My First Short Film! Genre: FILM NOIR!

FILM:



COMMENTARY:

Section 1 - My role was basically the writer and extra, to be precise. I came up with the idea of our short film, whilst taking in various opinions from others, and created the treatment, resulting in the original script. My partner did most of the camera work, I was there to film two or three scenes that involved Jeannelle as an actress and one extra, otherwise I just held the boom mic. I acted as a director in little parts of the movie, such as the way the notebook should have fallen, how an actor had to enter, etc. Jeannelle did the shooting script and we split the location diagrams and prop list. We both improvised on the spot discussing various ways to shoot certain scenes, so cinematography was done by both of us. Because I'm a beginner, we both made different versions of the movie, and I made the movie poster.

Section 2 - I believe the movie came out pretty good, thought my edit doesn't really show so. The plot line might have been confusing(probably was to someone who didn't know the plot-line after all), so it was a bad mistake to think in the view of someone involved and not the audience. Some of the lighting was off, and the camera equipment was in the background in one of the scenes in the movie. In my edit, I believe that the inner dialogue presented was placed awkwardly, and the scene with the girls was sort of edited poorly. I'd say it was a good job overall, but it could have been better. The acting, well, could have been better but for a rushed job it was good. The actors both fit the role well, and portray it in a believable manner. It was probably just awkward since the favor was so sudden, resulting in less than perfect tones and awkward pauses (for example, they drew out a sentence when it should have been said fast, or they spoke in a high voice when it was supposed to be low or something). The gestures were surprisingly meaningful in the subtle way, which wasn't really planned, so lucky us! The film was set in a regular high school setting, so their wardrobes were perfect considering their roles. Music in my edit, not to brag or be biased, fit perfectly..or at least I hope so. I wish I could have found a better "hitting" sound though. All the props were mostly in place, and appropriate...except the whole...camera equipment in the background scene. I think everything in my edit was smooth and consistent, well, except the internal dialogue, which truthfully wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

Section 3 - I'm not sure if anyone got this message, but the basic connection to film noir and our film was betrayal. Here's this guy, trying to figure out who killed his girlfriend, so he goes to the person with the information. And in the end, he gets killed by the person who gave him the very information--a set up! Also the fact that the bad guys win connects to Film Noir's idea of the world having a dark side and nobody can do anything about it. I suppose the unhappy ending also related to Film Noir. In all technicality, I supposed you would call this film a "Murder Mystery left unsolved," but because the audience knows who the culprit is, it can also be called "Dramatic Irony," which can also relate to Film Noir. Thusly, this film is Film Noir. I don't really have much else to say...

Script Analysis: Breakin' things down.

1. How does the film start at a dramatic moment in the middle of the drama?

--->When the audience figures out the game of "Tag" is really just a sick, twisted

game set up by a sick, twisted rich man.

2. What terrific scene will open, and what memorable scene will end the film?

--->MURDER. Double Murder.

3. What’s my character’s attitude and position in the events?

--->He's the poor sap who represents the futility in justice in the world of evil 

and underground doings. It's just a matter of fact that where there's good, there's always 

evil. This is the epitome of Film Noir.

4. How do I introduce my character? If my character isn’t central to the action, what do they witness that is?

--->As the boyfriend of a murdered pregnant high school girl.

5. How can I help the audience discover what is happening, rather than just telling them everything?
--->Having my character eavesdrop on the culprit, or actually have my character 

look through more things and go through more hardships, flashbacks.

6. How can I reduce things to a minimum, but still have an impact?

--->cut out the gossip scene.

Ailment Treatment: A whole new kind of Film Noir. (JK)

Let's brain storm guys!

