My poster for our film...

Having completed the film our next task was to create a film poster to advertise it. This was a simpler task as I have a lot of experience using photoshop so making the poster wasn't too much hassle. I did a lot of prior research into existing film noir movie posters in order to get a better idea of how I wanted mine to look.

I looked mainly at posters for classic film noir films, from the 40's and 50's, as our film was intended to be a classic noir rather than a neo noir and I wanted my poster to reflect this. The majority of the posters I looked at all featured hand drawn cartoon like pictures of the film's characters rather than still images.

I chose not to go with a design like this as I cannot draw and the hand drawn look would be exceptionally difficult to replicate well using a computer. Also I didn't like how many different things were featured on these posters as it made them look cluttered so I decided to keep mine clean and simple. The final thing I decided to change was to not have any of the film's characters present on my poster as I felt the genre of the film lent itself to mystery and uncertainty so I didn't want anything to be revealed on the poster so that audiences would have to watch the film to find out what it was about. Also unlike these posters I added quotes from reviewers to mine to make the poster look more professional.

I did however choose to keep the old fashioned fonts and dark colours and I wanted to keep my poster quite close the designs of yesteryear as well as to feature some of the conventions of classic noir posters.

My poster for our film noir.

My film poster is more of a teaser, or advance poster, rather than a full theatrical poster. I decided to go with this style as it would allow me to give all the necessary information about the film without giving away too much information such as the plot, theme, and characters which was my intention from the outset. I have included many conventions of existing film posters such as the title of the film, the release date of the film as well as the names of the film's two main actors. The inclusion of reviews at the top from well known sources make our film stand out as being more reputable which is why I chose to include them on my poster. Another convention I followed was to have the name of the production company appear at the top of the poster. This is common on many pre existing modern day film posters that I looked at as part of my research.

I chose to have the title and actors names outlined by an eerie neon glow as it makes it look somewhat like urban street lights at night which is a big convention of film noir films. I chose to have my main picture in  black and white as well in order to go with the genre of the film. I chose a picture of the New York City skyline as the background image for my poster as that is where our film is set so it relates to the film. The picture, which gives a clue as to where the film might be set, is the only part of the poster that really gives anything away so the film is still clouded in mystery much like the characters and events of our film.

Our finished film...

Here is our finished film. I am extremely proud of our finished product and I feel it is a fantastic first attempt at such a loved genre of film. I would like to thank Ben Cartwright, Lucy Cunnington and Tom Batt for all their help and support during the making of this film. I would also like to give a big thank you to my partner Dan who without him the film would not have been possible.

Editing our film...

Having shot all of our footage the next step in the production process was editing. This would prove to be the longest and most challenging section of the process.  The editing process took us three weeks in total. The editing took place in the school’s Mac suite and to edit our films we used Final Cut Express on the Apple Mac. One reason the editing was so difficult was that we had very little knowledge of Final Cut when we started using it and it was quite complicated but as time went on and we got more used to the programme we found the editing quite easy and fun.
 Our first task when it came to editing was to sort through our raw footage and decide what clips we wanted to use. During the filming process we had taken well over a hundred so it took us a while to separate the useable clips from the not so good shots, mistakes and outtakes. Once this was done we had the upload our chosen clips on to the mac. With all the scenes uploaded we placed each scene into the timeline with a gap of about 20-30 seconds between each one to make them easier to work with, once we were done with one scene we would simply move onto the next. After the first week however we had only managed to successfully edit the first two scenes.  

During our second week of editing we began to look at adding sound effects and music to our film. We wanted to make sure that the sounds we used were as accurate at possible, for example if a character fired a gunshot indoors we would want a sound that mirrors that rather than a sound of a gun being fired outside. We also tried to match specific gun sounds to the model of gun we were using as a prop in order to make the film more realistic. An example of this is in the drug deal scene where Freeman uses a Colt model handgun to shoot the dealer and we sourced the sound of such a gun being fired. This made the process last slightly longer as we were very meticulous about the sounds we wanted but as you can see from the finished product our attention to detail really paid off. All our sounds and music were royalty free so we didn’t have to deal with copyright with the exception of one song. For the end credits of out film I chose to use the song Rainbirds (Instrumental) by professional recording artist Tom Waits as it really fits with the genre as well as the ending of our film. Since this song is not royalty free I had to seek permission from the publisher to use it. This led to me sending an email to Island Records, the company that published that song, although I received no response from them. It was also during this week that we recorded the two monologues we would use in out film. We also had to do some sound editing for the scene where Sylvia is talking to Rex on the phone. We wanted to make it sound as though Sylvia’s voice was actually coming through the other end of a phone line rather than it sounding like she was in the same room thus making it unrealistic. We achieved this by using a sound filter in Final Cut which gave us the desired effect.
 

