Animatic

CLICK THE VIDEO ABOVE TO WATCH IT!

Creating an animatic is a very useful piece of pre-production work as it gives us an insight into what our final film opening will look like when all our chosen shots are put together. Intitially I was responsible for creating the animatic, since I'm the editor, but because I was away for the crucial animatic lesson and Chris had already made a start on it at home, we decided that he should continue it and I would do a different piece of pre-production work instead. From the animatic I've learnt what our film will look like alongside sound, and as editor can begin to consider what order and length each shot appear on screen for.

After Chris completed the storyboards, he cut each frame apart and arranged it together to form a look-a-like of our final film, but in storyboard drawings. He then applied 2 of our music choices to add extra atmosphere and make the animatic seem more realistic and like the final piece. The music choices were from our final list of 4, but because we haven't made a final decision yet he decided to incorporate 2 of our choices here to see which one is best suited. The first piece by Jan Hammer ('Clues') is slow but spooky and more noir style, whereas the second piece by A R Rahman ('Mausam and Escape') is more for a running pace but sounds very Indian style. As you can see our animatic runs over 3 minutes, but in the real film the shots will be shorter and the action in each scene will be quicker than it's shown here. Also we decided after viewing the animatic that the name titles could appear at the beginning of the film and we would have no music, or very quiet background music on the final scene where the 2 people exchange their dialogue and get into a fight. This is because we want the dialogue to be heard clearly and the gunshot to shock the audience with a loud effect. At the end of our animatic Chris also added the gunshot sounds we wish to use. We found the gunshots on a sound-effects disc from the college library, and they have proved very useful as we wouldn't be able to create a gunshot sound ourselves.

You can also watch our animatic on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k4abKaKFDc

Storyboard for our opening sequence

Drawing a storyboard is also a very important piece of pre-production work as it outlines the various shots we will be using, and it gives useful guidlines on what our final film will actaully look like. Above is our storyboard, drawn by Chris as this was part of his role as director. We took this out when filming in both locations and found it very useful to follow by.

Synopsis for our opening sequence

As a part of the pre-production work we had to complete a full synopsis explaining the storyline for our film noir opening. This was Chris's task to create as he is our director, though we each gave ideas towards this. The sequence only involves 2 characters, of which we have named Peter and the Mystery Shadow. The importance of a synopsis is that it gives guidelines to the script and ensures we know exactly what to film and what moods and atmospheres we wish to portray.

Synopsis:

• The first part shown is a flashback showing Peter walking along a footpath in a woodland area. He is wearing a dark leather jacket over a creased white shirt of which the collar can vaguely be shown. The rest of his clothing is quite casual, including a woolly hat which suggests it is winter. He is alone when he discovers a dead body holding a brown package on the ground.
• Peter has no idea who the dead person is but can see a large wadge of money poking out from the package. In an act of selfishness he takes the package and on hearing a noise in the distance, he runs with a panicked expression and clearly unaware of what he has just committed himself towards by taking the mysterious package.
• Voice over: "This is the day my life finished". This comes from Peter as he runs away.
• The screen switches to Peter entering a dark room of his apartment. All that can be seen is a desk with a lamp and fan on it, as the rest is darkness. The desk is in the centre of the room and a Venetian blind effect is throwing awkward lines across it.
• Peter unzips bis leather jacket and throws his woolly hat and the mysterious package onto the desk before collapsing into the chair beside it. He switches on the desk lamp which reveals the contents of his desk. A black folder, a glass of whiskey with ice cubes in it, an electric fan (which is switched off), pad of paper and a handful of Biro pens.
• His hands are shaking with nerves as he carefully inspects the package. He takes the bundle of money (£20 notes) from the package and checks its quality under the dim light of the desk lamp.
• Voice over: "Like a panther prowling through the undergrowth stalking its prey. Was I the panther, or the unsuspecting gazelle staring into the great gorging eyes of abyss without even realising it?” Here Peter is metaphorically describing his emotions to the audience.
• The screen suddenly turns to a piercingly bright white light. This triggers Peter's memory of him running through the woods just a few hours ago. The screen then switches between location (the woods and the dark apartment room) as Peter reveals the contents of the package item-by-item.
• He inspects each item carefully. 2 black and white photographs of himself walking in various locations, A black notebook containing a date and nameless contact details (address and phone number).
• Between the shots of Peter looking through the package the screen cuts to him running through the woods looking anxiously behind him, as if there is somebody following in his footsteps. Faint noises and quick shots of a Mysterious Shadow appear on the path Peter has been running along, creeping up bushes and other foliage, and disappearing whenever Peter glances around. The Mysterious Shadow's identity isn't revealed though we know he carries a knife, and an over-the-shoulder shot shows him wearing a dark hood. Other shots of his fast-walking feet show he's also wearing dark jeans and trainers.
• At one point the camera follows Peter climbing up a steep slippery mud hill in a hurry as he drops the package but turns around to pick it up. This shows that Peter is money-orientated and desperately wants to keep the package though he has no idea of the other contents and the audience don't know why he 'stole' it.
• Peter then rests against a tree as he catches his breath. Voice over: He asks himself “Why me? Why me, the keep your head down, no fuss, always do as you’re told, unimportant cog. The one whose eyes you always avoid because otherwise you might actually have to acknowledge they exist. The bloke who melts in with the crowd. No one taking second notice!” This reveals Peter's true thoughts about himself.
• Then the audience are taken back into his apartment room where he takes out the final item in the package. It is a black gun, complete with loaded ammunition. In a moment of panic Peter hides the gun in his inner jacket pocket, as if he knows this will be of use to him later on.
• Then the audience return to the woods and see Peter turning to look back from behind the tree. A small silhouetted figure disappears in the distance behind another tree before the camera focuses on a small, insignificant, blood-red berry gracefully falling from a branch. Halfway as it slowly falls from above, the screen cuts to ice-cubes dropping into Peter's glass of whiskey. This cut joins the times and locations together (though will be tricky to film!)
• Peter's hand gently appears in shot as he clutches the glass and gulps down the contents in a nervous hurry. He arrogantly slams the emptied glass onto the desk in front of him, but almost instantly after can an even louder slam of the front door be heard. The audience now know there is someone else at present in the apartment as Peter worriedly glances at the door with fear.
• The darkness hides the identity of Peter's company, though as we cut to a shot of a shadow slowly walking along the grey apartment carpet the audience will recognise this shadow to be of the Mystery man. Also there will be reflection of light from the knife he's holding, which again shows that this is the same person who was following Peter through the forest earlier.
• The Mystery Shadow is walking very slowly as Peter follows his every move. The Mystery Shadow stops before the desk. Dialogue: “You know that stuff will kill you.” He speaks directly to Peter's face about the alcohol Peter has just be drinking.
• Every step the Mystery Shadow takes can be heard loudly as he slowly circles Peter with a casual manner about him. Peter's facial expressions reveal his nervous emotions as the contents of the package remain still on the desk before him. The shadow of the Mystery Man creeps up Peter's desk as he addresses the Mystery Man. Dialogue: “I suppose that’s your job then isn’t it. It was all set up. Right from the off.” His sarcastic tone doesn't hide his anxiety as he closes his eyes during his speech. The Mystery Shadow is staring directly at Peter, which disturbs him even more.
• The Mystery Shadow continues to walk until he is standing behind Peter, who remains still in his chair and is staring at the package contents in front of him. Dialogue: “Manipulation does indeed taste sweet in success. Whilst revenge on the other hand is best served cold. And it’s said that death is so very, very cold.” The Mystery Shadow is clearly in control of the situation though he speaks calmly and softly to demonstrate loneliness and that nobody else can hear or see him.
• The audience then see Peter draw the gun out of his jacket pocket, whilst the Mystery Shadow man leans forward to stab Peter in the back with his shiny sharp knife, reflecting in the dim light. Peter falls onto the floor and takes the Mystery Shadow with him. The package envelope is seen to fall gracefully on the floor amongst the vicious fighting below.The camera doesn't follow the two men as they fight because it stays focused on the package contents lying in the middle of Peter's desk. This reinforces the importance of the package and reminds the audience that this is responsible for the beginning of misery for Peter.
• 2 loud gunshots pierce the moment, sharp and sudden. The audience now know that either the Mystery Man or Peter has been killed, but who? This is not revealed as we left this to be the enigma. The screen then switches to a hand lying still on the floor with a note resting in it. The note reads 'Shadows Present' in a bold, black, handwritten format. This is the title our film noir, and the audience are lead to believe that this note was inside the package all along, amongst the various other contents. This also anaphorically references to the very beginning of our opening where the dead girl is lying on the floor in the woods, holding the package.

