Post 11: Media Language - Lighting 1 (Shape & Texture)

Lighting is a huge part of any film and can change the way a whole film is interpreted. Film Noir is ‘is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasise cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Some examples of famous film noir films are Double Indemnity (1944), Touch of Evil (1958) and The Maltese Falcon (1941)

In film noir lighting is very important and can be used to create different effects. In black and white films lighting was more important than ever because it was emphasised more with the lack of colour. It also meant it was easier to create shadows and new and interesting ways to use them. There are two main ways to describe shadows; cast shadows and attached shadows.

Cast shadows are when a person on screen is partially illuminated because an object is blocking the light source, for example another person, door or blinds.

Attached shadows are when an object or someone’s features are partially illuminated due to something natural being in the way, for example, a hat or hair creating shadows on a face.

 

 

Here is our experiment where we tried to create the Venetian blind effect.

Lighting is very important when it comes to creating atmosphere and aspects of a character so to make sure we use the best effects on our film we researched other films to learn about how even subtle lighting enhances the story line. We had already watched the film Lolita earlier on in our research in to sexual grooming and looking back at it we realised how lighting had played a big role in creating our opinions of the characters. For example in this shot here Humbert is in a shadow cast by an object off screen (maybe Lolita’s sitting in the light from the window). This suggests to the audience that Lolita is an innocent character, whereas Humbert is secretive, confined and mysterious.

Other films which we looked at which are film noir films were Double Indemnity and Asphalt Jungle.

Double Indemnity- in this screen shot you can see a man who is standing facing a window; the shadow lines across his body are most likely to be coming from blinds across the window. This draws the audience’s attention to him and by doing so suggests that he is the more important out of the two men.

Asphalt Jungle- in this screen shot the main light source is evident as the overhead light is on screen creating mood and suggesting that because the characters have only got this light source focused over what they are doing that what they are doing is secretive. This is also suggested by the fat that apart from this light source the rest of the screen is darker suggesting that they are up to no good. There is a man sitting at the table whose hat blocks the light on his face which could show that he is an important character in this scene or that he is hiding something from the others.

Lighting can also change our sense of shape and texture, with Josef Von Sternberg -thought to of been one of the cinema's masters of film lighting, said "The proper use of light can embellish and dramatise every object." An example of this theory is shown through the clip Lemon by Hollis Frampton, by moving the light in various ways and focusing on various angles of the lemon, you are able to create what appears to be an entirely new object for the audience.  

Lemon - Hollis Frampton
 

After seeing this as a group we did two experiments changing shape and texture with light. 
 

 





Post 10: Script Feedback

Before we could officially complete our script we wanted to get feedback from our target audience. Throughout the process of writing and re-writing I had shown my friends, and coincidently people from our target audience, sections of the script and they had offered their opinions and views about what we had. However, because they hadn’t seen the entire script and because they are biased we didn’t only rely on their opinion. We then showed the finished script to a random sample of people in our target audience and collected their feedback. Once we had collected all the feedback we then discussed whether we should make additional changes to the script and to what parts.

Most of the feedback we received was positive with small suggestions like making sure the language used by the characters fit the age and class of people of a similar position. This meant we would have to go through the script changing phrasing and grammar to make it appear more realistic to the audience.

Another piece of feedback we received was that the ending was too clichéd and happy, with the bad guy being arrested, some of our target audience wanted an extra twist at the end. We thought about what we could add to shock the audience and agreed on the idea that Alan should be having a sexual relationship with his daughter. We hoped this would shock and appal the audience and on re-reading with an extra sentence added on the end all of our target audience agreed that they didn’t see it coming and that it ‘creeped us out’.

We tried to act on as much of the feedback that we could whilst trying to still keep as close to our ideas as possible in the hope that it would lead to a stronger final script.

 

Post 9: Script Workshop 2

After removing, adding and changing our script we are almost finished writing it. We made quite a few changes over the course of changing it in order to create the best script we could and one that would be most beneficial to telling the story and showing the different stages of sexual grooming. They also helped develop the characters and their relationships.

 

We developed the relationship between Alan and Sophie to make it seem more realistic to the audience by giving them a past, shown mainly through the montages. In discussions we agreed as a group that we didn’t want to make it as obvious that Alan is grooming Sophie as it had been in our AS and previous drafts so decided not to include any physical of sexualised scenes in the hopes of keeping the audience guessing. We used subtle hints to suggest what was going on, such as Alan putting his hand on her shoulder, but also to confuse the audience, for example the looks Sophie gives Alan suggest she has made up their relationship or that Alan sees her as a daughter. We also edited the dialog to make it not only seem more realistic but suggestive and open for interpretation into what they mean.

 

 

 

We also wanted to make sure the stages of grooming were well defined and visible to the audience. By doing this not only will it inform the audience on the stages of sexual grooming but it also shows the development of the characters and the story.

 

 

Another thing we changed was the language the characters use, when we originally wrote it we had used grammar and fully formed sentences but when people speak they don’t speak like that. We went through, especially the girl’s (Sophie and Paige) and changed their dialogue by using more ‘common’ words and adding ‘slag’ in to make it more realistic.

 

Once we had a complete script we sat down with our actors for a read-through, we recorded a few scenes to see what kind of set up would be best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R120aRCaXBc&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQqcwJRYUE&feature=youtu.be

Throughout writing the script we have asked the opinions of our target audience and before it is finished we are now waiting to hear the feedback from them to make sure it sounds right, the story is understandable and easy to understand yet keeps them guessing and that they would find it interesting if they were going to watch the film.