4. Who would be the audience for your media product

Our film opening would attract two different audiences. The main would be the audience that is interested in film noir crime thrillers. There are codes and conventions within our film opening that represent similar messages and values within this hybrid genre.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Choosing an institution that would distribute our film opening begs research into film institutions, such as Universal or Lionsgate. I would choose the film studio United Artists as the institution, because, ultimately, they started out as an institution whose aims were to raise awareness of independent filmmakers, distributing some lesser known films. With backing from a-list Hollywood names, such as Douglas Fairbanks and D.W Griffith, it’s unsurprising that they managed to release films such as ‘The Sweet Smell of Success’, a popular classic Film Noir. Again, a small focus on Film Noir releases supports the idea that this would be a useful institution to approach about distribution.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media projects?

Our two minute film opening was based on the Film Noir genre of 1940s and 50s American films, and the development of this into Neo Noir in contemporary cinema. Therefore, we attempted to adhere to the conventions of Film Noir mostly through mise-en-scene, focusing on location, lighting and costume. It's set in a small apartment room, a stereotypical location for a murder, considering this genre, the crime thriller with the style of Noir. The audiences expectations of this are that the murder in the apartment would be filled with clues. However, as this is the opening two minutes to our film, we felt that it would be more unrealistic if we were to fill the sequence with explicit clues. As a result of this, we leave the scene ambiguous. The location uses the ideology that apartments can be quite cold, emotionally distant places that are used by individuals as a shield from their feelings. We achieved low-key lighting by placing a lamp behind the camera constantly and using others around the room. This uses conventional lighting seen in Film Noir. The protagonist, a private detective, wears dark clothing; black trench coat, grey trousers, shirt and tie. This is the stereotypical costume of a Film Noir protagonist, such as Sam Spade or Walter Neff, conforming to the dress of a detective from a typical crime thriller. Film Noir began as cheap, low budget films which had elements of surrealism in them. We attempted to create elements of surrealism though our combination of modern and old fashioned props and furniture. A 1940s style telephone is the predominant prop here which feels out of place and the furniture in the room has no fixed period of time it comes from, the indeterminable nature of it surreal in itself.

In terms of camera work that conforms to the conventions of Film Noir, we used a number of panning shots to keep focus on the detective as well as static shots. As he moves about the room, we used cross-fades to execute smooth transitions and connote the passing of time. The detective manoeuvring within the camera signifies his control in the scene; the camera is still, subjecting him, but he holds power throughout the scene.

The use of a narrative voice over is conventional of Film Noir, such as Double Indemnity, presenting insight for the audience into the mind of the protagonist. As we only included non-diegetic sound, we also used the song 'Hello Skinny' – The Residents, a band known for their unique sound, always seen to be ahead of the curve, in a similar way to to Film Noir, which had darker ideas and themes, than the 1940s would allow. Although only using a looped clip, the music itself is fairly surreal and we felt the jazz aspect really reflected the period Film Noir hales from.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups

The protagonist in our piece is a stereotypical representation of a detective. A careless, brash alpha male, the Film Noir detective uses words instead of violence to make their point. Similar to the Western hero, he is alone, coming from and going nowhere. His clothes speak for his professionalism and occupation; shirt and tie + trenchcoat. They connote reliability and authority and through slow, mid shots and low angled shots, he is given power and dominance through the scene. The smoking and drinking are stereotypical traits of a 1940s detective and in this way the protagonist plays to type.Audiences expectations are that the detective will be precise, considerate and execute tact in a room with a murder victim, but he is none of these; he walks around, regardless of spoiling evidence, touching objects  in the room, such as the telephone prop. In this way, he is a counter type, not representing the social group of a stereotypical detective.

Editing Suite; Using Final Cut



In this shot, we were using the video filters, namely the colour corrector, to turn down the saturation, fiddle with the blacks and whites, to get the film into black and white. Although this is't  convention as such of film noir, mostly because they were made during the 1940s and 50s when colour was just coming into films, it still seen as a hallmark of film noir.




Here I took a screen grab of the way in which we used effects on Final Cut; we played around with the speed, to address conventions of Neo Noir films, which use slow-motion and fast-forward a lot 



Screenshots for our film opening

We kept our title's fairly conventional within the undrstanding of FIlm Noir - plain white font, big but not imposing



The detective is in the foreground of this, with the telephone just behind him. This places it as an object of focus, wihtout drawing away attention to the protagonist.




A low angled shot gives the protagonist power and control throughout the scene



Props

 As film noir specifically comes from 1940s and 50s films, we decided to use a telephone that looked like it heralded from that era. Thi was also because of our attempt to create surrelism in the style of neo noir

This has the aesthetic appeal of a typical etective's trench coat, similar to Humphrey Bogart's iconic image, wearing a long trench coat and fedora