Billie Holiday - Warpaint
For this coursework, we will be producing the following -
Our brief is to create a promotional package for the release of an album, to include:
- a music promo video;
- a website homepage for the band;
- a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
- a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).
We will also aim to produce a selection of extra tasks which will help to give our products an easily recognisable brand.
Warpaint - Billie Holiday
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Group Members:
Hannah Godfrey
Liam Grieves
G321 FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO
Title: Les Lèvres (The Lips)
Plot Synopsis
A coke-addicted woman leaves her hometown, seemingly running from someone or something, for the city of Newcastle, trying to start a fresh in a place where she will not stand out, but is unknowingly followed, and apprehended at a bar and told she has no chance of leaving, and wherever she goes, they will follow. She runs, and is chased through the winding, labyrinthe streets of the city, eventually escaping. She hides out at a safe-house for several weeks, living life as a normal civillian, to her best efforts, but always with the threat of her past catching up. She begins to work, commits to a relationship, and all seems as normal. The threat still haunts her, and torments her, to the point where her own mind becomes the only real threat. She cannot live with her own personal torment to the point where she begins to hallucinate and eventually contemplates suicide. Her normal, ideal life suddenly shatters when she comes home from work to find the man she ran away from waiting in her flat. After a long conversation, he takes her down to his car and drives her across the city to the countryside. He lets her out of the car, explains why he cannot let her live, and shoots her in the back of the head. This is exactly where the audience leaves this woman's life, just when she does. The film ends on the gunshot with a sharp cut to total black.
Opening Sequence
The opening sequence of the film will consist of the train journey, the arrival in the city and her arrival at the bar. The film opens on the woman walking down the train to the toilet, entering and we cut straight to her sniffing a line of coke, setting up her drug addiction and obvious anxious personality, then to a shot of her pupil dilating. Then a slow push-in on her sat down on the train, as the titles appear in the frame. When she leaves the train, she walks to a bar, buys a drink, and sits outside with a cigarette before a man sits opposite her and tells her she will be followed everywhere she runs.
Creative Techniques
In the way of creative techniques, we will use a lot of innovative and exciting camera shots, as well as some tried and tested methods of emotional connection with a character (a slow dramatic push-in, for example). We will use a lot of noir conventions; the clothes (suits, a dress etc.), smoking, black and white etc. Our character's past will be an enigma, never being fully revealed and left ambiguous, for the audience to decide what she did and where she came from.
Funding/Distribution Issues
The film will come across some distribution issues as the style and story are slow and not particularly made for mainstream audiences. It would probably, if any, get a limited release in UK cinemas. The demand for a release in the US would be very small. Funding may also be a problem as it’s independent, it’s by a first time director and it’s of a very limited target audience. Although the film would not cost much to make at all, as it is almost void of action scenes.
NEWCASTLE
To set the scene for our noir film, we decided on the closest city to us; Newcastle. The municipal buildings and labrynthian layout are key aspects of basic noir. We also decided to shoot at night, as the dark atmosphere seems more fitting to the genre.
THRILLER NOIRS
Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thriller Noir is a popular sub-genre of noir films.
TOP RATED THRILLERS
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inception
3. The Dark Knight
4. Goodfellas
5. Fight Club
6. Rear Window
7. Psycho
8. The Usual Suspects
9. The Silence of the Lambs
10. Elite Squad 2
NEO NOIR
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.
It was not until after 1970 that film critics began to consider "neo-noir" as a separate genre by its own definition. However, noir and post-noir terminology (such as "neo-classic", "hard-boiled”, etc.) in modern application are often disclaimed by both critics and practitioners alike due to the obscurity of such an unrefined genre.
Unlike classic noirs, neo-noir films are aware of modern circumstances and technology—details that were typically absent or unimportant to the plot of classic film noir. In the films of the early 1940s and '50s, audiences are led to understand and build a relationship with the protagonist or anti-hero. Neo-noir films of post-1970 often reverse this role. Unconventional camera movements and plot progression remind them that they are merely watching the film and not partaking in the story.
TOP RATED NEO-NOIRS OF THE '00s
1.Mulholland Drive
2.Michael Clayton
3.The Man Who Wasn’t There
4.In the Bedroom
5.Memento
6.Training Day
7.Minority Report
8.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
9.Layer Cake
10.Brick
VISUAL STYLE
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro. The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color films Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while Slightly Scarlet (1956), Party Girl (1958), and Vertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critics. Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed. From the mid-1940s forward, location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir.
