The Cast List

Stephen Paxton as The Private Detective: 
We have chosen Stephen because we feel like he is a very stereotypical 1940s looking Private Detective and we also wanted an older man who may be charmed by a younger Femme Fatale.

Anna Subbotina as The Femme Fatale:                       We have chosen to use Anna as our Femme Fatale because she would perfectly fit the part with a sultry look with a tough exterior we feel once her hair and make up are done then she will have that cunning Femme Fatale attitude.

Dayana Pinaeva as the Femme Fatale:
We have chosen Dayana as the Femme Fatale because she has a very cold and glamourous look which would suit the character we want in the thriller her blonde long hair will give her the typical Femme Fatale look which would very much suit our stereotypical thriller.

Narrative Walk Through

 This is the video we made when we were walking through our plot of narrative action. This is just a rough plan which we made with a Flip Camera. As you can see this is set in a classroom because that was the closest space available to us when we decided to film this. On the real day we will be using the Studio to film and set two sets one of Johny's office and one of the front of the office where the secretary sits. As we did not have the real actors we are going to use when we were filming this we used the people who were easily at our disposal so one of the actors in this is our teacher Simon. Overall on the shoot day this will look much more chic and organised.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Analysis of Title Sequence

Time	Text Which Appears	Role
00:12	United Artists Presents	Institution that made the film
00:14	A film produced by Alberto Grimaldi	Producer
00:22	Clint Eastwood	Actor
00:47-00:53	In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly	Title
01:02	Lee Van Cleef	Actor
01:04	With Aldo Gioffre	Actor
01:09	Luigi Pistilli …	Actors
01:13	Benito Stefanelli …	Actors
01:20	And with Mario Brega	Actor
01:22	And with Eli Walach in the role of Tuco	Actor
01:25	Story English Version by Micky Knox …	Story writer
01:28	Giancarlo Sante	Assistant Director
01:35	Fernado Anouchi	Production Manager
01:45	Sets and Costumes By Carlo Simi	Set and Costume
01:47	Nino Baragle …	Editors
01:55	Ennio Marrione	Music
02:02	Evos Bacciucci	Special Effects
02:14	Tonino Delli Colli	Director of Photography
02:17	Aldo Pomilia	Production Supervisor
02:39	Directed By Sergio Leone	Director

We can see this is going to be a Western Film through the font used in the title sequence the font used is very stereotypical Western which highlights the fact that it is going to be a Western film. Through the Iconography we see a cannon, cowboys, gunshots and red. The colour Red signifies that there is going to be blood spilled within the film and Cannons, Cowboys and Gunshots signify the Western genre.

The Thriller Genre Interviews

 

These are Interviews that my friend Maggie conducted with our peer group as subjects from the interviews we can clearly tell that both different genders and different age groups prefer to watch very different types of movies. The larger audience is more interested in action thrillers involving gun fights such as James Bond. As well as this the Male gender is much more interested in good looking girls whereas the Female gender only one or two are interested in good looking men.

I, Robot Analysis of Title Sequence

From The font used in this title sequence we can clearly see what the movie is going to be about. Using this particular font shows that the film is going to be very Science Fiction. The fact that there is a lot of metal like objects floating around in what seems to be water gives it a very  scientific approach. the colours used crete a sense of chemicals and experiment this also leads to the fact that it is going to be a Sci Fi. Another clue to the fact that is a Sci Fi is the three legends this again gives a sense of what is going to happen in the movie. The font used is very futuristic and shows us that it is going to be set in the future. Overall the whole title sequence is a very stereotypical science fiction title sequence.

