How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

Character RepresentationsIn our opening title sequence, we have two male characters and one female character. The

protagonist is Cal, the anti-hero, I am the Femme Fatale and Elliott was a gangster.

Typically, the anti-hero is powerful, threatening, scheming, lonely and damaged. The anti-hero in our OTS is conventional.

A low angle is used to make Cal look larger, which suggests that

he’s powerful.

This is a slightly cantered angle, which shows along with Cal’s facial expression that

he’s hurt, confused and damaged. Cal is the focus of this medium close

up. Also, his raised eyebrow signifies he’s scheming.

The Femme Fatale in our OTS is slightly seen as conventional, as she is seen as being intelligent, independent, sly, mysterious and vulnerable while dead. Typical Femme Fatale’s are similarly seen as being sly and mysterious, but also dangerous, unreliable and seductive. This seductiveness is usually shown through their revealing clothes, whereas the Femme Fatale in our OTS, wore a suit.

Character Representations

Here I look vulnerable, as this is a high angle, and I am in the back ground while Cal is in the foreground. His hand is larger than my body, representing his power.

Here my body is slightly cantered, and although I’m upside down, the viewer has the top of my head in front view, like a high angle. Along with this angle and the fact I’m laying down, this shows me as vulnerable.

As my wound and the money are in the same shot, it shows that money leads to danger, as I’m wearing a suit, it shows I’m a business woman and may go to any means to be successful, which is typical for a Femme Fatale.

This mid close up shows my suit and gambling props such as; cards, poker chips and wine. This shows my status and desire for money. I still have Femme Fatale traits, like my long hair and nail polish. I’m shown as being intelligent through my game-winning hand.

Elliott the gangster, is a typical conventional character of a Film Noir. He’s seen as being a risk taker, however as he isn’t the main character, we had to make him less fortunate than the anti-hero.

Character Representations

This wide angle shot has Elliott situated in the centre, this

position shows he is the head of the game, which links to him

being a risk taking gangster. He should win the game, as he

should be more experienced, but to show the anti-hero as being powerful, Elliott had to

lose the game.Elliott’s glare here shows his menacing

side.

This cantered angle represents Elliott as being confused and in distress. As he has his head in his hand, it shows he is distressed, disappointed and disorientated because he has lost an important game, but the fact that he drinks alcohol afterwards tells us that he is alcohol dependent, which links with his role as a gangster.

Mise-en-SceneLocations

Conventional film noir locations are urban areas, this is used along with the story line to make the film more realistic. Also, as the films are usually about crime, the location is usually a run down dodgy area. The weather is always bleak and rainy, which matches the atmosphere of film noir.

Our OTS is neo noir, which meant we were able to use unconventional locations. We filmed indoors, in Cal’s house. We chose his house as it was easily accessible and so we could control the lighting, as it was winter time when we filmed, and it

would be dark earlier in the day.

Conventional film noir urban areas.

Mise-en-SceneCostumes

Conventionally, the Femme Fatale would wear a long glamorous dress with a low neckline. This shows how sexually desirable they are. Usually, their hair will be long and they will have a large amount of make up, both these elements make the Femme Fatale more desirable and feminine.

Conventionally, the male characters will dress in suits. Detectives will commonly have fedoras and trench coats, but other male characters can too. Fedoras are good for creating shadows on the face – making the character look suspicious. Trench coats also make the character look mysterious, as they are oversized and could hide a gun.

In our opening title sequence we decided to wear unconventional costumes. As my character, the Femme Fatale, should be seen as being intelligent and independent, we thought a suit would we a good idea as semeotically a suit represents power, money, and ambition.

I have included some conventional elements to my costume, these include red lipstick and nail varnish.

Both male characters wore conventional costumes – black suits with white shirts.

Mise-en-SceneProps

As a group, we wanted a ceiling fan because it was a conventional element of film noir. We didn’t have a fan, and so Cal decided to make one out of cardboard he had at home. He made it by putting a while through a long strip of cardboard with a pen through the middle, so Elliott the camera man, could turn it as he recorded it. Cal chose to put black masking tape on the cardboard to make it look more realistic.

The cards we used were official cards used in the Bellagio casino. This makes our casino scene more realistic as they are real gambling cards.

Originally, we were going to use one of Elliott’s replica guns, but this BB gun is of the 1040’s to 50’s era. The only problem with this gun of course is that it is orange, but as we edited our first scene in black and white, it makes the orange grey and therefore more realistic.

Mise-en-SceneProps

This is the make up and wax Cal provided for us to create the fake wound on my head. The jam Elliott and I provided was to create the blood.

Our teacher helped us with creating the blood, as she told us cheap jam was the best for realistic blood on camera. The lumpiness of the jam also stopped the jam from running down my face when it was put in the hole of the bullet wound.

Cal created the bullet wound shape by using wax and making an indent in the circle shape. After he used red make up colouring to make it more like blood. A small amount of black was used to make it look scabbed around the edge.

Before making the final wound, Elliott practiced on his hand.

Semiotic RepresentationsSound, symbols, icons

Semiotics is the theory of signs. Semiotic

representations are what these signs mean

to us.

The signs are any way of communication, for example, gestures, clothes, road signs, facial expressions.

For example, the colour red can be seen

as love, danger or stop.

Semiotic representations in our OTS…

SuitsSuits represent power, intelligence, and

aspiration. In our OTS, the Femme Fatale wore a suit. Females generally don’t wear suits, the use of me wearing a suit meant semiotically, I was represented as having

lots of money, being independent and powerful, which fitted with the personality

of a Femme Fatale.

Morocco (film), film noir genre

film featuring the female

protagonist in a suit

Lighting

Chiaroscuro lighting represents the era, as it uses bold contrasts of dark and light which is very dramatic, and so

fits well with the theme of film noir’s realism. Dark shadows represent mystery and danger, who may be

lurking in the shadows? If someone’s face is in a shadow, they may be hiding their identity, and the use of shadows shows the main characters as being mysterious, sly, and

threatening.

Film Noir reflected tension after the war, it opposed American musicals, as it represented real issues of the era.

As chiaroscuro light is a typical convention of film noir, we decided to use it in our opening title sequence. Here are stills

examples:

Shadowed faces.

LightingThis is the lamp we used

to create dramatic lighting. Each arm can be

moved and the small shade around each bulb

gives a direct concentrated bright light

– which was great for spotlights, as shown in picture to the left. The

shades stopped any light pollution, so shadows

were made too.

Venetian blinds are used in most film noirs as they cast obscure shadows

and a character will look sly and

mischievous when peeking through

them.

Generic PleasuresThe target audience we chose for our opening title

sequence were young men, between 15-25. Conventionally, males between 15-25 watch action movies, and when planning our opening title sequence we wanted to add

elements from the action genre, such as guns, a male main character, and a female sex symbol. In our OTS, we used

these elements, and they were also in the genre of film noir.

Although our OTS had some elements from the action genre, we didn’t follow all conventions due to the practicality

or because we chose to follow film noir conventions, for example, we used a non linear narrative, which is typically a

film noir element, but could use explosions, although it would have fitted with our genre, it wasn’t practical.

Overall I think we pleased our target audience, as shown in the next slide…

I made the survey on surverymonkey.com, I then shared the website URL to young men, between the ages of 15 – 25, to answer the questionnaire.

Overall I think we pleased our target audience, as all respondents said they’d watch the whole film and gave us great feedback, saying our OTS was

“interesting”.

Audience Feedback