 The third and final week of the editing process consisted of editing the last two scenes and putting the final touches to the film such as cutting scenes down for time, adding missing sound effects and adding credits to the beginning and ending of the film. We premiered our films on the Thursday which meant we had to have them finished and polished by Wednesday at the latest. This gave us three days on which to work on polishing off the final product.

Overall the editing process was long and arduous task but was without a doubt my favourite part of the entire production process due to the skills I learned and the fun I had putting the film together. I am incredibly impressed with how Daniel and I performed during this task and I am  very proud of our finished film.   

Final Cut Express on the Apple Mac. This was the programme we used for
editing our film noir.

Third and final day of filming (22nd February 2012)...

Scenes filmed
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3

Actors required
Ben Cartwright – Sheldon Rex
Daniel Cowie – John Barnacles
Tom Batt – Drug dealer
Myself – Reece Freeman

Locations
School classroom
School office
Alleyway

Our third and final day of filming was our quickest and most productive as we managed to the remainder of our scenes filmed, which meant getting a lot of footage. The first two scenes we shot, the opening and the meeting between Barnacles and Rex, were easy to shoot as they are both short scenes so they didn’t take very long. The first scene we shot on this day was the introduction to the film which would be played alongside the opening credits. In this scene Freeman, played by myself, is reading a newspaper, possibly the newspaper Rex writes for, which features a front page article about Freeman’s run for Governor. We wanted to have this scene as we wanted a quick and easy way to introduce the characters of the film in order to make it clear for the audience. This scene was the easiest to film and we managed to get it done in one take.

Shot introducing the character of Reece Freeman.

 The next scene, where Barnacles tells Rex about the drug deal, was also easy to film. This was Dan’s first piece of acting and I was very pleased with it. He managed to portray the character very well and was able to show that he had clear authority over Rex. In this scene we used a lot of two shots featuring both Rex and Barnacles in order to show the close relationship between the two characters. At the end of the scene I chose to use an extreme close up of Barnacles mouth when he says “Get on it” in order to show his authority over Rex. Personally I feel this is one of the best edited scenes in the entire film.

Two shot of Barnacles and Rex.

Extreme close up of Barnacles.

  

The final scene we had to film was the drug deal scene. As mentioned previously this scene was first written to take place at the Freeman manor but we changed it to an alleyway as we wanted to shoot it in a more dark and sinister urban location. Another change we made to this scene was to remove the dialogue as we felt that would help the scene run smoother as when we practised it the dialogue seemed awkward and didn’t really add anything to scene. The final change we made to the scene was to have Freeman kill the dealer himself rather than have a bodyguard do it as we wanted to portray just how ruthless the character of Freeman really is. I decided to use a very clever camera angle in this scene in order to create a sense of suspense for the audience when Freeman opens the briefcase of drugs. I achieved this by setting the camera to film and then placing it inside the briefcase so in the scene you hear the click of the briefcase and you then have a shot of Freeman grinning with a cigar. This is a highly professional camera angle used by several Hollywood directors, most notably Quentin Tarantino in his films ‘Jackie Brown’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’.  We managed to make ours look very professional as well which I was very happy with.

Reece opening Briefcase in 'Cracked Secrets'.

Similar shot of character's opening the
boot of a car in Quentin Tarantino's
'Reservoir Dogs'.

 

With all our filming done our next job in the film making process was to edit it all together and come up with our finished product.

Second day of filming (19th of February 2012)...

