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.

Shooting Schedule 

Below is our shooting time table, we arranged the times to suit the actors in our production. We checked the weather reports to make sure we filmed on a sunny day. We selected early times to ensure that there would be less people in our shots and to ensure that we got proper sunlight to light our shots. The early time will also give us plenty of time to film the scenes with the sun visible. 

Reece of location, Actors and Props:
Due to our opening's concise nature it is set in one location for this we had looked at various areas which we believed would fit our concept for our opening we looked at locations in Crumlin, county Antrim and Dunmurry within Belfast, county Antrim. However due to practical reasons we decided to shoot in Dunmurry as it offered a more modern and public setting. The location also offered more opportunities for establishing shots and was in many ways the more cinematic location.

(Examples of establishing shots)

(The tunnel we wished to have for our opening)

 (The isolated meeting spot with bench) 

As for our cast due to the intimate nature and short time frame of our opening we only need to have two actors. Our protagonist must be female in her early twenties in order to stay in line with the source material. Our second character must be a male who is closer to early thirties but must also have a presence and power on screen. 

 Due to the demands of our story in terms of props we need the following items: A phone and earphones A handbag Casual but slightly disheveled dress for our female protagonist *A hoodie for our male supporting character* (this has been changed to a suit following target audience feedback). We also need a note for our male character to give to our female character.

Film opening and Risk Assessment

Film planning


One sentence Brief: A modern adaptation of the opening of 'Elegy for April' by Benjamin Black

Below is the Risk assessment which outlines the hazards we must be aware of when filming and the necessary control measures which should be followed to prevent them.

Composition
Framing
Framing is the presentation of visual elements in an image, e.g. the placement of the subject in relation to other objects. Framing can make an image more aesthetically pleasing and keep the viewers focus on the framed objects. It can add depth to an image, and can add interest to the picture when the frame is thematically related to the object being framed.

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section.

Using the rule of thirds can give a shot a sense of balance and can draw attention towards the subject of the shot

Below is a shot which shows how the rule of thirds is used to to draw the audiences vision

toward the man pacing down the corridor.

Soundtrack inspiration

When thinking of music for the film we looked at many different films and researched the different instruments used in noir films. The primary music genre in noir is jazz so the main instruments that are used are muted trumpet, saxophone, piano(with minor chord/jazz chords), chello and cymbol/drums.
Some films we drew inspiration for our soundtrack are







When making the music for our film we used a software called garageband which allowed us access to samples and loops of jazz instruments. It also allowed us a virtual studio where we could compose our piece.

After spending a while searching for the right loops and instruments to use we eventually built a piece which we thought best fit the tone of our film. It was a jazz piece with minor piano chords, a constant drump loop in the background at a steady tempo and a light touch of saxophone to tie it all together.



 Overall while it was the groups first efforts at producing music we felt we had created a piece which would fit with opening scene of our film.

Script: FADE INTO A PANNING SHOT OF A CAR ALONG A MOTORWAY AND THEN PANS DOWN TO A SILHOUETTED FIGURE OF RACHEL MURPHY LEAVING THE UNDERPASS OF THE MOTORWAY.  (As SHE IS WALKING anxiously titles appear in the bottom corner of the screen and persist throughout the scene)WHILST SHE REPEATEDLY CHECKS HER PHONE   (Close up to the phone)FIRST TEXTS TO HER FRIEND APRIL are seen THEN she changes TO A NEWS WEBSITE WHERE A LARGE ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN WITH A PICTURE OF THE WRITER VISIBLE TO THE LEFT. WE THEN CUT TO AN OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT OF HER WALKING TOWARDS A BENCH. PROCEED TO CUT TO A LOW ANGLED SHOT OF RACHEL WITH A WORRIED LOOK ON HER FACE. CUT TO AN OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT OF THE BACK OF AN UNKNOWN MAN  APPROACHING QUICKLY  (tense music begins to play)(HIS FACE IS NOT REVEALED UNTIL BOTH ARE SITING DOWN) ONCE BOTH ARE SITTING DOWN IT IS REVEALED TO THE AUDIENCE  (through a close up shot) that THE UNKNOWN MAN IS INFACT THE WRITER OF THE  LARGE ARTICLE SEEN ON THE WEBSITE. Following this reveal there is a two shot of both sitting on the bench neither looking at the other 

Investigative reporter: you want a cigarette?

Rachel (angered but also anxiously): no, can you just tell me if you found her.

Investigative reporter: I have a lead, meet me at this address at 9.

(At this point he takes a note from his pocket)

(Focus pull to the note)

(Return to the two shot)

Investigative reporter: Don't be late.

(The investigative reporter leaves but Rachel stays at the bench following this the title appears on screen in large letters and we slowly fade out)

Storyboard:

Storyboard:

Profile Of an Ideal Audience

After extensive research into Noir films through studying the demographics for the films and looking at audience graphs on IMDB we discovered the viewers that most interested in Noir and Neo noir films are males aged 18-44. Neo-noir films involve crime, romance and a generally dark tone and because of this the key audience would have to be of a suitable age in order to handle these mature themes. Fans of the novel 'Elegy for April' by John Banville would be interested in our film since it is loosely based on it. Of course fans of the noir genre would be interested in our film and in addition people looking for a crime/mystery film would be interested in this scene. Also it was clear from our analysis that western audiences would be more interested in Neo Noir genre as America is were the genre was popularised. In addition the majority of the locations in Neo Noir films tend to be in American cities like New York, Los Angeles and  Chicago

Below is an ideal viewer for our product and someone we should the initial storyboard to.

Another person we showed the storyboard to is shown below. They didn't express as much interest as the male but they still were able to give valuable feedback. They suggest that if we included a female character around her age in the film for someone to relate to they would be interested in the product.
                   

However Neo-Noir films appeal to a large amount of people due to the compelling and mysterious nature of the films and the widespread commercial and critical success of films such as the usual suspects  ($23,341,568) and Sin City ($74,103,820).