I. Title and Producer:
     "The Tag." by Dazzy La and Jeanelle Ballilo.

II. Genre:
    Neo-Noir

III. Log Line:
    The students of a certain high school are silently terrorized by a game--the Tag.

IV. General Flow:
      
-An empty hallway, nighttime, with noises like running footsteps heard far into the distance. Frames of a girl running(i.e. shot of her arms, then legs, then hair) cut back and forth into the empty hallway frame, where her panting is heard clearly with each cut in. Last frame cut in: shot of girl looking backwards but audience only sees her hair. Music slowly builds up and gets faster and louder.

-Back to shot of empty hallway, where the music suddenly cuts, a loud "thud" is heard, implying the girl gets hit, as the upper body of a girl is shown falling at the end of the hallway. Audience is still unable to see her face, but sees her getting dragged out of frame, leaving the hallway empty again.

-Match object transition of empty hallway, only now there's some people. "Fast" camera movement to close up of upper bodies of girls gossiping--eyes are not visible in the shot(out of frame). Different dialogues of gossip, overlapping of certain words, and pieces of information(words like the tag, not to do it, pregnant, dead, Johnny Boy, and Jonesy are repeated) are stuck together as the camera starts shaking and moving from group to group. Last part of collage of voices: "I told her" being said by many different people overlapping and slowly getting louder and more echoed, then all voices stop to one clear, loud voice "I told her not to do it. And now look at her--dead and pregnant! It's a tragedy, it is, a real tragedy." Bell Rings.

- Cut to Boy walking fast and looking around. Cut to shot of computer class of some sort. Close up on a certain computer, Only some parts of the head are seen. Cut to shot of boy's feet walking. Cut to shot of girl's fingers typing(ring seen as typing stops and mouse is used) Cut to shot of bigger framed shot of girl and computer, where boy sits down next to her and looks over. Girl stops typing and face is revealed as she looks over to boy.

-Dialogue between girl and boy-

BOY
I hear you're the database of the school. That there's nothing you don't know or can't get.

GIRL
You could say that, Johnny-boy. Call me Chip.

JOHNNY
Alright Chip--The Tag, Ring any bells?

CHIP
'Grats. You got a fire alarm. But rest assured--I don't come cheap--unlike most of the girls here..

JOHNNY
Name it.

CHIP
I wanna know the deal with you and Jonesy.

JOHNNY
(sighs, looks around and kind of fidgets by putting his hands together and fiddling with his thumbs)
It..It was complicated.

CHIP
Complicated.

JOHNNY
Yeah--we..we just didn't know what to do anymore. We weren't separated, we weren't together--it was complicated.

 RANDOM GIRL(from gossip scene)
(leans in) Jonesy? I heard you got her pregnant...(looks around, JOHNNY face palms himself and she slinks away)

CHIP
Alright. Fair enough. The Tag is a game. Rumor has it--set up a some rich fat guy who donates to the school. He gets the student council and some select students to pass this composition notebook around--and makes 'em spread these rumors. The rules are: you get tagged, you gotta pin someone--write down some blackmail material about 'em and tag their name. You don't, well, you get done in. Like Jonesy.

JOHNNY
Any way I could stop it? Get back? Do something?

CHIP
(Looks at him incredulous and closes laptop)
You wanna tag the Tagger? You're in way over your head kid, there's just no way to stop the Tag.

JOHNNY
(Looks down at his hands, and fidgets again)
We'll see about that.
(Gets up and walks away.)

-It's sort of late afternoon, early night time.Johnny sneaks into a room, looking through everything, and when he goes through the file cabinet, He pulls out a file. Clears desk and puts file on desk, close up on file: "STUDENT COUNCIL: SECRETARY NOTES." He flips through the files, chunks/lines of the notes are close up'd on the camera, and Jonesy's name appears on one of the pages. Shot of room where Johnny and desk are seen, clatter is heard, and Johnny takes the paper, closes the file and puts it back, running out of the frame.

-Shot of desk, a body steps into the framing, background is blurred.

-Shot of Johnny running away from camera and to his locker. He opens it nervously, and grabs his backpack.

-Close up on Johnny and locker, inside cannot be seen--only door of locker, and a composition book falls out.

