Operating the Camera
I used my own camera for this film. It made the most sense, considering I know how to use it and the quality is great. I used a tripod for the shots of Jonesy walking toward the house, but ditched it afterward as it was clunky and got in the way (another reason being that it makes creaky noises when it's moved). I made sure the camera was set to manual focus for the outdoor shots so that the shot wouldn't be blurry because of the low lighting. I also had to use manual exposure and put that to the max for these shots. For indoor shots I left it on automatic, allowing the camera to adjust in real time based on how bright or dark the target of the camera's sight is. The camera battery was almost a disaster, as it was fully charged to begin with but could not last four hours of HD recording. To get around this, I kept switching the camera off when it wasn't in use. To import, I had to plug the camera into the computer and use the Sony PMB software to import the *.m2ts and *.modd files for the video. I could preview the clips in PMB to find which clips were useable, and then open them directly in Vegas.
Composing Shots
Again the exposure and focus were used to make sure the scene didn't become obscured or blinding, but I did try a few things for specific effect. One of these was the telemacro, which meant zooming in to an extreme level and then blurring the scene beyond the subject of the shot. I used this for the shot of the beer on the table during the pause in narration. Another thing I used was the slow-motion burst to get a (silent) shot of Michael's hand falling to the ground with Bronson running in the background. I had tested these out before to make sure I could include all the elements that I wanted, such as Bronson running in the background. My choice of lighting ensured my shots were lit to the degree I wanted. The outdoor shots were lit by having all the curtains open and all lights (both indoor and outdoor) on. Indoor shots varied between dim lighting in the poker scenes, harsh lighting in the hallway, and soft lighting in the bedroom that fades away from the hallway door. In terms of setting up scenes, I made sure to cover the table with poker chips and glasses so that the table looked full and in use. In some outside shots, I crouched in the bushes so that the leaves would partially obscure the shot, to give the impression of Jonesy being watched or shady. I also made sure to change the angles of shots often to give a flow to the film, so that the action and dialogue flowed from one shot to another as seemlessly as possible.
Recording Sound Effects, Dialogue, Music
The main video's audio was recorded straight from the camera, but the narration was recorded seperately. This was simple enough, because all I had to do was start recording with the mic facing Bronson, then remove the video in Vegas. Some sound effects, such as the door opening/closing were recorded in these clips and I simply cut and moved them around in Vegas. Other sound effects, mainly the siren and the gunshots, were taken from external sources (obviously I could not record them myself) and so I cannot comment on their recording. I downloaded the siren from Youtube as a video file and converted it, then I simply imported the audio into Vegas for editing. All of the music was downloaded off of Youtube and converted for use here.
Importing Images & Video Files
Importing was the simplest part. the camera automatically syncs up with Sony PMB, and from there all the files are saved in my My Pictures folder in My Documents. In Vegas I then imported all files the same way, either drag-and-drop import or media import. I used one image in the film, which was the opening frame. To do this I saved the frame of a clip as a still image in PMB, and then imported it along with everything else. I did, however, have to sift through all the clips in PMB and note down which ones were useful before importing them in Vegas. This meant the program would have less to load and performance would not suffer as badly.
Editing Sound
I used fade-ins and fade-outs to mask the beginning and ending of each track of music, and for the last piece ("Angel") I cut off a section in the middle and used a cross-over (fading in one clip and out another at the same time) to mask the gap and make it seem natural. In dialogue, some lines were louder than others, so I used audio envelopes to adjust the volume as I wished. In the part where Maria and Ed are arguing through a door, I used the audio envelopes to muffle the sound from the other side of the door, which is more realistic than having the audio float through the wood as an overlay. Another aspect I had to think about was background noise. My camera does not have an external mic, so there was some static noise created simply by the air in the room. To make sure this was not jarring, I had to make sure that the background noise was continuous and only dropped out in the opening and ending, where the music would mask it. This meant copying space from other clips and moving it around so that it didn't distract the viewer by popping in and out at random. I also had to make sure the background noise didn't get too loud, which meant redcuing the amount of overlap of audio as much as possible and adjusting volume acordingly. Otherwise, the static noise would become randomly too loud.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Scene Breakdown
- Intro - Jonesy sneaks into the house, the others are involved in a poker game. Narration overhead explains the background to the story.
- Poker scene. Ed tells Maria to leave, then reveals he knows all about Bill's investigation. His goons grab Bill and restrain him, and they discuss the matter of Bill's execution.
- Seduction scene. Maria catches Jonesy searching through a safe in Ed's room, and startles him. He pulls a gun on her, but lowers it when she seduces him. They kiss, and Maria takes the gun. She then threatens Jonesy, demanding the medallion. Maria then shoots him in cold blood.
- Poker scene 2. The men in the poker room are startled by the gunshot, and Ed begins to panic about the possibility of Bill having backup. He leaves to find out what's happened.
- Ed finds Maria in his room, with a gun in hand. She slams the door on him and tells him she's called the police. She has also taken the medallion and is not afraid to threaten him openly. Ed swears he'll kill her if he gets his hands on her, and a police siren is heard approaching. Ed manages to get the door open, only to find Maria missing, and Jonesy's corpse lying atop his bed.
- Ed flees, telling his goons to kill Bill, before heading out into the night. Bill overpowers and kills the goons, and chases after him. But by the time he reaches the front of the house, the police are there, and have killed Ed. Bill is set up to be arrested and framed for murder, considering he is the only survivor present in the area, Maria having escaped. Title appears on-screen.
Production Schedule
I planned to get all the scriptwork done in the holidays, and managed to do so. I even planned shots, costumes, and actor routes around the house. I also planned to get the casting done and settle on a date for the filming to take place, and got these within the first week of term.
All filming was done at my house on the tuesday of the second week of term (can't recall the date). I filmed it all chronologically, although I did the guy's reaction to the gunshot before the bedroom scene. I had planned to film over the holidays, but my actors were unavailable, so I completely re-wrote the film, added the femme fatale, and then re-scheduled for the first weekend back. I had to re-schedule again because of re-casting. The delay was only two days though, so I'm very pleased with my management there. The filming took about 3/4 of an hour longer than I had expected, but it wasn't an issue and I managed to get everything done in one night, other than the narration which I had forgotten about and recorded the next day after school.
In editing I didn't set any goals as I was already a few weeks ahead of everyone, but I did want to get it done as soon as possible so that I could fix up anything that I wanted to. I got the editing done within three weeks of filming, including the re-edits, where I changed the music, sound effects, and colour correction.
All filming was done at my house on the tuesday of the second week of term (can't recall the date). I filmed it all chronologically, although I did the guy's reaction to the gunshot before the bedroom scene. I had planned to film over the holidays, but my actors were unavailable, so I completely re-wrote the film, added the femme fatale, and then re-scheduled for the first weekend back. I had to re-schedule again because of re-casting. The delay was only two days though, so I'm very pleased with my management there. The filming took about 3/4 of an hour longer than I had expected, but it wasn't an issue and I managed to get everything done in one night, other than the narration which I had forgotten about and recorded the next day after school.
In editing I didn't set any goals as I was already a few weeks ahead of everyone, but I did want to get it done as soon as possible so that I could fix up anything that I wanted to. I got the editing done within three weeks of filming, including the re-edits, where I changed the music, sound effects, and colour correction.
Art Department
In terms of props and set, I bought five hats from a couple of two-dollar shops (cost was around $30 despite the shop title). The bb guns were borrowed from an acquaintence of a friend, but did not come with any pellets (though we never intended to fire them in real life). The other items of the film were the necklace, which was my mum's, the 'safe', which was actually a wooden bedside table that my parents already owned, and a phone which was already in my parents' bedroom. The cards and poker chips/money were lying around the house, as were the glasses and beer. I basically used anything I had lying around. The costumes were not mine; they belonged to the people wearing them. To avoid too many historical inaccuracies, the microwave was removed from the kitchen and the cars removed from the carport.
In terms of 'art' there weren't any differences from the house as-is. The paintings on the walls were already present, and nothing was changed dramatically. One thing that was unusual was the lighting. I had used a specific light which sits behind the wooden beam on the ceiling above the poker table, as opposed to the house's normal lighting. This was to create a dim, shady, low-light effect for the film. Another use of light was the open 'harsh' lighting in the hallway - the shade was removed, leaving the bare bulb, which creates shadows on Ed's face since it sits directly above him. The lighting in my parents' room was also reduced, so that it became darker the further the camera got from the hallway door. I chose not to turn on the main lights here in order to keep the lighting low and not bloom out the shot (because the walls are very bright).
In editing, I used Sony Vegas Pro 10's video effects to desaturate the image and manipulate the light and dark values seperately, this way I was able to brighten the outdoor shots and darken the indoor shots, but keep the highlights and shadows that I wanted to keep. In some cases, this even accentuated these highlights/shadows by making them contrast the rest of the scene even more. In making the film black and white, the green walls around the poker table became black, creating a very dark atmosphere with high contrast. The black suits blended in with the shadows, but the greys and whites stood out clearly. This is what I was aiming for with the black and white 'noir' style. The other art-related part was the blood effects, which were sourced from a friend. These were high-definition effects (actually recordings of flares and red liquid splashing in front of the camera with a black background to be edited out in After Effects). I used the same colour grading effects as with the rest of the video to make the blood darker, and then appear black.
In terms of 'art' there weren't any differences from the house as-is. The paintings on the walls were already present, and nothing was changed dramatically. One thing that was unusual was the lighting. I had used a specific light which sits behind the wooden beam on the ceiling above the poker table, as opposed to the house's normal lighting. This was to create a dim, shady, low-light effect for the film. Another use of light was the open 'harsh' lighting in the hallway - the shade was removed, leaving the bare bulb, which creates shadows on Ed's face since it sits directly above him. The lighting in my parents' room was also reduced, so that it became darker the further the camera got from the hallway door. I chose not to turn on the main lights here in order to keep the lighting low and not bloom out the shot (because the walls are very bright).
In editing, I used Sony Vegas Pro 10's video effects to desaturate the image and manipulate the light and dark values seperately, this way I was able to brighten the outdoor shots and darken the indoor shots, but keep the highlights and shadows that I wanted to keep. In some cases, this even accentuated these highlights/shadows by making them contrast the rest of the scene even more. In making the film black and white, the green walls around the poker table became black, creating a very dark atmosphere with high contrast. The black suits blended in with the shadows, but the greys and whites stood out clearly. This is what I was aiming for with the black and white 'noir' style. The other art-related part was the blood effects, which were sourced from a friend. These were high-definition effects (actually recordings of flares and red liquid splashing in front of the camera with a black background to be edited out in After Effects). I used the same colour grading effects as with the rest of the video to make the blood darker, and then appear black.
Research
Film Noir Genre
-Suits and Hats, formal looking clothing. Handguns would be used, which would be either magnums (western-style) or glocks (like the ones I used).
-Focused on crime (usually murder) where the characters would be involved in heists or con games.
-Lots of conspiracies, false accusations, and adulterous affairs.
-Betrayals and Double-crossing.
-Greed and Jealousy motivations.
-Often centres on a pirvate eye/lone detective or criminal gangs.
-Heroes are very flawed and morally questionable.
-Literal identity of a 'dead man walking'.
-Protagonists filled with existential bitterness - alienated, moody.
-Black and White, saxophone music, voiceovers.
-Stock characters include the hardboiled detective, femme fatale, corrupt policemen, gangsters, jealous husbands, and... intrepid claims adjusters...?
-City location that is more like a maze, includes bars, lounges, nightclubs, gambling dens...
-Climaxes in industrial areas - warehouses, factories, trainyards, powerplants.
-Night setting, very low lighting. Lots of use of shadows.
-Pessimism, hopelessness. Characters become trapped in unwanted situations.
-Cultural paranoia and widespread corruption.
-Steadfast virtue rewarded and vice severely punished.
-Sexuality and dangers of women.
-Focus on the criminal rather than society producing criminals.
I watched a couple of film noir classics, "The Maltese Falcon" and "Little Caesar" for inspiration and an idea of the genre. Google helped me get a feel of what my scenes and characters should look like.
For my camcorder and Vegas, I already knew how to use these. I did, however, pick up a few tricks from watching Christian edit various films. For After Effects, I worked out how to use the UI by myself (only the parts I needed to use) and watched a few of VideoCopilot's tutorials (www.videocopilot.net) to learn the basics of masking/applying effects and colour correction.
-Suits and Hats, formal looking clothing. Handguns would be used, which would be either magnums (western-style) or glocks (like the ones I used).
-Focused on crime (usually murder) where the characters would be involved in heists or con games.
-Lots of conspiracies, false accusations, and adulterous affairs.
-Betrayals and Double-crossing.
-Greed and Jealousy motivations.
-Often centres on a pirvate eye/lone detective or criminal gangs.
-Heroes are very flawed and morally questionable.
-Literal identity of a 'dead man walking'.
-Protagonists filled with existential bitterness - alienated, moody.
-Black and White, saxophone music, voiceovers.
-Stock characters include the hardboiled detective, femme fatale, corrupt policemen, gangsters, jealous husbands, and... intrepid claims adjusters...?
-City location that is more like a maze, includes bars, lounges, nightclubs, gambling dens...
-Climaxes in industrial areas - warehouses, factories, trainyards, powerplants.
-Night setting, very low lighting. Lots of use of shadows.
-Pessimism, hopelessness. Characters become trapped in unwanted situations.
-Cultural paranoia and widespread corruption.
-Steadfast virtue rewarded and vice severely punished.
-Sexuality and dangers of women.
-Focus on the criminal rather than society producing criminals.
I watched a couple of film noir classics, "The Maltese Falcon" and "Little Caesar" for inspiration and an idea of the genre. Google helped me get a feel of what my scenes and characters should look like.
For my camcorder and Vegas, I already knew how to use these. I did, however, pick up a few tricks from watching Christian edit various films. For After Effects, I worked out how to use the UI by myself (only the parts I needed to use) and watched a few of VideoCopilot's tutorials (www.videocopilot.net) to learn the basics of masking/applying effects and colour correction.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Evaluation
So, how did it go?
