EVALUATION by Richard Day (editor)

Evaluation of project
Richard Day

In my film studies project, I played the role of the editor. Our group decided to make a short sequence from a neo-noir film. We chose the opening sequence.
Our planning shows that we wanted to include a speech from the main character to introduce him, then a death and some sort of argument between the two characters introduced.
Once we got all of our footage uploaded it was my job to cut it up and place the best bits together in a sequence that we wanted as a group.

To open our extract we decided to introduce the main character to the audience.
We showed him walking to a bench and sitting down.
I think this shot worked well in the editing and I linked the parts of different angles and shots well.

After he sat down we showed his face at different angles and distances, finishing on a point of view shot. In editing I think this opening sequence to our opening sequence is the strongest part out of all the bits I edited.



Following this opening scene we cut to a still shot of a girl laying dead in some shrubble. After this we cut to a black screen for a second to move into the next scene.
I think this shot works with a black screen either side because it makes the audience think about what this could mean and why it is here and what has happened.

After the scene ends it cuts to the next scene of a conversation.
This part of the footage was hard to edit well because we did not seem to have much footage we could use because we chose a bad location to film this. We chose to film in the college canteen to get the effects of the tables and a social meeting place.
This turned out to be a bad decision of ours because we had to much background noise which therefore made it hard to hear the conversation properly and hard to edit because we did not have a clear voice over of the conversation.
I just had to use the best we had.
Although this scene has its difficulties, in editing I used shot, reverse, shot to show the flow of the conversation from each perspective.
Filming was done with the 180 degree rule and over the shoulder shots to be able to achieve this.


In our extract we finish with the main character finding the body, vomiting and walking off set. Then we end with a strong shot of a train passing and close ups of the body of the girl shown in the argument on the ground.

I enjoyed editing this scene because we could shot between the dead body and the main character finding it and focusing on his reaction.

In editing we used influences from neo noir films we had watched in class and also that we had rented out of the library and watched in our free time to get more of a feel as to what we were doing.
I chose to watch ‘Memento’.
This helped me to understand what I needed to do in the editing.
We needed some small breaks between flashbacks and real-time to get the audience to understand that it was a flashback and we didn’t just make mistakes in the editing.

To improve the editing, from my viewing of Memento, It maybe would have been a good idea to put some of the flashback scenes in black and white to give more of a effect of the neo noir genre.

From the feedback from other students we realised that the café scene was worse than we thought as some other students couldn’t even make out what the actors were saying at all. I think this may be because we knew what they were saying because they wrote the script. Therefore we didn’t notice as much.

From being editor I feel I have a further understanding of using Macs and Final cut. I understand how to do the different techniques and how to structure and arrange parts of footage for the project.
In editing I cut some sound from the unwanted footage and strung it along the bottom to try and make the sound from the café scene sound a bit better. It didn’t really work. But at least I tried.

I feel I tried my best as the role of editor to do the best I could with the footage we had filmed.

Matt Curtis Evaluation

Evaluation of Ternary form

Our film is a neo-noir tragedy focussed on the life of one character. We chose to do the opening sequence as our extract as it allowed to us to best capture noir elements in a short sequence. I took the role of cinematographer and used influence from other noir films to Create shots that would portray the noir style well. I was particularly influenced by the neo noir film Brick (2005 Rian Johnson). For example the location we filmed the first scene in shows the mix of urban landscape and large open spaces that is typical of Brick as well as other noir films such as Double indemnity. Looking at audience feedback I would have changed the location to a city center as it would give the extract a more claustrophobic atmosphere appropriate for the noir style.

Our opening scene shows the introduction of the main character of our film (Tommy). It shows him walking to a picnic bench and sitting down. I planned this first shot carefully as it is the first thing the audience would see. I filmed the shot of Tommy walking to the bench from directly behind bench, I did this to intentionally give the audience a unclear view of his face. I also filmed a low angle close up of Tommy sitting down on the bench and cut it with the first shot to create a sense of continuity. This helped make his introduction visually interesting without giving many of his features away. I was influenced in this shot by Brick which often introduces the characters presence in a scene by a low angled close up of his shoes. We decided as a group to use over the top narration in this scene as it is a common feature in the noir style. The influence for this was mainly from the noir film Double indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder) where the plot is progressed through this style of narration. I then made the decision to use a mix of medium close ups and close ups that were carefully timed to coincide with the narration. I also filmed a point of view shot to go with the narration. In the point of view shot I tried to capture examples of the urban landscape associated with the noir style. In this scene we added diagetic sound such as a dog barking and the sound of traffic to help show the characters location in the urban environment. From the feedback I have been given on this scene I would add Some long shots as some of the audience said it difficult to get a real sense of the location without seeing it from a distance.

Our second scene takes place in a cafe and shows the introduction of our second character as well as progressing the narrative and creating the foundation for the plot for the rest of our film. The first shot shows Tommy sitting at a table with a chair pulled up opposite him. The second character (Sarah) then enters from the right of the frame and takes a seat opposite Tommy. I chose to have Sarah enter part way through the shot as it gives the audience a couple of seconds to take in the location before Sarah enters. For this scene I followed the180 rule by filming the entire conversation twice from the views of both characters. For the view of Sarah we had a medium close up shot of Tommy with the wall behind him. For the view of Tommy we had a Slightly further out shot of Sarah with her back to the lockers. This when cut together later gave the scene a good sense of continuity. To keep this scene in the noir style we decided to use no non-diagetic sound and focused on the dialogue. This idea was influenced from the dialogue scenes in the neo noir film The Big Lebowski (1998 Coen brothers). From the feedback we got from the audience it was clear that there was a problem with the sound in this scene. Due to our location for filming the camera picked up to much background noise and the dialogue is difficukt to hear. If I were to shoot this scene again I would use a much emptier location and use diagetic sound added afterwards to keep it realistic.