CLASSIC CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.
FEMME FATALES IN NOIR
The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall.
Plot Synopsis
A coke-addicted woman leaves her hometown, seemingly running from someone or something, for the city of Newcastle, trying to start a fresh in a place where she will not stand out, but is unknowingly followed, and apprehended at a bar and told she has no chance of leaving, and wherever she goes, they will follow. She runs, and is chased through the winding, labyrinthe streets of the city, eventually escaping. She hides out at a safe-house for several weeks, living life as a normal civillian, to her best efforts, but always with the threat of her past catching up. She begins to work, commits to a relationship, and all seems as normal. The threat still haunts her, and torments her, to the point where her own mind becomes the only real threat. She cannot live with her own personal torment to the point where she begins to hallucinate and eventually contemplates suicide. Her normal, ideal life suddenly shatters when she comes home from work to find the man she ran away from waiting in her flat. After a long conversation, he takes her down to his car and drives her across the city to the countryside. He lets her out of the car, explains why he cannot let her live, and shoots her in the back of the head. This is exactly where the audience leaves this woman's life, just when she does. The film ends on the gunshot with a sharp cut to total black.
Opening Sequence
The opening sequence of the film will consist of the train journey, the arrival in the city and her arrival at the bar. The film opens on the woman walking down the train to the toilet, entering and we cut straight to her sniffing a line of coke, setting up her drug addiction and obvious anxious personality, then to a shot of her pupil dilating. Then a slow push-in on her sat down on the train, as the titles appear in the frame. When she leaves the train, she walks to a bar, buys a drink, and sits outside with a cigarette before a man sits opposite her and tells her she will be followed everywhere she runs.
Creative Techniques
In the way of creative techniques, we will use a lot of innovative and exciting camera shots, as well as some tried and tested methods of emotional connection with a character (a slow dramatic push-in, for example). We will use a lot of noir conventions; the clothes (suits, a dress etc.), smoking, black and white etc. Our character's past will be an enigma, never being fully revealed and left ambiguous, for the audience to decide what she did and where she came from.
Funding/Distribution Issues
The film will come across some distribution issues as the style and story are slow and not particularly made for mainstream audiences. It would probably, if any, get a limited release in UK cinemas. The demand for a release in the US would be very small. Funding may also be a problem as it’s independent, it’s by a first time director and it’s of a very limited target audience. Although the film would not cost much to make at all, as it is almost void of action scenes.
NEWCASTLE
To set the scene for our noir film, we decided on the closest city to us; Newcastle. The municipal buildings and labrynthian layout are key aspects of basic noir. We also decided to shoot at night, as the dark atmosphere seems more fitting to the genre.
CALL SHEET
View more documents from HANNAHGODFREY
THRILLER NOIRS
Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thriller Noir is a popular sub-genre of noir films.
TOP RATED THRILLERS
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inception
3. The Dark Knight
4. Goodfellas
5. Fight Club
6. Rear Window
7. Psycho
8. The Usual Suspects
9. The Silence of the Lambs
10. Elite Squad 2
NEO NOIR
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.
It was not until after 1970 that film critics began to consider "neo-noir" as a separate genre by its own definition. However, noir and post-noir terminology (such as "neo-classic", "hard-boiled”, etc.) in modern application are often disclaimed by both critics and practitioners alike due to the obscurity of such an unrefined genre.
Unlike classic noirs, neo-noir films are aware of modern circumstances and technology—details that were typically absent or unimportant to the plot of classic film noir. In the films of the early 1940s and '50s, audiences are led to understand and build a relationship with the protagonist or anti-hero. Neo-noir films of post-1970 often reverse this role. Unconventional camera movements and plot progression remind them that they are merely watching the film and not partaking in the story.
TOP RATED NEO-NOIRS OF THE '00s
1.Mulholland Drive
2.Michael Clayton
3.The Man Who Wasn’t There
4.In the Bedroom
5.Memento
6.Training Day
7.Minority Report
8.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
9.Layer Cake
10.Brick
VISUAL STYLE
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro. The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color films Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while Slightly Scarlet (1956), Party Girl (1958), and Vertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critics. Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed. From the mid-1940s forward, location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir.
CLASSIC CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.
FEMME FATALES IN NOIR
The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