I think it went splendidly. I wanted to do something that other people weren't likely to do, and it was pretty easy to cross "Kung Fu movie" off the list. I set out to do a film noir, something that meant I needed a night setting, saxophone music, crime (usually murder), greed/jealousy, a private eye, a femme fatale, having my protagonist involved in con games or heists of some sort, betrayals/double-crossings, flase accusations, a literal identity of 'dead man walking', a morally questionable/flawed hero, suits and hats, black and white, existential bitterness, lots of use of shadows/minimal lighting, characters in 'trap' situations that they become responsible for, a strong idea of women being sexual and manipulative, a bleak, pessimistic, or hopeless outcome, and a focus on the criminal. At least, that's what my research told me. Of all of that, I managed to apply pretty much everything in some way or another. I made sure in the editing that the lighting remained dark and moody - I crushed the blacks inside specifically to make the shadows darker. For the outside scenes, I tried to make them as bright as I could without damaging the footage (too bright and grain becomes VERY distracting), but I wanted the outside shots to be dark, since it sets the tone and genre well. The intro shots of Jonesy walking through the night have an almost silhouette effect, which I really wanted to keep, hence the darkness there.
Finding actors was simple enough, since almost everyone involved is in my drama class, and they were more than happy to help, which was great. I made sure the film would be doable - I set it entirely at my house, bought some cheap hats, borrowed some bb guns (which a friend of mine had used for his film), and even managed to convince the rest of the family to go out for the night. I knew the effects would be no problem - so long as I kept them to a minimal. I even got a device from one of my dad's colleagues at the University, which would switch a set of lights on and off automatically. I covered a couple of desk lamps with coloured cellophane and plugged them in to this thing to do the police lights at the end of the opening. All in all, I was extremely pleased with the end result, especially since I haven't done something like this entirely by myself before.
On to the cons; the original filming was meant to have happened in the holidays. It didn't, because everyone was busy or away. HOWEVER, had this delay not happened, I would not have re-written the script, and the film would have come out as 2 minutes of random running and shooting outside in the pitch darkness. I'm genuinely glad the filming got delayed.
Things did go a little awry in the actual filming, however. I came about 13 (or 3?) minutes away from running out of camera battery, and with no spare, I'd have to have asked everyone to come back for another night. I felt really stressed filming it, since I'd promised everyone we'd be done by 10, and that deadline came much faster than I'd expected. I didn't want to have to film on another night, considering how much of a hassle that would have been, and so unfortunately the filming lasted until 10:40 at night. Next time I should wear a watch. It wasn't a bad experience though; everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I got everything I needed (other than the narration, which I forgot about and had to record the following day). The guys even had a bb gun fight while I was filming Sara and James' scene. It was fun.
As far as the editing goes, I spent way too long editing the gunshots shot (which lasted about 3 seconds), only to find the black and white effects made the blood effects seemingly disappear. They are still there, though, so if you really want to have a close look, my efforts are justified. It makes it subtly more convincing. On the music side, I kinda wish I'd used less music, considering this is one opening sequence. I'm happy with it, because the music fills in the space, adds to the mood, and really drives the ending, though the last track feels rather short. Had the film continued past the title, I would have kept the track going into the next scene for a smooth transition, so it works out.
What would I do differently next time?
Next time, I'd have to keep to a tighter timeframe. I'd wear a watch and make sure I get everyone on-task so that everything can be filmed on-schedule so that people can go home at the right time and the camera battery doesn't get dangerously close to depletion. I'm planning to get another camera battery sometime soon, so that would be useful as a backup. If it weren't for school and everyone else's film projects, I'd have asked the actors to read over the script, if not to memorise, then to at least get a feel of how they would say their lines etc before coming in, that way the acting would come a lot more naturally. On top of this, the actors should all have had an idea of the plot beforehand, in order to make their motivations more obvious. I did send everyone a link to this blog so they could read the script, so most of them did actually read it beforehand, but some points may not have gotten across quite so well. A run-through off-camera would also have been nice, just to make sure the timing was sorted. I suppose if Bronson's jacket had fitted him (it was my dad's) that would've looked a bit better. I would have looked at each clip after recording in order to see whether it needed re-taking or not, but didn't get a chance to do so because of the time pressure. There is one shot with the script in it, and another with Sara in the background (though tough to notice) because of this. Perhaps next time I'll take multiple shots regardless of how they went, just in case. I should have chosen royalty-free music to begin with, because now I have to go back and change all the music in order to upload the film onto youtube/vimeo. That doesn't mean anything to this standard, it just means extra work after hand-in in order to use it elsewhere.
So, how well do I think it went?
Brilliantly. For a 16-year-old, on a budget of $0 (not counting the hats), and no special settings or professional equipment, it's a very decent stab at the film noir genre. I'm very happy with the acting, the editing, and the writing, and can't wait for the end of mocks to start working on more self-directed films.
I think it went splendidly. I wanted to do something that other people weren't likely to do, and it was pretty easy to cross "Kung Fu movie" off the list. I set out to do a film noir, something that meant I needed a night setting, saxophone music, crime (usually murder), greed/jealousy, a private eye, a femme fatale, having my protagonist involved in con games or heists of some sort, betrayals/double-crossings, flase accusations, a literal identity of 'dead man walking', a morally questionable/flawed hero, suits and hats, black and white, existential bitterness, lots of use of shadows/minimal lighting, characters in 'trap' situations that they become responsible for, a strong idea of women being sexual and manipulative, a bleak, pessimistic, or hopeless outcome, and a focus on the criminal. At least, that's what my research told me. Of all of that, I managed to apply pretty much everything in some way or another. I made sure in the editing that the lighting remained dark and moody - I crushed the blacks inside specifically to make the shadows darker. For the outside scenes, I tried to make them as bright as I could without damaging the footage (too bright and grain becomes VERY distracting), but I wanted the outside shots to be dark, since it sets the tone and genre well. The intro shots of Jonesy walking through the night have an almost silhouette effect, which I really wanted to keep, hence the darkness there.
Finding actors was simple enough, since almost everyone involved is in my drama class, and they were more than happy to help, which was great. I made sure the film would be doable - I set it entirely at my house, bought some cheap hats, borrowed some bb guns (which a friend of mine had used for his film), and even managed to convince the rest of the family to go out for the night. I knew the effects would be no problem - so long as I kept them to a minimal. I even got a device from one of my dad's colleagues at the University, which would switch a set of lights on and off automatically. I covered a couple of desk lamps with coloured cellophane and plugged them in to this thing to do the police lights at the end of the opening. All in all, I was extremely pleased with the end result, especially since I haven't done something like this entirely by myself before.
On to the cons; the original filming was meant to have happened in the holidays. It didn't, because everyone was busy or away. HOWEVER, had this delay not happened, I would not have re-written the script, and the film would have come out as 2 minutes of random running and shooting outside in the pitch darkness. I'm genuinely glad the filming got delayed.
Things did go a little awry in the actual filming, however. I came about 13 (or 3?) minutes away from running out of camera battery, and with no spare, I'd have to have asked everyone to come back for another night. I felt really stressed filming it, since I'd promised everyone we'd be done by 10, and that deadline came much faster than I'd expected. I didn't want to have to film on another night, considering how much of a hassle that would have been, and so unfortunately the filming lasted until 10:40 at night. Next time I should wear a watch. It wasn't a bad experience though; everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I got everything I needed (other than the narration, which I forgot about and had to record the following day). The guys even had a bb gun fight while I was filming Sara and James' scene. It was fun.
As far as the editing goes, I spent way too long editing the gunshots shot (which lasted about 3 seconds), only to find the black and white effects made the blood effects seemingly disappear. They are still there, though, so if you really want to have a close look, my efforts are justified. It makes it subtly more convincing. On the music side, I kinda wish I'd used less music, considering this is one opening sequence. I'm happy with it, because the music fills in the space, adds to the mood, and really drives the ending, though the last track feels rather short. Had the film continued past the title, I would have kept the track going into the next scene for a smooth transition, so it works out.
What would I do differently next time?
Next time, I'd have to keep to a tighter timeframe. I'd wear a watch and make sure I get everyone on-task so that everything can be filmed on-schedule so that people can go home at the right time and the camera battery doesn't get dangerously close to depletion. I'm planning to get another camera battery sometime soon, so that would be useful as a backup. If it weren't for school and everyone else's film projects, I'd have asked the actors to read over the script, if not to memorise, then to at least get a feel of how they would say their lines etc before coming in, that way the acting would come a lot more naturally. On top of this, the actors should all have had an idea of the plot beforehand, in order to make their motivations more obvious. I did send everyone a link to this blog so they could read the script, so most of them did actually read it beforehand, but some points may not have gotten across quite so well. A run-through off-camera would also have been nice, just to make sure the timing was sorted. I suppose if Bronson's jacket had fitted him (it was my dad's) that would've looked a bit better. I would have looked at each clip after recording in order to see whether it needed re-taking or not, but didn't get a chance to do so because of the time pressure. There is one shot with the script in it, and another with Sara in the background (though tough to notice) because of this. Perhaps next time I'll take multiple shots regardless of how they went, just in case. I should have chosen royalty-free music to begin with, because now I have to go back and change all the music in order to upload the film onto youtube/vimeo. That doesn't mean anything to this standard, it just means extra work after hand-in in order to use it elsewhere.
So, how well do I think it went?
Brilliantly. For a 16-year-old, on a budget of $0 (not counting the hats), and no special settings or professional equipment, it's a very decent stab at the film noir genre. I'm very happy with the acting, the editing, and the writing, and can't wait for the end of mocks to start working on more self-directed films.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Music
Tracks I used (in order of appearance):
“In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
“Prowler” by Bohren & der Club of Gore
“Midnight Walker” by Bohren & der Club of Gore
“Angel” by Massive Attack
I really enjoyed using these tracks (though trying to find pieces of music that suited was stressful at times). I chose to use "In a Setimental Mood" because it blended with the narration very well. It gives a sort of self-reflective mood with the words spoken and I think it set the scene well. At that point, nothing had happened on-screen, and so it wasn't meant to be dark or agressive in any way. The Saxophone was something I wanted to incorporate as much of as I could - it fits the genre really well, giving a detective-in-the-night vibe.
"Prowler" was used to highlight the sexual tension between Maria and Jonesy, but it also has a moodiness to it - the rhythm is slow, downbeat, and the low strings suggest a more solemn atmosphere than the piano and saxophone give off. The saxophone here is meant to be playful and romantic. The piano is very bright, innocent, which I think is great for Maria's character, since we haven't seen her darker side as of yet.
"Midnight Walker" was meant to be overwhelmingly bleak (and the song is seven minutes of bleak, solemn, moody 'space'). This piece again uses the saxophone, but in conjunction with the organ in the background, is rather depressing. No playfulness here. This is where Bill's partner has been killed, where everything is about to go wrong, and I wanted to capture some of that on the ambient side, hence this choice in music.
"Angel" is the climax of the opening. I needed something that fitted the fast pace of Ed's/Bill's escape, but also something that would work well with the slow-motion shots that present the falling action at the end. The chime-like sound of the guitar in this was something I thought fitted these contrasting speeds well. The lyrics heard in the ending are "Neutralise every man inside" and "I love you" - this links back to Maria's dangerous character, and Bill's feelings toward her. This is the one piece that does not feature a saxophone, and also the only one that featured a fast tempo with contemporary instruments, such as the electric guitar and bass. While this would not have been seen in 1940s film noir, I believe it is something that can be applied nowadays. The original style of film noir was merely the style of the time, after all. There were a number of inconsistancies surrounding the time setting of this opening, and so I present that this is alternate 2000s - where everything is roughly where it is today, but with the styles and trends of the 1940s. Examples of this are the police siren, the architecture of the house, style of streetlight, the telephone, and the fridge/freezer in the kitchen verses the gang members in suits, and currency inflation being nonexistant ($10,000 being a fortune).
“In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
“Prowler” by Bohren & der Club of Gore
“Midnight Walker” by Bohren & der Club of Gore
“Angel” by Massive Attack
I really enjoyed using these tracks (though trying to find pieces of music that suited was stressful at times). I chose to use "In a Setimental Mood" because it blended with the narration very well. It gives a sort of self-reflective mood with the words spoken and I think it set the scene well. At that point, nothing had happened on-screen, and so it wasn't meant to be dark or agressive in any way. The Saxophone was something I wanted to incorporate as much of as I could - it fits the genre really well, giving a detective-in-the-night vibe.
"Prowler" was used to highlight the sexual tension between Maria and Jonesy, but it also has a moodiness to it - the rhythm is slow, downbeat, and the low strings suggest a more solemn atmosphere than the piano and saxophone give off. The saxophone here is meant to be playful and romantic. The piano is very bright, innocent, which I think is great for Maria's character, since we haven't seen her darker side as of yet.
"Midnight Walker" was meant to be overwhelmingly bleak (and the song is seven minutes of bleak, solemn, moody 'space'). This piece again uses the saxophone, but in conjunction with the organ in the background, is rather depressing. No playfulness here. This is where Bill's partner has been killed, where everything is about to go wrong, and I wanted to capture some of that on the ambient side, hence this choice in music.
"Angel" is the climax of the opening. I needed something that fitted the fast pace of Ed's/Bill's escape, but also something that would work well with the slow-motion shots that present the falling action at the end. The chime-like sound of the guitar in this was something I thought fitted these contrasting speeds well. The lyrics heard in the ending are "Neutralise every man inside" and "I love you" - this links back to Maria's dangerous character, and Bill's feelings toward her. This is the one piece that does not feature a saxophone, and also the only one that featured a fast tempo with contemporary instruments, such as the electric guitar and bass. While this would not have been seen in 1940s film noir, I believe it is something that can be applied nowadays. The original style of film noir was merely the style of the time, after all. There were a number of inconsistancies surrounding the time setting of this opening, and so I present that this is alternate 2000s - where everything is roughly where it is today, but with the styles and trends of the 1940s. Examples of this are the police siren, the architecture of the house, style of streetlight, the telephone, and the fridge/freezer in the kitchen verses the gang members in suits, and currency inflation being nonexistant ($10,000 being a fortune).
