Main Task - Candi - Evaluation

During Filming half of the recordings were filmed without sound and I did not have enough time to re-record them. This is why the video is half complete.

Main Task - Candi

Preliminary Task - Conscience

The Chase

Main Production - Post Production - First Draft

Below is the first draft of our film noir created by me, Michael and Chris.
We still need to edit it, but we done the first draft, then are going to show the class and get some feedback and correct it. We havent acquired the voice over yet so that is not in the video yet and we have also recieved some feedback from Mr Woodcock and awaiting feedback from Mr sheppard.

Main Production - Pre Production - Actors Information

For our film noir opening scene we only needed one actor, this is his bio;

Name: Graham Hewitt
Age: 62
Height: 6ft 1
Weight: 13 stone 10 pounds
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Blue
Build: Skinny
Experience in acting: Amateur Dramatics and 3 Television Appearances.
Experience that could contribute to a better job: Used to be a solicitor advocate, can be serious when needed, and when shown will know what to do. Friendly and understanding so easily told what to do.
Ethnicity: White English
Skin Colour: White
Hair Length: Medium/Short
Languages: English
Interests: Films (Film noir, Action), Classical music, Psychic studies.

Main Production - Post Production - Getting the voice over.

Mr Sheppard mentioned during the week that for the voice over in our film we could email a professional to ask if he could do it for us to improve the quality. His name was Simon Ockenden, and he is well known in the media industry for a good quality American accent and also is known for helping media students with their projects for free.

Michael emailed Mr Ockenden during the week and we have received a reply and here is the email;




As you can clearly see in this email he has agreed to do the voice over for our film noir opening scene, so Michael has emailed him the script that he needs to say and we are now waiting for a reply with the first edit of our voice over.

As you can read above he has mentioned that if he does the voice over and it is not what we thought it was just email him back and he will redo it if we tell him what needs changing.

Main Production - Diary Entry 9 - Beginning of the editing process

Today Michael had started to edit all the clips that we had filmed for our opening scene, as he was part of the creation of our screenplay and script he had a good idea of what the film wanted to look like, although as with everything there is usually a problem with making the films look continuous and in sync, luckily Michael managed to get them all in sync before he started cropping the clips to make them more in sync. When Michael had a look at the clips it had appeared that they had no sound on them, this was not a problem except for the scene with the door bang in it, but this can easily be replaced. All we need now for the first edit is the voice over, which Michael has emailed a professional to do it who always helps with student workshops.

We now have the task to think about what style the credits want to be in and also the music that we will include, this is a simple process as Mr Sheppard as mentioned this week that there is over 100 film noir music clips we can include on the Z drive of school.

Main Production - Post Production - Shoot pictures/information

During filming we had a task to take pictures of us recording, here are the only pictures we took during the shoot and some information to do with the picture.

Here is Chris in living room, this was the room where we talked generally before and during filming of what we wanted to do, had the scripts and shot list for reviewing as this room as next to the filming room.

Here is the picture of the 3 props we created ourselves, Michael created these on Microsoft word and we printed them just before sorting out the set, just behind the top piece of paper you might be able to see an old looking newspapers, this is because the actor had 4/5 newspapers that were from the 1950s so we thought we would include them in the set to authenticate the scene more.
















This is the picture of the desk that was the main part of the scene, as you can see there is an old style radio on the left hand side, the newspaper clippings on left as well that we were using. Going towards the middle you can see the old style typewriter that we were using, next to that just on the right is an old scotch glass that is from the 1950s, then going to the right of that is the original legit 1950s newspapers that the actor kindly gave to us, all these props increased the authentication of the scene.













Here is where I put the lighting up for the production, as you can see when it will be on the door will be interfering with direct light on the scene, as the windows on the doors are blurry I thought this would be a good effect on the scene and also not give to much light as the scene is meant to be dark and mysterious, which is a convention of film noir.













Here is a close up of the light. (Before filming, hence the tripod next to the light)













This is a reverse angle of the desk that you can see, this picture is useful for me to show you on the windows in the doors opposite, you can see they are blurry, and you can imagine the effect on the lighting during filming, (as mentioned above).

This is during filming and our actor with his outfit as shown on several of my other posts.













Chris fixing the camera to the tripod between scenes.













Here is a picture of the room before we made arrangements to it, showing the difference before and after, with the picture of after we had done changes to it being above.



















Here is the reverse angle of the room we had to transform. As well as the building that we were filming in, it is a old house that is big, which shows the guy is quite or was wealthy.

