This is the final video for main task

Evaluation

                             Evaluation links

Text for our opening

Selecting the logo and text for the credits of our opening

For selecting the texts we looked at many different Noir and neo noir film openings including Sunset Boulevard, Usual suspects and The Killing.

When we watched these films we realised just how important titles sequences our in films. We learned approximately how far credits should be placed in front of each other. We experimented with different fonts we downloaded off the site DaFont.com

Eventually we decide on the font Atlantic Cruise as we felt it best fit the tone of our film and also went well the background shots it was imposed over.

Final Draft of The Script

Fade into a vertical panning shot of an old derelict apartment block with a telephone box in the foreground. Following this we see our male protagonist dressed in a suit as he walks over to the telephone box we follow him via tracking shot, cut to a train going past a station and then we hear the ringing of the telephone.

Male Protagonist: Meet me at the train station at six
(close up of him putting the phone back on its hook before cutting to black)

Our score fades in
What follows is a series of shots following our male protagonist venturing to the train station with all shots obscuring the male protagonists identity.

We see Rachel our female protagonist sitting on a bench at the train platform.

Our male protagonist then sits behind her

Cut to a two shot from behind the two characters

Male protagonist: You Rachel?

Rachel: Yeah, you got any a news about where she is?

(Male Protagonist throws a note to onto the seat between our to two main characters and proceeds to be leave)

Rachel hesitates and nervously contemplates opening the note, she then slowly opens the note and sighs heavily. She then leaves in the opposite direction of the male protagonist then the scene fades to black.

Re-drafts and changes from our original storyboard

Here is a list of changes which we decided to change after audience feedback and doing further research into the noir genre.

Opening point has changed so that we include a low angle shot of the tower-block. Then we include a wide shot of the church.

The shots of the news story on the girl’s phone will be replaced so that the information is told through a news broadcast. 

We decided to keep the secondary character’s identity a secret throughout the whole opening rather than having him reveal himself a short way through the opening. This will be done through clever camera shots and angles.

We also decided to make our secondary character a bit more interesting by giving him a quirky mannerism.

Our secondary character was originally going to be wearing a hoodie to conceal his identity, however, now, he will be wearing a sharp suit and we will conceal his identity with clever camera angles. 

We decided to change the hoodie to a suit to go in line with noir conventions. He is a criminal investigator

              

We also went on Pinterest to see different noir suits and different styles.

Animation of Opening
Below is a rough storyboard animation of the opening scene which was used for audience feedback. It will also assist us when it comes to filming the opening.

2nd Draft of script

Target audience: In order to see whether our film opening appealed to our target audience we showed them a brief animatic of our opening and also asked them questions regarding our animatic such as what could we change and what we have achieved. We recorded their feedback as seen in the video below.

From their feedback we have made several changes. 

We have decided to include establishing shots of the local area to create a tone and to familiarise the viewer with the setting.

We have decided to change the costume of our secondary male character from a hoodie to suit to keep inline with the traditions of neo-noir.

We have also decided to keep our secondary characters identity a secret. This was a key point made by our test audience as they felt we gave too much away in our opening. Therefore in order to create a greater sense of intrigue and mystery we are not going to show his face.

We also in order to create a greater sense of character have gave our ancillary character a limp this not only makes him a unique character but also adds to the sense if intrigue and mystery pivotal to a neo-noir

We have decided to change the news website to a podcast which is reporting the news this was done not only for practical reasons such as being easier to film but also to further modernise the scenario and make it more relatable to our audience.

Due to this amendments we have altered the script.

ALTERED SCRIPT(2nd draft): Fade into a panning shot of an old decrepit orange hall. Then cut to a low angled shot of a large tower block and then fade to a panning shot of storage lockers (What appears to be a radio broadcast of the news can be heard throughout whilst titles appear in the bottom left hand corner). We then cut to a wide shot of our protagonist Rachel O’Hara walking through the underpass shilouetted. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of her leaving the tunnel. we then transition to a low angled shot of Rachel who is visibly anxious. Then we transition to a wide shot of Rachel going to sit on a bench in an empty park. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of an unknown man approaching the bench whilst dark ominous music plays. His face is not revealed to the viewer until both are sitting down. then transition to a two shot of both Rachel and the unknown man sitting at the bench.

He asks: You Rachel?

Rachel: Yes, Do you have any news on where she is?

Unknown Man: Like i said on the Phone its gonna take some time but i’ve got a lead.

(focus pull onto a note he takes out of his pocket)

Unknown man: Meet me at this address at 9 o’clock and don’t be late. (lights a cigarette and then leaves)

The last shot is A wide shot of Rachel sitting on the bench alone struggling to come to grips with her situation.