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.