-Shot of Johnny's legs and feet, and his hand picking up the notebook.

-Shot of Johnny's face looking at notebook, a figure(head not shown) with a bat is behind the Johnny, lingering. Johnny takes out pen kind of nervously, and writes something down. Then, figure raises bat and (Thump!) cut to black before contact.

-Johnny's hand with notebook shown on floor, then dragged out of frame, Notebook left on floor, open but facing down. Close up on notebook--Title revealed: in red and black ink, written over and over again, "The Tag." Notebook taken out of frame(picked up) by a girl's hand with a certain ring on it.....Cut to black.


IS THIS TOO LONG?! Aw man......you know what, forget it--I'll make it work!! >3

CHINATOWN: A Presentation Reflection?

Lo and Behold! A presentation on Chinatown! The center of the presentation was the theme of Betrayal, as you can see by the embedded window above this text. Since it isn't included in the presentation visual, the question we strived to answer was:

How do the different levels of betrayal affect the characters within the movie?


Now--let's get this reflection going!

1. What were the strengths of your presentation--do you think?
I think the strengths of our presentation was that we didn't stick to just the slide's information, and only had key points typed down with visual evidence. We connected well with the visuals themselves with the points we were trying to make, and we also used many different filmic terms connecting with Film Noir and the overall plot of the story. Another plus was that we were the only ones to use music as a reference! Major advantage--and unknowingly! Talk about some crazy luck! Haha!


2. Any Improvements? Any at all? Information Clarification--is it needed?
I think that although we used filmic terms appropriately and and had some good examples, we didn't really talk about Film Noir, our understanding of it, nor did we define the filmic terms. Information Elaboration was definitely needed in the Clarification department.


3. Alright, do you even get what Film Noir and Chinatown was all about?
I get the gist of it. Rather, Film Noir is very interesting and I feel like with every step or scene or shot or description I get closer and closer to having this epiphany to it all. Although, within myself I feel that I may never know the real meaning of Film Noir--maybe just a little piece of the entirety of it all. Chinatown, although I missed some key things(like the importance of Cross dragging Katherine out of frame, for example) I'm pretty sure I get the majority of its social and filmic/Film Noir importance.

4. Anything Extra?

Learning about Film Noir--it's a touching thing. I feel like I can plunge myself into the depths of people's hearts, and get this feeling of their darkest nights and brightest days at the same time. Film Noir is all about the dark, evil, side of people. But doesn't that mean you can really appreciate the good in said people? It makes me feel like I can see the world in a different way when you've gone to the deepest parts of the earth. It's all magma, and when it explodes at the core of this planet, it does things like melt away thousands of people inhabiting the town of Pompeii. And now? It's a popular tourist city which welcomes millions of visitors every year, possesses a National park, and was declared a World Heitage Site by UNESCO in 1997. (Thank you Wikipedia!) But really, I digress (just kidding, I just like saying that). It's really all so overwhelming--it makes me feel like I'm in a dark sea beneath the corals, and when I open my eyes to feel the sting of the salt, I'm lose my breathe when I figure out I'm in a lake and watching the glittering of the water molecules and sunlight mending to make a fictitious sky of stars. There's a lot of things I may not understand about Film Noir--like the feelings of the people who wrote such a genre, and created such a genre, or how they could even build of the courage to write some of the things that may have been to painful to even remember---but for now..I guess sitting back and watching the mystery unravel may just be what the doctor ordered...

Chinatown! Mah Hometown! Blog Assignment TWO.

Alright. Let's do this thang.

THE VIDEO: 

Okay, I Lied. It's a movie called Chinatown, and it's about 2 hours long or so. So look it up on Hulu or something will you? I can't provide EVERYTHING. Geez.

