Little red riding hood (film noir)-Opening Title Sequence

For the actual piece of coursework I'll be working with Jack Cullum and Fabian Harrison. Originally we were going to do a fairy tale themed film noir, even before we did the fairy tale film noir continuity task, but doing the task before allowed us to practise filming and also practise using a fairy tale narrative combined with a film noir narrative. We have roughly assigned all roles, me being in charge of sound (I will work harder in the sound this time as I will have a bit more time to compose a piece of film music) I am beginning to get inspiration for other sound tracks, I will also do multiple genres of music, one being a folky acoustic piece for when Red Riding is walking through the the woods, I will also do some synthesised and string work, as well. I will also be in charge of props and foleying, so I'm pretty much in charge of sound which works well as I do A level music, so I makes sense me being charge of sound. Jack's incharge of the the practical as he has a image in his head on how he wants the opening title sequence to look, but I am giving him suggestions on what we could do. I think it'll be really fun working with Jack and Fabian because we are good friends and I think we have a good piece of work come out of this as we have good people with helpful skills in our crew.

Hansel and Gretel (Neo Noir)-Continuity Task (Evaluation)

Overall we gained some good feedback from the audience for our Hansel and Gretel themed film noir feature. However I think that the things we could improve, would be to make the narrative a bit more clearer, which was said one member of the audience when they gave us feedback.

Again I would say when I do the Little Red Riding Hood opening title sequences  I will spend a lot more time on the sound as we didn't have enough time to compose a really good soundtrack as our main priority was the editing and the actual recording. I found this task useful because it allowed me try and create the camera angles that I learnt in the lesson as haven't done any like this before so it was really helpful.

I worked with Adam and Jude during this practical and it was nice to work with people that I don't really talk to as much, but I feel that we as a group need to be bit stronger and make sure everyone has an official role, as that would saved time, especially skill considering (for specific jobs who specialise in that area).

The task took bit longer than expected  as we tried different locations; for the witch's house scene, we started recording in the drama studio, but as we ran out of time and we weren't allowed in school, becuase it was half term, we descided to recorded the scenes but at Jude's house, we all thought this was a good descision as (not meaning this in a horrible way) Jude's house looked quite old fashioned which suited the authentic style to our short film.

I also would say we need to focus on the lighting, especially in the shot where Jude's says "where did you get these" you could see him at all, which we didn't notice at the time but realised as we watched in class. Also when me and Jude have a conversation on the phone together the editing could of been a bit precise as there a lot of pauses between each bit of dialogue, which looked unprofessional.

I liked watching the short film, eventhough some parts made us a bit apprehensive (such as the eyeline match, short reverse shot) as we didn't know how the audience would react, but they seemed to enjoy it. But all of the things we felt apprehensive with were all the bits we experimented with. Next time I think we should do a bit more planning because we didn't have clear idea of what to do we had faint ideas that we thought would be really good to do for example we were going to have the witch's house burn down but we didn't want to be too dangerous and accidentally hurt someone but we also had some parts where we questioned ourselves, from when Hansel was in the oven and we Gretel came to save him we had to come up with something on the spot so we descided to have a phone conversation between Hansel and Greatel but it was luck that we kept the neo-noir conventions as we would of been stuck on how to link the scenes together and help the narrative flow a bit better

But from this task I learnt what to do and what not to do in the next practical for our actual piece of graded coursework

Hansel and Gretel (Neo Noir)-Continuity Task (Bloopers)

Hansel and Gretel (Neo Noir)-Continuity Task (Script)

Script

Characters

Hansel=Jude

Gretel=Wil

The Witch=Adam

Dad=Wil

Mum=Adam

Opening title sequence

Hansel: So i guess you want to know how i got here, well it all started when talking to my parents.

flash back to house

(Hansel enters room with parents)

Hansel: Hi mum and dad

Dad: You see this jar it's empty you and Gretel need to get some sweets

Hansel: But what-

Mum: Head to the forest and don't come back unless you have any sweets

(Hansel leaves room)

Flashback to forest

(Hansel and Gretel walking in the forest)

Hansel: Why did mum and dad tell us to come out here, we are never gonna find any sweets out here

(Gretel nods)

Hansel: Before we left i brought some bread just incase we get lost

Gretel: Cool, i also brought dads gun just to be on the safe side

(Hansel and Gretel are being watched)

Gretel: What was that?

Hansel: Come lets go I don't like this

(Hansel and Gretel continue walking)

Hansel: The path splits into two ways, I can see a house down there

Gretel: I think it could be riskey

Hansel: They could have sweets that's what we need 

Gretel: I could be dangerous, we shouldn't go there

Hansel: Well I'm going this way

Gretel: Fine!

(Hansel walks to witch's house)

Hansel(Narration): She looked gorgeous standing there, so I guess that's what I gave into 

(Walk into witch's house)

Witch: Take a seat

(Pulls out sweets)

Witch: You looking for these

Hansel: Where did you get these?

