My initial Noir ideas

The film begins with man, who you later discover to be a detective, walking into his home from work. As he stumbles up his steps to open the front door, it begins to rain and he then thinks about what has happened to him over the past few days.
On the first day he was investigating the murder of a businessman, when he meets his attracting but deadly wife, who he is suspicious of. He investigates further and discovers that her husband had recently made a fortune and that he had many enemies whom wanted to see him dead. As he goes deeper into the mans history, he discovers three main suspects. The first used to be his partner in business, the second is a man who he had business dealings with and the third is a rival businessman.
He starts to follow up the three men and trace them to where they are now. He discovers that two of the men are also dead, murdered by an unknown killer. The third is living locally, and that is his old business partner. He then goes to meet the man, when he arrives he is greeted by the man, and shown to the front room, where he realizes someone else is in the house. He proceeds to the bedroom to find the dead mans wife sleeping in the bed of the suspect. He goes back and tells the man that he knows what is happening and that he will prove them guilty when he finds the right proof. He goes back to the murder scene, looking for anything that may prove him right, as he wanders round the room he noticed a cigar end on the floor of the house, knowing from information that his wife gave him that he wasn’t a smoker he had his lead. He then gets all the information he can from the cigar and reveals that the man was there the night the man was murdered. He had him, and now to catch his wife, this was harder so he then examined the mans body, only to notice three discreet scratches with nail vanish on them. The second he made clear that was hers he races to the house closely followed by the police. Only to discover that the man and woman had fled, taken only the necessaries and left, he knows there is no way to trace them, gone without a trace.
So he closes the case and returns home when it flashes back to the beginning, as he stands on his steps a car pulls up, the window is rolled down and the detective is shot and killed on his own doorstep. Then it fades black.
The major focus points of the opening scene is that, the detective looks exhausted and as he strolls up the street to his home, he stops and looks down the winding streets as it begins to rain. He wanders up the step to his home and drops his keys as he bends down to pick them up he thinks about the last week and what has happened to him. As he stands up he hears a car coming up the street and that’s when he goes into the past in his mind.
To begin with, the sound should be slow depressing music as he walks down the darkly light street holding his jacket over his shoulder looking dirty and careless. As he moves towards his home the light comes in and the music changes to a happier tone, but when it rains it goes back to a darker mood.

Group Notes/Decisions

In a group with Hannah Matthews, Muhaimin Sofique and Laura Fuller.
Before Christmas, we got together in our groups and decided what our film noir will contain, how we will film it and where. We have all been allocated jobs within our groups, i am director/cameraman, so it is my job to figure out some shots, and draft a storyboard.
We have decided our locations, we are going to use the cellar of the pub the lord nelson, alexandra park, a street and a quiet country road. Our actors will be Muhaimin playing the main male character, Laura playing the femme fatale and me as "the boss".

Part 2: pre-production

Now we have completed all our pre production work and are ready to progress onto the next stage of filming our intiail project. I have completed the storyboards and cinematography treatment, presented my ideas to the group and made some changes after recieving their feedback.

Part 3: shooting

We have now filmed our project and have begun putting all of the shots onto the editing software so we can begin the editing process. Upon getting to the cellar location, we had to make some changes to the shots due to room layout and space. Also we had problems with our sound due to a fan we could not turn off in the cellar so we have changed our dialogue to voice overs.

Part 4: editing

During the edit we have made several changes to our project due to continuity issues and lighting problems. After we get some group feedback we will make our last minute changes.

Part 5: editing finished

We have finished our first edit and have made the changes after recieving feedback from several members of the group. We have made a lot of changes throughout this project, due to issues we did not forsee and through locatoin problems, but i feel the group has made some good decisions and we have come out with a good product.

The Exchange

This is my second filming exercise video. The objective was to film a series of shots that introduced two characters and an exchange of an item, in our case this was an envelope. The sequence had to have a thriller/Noir style to the shots and should have included props etc to increase the look and mood of a thriller or Noir.

Evaluating the Exchange
The objective of the exchange was to make a 1-2 minute film that shows a sequence with an exchange in it. It had to be shot in the style of a thriller and had to appeal to a target audience of 15-25.
The Exchange exercise made us practice our camera skills and introduce us to the idea of pre-production work. We all had to fulfil certain tasks in the Exchange to make sure that the finished product is of a high standard.
Some of my earlier roles included: risk evaluation sheets, risk reduction sheets, location finders checklist, storyboard, synopsis, treatment and my individual ideas for the shoot. I also had an input on the final storyboard and some of the props and locations used.
I think that most of my pre-production work was to an acceptable standard, like the call sheet and location finder’s checklist, but my contribution to group discussions and effort levels need some improvement.
I feel that I have gained some more experience on the camera and I have gained an understanding of the pre-production work I will need to do for my film noir opening. I think a wider variation of shots on the filming day helped me to gain better skills on the camera and a better idea of what shots work well within the style of thriller. My theoretical skills do need some improvement; my initial plan was altered at the last minute due to change in location, which made me have to think of some alternate options. This made me aware that I do need a backup plan in case of sudden changes. I feel that overall I have gathered skills both practical and theoretical from this project.
I think some of the shots we used were of a high quality and suited the style, but our continuity could have used some work. Some of our shots do not match, and so we had to cut them short in the edit. I feel our editing went well but we should have got more shots to make sure that it all worked well. I liked our use of sound as well; it fitted the film perfectly and had lyrics that related to the content of our film.
The audience feedback confirmed what I believe went well and what didn’t go well. The comments we received are as follows: the shots are good but their could be a bigger variety, I like the use of props and your location is good but I think you need to work on the match on action and the images work really well at telling a story but some of the camera work needs improving. I hope to be able to take this feedback and apply it to my next filming piece.
Overall, I believe this project was a success and the perfect chance for me to improve my skills on and off camera. I think if I could do the project again I might change the shots I used, get more shots to make sure I have enough to make it work, make a back up plan in case things change at the last minute and contribute more to the group sessions.