Photoshoot

After shooting the film we set up a photo-shoot with our three actors to get photographs to use in our two secondary products, the poster and magazine review. We used a white screen and two lights to get the highest quality images possible. To give us the biggest selection possible we decided to take full length shots of each actor, head shots of each actor and then full length shots of the main two characters (Rita and Jim) together.

A selection is below:

Sub task 1 - poster - decision on layout

After consulting with Emily and looking at photographs we had taken I felt that this layout fit best with the genre. At first I wanted to go with draft three as I thought that an image of the couple would be most effective, however Emily and I both agreed that the image of Rita was the strongest. This is because of her expression, the way she is looking straight down the lens of the camera and the use of the cigarette as a prop looked very conventional and striking. Her body language was also strong and would look good on  full size poster, and as our female protagonist in the middle of a love triangle I felt that her role was crucial as the centre.

Sub task 1 - draft 3

Sub task 1 - draft 2

Sub task 1 - draft 1

This is the first of three drafts I am going to make for my poster. I am doing this so I can create visual examples of different layouts I might use for my poster. All the drafts are based on 1940s film noir posters where the conventions are to have several images placed on the poster. To comply with the conventions of short film posters I have also included text on the poster giving information about the directors and producers etc. 

Sub task 1 - poster - fonts

After looking over some conventional forties film noir posters I found that the font used for the title were either a) very simple and bold or b) very cartoonish. For example:

I thought that the simple bold fonts would work the best with our film as its a short film as well as being in the style of film noir. I looked on dafont and here our the choices that I narrowed it down to:

After getting some opinions from my peers and I same to the decision of using this font as it was the most visually appealing and it fitted within the genre the most effectively.

Costume List and Prop List

Cast List

Jim Melrose - Jonathan James
Rita Sinclair - Katy Ashworth
William Sinclair - Henry Douthwaite
Waiter - Harry Price

Main Task - name research

To research what names are male and female characters should have, I looked up the most popular boys and girls names in American in the 1940s.
The top ten boys names were:

1) James
2) John
3) Richard
4) Charles
5) Michael
6) Larry
7) Joseph
8) George
9) Paul
10) Frank

The top ten girls names were:
1) Mary
2) Barbara
3) Carol
4) Nancy
5) Rita
6) Betty
7) Margaret
8) Judy
9) Donna
10) Martha

We decided to go for Jim for the male protagonist as it was a common shortening of James in the 1940s. It is quite young sounding and has connotations of youth and familiarity, which will suggest that underneath his cool exterior he is a nice man who is being played by our female lead.
For the female protagonist we choose the name Rita as we liked it the best out of the list. It sounds a bit exotic and has connotations of femme fatale characters such as the roles played by the 1940s film star Rita Hayworth.

Secondary Audience Research - Rotten Tomatoes

Primary Audience Research - Questionnaire Results - Graphs

After getting 100 people to fill out my questionnaire and collecting the answers I made graphs to show the results clearly and so it would be easier to analyze. I tried to have equal amounts of people from either sex fill out my questionnaire, but as my secondary research already showed that is both sexes who enjoy short films but with males tending to prefer the film noir genre.My main target age is between 18 and 35, so I tried to ask more people from that age group.

General

From this graph you can see that the audience demographic was exactly 50/50 split which will give a fair representation from both genders. 

The majority of people asked were in the 20-24 age group (23%) followed by the 25-29 age (21%) and finally the 15-19 group (11%) These main groups will be my main target audience as far as age goes, although a short film will appeal to those outside this group as well. 

Most people asked would consider themselves to be in the B on the socio-economic model. This demographic represents the majority of 34% of people. This shows our target audience to be middle-class and the expectations of this group is that they appreciate slightly higher brow media, such as film noir. 

This graph shows the majority of 18-35 year olds (72%) watch short films. This is important as it means there is interest in short films, which are quite a niche media. 

The vast majority of 90% yes which is good as my target audience need to be able to recognize the film noir genre, as it is the genre which we are emulating. 

Again, the vast majority of my target audience (88%) said yes which is a good result as it shows that there is a demand for a new short film within my target audience. 

