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