Scenes filmed
Scene 5 (second half)
Scene 9
Scene 12

Actors required
Ben Cartwright – Sheldon Rex
Lucy Cunnington – Sylvia Freeman
Myself – Reece Freeman

Locations used
Ashwell Springs
Phonebox
Daniel’s house (exterior)
Stairway
Bedroom

The second day of filming was a lot smoother as we were more familiar with the equipment. Although we did encounter some problems when it came to filming the final death scene as we planned to have Ben fall face first into the water after being shot. The cold weather made this an uncomfortable, and somewhat dangerous, shoot for him so we wanted to get it done in the quickest time possible within the smallest number of takes. This made taking multiple angles problematic but we managed to work around this by planning exactly how we wanted it to look before hand so we were not experimenting with different angles. We also had to make sure we filmed this section last so that he did not have a soaking wet costume in the other scene we had to film.
 We managed our time well during this shoot in order to get it done without wasting any time. We did this by splitting into two groups. While Dan talked Ben through the shooting scene and how that was going to work and the working through the angles and shots he wanted I took Lucy off to film the second half of scene 5 (the phone call). I used a very clever shot in this scene which was an extreme close up of Lucy’s lips when she is talking on the phone. I chose to use this shot as it would keep the identity of Lucy’s character a secret from the audience and add to the mystery which is a key concept in film noir. My inspiration for this shot came from a 1979 movie called ‘The Warriors’ in which a mysterious radio DJ is shown in the same way when speaking into the microphone.  

Lucy Cunnington in 'Cracked Secrets'

Lynne Thigpen in 'The Warriors'

 














Another shot I decided to use was a shot of Lucy's legs and lower body as she is walking to the phone box. I chose to use this shot as it coincides with Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory which places the viewer, or audience, into the perspective of a heterosexual male which is very prominent when women are on screen in both classic and neo noir film noir films. 



Another classic convention of film noir films was included in our next scene. Venetian blinds are a key element in the majority of noir films and we were very keen to include them in ours. We used Venetian blinds in the next scene we shot to, again, keep the identity of the woman a secret to the audience. We managed to get the classic light through the blinds look by having one member of our group stand outside and shine a torch through the blinds while another member filmed the shot. This was a very simple but effective way of obtaining a classic noir shot.

A classic noir shot of a character looking through Venetian blinds.
This was obtained by a crew member shining a torch at the window
from outside.

 
With these scenes done we only needed one more day of filming to get all the footage we needed before we could move onto editing. Again we decided when we were to film next. We decided we would film the final scene on the 22nd of February.

First day of shooting (15th February 2012)...

Scenes filmed

Scene 5
Scene 9
Scene 11

Actors required
Ben Cartwright – Sheldon Rex
Lucy Cunnington – Sylvia Freeman
Myself – Reece Freeman

Locations used
Living Room
Dining Room
Bed room
Hallway

On our first day of filming we decided to shoot all of the scenes that are set in Freeman manor as we knew these would take the longest so we decided to get them done first to save time in the long run. It was our first day of filming so it took the actors a while to get familiar with their characters and how they wanted to play them as well as it took Dan and I some time to get to grips with the camera and how to make the most of each shot. We overcame this by blocking each scene (blocking refers to figuring out how the actors and camera/s will physically move through a scene) just before shooting it. This helped us as it allowed us to see where potential problems, such as unwanted objects or people in the shot, before filming it. We also allowed for several unfilmed run-throughs of each scene before shooting allowing the actors to get more comfortable with their lines.

We experimented with several different camera shots, often filming scenes up to three times from different angles, in order to be able to edit different angles together later in post-production in order to make our scenes more interesting and to avoid just having one long continuous shot.

Some examples of the different shots we achieved are given below:

Over the shoulder – We used this shot to show how Reece’s writing changes as he gets angrier and how he begins to cross out words suggesting his mind is on other things (Sylvia and Rex’s affair). We also wanted to make it seem like Rex and Sylvia where sort of looking down on him as their affair is a great secret and they therefore know something he doesn’t making him seem less important.

Over the shoulder shot

High angle/Point of view (POV) – We wanted to use a high angle shot when Reece goes to retrieve the gun from the drawer as to make the gun clearer. We also wanted to make the shot seem like Reece’s point of view to show how he is focusing in on the gun and how all he can think about at this moment was revenge.

High angle/POV shot

Close up – We wanted to have a close up shot of the gun when Sylvia is planning to shoot Rex as we wanted to emphasise the danger in the scene as well as to make Sylvia’s intentions abundantly clear as we didn’t want the film too be to hard to follow.  We also felt Sylvia should have her legs displayed in this shot as it fits with the conventions of classic femme fatales.

Close up shot

Low angle – We wanted to make Reece’s importance and anger the focal point of the scene where he bursts in on Sylvia and Rex and we did this by using a low angle shot of him. The low angle makes him seem more intimidating as well as showing how the power shifts from Sylvia to Reece at this moment in the film.

