Going on Holiday

Yeah, I'm going on holiday tomorrow morning (really early) until August the 2nd. Soooo I shall not be active with blogging until then I should imagine. Just thought I'd say here as well as on the group blog.

Off to do emergency last minute packing...

-Angela

Here's your group work on Marketing!

Film Noir Films

To watch

Film Noir

Taken from website: www.filmsite.org/film.

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles
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.

Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]

Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Henry Hathaway and Howard Hawks.

Femmes Fatales in Film 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.

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This image is taken from the film 'The Big Combo' (1955)

BLK feedback

Excellent postings Angela, demonstrating extremely thoughtful research and ideas development. Well done. Keep posting regularly though; it's important to avoid long gaps between posts

Test Shoot

July 17th
As a group decision, we are going to be test-shooting some performance shots of James lip-synching to the song 'Gold' in the drama block [more information of this is posted on the group blog].

I just wanted to post some ideas here instead of the group blog at first, to build up some ideas to help the trial-shoot go to plan, as I will not have confered with the group on these ideas probably until tomorrow.

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July 20th
The whole group (me, cat, james & luke) spent Friday lunchtime (18th) doing the test shoot in the drama block for performance shots of james.

I think this went really well, not just in the end result but I think we all as a group had a renewed sense of enthusiasm for the project.

80s Videos

They're usually really low-budget (or at least would be to do now) and they're fun and usually really creative.


Duran Duran- Planet Earth


There is only one location for performance, but it is shot from many different angles and distances and therefore sustains interest. The frontman is very charismatic and the aesthetics of the band mean that the performance is visually engaging.

It is cut with some very surreal footage, in an almost-montagey format and includes shots of the band themself.

It is appropriate to the genre and time period as it is very ecclectic and surreal. It also fits with the 'planet earth' theme as it implies a sense of alien-ness.

I really like this video, and it would be so fun to do a song or style like it. Its very montagey and edited well to go with the music. I like the way the visuals totally reflect the tone of the song.

I would really have liked to do a video like this.