1st Day Of Filming Christchurch Mansion

Filming Day One (Christchurch Mansion)

Today we set out too film our flashbacks for the Film Noir proejct, the location we found we much better suited than we first thought, the room's are actually how we wanted and because we booked it there was no schools or vistors to stop us filming, we headed down to Christchurch park around ten after collecting all the equipment from college, we also spent half an hour checking the equipment worked and that we had our tapes.

This has provided better imagery for the audience than a typical church, we felt the mansion has more of an eerie feeling which would contrast with the goings on in the actual scene which were optimistic and in general, very bright feeling. Considering someone was getting married. It was perfectly functional inside for all our needs and wants due to the long staircase, the wedding room which people from the public actually rent out for their personal weddings, and the feel and look of the place added to the atmosphere of what we were aiming for, with the marble status, and fireplaces, alongside large portraits and grand chairs.
The lighting and colour in the mansion was very gloomy and dim, very much low cast lighting, it portrayed a feeling of almost, being haunted, compared to being outside where the couple walks into the mansion where it’s apparent to be daytime, and the mood changes as it’s such a contrast between the two locations almost. The couple were holding hands outside the mansion as they walked in, we thought this would really signify their love as the sun was shining down, so there would be high key lighting and the audience would be able to tell this was an upbeat part of this performance.

4th Production Meeting

Production Meeting 4- Editing

Today we edited our flashbacks, we decided to brighten the images and put them in black and white. I decided to add a grainy effect onto them so they looked as if they were old photographs, we were also inspired by the opening to Seven which i looked at, we were trying effects to make the screen flicker but none of them looked right.

We also recorded our voiceover today, we ended up cutting the script down as after filming we saw that some of the lines didn't really fit. We also thought about re writing the ending so that the lady turns around looking scared then theres a blackout, but the voiceover is still going, as this adds more enigma, we were worried filming the dead bride and live one will look tacky and may not work, if it works well it would be brilliant however if it isn't filmed properly it will look poor quality.

3rd Production Meeting- Props, Audiences and Influences

Tomorrow is the day of filming, we have decided to go out and collect props tomorrow, which will be put to good use, the wedding dress from a charity shop will be a good buy, we aren't intending on using anyone's because obviously it's a sentimental object. Being from a chariety shop (if we're lucky enough to find one) we can alter it slightly.

Dec the actor who is playing the Groom has already got a suit from which he has worn previously. We will be going to a local joke shop in which we will probably spend around an hour choosing the hair for our newly wedded wife to be seen in. The most important prop will probably the rings, as these send out a significant message to the audience.

Props and costume-
Rice
Wig
Wedding dress
Tie and suit
Vale
Ring
Bottle of Wine
Jewellery
Notepad
Make up

In thnis meeting we have also looked into what audeicnces wnat, and the right age range we will be directing this movie at, for our 'niche' market, to bring into the cinemas the largest amount of people we can which would be above 15 as this is what we have rated our film at. As this is this case there is reasoning in that I do not think many people below the age of 15 would have the strategic to work out what was going out, and would be able to settle down for long enough and figure out the film, the characters and the plot.

While learning about the BBFC we realised that the lower the age rating you put for your film the more likely it’s going to make more money due to the amount of people being able to come and watch it, older ages would restrict many of the audience viewing this film.

We created a questionaire to get more of an idea for the people who would be likely to view this:

Task 5
Questionnaire-
How old are you? 16-20 21-25 26-30 30+
Do you know what Film Noir is? Yes/No
What’s your favourite film genre?
Do you prefer black and white films? Yes/No
How many black and white films have you seen?
Do you watch films frequently? Yes/No
Who would be your favourite type of character?
Do members of your family watch black and white films? Yes/No
If so, who?

2nd production meeting

This morning Marc Charlie and I has another meeting for the discussion of our media project, this time we were to decide upon what would represent our Mis-En Scene.

MIS-EN-SCENE


We has choose a church just by college, but after discussion we decided on the Location of Christchurch mansion, we thought would provide better imagery for the audience than a typical church, we felt the mansion has more of an eerie feeling which would contrast with the goings on in the actual scene which were optimistic and in general, very bright feeling. Considering someone was getting married. It was perfectly functional inside for all our needs and wants due to the long staircase, the wedding room which people from the public actually rent out for their personal weddings, and the feel and look of the place added to the atmosphere of what we were aiming for, with the marble status, and fireplaces, alongside large portraits and grand chairs.


We have chosen our 2nd location which was Charlie’s bedroom, we arent quite sure of the size and how the camera will sit and may find it awkward for what we wanted to film. Her room is quite small meaning it was difficult to find a perfect spot to place a camera, as most of the filming was filmed as her looking into the mirror; which means I'll have to make sure the camera reflection wasn’t seen in the mirror.



The lighting and colour in the mansion was very gloomy and dim, very much low cast lighting, it portrayed a feeling of almost, being haunted, compared to being outside where the couple walks into the mansion where it’s apparent to be daytime, and the mood changes as it’s such a contrast between the two locations almost. The couple were holding hands outside the mansion as they walked in, we thought this would really signify their love as the sun was shining down, so there would be high key lighting and the audience would be able to tell this was an upbeat part of this performance.

The flashbacks the couple are getting married, So our actors will do thier best to look excited, happy, in love and pleased to be together, as the two actors are currently together in real life this should be easy to perform! They will show affection through holding hands and small kisses to the face and other improvised ways, nothing obvious and over the top.

The 2nd location is in Charlie’s bedroom has very much again low key lighting, this is supposed to be the most awkward and confusing part of the opening sequence so we didn’t want to be showing a large amount of light, instead of using the high voltage lamp we were given we decided to use one of the lamps from our props which was on the dressing table.The performance throughout the opening sequence was subtle, there wasn’t an overwhelming large amount of faces being shown throughout but more, little parts of what they were wearing, such as the props. Location 2 at Charlie’s house we shall begin to focus more on the woman herself, every detail about her, so much so, as she takes off her makeup, we decided to use the camera as a mirror as she stares directly down the lens, as if to be looking directly into the audience.
n the other scenes, the femme fatale should look drunk, untidy,lost and upset. She will be downing red wine straight from the bottle, this will make her look desperate, downing her sorrows. Her makeup will be ruined, all down her face from crying, she will still be weeping in the sequence. In the end scenes, she will look as though she has just heard something and is shaken by it, looking scared and anxious.

1st production meeting

Today Charlie Marc and I had our first meeting for our Film Noir opening. We each has gone away and written our own synopsis, which wasn't very long, quite brief but at the same time detailed.
We each read ours out too each other and decided to collaborate all 3 into one, too show we had each contributed to our synopsis, each of us having good and different ideas.
Jon read our synopsis and at first found it too confusing, not quite understanding the plot and the characters. We sorted this out, and then were told we hadn't got enough film noir characterstics and we had to figure out how to incoporate this.

We ended up attempting to make our actors have more film noir characterstics, we needed to includ flashbacks too presnet our opening to have more of a film noir quality.