The enigma left for the rest of the film to reveal is who exactly has been murdered? Why was there more than just money in the package? Who was the Mystery Man and does he know Peter already? With all these enigmas (and more) the audience will want to watch on and resolve the problems seen in our film opening. The style we use (darkness, the Venetian blind effect, murder and blackmail) all reflect those used in neo-noir films.

Group Treatment

As mentioned before in a previous blog post, everyone in our group has a specific role. As we needed to complete a treatment of what our film noir opening will be like when complete, we decided to each write up the area which our role is involved with. Below is the combined group treatment and I have included the group names of who has completed what part of it.

Treatment for mise-en-scene - Emily
Locations: The man running in the flashback (Peter) is going to be set in the back of our college, at a park called ‘Alexandra park’ we choose this place for our exterior scene because it has a lot of trees and it would be good if it was sunny as you'd be able to see shadows through the trees for our shadow man. Also not many people go down there so it would not be a problem when we have to come to edit to get rid of the diegetic sound. When the man is sitting in the room we have chosen to use the studio in our college because it’s very dark, there are lights already there and it's a good place to give out shadows and it would be very effective for our venation blind effect.

Costumes: Both exterior and interior we our going to have our main man who is running (Peter) to be wearing wrinkled clothes and black clothes and a little stubble on his chin because it shows that this man is in his late teens and he is not experienced in making rational decisions in life. The shadow is just a black figure so it does not require a lot of costume but my plan was that we get the actor who is playing him to dress all in black and not put any light on him to make him more of a silhouette.

Lighting: When we come to the interior (Peter in the room) it is going to be darkness and then it has a few seconds of the Venation blind effect over his face. When it is exterior in the park we are going to use natural daylight on the man running but with the shadow we will need some lighting so that we can put a shadow effect on him on the ground so that it appears that the shadow is bigger and more powerful then this man.

Performance: In the beginning when we see the man in the room his facial expressions is relieved to show that he has just gotten away from something and he escaped. But when we go in and out of the flashbacks you see his face getting more anxious and nervous.At the ending when he is in the room you see his face relaxed and calmed then there is a lose up of his eyes which seem scared and nervous like he has released something.

Props: I made up a list of what props that we need in this movie and we all discussed who would bring in what. Below is a list of all the props we will be using both indoors and outside in the woods. Some of the things we need are available from college, but we have to supply most of them ourselves.

• A desk (available at college)
• A chair at the desk (available at college)
• A angle desk lamp (available at college)
• A fan (for the desk, available at college)
• A black folder, a pad of paper, a few Biro pens and a mobile phone (to decorate the desk)
• 2x large brown envelope packages (1 as a spare)
• A drinking glass filled with water
• A fake knife and a fake gun
• 2x black & white photos of our main character walking, and a paperclip to hold them together
• An A5 black notebook with a mysterious date in it
• A magazine cut-out collage of a nameless address and phone number
• A fake ice-cube (or real ice from the college cafe if they have any)
• A piece of paper with 'Shadows Present' handwritten in bold onto it
• The main character's costume and the shadow man's costume (as described above)