Witch: Does it matter?

Witch: Go ahead

(Hansel and the sweet's eyeline match)

(Hansel eats sweets colour transition)

(Witch grabs Hansel)

Witch: Come on

Hansel(stutters): Wait I.I need Gr. Gretel

(Hansel in the oven)

Hansel(Narration): So, now you know how it happened my sister off somewhere, safe, and not in life threatening danger, and me stuck in a furnace,waiting for death

(Gretel ring Hansel)

Hansel: Hello

Gretel: Hansel, I shouldn't have left you

Hansel: Gretel there's no time for that I need you to save me

Gretel: (Gretel pauses) Wait what?

Hansel: Come to the house quick

Gretel: Ok I'm on my way

(Gretel walks in witch's house)

Witch: Who are you?

Gretel: I'm looking for my brother Hansel

Witch: Ha, your too late

(Gretel shoots 2 times and kills the witch)

Hansel: Gretel over here

Gretel: Hansel

(Gretel saves Hansel and they hug)

Gretel: We need to leave 

Hansel: We get those sweets first

(Hansel picks up sweets)

Hansel: Now we can leave

(Hansel and Gretel walk back home through the woods)

Making of Hansel and Gretel (Neo Noir)-Continuity Task

For this practical I worked with 2 different people Adam (who played the role of the witch and the mum) and Jude (who played the role of Hansel). I found this task a bit difficult as we were recording and we had to use dialogue, but the challenge allowed me to gain experience with the camera and filming different shots, for example I filmed the shot reverse shot, PoV shot and close up. We also had some help with our friend Lawrence who recorded the scene when Hansel walks into the room with parents, as part of the continuity task. I was working on the sound, we didn't want to to follow the rules of a typical film noir of having a bluesy track, but we kept the dramatic emotions of a film noir piece, if we had more time I would of been able to make compose a slightly developed piece but as we had to edit it as well and the continuity task was our main focus we described to stick with what we had.

Originally we had the witch's house scene in a drama studio but we decided to change location to Jude's home as I looked more like a home as it had more realistic furniture to add to the authenticity. We tried a lot of different places to shoot such as the photography studio, the woods next to our school, Jude's home and the stairway leading into the art block this gave the narrative a sense of direction instead of just staying in the same place.

Even though this piece isn't perfect, I feel like I have learnt a lot of different techniques and learnt how to film different shots and how to edit properly an putting all the things we have learnt in class to the test. And even though we filmed the sweded film, I got a better understanding of media techniques, and a good practise to when we do are final piece of coursework of an opening title sequence of a film noir feature film.

We experimented with our shots and tried things which were probably a little cheesy such as the scene when we did and eyeliner match back and forth of the sweets and Hansel's face and the witch slid the sweets across the table to Hansel  it was slightly cheesy but we thought it worked. The match on action scene took a couple of attempts to get it right as we had to constantly look back at the positioning of Hansel's body as he walked thought the doors up the stairs and when he walked into the room, however we did another one when the  witch and Hansel walked into the kitchen of the witch's house. We had to improvise some of the dialogue multiple times to make sure what we are saying fits with what is happening in the scene. We also had a lot technical problems to do with exporting files and computers breaking, and also to do with different softwares as I starting editing it and exported not bowing that the audio will just blend in with each other so we couldn't of adjusted some of the volume in parts to make way for the dialogue ado we started it again, and because we started the editing again I thought I might as well compose 2 songs separate songs  to create tense and a somewhat relaxed atmosphere, I would of like to composed something a bit better, but there were other important things to be done.

When doing the scene when Hansel has a "sugar rush" we faded the clips in and each clip change colour which contrasts with the black and white themed film noir, but we wanted to include that scene to add tension and make the film have parts of a faster pace to again contrasts with the more relaxed parts in the woods. When we were in the woods we tried some different things out when we were lost and being observed by a stranger ( who is actually the witch waiting for their arrival ) as a little part to boost the narrative to flow in the right direction to include the witch in gradually. 

The voice overs were done by Jude,as the prevolence is set on Hansel this worked because we couldn't of had all the characters in at the same time all the the time as we had to get a camera operator to do zooms is and tracking. The shot with the phone call of Hansel and Gretel was a way to get Gretel in the story a bit more and we wanted to have a powerful woman to play the girl next door (even though I played her) and save Hansel. We also used a variety of shots for when Gretel arrives at the house (a grip would of been better to track and keep the camera sturdy such as an over the shoulder shot and a POV shot for when Gretel shoots the witch. While in the woods when Hansel argues with Gretel, a shot reverse shot is used. Inside the home the 180 degree rule is used, as we get a medium shot of both of them walking in framed with the door then we visit the other side watching them face the camera continuing to walk in and then they exchange dialogue about the sweets.