Main Task - Post Production - Character Costumes

For our film noir opening scene we were expecting to get the character costumes as traditional and conventional, to do this we were looking for a trilby hat that reporters/directors use in the time set, and also a trench jacket to authenticate it more;

Unfortunately we did not arrange these in time and were dependant on our actor to hopefully have the items we required. When we got to the shoot we asked our actor if he had any and he said he was not sure but he would search for them, he then came down and told us he did not have any but he suggested he used his "judges outfit" as he used to be a judge, we then decided that we would try them and see what they looked like, he came down in a white striped shirt, black jacket, black shoes, black trousers and a tie. We told the actor then to change the striped shirt to a clear white shirt, and then we came to a group agreement that we liked the outfit. It is shown below;

Main Production - Pre Production - Character Bio

For our film noir opening scene we only needed one character throughout. His name is Cole Kelso. Cole in his prime was the best detective out there, he was solving crimes on the street and for a comparative is the 1950's "Sherlock Holmes". He would be known all over New York for putting highly dangerous criminals locked up weekly making New York a safer place. He then met a girl and fell madly in love with her, due to this he then got involved with a well known gang called the "Bedowski" mobsters, the power that the girl had on Cole was superior to his priority of his detective work, which lead to him finding and destroying evidence of crimes they have commit, doing this gained a closer relationship with this female. Due to hiding vital evidence of murders and drug dealings, the public soon found out and the story was unfolded so he became hated, wanted by many people, lost his rank in his job and also lost his important reputation. Once the public found out he had a epiphany and realised what he had "become", this makes his try to change back to his "prime" and the stardom that he had, but to get back up to this rank would be hard due to the trust by many people that he had lost. He came up with an idea to frame the "Bedowski" mobsters but doing this got him caught, once the Bedowski mobsters realised that he is trying to frame them, from their violent background they then went on the hunt for Cole to try and get revenge - and with their previous murders Cole knew at the first chance they had he would be a goner. This has resulted in Cole being a nervous wreck and paranoid everywhere he goes.

He now keeps a low profile all the time and hides most of the time, not going to major events and keeping his head down. He is a regular drinking and on the breach of becoming a alcoholic because he thinks that drink is the answer and to forget all his problems. He was not a regular smoker, only when a case stressed him out as he thought it was an easy way to relief stress, but now he is a heavy chain smoker and smokes up to 40 a day. 

Main Production - Pre Production - Research into Props

Film noir genre has a specific theme throughout all films. This theme coexists of costume, story lines, set and also props. Mostly all film noir movies will have the same props involved, as it is set in the 1950s then the obvious would be old type items.
Male Conventions of props would be;

• Guns
• Cigar/Cigarette
• Suit
• Trilby Hat
• Trench Coats

Female Conventions of props would be;

• Cigarettes
• Dresses
• High Heels
• Fancy Hats

Other Props that will be included into a film noir production could be;

• Typewriters
• Alcohol (Shots of gin)
• An old style telephone.

Main Production - Pre Production - Research into Costumes

Most film noir movies have a consistent theme and conventions about them. One of the conventions that they all have in common is the costumes that the characters wear. Usually the main male characters in film noir movies are detectives, or investigators. This shows that most people in a film noir will be wearing the same costumes, conventially this will be a detective long coat and a trilby hat, to back this up all you need to do is type in "film noir" onto google images and it comes up with the conventional costumes;

Main Production - Pre Production - Lighting Certificate

We definitely needed a lighting certificate for the film noir that we were planning to film. Due to this we were intending on borrowing a lighting kit from the media department, for this to be possible, Me, Michael or Chris has to pass the lighting test and get a lighting certificate.
I wanted to take this opportunity to get the lighting certificate for future productions in year 13 as well as this one so I took charge of the situation and passed the lighting test, gaining myself a lighting certificate, shown below.

Main Production - Pre Production - Production Schedule

The production schedule that was dispersed to the cast & crew on 28th February is shown below:Candi Production Schedule

Main Production - Diary Entry 9 - Filming

On Thursday the 1st March we started filming. It was approximately 7 o clock pm when we started filming due to we wanted it to be night time. We finished filming at about half past 9 pm. We got all the scenes we had planned to get and record all the scenes atleast two times so that we will have a alternative if they do not match and look continuous.