THE ANALYSIS:

Alrighty then. Chinatown isn't really narrated--it's one of those movies that plays everything out rather than telling the story. This also means(most of the time) that the main character's thoughts aren't voiced to the audience--meaning, in other words, that facial expression is KEY. But I digress. Moving on. The movie centers around a man named Jake Gitties. He's a former policeman who, in the movie, is currently a Private Eye. He's the guy where everything happens around or to him, etc.etc.

There isn't a guiding hand(just putting it out there now instead of pasting it in awkwardly you know?). The spectators provide the suspense--no that's what the music does, I was just kidding. The audience supplies the movie with the general idea of "WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED" and "OH MY GOD THAT GUY DID NOT JUST DIE, WHAT THE HECK?!" kind of feeling. On a more serious note, that idea is called the loss of self within the story--or in laymen's terms, you lose yourself, in the story. Repetitive, I know--but who cares!

As mentioned earlier--a reference! Oh! oh! oh! EXCITING(as Sullivan would so kindly phrase it)--because the thoughts of the actor's are not conveyed to the audience, their facial expressions are crucial, in which the audience provides the thoughts of the characters in the movie through said expressions, putting pieces together from the events of the movie. And that may very well be a run-on sentence. ONWARD!

Time is presented CHRONOLOGICALLY. No flashbacks--no nothin'. We're left to our imaginations man--and HEY(is for horses but..) that's another thing the audience provides! Sort of! The images of implied flashbacks and descriptions is just vivid if you think about it a little ;). It's a realistic sort of twisted little plot. SPOILER: It gets so screwed up in the middle--like totally twisted like a pretzel guys. No Joke. The genre would definitely be FILM NOIR. This is good stuff people.

Definitely made in the black and white age(not the filming the plotline). Reminds me of the 20's--no cellphones or anything. I get my dates mixed up a lot(a personal problem you see...) so I could be wrong. But you can tell everything is old. Hahaha.

I'm pretty sure in most Film Noir films, the main characters embody universal human traits--what with all the death and corruption and money and greed and lust and stuff. You know?

THE OPINION:

It was a pretty darn good movie right thar! But no offense or anything, but I probably would have never watched it if you recommended it to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the private eye business here people--the 20's are a plus even! But come on--I just wouldn't. I admit I even got distracted while watching the movie in class. This isn't a bad sign--but it ain't that wonderful either guys. That's saying something--cuz I generally get distracted, but if I make a point of pointing it out, well, that just tips it down a notch on the good meter yo. BUT AFTER THE MIDDLE PART--like towards the end--IT WAS EPICALLY TWISTED in the suspenseful kind of "OH MAH GOD NO WAY" kind of way. I'm pretty damn sure I enjoyed those last parts. SPOILER: I felt mortified when she died..

THE END: I WIN!

TRY: A Blog about the short film.

THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

The narrator of this story is a girl named Linda, whom, as a voice-over narrator, tells the audience her thoughts of her own life, as the memories of her hard times play out. The spectators watch on as they take part of her cold nights, drug trips, and a day in her life--feeling piteous and sympathetic towards her. This story is played out as a flashback sort of short film, because Linda tells the spectators of a day in her life, and how it went wrong, but made her happy nonetheless. This film is realistic, because it can happen to anyone, in fact, it has happened to many people.  The genre of this film is, well, a short film itself is a genre, but nevertheless, it could be taken as a Documentary-style or Educational film, teaching people about what can really happen to the spectators themselves. It is also a foreign film. The social context of this story shows it was made recently, probably in Europe judging by her accent(but I could be wrong). Linda embodies the universal human trait type of narrator.

THE OPINION(on a side note...)

This is the kind of film that makes people want to say "It's guaranteed to make you cry," but sometimes won't because you never know how people are going to react, or sometimes will, and the person probably did cry.  My favorite line in this whole film, which will probably blow you away, is the following:

"It's warm and safe, and I tried and tried. And finally.. I found it, and I was right. It's Sunny and Warm. Like California."

It made me cry, and it makes me want to cry, just thinking about it. This film is absolute genius.