In this scene I played Scarlett Jones and Ed Beard played the Detective. It's the scene where the detective goes to Bobby's house to try and catch him under Bonnie's wishes after they have dined together. Scarlett meets him at the door and tries to refrain from letting him in, but after he reveals that he has a gun in his right hand pocket, Scarlett feels obliged to obey his orders.
We don't actually show the gun because finding a gun that looked appropriate was difficult and we didn't want it to reduce the seriousness of our filming so we decided that keeping the audience in the dark about what was in the pocket of the detective, despite assumption, they could use their own imaginations.
This scene was one that we could really expose the film noir essence because we can use the appropriate lights, for example, to create really good effects. The light by this door is really old fashioned and I think it was the perfect one to have in this scene!
The door is also a dark brown which allows the light inside to be even more prominent, which is evident in the close up images of the door.
Ellen here is trying out different shots and practicing the zoom on the camera. When we actually filmed she moved the camera tripod muich closer because it's creates much more of a closeness to the scene instead using of the zoom.
It's not very common in Film Noir that zoom is used because when the films were made it wasn't a tool the cameras usually had, so we are not going to use it in our scenes. (I'm referring to zooming in or out during a scene, as oppose to a close up.)
This is a photo that immediately portrays 'film noir'. The hat has a small amount of light on it on the right hand slight of the frame, and as the light from inside is right next to the hat when coming through the glass it defines the shape of the hat and makes it more distinct, and also because it is central makes it the focus of the image. The shadow that falls across Ed's face hides his eyes and takes away the detail of his features which creates suspense. A key feature during Film Noir.
This is what the house looks like outside the front when the flash on the camera is on. Because the door looks old fashioned it works really well, considering the majority of doors nowadays are much lighter in colour, even white and so would not make for an old fashioned film.
Scarlett here looks very unsettled by the arrival of the detective, with her disheveled hair and unimpressed expressions throughout the scene.
The detective's calm posture and his 'huff' of laughter halfway through makes him seem very relaxed and rather at ease as her arrives at the house. It's incredibly important for the protagonist to be very relaxed and almost patronising during their accounts with criminals because it translates to the viewer that they are in control. Ironically, this is not the case in this film, which creates a good twist.
EDITING PROCESS:
The scene is introduced by a fade in from black which shows the legs of Carter as he walks up to the front door. The shot is different and interesting - it works well in keeping the audience in the dark about where the detective is going and what might happen because of the darkness of the clip and the lack of light around him.
We left the lights on deliberately in the house and the lantern lit so that it created a really good image of the detective standing outside the house with the shadow of the hat on display which is very conventional of film noirs. The echo of his footsteps allows not only the audience to focus on what his character is going to do but also makes you feel as if you are actually behind him and feeling his apprehension too because no other sound interrupts this.
As Carter shifted on the doorstep we cut it in so that he shifts across two shots, a long shot and a mid shot (both from behind him) to keep the smoothness in transition across the two clips. We cut really sharply on the long shot and matched it to a shift in a mid shot section that we'd filmed to make them connect well.
The whole clip is completely made up of diegetic sound, but because of this I think we could have done with a boom microphone during the conversation because it is quite difficult to hear the two characters over the wind, movement of the door and it creaking, and cars going by.
The knocking sound from Carter knocking on the door is the only exception to the diegetic sound in the clip. Because we felt that the knocking Ed would do in the clip might not be clear enough we decided to overlay it by knocking on the desk which the computer was on and recording it with the tool we have used before called 'voiceover tool'. Of course we linked in the knocking with Carter's movements, but we filmed his body so that you see his arm move to knock but you don't see the movements of his hand. We did this so it made it easier to make the knocking sound we were going to add in clearer. We didn't realise how quiet the conversation between the characters was until we had exported our film and played it on a computer that wasn't a mac. Next time we definitely will invest in a boom mic to make better quality sound.
We decided to change the shot from behind Carter to a two-shot of the conversation between the two to make Scarlett's character appear to be defending her boss who is through the door. This is made evident when Carter says "I know he's here, so either you step aside and be a good girl, or things are gonna get pretty nasty around here."
We decided to link his head movements across the two shots we had established - the one behind him slightly to the left of the door, and the one with both of them in the shot. By cutting each of his movements together well it increases the time we see him waiting and it makes the audience see the time passing as he waits for Scarlett to return. The linking of his head movements makes him look anxious as he awaits, which makes the audience feel nervous too.
As Carter steps through the door he pushes it out further to make himself appear more dominant and forceful, warning the audience about what is to come. The fade out creates suspense as the clip doesn't move on to the event straight away, it leaves the audience waiting just a little bit longer.
EDITING PROCESS:
The scene is introduced by a fade in from black which shows the legs of Carter as he walks up to the front door. The shot is different and interesting - it works well in keeping the audience in the dark about where the detective is going and what might happen because of the darkness of the clip and the lack of light around him.
We left the lights on deliberately in the house and the lantern lit so that it created a really good image of the detective standing outside the house with the shadow of the hat on display which is very conventional of film noirs. The echo of his footsteps allows not only the audience to focus on what his character is going to do but also makes you feel as if you are actually behind him and feeling his apprehension too because no other sound interrupts this.
As Carter shifted on the doorstep we cut it in so that he shifts across two shots, a long shot and a mid shot (both from behind him) to keep the smoothness in transition across the two clips. We cut really sharply on the long shot and matched it to a shift in a mid shot section that we'd filmed to make them connect well.
The whole clip is completely made up of diegetic sound, but because of this I think we could have done with a boom microphone during the conversation because it is quite difficult to hear the two characters over the wind, movement of the door and it creaking, and cars going by.
The knocking sound from Carter knocking on the door is the only exception to the diegetic sound in the clip. Because we felt that the knocking Ed would do in the clip might not be clear enough we decided to overlay it by knocking on the desk which the computer was on and recording it with the tool we have used before called 'voiceover tool'. Of course we linked in the knocking with Carter's movements, but we filmed his body so that you see his arm move to knock but you don't see the movements of his hand. We did this so it made it easier to make the knocking sound we were going to add in clearer. We didn't realise how quiet the conversation between the characters was until we had exported our film and played it on a computer that wasn't a mac. Next time we definitely will invest in a boom mic to make better quality sound.
We decided to change the shot from behind Carter to a two-shot of the conversation between the two to make Scarlett's character appear to be defending her boss who is through the door. This is made evident when Carter says "I know he's here, so either you step aside and be a good girl, or things are gonna get pretty nasty around here."
We decided to link his head movements across the two shots we had established - the one behind him slightly to the left of the door, and the one with both of them in the shot. By cutting each of his movements together well it increases the time we see him waiting and it makes the audience see the time passing as he waits for Scarlett to return. The linking of his head movements makes him look anxious as he awaits, which makes the audience feel nervous too.
As Carter steps through the door he pushes it out further to make himself appear more dominant and forceful, warning the audience about what is to come. The fade out creates suspense as the clip doesn't move on to the event straight away, it leaves the audience waiting just a little bit longer.
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