Evaluation Feedback Question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

SECTION ONE: Evaluate the codes and conventions of your how you executed your chosen genre.

Construction of Narrative

Our chosen genre for our media coursework was neo-noir/film noir. This meant that we had to ensure that we were able to interpret and use themes from the film noir genre in order to produce our finished trailer in the same style, or if not, in a way that film noir would be the obvious genre. Through the construction of narrative, we decided that the idea of alcoholism and drinking was a recurring theme in some of the films we researched. This can be seen present in films such as “The Machinist” and “Sin City”. Consequently, we decided that the storyline for our piece would include this, resulting in our lead male protagonist being an alcoholic who also suffers from schizophrenia. Through this wide angle shot of “John” holding his bottle of whiskey we felt it was evident as a subtle indicator, due to the distance of the camera, that alcohol would

play a part in the narrative of the trailer. To evaluate, it can be argued that the framing of the shot to emphasise this could have been much more sophisticated, in order to see John’s face to create a familiarity between the character and the audience to reflect the problems in his life for the audience to understand more clearly. In relation to real media texts, “The Machinist” introduces the

character of Trevor through multiple wide shots, with Trevor’s face being hidden with a further emphasis on the rest of his body and what he is doing. This is like the shot we chose, as there is a larger focus on what John is doing and what he is holding, in order to construct the narrative.

Use of Setting

In order to adhere to the ideas indicated in classic neo-noir films, we chose a bar/pub in order to shoot some of our footage. By doing this we touched upon the classical nature of film noir, with the sophisticated bar where the businessman goes to let off steam. This wide angle shot of John sitting in the pub creates a warm tone and the essence that this in fact is where he feels at home. The warmth of the shot is not as evident after converting our footage to black and white to fit the film noir genre, but it can still be argued that the lighting and the overall image creates a certain glow. It could also be suggested that there is a sense of

Chiaroscuro lighting in the idea that there are contrasts between light and dark in the shot, emphasizing the lighter and darker themes in the film noir genre.

We also challenged the conventions of our genre through the use of a stereotypical and modern home for the footage on the home visit scene. It is evident that the house does not adhere to the stereotypical norm for neo-noir, but we challenged this in order to reflect the modernity we attempted to achieve in our version of film noir. In this mid shot of

John on his sofa it is apparent that he is in a very modern home, as we tried to create a sense of normality from the previous and classical film noir. During the research and planning process of our coursework, we struggled to find an existing media text that had a therapist session like our storyline that was in the film noir genre. Eventually, we realised that “50/50” instead had a therapy session in the film that we analysed. Like the mid shot we used above, their session included a sofa with a bookshelf behind to reflect the comfortable nature of how a therapy session is supposed to feel for the client, so we tried to incorporate this idea into our footage and setting layout. “50/50” is a social realism comedy, so to evaluate our work it can be suggested that through the inspiration of a different genre we were able to create a more modern feel to our storyline and emphasise the theme of mental illness as that of a recurring theme in society today.

Construction of Character

Our second lead character was the character of Vera, a barmaid whom John falls in love with. After much research we discovered that females in film noir films tend to have the characteristics of a “femme fatale” that seduce and win over the men. For our trailer, we decided to have Vera as a modern femme fatale, who as a character is subtly seductive and flirtatious but enough for John to be

interested. To do this, whilst shooting, we attempted to get our actress to say her lines in a seductive tone potentially even with flirtatious facial expressions. This is the shot where the audience finds out that her name is Vera, and she almost says it in a familiar and comfortable manner, contradicting the obvious understanding that she has only just met John. We also decided to use a close up in order to emphasize her importance and overall authority in the narrative. In relation to real media film noir texts that we studied in research and planning, it can be argued that we introduced the character in a more light hearted way in contrast to femme fatale characters or females in film noir generally. To introduce one of the females in their film, “Sin City” used a mid shot of the female dancing in minimal clothing to reflect the sexuality of the film and the potential promiscuity of that character. This creates a large contrast to the introduction of

our female Vera. Although she is a femme fatale, we decided to introduce her with close up shots in order to emphasise her potential vulnerability if she becomes involved with John. In this way we challenged the conventions of the construction of character to the media texts we studied because we wanted to challenge the norm of a femme fatale character.

In a stereotypical sense, we adhered to our chosen genre as we incorporated the theme of romance into the narrative through the construction of the characters John and Vera. This over the shoulder shot is where the two first meet, and it is clear that there is an instant chemistry through the touching of hands during the passing of the drink. This adhered to the idea of romance and happiness as a lighter tone in

the narrative, in contrast to the themes of alcoholism and schizophrenia, of the overall trailer. Through this shot we wanted to imply that individuals were open to falling in love and sometimes it can happen when you least expect it.

Use of Costumes/Props

We adhered further to the theme of alcoholism in our trailer through the close up shot of the bottle of whiskey. By doing this we enhanced it as a recurring theme in order to depict to the audience that alcohol would have a strong influence on John’s character. Also through using alcohol we were able to execute the theme of alcoholism in a more surreal sense through shots of it in a subtle manner.