Our final scene shows the body of Sarah being discovered by Tommy. We chose our location carefully as we wanted to use a woodland enviroment but while still keeping urban elements. We did this by using a small wooded are next to a train line. To introduce the body I decided to use a medium shot with the body just off center in the frame. I did this to add dramatic effect to the scene by highlighting the body in the otherwise peaceful enviroment. I then took a high angle shot of the body using a step ladder next to a tree. This shot allows the audience to see the face of the body and to identify it as the girl from the previous scene aswell. For the introduction of Tommy into this scene I wanted his face to be seen as little as possible and when seen to show little or no expression . This was to leave the audience uncertain about his intentions and role in the film. This uncertainty is a key idea in the noir style and is used in all of the films mentioned above. Our final shot is of a train going past Sarahs body. I chose to use this shot at the end of our piece as i felt that combined with the music at the end of our extract it created an almost melancholic effect, similar to the opening sequence of Brick. Looking at the feedback I was given on this final scene if I were to change anything I would add some long shots of Tommy entering the area before he finds the body.

Narrative structure

Our extract will open with the main character (Tommy) sitting on a bench alone. We plan to film it in a location that shows the urban landscape typical of the noir style. there will be no direct dialogue in this scene, instead we will have third person narration. To keep it visually interesting we plan to use a variety of shot types.

The second scene opens with the main character walking home through a small woody area, this will lead onto the character finding the body of the second character in our extract (Sarah). Again there will be no dialogue but instead of third person narration we will use subtle music to build the atmosphere and feeling of the scene. Again we plan to use unusual camera shots to keep the audience visually interested while progressing the narrative.

The narrative will then skip back to a week previous for our last scene. this scene will be set in a cafe with both of the main characters sitting opposite each other at a table. We will use the 180 rule as well as mixing in a few shots showing them facing each other. the script posted on an earlier blog is a rough draft for the dialogue we shall use in that scene. The extract will finish at the end of this scene

analysis of previous film students

Photo Booth from LongRoadFilm on Vimeo.

i think this video will help us in our filming and editing because it uses some of the same ideas that we want to use in our project. it uses wild sound throughout and it gives the impression of rewinding back in time. also i think its good how the music builds up the tension throughout.

Scipt draft

The scene opens with the two characters facing each other across a table. She is dressed casually in light colours. he is dressed formally and looks run down. The scene starts with wild sound for a few seconds before dialogue commences.

Sarah: Hey, how have you
Tommy: (interrupting) why have you been avoiding me.
Pause
Sarah: (sighs) I haven't been avoiding you, I just need some time away, (pauses)
Tommy: away from me?
Sarah: (expression changes) yes, away from you.
Tommy: why didn't you just tell me, why all of this secrecy?
Sarah: Tommy (reaches across the table and takes his hand)
Tommy: stop it (pushes her hand away)

This is a draft of the script we will use for the argument scene in our extract.

The Last Seduction and Brick, influences

Film Information.

Brick.
Brick starts with Brendan Freye staring at the dead body of ex-girlfriend Emily, lying in a storm drain. Days earlier, Brendan, receives a terrified phone call from Emily, who tearfully tells him that she "didn't know that the brick was bad" and that "the Pin's on it now," imploring him to help her. Brendan manages to find her, only to face her plea for him to leave her alone. After her death, Brendan takes it upon himself to solve her murder, along with the help of 'The Brain' to track information, while feigning to be an inside man for his assistant vice-principal.

The Last Seduction.
"In a town called Beston, There is a woman who cannot control her natural instict". The Last seduction is a story about a sociopath, Bridget Gregory, who steals $700,000 from her drug-dealing husband Clay. Bridget drives off headed to Chicago when she stosp at a small town, Beston, and meets Mike. Mike is back in town after a whirlwind marriage and divorce in Buffalo. The two immediately hook up. Bridget is just looking for sex while Mike is trying to find a way out of the small town.

Meanwhile, drug dealer Clay, under pressure from a loan shark and with the help of a private detective, frantically searches for his plotting wife and the money. Meanwhile Bridget changes her name and gets a job at the same insurance company as Mike. The film continues to unveil with disconcerting plot twists which ultimately end with Bridget cheating Mike and Clay.

The reason for watching both of these films was to find some influence for our extract,
particularly regarding sound and shot location. The urban landscapes used in both films heavily influenced the shots we decided to use in our extract. The atonal music as well as the poly rhythmic samples often used in the background of brick gave us the idea of keeping the sound in our extract simple and rhythmical as this will allow the focus to remain on the visuals while providing a solid base for dialogue.

Ideas And Influences

Our project is heavily influenced by the neo-noir style, particularly films such as Brick and Memento. One idea that we incorporated into our design is the structural technique used in both of the films mentioned above. Switching between past and present carries the narrative along in an interesting and clever way that is typical of the noir style. Using this method to do a two minute extract allows us to switch between different scenes without disrupting the continuity of the story.

Trailer for Brick

Trailer for Memento