Editing
I've done all the editing at home, because my camera records in *.m2ts format (with accompanying *.modd files). Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro cannot import this format, so for the sake of convinience and quality, I've avoided these programs. Note: I'm basing this off of Adobe Creative Suite 3. It is possible that CS4 might support these files, but I didn't want to be forced into doing all the editing at school (as I'd have no way of moving back and forth due to compatibility issues).
This is a rundown of everything I did in the editing of this opening, though I might have missed some parts. I have a folder of screenshots to accompany this, so wherever you see a [0] with a number in it, that number corresponds to an image in the folder. If I need to upload the images at a later date, I will.
The programs I used were:
Sony Vegas Pro 10 - Editing
Adobe After Effects CS3 - The 3 seconds of Bill shooting the goons
Sony Picture Media Browser - for importing files from my camera
Youtube Downloader - For downloading music
Anvsoft Any Audio Converter - For converting the downloaded *.flv music
MS Paint - for saving screenshots of my editing
The first thing I did was to set up a new project in Sony Vegas. For this I chose settings that matched my camera's footage - 1920x1080 pixels, 25 frames per second (PAL standard), 48,000 Hz audio sample rate. [1] I've done tests before where my camera had been recording in 1440x1080 pixels and I hadn't noticed. Since the output has always been to 1920x1080, these clips had all come out choppy and unwatchable. Some time before filming this opening, I set it to the correct ratio and did more tests, and the output was significantly better.
After going through all of my footage in Sony PMB[2], I picked out 12 minutes of usable footage[3]. That's 79 video clips. I imported these into Vegas and trimmed them one by one until I'd gotten it down to 6 minutes[4]. I went about splitting audio from video, and deleted the audio for the opening clips. I then layered the video and audio together so that it would roughly resemble the finished product. From there, I worked on the narration[5], cutting together 4 takes of Bronson talking, and then rendering it as an *.aa3 file (the same audio my camera's files use). I then went looking for music that would support this and settled on a piece called "Cult of Lamb" - however, this needed to be stretched out and ended up being too horror-movie-esque. I searched on youtube for ages, and eventually replaced this with Duke Ellington and John Coltrane's "In a Sentimental Mood". I imported the music and narration, and added these to the timeline. I went back into the PMB and saved a single frame from the first clip[6], which I then imported into Vegas and set to fade in, and merge with the footage[7].
At this point I had 7 layers in Vegas[8] - two video tracks (Intended for track effect editing. I wanted to have one track for inside shots and one for outside, so I could brighten/darken them seperately. At this point I didn't have any effects on, nor did I have the clips arranged according to the tracks), and 5 audio tracks (two that accompanied the video so that I could layer the dialogue correctly, as well as one for music, one for sound effects/narration, and... I lose track of the others. I basically split them so I could use each track's master volume rather than do gritty detail work at this point).
Here's where I spent a lot of time in After Effects for little reason[9]. I had one shot where one of the goons accidentally kills the other goon, and then Bill shoots the teamkiller. This was only a few seconds long, but the editing took forever. I didn't have any fancy motion tracking software (though a friend tells me he could've given me them afterward -_-) so I avoided using AE's tracking data method. Mostly because I've only used it a couple of times, but also because there weren't many useable points in the shot, especially with the goons' flailing limbs. So I imported a couple of muzzle flares and about 4 different blood squirts, and went about placing them individually[10], and in some cases doing some 3D rotation[11]. I then went frame by frame to adjust the effects clips using keyframes.
Another thing I had to do was to mask out bits that shouldn't be there. For example, the first muzzle flare occurs with Bronson in front of it, but other scenery behind. For this I used the pen tool and drew an outline of where I didn't want the muzzle flare to be seen. By default AE has masks set to 'add' so the result was the complete opposite of what I'd intended - the flare was ONLY seen in front of Bronson[12], and nowhere else. I set this to 'subtract' and vioala![13] Of course, I had to mask every blood effect[14] and this meant about 10 or so different masks[15], each one I had to adjust the markers frame-by-frame[16], as well as set the opacity, rotation, and feathering using keyframes[17]. THEN I got to adjust the colour values of each effect clip using Colour Curves[18], and in a couple of cases, even keyframing additional adjustments there. By now my computer was about to go into cardiac arrest, so I finished my work here by adding an adjustment layer, adding black-and-white effects, and rendering the 5-second footage I'd spent a good 3 or 4 hours on. While I could have saved time for myself by using tracking data and saving the effects layers as a single clip (without the original video, thus I could do all the colour correction at once), I like having the specific control of being able to determine exactly what will be seen on a frame-by-frame basis. And I seriously doubt my computer would be able to perform well enough to track 11 layers of HD video, considering how poor the framerate was in playback (what is -0.007 frames per second? The clip is meant to be 25fps...)
One of the main problems here was the colour grading going awry. In most cases, the blood effects seemed to disappear because in black-and-white the red was too dark and just looked like everything else. My final output from AE was in black and white, which meant I didn't have to do anything more to it and it'd look fine. I went back into Vegas and added another video layer specifically for this clip (because the effects I added later would mess with it for some reason, so I found in a prior test).
From here I spent a lot of time looking for music for this opening. All of the footage had been trimmed and arranged properly by now, so it was time I got the soundtrack sorted. I found some music that would suit and downloaded it, adding it to Vegas and into the project timeline. Now I could go about matching the clips with the music, so that everything happened on cue. This meant some rearranging, and some extra trimming/extending of clips. I had each track of music on a separate audio track, again to lower the volume easily. After I'd done this I added the sound effects that I'd sourced from free sound effect websites (all of which were awful, I might add). I asked a friend for any sound effects he had and simply placed them exactly where the placeholder sound effects had been (I'm talking about gunshots and a single 'thud' sound). The last sound effect was the police siren, which was difficult to find, but I took my friend's advice and found some on youtube. I downloaded one and replaced the placeholder. I figured the sound effect was modern, but so was half the items in the film, as well as the final track of music, so it didn't matter.
Now that the film was mostly done, I could trim the clips down (some video clips were layered on top of one another[19] - where the lower clip could not be seen, it was still there. I basically just got rid of that stuff) and arrange them properly. I put all the video on one track, then moved all the dark clips to the lower track[20]. I then put all the audio onto four tracks - two for clip audio, one for music, and one for the police siren (the gunshot sounds were now on the clip audio tracks). I went and used audio envelopes to keyframe adjustments in volume[21], which meant I could make individual sentences louder or quieter[22], and make sure that all audio could be heard over the backing music.
The last step was to colour grade, which meant adding two effects[23] - Sony Black And White (which simply desaturated the video)[24][25] and Colour Curves (which allowed me to expand/reduce shadows, highlights, and midtones with a lot of care)[26]. I adjusted these per track - brightening the track of outside shots, and darkening the track of inside shots. When I was certain I'd done a good job, I went to render the finished film.[27]
In rendering I used a custom output that I'd configured previously[28] (based on the required settings for the V48hours). It was basically a Sony AVC video set to *.mp4 encoding (rather than *.m2ts which would have had me go full circle). This meant the quality would not be reduced, and the output would have the same attributes as the project (which, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, were the same as the camera's files). The quality was roughly (if not exactly) the same as it was to begin with, and the file size kept small (about 400mb for a 6-minute HD video). The total amount of footage I took was about 2gb in size, so this was certainly an improvement.
I watched the video, made some notes, and realised some of the colour grading was off. I went back into Vegas and moved the problematic clips onto other tracks based on whether I needed them lighter or darker (in the end I created another track in order to seriously darken the scenes shot down the hallway and in my parents' room)[29]. I also took the time to adjust the audio further with the envelopes[30], and added a title right at the end, which would fade in after the last clip had faded to black[31]. Then I rendered it out and I was finished. Although, some of the school computers could not play the video due to the Sony AVC codec I'd used... it worked fine on both Todd's and Ms Kazimi's computers, so I doubt it'll be an issue. If it comes down to it, I can always re-render in another file format[32]. :)
This is a rundown of everything I did in the editing of this opening, though I might have missed some parts. I have a folder of screenshots to accompany this, so wherever you see a [0] with a number in it, that number corresponds to an image in the folder. If I need to upload the images at a later date, I will.
The programs I used were:
Sony Vegas Pro 10 - Editing
Adobe After Effects CS3 - The 3 seconds of Bill shooting the goons
Sony Picture Media Browser - for importing files from my camera
Youtube Downloader - For downloading music
Anvsoft Any Audio Converter - For converting the downloaded *.flv music
MS Paint - for saving screenshots of my editing
The first thing I did was to set up a new project in Sony Vegas. For this I chose settings that matched my camera's footage - 1920x1080 pixels, 25 frames per second (PAL standard), 48,000 Hz audio sample rate. [1] I've done tests before where my camera had been recording in 1440x1080 pixels and I hadn't noticed. Since the output has always been to 1920x1080, these clips had all come out choppy and unwatchable. Some time before filming this opening, I set it to the correct ratio and did more tests, and the output was significantly better.
After going through all of my footage in Sony PMB[2], I picked out 12 minutes of usable footage[3]. That's 79 video clips. I imported these into Vegas and trimmed them one by one until I'd gotten it down to 6 minutes[4]. I went about splitting audio from video, and deleted the audio for the opening clips. I then layered the video and audio together so that it would roughly resemble the finished product. From there, I worked on the narration[5], cutting together 4 takes of Bronson talking, and then rendering it as an *.aa3 file (the same audio my camera's files use). I then went looking for music that would support this and settled on a piece called "Cult of Lamb" - however, this needed to be stretched out and ended up being too horror-movie-esque. I searched on youtube for ages, and eventually replaced this with Duke Ellington and John Coltrane's "In a Sentimental Mood". I imported the music and narration, and added these to the timeline. I went back into the PMB and saved a single frame from the first clip[6], which I then imported into Vegas and set to fade in, and merge with the footage[7].
At this point I had 7 layers in Vegas[8] - two video tracks (Intended for track effect editing. I wanted to have one track for inside shots and one for outside, so I could brighten/darken them seperately. At this point I didn't have any effects on, nor did I have the clips arranged according to the tracks), and 5 audio tracks (two that accompanied the video so that I could layer the dialogue correctly, as well as one for music, one for sound effects/narration, and... I lose track of the others. I basically split them so I could use each track's master volume rather than do gritty detail work at this point).
Here's where I spent a lot of time in After Effects for little reason[9]. I had one shot where one of the goons accidentally kills the other goon, and then Bill shoots the teamkiller. This was only a few seconds long, but the editing took forever. I didn't have any fancy motion tracking software (though a friend tells me he could've given me them afterward -_-) so I avoided using AE's tracking data method. Mostly because I've only used it a couple of times, but also because there weren't many useable points in the shot, especially with the goons' flailing limbs. So I imported a couple of muzzle flares and about 4 different blood squirts, and went about placing them individually[10], and in some cases doing some 3D rotation[11]. I then went frame by frame to adjust the effects clips using keyframes.
Another thing I had to do was to mask out bits that shouldn't be there. For example, the first muzzle flare occurs with Bronson in front of it, but other scenery behind. For this I used the pen tool and drew an outline of where I didn't want the muzzle flare to be seen. By default AE has masks set to 'add' so the result was the complete opposite of what I'd intended - the flare was ONLY seen in front of Bronson[12], and nowhere else. I set this to 'subtract' and vioala![13] Of course, I had to mask every blood effect[14] and this meant about 10 or so different masks[15], each one I had to adjust the markers frame-by-frame[16], as well as set the opacity, rotation, and feathering using keyframes[17]. THEN I got to adjust the colour values of each effect clip using Colour Curves[18], and in a couple of cases, even keyframing additional adjustments there. By now my computer was about to go into cardiac arrest, so I finished my work here by adding an adjustment layer, adding black-and-white effects, and rendering the 5-second footage I'd spent a good 3 or 4 hours on. While I could have saved time for myself by using tracking data and saving the effects layers as a single clip (without the original video, thus I could do all the colour correction at once), I like having the specific control of being able to determine exactly what will be seen on a frame-by-frame basis. And I seriously doubt my computer would be able to perform well enough to track 11 layers of HD video, considering how poor the framerate was in playback (what is -0.007 frames per second? The clip is meant to be 25fps...)
One of the main problems here was the colour grading going awry. In most cases, the blood effects seemed to disappear because in black-and-white the red was too dark and just looked like everything else. My final output from AE was in black and white, which meant I didn't have to do anything more to it and it'd look fine. I went back into Vegas and added another video layer specifically for this clip (because the effects I added later would mess with it for some reason, so I found in a prior test).
From here I spent a lot of time looking for music for this opening. All of the footage had been trimmed and arranged properly by now, so it was time I got the soundtrack sorted. I found some music that would suit and downloaded it, adding it to Vegas and into the project timeline. Now I could go about matching the clips with the music, so that everything happened on cue. This meant some rearranging, and some extra trimming/extending of clips. I had each track of music on a separate audio track, again to lower the volume easily. After I'd done this I added the sound effects that I'd sourced from free sound effect websites (all of which were awful, I might add). I asked a friend for any sound effects he had and simply placed them exactly where the placeholder sound effects had been (I'm talking about gunshots and a single 'thud' sound). The last sound effect was the police siren, which was difficult to find, but I took my friend's advice and found some on youtube. I downloaded one and replaced the placeholder. I figured the sound effect was modern, but so was half the items in the film, as well as the final track of music, so it didn't matter.
Now that the film was mostly done, I could trim the clips down (some video clips were layered on top of one another[19] - where the lower clip could not be seen, it was still there. I basically just got rid of that stuff) and arrange them properly. I put all the video on one track, then moved all the dark clips to the lower track[20]. I then put all the audio onto four tracks - two for clip audio, one for music, and one for the police siren (the gunshot sounds were now on the clip audio tracks). I went and used audio envelopes to keyframe adjustments in volume[21], which meant I could make individual sentences louder or quieter[22], and make sure that all audio could be heard over the backing music.