Main Production - Pre Production - Story Board

The storyboard for the production 'Candi' is shown below.
The storyboard was drawn & annotated by Christopher Howard, based on the finalised script (created by Christopher Howard & Michael Raucci) & the final plan - Candi (opening scene), (created by Michael Raucci)

Main Production - Pre Production - Risk Assessment

The risk assessment for the filming of the production 'Candi' are shown below.
I completed these documents on the 28th of February 2012 and they were checked by Michael on the 1st March before filming.
Document 1 -
General risk assessment for all aspects of the filming phase

Document 2 - Risk breakdown for all aspects of the filming phase

 Document 3 - General risk assessment for the lighting during the filming phase

 Document 4 - Risk breakdown for the lighting during the filming phase

Main Production - Pre Production - Screenplay Analysis

The screenplay was written by Chris and Michael. It contains many film noir elements and conventions to make the audience interested in the opening scene.

What will be throughout the opening scene that the audience will notice the most is the Voice - over, this will tell the audience on what they have missed out on and additionally add mystery to the scene. The voice - over is talking about, (presented at the end) himself, but the audience will not know that. It shows depression through the characters life when it started falling from its peak. The main character is a detective which lines it up with most film noir conventions and main characters, as well as gangs/groups of bad guys involved, which most successful film noir movies have. ]


All the conventions in the screen play are deliberate and on purpose, this is because everything in the screen is put their for a reason and we took this rule and put clues about what he has been doing prior to his downfall so that hopefully the audience can see these hints.

Main Production - Pre Production - The Props

The use of props during the film will make it seem more realistic. The props that we have used are;

• 50's style typewriter
• 50's style radio
• Old (expensive looking) scotch glass
• Genuine newspapers/newspaper extracts
• Non genuine newspaper articles that follow the plot of the film (to push the narrative)
• Although we had originally planned to use a picture of Cole Kelso in one of these newspaper clippings we were unable to due to time restraints, but instead used an archived picture of a New York crime scene.
• Old style ash tray
• Cigarettes
• Old style, reasonably expensive looking writer's desk
• Dark Old style wooden chair (with leather upholstery)

Main production - Pre Production - Shot list

Michael spoke to Chris the camera man about the shots he is going to use, and together they improvised and had a joint decision about the shots we were going to use, this is shown below.

Candi. Shot List

Main Production - Pre Production - Script Drafts/Screenplay

Michael created the first draft of our script, he got the ideas from the groups initial brainstorm.

Film Noir - Candi - Script Draft 1

This script was then handed to other production teams in order to get their feedback. Their feedback is annotated below:

Chris made some changes shown here;

Film Noir - Candi - Script Draft 2

After the second draft we decided for Michael to edit the final version one more time, as we had feedback then it was just minor changes.

The final draft is shown below:
Film Noir - Candi - Script Draft 3

The final script was correct and ready for filming on the 1st

Main Production - Pre Production - Opening Scene Final Plan

Fade In
Typical dramatic noir music
Shots showing various newspaper clippings
Camera pans across & down, moving toward the door where Cole Kelso is stood
As the camera reaches his feet,
[credits begin] the production company logo will be shown on a shot with only his feet in frame
Kelso will begin to walk extremely slowly to his seat
Credits superimposed over the shot of his feet
[credits end]
Shot ends either at the front/back (to be decided) of Kelso, sitting in the seat at his desk.
{close up infront of kelso}Kelso looks distraught & anguished - puts his head in his hands, leant on the desk
{as above}Reaches for the radio, switches it on [voiceover begins] & returns to having his head in his hands
{as above camera moves toward the clippings}Newspaper clippings catch his eye, he looks down as the camera follows his sight
{camera moves back up to the original close up of kelso's face}Kelso stares blankly into the clippings
{camera moves back down to the clippings}before swiping them off the desk onto the floor.
{moves back to a close up from the front}With more anger, still anguished puts his head in his hands & runs his hands through his hair
{as above but camera moves over the desk, and back again as he slumps and gets up}Throws himself into the chair, slumping slightly, looks upward, closes his eyes and sighs deeply.
{as above, but with the typewriter in the bottom of the frame (may have to be a mid shot)looks toward the typewriter
{camera moves around the desk to show a reverse angle of the previous shot (over the shoulder) with the typewrite keys in the top of the frame, showing no paper)Leans slowly, back onto the desk, leaning his head on 1 hand, he seemingly randomly (& slowly) taps keys on the typewriter
{as above, shows only an over the shoulder of his head turning abruptly in reacton to the bang}O.S a loud bang is heard from the corridoor
{reverse shot (close up) follows his hand, then the glass when he puts it down} Kelso stands up, downs the glass of bourbon on the desk, winces, and places the empty glass of bourbon down in front of the typewriter. then continues to walk out of shot.[noise of footsteps possibly?]
{extreme close up}camera moves from the glass, up toward the writing on the paper in the typewriter revealing the word 'candi'}[voiceover ends]
{camera continues to move into the word on the paper}
fade to black

Main Production - Pre Production - Location Pictures

This is where we plan to film our Main Production (Meadow Garth, Duddington, Stamford, Northamptonshire) The reason for this is because it is the messy environment we need for our film. The pictures below show what the rooms look like at the moment but we will be planning to rearrange them prior to filming.