Time	Text Which Appears	Role
00:07	Twentieth Century Fox Presents	Institution that mad the film
00:13	In Association with MediaStream IV	Co-production Company
00:23	I, ROBOT	Title
00:36	Law 1	Legend
00:50	Law 2	Legend
01:07	Law 3	Legend

Preliminary Editing

We spent 2 lessons editing the prelim tasks. This was the first time I have ever edited so I had to learn about the whole process. We watched all of our shots and chose the best ones to put into our finished prelim. I really enjoyed watching all of our filming we had done the week before. It wasn’t only entertaining to watch but it was also good to see the mistakes we made and then think about how we could improve our filming for the next time. I think one of the hardest things about the editing was trying to decided on what shots we wanted to use especially because they had to have constant continuity and be of good quality. I don’t think our group found matching the shots so hard when we were editing to our storyboard. I think this was because our actors were not talking very fast which allowed us to easily switch between the shots. The extra shots, which we got, were great help in putting together the final sequence. They were able to help fantastically in order to give the viewer a better understanding that the boy was trying to break into the car. If I was to change everything it would probably be that we should of done more close ups of our two actors and left longer pauses before between starting to film and our actors starting to speak. Our group seems to always work very well together and we never have any arguments or disagreements. During the editing process we all contributed well, giving our opinions on what shots to use and taking turns editing into our final sequence.

Media Rules

The 180 degree rule is when once the camera has shot a side of a persons face, the camera is not allowed to go onto the other side of the face because it changes the angle in which the camera is filming and is confusing for the audience because all of a sudden the actor is facing another way.

The Rule of Thirds is when you split a image up so that you have 4 main focus points, these points are the ones that people notice first either in a film poster or when watching a movie. The 4 main points of focus are where the blue dots are.

The Thriller Pitch

In one of our lessons we had to pitch ideas to Matt and Simon. By creating a PowerPoint then talking through our ideas inspired by the Challenger.

I think The Pitch to Matt and Simon went very well. We didn't get any very negative feedback and they seemed to love our Challenger idea. They only said that because our idea is set a few years back it may be hard to pull of the 80's look. Our ideas were presented well and I think this contributed to them liking our idea.

 Even though the pitch went well on the challenger idea we decided to change our idea therefore we had to do a second pitch on our new Art Deco inspired Thriller idea this pitch went better then the first one with them saying that it was a very good idea although it has been done badly before we should give it a go. My group and i are very confident that we wont disappoint in the end.

Props for our Thriller

Our thriller theme is very old fashioned so we will need to use a variety of props to represent our time frame. In the first room, of the scene where the sectary is working will be very simplistic, with a large wooden desk, an old fashioned lamp and a typewriter. The lamps should also be in the office of the detective.

In his room, there shall be a large wooden desk with a leather chair behind as well as one or two in front depending on their size. There should be wooden shutters giving the light effect into the room. A old fashioned coat hanger should be in the corner of the room with his jacket and hat hanging on it. The room should be full with papers, in a messy sort of order. Somewhere in the room there should be an old fashioned radio as well.

The smaller props within our scene will involve a fountain pen, a small gun, cigars and an ash try. Everything must have an old fashioned look to represent the time frame we are trying to pull off.





Hopefully most of these things we will be able to find around the school or in the costume cupboard, we already know that the school has a radio like this one. Hopefully we will be able to find our props easily otherwise we will have to look around our houses or search within charity shops which could have some thing of use for us for our thriller.

Thriller Actors and Costumes

At this point in our development of our thriller idea we will have three characters. Firstly there will be the secretary of who will have a strong american accent so we are thinking of using Alexandra Werner from lower sixth. She should be dressed in a light colored blouse suggesting innocence with a bow coming out of the collar and a long pencil skirt with short stumpy heels. We are looking to create something similar to this image. Her hair should be done up something like in the picture. Knowing Alexandra probably has clothes which would be suitable for her character, otherwise we can see if we can borrow anything from the dramas costume closet or perhaps try looking in some charity shops to see if we can see if we find anything similar.

The second actress we are hoping to use will be an A2 girl Russian girl called Dyanna of whom we think has a time-less look which we think will go well with our theme. We would like to give her a similar look to an old actress called Veronica Lake with wavy full volume hair as well as bright red lips. We want our actress to show that she is wealthy, so therefor in my opinion should be something of which is in fashion. Perhaps a fur coat or a fashionable dress. Our group thinks that our actress will have these clothes otherwise we can look in the costume closet

 Lastly the man who will play the detective will be wearing a suite although bits of his clothing will be around the room hanging on a rack such as a trench coast and a hat. The picture is the exact look we are going for. His hair should also be slicked back.

Film Noir Research

Film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism, an artistic movement of the 1910s and 1920s that involved theater, photography, painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as cinema.

