Locations - Ideas and photos in Ashwell

List of places needed


-As two people from our group were going to Paris on a photography trip in February half term, an idea is to film some establishing shots there and shots for our title sequence, as well as getting some sound clips.
-We also needed a church and having lots of villages in the area there were multiple options; Weston, Ashwell and Guilden Morden.
- We needed a police station exterior, where we could use the Baldock Police Station as it is no longer functional. For the inside we will need an office and corridor. We have found an office we can use in Baldock that is rarely used, having blinds which suit the film noir theme well.
- We also need a place for the murder scene; possibles being alleyways by Baldock High Street or a tunnel by Baldock Springs, which has graffiti all over it and is very dark and suitable.
- Around the tunnel is an old industrial estate, which has many run down places which would set the scene well.
-For the first scene, we needed an inside of a house, a bedroom shot, living room shot and shot from the outside showing the front door.


During one of our lessons we went to our chosen scenes, taking pictures. First of all we went around Ashwell village:

This would be an interesting house to include, being old-fashioned.

This is a picture of the road from the house,

which would be a good shot of the main character getting into his car.

We found a narrow road which could be used.

These next few images are of the Ashwell Springs, which could have a very omious feel at nighttime.

The trees without leaves could work well to set the Film Noir mood.

We then went to see Ashwell Church, to see if it would be the one we would use when filming. The church scene looked how we pictured it to be, so we plan to use this church when filming.

The graveyard has an effective, eerie effect, full of gravestones.

Using a low angle shot makes the church look more powerful, and taller/towering over.

The doorway also would be an effective shot when central.

The pathway leading up to the church looks good,

and I like the trees beside it, making an archway.

The shadows created by the trees on the pathway could make an interesting, gloomy shot.

This could be a potential alleyway/walk to office.

Deciding on the main characters names.

In our next lesson we decided on our main characters, choosing their names.
We needed a main character, the protagonist (anti-hero). We decided our main character will be a detective, and so will need a partner. We came up with Detective Barnaby Frisco, which sounds Film Noir style and quite old fashioned, to set the tone of the film. His partner would be Bones Goodwin, the first name having an omnious feel, hinting that theres a dark side to him. We also needed a femme-fatale, who would be married to the protagonist but also be having an affair with her husband's partner in crime. I came up with Adrianna, as it means 'dark one'.


We discussed who would play the characters for our film, and decided that keeping mainly with our group would be best, as time wise we could get a lot of the filming done in lessons and not have to find a time when our actors would be free when we are. Luke Jones will be Detective Frisco, Matt will be Goodwin and I will be Adrianna. Raya will be the secretary at the police station/office and we will need an extra to be the random murder victim.

Deciding on our storyline and making a storyboard

Together in our group we brainstormed ideas, forming them together to make the most effective story, including twists, affairs and murders. I am happy with our story, and feel it fits the Film Noir genre well.


The Story


In the past Detective Frisco finds out that his partner Goodwin is having an affair with his wife, Adrianna. The argument gets heated and Frisco loses control, shooting his partner.
In present day Detective Frisco is about to have his first day back at work after being off on personal leave for the loss of his work partner, it not being known that Frisco was the one who shot him. At work he recieves a call to go to a murder scene, where Frisco finds a dead girl with a note and his wifes necklace crumpled in her hand. The note tells him to meet at the church at 10 o clock, "or she dies". Frisco impatiently waits, wondering who it could be, and when he gets there and finally finds Adrianna tied up by a gravestone, his old Partner Goodwin appears.


Goodwin knocks Frisco out, and when he awakens tells Frisco the story of how he is still alive, and getting revenge for what he did. The pair fight, which is stopped by the sound of a gun shot. Meanwhile Adrianna unties herself and then shoots Frisco, where he falls to the ground. Adrianna had been in it with Goodwin the entire time, the plan to kill Frisco to be able to finally be together.

Our story follows Todorov's Narrative theory, with 5 stages making the storys structure:

- Equilibrium: Detective Frisco getting ready for his first day back at work.
- Disruption: The call to come to the murder scene, finding the note and necklace.
- Period of disequilibrium: Back at the office, Frisco trying to solve who wrote the note.
- Attempt to Repair the Disequilibrium: Frisco finds his wife in the graveyard and discovers who   
                                                                     was behind the note. The two detectives fight.
- Restoration of equilibrium: Frisco gets killed and Goodwin and Adrianna can now be together. 

However it also fits with classic Film Noir's narrative style, where instead of the equilibrium being technically restored, a new equilibrium has formed - one which of course the protagonist is not happy with, as he has been shot.

