Here are a few ways our filmmaking skills improved from the preliminary task to the final draft: - Editing: The cuts between shots were much smoother and less abrupt in the final draft. We used longer takes that were intercut with shorter shots, rather than many quick cuts. This allowed each shot to breathe more. - Continuity: We were more careful about continuity details like clothing, props, and character positioning from shot to shot. This helped the world feel more cohesive. - Camerawork: We experimented with more advanced techniques like POV shots, Dutch angles, and flop shots in the final draft. This enhanced the tone and helped tell the story visually. - Color grading: We

2. Our media product uses various conventions from ‘normal’ or well-known neo-noir films,
challenges many seemingly conventional practices and approaches in these films and develops many
features explored in my research on neo-noir films.
Firstly, we take many conventions from the opening credits of the film ‘Watchmen’, in fact
basing the portrayed protagonist as very similar to that of characters from the film. In relation to
Watchmen and, indeed, many other real examples of neo-noir films, our protagonist is a strong and
free willed character. This is shown by his facial expressions; after every kill and the way in which he
shows next to no emotion when carrying out these atrocities and when he does, it is that of a joyous
expression in the form of a clearly portrayed malign smile towards the camera. Not to mention the free-
willed attitude of the protagonist- the walking down a road alone, killing many people by himself, the
only real character development we get from the credits are that of his own thoughts of killing and
seeming to spend a lot of his life alone in his own head with his own thoughts. This kind of ‘lone wolf’
ego of the protagonist is clearly evident throughout the opening credits, be it from the symbolism of
each kill that can be distinguished clearly, the fact he is alone and seems to enjoy it this way or even
from the simple fact that the credits are focused purely on him and what he does, never necessarily
what the victims show and how they feel- even at the end as he reaches his final victim, the thoughts
of the audience will still follow him and take interest in what he does.

3. Another convention that we found and applied the use of bars in a frame, much like in the
opening of Drive whereby the driver walks to his apartment complex with various things providing a
shadow as the main character walks through. This idea of a silhouette being persistent throughout
openings and, indeed, entire films is very common amongst neo-noir films as it provides a visually
dramatic and often symbolic effect to the scene(s) they are shown in. Particularly, following
convention, we used the effect of bars in a frame from the railing to evoke a sense of imprisonment
within the protagonist- leading to perhaps a more curious and interested feeling from an audience, as
there is much ambiguity in the character and so much can be taken metaphorically. The music we
implemented in our media product is very downbeat and fits well with the neo-noir genre. The song
used throughout the opening credits is grunge; chosen specifically for its genre’s consistent themes
and often meanings referring to one’s own state of wellbeing, be it through deprivation, desperation,
depression or other illnesses or state of mind. This use of expression through metaphors and music
provides the audience, from the very start of the opening, with a media product that deals with serious
themes, tragedy and, really, allows for the audience to make their own mind up about the nature of the
film itself, leaving both production and main character as an open book to be explored and interpreted
in a number of ways.

4. A further use of convention would be from the film Memento, using the chiaroscuro
lighting to good effect through our media product. This lighting is very common amongst neo-
noir films and is probably one of the best indications that you a film is neo-noir- it is a dark
lighting technique that adds a prominent dramatic feelings, as it is so low-key and the fact that it
is an obscure lighting technique. This obscurity fits in to the theme of our protagonist, as we
wish to provide our media product with abstract themes that may well follow convention or, in
some cases, challenge them. Another key lighting technique is that there are various changes
between monochrome and standard colours in order to change the narrative thread. We
managed to manipulate this interesting use of colour by keeping the majority of shots in
standard colour but whenever the protagonist kills, the colour turn to monochrome in order to
symbolise that, actually, the events going on are in his head and the ‘victim’ is seen walking
past him after, in standard colour to show this. This idea further consolidates the audience’s
perception of the protagonist as a man who is firmly on his own and most of his experiences of
life actually happen in his head as opposed to in reality.

5. Our media product not only abides by and uses many forms of convention from neo-
noir films but also challenges many aspects too, for various reasons. Firstly, in regards to
Watchmen, the song choice used through the credits, ‘the times they are-a-changin’’, provokes
thought in an audience as the song shows clear contextual significance in relation to the
themes of the film and what is shown through the film to do with character development. This
contrasts with the music used in our opening credits, as it is a more downbeat song, firstly, and
also gives more of a representation of character for our protagonist than a dialogue for an era
or generation. On top of music, our media product does not have the femme fatale which is odd
for most neo-noir films as it is a very common practice to have one to add a both exciting and
sexual character for audiences to engage with- we felt it best to maintain focus on the
protagonist and leave the femme fatale out as one could possibly draw attention away from the
main focus of the film, which would not be the desired effect. For example, in Watchmen,
throughout the credits there is a common display of various femme fatale characters that add
effect to the credits themselves, as it adds to the collective theme of the entire opening. The
contrast for our media product is that we face a more individualistic theme through the opening,
as opposed to the collective one of watchmen.