The primary literary influence on film noir was the hardboiled school of American detective and crime fiction, led in its early years by such writers as Dashiell Hammett (whose first novel, Red Harvest, was published in 1929) and James M. Cain (whoseThe Postman Always Rings Twice appeared five years later), and popularized in pulp magazines such as Black Mask. The classic film noirs The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key (1942) were based on novels by Hammett; Cain's novels provided the basis for Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), and Slightly Scarlet (1956; adapted from Love's Lovely Counterfeit). A decade before the classic era, a story of Hammett's was the source for the gangster melodrama City Streets (1931), directed by Rouben Mamoulian and photographed by Lee Garmes, who worked regularly with Sternberg. Wedding a style and story both with many noir characteristics, released the month before Lang's M, City Streets has a claim to being the first major film noir.

The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. While City Streets and other pre-WWII crime melodramas such as Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are categorized as full-fledged noir in Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward's film noir encyclopedia, other critics tend to describe them as "proto-noir" or in similar terms.The film now most commonly cited as the first "true" film noir is Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trained Boris Ingster. Hungarian émigré Peter Lorre—who had starred in Lang's M—was top-billed, though he did not play the lead. He would play secondary roles in several other formative American noirs. Though modestly budgeted, at the high end of the B movie scale, Stranger on the Third Floor still lost its studio, RKO, $56,000, almost a third of its total cost.Variety magazine found Ingster's work "too studied and when original, lacks the flare to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others. Stranger on the Third Floor was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades.

Most of the film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly budgeted features without major stars—B movies either literally or in spirit. In this production context, writers, directors, cinematographers, and other craftsmen were relatively free from typical big-picture constraints. There was more visual experimentation than in Hollywood filmmaking as a whole: the Expressionism now closely associated with noir and the semidocumentary style that later emerged represent two very different tendencies. Narrative structures sometimes involved convoluted flashbacks uncommon in non-noir commercial productions. In terms of content, enforcement of the Production Code ensured that no film character could literally get away with murder or be seen sharing a bed with anyone but a spouse; within those bounds, however, many films now identified as noir feature plot elements and dialogue that were very risqué for the time.

Narrative Action

    1.     Women typing at a desk on a typewriter a mid shot from the from showing her breasts and lips but not her eyes having the stereotypical image of a secretary

    2.     Close up of her fingers typing on a typewriter she has cleanly cut nails with red nail polish

    3.     The Titles will appear as she is typing on the paper coming out of the typewriter

   
    4.   Camera tracks into office

    5.     See a desk with an ashtray, some cigars, papers…

    6.     Close up on what’s on the desk papers saying top secret 

    7.   Silhouette of Man In the corner smoking billowing puffs of smoke

    8.     Man walks to the desk and picks up a fountain pen and a paper pad

    9.     Man writes on piece of paper with a fountain pen

   10. Close up on the message he writes “let the sleeping dogs lie”

   11. It cuts back to reception

   12. See lady who say “I need to see Mr carter”

   13. She bursts into the office

   14. She’s says “I know what happened to Freddie you will pay”

   15. She pulls a gun out

   16. He gets shot in the head

   17. Secretary runs in “what happened to Johnny”

   18. Close up on bullet wound with blood pooling out his head then there is a blackout and another bang of a gun 

Audition for our Lead Actress

This is Anna Subbotina she was auditioned to be the lead role in our thriller because we though that she had the perfect look to star as both the temptress and the murderer. The line is saying is the line the lead role says just before killing Johnny our private eye. I feel that once she is dressed in costume and has her makeup fully done she will be the perfect actress to take the part.

Inspiration for our Titles

The only part we are looking at with in this short noir Suspense Nights is from 0.00-0.36 seconds, the opening titles. We like the font of the titles its very art deco which is an influential visual arts design styles which first appeared in France during the 1920s and flurished internationally during the 30s and 40s which ties in perfectly with our idea to create a noir film which is typical of the early 40s.
We were also interested in the use of silhouettes, a man in a hat and a cigar in his mouth and a woman who appears to be wearing a fur coat and holding a gun. This would give the audience an idea of what the opening sequence contains and help set the mood of the thriller.