Treatment for cinematography - Chris

• For exterior shots, we were thinking that since the first shot is going to be of a package full of money clenched in a hand, maybe some sort of close up should be used on the package in the hand. A normal close up might be a bit far away, so I’m more likely to use a big close-up or even an extreme close-up on the hand and package.
• Again, I was thinking of maybe a close up of the package on the ground after it has been dropped and is still in a hand. It would look obvious that the person’s hand is on the ground because of the foliage in our chosen location, so a medium close-up would be best.
• A medium close-up shot of the package as a shadow passes over it. If the shot is framed nicely and nothing is moved between shots, then maybe it would seem like the same shot - the shot of the package on the ground, and the next shot where the shadow passes over it.· Medium shots, Wide shots and Close-ups are probably going to be the main shots used in the production. Of course, when filming this on-set in our locations both inside and outside, as a group we will probably discuss the shots whilst practicing them and make final decisions there and then, so most of the ideas I have may change to different shots on-screen, which will be down to different perspectives of the same shots.
• Also there is a shot of my eyes “wearing a panicked expression” at the beginning, so an extreme close-up will probably be the best type of shot to use. Fellow group members will act as assistant cameramen/women when I am needed in front of the camera.
• Maybe a change in the focus, between the background and the foreground, though looking at our ideas and script I don’t quite know where we could include this kind of detail.· The use of Dutch Tilts in my “Exchange” project before Christmas received a lot of positive feedback from the rest of the students in my AS Media lecture when it was screened, so I shall aim to reuse Dutch Tilts in a similar fashion.· On the interior shots, I’m going to be acting so I shall have to tell my crew what shots I will require, and whilst on-set maybe they can show me the framing before we film each shot. I shall also oversee the shots as the director of the production both in front of the camera and behind, on both locations. Especially the interior location, since we’re planning on using the Media Studio where we can adapt the lighting and position of props to our liking.
• shall be acting in the interior location, so my assistant camera crew will be filming the shots. I will have set it up and all they will need to do is press the Record button on/off. If one of them wants to adjust the exposure or aperture on the camera then I can do it, since I’m very confident about altering the settings on any camera that I will use or have already used, both in Media Studies and in my private life.
• Whilst on-set, we can discuss the height, angle and framing of each shot since it is difficult to draw these small details on a storyboard.· We will mainly be using a tripod with the camcorder, but maybe a handheld shot here and there if shots are too difficult to shoot on a tripod. Panning and tilting may be used in the exterior location as my character runs past the camera.

Treatment for audiences and influences - Josh

After conducting our surveys which were targeted at the age group suggested by our brief, 15-24 year olds, we found what the common tastes seemed to be. Firstly, they were on the whole unaware of the term film noir and many of them listed their favourite genres to be comedies or action films. This meant that a film that simply copied many traditional film noirs would simply not interest a modern audience, in order to catch their attention we need to put a different spin on it. The first thing to do is to not film it in a black and white visual as another fact that came out of our primary research was that many people seemed to be put off by a film being in black and white. By keeping the film in colour we will need to be more creative and careful with our lighting techniques.

As well as that our primary research indicated that a lot of people require several 'action' scenes in a thriller which indicates that they prefer a faster paced story and avoid any pondering. Josh tried to incorporate this into the script by introducing a fast paced opening with our main character fleeing from an unknown pursuer as he tries to make off with a mysterious package containing a large sum of money. This was intended to get the film off to fast start. However it was also important to maintain many of the traditions of noir in order to keep the film in this genre, so the scene where the two men are in the room together will emphasise many classic film noir lighting techniques and the dialogue throughout the piece will be noir like in both its subject matter and wording.

Our influences for the more traditional noir characteristics in the piece were classic film noirs such Citizen Kane, 'Detour' and 'Double Indemnity' for the feel and visual styles including how they put the camera in different positions to create interesting angles. Also, some of the dialogue in our piece references these kind of films. However, the wording is slightly updated and our props and costumes have been modified to fit into today's fashion criteria.

Looking at more recent noirs influences have included both the George Clooney thriller Michael Clayton and the Coen Brothers' 'No Country For Old Men'. Michael Clayton starts out with its main character sprinting through a wooded area with his expression indicating that something very unexpected and dramatic has happened hence his fleeing which serves as a hook to the audience. Also, in 'No Country For Old Men' the main protagonist steals a suitcase full of money and intends to make away with it but finds that a killer is now on his trail. The plot plays on the age old question of whether you would take an abandoned bag of money if you simply came across. The idea of an ordinary man making one bad decision and then having dark repercussions is a constant theme in film noirs and helps us to further our film's connection to noir traditions.