The last step was to colour grade, which meant adding two effects[23] - Sony Black And White (which simply desaturated the video)[24][25] and Colour Curves (which allowed me to expand/reduce shadows, highlights, and midtones with a lot of care)[26]. I adjusted these per track - brightening the track of outside shots, and darkening the track of inside shots. When I was certain I'd done a good job, I went to render the finished film.[27]
In rendering I used a custom output that I'd configured previously[28] (based on the required settings for the V48hours). It was basically a Sony AVC video set to *.mp4 encoding (rather than *.m2ts which would have had me go full circle). This meant the quality would not be reduced, and the output would have the same attributes as the project (which, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, were the same as the camera's files). The quality was roughly (if not exactly) the same as it was to begin with, and the file size kept small (about 400mb for a 6-minute HD video). The total amount of footage I took was about 2gb in size, so this was certainly an improvement.
I watched the video, made some notes, and realised some of the colour grading was off. I went back into Vegas and moved the problematic clips onto other tracks based on whether I needed them lighter or darker (in the end I created another track in order to seriously darken the scenes shot down the hallway and in my parents' room)[29]. I also took the time to adjust the audio further with the envelopes[30], and added a title right at the end, which would fade in after the last clip had faded to black[31]. Then I rendered it out and I was finished. Although, some of the school computers could not play the video due to the Sony AVC codec I'd used... it worked fine on both Todd's and Ms Kazimi's computers, so I doubt it'll be an issue. If it comes down to it, I can always re-render in another file format[32]. :)
Friday, 8 July 2011
Script
Note that the script is still subject to some change. The medallion thing - I might change this. I'll need to find an object of interest and value to replace it, but for now a medallion will work fine. Parts are fairly loose, so you're welcome to swap roles with someone if you ask me first. But Michael's gonna be Ed. :P
There are six characters altogether.
Bill (Bronson) - A Pinkerton detective in search of the medallion. His name will not be mentioned, so 'Bill' is actually just there for easy reference rather than anything else.
Jonesy (James) - Bill's partner. Another Pinkerton after the same thing.
Big Ed/"Eddy" (Michael) - A mob boss, currently in possession of the medallion.
Maria (Sara) - Ed's girl, secretly after the medallion as well, but for her own greed.
Frank (Blake and Todd) - Refers to both of Ed's goons, so either of them can say the lines etc.
Narration (Bill):
It was a frozen night in winter, the sort of bitter chill that tunnelled under your skin to gnaw at the bone. It had taken me a month to worm my way into Big Ed’s mob, and now he trusted me enough to invite me to his poker night. My job was to reclaim the medallion of Marie Antoinette. Ms Dawson had been awfully upset after it’d been stolen. An heirloom like that must be worth nearly ten grand. It was certainly something Ed didn’t want to leave lying around for all to see. My partner, Jonesy, was up in Ed’s room doing the searching. Once it’d been found we could take it and return the medallion without involving the police. They don’t like Pinkertons around these parts. They don’t even know we’re here. It’d be best to keep it that way.
You can’t trust anyone anymore.
Everyone other than Jonesy is at the table playing poker. Maria is not playing, but flirting with Ed. Have shots of shifty eyes, people holding cards under the table, poker chips, beers, cigars etc. This will need a bit of smoke effects. Alternate with shots of Jonesy sneaking up the driveway, past the window, and into Ed’s room.
Ed: (to Maria) Why don’t you turn in for the night. I’ve got some… business to attend to.
Maria: Mmm, sure darling. Goodnight boys.
Maria smiles and leaves. Bill looks watches her go, then looks down at his cards when he becomes aware he was staring. Ed sees Bill’s look.
Ed: (after Maria has left) Well, I can see we’re all getting pretty tired about now. Why don’t we take a break from the games and have a little chat.
Frank: But boss! I’ve almost got this!
Ed: Oh, I think someone’s almost got this alright, but it ain’t you or me. Tell me, son. Where’d you get so good at cards?
Bill: I uhh, used to know a guy in a casino. He uhh, he had a bit of a habit of playing dirty, counting cards…
Ed: *laughs* Good man!
Bill: He got caught.
Ed: I’m sorry to hear that. But I suppose he got what he deserved.
Frank: Come on, boss! You know we ain’t cheating!
Ed: It’s not the cheating that’s concerning me, it’s the deception. You got a good poker face, don’t you, son?
Bill is undeterred.
Ed: You got a lot of nerve, tryin to put one past me.
Bill: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Ed: (shouting and standing up) You know exactly what I’m talking about! You’re a pink! A private eye, sent to spy on me and then turn me in to the cops! *The goons grab Bill and restrain him* I know what you’re after too. I’m sorry to cause such grief to that young Dawson girl, but this medallion you’ve come for, is mine! And I intend to keep it that way, least till I can get it onto the market. (He sits back down).
Frank: What do you want us to do with him, boss?
Ed: What do we always do with Pinks and Coppers… *sadistic laugh*
A gunshot disrupts the lot.
Maria enters Ed’s room, to find Jonesy hunched over the safe. Jonesy takes the medallion out and admires it. Maria acts seductively, and drags out her words in a playful manner.
Maria: You shouldn’t be here…
Jonesy is startled. He pulls his gun on her.
Maria: Is that any way to treat a lady? I’m not gonna bite.
Jonesy: (Sounding really anxious) Yeah, but your hubby down there ain’t so friendly. I’ve seen what he did to those cops.
Maria: Oh relax, I won’t tell on you. Besides, how could I do such a thing to such a strong, handsome man like you? *she moves toward Jonesy*
Jonesy: *now sounding quietly intimate* I don’t think Ed’d like you talking about someone like that.
Maria: There’s a lot of things Eddy wouldn’t like me to do. Doing them is just part of the fun. *by now she and Jonesy are standing VERY close*
Jonesy: You’re dangerous, you are.
Maria: Oh, I can be so much more than that.
Jonesy: Really?
Maria: I could show you, if you like. It’s cold, and I want someone to hold on to.
Jonesy: Well, I think we can arrange that…
Maria lies atop Jonesy on the bed. It’s implied they’re kissing or whatever. She reaches down to Jonesy’s waist and takes hold of his pistol. Maria sits up – still atop Jonesy – pointing the pistol at him. A seriousness has come about her.
Jonesy: *smiling in that quiet intimacy as before* Is that any way to treat a man?
Maria: *sarcastically* Cute. Hand over the medallion, or I’ll blow your brains out.
Jonesy: *no longer intimate, now cynical* Easy, there. Have you ever fired a gun before?
Maria: I think I can work it out.
Jonesy: Oh really? And what happens when Eddy comes down here to find you lying atop a dead stranger on his bed?
Maria: I’ll be gone by then.
Jonesy: If you want the medallion, you’ll have to shoot me first. I know you’re not gonna do that to a ‘strong, handsome man’ like me.
Maria: *leaning in to Jonesy* Doing it is part of the fun.
Maria fires the pistol. She takes the medallion from Jonesy’s body and heads to the phone.
Back at the poker game.
Ed: Jesus Christ! What the hell was that?!
Frank: Sounded like a gunshot to me, boss.
Ed: Shutup. *to Bill* Did you bring any of your buddies? HUH?!
Bill: *spitting the words at Ed* I came alone.
Ed: *to the Franks* Bring him here!
The goons bring Bill to the other side of the table and bend him lower than Ed. Ed bends down and grabs Bill by the neck.
Ed:*to Bill, in a whispered rage through his teeth* You’d better be telling the truth, boy. Or your head’s going on my trophy wall! *Ed straightens up and shouts at the Franks* Keep an eye on him, and don’t move unless I say so. I’ll be right back. *he heads to his room*
Maria puts the phone down on the receiver. Cut to Ed’s perspective heading down the hallway, gun in hand.
Ed: Maria? …Maria? *Maria appears in the doorway with a gun in her hand* Maria? What do you think you’re doing?
She slams the door shut and pushes the chest in front of it.
Ed: *banging on the door* Maria! Open this door!
Maria: I’ve called the police, Eddy!
Ed: What?! You stupid bitch! Open this door!
Maria: And I’ve taken the medallion, too.
Ed: You…
Maria: The cops sounded real happy to know where the guy who killed off all their buddies lived.
Ed: How dare you… no one’s known about my place for years!
Maria: And now they know everything! What are you gonna do about it, Eddy?
Ed: I’ll kill you, bitch!
A siren is heard in the distance.
Maria: Time’s ticking, Eddy.
Ed pushes the door open in a rage, to find the place overturned, the safe containing the medallion open, and the door leading outside, also open. No sign of Maria. He heads back to the poker game.
Ed: You two take care of Pinky here, don’t let him get his side out to the cops.
Frank: You got it, boss.
Ed: I’m gonna put one in that bitch for good…
Ed leaves, and the goons throw Bill to the ground. They aim their guns at his head.
Frank: It’s a shame your buddy couldn’t hold onto that medallion.
Bill spins round and fights off the goons, knocking them out, and shoots them (either to kill, or to seriously wound – he doesn’t care, isn’t looking). He then chases after Ed. He makes it to the driveway to find Ed lying there dead, and police lights flaring everywhere. He raises his hands.
Cut to black.
It was a frozen night in winter, the sort of bitter chill that tunnelled under your skin to gnaw at the bone. It had taken me a month to worm my way into Big Ed’s mob, and now he trusted me enough to invite me to his poker night. My job was to reclaim the medallion of Marie Antoinette. Ms Dawson had been awfully upset after it’d been stolen. An heirloom like that must be worth nearly ten grand. It was certainly something Ed didn’t want to leave lying around for all to see. My partner, Jonesy, was up in Ed’s room doing the searching. Once it’d been found we could take it and return the medallion without involving the police. They don’t like Pinkertons around these parts. They don’t even know we’re here. It’d be best to keep it that way.
You can’t trust anyone anymore.
Everyone other than Jonesy is at the table playing poker. Maria is not playing, but flirting with Ed. Have shots of shifty eyes, people holding cards under the table, poker chips, beers, cigars etc. This will need a bit of smoke effects. Alternate with shots of Jonesy sneaking up the driveway, past the window, and into Ed’s room.
Ed: (to Maria) Why don’t you turn in for the night. I’ve got some… business to attend to.
Maria: Mmm, sure darling. Goodnight boys.
Maria smiles and leaves. Bill looks watches her go, then looks down at his cards when he becomes aware he was staring. Ed sees Bill’s look.
Ed: (after Maria has left) Well, I can see we’re all getting pretty tired about now. Why don’t we take a break from the games and have a little chat.
Frank: But boss! I’ve almost got this!
Ed: Oh, I think someone’s almost got this alright, but it ain’t you or me. Tell me, son. Where’d you get so good at cards?
Bill: I uhh, used to know a guy in a casino. He uhh, he had a bit of a habit of playing dirty, counting cards…
Ed: *laughs* Good man!
Bill: He got caught.
Ed: I’m sorry to hear that. But I suppose he got what he deserved.
Frank: Come on, boss! You know we ain’t cheating!
Ed: It’s not the cheating that’s concerning me, it’s the deception. You got a good poker face, don’t you, son?
Bill is undeterred.
Ed: You got a lot of nerve, tryin to put one past me.
Bill: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Ed: (shouting and standing up) You know exactly what I’m talking about! You’re a pink! A private eye, sent to spy on me and then turn me in to the cops! *The goons grab Bill and restrain him* I know what you’re after too. I’m sorry to cause such grief to that young Dawson girl, but this medallion you’ve come for, is mine! And I intend to keep it that way, least till I can get it onto the market. (He sits back down).
Frank: What do you want us to do with him, boss?
Ed: What do we always do with Pinks and Coppers… *sadistic laugh*
A gunshot disrupts the lot.
Maria enters Ed’s room, to find Jonesy hunched over the safe. Jonesy takes the medallion out and admires it. Maria acts seductively, and drags out her words in a playful manner.
Maria: You shouldn’t be here…
Jonesy is startled. He pulls his gun on her.
Maria: Is that any way to treat a lady? I’m not gonna bite.
Jonesy: (Sounding really anxious) Yeah, but your hubby down there ain’t so friendly. I’ve seen what he did to those cops.
Maria: Oh relax, I won’t tell on you. Besides, how could I do such a thing to such a strong, handsome man like you? *she moves toward Jonesy*
Jonesy: *now sounding quietly intimate* I don’t think Ed’d like you talking about someone like that.
Maria: There’s a lot of things Eddy wouldn’t like me to do. Doing them is just part of the fun. *by now she and Jonesy are standing VERY close*
Jonesy: You’re dangerous, you are.
Maria: Oh, I can be so much more than that.
Jonesy: Really?
Maria: I could show you, if you like. It’s cold, and I want someone to hold on to.
Jonesy: Well, I think we can arrange that…
Maria lies atop Jonesy on the bed. It’s implied they’re kissing or whatever. She reaches down to Jonesy’s waist and takes hold of his pistol. Maria sits up – still atop Jonesy – pointing the pistol at him. A seriousness has come about her.
Jonesy: *smiling in that quiet intimacy as before* Is that any way to treat a man?
Maria: *sarcastically* Cute. Hand over the medallion, or I’ll blow your brains out.
Jonesy: *no longer intimate, now cynical* Easy, there. Have you ever fired a gun before?
Maria: I think I can work it out.
Jonesy: Oh really? And what happens when Eddy comes down here to find you lying atop a dead stranger on his bed?
Maria: I’ll be gone by then.
Jonesy: If you want the medallion, you’ll have to shoot me first. I know you’re not gonna do that to a ‘strong, handsome man’ like me.
Maria: *leaning in to Jonesy* Doing it is part of the fun.
Maria fires the pistol. She takes the medallion from Jonesy’s body and heads to the phone.
Back at the poker game.
Ed: Jesus Christ! What the hell was that?!
Frank: Sounded like a gunshot to me, boss.
Ed: Shutup. *to Bill* Did you bring any of your buddies? HUH?!
Bill: *spitting the words at Ed* I came alone.
Ed: *to the Franks* Bring him here!
The goons bring Bill to the other side of the table and bend him lower than Ed. Ed bends down and grabs Bill by the neck.