6. A further contrast to an existing media product would be that of drive whereby the
music choice is more of an upbeat song, sounding as if used in a nightclub, implying that there
is a sense of vitality or at least life and energy in general. This kind of music, although
unconventional in genre, fits well for opening credits primarily based in a car, as there would
probably be modern music in a modern car at a modern era. Not to mention, on top of the
music, the time of day has stark contrast- from the late night in drive to the midday in Malice.
This, in our product, further supports the delusional character of our protagonist, as neither he
nor anybody would conventionally commit murder during the day time. Furthermore, our
opening credits scene is located in a much more secluded and coastal area in order to contrast
with the industrial and urban themes in not only Drive but, in fact, the vast majority of neo-noir
films.

7. In order to take many relevant and interesting components from existing media
products, we decided to develop certain things that may fit in well with our theme, pace and
journey of character development. One major example from Watchmen is that the similarities
between the two pieces of music work in similar ways that we have managed to exploit and
maintain through our product. The way in which the music in Watchmen is in time with the
events on screen and has a place alongside what is happening, that fits very well accordingly
and actually sends a message about the theme of the film is very similar to the way in which
our music flows alongside our product very smoothly, but chosen so the production doesn’t
dance to the tune of the music but rather the music was selected to compliment the pace of the
film. Furthermore, the music brings a narrative for an entire era in Watchmen as it touches over
various themes and events through history, whereas the music we chose still gives this sense
of narrative but a much more self-centred and individual one, literally giving no voice or no
compliment to anything other than the mind of the protagonist.

8. From memento, however, we took the concept of contrasting monochrome to
standard colour in order to represent different things and decided to make the two contrasts in
colour represent set things and repeated them throughout the production. Essentially, we
decided to use the monochrome to represent what is not reality and the standard colour to
represent what is reality- this being a much more apparent and direct way of using the two
techniques- a development from Memento’s use of monochrome and standard colour to
represent chronological and non-chronological events. We believe that having used this in our
production, it is easier to connect to our protagonist on a psychological level and understand
him for what he is and what we intended and wanted him to be portrayed to be.

9. Finally, from both Pulp Fiction and Memento, we actually blended the types of font
into an American Typewriter font. We believed this would be the best possible choice because
it is not only a classic font to use for a predominantly Americanized genre of film but also the
conventional use that it represents crime, such as what may be used in files associated with
police investigations, briefcases and, in general, the gritty and realistic themes of such an
urbanized genre of film. Although not set in an urban environment from the opening, the font
still portrays serious mundane realism and crime.

10. Our media product represents the social groups of, firstly, gender, in particular masculinity
and, secondly, disability (mental disability). We subverted the stereotypical portrayal of masculinity by
having a violent and aggressive protagonist that is counter-typically masculine. We achieved this by
having a character with a lack of facial hair, not turned into a sex object, not well built, did not seem a
traditional domineering character and lack of other such typical traits to a masculine figure. However,
we used a strong and silent character and exaggerated his violence and aggression in order to warp
perception of a traditional action hero figure. We also subverted the modern idea of masculinity as the
character was impulsive, was not objectified, caring, gentle, and had a lack of vanity- however he was
not threatening like typical masculine figures.
In terms of disability, our media product represents the mentally disabled as somewhat
villainous (Barnes 1992) - who suggested that those with disabilities are often portrayed as criminals
or monsters. This connects with our media product, as our protagonist is mentally impaired as he has
sociopathic and sadistic tendencies by desiring (as seen in the product) to kill those he comes into
contact with, with little to no regard for those he hurts and the consequences of doing so. The
protagonist is also portrayed as a ‘super cripple’, meaning that he has a disability but is seen to have
some kind of power or ability to overcome his disability. This relates to our film as our protagonist’s
mental disability results in him believing he can do as he pleases, maintaining total control within his
own mind even though in reality he is unstable.

11. The kind of media institution that we would want to distribute
our film would have to be a well-established company known for its
role in distributing low-budget neo-noir films. Although there are
several companies that would be ideal for this, for example, Vertigo
Films, Focus Features and, in recent years, Columbia Pictures, we
believe the best institutions for our media product would be Vertigo
Films or Focus Features. Both are well known for their neo-noir
releases and niche audiences with tastes to low budget films, but in
terms of practicalities for our media product, Focus Features
produces more box office sales. On top of this, compared to Vertigo
Films, Focus Features has a pre-existing audience for neo-noir films
meaning that, as mentioned, there would be more sales but a higher
publicity for the release of our media product.

12. Most audiences for neo-noir films are ranged
between 18-35 as the films have complex and
adult themes (violence, sex) however are not as
popular with more traditional older audiences.
The majority of neo-noir film audiences are
male mainly due to the violent themes and the
common use of a sexualised femme fatale
character within the film however it could be
argued that these characters also portray strong
females and would therefore attract female
audiences.