Treatment for editing and titles - Chloe
The initial ideas for the editing style of our film noir opening would be cutting shots to create a short, sharp and precise appearance. The effect of this would make the scenes seem more intense with lots of things going on in each one, and also to put the audience on the edge of their seats with anticipation. We also decided, as a group, that the speed in which the Man was travelling would affect the speed in which the shots would appear on the screen. For example, the part where the Man is running at a breathless pace, the shots would be fast also. And where the Man is dead in motion and lying on the floor, the shots would be left long to create a slow pace.

When the cuts occur between the Man running and when he is in the isolated room, we decided it would be best to use a sweeping transition to illustrate a change in location and a change in the Man’s emotional state. A sweeping transition may seem to calm and unsuited to the action on the audience will be viewing, but we wanted this transition to not be too noticeable as it may break the audience’s trust and belief that our film is real. Late after a piece of voice over from the Man, a series of location cuts begin. These will be between the Man running through the woods, and the same Man sitting in a darkened room alone. Each shot-after-shot will be fast and chaotic as to disorientate the audience and make them watch carefully, as the shots unveil more of the Man’s problems and secrets.

Whilst in the editing suit, we as a group decided that in the shot sequence between the woods and the room locations, the ones where the Man is running could be put into a black and white or tinted blue effect to show the grimness of the woods and also as a nice touch to show that this is directly from the Man’s memory. Also, it ties in with many of the traditional noir films, as they were all in black and white because of the time period they were filmed in.

For the titles, we have decided that the personnel titles would be shown before the action begins, and then the main title of the film would be displayed at the end. The personnel titles would feature our group names and roles, and would drip-fill with red one by one onto a black background. This would represent blood and murder, and is used on other film noir, crime or who-done-it mystery films. The main title would be best positioned at the end as we discovered that most opening film sequences come before the main title appears. This also ensures that the audience stay seated throughout until they uncover the name of the film they are watching. We decided that instead of following the same format as with the personnel titles, we would have this written on a piece of dirty, torn paper that drops onto the floor. It has yet been decided who drops this piece of paper on the floor, but it would probably be the main character Man as he is dying. The font of our ‘Shadows Present’ main title would be in a handwritten style, but bold and clear enough for the audience to read. The colour of the writing would either be black or deep red, to represent blood again.

Treatment for the sound - Chloe
As a group, our first ideas for the sound were to have a continuous soundtrack accompanying each shot. We ideally want this piece of music to be contrapuntal to the action on screen as it would show that we haven’t just picked a piece of music at random, and that it was clearly planned and prepared for. We wanted our music to be orchestral yet modern, and to make it sound creepy and odd. In the editing suit a few days ago, as a group we decided on a list of top 4 music choices that suit our demands. One of our top choices is called 'Mausam and Escape' by A R Rahman. It has a fast pace towards the end of the piece, which will be the part of the song we will use for the running scenes. Although we have had some doubts about whether it sounds too continental for a film noir, despite it's suitability in regards to pace. Our other choice (featured in the beginning of our animatic) is 'Clues' by Jan Hammer. This music piece is slow by has a mysterious feel about it. Therefore we would probably only use parts of this music in the scenes where Peter is discovering the contents of the package.

Other sound that would be recorded would be diegetic as we would leave the camera-top microphone on. For the sound where the ice-cube crashes into the glass that the Man is holding in the room, we may have to make it pleonastic as to demonstrate the Man’s loneliness and that every small sound can be heard and is amplified. For the sound that would be impossible to retrieve for our opening, such as a gun shot, we will have to result to finding a sound affect that suits our film. Sound effects can be easily found on the Internet or on disks in sound libraries.

We have realised that it is important to get the music and the sound right for a our opening as it will be used to create the atmosphere of a film noir, and can keep the audience intrigued into watching more.