Ed:*to Bill, in a whispered rage through his teeth* You’d better be telling the truth, boy. Or your head’s going on my trophy wall! *Ed straightens up and shouts at the Franks* Keep an eye on him, and don’t move unless I say so. I’ll be right back. *he heads to his room*
Maria puts the phone down on the receiver. Cut to Ed’s perspective heading down the hallway, gun in hand.
Ed: Maria? …Maria? *Maria appears in the doorway with a gun in her hand* Maria? What do you think you’re doing?
She slams the door shut and pushes the chest in front of it.
Ed: *banging on the door* Maria! Open this door!
Maria: I’ve called the police, Eddy!
Ed: What?! You stupid bitch! Open this door!
Maria: And I’ve taken the medallion, too.
Ed: You…
Maria: The cops sounded real happy to know where the guy who killed off all their buddies lived.
Ed: How dare you… no one’s known about my place for years!
Maria: And now they know everything! What are you gonna do about it, Eddy?
Ed: I’ll kill you, bitch!
A siren is heard in the distance.
Maria: Time’s ticking, Eddy.
Ed pushes the door open in a rage, to find the place overturned, the safe containing the medallion open, and the door leading outside, also open. No sign of Maria. He heads back to the poker game.
Ed: You two take care of Pinky here, don’t let him get his side out to the cops.
Frank: You got it, boss.
Ed: I’m gonna put one in that bitch for good…
Ed leaves, and the goons throw Bill to the ground. They aim their guns at his head.
Frank: It’s a shame your buddy couldn’t hold onto that medallion.
Bill spins round and fights off the goons, knocking them out, and shoots them (either to kill, or to seriously wound – he doesn’t care, isn’t looking). He then chases after Ed. He makes it to the driveway to find Ed lying there dead, and police lights flaring everywhere. He raises his hands.
Cut to black.
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Crew, Talent, Locations, and Equipment
Crew
Kristyan Evans Fee - Director, Writer, Cameraman.
Talent
Michael Dunlop - Actor (Big Ed)
Sara Mikdame - Actress (Maria)
Bronson McNaughton - Actor (Detective "Bill")
James McCormick - Actor (Jonesy)
Blake Kennedy - Actor (Frank)
Nick Albers - Actor (Frank)
Locations
My house - Parent's bedroom, hallway, dining area, driveway
Equipment
Kristyan Evans Fee - Director, Writer, Cameraman.
Talent
Michael Dunlop - Actor (Big Ed)
Sara Mikdame - Actress (Maria)
Bronson McNaughton - Actor (Detective "Bill")
James McCormick - Actor (Jonesy)
Blake Kennedy - Actor (Frank)
Nick Albers - Actor (Frank)
Locations
My house - Parent's bedroom, hallway, dining area, driveway
Equipment
- Camera (mine - Sony HDR-XR100 series HD camcorder)
- Suits, dress and hats (x5 - fedoras or similar. Suits and dress belong to the actors)
- Guns (x4 - Courtesy of Walter)
- Poker Chips (mine)
- Cards (mine)
- Beer, glasses (x4)
- Various furniture (Table, chest of drawers, safe, phone etc)
- Safe (will use Dad's bedside table with the bed's heat control taped to it)
- A medallion
- Cash.
Treatment and Style
Treatment
It’s nighttime. Narration is heard overhead. We see four men in a dimly lit room playing poker at a table, with poker chips, cards, and beer everywhere. Bill and Ed are on opposite sides of the table, with Bill up against a wall. The Franks sit either side of them. Maria is next to Ed, flirting with him. We see Jonesy walking down a dimly-lit driveway, past the sunroom door, and then sneaking into Ed’s room and starting to search the place. Jonesy notices a safe, and opens it.
At the poker game, Ed asks Maria to leave on account of 'business to take care of'. She leaves, and Bill watches her go. Ed then ends the game to reveal he knows all about Bill and his operation. The goons leap up and restrain Bill, and they discuss the matter of his execution. Maria heads back to Ed’s room, and finds Jonesy has opened the safe. She seduces Jonesy, and using his pistol, kills him. She takes the medallion for herself and calls the police.
Ed becomes paranoid of police enforcements entering his house, and leaves the others to find out what’s happened at the other end of the house. He finds Maria holding a pistol, who is acting suspiciously. Maria slams the bedroom door on Ed, and reveals she’s called the police and that they’ll be there any minute. Ed swears to harm or kill her, and bursts through the door. Maria escapes with the medallion into the night. Ed leaves in a hurry, telling the goons to kill Bill.
Bill fights off the goons, shooting them before leaving. He manages to escape as far as the driveway, where he finds Ed’s corpse on the ground, and armed police aiming right at him. The police are not seen, but strongly implied by the flashing lights. As he raises his hands in a guilty surrender (gun still in hand) the scene fades to black, and the title appears.
Style
I'm aiming for a pessimistic/nihilistic film. It needs to be dark and moody, and envoke anxiety in the audience. I am going to achieve this by colour grading the film to be black-and-white with very minimal lighting, lots of shadows, and having my story twist for the worse of the characters involved. All characters are killed off, other than Bill and Maria, Maria being the antagonist in many ways makes her survival negative. Bill is left to be shot or arrested for crimes he did not commit, which goes with this nihilism. The style is meant to be film noir, so the events need to feel trapping, and the characters need to be as shifty as possible. There should be saxophone music that reflects moodiness, sexuality, and depression. Acting should be aggressive, and there should be a sinister atmosphere. There's a streetlight down our driveway, which looks great at night, so I might use that to give the film a tinge of city/urban style. I'll remove as much of the time inconsistancies as possible, so that the film has a 40s vibe to it, though I know some elements are impossible to change, and so there will be the odd eerie link to the present. Hopefully this will be either unnoticeable or disturbing, rather than irritatingly 'wrong'. I'm aiming for bleak and panicy.
Things I'll do for effects:
It’s nighttime. Narration is heard overhead. We see four men in a dimly lit room playing poker at a table, with poker chips, cards, and beer everywhere. Bill and Ed are on opposite sides of the table, with Bill up against a wall. The Franks sit either side of them. Maria is next to Ed, flirting with him. We see Jonesy walking down a dimly-lit driveway, past the sunroom door, and then sneaking into Ed’s room and starting to search the place. Jonesy notices a safe, and opens it.
At the poker game, Ed asks Maria to leave on account of 'business to take care of'. She leaves, and Bill watches her go. Ed then ends the game to reveal he knows all about Bill and his operation. The goons leap up and restrain Bill, and they discuss the matter of his execution. Maria heads back to Ed’s room, and finds Jonesy has opened the safe. She seduces Jonesy, and using his pistol, kills him. She takes the medallion for herself and calls the police.
Ed becomes paranoid of police enforcements entering his house, and leaves the others to find out what’s happened at the other end of the house. He finds Maria holding a pistol, who is acting suspiciously. Maria slams the bedroom door on Ed, and reveals she’s called the police and that they’ll be there any minute. Ed swears to harm or kill her, and bursts through the door. Maria escapes with the medallion into the night. Ed leaves in a hurry, telling the goons to kill Bill.
Bill fights off the goons, shooting them before leaving. He manages to escape as far as the driveway, where he finds Ed’s corpse on the ground, and armed police aiming right at him. The police are not seen, but strongly implied by the flashing lights. As he raises his hands in a guilty surrender (gun still in hand) the scene fades to black, and the title appears.
Style
I'm aiming for a pessimistic/nihilistic film. It needs to be dark and moody, and envoke anxiety in the audience. I am going to achieve this by colour grading the film to be black-and-white with very minimal lighting, lots of shadows, and having my story twist for the worse of the characters involved. All characters are killed off, other than Bill and Maria, Maria being the antagonist in many ways makes her survival negative. Bill is left to be shot or arrested for crimes he did not commit, which goes with this nihilism. The style is meant to be film noir, so the events need to feel trapping, and the characters need to be as shifty as possible. There should be saxophone music that reflects moodiness, sexuality, and depression. Acting should be aggressive, and there should be a sinister atmosphere. There's a streetlight down our driveway, which looks great at night, so I might use that to give the film a tinge of city/urban style. I'll remove as much of the time inconsistancies as possible, so that the film has a 40s vibe to it, though I know some elements are impossible to change, and so there will be the odd eerie link to the present. Hopefully this will be either unnoticeable or disturbing, rather than irritatingly 'wrong'. I'm aiming for bleak and panicy.
Things I'll do for effects:
- Low angles to make Ed look big and mean.
- High angles on the poker game to show perspective (they will be surrounded by the darkness of the walls and background/floor - nihilism/entrapment).
- A tracking shot of Maria's hand as she takes Jonesy's pistol. This builds suspense and shows an obvious double-crossing, as per the genre.
- First shot of the streetlight, pan down, have Jonesy walk in and stop, looking like a silhouette. Gives him the 'literal identity of a dead man walking', and provides a use of shadow. Looks very moody.
- Edit in a narration with sax music to create a moody atmosphere.
- Cut between Jonesy and the poker game to show they take place concurrently.
- Close-up on people's faces to show emotion - usually serious or angry. When Ed strangles Bill would be a good time to use this.
- Vary angles for smoothness of shot progression (when cutting but keeping the audio going). Also provides interest.
- Have everyone in formal clothing, as per the style of the 1940s - Maria and Bill are the only ones not wearing black (funeral?) - they are also the only ones not to die.
- Setting needs to be messy and full of typical gang stuff. Poker table is very iconic, and will work with chips and cards and possibly alcohol present.
- Vary framing - have some wide angled shots to show the scene (especially when moving from one place to another), but have lots of tight framing when dialogue is being interchanged.
- Loud gunshot sound effects and a lot of blood in gunshots shot. This will show how gritty the film is. It's meant to be serious and dark, and quiet gunshots with minimal blood would look silly. Having said that, subtle is always nice. Might experiment with amount of blood.
- Hand-held effect is realistic and gritty, and this is exaggerated in the shot where Bill runs out of the house, which will be a shaky POV for extra suspense.
- Slow-mo shot of Ed's death, with Bill running out behind him. Very striking, goes with nihilism. It breaks the tension of the faster-paced shots before it. Finish with a static shot of Bill raising his hands, with the police lights flaring everywhere.
- In Jonesy's entrance to the house, I want to have subtle obscurrances. Trees, branches, leaves, parts of the house, etc just slighting obscurring the shot for tension - looks almost as if he's being watched.
- I want another shot of Jonesy post-mortem just for extra realism. Seeing a recurrance of the seduction scene, this time with a disgruntled Ed and deceased Jonesy would be a nice contrast and an video-effect-less way of showing the aftermath of his encounter with Maria.
- Reduce lighting as much as possible for extra noir effect. Increase the shadows and highlights, but keep everything else low-lit. Matches the Noir style and nihilism.
- Set the film at night for the above reason.
- Cut between shots. Transitions look tacky, and I don't like them. I can jump back in time to Maria walking down the hall to make it obvious that the poker game and seduction take place at the same time. The reaction from the gunshot will re-establish this.
- Make sure ambient music and acting match - be serious and consistant with dark theme.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Concept for My Film
Ok, here's my plan for this film opening. The general idea is a sort of 1940s crime film based around a collection of characters with problems. The protagonist, for example, has fallen out of a long relationship and is heartbroken in that respect. He has been betrayed, stood up, burned by the law, and now his partner has been killed. A typical theme of Film Noir is to focus on the criminals themselves rather than society's molding of criminals. Another is to have characters plagued by existential bitterness and broken promises of love.
Title: Maria
Genre: Film Noir
Opening Synopsis: Four gang members play poker at a table. A woman is there flirting with the boss of the men. She leaves, and finds another man has broken in and is snooping around in the house. This man is actually a detective, who has found a priceless heirloom and is attempting to take it back from the mob boss who stole it. The woman seduces and kills this detective, then calls the police to inform them of the location of the notorious mob boss. The poker game gets rough, as it's revealed one of them is actually another detective, working with the one who got killed. As the cops arrive, bent on killing or arresting everyone in the building, the woman escapes, the boss is killed, and the detective left to take the blame for what has happened here.
Full Plot Synopsis: Bill is a Pinkerton agent (the Pinkerton Detective Agency was an American organisation of private investigators who could be hired like freelance workers for detective and security purposes. It is speculated that at its height, the organisation employed more people than the US military, and was a danger of becoming a potentially unstoppable militia force. Riots broke out, the Pinkertons were involved, and as a result, the act of hiring a member of the agency (and the agency itself) was outlawed by the government.) Bill has been asked to recover the medallion of Marie Antoinette (a french consort who was beheaded by the people during the French revolution - famous for the saying "Let them eat cake"). He has taken this case in part because of the money he'd make for completing it, but also because he has learnt of Maria's involvement with the gang leader "Big Ed", whom he knows is behind the robbery and other crimes. Bill and Maria had been in love at one point - due to be married, until one of his undercover investigations fell through, and the gang (himself included) was arrested and deported. He and Maria have never seen each other since. When Bill arrives at Ed's house, Maria is unsettled. She has been a criminal for several years and is secretly the reason behind Bill's previous failiure. She kills Bill's partner Jonesy, and steals the medallion for herself. When Maria leaves at the end of the opening, Bill leaves hastily in order to stop Ed getting to her before he can. The rest of the film would have featured Bill tracking down Maria in order to recover the medallion, but also to convince her to settle down and stop committing crimes. The plot would’ve taken him to Germany, where Maria has escaped to and begun a new life under a false identity. The plot would eventually reveal Maria’s involvement in Bill’s espionage accident (which lead to the entire gang being arrested and deported) and her involvement in the murder of Ms Dawson, the lady who had commissioned the search for her missing heirloom. Bill would have to confront the reality that he could not have a life with Maria, and that she would have to be brought in to justice, though he is reluctant to do so. As the film climaxes, the surviving gang members that used to be under Ed’s control will rise to a violent peak, causing riots in the streets and the deaths of countless law enforcement officials and pinkerton agents. The film ends with Maria’s capture (sentenced to execution during an uprising, just like Marie Antoinette) and the permanent house arrest/parole of Bill for allegedly starting the gang war and indirectly getting all of the detectives and policemen killed. Ideally, this would be a very nihilistic film – it is meant to be depressing, with elements of sex, heartbrake, and violence throughout.