13. One way in which we can attract our audience is through
using similar themes and conventions from other films including
Watchmen.
There are various traditional neo-noir features in the
opening credits to Watchmen. Firstly, there are strong themes or
urbanization, crime, action and strong, free willed protagonists. Not
to mention among these protagonists there is the classic female
figure of the femme fatale. Although we did have a strong, free
willed character for our main protagonist and, indeed, the various
characters and antagonists we decided not to use the figure of the
femme fatale, because we felt that it would be an unnecessary
attribute to our film, as it is more a tale of revenge than an action
film and, as such, there would be no need for a character with both
sex appeal and danger to draw attention away from the main theme
of the film, focused mostly on both protagonist and antagonist.

14. Another example of a way we attracted our audience is
based on the down beat music and use of bars in a frame. A
common conventions of neo-noir films is to present a frame
within the camera frame or frame the characters with bars
which is used in the opening of Drive when the driver walks
into his apartment. We used this convention by having our
protagonist walk through the shadows of the bar frames next
to him evoking a sense of imprisonment. We also used
downbeat music in the introduction too as the song is of the
grunge genre which deals with depressive and dark emotional
themes in an expressive way. This is used as link to Jacobs
thoughts to interest the viewer further in the action.

15. A further use of conventions to attract
audiences is the lighting and way violence is
displayed in Memento. In the majority of the film
chiaroscuro lighting is used as a stereotypical
feature neo-noir audiences will be familiar with,
however in Memento the narrative often changes
between monochrome and standard colours to
change the narrative thread. We decided to use
this convention of complex story telling similarly by
having the protagonists violent thoughts in
monochrome to separate them from the real world
events in the sequence.

16. A final convention used from research in
order to attract audiences is the style of writing
we used throughout the credit sequence. We
used the font American Typewriter, fitting
closely with the font in the Pulp Fiction credits-
a good, conventional, font to use that fits with
the themes of a neo-noir film.

17. One way we used information from our focus
group to attract audiences was the use of
American typewriter font which was reminiscent of
old detective and film noir writing on police reports
and associated with things such as The X Files
and The Usual Suspects.
Another way the focus group helped us way
to create a title that had references to the themes
of the film namely: vengeance, violence and
personal justice/ punishment.

18. All the technologies I used were YouTube, Final Cut
Pro X, a Canon 550D camera and a Panasonic Lumix
camera.
I learnt how to upload videos and enhance the stability
of the footage by watching video tutorials on how to use it, I
also learnt how to trim, import, export, and adjust the colour of
shots in Final cut pro by watching video tutorials on YouTube
and experimenting with settings. I learnt how to use white
balance, monochrome, change the aperture, change the
shutter speed, and change the zoom on the Canon 550D by
purely experimenting with settings and I learnt how to do the
same things on the Panasonic Lumix by watching a video
tutorial on it on YouTube.

19. When Michael and I started filming our preliminary task neither of us had
previous experience operating camera equipment or using editing software and it
was evident in our work. In the preliminary task the editing was extremely jumpy,
going very quickly from one shot to the next not giving each shot time to breathe.
One noticeable moment of this when there is a shot reverse shot between the
detective and the suspect, the cuts in this section are far too short meaning you
barely see the characters expressions and it even cuts off the end of a sentence.
Our positioning from shot to shot was inaccurate as we used lots of short takes
rather than longer ones making editing harder as often the next shot didn’t
compliment the previous image. Also there are small continuity errors frequently
shown throughout the preliminary such as differences in clothing of the detective
who has his tie at different lengths and position from shot to shot of the suspect,
which are only not notable due to the small amount of time they are shown. Another
problem was when the detective first reaches the room where the suspect is he
puts his hand on the doorframe but when we first recorded it in the next shot he had
moved his arm so we decided to reshoot it however it now looks much more forced
than natural.

20. One example of how we progressed from the preliminary to
the final draft was the use of colour adjustment within the sequence.
In my preliminary the colour scheme often contrasted between light
and dark at varying points in the same shots. Unlike the preliminary
task, our final production use many more long takes that we then
inter-cut with short takes and reshoots. This softened the impact of
the cuts and made them less abrupt or discomforting to the
audience, also allowing shots to last longer so the cuts are not so
jarring. From our preliminary to our final draft we also used more
advanced cinematography such as P.O.V, Dutch angles and a flop
shot. This enhanced the violent and absurd tone represented in our
film as it showed Jacob the protagonist kill in creative ways through
obscure cinematography.

21. Even though we made lots of progress from our preliminary to
now, we also have remaining errors we were unable to solve for example:
in both our preliminary and final draft there are minor continuity errors. In
the final draft the protagonist wears a burgundy jumper under his coat
which is slightly visible, however as some of our shots were out of focus
we reshot this and the protagonist had to wear a different coloured jumper
based on its availability. Another error was Peter, the first victim’s scarf
changed from black and white to black when he was killed. We tried to fix
this error in reshoots however as the original shot was part of a long take
reshooting that one shot took away from the smoothness of the take so we
decided it was a better decision to keep the continuity error. Finally the
lighting between some shots was drastically different due to the availability
and types of cameras we used. Though we tried to match and edit these
two separate lightings we had problems keeping scenes the same light
tone as the two different lenses had different sensitivities and we could
only use what was available.