Storyboard


After deciding on our storyline we made a story board, working out camera angles and shots. We decided to have a flashback scene to start, in the form of the main characters dream, to help give the audience insight into the past quickly.

Audience Research

Before deciding on our story for our own Film Noir movie, we needed to do some audience research to see what people would be interested seeing in our films and how much they already know about Film Noir. Therefore I made a questionnare on Microsoft Word and printed out copies to ten people of different ages, an under 15 year old,  3 people 15-17, 4 people 18-20 and two over 21. I decided to do this to see the difference of knowledge between the different ages, and chose mainly people 15-20 as this would be our preferred age range, channeling to people our age. I also chose a 50/50 mix of male and female as we would like our film to appeal to both genders equally and so needed to find out preferences from both.

Below is a print screen image of the finished questionnaire:

Looking at the results, first of all, only the under 15 year old hadn't seen any of the Film Noir titles, but had still heard of the genre. Everyone else had heard of the genre and seen at least one Film Noir or Neo Noir film. From the question 'Do you prefer the classic Film Noir style in black and white or the new Neo-Noir style in colour?' 5 people answered 'Black and White' whereas 2 answered 'colour' and 3 answered 'I like both equally'. Therefore we shall show our film in black and white as it is the most popular and also more classic and fitting to the Film Noir style.

With the question 'What aspects of Film Noir do you like (tick) and dislike (cross)?' all of the answers on average were ticked, except cigarette smoking. Smoking was very popular around the time when Film Noir started, and was shown in a lot of the films. In the modern day however, it is more dissapproved of because the health risks have become a lot more known, so we shall not include smoking in our film, giving it a modern twist and so not encouraging younger viewers. We shall make sure to include a Femme Fatale, cyinical male character, a dark/depressing storyline, crime and murky pasts, and also from the feedback on 'What sort of things do you expect to see when you watch a Film Noir film?' we will also include a twist in the storyline, an urban setting and night time scenes.

Our Production Logo

We made this logo on photoshop, first of all adding a copyright free image of a crown as a layer on our image. We then changed the colour to a burgundy red, not choosing too bright to give it an ominous gloomy feel, matching with the film noir gender as well as the symbol of blood/death. The colour also represents power and money, matching the crown well.

We also chose to make the background black as it contrasts well against the red, and again suits the noir theme. The black will also work well when it gets put in the film, fading in after a blackout.

We chose the font because it looked formal and old fashioned, working well with the crown and film noir. We also wanted it to be all in captials as it looked more powerful that way. With 'RELM' we used the warp text option on 'arc' to make it fit the shape of the crown, and made it black to match with the background and look more like part of the crown image. For 'productions' we kept the same font and same red as the crown to keep consistency and made it fit the same length as the crown to make it again look like one with the crown.

Researching Production Logos

Before making a logo for our production company, I researched existing and well known logos in order to make an effective one. I noticed first of all that most companies would have their name in capital letters, which helps the name stand out. I also noticed that a lot of the logos would have the text of their name centrally with multi rows, including a simple picture above, making their brand memorable but not too complicated, some as 2D silhouettes like Dreamworks, or  3D shapes like Legendary. Logos like Miramax I felt were a bit too simplistic without the picture, it's good to have something else for the consumer to remember about the company. Although the more complicated logos like 20th Century Foxs are effective and memorable, I feel it is too modern looking for our company as we are producing an old style film. Therefore we shall stick to choosing a 2D image suiting our company name and text below. I also liked the look of a black background on the Legendary pictures and miramax logo, and think black would be effective for the Film Noir look, so shall use a black background on our logo.

Deciding our Group, Movie Title and Production Company name.

In our lesson we split into groups who we would be making the Film Noir with. I am in a group with Luke Jones, Matt Williams and Raya Renney. Below is a photograph of our team.

First of all we decided our production company name. We came up with RELM productions, taking the first letter from each of our names. It is an adaption of 'Realm', the definition in the dictionary being
n realm [relm]:
1. A kingdom
2. an area of activity, interest etc


Meaning that Media/producing film is our realm (our area of interest, and more dominately our kingdom). I am happy with this name.


Next we had to think of the name for our film. I decided to translate the name into french as Film Noir was invented by the french and so the name would sound more authentic. We were thinking of things relevant to film noir storys, and because of the frequent deceit and deaths in the films I came up with 'A Deadly Affair', which translates to 'Le Mortel Liasion'. The group was happy with this name.