Noir Photoshoot : Rumpelstiltskin

                           
Above is the photo shoot storyboard my group produced for our photo shoot task. The purpose of this task was for our group to practice different uses of light, camera angles and shots and to find which worked best. We'll use what we've found to produce our continuity task, which will be uploaded to this blog sometime in the following two weeks.

Making Of: Rumpelstiltskin Noir Photoshoot

Our group was tasked to create a storyboard of neo noir themed fairytale. We chose to retell the tale of Rumpelstiltskin. 

At first we decided on Red Riding Hood, but we changed our minds to do Rumpelstilskin. Mainly because the typical noir character types were easier to assign to the characters of Rumpelstilskin and the story also fit in very well with typical conventions. 

We changed the characters into the following.

• Daughter who is asked to spin gold / Everyman who is asked to make drugs.
• The king who demands the gold / A Mafia boss who is demanding drugs.
• Rumpelstilskin, a man who can spin gold / Rumpelstilskin a man who can make drugs. (Femme Fatale)
• Father of the daughter, who brags about her gold spinning skills / Everyman's friend, who boasts about his skills when it comes to producing drugs.

The original tale of Rumpelstilskin goes like this : The father goes to the king and tells him that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king therefore buys the daughter off the father and demands she starts making him gold. If she fails to do so, she will die. Distressed, the daughter begins to cry. Rumpelstilskin hears her cries and offer to help, if she gives him some of her jewellery. She agrees and he spins straw into gold. The king is pleased and asks the daughter to do it once again. Rumpelstilskin agrees to help again, if she gives him the rest of his jewellery. Once again the daughter agrees and the king is extremely pleased. He asks the daughter to do it once more. She begs Rumpelstilskin to help her once more. He agrees to, but only if he is given her first born child. Thinking that she'll never have a child or that Rumpelstilskin will forget, she agrees. The king is pleased once more and decides to marry the daughter. Many years later they have a child. To the daughters horror, Rumpelstilskin demands the child. The daughter refuses. Rumpelstilskin gives her no choice, but tells her if she guesses his name in three days he will go away. After three days, the daughter is distraught but has no choice. Rumpelstilskin starts to celebrate by cheering out his name. The daughter shouts out his name and Rumpelstilskin dies on the spot. The daughter, the king and their child live happily ever after.

We decided to change the plot several ways to give it a more noir feel to it. Instead of gold we replaced the desired product to drugs. Instead of a royal family we changed it to a Mafia ring. There are also no female characters in our plot.

Our story is also much more gritty. Instead of taking jewellery, Rumpelstilskin demands that the Everyman kills a man for him. He does so, and Rumpelstilskin makes the drugs. Instead of a royal marriage, the Mafia boss rewards the everyman with a large sum of cash. Angered that he would not be receiving any money, Rumpelstilskin demands he is given the money. Instead of a happy ending, we decided to go down the typical noir conventional road, and have a sad ending. Accepting that he wasn't going to get to keep the money, Rumpelstilskin would no longer help him, and that he had killed a man himself, our Everyman decides to kill himself. Rumpelstilskin then leaves with the money.

The actual storyboard will be put on this blog soon. We did this task to get a better understanding of what it is like to set up a noir themed film. Also we could experiment with camera angles and mise en scene before our continuity task, which we will be doing in the following week. All of this is in preparation for our final coursework piece, the opening to a noir film.

Foley sound effects

Foley effects are sound effects that are recorded and added post production. Foley effects go extremely unappreciated in the media industry, and most people don't even know what they are.

Foley sound effects can range from anything from voice-overs, footsteps or doors opening and slamming. Foley effects are used because recording sounds when also recording footage can be difficult, especially so if your camera picks up too much background sound or not enough. Dialogue is often filmed on sight, but most other sounds would be muted.

A prime example of Foley effects is the smashing of a watermelon, which simulates the sound of smashing of a skull. (Often used in zombie horror films!)  Many people find it strange that people add sound after recording footage, but doing so means you can control the quality and timing of the sounds features in your film. Because of this Foley artists normally have a specially designed studios and equipment for recording sounds.

The name Foley comes from the creator of the effect, Jack Foley. His basic technique that he created in the early 1900s is still used today, and you'd be surprised how many sounds you hear in films are added post production.

Kick Ass: Analysing one frame

The Freeze Frame I will be analysing. I have seen the film but I will only be going off the information shown in this freeze frame.

In this frozen image you can see the main protagonist of the film, Dave Lizewski AKA Kick Ass. He's inspecting his new suit in the middle of his bedroom.

Kick Ass is centered in frame so that you focus on him, but they've made sure to keep the bedroom in sight in the background just to remind you that Dave isn't even an adult yet, and while the scene may seem cool, he really is just a teenager dressing up and dancing around. 

The lighting shows that it's daytime, as the room is well lit up without any artificial light and in the top right you can see out of the window that it is daytime. With the daylight nothing in Dave's room is hidden.

The camera is also very close up to Dave, making it very clear that he is the focal point of the scene. The camera isn't canted or anything but you could argue that this shot is POV from the mirror, as Dave is standing directly in front of it.

The framing clearly shows Dave dressing up and the fact he's still in his room, and it implies that "Kick-Ass" isn't really that much of a superhero, as he's currently just standing in his room in front of a mirror, but you could argue the shot makes him look very heroic.