Emotions To Envoke: Anxiety, Excitement, Moodiness/Depression (?)
Principal Ideas: Depression, Double-crossing/Distrust, Danger, Danger of women. (A lot of D's...)
Impact: The audience needs to feel some of the above ideas in this opening. The intro is meant to be fairly bleak, the way Bill narrates with the chime-like music in the background creates a sort of self-reflective atmosphere. The following scene with the poker game bring in the anxiety, as things take a turn for the worse for Bill. The concepts of corruption and death are brought about in the speech, but also when Maria shoots Bill's partner. Maria's seductiveness followed by Jonesy's elimination shows the danger of women - being sexually alluring but also intelligent, scheming, and (to an extent) heartless and manipulating. This again shows the heartbrake and distrust that plays a strong part in Film Noir.
Title: Maria
Genre: Film Noir
Opening Synopsis: Four gang members play poker at a table. A woman is there flirting with the boss of the men. She leaves, and finds another man has broken in and is snooping around in the house. This man is actually a detective, who has found a priceless heirloom and is attempting to take it back from the mob boss who stole it. The woman seduces and kills this detective, then calls the police to inform them of the location of the notorious mob boss. The poker game gets rough, as it's revealed one of them is actually another detective, working with the one who got killed. As the cops arrive, bent on killing or arresting everyone in the building, the woman escapes, the boss is killed, and the detective left to take the blame for what has happened here.
Full Plot Synopsis: Bill is a Pinkerton agent (the Pinkerton Detective Agency was an American organisation of private investigators who could be hired like freelance workers for detective and security purposes. It is speculated that at its height, the organisation employed more people than the US military, and was a danger of becoming a potentially unstoppable militia force. Riots broke out, the Pinkertons were involved, and as a result, the act of hiring a member of the agency (and the agency itself) was outlawed by the government.) Bill has been asked to recover the medallion of Marie Antoinette (a french consort who was beheaded by the people during the French revolution - famous for the saying "Let them eat cake"). He has taken this case in part because of the money he'd make for completing it, but also because he has learnt of Maria's involvement with the gang leader "Big Ed", whom he knows is behind the robbery and other crimes. Bill and Maria had been in love at one point - due to be married, until one of his undercover investigations fell through, and the gang (himself included) was arrested and deported. He and Maria have never seen each other since. When Bill arrives at Ed's house, Maria is unsettled. She has been a criminal for several years and is secretly the reason behind Bill's previous failiure. She kills Bill's partner Jonesy, and steals the medallion for herself. When Maria leaves at the end of the opening, Bill leaves hastily in order to stop Ed getting to her before he can. The rest of the film would have featured Bill tracking down Maria in order to recover the medallion, but also to convince her to settle down and stop committing crimes. The plot would’ve taken him to Germany, where Maria has escaped to and begun a new life under a false identity. The plot would eventually reveal Maria’s involvement in Bill’s espionage accident (which lead to the entire gang being arrested and deported) and her involvement in the murder of Ms Dawson, the lady who had commissioned the search for her missing heirloom. Bill would have to confront the reality that he could not have a life with Maria, and that she would have to be brought in to justice, though he is reluctant to do so. As the film climaxes, the surviving gang members that used to be under Ed’s control will rise to a violent peak, causing riots in the streets and the deaths of countless law enforcement officials and pinkerton agents. The film ends with Maria’s capture (sentenced to execution during an uprising, just like Marie Antoinette) and the permanent house arrest/parole of Bill for allegedly starting the gang war and indirectly getting all of the detectives and policemen killed. Ideally, this would be a very nihilistic film – it is meant to be depressing, with elements of sex, heartbrake, and violence throughout.
Emotions To Envoke: Anxiety, Excitement, Moodiness/Depression (?)
Principal Ideas: Depression, Double-crossing/Distrust, Danger, Danger of women. (A lot of D's...)
Impact: The audience needs to feel some of the above ideas in this opening. The intro is meant to be fairly bleak, the way Bill narrates with the chime-like music in the background creates a sort of self-reflective atmosphere. The following scene with the poker game bring in the anxiety, as things take a turn for the worse for Bill. The concepts of corruption and death are brought about in the speech, but also when Maria shoots Bill's partner. Maria's seductiveness followed by Jonesy's elimination shows the danger of women - being sexually alluring but also intelligent, scheming, and (to an extent) heartless and manipulating. This again shows the heartbrake and distrust that plays a strong part in Film Noir.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Conventions of the Horror Genre - Isolated Setting
A common convention of Horror films is the isolated location. This was typically due to low production budgets, forcing the film to be shot in one place with a minimal cast - in a more populated area the film would have run into privacy issues and such.
The other reason for the isolated setting is to scare the audience, as it makes the events more realistic if they take place in one location, rather than all over the place. The feeling of being alone in a horrific situation creates tension and has the audience in suspense. After the movie has ended, viewers can relax with the thought that the events in the film existed only in that one isolated location, which is no threat to them.
In the film "Night of the Living Dead", Directed by George Romero, the characters are cornered into an old house in the middle of nowhere as the Zombies close in on them. In Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", the killer resides in an old motel in the middle of nowhere. Though some scenes took place in other locations, the majority of the film (and certainly the main events and killings) takes place in these distant locations. The fact that these horrific events happen away from the cities where the audience reside makes them all the more believable. They could be happening right now, you just can't see it.
In "Night of the Living Dead", the isolated setting puts forward the idea that we are not prepared for the abnormal. This idea rings throughout the film, with the zombies taking the general public by surprise. The house setting is clearly not equipped for a zombie outbreak - there are doors and windows everywhere. Boarding up these points of entry results in losing possible exits, and leads the main character to bar himself in the cellar - like being backed into a corner. The presence of guns and the fact that the zombies are afraid of fire are mere coincidence, as not everyone has access to ranged weaponry or usable fuel deposits. The zombies eventually overpower the people and break into the house, which suggests that their numbers are too much for our precautions, and that we cannot hope to fight them all off, forever. The fact that the house is in the middle of the country means that there are no neighbours nearby that could possibly provide help or sanctuary.
In "Psycho", the isolated setting brings out the fear of the unknown. The setting exists in the middle of nowhere, off the highway between cities. It is a normal enough place - a motel with a friendly host - though its placement is unfortunate if not suspicious. This is another theme of horror films, where the setting or character is foreign or unknown, as it is more scary to be kept in the dark as far as these go. Had the film taken place in the middle of the crowded suburbs, there would have been more people in the motel, less chance of Norman getting away with his initial crimes for so long, and more chance of a police intervention. Being out in the country almost seems too far away for the authorities to do anything, which gives the characters reason to act on their own.
The isolated location convention in both of these films was a success. Romero's 'zombie vs country house' scenario has become typical of zombie films, games, and other media. It is the most familiar setting imaginable - a perfectly normal house. The idea that it cannot withstand a zombie apocalypse is certainly a scary thought. What if they came for me? Could my house withstand them? Now you look at all the windows and doors and realise the flaws of your own home.
Psycho's setting made the audience feel uncomfortable that even the most quiet, normal place can be the location of a twisted murder spree, and that the quiet, well-mannered host may turn out to be an insane murderer. It differs from the stereotype of haunted mansions and gothic architecture, which is seen in films such as "Frankenstein".
Both settings are familiar and realistic, being as common as weeds in our world. It shows you do not need to visit a rundown gothic mansion in the middle of some foreign country to be vulnerable to death and fear. You need only be alone, anywhere. The idea that the home isn't safe comes out of these films, and ties in with the now-typical idea of never leaving the group or being alone in a horror movie.
The other reason for the isolated setting is to scare the audience, as it makes the events more realistic if they take place in one location, rather than all over the place. The feeling of being alone in a horrific situation creates tension and has the audience in suspense. After the movie has ended, viewers can relax with the thought that the events in the film existed only in that one isolated location, which is no threat to them.
In the film "Night of the Living Dead", Directed by George Romero, the characters are cornered into an old house in the middle of nowhere as the Zombies close in on them. In Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", the killer resides in an old motel in the middle of nowhere. Though some scenes took place in other locations, the majority of the film (and certainly the main events and killings) takes place in these distant locations. The fact that these horrific events happen away from the cities where the audience reside makes them all the more believable. They could be happening right now, you just can't see it.
In "Night of the Living Dead", the isolated setting puts forward the idea that we are not prepared for the abnormal. This idea rings throughout the film, with the zombies taking the general public by surprise. The house setting is clearly not equipped for a zombie outbreak - there are doors and windows everywhere. Boarding up these points of entry results in losing possible exits, and leads the main character to bar himself in the cellar - like being backed into a corner. The presence of guns and the fact that the zombies are afraid of fire are mere coincidence, as not everyone has access to ranged weaponry or usable fuel deposits. The zombies eventually overpower the people and break into the house, which suggests that their numbers are too much for our precautions, and that we cannot hope to fight them all off, forever. The fact that the house is in the middle of the country means that there are no neighbours nearby that could possibly provide help or sanctuary.
In "Psycho", the isolated setting brings out the fear of the unknown. The setting exists in the middle of nowhere, off the highway between cities. It is a normal enough place - a motel with a friendly host - though its placement is unfortunate if not suspicious. This is another theme of horror films, where the setting or character is foreign or unknown, as it is more scary to be kept in the dark as far as these go. Had the film taken place in the middle of the crowded suburbs, there would have been more people in the motel, less chance of Norman getting away with his initial crimes for so long, and more chance of a police intervention. Being out in the country almost seems too far away for the authorities to do anything, which gives the characters reason to act on their own.
The isolated location convention in both of these films was a success. Romero's 'zombie vs country house' scenario has become typical of zombie films, games, and other media. It is the most familiar setting imaginable - a perfectly normal house. The idea that it cannot withstand a zombie apocalypse is certainly a scary thought. What if they came for me? Could my house withstand them? Now you look at all the windows and doors and realise the flaws of your own home.
Psycho's setting made the audience feel uncomfortable that even the most quiet, normal place can be the location of a twisted murder spree, and that the quiet, well-mannered host may turn out to be an insane murderer. It differs from the stereotype of haunted mansions and gothic architecture, which is seen in films such as "Frankenstein".
Both settings are familiar and realistic, being as common as weeds in our world. It shows you do not need to visit a rundown gothic mansion in the middle of some foreign country to be vulnerable to death and fear. You need only be alone, anywhere. The idea that the home isn't safe comes out of these films, and ties in with the now-typical idea of never leaving the group or being alone in a horror movie.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Shot Size/Angle and Camera Movement
The very first shot of the film is a wide angle, covering a several buildings. Like many of the shots in this opening, the camera is mobile, here it zooms in slowly toward a window of the building in the centre of the shot. The aerial view and movement is used repeatedly throughout the film, to establish a change in setting and to engrandiose the scene, which is fitting for the superhero movie this is. The large amount of things on screen makes the scene feel big and impressive. Another thing the wide angle does is give the audience a sense of vertigo - the view is airbourne, and travelling. This can enhance the feeling of anxiety and suspense the audience feels as the scene moves on.
Soon after we have a shot of the Joker, with his back turned. The camera once again zooms in, only stopping when the car pulls up and the Joker moves. Music overtakes the feedback whine at this point, signalling a heightening of action. The next shot of the clowns sailing down a wire extends on this, and once again the camera gives the audience that vertigo rush, by following the clowns out the window and tilting down at the road beneath. The camera then flies over the men and the wire, again with a wide angled shot.
It should be noted that the camera so far has never been still for more than a few seconds or so. The camera moves constantly and tracks or centres characters whenever it can. The point of focus (The window that breaks in the beginning, the clowns, the banker, the vault door, the bus) are all centred in their shots. If a character moves when the camera is close-up, the camera will pan or track with them, depending on direction of movement.
As a sidenote, if you used your hands to demonstrate the camera's movement, you'll find it moves continuously - that is, if one shot ends with the camera moving leftward, the next one will start with it moving leftward. If the last shot had the camera swoop out the window and look down at the road, the next shot is from above, and continues to tilt down, right, and back up. This is a very natural movement, and if it weren't for the obvious cuts between locations, it may well have been one take.
The shots used are all big. The director obviously wanted to convey the scale of the superhero film right from the beginning, and has done so using wide angles, establishing shots, long shots, the like. Because of this, the backgrounds of each shot are always deep - this is noticeable in the bank's vault and lobby. These shots make the scale of the setting very large (superheroes never work in shantytowns), and that scale reflects back to the characters by making the operation large as well. Rob a big bank, be a big bad guy.
Many of the props used are also very large, hence the huge shots. Shots have to fit buildings, a car, a bus within a building, a comically exaggerated bank vault, and city traffic. The last shot of this opening is down a main road, with cars and buses driving up and down. Once again, this is a grandiose size.
Close-ups and extreme close-ups are very rare. The most noticeable extreme close-up and that is of the Joker's face after he takes off his mask. This is for dramatic effect, as this is the first real glimpse of the Joker (who is the primary villain in the film). Other than that, there is a brief segment where Clown E pulls his gun on the Joker, the part where the clowns are talking in the car, the banker before he shoots at them, and Clown E adressing the hostages and piling the money into a bag. There are close-ups of equipment (guns and explosives) and a man "holding on [to a grenade] for dear life". These are all symobolic - the double crossing, the hidden agendas, the mystery of the Joker, uprising of a self-righteous vigilante, fear and control, and greed. These symbols are recurring themes throughout the entire film. The close-ups of weapons and explosives are a first look at the "terrorist attack" style the Joker uses repeatedly.
Soon after we have a shot of the Joker, with his back turned. The camera once again zooms in, only stopping when the car pulls up and the Joker moves. Music overtakes the feedback whine at this point, signalling a heightening of action. The next shot of the clowns sailing down a wire extends on this, and once again the camera gives the audience that vertigo rush, by following the clowns out the window and tilting down at the road beneath. The camera then flies over the men and the wire, again with a wide angled shot.
It should be noted that the camera so far has never been still for more than a few seconds or so. The camera moves constantly and tracks or centres characters whenever it can. The point of focus (The window that breaks in the beginning, the clowns, the banker, the vault door, the bus) are all centred in their shots. If a character moves when the camera is close-up, the camera will pan or track with them, depending on direction of movement.