The overwhelming majority of people asked (96%) said yes which shows that the genre film noir would be recognized and appreciated by my audience. 

Film Poster

On a film poster the audience 43% said the main image and font/title was nearly a quater at 24%. This shows that the most prominent feature on a film poster is the image. 

In answer to the question would the audience prefer a black and white or colour poster 89% said black and white and 11% said colour. This is suprising and is not the results I thought I would get. However, maybe the people questioned have picked up on the film noir theme of the questions and are conforming to their idea of a film noir poster. As I have already found out classic film noir posters are normally in very bright colours with the films themselves being black and white. 

The majority of people asked (68%) agreed that the font on a film poster is very important. This is perhaps because the font often gives clues as to what the film is about and what genre it is from etc

This graph shows that the majority of people asked liked the poster d) the most. I will look at poster d) and emulate elements of it for my own poster. This will means I will fulfill what my target audience like.  

Magazine review 

This graph shows that the main image is the crucial factor that captures the audiences attention. 

This graph shows that the majority of the people asked would prefer a black and white poster compared to a brighter colour scheme. 

This graph shows that the font on a magazine review is very important to the audience. 

The magazine review which was liked the most was magazine b) I will look at poster d) and emulate elements of it for my own poster. This will means I will fulfill what my target audience like.  

Resources - Location

Risk Assessment

Request to Film Letter and Liability Waiver

 

By Emily Atkinson

Secondary Audience Research - Rotten Tomatoes

The website www.rottentomatoes.com is a useful resource in investigating viewer feedback from film audiences and critics. The British film noir The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) achieved the respectable score of 100 from Rotten Tomatoes, meaning 100% of the critics’ 57 reviews rated the film “fresh” as opposed to “rotten”, garnering an average rating of 9.1/10, and with 94% of Rotten Tomatoes users liking the film. Sampling some of the reviews on the site, from the “top critics” to the RT users, we gained an insight into what elements can give a noir its appeal and success.

Elements that critics liked:

*Noir camera angles (“handsomely shot” “you feel as though the screen is glowering over you”)

*Orson Welles’ performance (“Haunting”, “dark” and “Welles at his scariest”)

*Themes of moral bankruptcy, moral judgement, use of villains and the “dark side of human nature”, corruption in the city and its inescapability

*Moods of disillusion, bleakness and tragedy

*Use of irony and mystery

There were no negative reviews or even comments from critics about The Third Man.

Elements that RT audiences liked in The Third Man:

-Sense of nihilism

-Depth and dark mood

-Action/chase scene

-Music (“perfect” “excellent fit” “represents shadows, hidden joy, and mere fright.”)

-B&W (“Black and white illustrates, in a paradox, the startling yet mere ecstasy of prancing upon a Vienna-isolated night.”)

-Wit of dialogue

-Symbolism

-Twist at the end

Elements that RT audiences did not like:

-Pacing (“it is slow to pick up at first.”)

-Implausibility of love (“The only thing about the tale that feels vaguely untrue is the love story beween Holly Martin (Joseph Cotten) and Anne Schmidt (Alida Valli), and even that may be part of the circular irony in Graham Greene's tale. Anne doesn't have any romantic interest in Holly, but he falls in love almost from the start, and this one sided crush could have been given more foundation.”)

In gathering opinions on The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) again it achieved a score of 100 on the “tomatometer”, a scale counting up the proportion of critics who rated the film “fresh” instead of “rotten” with an average rating of 9/10. However only 61% of RT and Flixster users liked or wanted to see the film, giving it a far lower user score than any other audience data on a noir film we have seen yet, so it was interesting to see which elements put audiences off this film and to make assumptions about the age and gender of the audience demographic the film did not appeal to.

Elements of The Maltese Falcon that critics liked:

-The use of dialogue driving the narrative

-Intricate plot

-Strong performances

-Interior shooting

-Sense of claustrophobia and cynicism

-Black and white photography

-Pessimistic themes on the flawed nature of mankind, perversion and pain

Interestingly, there were no real criticisms of The Maltese Falcon from the critics.

Elements that RT audiences liked:

“The movie is strong at the direction and script. I felt the characters were coming to life as I saw it.
I liked the film also because it offers a fair amount of suspense and enigma, and nothing is what you expect until the end of the film.”