As we decided that our female character would have characteristics of a femme fatale, we felt it was important that the character of Vera looked the part. In this shot we can see that Vera is biting her lip, and also wearing a black leather jacket with a fur rim. It can be argued that leather jackets are a sexy piece of clothing, but with the incorporation of the fur can be suggestive of a soft yet seductive nature. By this costume it can be implied that we have attempted to create a femme fatale in a modern sense in society today. This can be evident in other

shots where Vera can be seen wearing a red dress with black heels, with red being carrying strong connotations of love but also danger.

Special Effects

Romance is a popular theme in films in general, as well as film noir. Therefore to execute this to the best of our ability, we shot a romance scene of the moments where it is clear both John and Vera fall in love. We filmed a scene of the couple “kissing”, as seen in this shot. When choosing to put

this into the trailer, we decided that a special effect would work well on it, and we chose to put the shot into slow motion. By doing this, a heavy emphasis was made on the romantic side to our narrative and the contrast to happiness in comparison to the destruction John’s schizophrenia causes.

Schizophrenia was one of our main themes in our trailer, and we initially found it difficult to display it as a visual. In our narrative Vera is only an illusion in John’s mind, therefore we felt we had to incorporate an indicator that would be a subtle signifier to the audience, whether they picked up on it or not. After filming all of our footage we decided to overlay this shot onto another, where Vera is somehow seen but then she vanishes in the same shot. By doing this we felt the distortion in John’s mind would be recognised to the

audience and emphasize the not so straight forward narrative. Also it can be suggested that we challenged the norm of film noir films due to incorporating the theme of mental illness, as we felt our piece would benefit from having a running and challenging theme throughout in order to make our piece original.

SECTION TWO: Evaluate how you used, develop or challenged the conventions of trailers from this specific genre.

Use of Titles

After converting our footage to black and white, we felt there should be a bold colour on the titling that emphasizes the overall look of the piece. We decided to

use a mustard yellow background with black writing, in order to create a bolder outcome and consequently a more interesting trailer. By using such a bold colour as yellow it can be argued that we challenged the conventions of film noir trailers. This is due to showing a clear contrast to the titles on the “Black Swan” trailer that we researched, that showed a dark navy blue/black background with pure white writing. In result of using yellow, we felt it created an unusual sense to the trailer but in a positive light, perhaps suggestive of the running theme of schizophrenia in the narrative.

Use of Institutional Information

After researching the popular modern film noir film “Shutter Island”, we felt it would be ideal to use the same production company as the film in order to emphasize the idea that our film too is a modern neo-noir. Therefore we chose Paramount Pictures to “produce” our film to incorporate the idea that there was a similarity between “The Last Drink”, our trailer, and “Shutter Island”.

Structure of Trailer

It can be stated that after our research on “The Machinist” we were fond of the idea of beginning the trailer with a conversation between the main antagonist and another character. We were able to do this, but after our research on “The Machinist” we decided to challenge the idea of being

introduced to the characters, as seen in the shot of the characters in the film, but instead not see them straight away. To do this we managed to create a sound bridge of John talking to his therapist Jules, and whilst Jules begins to talk we instead see shots of John entering his home. By doing this we heightened the distortion of the

storyline and implied to the audience that there was a sense of therapy or meetings that John attends.

Use of Font Types

After researching several film noir trailers, we were most interested in the modern movies that used bold and large font types to display the title of the film. We took this inspiration from the typography of “Sin City” and the

trailer that shows the film name in large bold and red letters. For our trailer we felt we needed something bold in order to show that our film

noir has incorporated modern themes and is a more modern version, so in result we ended up finding typography in the style of Alfred Hitchcock and put it in large bold font. That way we felt we were reflecting the modern sense to our trailer, like “Sin City”.

Use of Sound

It is evident in our trailer that there is a crescendo of the non-diegetic music we have used building up to the climax of the piece. There are three music changes that gradually create a larger impact in order to enter the climax of the trailer. We got this idea from the trailer of “The Usual Suspects” where there is an increase in the volume of music

and also a change to more dramatic music in order to heighten the tension in the trailer. Also in “The Usual Suspects” trailer it can be noticed that the music changes after one of the main characters speaks, signifying the change in dynamic in the trailer. We interpreted this in our trailer, where Jules the therapist is heard to say “Are you sure?” on a sound bridge, which then welcomes the third more upbeat and dramatic music we chose.

Use of Transitions

There is a section in our trailer where we use fast transitions from one shot to another multiple times in order to imply the distortion and overall tension leading up to the climax of the trailer. These fast transitions were inspired from the upbeat transition of shots in the trailer for “Black Swan” and the swift changes from shot to shot to emphasize Nina’s

madness. This is a similar aspect to our trailer and the reflection of John’s schizophrenia and by shortening the clip lengths and making them move swiftly one to the other created a sense of intrigue and the idea of illusion.

Editing

To further develop the idea of distortion and the theme of mental illness and more specifically schizophrenia, we felt that using an overlap of two shots would emphasize the confusion in John’s mind as he recalls memories, or illusions, in his mind. In the trailer for “Shutter Island” we found that they used an overlap of a book saying to “run” to a shot of an underground warehouse, highlighting the tension in the narrative. We wanted to do this for our trailer, so we attempted to create an overlap of Vera in the

pub with John but then appear not to be, suggesting even more confusion and mentality in John’s mind.