If the shot was set up differently, say from the behind him, the shot would lose all it's effect. Dave wouldn't look heroic, it wouldn't be clear he's showing off in-front of the mirror and you couldn't even be sure it's Dave in the costume.

From this shot I can tell the scene is taking place during the daytime and more than likely in Dave's own room. Apart from that, there isn't much else being suggested from the background.

Attention is clearly drawn to Dave as he's not only standing directly in front of the camera, but also he's standing in a way that makes it looks like he's ready to fight at a moments notice. There is nothing in the background to pull your attention away so all attention is given to David.

From the way Dave is dressed, I can tell the Dave is a superhero or some kind of vigilante, or possibly that he's a bit mentally unstable. It really is up to interpretation, but I do believe most people would see this and think of him as a superhero.

I don't believe you can answer the question "How is the frame pivotal to the Narrative?" without using knowledge from the film already, so I am just going to explain why the following shot is crucial to the film.

This shot above shows the moment where Dave truly becomes Kick-Ass. The shot primarily focuses on Dave because it's all about the start of  Dave growing into the character he becomes by the end of the film. The fact it takes place in his bedroom is intentional as it still shows while he may be changing into a hero, at heart he's still a teenager.

I know I went over the 200 word count, I cut down some of my work but I couldn't cut it down anymore! 

Kick Ass: Genre & Narrative

Kick Ass is a film about a comic book fanatic who decides in his boredom that he's capable of becoming the worlds first superhero. However in doing so he finds out he's not the only one giving the superhero idea a go and finds himself in trouble with a mafia like crime ring. A incredibly funny comedy with dark scenes while managing to keep an upbeat theme, Kick Ass is one of the must see superhero films to ever come out. (Spoilers if you haven't seen Kick-Ass!)

Kick ass is without a doubt my favourite film. The narrative is funny yet thought provoking and the film truly does have some really dark scenes. However it's well balanced with comedy and upbeat scenes, so the film never gets a dark and gritty feeling like Batman or Daredevil. From one of the opening scenes it parodies Batman.

The acting in this film is also superb. This was Aaron Taylor-Johnson's first big film and he did an incredible job of portraying a nerd turned hero, and he does a really good job showing how the character grows up throughout the film. The film really could be seen as a coming of age film in some respects.

Hit-Girl, played by Chloe Mortez is always very well portrayed. Chloe does a great job of showing Hit-Girl's cold look on the world while balancing it out with the fact she still is a little girl. Chloe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson also have great screen chemistry, and really makes the interactions they both have feel real. Also, fun fact, Chloe was too young to see the film when it came out. Therefor she could not attend the premier showing.

Hit-Girl is raised by Big Daddy. Played by Nicholas Cage, Big Daddy is a key character in the movie. The character's struggles with wanting to seek vengeance for the unjust death of his wife while also raising a child, and it's easy to say he's doing it right. I believe while most writers would of made it so Big Daddy changed his mind about raising a vigilante for a daughter near the climax of the film, the writers of Kick Ass made it so even seconds away from dying, after being tortured and burnt alive, that his daughter continues his legacy through crime fighting. He stands out as a character for not only his willingness to clean up the streets, but his determination to do so also. Not to mention this film is one of the only films Nicolas Cage has done an amazing job on portraying his character in.

Finally, we have the character of Red-Mist. The antagonist of the film, Red-Mist is the son of the mafia boss that is hunting Kick-Ass down. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl are also hunting down Red-Mist's father, tying in the all plots together. Red-Mist is a complicated character as at first it really does seem like he wants to be a hero with Kick Ass and has a good intention at heart, but he also seems desperate to prove himself to his father at the same time, which leads him to follow in his fathers foot steps.

The soundtrack in Kick-Ass in amazing as well. It really taps into the feeling of the old superhero films while putting a modern twist on it, giving it a unique edge. It has mostly upbeat music tracks, but also has several fast electronic dance tracks, and remixes of already famous tracks such as Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor).

Overall, I just think Kick-Ass is the perfect film. It makes fun of typical superhero movie conventions while standing on it's own as a incredible film that really makes you wonder why no one has decided to dress up as a superhero and give it a go. The acting is awesome, the soundtrack in phenomenal and it will make you both laugh and cry for hours. If you haven't seen it you truly are missing out on a masterpiece. Also, the graphic novels are pretty great too.

I did this task to get a better understanding of a film synopsis. I also do believe the film can relate to the noir genre in several ways. For the most part it's greatly involved in crime, it's an urban setting and it does have some dark themes throughout.

Noir Narrative Task

Above this paragraph of text you can find my Noir Narrative Task. We were set this to complete this task to get a better understanding of the conventional narrative types of noir films. We also used several different shots and camera angles that are used often in noir films, such as other the shoulder shots and close ups. I would say after doing this task I do have a better understanding of conventional camera shots and angles used in noir films.

Futhermore doing this task has helped me decide on what type of noir that I want to produce for my coursework, and showed me how I can mix typical conventions and untypical conventions together while still making it clear that is has noir routes. 

Media Audience Types (Voice Thread)

I hope you enjoy my voice thread presentation. Not only have I learnt more about the media audience types but I now also know how to use Voice thread very well.