Low angle shot

With the first day of filming over we planned when and where we were going to film next. We decided we would film the scenes in Ashwell on the 19^th of February. This was important as it allowed us to make sure all the actors we needed for these scenes were available at this time so that production could run smoothly.  

Dining room location

Living room location

The locations of our film noir...

The locations we needed for our film noir were a large, fancy looking house for Reece Freeman, a smaller house to be Sylvia’s town house, an alley way for a drugs deal, two offices (one for Reece Freeman and one for John Barnacles) and a large outdoors area for Freeman to murder Rex. The locations we chose are as follows:

Freeman Manor
We chose to use my house as the location of Freeman Manor as it is a very big and grand looking house in the countryside which reflected the character of Freeman well. Also as the house is old (built in 1632) it would fit in with the time our film is set as it would not look to modern. Also as the house is quite dark (particularly in the bad weather in which we filmed) it fit well within the style of classic film noir films in which the locations are often rather dark and shadowy.

Freeman manor exterior

Sylvia’s town house
We chose this house to be Sylvia’s town house as it is smaller than the main Freeman house as well as the fact that it is a somewhat secluded house relates to how Sylvia and Rex’s affair is taking place in secret and away from everyone. The seclusion of the house also mirrors the mystery of the film. This house was also chosen for practical reasons. Due to the fact the house is in Ashwell, the same place we filmed two other scenes, it allowed us to film several scenes in one day thus saving time.

Town house exterior

Drug deal alley
When we wrote the screenplay we planned to have the drug deal take place at the freeman house but we changed it to take place in a dark alleyway as we wanted to have more urban locations in our film in order to fit with the conventions of classic film noir films. We chose this alleyway as we wanted to film the scene at night therefore making it more mysterious dark and the single streetlamp fit with the classic convention of single source lighting and allowed for some superb and eerie silhouettes of the characters.  Also the walls on either side reflected the fact of how the drug dealer was stuck in Freeman’s trap and that there was no escape when he shot him. Another great thing about this location was the nearby road that gave us the diegetic sound of cars going by which added to the urban city feel that we wanted our film to have.

Alleyway

Murder location
We decided to use Ashwell springs for the location of our final scene (the one in which Freeman murders Rex) as we wanted a large, open air, secluded area to film in. The springs is populated with a large amount of trees which makes the area dark and eerie which reflects the mood of the scene. It is also similar the woodland area in which a similar execution takes place in the neo noir film ‘Miller’s Crossing’ which we took some inspiration from when writing this scene. Also the long set of steps that lead down to springs, which Freeman leads both Rex and Sylvia down at the start of the scene, allow for a build-up of tension which we thought was crucial to this scene.  

Ashwell Springs

Ashwell Springs (steps)

 

The characters of our film noir...

The characters in our film noir are:

Sheldon Rex – The journalist and protagonist of the film. Rex is similar to many of the private detective characters of classic film noir films. He is a hard working loner who gets dragged into a world of shady corruption, violence and crime whilst trying to get to the bottom of a case. We decided to choose the name Sheldon Rex as Rex is an old sounding surname which fits into the 1950’s setting of the film. We also chose the name Rex as it stands out making this character seem more important than the rest as he is the main character of the film as well as the fact that Rex sounds like a powerful name and Rex is meant to be a powerful character.

Reece Freeman – The second main character in our film is Reece Freeman. Freeman is the corrupt politician and the antagonist of the film. Freeman is running for Governor of New York (where the film is set) and is involved in a drug deal which Rex is told to investigate.  We chose the name Freeman as at the end of the movie he is the only character to escape any form of comeuppance so and therefore walks away a free man making the name a play on words as well as a clever foreshadowing of the ending.

Sylvia Freeman – Sylvia is Reece’s wife and the femme fatale of the film. She seduces Rex in an attempt to murder him yet before she gets the opportunity Reece catches them together and believes she is going against him. It is unclear at the end if Sylvia is killed as to the leave the ending up to the viewer’s imagination. We chose the name Sylvia as it was a popular first name during the time period in which our film is set and therefore fits well with the film.

John Barnacles – Barnacles is the final speaking character in the film and is Rex’s boss. Barnacles only appears in one scene and is the one who sets Rex his task of watching Freeman. More scenes featuring Barnacles were written but were cut from the final film for time.

We decided to cast our actors after writing the script as we wanted to choose actors who best suited the personality of the character and could therefore bring a greater element of realism to the film.