6 Oct 2009

A brief blog today. I managed to change my essay and include the examples that Ms Wong asked for multiple times in my essay, quoting articles that included examples of various noir plots.

Also, I briefly watched several neo-noir scenes to prove and illustrate my point that noir editing techniques continue to be employed in neo-noir films to this day. The two films chosen were Shock Corridor and Basic Instinct.

2 Oct 2009

Production was completed today. Jonathan Chan, Denise (our femme fatale) and Lucas arrived at my place to shoot. Lucas completed the script with his masterful prologue, and a good dialogue seen trying to paint betrayal by alluding to the Last Supper. References to the breaking of the bread, and the knocking over of a wine glass, were well done. The protagonist was dressed formally, but messily, showing his failed attempt to succeed. The feme fatale, initially presented as a good woman, is dressed in housewife clothes.

The assassin was dressed in stereotypical assassin dress. I mention the wardrobe as I think it contributed very significantly to the atmostphere of the film.

We were quite resourceful in the film, but managed to create the tension at the dinner scene, whilst including the bread and wine allusions. Jonathan, Lucas and I worked out various shots and angles. For many scenes which didn't seem to present obvious places for shooting, we chose to shoot the same scene from many different angles in order to give the editor as many choices as possible. The same was true for acting. If it was unclear how to say a given line, the actor was required to say it several times differently.

Use of close shots and of shots that emphasised the distance between the protagonists and his wife were utilised. Also, lots of point of view shots were used to try and make audiences reluctantly sympathise with a protagonist towards whom we are not naturally sympathetic.

29 Sep 2009

Today, a lot of progress was finally made. The entire film was storyboarded, and Lucas began a very interesting opening dialogue alluding to gold and women, the two follies of the protagonist that makes him a failure. The shots, including the dinner scene across a long table, are drawn from examples of cutting seen in class. Other scenes were drawn up from experience.

We co-operated well today, and seeing as the entire storyboard was complete, and the dialogue is being worked on, I hope that by Friday we can begin and finish production of this film.