-Engaging pace

-Cast performances

-Script

-Pessimistic themes of love and betrayal

Elements that RT audiences disliked in The Maltese Falcon:

“The plot did not interest me in the slightest bit. I thought it was very boring.”

-Confusing plot

-Boring subject matter

In combing through these many different reviews of two different noir films from both top critics and regular moviegoers, it has lent us a far clearer insight into what conventions of film noir are especially successful and which parts can let the genre down. It has clarified our ideas for our own film including confidence in our notion to create a bleak and immoral story with weighty performances, but has emphasised the need for the script to be sharp, a twist to the storyline as a final coup-de-gras, and the pace to be engaging and timed perfectly. We have questioned whether perhaps we should further consider an action or chase scene in our film to best fit what audiences seem to appreciate in a film of this genre, but we may just choose to go on the success of The Maltese Falcon’s use of driving narrative through dialogue. It also sparked the idea for our film to possess a certain pessimistic irony.  By Emily Atkinson

Secondary Audience Research - imdb

The Internet Movie Database, [http://www.imdb.com/] shows the top four, highest-rated movies in the film noir genre to be Sunset Boulevard(8.7/10), Double Indemnity (8.6/10), The Third Man (8.5/10) and TheMaltese Falcon (8.4/10).

In looking at the user rating statistics for Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) it is interesting to note that 83% of the users who chose to rate the film were male compared to 17% female. Non-US voters rated it almost as highly as US users, at 8.6 compared to 8.8, showing that despite its unmistakably American identity, it still appeals globally.

The lowest average user rating can be seen in the female under 18 category, showing it does not generally attract young girls or female teenagers at all. Also revealing is the higher average user rating the higher the age category, from an average of 7.7 by “under 18”, to a dramatic increase to 8.6 from “18-29” and “30-44”, and an even higher 8.8 for the over 45s. Males, no matter what the age, rated the film consistently highly, from an average of 8.5 to 8.8 across all age groups.

The average rating from IMDb staff is noticeably higher than the average user rating, with an impressive 9.4 out of 10, suggesting that this film – perhaps, indeed, the genre – is especially appreciated by a more discerning and demanding demographic of film enthusiasts and critics, as well as mainly male over-45s, having been exposed to the genre more. However, the user rating percentages showed that 36.3% of votes gave the film a 10/10, showing us it is a hugely popular film with a significant resonance with today’s filmgoers.

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) was significantly more popular with males than females on IMDb, with 85% of scores gathered from male users and only 15% from females, as well as accruing an average 8.6 from men and a significantly lower 8.3 from women. It was slightly less popular with non-US users (48% of voters, average of 8.4) than US users (52%, avg. 8.7), more so than with Sunset Boulevard, but still with a respectably high rating, again suggesting a broad global market.

The lowest average score is again from the under 18 female demographic at 4.1 – even lower than that of Sunset Boulevard. Males under 18, though scoring it far higher at 7.5, still pulled down the average rating which is much higher with the older age categories (for example 8.5 from the 18-29s.) But the consistence in the higher rating of 8.5 – 8.8 from each age demographic shows that this type of film will and can be appealing and successful among most age groups above 18, and is an indication of the audience we need to be targeting.

The prevalence of lower female interest in both sets of user stats prompt us to question why perhaps these films do not appeal as much to women as to men. The most logical conclusion we can come to is that the misogynic undertones of most, if not all, movies in the film noir genre render the films less appealing and less relatable for women, as women are portrayed through “the male gaze”, and the audience are invited to see through the eyes of a male spectator. As a group we can create our film adhering to this convention and knowingly alienate our female viewers, or subvert the trend with the intention of modernising film noir.
 By Emily Atkinson

Primary Audience Research - Questionnaire Results

Primary Audience Research - Questionnaire

Similar texts - Sub task 2 - Magazine Review - Men Who Stare At Goats

This magazine review is from Empire magazine and is reviewing the 2009 film 'Men Who Stare At Goats'. It uses one whole A4 page  for an image from the film. In the right hand corner is some text in red,  The use of red is throughout the double page spread including a red border at the top, used to grab the readers attention. The red lines and text are used through the text and effectively draw attention to key pieces of information.  
The large main image of the two male protagonists show their importance as main characters in the film. Their expressions and stances connate that they are confused, dejected and defeated.  
The main title is in a simple, bold font with a further banner above 'In Cinemas' showing that that this is a current film in cinemas now, while making use of the red as a background. 