We will take out all the computers and technology so that it is looking like a 1950s household.

Main Production - Diary Entry 8 - Actors

For our main production we only need one actor. For the scene, the actor is required to do very little in terms of action & no dialogue is involved in the scene at all. Due to this, the actor needs to be extremely good at portraying emotion & feeling through the use of movement & expression.

With all of this known we were looking for our actor, I knew we were filming in my Dads study as we were looking for a messy room with an old table. It fit the requirements, so i thought it would be easier to just ask my dad to record. He said yes, so we had our one and only actor sorted and ready to filming.

Main Production - Diary Entry 7 - Newspaper Template Prop

Today Michael made a template of the newspapers we will be using for our scene.

They will be included into the credits (shown in the background) and also a key feature to show the characters personality.

To make these clippings Michael made them on a4 paper landscape, we will rip them at the bottom and also screw them up so that it is shown as tatty.
We have called the newspaper "The NewYork Daily Tribune" as there was actually a newspaper called that in the time it was set.


The picture here is a picture of the detective, just a template of the picture we want and it is edited so that hopefully we will get time to edit it with the actual actors picture.


This is the template made on microsoft word and how the newspapers will look in the scene.

Main Task - Production - Lighting Workshop

In Film Noir it is conventional to only use ONE light at a time.

Before filming you should identify where the light source is.

If setting up a light then remember the following;

• Work at your height level.
• Do not shake the red head.
• Powerlead from the red head to hang DOWN.
• Barn doors on the red head to be facing a leg of the stand.
• Do not use lights outside.
• Click "Set, Test, Reset" before plugging in the surge protector (Yellow, Red, Yellow).
• DO NOT use extension leads.
• The top of the light to be 1 metre from the roof.

Lights from the roof is called "Top Lighting"

When turning on the lights you should shout "Lights being turned on, do not look into the lights", everyones immediate reaction will be to look, so give it a two second gap before switching them on.

Before putting the light away you should be able to put your bare skin on the top of the red head for 5 seconds.

3 Point lighting:

There is 3 lighting positions that you can use, these are;

• Key light
• Fill light
• Back light

Key light - This is the most influenctial light and is normally placed infront of the main action of the scene.


Fill light - This is placed oposite the key light to brighten up the scene.


Back light - This is placed behind the main action of the scene but not directly behind so that it is not in shot.




This is also shown by this diagram ;



To back this up this video explains all ;

Main Production - Diary Entry 6 - Pre Production Progress

Earlier on in the week I was able to cast the actor that we need, I recalled Michael saying we needed an old looking desk during our team meetings, and when i was at my Dads I realised that his desk is centurarys old and as well as that he has several old chairs to chose from to fit the scene. With a ideal scene and props found I thought it would just be easy to ask my Dad to be the actor and he accepted, the only problem with this is that he does not fit part of the character bio and also stereotypical Film Noir actors. Once we were all agreed to this I then filled out a risk assessment form as I know all the dangers of his house. (This will be uploaded later on in the week).

Due to the Media equipment being booked out the earliest we could book out all the equipment is the 1st of March, as all the equipment was booked out we all good extended time and also it gives us more time to finish all of the pre production process.

Simon Ockington was a name given to Michael for a professional voice over for our film, he frequently helps media workshops and is good at american accents which we need. Michael has emailed him and we are waiting for a reply.

The agenda that we had this week was to finish all of the pre production work before Thursday (today) so that we were all ready to film Thursday after school.

Main Production - Diary Entry 5 - Potential Film Names

Chris and Michael have came up with several potential names that we can chose for our film, the choices were;

• The Fall & Rise of Cole Kelso
• Criminal Reporting
• Life Of Cole Kelso
• Trials, Tribulations and Tabloids
• Bright Lights, Cold World
• Into Enermy Hands
• Success to Less
• Candi

Out of the choices they had came up with "Candi" as the title due to that being one of the actors names and this name doesnt give much away to the audience, as well as gets the audience thinking.

Main Production - Diary Entry 4 - The Plan of the opening scene

Our opening scene consists of shots, actions, voice overs, credits and music. The way this will all be performed is as follows;

• Stereotyical Film Noir Music
• Shot of the desk
• Logo to appear then dissapear
• Newspaper stack
• Final newspaper reveals what the story will be about
• Tracks and pans to the door
• Shows the feet of the actor
• Tracking shot of actor going to his seat
• Turns on the radio which triggers the voice over
• Looks through newspapers
• Looking stressed
• Taps typewriter slowly
• Bang on the door
• Actor worried and doesn't know what to do
• 180 degree pan from face to the back of the head
• Actor gets out of his seat and lights a cigarette
• Camera pans to the paper in the typewriter and reveals his loves name typed on it.