As a sidenote, if you used your hands to demonstrate the camera's movement, you'll find it moves continuously - that is, if one shot ends with the camera moving leftward, the next one will start with it moving leftward. If the last shot had the camera swoop out the window and look down at the road, the next shot is from above, and continues to tilt down, right, and back up. This is a very natural movement, and if it weren't for the obvious cuts between locations, it may well have been one take.
The shots used are all big. The director obviously wanted to convey the scale of the superhero film right from the beginning, and has done so using wide angles, establishing shots, long shots, the like. Because of this, the backgrounds of each shot are always deep - this is noticeable in the bank's vault and lobby. These shots make the scale of the setting very large (superheroes never work in shantytowns), and that scale reflects back to the characters by making the operation large as well. Rob a big bank, be a big bad guy.
Many of the props used are also very large, hence the huge shots. Shots have to fit buildings, a car, a bus within a building, a comically exaggerated bank vault, and city traffic. The last shot of this opening is down a main road, with cars and buses driving up and down. Once again, this is a grandiose size.
Close-ups and extreme close-ups are very rare. The most noticeable extreme close-up and that is of the Joker's face after he takes off his mask. This is for dramatic effect, as this is the first real glimpse of the Joker (who is the primary villain in the film). Other than that, there is a brief segment where Clown E pulls his gun on the Joker, the part where the clowns are talking in the car, the banker before he shoots at them, and Clown E adressing the hostages and piling the money into a bag. There are close-ups of equipment (guns and explosives) and a man "holding on [to a grenade] for dear life". These are all symobolic - the double crossing, the hidden agendas, the mystery of the Joker, uprising of a self-righteous vigilante, fear and control, and greed. These symbols are recurring themes throughout the entire film. The close-ups of weapons and explosives are a first look at the "terrorist attack" style the Joker uses repeatedly.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Script/Dialogue
The dialogue in this opening is used as a quick-fire way of relaying information to the audience. Without it, we would be left in the dark and the scene would lose its awe. Firstly, the clowns discuss who the Joker is and why he is called "the Joker". None of them have a definite story, only theories. This is the first instance of the clouding of the Joker's background, which recurs throughout the film, most notably by the Joker himself. This starts a mystery of who this person really is. When the Joker is caught later in the film, the police find he has no other alias. He is simply 'The Joker' and has no personal life or background.
However, the Joker gives a hint at his past by saying "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger". This is referring to the scars on his face - a chelsea grin, which is a method of killing typically used by street gangs and mobs, which suggests he's had a bad run-in with those types before. This could possibly explain why he's targeted a mob bank for his robbery.
Other bits of dialogue slowly reveal some facts about what's going on - there are 6 guys involved, they're robbing a mob bank (the joker is apparently "as crazy as they say"), and the Joker has ordered each of the clowns to kill each other in a specific order. Even through all this, the dialogue does not reveal the full extent of the plan, which is synonymous with the Joker's other plans. The method of escaping is only shown, not spoken, other than a brief mention of killing a 'bus driver'.
However, the Joker gives a hint at his past by saying "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger". This is referring to the scars on his face - a chelsea grin, which is a method of killing typically used by street gangs and mobs, which suggests he's had a bad run-in with those types before. This could possibly explain why he's targeted a mob bank for his robbery.
Other bits of dialogue slowly reveal some facts about what's going on - there are 6 guys involved, they're robbing a mob bank (the joker is apparently "as crazy as they say"), and the Joker has ordered each of the clowns to kill each other in a specific order. Even through all this, the dialogue does not reveal the full extent of the plan, which is synonymous with the Joker's other plans. The method of escaping is only shown, not spoken, other than a brief mention of killing a 'bus driver'.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Music
The music in this scene is a mixture of electronic and orchestral instruments. The electronic parts make a high-pitched whining noise (smilar to feedback from a mic or amplifier) which grows in volume and raises in pitch. They also make sudden, loud dissonant chords in a very low pitch. This is mixed with the violin, playing fast, staccatto notes. There are also drums that come in to emphasise the action, being of fast tempo and loud. When the scene is lacking action (like when the characters are dealing with the hostages) the percussion keeps a steady, fast beat that sounds like a ticking bomb. The combination of all this gives a sense of urgency and chaos, being both fast and unpredictable, which reflects the scene in front of us. When things get more chaotic (i.e. the banker pulls out his shotgun) the drums become prominent, and the electronic music and violin alternate in quick succession. The music also drops to a very low volume for dialogue, allowing the viewers' focus to be controlled.
This piece is quite important considering it is the Joker's theme throughout the film. It's possible to sense the Joker's prescence in a scene simply by this music, whether he has appeared yet or not. On the other hand, it is very subtle - usually only the electronic feedback plays if he has not appeared yet. This noise is ear-piercing and as it grows in volume and pitch, it raises suspense. The electronic chords are usually associated with gunshots/death, highlighting that moment of surprise when the character on-screen is killed unexpectedly. This would come after the build-up from the feedback.
The music in Christopher Nolan's film is very different from other Batman films and from typical superhero movies. When you watch a superhero movie, you expect grand, heroic music - orchestrated with powerful brass, something triumphant and bright. However, with this film we hear a lot more tension rather than triumph. The music is fast, and electronic. It's noisy and dissonant. This is reflective of the chaotic nature of the film and its characters, and the high-pitched feedback creates tension and chills the listener rather than reassures them. In comparison to older Batman films, where the music is orchestrated and campy, this is a big change. Tim Burton's Batman films featured music by composer Danny Elfman, who does music for The Simpsons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and other family-oriented films. This is easy to hear as his works often have a 'bounce' in them - dark but humourously so. This is not the case with The Dark Knight. Its music was composed by Hans Zimmer, who composed for Inception, Sherlock Holmes, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Example of Danny Elfman's Batman score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ydxgekFls
Example of Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QjuEWsdgEc
Character/Performance
The main characters in this opening are the clowns. The character design is meant to be threatening and dark. As such, the clowns are all wearing suits, gloves, and masks. This cuts out any relation the audience can make with the character, turning them into an alien prescence. Alienating the viewer can create a threatening atmosphere, especially when they're forced to continue watching instead of switching to a normal or 'safe' character. The actors have very gruff voices and spend much of their time shouting their commands, which shows power and menace. The characters are also depicted as cold-hearted, showing no remorse for killing their peers, even speaking casually to them - "funny, he told me something similar".
The way the clowns move is very fast and jerky. They are trying to do everything just right, but it's obvious that they are under considerable pressure. They perform their tasks quickly, flicking between objectives in quick succession. An obvious example is their heads - they turn around so often to keep checking their surroundings. They run everywhere, and crash through doors in a hurry. This conveys the urgency and desperation of the scene - gotta get away, can't be caught.
In stark contrast, the Joker (I have referred to him as Clown C in some posts) moves relatively slowly. In his first appearance he is standing completely still. After subduing the hostages, he strolls between them, almost as if he's bored - clearly he has done this before. He shows no concern when Clown E pulls his gun on him, and deals with the banker in a similar way; after he shoots him, he stands and stares at the man (this recurs later in the film, where the Joker explains his joy in savouring the 'little emotions' in a dying victim). When the banker calls out to him at the end of the scene, the Joker walks over slowly, almost dejectedly, and deals with him with confidence. He wanders back into the bus and, as a characteristic oddity of the Joker, he bounds across the seats in a comical fashion. This funny side blends well with the sense of awe and admiration the audience feels as a result of the Joker's brilliant success.
The Joker, as portrayed by Cesar Romero (campy style), Jack Nicholson (Burton version), and Heath Ledger (Nolan's Dark Knight).
The way the clowns move is very fast and jerky. They are trying to do everything just right, but it's obvious that they are under considerable pressure. They perform their tasks quickly, flicking between objectives in quick succession. An obvious example is their heads - they turn around so often to keep checking their surroundings. They run everywhere, and crash through doors in a hurry. This conveys the urgency and desperation of the scene - gotta get away, can't be caught.
In stark contrast, the Joker (I have referred to him as Clown C in some posts) moves relatively slowly. In his first appearance he is standing completely still. After subduing the hostages, he strolls between them, almost as if he's bored - clearly he has done this before. He shows no concern when Clown E pulls his gun on him, and deals with the banker in a similar way; after he shoots him, he stands and stares at the man (this recurs later in the film, where the Joker explains his joy in savouring the 'little emotions' in a dying victim). When the banker calls out to him at the end of the scene, the Joker walks over slowly, almost dejectedly, and deals with him with confidence. He wanders back into the bus and, as a characteristic oddity of the Joker, he bounds across the seats in a comical fashion. This funny side blends well with the sense of awe and admiration the audience feels as a result of the Joker's brilliant success.
The Joker, as portrayed by Cesar Romero (campy style), Jack Nicholson (Burton version), and Heath Ledger (Nolan's Dark Knight).
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
The Scene(s)
Here's the opening to the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, the uploader has cut off the last 20 seconds or so, so I've included another link to a separate video containing those lost seconds.
Dark Knight Opening P1
Dark Knight Opening P2
Dark Knight Opening P1
Dark Knight Opening P2
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Genre/Atmosphere
What Is The Tone?
The tone is dark and edgy. The bank robbery/hostage scenario is fast-paced and tense, and the backstabbing plot adds chaos and urgency. The characters we're seeing are unpredicatble, evil. They're working in high stress, having to pull off an incredibly risky operation before the police arrive. One of the bankers attacks them with a shotgun, killing one and aiming for the others. These factors combine to create this sense of urgency and tension.
This is a very dark film. In comparison to the other films in the series, it is certainly the darkest. The 1966 batman movie, directed by Leslie H Martinson, features normal lighting, Batman and Robin in colourful tights, and over-the-top cheesy music. The batman films directed by Tim Burton featured darkness, smoke and lighting effects, even grotesque villains such as the deformed Penguin and evil Joker. But even then, the films have all followed the comic books and their target audience has always been 'Family'. Batman Forever was designed to be more child-friendly and mainstream, as a response to Burton's 'dark' film being 'inappropriate'.
This version of Batman, which was introduced in the film Batman Begins, is the certainly the darkest. There are a number of murders, references to torture, the Joker's moral-psychological-terrorist games, among other extremities. The villains of this film, the Joker and Harvey Two-Face, sport a Chelsea Grin and severe burns, respectively. The amount of violence and gore in the film clearly targets a mature audience and most of the themes are designed to appeal to young adults and onward.
An example of 'campy' batman from 1966:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoUpF7rvfnk
An example of Burton's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBh2pT9KgQ&feature=related
An example of Nolan's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHfoz9Be7U&feature=related
Mood Of The Opening?
The mood is paired beautifully with the tone, giving the audience a heart-pounding start to the film. At first there is a level of confusion as the facts are only just tipping out, but before long the viewer learns of the dangers that some of the characters do not know of, namely the backstabbing. The complex plot and tense situation make the audience uneasy, as they cannot tell what exactly will happen next, making this scene comparable to a thrill ride at some amusement park.
How Is It Created?
The atmosphere is created by use of music, of cutting, and character design. The music that plays in the background is a mixture of electronic and orchestral instruments. The electronic parts making either distant whining (like feedback from a mic) which grows in volume and raises in pitch, or sudden, jerky blasts of dissonant chords. This is mixed with the orchestral aspect, where the music is fast, with very short, staccatto notes on a violin. There are also percussion instruments that come in and leave very quickly, these are also fast and loud. The combination gives a sense of urgency and chaos, being both fast and unpredictable, which reflects the scene in front of us.
The cuts between shots are suitably fast as well. They also flick back and forth between simultaneous occurances - the men gliding to the roof, and the men driving in the car. This is what shrouds our understanding of the whole picture for a time, which gives a sense of an uneasiness. When the man behind the desk pulls out his shotgun and attacks the clowns, the cuts become faster, flicking to the man in the vault who gets an electric shock, before flicking back to the clowns. The shots alternate between the man with the shotgun and Clown C, who is desperately trying to get away. At this point the music gets louder and faster as well. This is underlying the chaos of the scene.
The main characters in the opening are the clowns. They are inhuman - having been covered head to toe, even their hands are gloved. Their postures and voices are menacing and threatening. The others in the scene are the hostages, who are all cowering behind desks for fear of the clowns, and the man who pulls a shotgun on them. He is enraged, firing to intimidate his opponents, and yelling at them. At one point he yells "Yeah!" as he fires, showing some amusement at showing them his power. These characters and their relationships convey the threatening atmosphere, and their actions give us urgency and chaos.
The tone is dark and edgy. The bank robbery/hostage scenario is fast-paced and tense, and the backstabbing plot adds chaos and urgency. The characters we're seeing are unpredicatble, evil. They're working in high stress, having to pull off an incredibly risky operation before the police arrive. One of the bankers attacks them with a shotgun, killing one and aiming for the others. These factors combine to create this sense of urgency and tension.
This is a very dark film. In comparison to the other films in the series, it is certainly the darkest. The 1966 batman movie, directed by Leslie H Martinson, features normal lighting, Batman and Robin in colourful tights, and over-the-top cheesy music. The batman films directed by Tim Burton featured darkness, smoke and lighting effects, even grotesque villains such as the deformed Penguin and evil Joker. But even then, the films have all followed the comic books and their target audience has always been 'Family'. Batman Forever was designed to be more child-friendly and mainstream, as a response to Burton's 'dark' film being 'inappropriate'.
This version of Batman, which was introduced in the film Batman Begins, is the certainly the darkest. There are a number of murders, references to torture, the Joker's moral-psychological-terrorist games, among other extremities. The villains of this film, the Joker and Harvey Two-Face, sport a Chelsea Grin and severe burns, respectively. The amount of violence and gore in the film clearly targets a mature audience and most of the themes are designed to appeal to young adults and onward.
An example of 'campy' batman from 1966:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoUpF7rvfnk
An example of Burton's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBh2pT9KgQ&feature=related
An example of Nolan's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHfoz9Be7U&feature=related
Mood Of The Opening?
