effect to convey these styles. Realism films usually contains long takes without quick edits, special effects or transitions. It often excludes non-diegetic sound and uses natural lighting. Realism film also uses natural sets without anything added to it for effect. Story lines are realistic with no point of view, and simple camera shots are used for a realistic effect. The camera can also be handheld to again portray a realistic approach or symbolize a figure. There are also parts of the script that don't relate to the plot what so ever. Some realism films use unknown actors. An example of a film like this is This is England. The film has a realistic narrative structure and character. It is set in the 1980's, the era of the skinheads and the film aims to accurately show this. Racism is also brought up in the film to show the time the film was shot and this adds to its realism. The film's mis en scene also adds to the film's realism, with an effective setting of a small English town, as well as believable character looks. Furthermore, the main character position was auditioned on the town the film was to be shot and audtioned young boys from around the town. However the boy that got the part, (Thomas Turgoose) didn't audition at first, and was spotted by one of the film's producer, found playing on the street with his friends. He went in for an audition and turned out to be perfect for the part. All of these techniques gel together to produce a life like effect, a realist film.

A formalist film is simply the opposite of realism, and aims to produce an entertaining film. Often, formalist films use a large amount of special effects and non-diagetic sounds to create a dramatic effect. Formalist films are generally set in un-realistic settings, occasionally in fantasy settings, while artificial lighting and props can also be used. The characters often contain a hero and a villain, and the narrative is usually unrealistic. Camera effects are used well, with a variety of camera shots and angles, with quick and rapid editing. An example of a formalist film is Die Hard, which uses a wide variety of special effects as it aims to create a dramatic effect.