Similar texts - Sub task 2 - Magazine Review - The Lady in the Water

The magazine article I have chosen to analyse is a review of the film 'The Lady in the Water' which is a 2006 fantasy film, written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

This review uses one large still image from the film as well as one smaller adjacent image. These images don't overlap however instead of having a border the main image bleeds to the edges of the page. The text again is of the same font throughout the article except for the title. As a result the title stands out from the text. This article has highlighted a quote from the text by changing its colour and font size. In addition small amounts of text have been added to the top hand right corner of the images to explain what they are showing.

There is a conventional box in the bottom left hand corner, with an overview of the main information the readers need to know about the film, including who it stars, certificate and director. It also uses the star rating system at the end of the text, summing up the overall rating. 

Similar texts - Sub task 2 - Magazine Review - Wings of Desire

In Empire’s film review by Ian Freer, “Wings of Desire” (March, 2010) there are three main features – colour scheme, layout and photography. Over fifty percent of the article space is filled by a striking, black-and-white movie still with a more minor image to the lower right of the page, making review far more attractive and readable while making the subject of the article instantly identifiable for the audience. The clean, masculine layout of boxes and straight lines signifies the straightforward, earnest and informative nature of the article. Also, while being a common feature of film reviews, this type of wide large shot with text beneath it looks similar to the view of the cinema-goer with the big screen and the audience beneath it, connoting greatness and the “silver-screen”.

The bold grey, white and black colour scheme is indicative of the film noir/classic film genre, referencing the film’s themes of bleakness, hope versus corruption, oppression and the focus on the limitations of perspective. The stylised and visually striking look of the colour design also signifies the direct, confident and informed nature of the writer’s review. The inclusion of the bright blue subtly modernises the look of the page, showing it is a reviewers modern take on a classic film and it is a retrospective tribute, and co-ordinates with the colour of in the DVD cover thumbnail. The strong visual style reflects and emulates that of the film, with a stark, noir-esque feel and a pared-down, retro look, which again informs the audience about the type of film being reviewed.

This is reinforced with the main image choice being a woman with wings sitting on a vintage car with an urban cityscape as her backdrop, allowing the audience to quickly identify the film’s era, location and perhaps even certain themes within it. The technique of imitating the aesthetics of the film within the article aligns the publication with the director of the film in a gesture of tribute and admiration to the auteur.

The choice of typefaces used are a simple combination of three or four basic fonts, a bold, upper-case ‘arial’ for the headline, a serif/italic font for the subhead (connoting the publication’s opinion/comment on the film) and a standard serif typeface for the main body of text, giving the article a sense of sincerity and directness. The white used on the headline and subhead is mainly to allow them to stand out boldly against the dark background of the image, but could connote the supernatural theme of angels within the film. The bold blue ‘arial’ font of the first line grabs the attention of the reader and makes an instant impact and the circular arrow symbol – the only spot of yellow on the entire page aside from the pull quote – draws the eye to this very point where the review begins. Similarly, powerful, emotive language is lifted from the text for the pull quote, where words such as “life” “love” and “filmmaking” are showcased in bright yellow and blue to entice readers. Empire clearly consider it important to use these techniques as extra nudges to encourage the audience to engage with the text.

The inclusion of the DVD thumbnail demonstrates instantly that the subject of the article is a product, and the star-ratings at the bottom of the page allow for a quick-reference appraisal of the DVD (the film and its extras respectively). The black caption beneath the main shot includes a brief fact or piece of information about the photos and their position, a common convention in magazine articles. Overall this review seems to follow a basic, minimalist layout and mimic the visual style of the film being reviewed, use image as a main feature as a nod to cinema and adopt a masculine look to connote seriousness and style, perhaps targeting a male-dominated audience.

By Emily Atkinson