The mood is paired beautifully with the tone, giving the audience a heart-pounding start to the film. At first there is a level of confusion as the facts are only just tipping out, but before long the viewer learns of the dangers that some of the characters do not know of, namely the backstabbing. The complex plot and tense situation make the audience uneasy, as they cannot tell what exactly will happen next, making this scene comparable to a thrill ride at some amusement park.
How Is It Created?
The atmosphere is created by use of music, of cutting, and character design. The music that plays in the background is a mixture of electronic and orchestral instruments. The electronic parts making either distant whining (like feedback from a mic) which grows in volume and raises in pitch, or sudden, jerky blasts of dissonant chords. This is mixed with the orchestral aspect, where the music is fast, with very short, staccatto notes on a violin. There are also percussion instruments that come in and leave very quickly, these are also fast and loud. The combination gives a sense of urgency and chaos, being both fast and unpredictable, which reflects the scene in front of us.
The cuts between shots are suitably fast as well. They also flick back and forth between simultaneous occurances - the men gliding to the roof, and the men driving in the car. This is what shrouds our understanding of the whole picture for a time, which gives a sense of an uneasiness. When the man behind the desk pulls out his shotgun and attacks the clowns, the cuts become faster, flicking to the man in the vault who gets an electric shock, before flicking back to the clowns. The shots alternate between the man with the shotgun and Clown C, who is desperately trying to get away. At this point the music gets louder and faster as well. This is underlying the chaos of the scene.
The main characters in the opening are the clowns. They are inhuman - having been covered head to toe, even their hands are gloved. Their postures and voices are menacing and threatening. The others in the scene are the hostages, who are all cowering behind desks for fear of the clowns, and the man who pulls a shotgun on them. He is enraged, firing to intimidate his opponents, and yelling at them. At one point he yells "Yeah!" as he fires, showing some amusement at showing them his power. These characters and their relationships convey the threatening atmosphere, and their actions give us urgency and chaos.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Reason For Selection
Briefly describe the Opening:
The scene begins with a shot of Gotham City. It's broad daylight, indicating the Batman is not around. A window is broken by two armed men wearing clown masks. One of them (Clown A) fires a harpoon across the street to the rooftop of another building. Both men glide across the wire like a flying fox and land on the other side. They then break open a circuit box and disable the silent alarm. The one who disabled the alarm (Clown B) is then shot by Clown A, who runs downstairs into the main vaults.
AT THE SAME TIME Clown C is picked up by two others in a car and driven to the front of the same building (revealed to be a bank). They rush inside, loaded with guns, and hold everyone hostage. Their plan is almost thwarted, however, when a bank worker who hadn't been noticed comes at them with a shotgun. After killing Clown D, he fires off all of his bullets, and is then shot down by Clown C. Clown E then runs off to join Clown A in the vault.
Clown A breaks through the vault, after finding the door rigged with electricity (like in a mob bank, Clown E states). As soon as he opens the vault, he is shot in the back by Clown E. E then runs into the vault and fills bags with money, then brings them back to where Clown C is watching over the hostages.
Clown E then threatens Clown C, saying "I'm bettin the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash." Clown C denies this, saying "No no no, I kill the bus driver." He and Clown E walk in a circle as he says this, Clown C positioning E carefully based on the time. A bus then smashes through the wall and hits Clown E, killing him. The driver comes out, wearing another mask. He and C load the bags of money into the bus, before Clown C shoots him.
Clown C is now the last man standing. As he goes to board his bus, the man who'd come at them with the shotgun calls out to him, saying that he'll receive the same treatment as the others. Clown C consoles him with a bit of wisdom, whilst sticking a grenade in the man's mouth. He takes off his mask, revealing himself as the Joker - therefore the one in charge, unable to be double-crossed. He leaves, slamming the grenade's cord in the door of the bus, before driving out through the hole in the wall. The bus then merges with a number of other school buses in traffic and drives away, as police cars arrive at the scene.
End result: The Joker steals a LOT of money from a mob bank, blends in with the crowd, and gets away. No one else gets a share because they're all dead, and the clown masks make the whole operation anonymous. At the same time, this adds to the Joker's legacy and the winnings fund his next few schemes.
How does it fit into the film as a whole?
There are many parts to this opening that are mirrored later in the film. Destruction, violence, weaponry are all recurring ideas throughout, but some are more specific. The music used in the opening is a variation of "Why So Serious?" - the Joker's theme music which plays almost every time he appears. The clown masks used to make the robbers anonymous are re-used later in the film, again during a hostage scene. That hostage scenario is also the last part the Joker features in, so for it to mirror the first part is quite fitting. In that scene too the clowns were meant to be killed off whilst the Joker gets off scotch free.
The masks are also symobolic of how the Joker is anonymous. His identity is never revealed, and in fact by the end he is still just 'The Joker'. There is only one scene in the film in which his face is not covered by his make-up ("war paint"), and in that case he was in disguise anyway. When the clowns talk of him, they only have interpretive stories, and the Joker himself tells his own stories which further muddy his past. This not only creates a dark and mysterious character, but a potentially unstable and unpredictable one.
The entire operation is in sync with the others in the film. Whilst the others get more and more elaborate, all of them seem to be very sketchy, not completely thought out. The Joker's incredible luck and quick thinking help him in this case with the shotgun-worker, and in others where he tries to avoid/break out of capture. The fact that the hostage's lives are in their own hands is a repeated characteristic of the joker, toying with people rather than simply killing. This is mirrored in the last Joker scenario, where each group being held hostage are given the detonators to the other, and both groups pressured to set off the other.
Another aspect is double-crossing. Since most of the law enforcers in Gotham are corrupt, and many of the criminals are against each other, double-crossing is common and echoes throughout the film. In this opening, the Joker has each of the clowns double-cross each other, similarly, Mr Reese double-crosses Bruce Wayne, Mr Lau double-crosses the mob he accounts for, the police double-cross Harvey Dent, who seeks revenge on all responsible. The Joker also double-crosses a few mental patients who help him escape from capture, and the mob leader who initially threatened the Joker.
The blue/green lighting in and around the vault is mirrored throughout the film. The daylight setting returns when the Joker blows up Gotham General Hospital - and again, he boards a schoolbus and drives away free. The wide shots, particularly the opening shot of the buildings and when the clowns glide across to the other rooftop is very similar to the shots used when Batman is gliding in Hong Kong, and during the Joker's last heist.
All in all, I believe the opening establishes many aspects that recur throughout the film, which helps to ground the film, giving a sense of unity to the events.
Why did it appeal to you?
I'm a fan of action in films, guns blazing, explosions, et al. But I absolutely LOVE complicated plots, and sequences that make the viewer think. This scene (and the whole movie even more so) combines the two. Here we have multiple cross-cuts between events happening at the same time. Details such as location are revealed slowly. The fact that this is a bank robbery, for instance, was not obvious until after the clowns in the car had run inside and began taking everyone hostage. The parts before that gave no indication other than the prescence of a 'silent alarm'. The back-stabbing/double-crossing was completely unexpected, and made more sense as the scene progressed. Furthermore, I couldn't help but be amazed at how brilliantly the plan had worked out for the Joker. For him to plan all of this, specifically to get away free with all of the money, is fantastic. Right from the start I was in love with this character, which never ceased to impress me throughout the film. And so, I decided to study this for both its depth, and its brilliance.
The scene begins with a shot of Gotham City. It's broad daylight, indicating the Batman is not around. A window is broken by two armed men wearing clown masks. One of them (Clown A) fires a harpoon across the street to the rooftop of another building. Both men glide across the wire like a flying fox and land on the other side. They then break open a circuit box and disable the silent alarm. The one who disabled the alarm (Clown B) is then shot by Clown A, who runs downstairs into the main vaults.
AT THE SAME TIME Clown C is picked up by two others in a car and driven to the front of the same building (revealed to be a bank). They rush inside, loaded with guns, and hold everyone hostage. Their plan is almost thwarted, however, when a bank worker who hadn't been noticed comes at them with a shotgun. After killing Clown D, he fires off all of his bullets, and is then shot down by Clown C. Clown E then runs off to join Clown A in the vault.
Clown A breaks through the vault, after finding the door rigged with electricity (like in a mob bank, Clown E states). As soon as he opens the vault, he is shot in the back by Clown E. E then runs into the vault and fills bags with money, then brings them back to where Clown C is watching over the hostages.
Clown E then threatens Clown C, saying "I'm bettin the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash." Clown C denies this, saying "No no no, I kill the bus driver." He and Clown E walk in a circle as he says this, Clown C positioning E carefully based on the time. A bus then smashes through the wall and hits Clown E, killing him. The driver comes out, wearing another mask. He and C load the bags of money into the bus, before Clown C shoots him.
Clown C is now the last man standing. As he goes to board his bus, the man who'd come at them with the shotgun calls out to him, saying that he'll receive the same treatment as the others. Clown C consoles him with a bit of wisdom, whilst sticking a grenade in the man's mouth. He takes off his mask, revealing himself as the Joker - therefore the one in charge, unable to be double-crossed. He leaves, slamming the grenade's cord in the door of the bus, before driving out through the hole in the wall. The bus then merges with a number of other school buses in traffic and drives away, as police cars arrive at the scene.
End result: The Joker steals a LOT of money from a mob bank, blends in with the crowd, and gets away. No one else gets a share because they're all dead, and the clown masks make the whole operation anonymous. At the same time, this adds to the Joker's legacy and the winnings fund his next few schemes.
How does it fit into the film as a whole?
There are many parts to this opening that are mirrored later in the film. Destruction, violence, weaponry are all recurring ideas throughout, but some are more specific. The music used in the opening is a variation of "Why So Serious?" - the Joker's theme music which plays almost every time he appears. The clown masks used to make the robbers anonymous are re-used later in the film, again during a hostage scene. That hostage scenario is also the last part the Joker features in, so for it to mirror the first part is quite fitting. In that scene too the clowns were meant to be killed off whilst the Joker gets off scotch free.
The masks are also symobolic of how the Joker is anonymous. His identity is never revealed, and in fact by the end he is still just 'The Joker'. There is only one scene in the film in which his face is not covered by his make-up ("war paint"), and in that case he was in disguise anyway. When the clowns talk of him, they only have interpretive stories, and the Joker himself tells his own stories which further muddy his past. This not only creates a dark and mysterious character, but a potentially unstable and unpredictable one.
The entire operation is in sync with the others in the film. Whilst the others get more and more elaborate, all of them seem to be very sketchy, not completely thought out. The Joker's incredible luck and quick thinking help him in this case with the shotgun-worker, and in others where he tries to avoid/break out of capture. The fact that the hostage's lives are in their own hands is a repeated characteristic of the joker, toying with people rather than simply killing. This is mirrored in the last Joker scenario, where each group being held hostage are given the detonators to the other, and both groups pressured to set off the other.
Another aspect is double-crossing. Since most of the law enforcers in Gotham are corrupt, and many of the criminals are against each other, double-crossing is common and echoes throughout the film. In this opening, the Joker has each of the clowns double-cross each other, similarly, Mr Reese double-crosses Bruce Wayne, Mr Lau double-crosses the mob he accounts for, the police double-cross Harvey Dent, who seeks revenge on all responsible. The Joker also double-crosses a few mental patients who help him escape from capture, and the mob leader who initially threatened the Joker.
The blue/green lighting in and around the vault is mirrored throughout the film. The daylight setting returns when the Joker blows up Gotham General Hospital - and again, he boards a schoolbus and drives away free. The wide shots, particularly the opening shot of the buildings and when the clowns glide across to the other rooftop is very similar to the shots used when Batman is gliding in Hong Kong, and during the Joker's last heist.
All in all, I believe the opening establishes many aspects that recur throughout the film, which helps to ground the film, giving a sense of unity to the events.
Why did it appeal to you?
I'm a fan of action in films, guns blazing, explosions, et al. But I absolutely LOVE complicated plots, and sequences that make the viewer think. This scene (and the whole movie even more so) combines the two. Here we have multiple cross-cuts between events happening at the same time. Details such as location are revealed slowly. The fact that this is a bank robbery, for instance, was not obvious until after the clowns in the car had run inside and began taking everyone hostage. The parts before that gave no indication other than the prescence of a 'silent alarm'. The back-stabbing/double-crossing was completely unexpected, and made more sense as the scene progressed. Furthermore, I couldn't help but be amazed at how brilliantly the plan had worked out for the Joker. For him to plan all of this, specifically to get away free with all of the money, is fantastic. Right from the start I was in love with this character, which never ceased to impress me throughout the film. And so, I decided to study this for both its depth, and its brilliance.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Batman: The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan
I have decided (finally) to study the opening from Batman: The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is the second film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, which is a reinvention of the classic comic book character by DC Comics. I really like the idea of a 'revival' - to take something that has been considered campy by many and reincarnate it into a darker, gritty, more realistic series is quite a fun idea. In this film, Christopher Nolan and his team have reinvented a couple of essential characters - The Joker and Harvey Dent (Two Face).
The opening of this film does not use a title sequence. Instead, we are put right into the action - a bank robbery, in this case. The opening starts off silent as music slowly fades in, dialogue becoming more and more common as the scene progresses. The music during this scene is a variation of "Why So Serious?", the Joker's unofficial 'theme' in this film. Lighting and sound effects remain constant throughout the film, and help to convey a sense of moodiness and violence, which is important in a crime-fighting series.
The setting of the film is Gotham City, a metropolis overrun by criminals and gangs. Most law enforcers and officials are also corrupt, to add to things. Because Batman only comes out at night (he is a billionaire businessman by day) the setting is usually night-time, hence the city is very dark. In scenes shot at day, there is a considerable amount of dirt everywhere, very few places can be considered clean (or pure).
The Dark Knight is an action film with dark themes and supporting visuals. It uses a lot of special effects (and an incredible performance from the late Heath Ledger) so I presume its target audience are mostly males between their late teens and early thirties.
As I have said, I am a big fan of reinventions and gritty adaptions. I absolutely love this film, and I think Heath's performance as the Joker was outstanding (and in some parts chilling). I believe the opening has a lot of links to later in the film (metaphorically, only aspects rather than plot) and so I hope it is the appropriate choice for my film study.
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