Target Audience Research - Evaluation

This is the graph showing the ages of the people i gave the questionnaire too. Before i gave out the questionnaire i knew that it would be a good idea to target the older generation because Film Noir would of been more popular when they were growing up, so i decided to conduct an experiment to see the different opinions of people in the newer generation (16-20) compared to the older generation (51+). This can also be compared to the ages in between to see what ages started to lose interest in black and white films and converted to colour films due to the development of technology. As expected the results of the test were that all of the 51+ enjoyed Film Noir, whereas only 2 of the 8 16-21 year olds liked Film Noir, this shows the difference in the generations and the impact that improvement of technology to make coloured films has made Film Noir out of fashion. 2 of the 3 people aged 41-50 liked Film Noir and also both of the people aged 31-40 liked Film Noir, so it is only recently where technology started to change (ages 16-30) where Film Noir has started to go out of fashion.

This is the gender of the people i questioned, it shows that there is more males then females that i have surveyed, as well as that the amount of males were older in this survey so there was 9 people who liked it who were males and 4 that liked it who were females. The answers to this questionnaire were quite stereotypical with the all the females liking a romantic Film Noir and the males liking a Horror/Action Film Noir movie. Which Action is in our Film Noir opening so we instantly have an idea of the target audience we need to focus on.

This is the graph of people's social status in soceity that i have questioned. Overal it is normal for their to be more "middle" classed people generally. The most people who like Film noir films were obviously the middle class, whereas no one from the lower or lower-middle classes liked the Film Noir genra but some from middle upper and one from the upper class liked Film noir films, which provides a general idea of what the audience will be like and also what they expect in the films.

This is the results of the people's favourite genre in their Film Noir movies. The highest was comedy as most people enjoy to be happy and laugh. Romance and Horror which we have taken into consideration but we prefered to let the audience wondering in the opening scene so it creates an impact and also gets them interested to watch the whole film. This way we have not given out any information in the opening scene of what genre it is going to be, so the audience carries on watching the film and also carries on trying to understand which it is.

Main Production - Diary Entry 3 - Original Brainstorm

Due to uploading the picture this has been delayed but finally got it on. This is the picture of Chris's and Michael's brainstorm when i was away for the lesson.

Target Audience Research - Filled out questionnaire

Film Noir Questionnaire Fill Out

Target audience research - Film Noir questionnaire

Film Noir Questionnaire

Main Production - Diary Entry 2 - Scene and Script

This lesson was to review what was said and proposed last lesson while making a few minor adjustments.
I was then fully updated on the proposed idea and thinking about how we could make all the scene and script possible for filming, as well as a group discussion about it to make everyone on the same understanding of what we were all thinking and so we all thought the same thing.

Chris then took the plan home that night and done an initial and basic script, which was our version one of what the character does, which was possible as there is only one character and also no dialogue.

Michael found a original, working old typewriter so we could use it as a prop in the scene, so it is more realistic.

Similar Products - Film Noir Posters

From this poster you can see it is set in Hollywood from the "a Hollywood Story" below the title and with the film strip where the title is, it reinforces that it is set in Hollywood. The evil glare that the women has at the top of the screen could suggest that she is the villain and evil during the film, she has a pale face with bright red hair and red lipstick, and red, this could symbolise blood or danger to the people she is staring at. The couple are holding each other and look worried in the film while staring up at the female so this could reinforce that she is the villain.

This poster shows clearly the two main characters in the film, they look like they are deeply in love and have been for a while, although, it also shows a third person in the poster staring at them which could represent a love triangle. The words "from the moment they met it was murder" and also the male in the two has a gun in his hand, this shows that maybe the second male to the right could be the one who has/will be murdered. This has a good way of getting the audience to go to the cinema to watch this film, at the top it shows the actors second names in bold capitals, this could mean that they are big stars and people will want to watch the film just because of them playing a main role.

Straight away when you see this poster your eyes are directed to the female in the middle, this shows that she will be a main part of the film. Surrounding her is several males which could show that they are all battling over her as they are all looking at her. The male on the left looks like a detective and a good person, but he has a gun in his hand which could show the audience that he might kill someone during the film. There is a black mystery figure in the background which could mean he will be the villain and is very mysterious and cautious on what he does.