Costume

For the protagonist that is revealed first in the OTS, I wanted her to be dressed in pyjamas, with her hands covered in blood.

I decided to have this character dressed in pyjamas because it's very understated and contrasts with the blood on her hands. As pyjamas are usually seen as comfortable and un-threatening, but with the amount of blood on the character's hands, it could give the audience a feeling that this character is dangerous and deceitful. However, another reason I wanted the character to wear pyjamas and have fake blood on her hands is because, if I did create the entire film, I wanted to have fleshed-out three dimensional characters, that accurately represented traits of real people, and that there is not just one side to somebody. The juxtaposition of pyjamas and blood, I personally wanted to represent that someone can be quiet and laid back (hence, the pyjamas) as well as be powerful and un-predictable (hence, the blood). 

I also applied this to the other central character, who sports a tight black dress, red lipstick, and a cardigan. This costume was chosen to challenge the convention of how female characters were portrayed in 1940s/50s noir films. I wanted this character (who, if I hypothetically created the film would be the character with 'better' morals), would be sexual and confident, and would not seem dangerous or scary, much like how female characters would be, quite blatantly, used for in traditional film noir, to warn audiences that female sexuality was dangerous and traditional gender roles should be put back in place, which is something I definitely wanted to steer clear of. The reason why this character is wearing a cardigan in the OTS is because, a lot of the time, female characters are heavily made up and dressed in traditionally 'sexy' clothing, just to appeal to a certain audience, so I wanted to have the dress and cardigan together showing that she's dressing for herself and can wear both types of clothing, it doesn't have to be one or the other.

Neo-Noir OTS: Mise-en-scene

Below is a Prezi I created talking about mise-en-scene in my OTS. I will go into further detail about costume in another blog post, and more in depth on the topic in general in my evaluation.

Neo-Noir OTS: Titles

At first I wasn't sure what to do in terms of titles, but then decided I would project the credits onto different surfaces, the titles appearing as shadows. Unfortunately, during filming I tried this, ending up sticking the credits (cut out from paper) onto different surfaces, which would be in the same shots as the central character, however, when watching the footage back, I decided against it, as it didn't look great, and didn't give the effect I wanted. 

I have now decided to create the titles on Final Cut Pro X, and have decided to use the font below. I experimented with colours, and instead of darker, more 'fitting' colours, like in the image below, I have decided to go with brightly coloured titles. 

I have decided to use this font, layered and lower-case because I feel it contrasts well with the OTS, as well as complimenting it. I think the fact that I've decided to make them brightly coloured, as well as lower-case is almost friendly, contrasting with the film itself, and its dark (?) tone. However, I feel that my choice of titles were inspired by 80s films, specifically pulp, which I will make a separate blog post about.

During creating my titles I had the idea to make some of the credits to do something on screen. instead of staying in one spot. So, I decided to try and make the first set of credits flick very quickly between different fonts before returning to an image on the screen. I wasn't sure how to gp about doing this but then starting exploring different options and ended up copying the first title screen and making a few copies of this, making each title screen a different font, and then changing the duration of these clips to one or two milliseconds. Below are some images exhibiting the process.

I also want the colour of the titles to get darker and a little more foreboding as the OTS goes on, as it's getting closer to the main body of the film. I have also decided to make the final titles, giving credit for directing in bright red, with a very dark layer behind, contrasting with the rest of the titles which are mainly pinks and greens. I have decided to do this as it's the last image the audience will see on screen as well as

Neo Noir OTS: Editing

As this is the first time I will be editing anything, film-wise, I wanted to make sure I had most things filmed before the Christmas holidays had come to an end, as I will spend a lot of time figuring out the different features of the editing software (which is Final Cut Pro in this instance), and I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I want my titles to look as well as what's available on Final Cut.

Almost as soon as I had finished filming, I had made the decision to cut out the entire second part of the OTS, which entailed similar shots of a different version of the character from the first part, carrying out the same actions, for example, brushing teeth, making tea etc. only with different lighting and the way the tasks were completed would be slightly different, including costume and make-up. I decided to cut this part down as the shots seemed quite messy, as we did not have much time to film this half. I may cut a few clips down and add them in as snippets to contrast with the first part, creating a comparison, adding to the enigma, and also giving the audience a bit more information in terms of character and plot, but still leaving them wondering what's going on. 

During editing, I have decided to make most if not all of the shots  and cuts co-inside with the music, as I think makes it interesting for the audience to watch, as well as the fact that this is my first time editing a film, so I would like to push myself a little bit.

I have actually decided to place the last shot of the original OTS (above) at the very beginning, instead of at the end, to making it seem as if the character is running off just as the 'radio' is explaining what type of story this is, and just before the titles start rolling.

I also wanted the first shot to be strong and poignant and to make sure the audience knew what the central character looks likes from the beginning.

Neo-Noir OTS: Filming

Location

In terms of location, I wanted to film in my house, and keep a lot of objects and which were already in my house within shot, as I wanted the house the character was in to seem realistic, but also that the protagonist seems very calm, juxtaposing with a lot of the clutter surrounding her. 


We filmed over the Christmas holidays, and only really one full day to film, with the house empty and   noise free.

Filming

On the day of filming, a lot of things were changed. Firstly, the idea I originally had planned for the titles were scrapped. My original idea was to have the credits projected somehow onto different surfaces, so they would appear in the form of shadows. However, we ended up sticking the credits to different surfaces, which, looked very far from how I wanted it to look, so I also scrapped that.


In terms of shots, I kept a lot of the ones I had originally planned and that were originally in the story board but am now editing, and am likely to either get rid of some clips altogether, purely because they do not work in sequence, and some I will use but change how I edit them into the film. For example, originally there was going to be a long-take of the protagonist making a cup of tea, but now I have added music and fitted other parts of the OTS in, I'm probably going to cut it down to a few seconds, if that.

UPDATE (25th January 2016): I have now decided to create titles on Final Cut Pro, which I will talk more about about in a separate blog post.