S i c a r i u s - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- 1. S I C A R I U S The following PowerPoint will discuss the ways in which our trailer uses, develops and challenge forms and conventions of real media products S I C A R I U S
- 2. When constructing the trailer for our neo noir film Sicarius, we knew we had to conform to the common conventions of professional neo noir trailers such as Brick (2005) and other successful trailers such as American Sniper (2014). Our most dominant feature of neo-noir that we applied was the femme fatale. We looked to mimic similar conventions used in Brick with the femme fatale, Laura. With this in mind however, we chose to make our main character, a male, the protagonist. Sicarius (Latin for assassin) is played by our protagonist - Oliver Prior. He is a trained and employed assassin. As part of a previous mission Oliver kills an important member of a drug gang. This triggers the leader of the gang to hire Sacha Robinson (Femme Fatale) to form a close relationship with him to then further kill him. The complexities in the plot arise when Oliver becomes aware that Sacha knows about his Assassinations and his title as an assassin and is in turn hired to kill her - this issue is, he is in love with her, but knows if anyone else finds out about is job, it will not only affect him, but also his boss. Further still, he could also be killed by her too. S I C A R I U S
- 3. Our first shot in the trailer is of our production company. All neo-noir trailers we analysed used a production company so we stuck to that convention. Next in the sequence came a shot of our distribution company: Burial Features – despite using the distribution company as our next shot, which was typical of a neo noir film, it did also challenge the genre. This is because high quality, high budget films and trailers have been distributed by bigger companies, such as Focus Features. We felt it necessary to create our own however as we felt that with our limited budget and home filmed style that it was more likely to be distributed by an independent as only the most successful home videos, such as paranormal activity are distributed by bigger companies. S I C A R I U S
- 4. The next shot shows a smooth tracking shot of the gun. This develops a convention of neo-noir as we felt tracking, despite being a key convention has been adapted and made more modern with newer technologies introduced. We deemed this appropriate as the first image of the gun was graphic and gave an indication as to what the narrative might involve. Crime, being another prominent convention neo-noir is shown here through the gun as we associate a gun with a killing. Film noir was most heavily associated with being films about or dealing with crime or violence. Due to the Hays Code, the violence had to often be hinted at or take place off- screen, but it was there. Frequently, the protagonist was a police officer or detective who was hired to solve a crime, or a person who was, either knowingly or unwittingly, drawn into a crime, either as the victim or the perpetrator. In our case, the gun carrier is an assassin who is employed to kill another character in the narrative – this challenges the convention of neo-noir as assassin’s aren’t usually associated with this genre of film, however, with the aid of the narrative, we made the assassin out to be a likeable character, making it doable for our trailer. Following this shot we see Oliver Prior, our main character in our trailer for ‘Sicarius’ in a deep focus shot. This shot was carefully constructed to follow conventions of neo-noir. This clever shot is designed to focus on the gun and the main character Oliver. S I C A R I U S
- 5. The next shot, is of a home video that we used to aid the narrative. With the use of editing we made it look realistic and believable to the audience. This first person voice over narration is another convention of neo-noir that we exploited in our trailer, however we also furthered this convention by relaying back to this image of him speaking. We felt this appropriate as there were a variety of audio clips used in the trailer and it made it clear for the audience. We also created Oliver Prior to be a cynical, world-weary male protagonist in this shot and the following similar shots as it shows his flaws, in that he is depressed as well as a killer. S I C A R I U S
- 6. This next shot shows how we followed the conventions of neo-noir through the location used (urban) as well as with the eroticism and sexuality. We conveyed a typical male/female relationship through the use of a pre-kiss. This deep moment showed that the characters may have or might be in love. Love aids our narrative as the key story revolves around it. S I C A R I U S
- 7. Next, we see in this shot the femme fatale character taking place. Through the use of mise-en-scene with the lipstick and the reflections, another used convention of neo-noir we portrayed Sacha Robinson to be mysterious as well as very sexual. With the key focus on her lips we see that she might be quite deceiving and an important character. With the use of reflection we are also furthered to believe that this character may create confusion in the plot. This is commonly used in neo noir films to create obscurity and present her as cunning. S I C A R I U S
- 8. This title used goes against the neo-noir genre and is used more typically used by bigger blockbusters. The following text for example was copied from American Sniper, the other trailer that we looked to emulate conventions from. S I C A R I U S
- 9. The next shot again shows another typicality of crime and violence as it shows a dead man being dragged by the assassin. We felt that this suggestion of crime was necessary in our trailer as it aided the plot. S I C A R I U S
- 10. Here we used a canted or dutch angle, another convention seen in real media products, for example, this canted angle is seen in the trailer for Inception. The canted angle is a type of camera shot where the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame. These are used to create a dramatic effect, show disorientation or unease. S I C A R I U S
- 11. Here we see the strobe lighting effect used on text. This text follows the conventions of more modern neo-noir films as we mimicked how Batman used text in their Dark Knight Trilogy. This again made suggestions to the audience as well as having a dramatic effect over them. Press the play button below to view… S I C A R I U S
- 12. In this shot we not only see chiaroscuro lighting but also bars and diagonals. The chiaroscuro lighting is evident as the confined room shows only limited light coming through the blinds. This allows the DSLR to only pick up the silhouette of Sacha, we develops a convention of neo-noir, as this is usually filmed in the dark outside. However, with the widespread use of colour film and advanced cinematographic techniques, chiaroscuro lighting is no longer necessary to add contrast to a scene. Contrast can be added through the use of colour instead of just shadow and light. However, true to its antecedent genre, neo-noir often utilizes chiaroscuro lighting to emphasize characters or details in a scene. An example of this technique in neo-noir is found in Watchmen (2009). Another example is The Usual Suspects (1995). Chiaroscuro lighting effects are used extensively during Verbal’s interrogation scenes. I do regret not utilising this convention more, however when it was used, I feel that it was used to great effect and had a sufficient impact over the audience. The hostile environments created by the bars, diagonals and frames within frames present the illusion of bars, like those of a jail cell, across the characters, or frame the characters within a scene to create a sense of confinement or entrapment. In this case, Sacha is confined by her job title. We found that this was a very effective technique decided to use it within our trailer. By using venetian blinds we could create confined scenes that came across as very obscure. We copied this from scene within Double Indemnity, a typical noir film. S I C A R I U S
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- 14. A common feature of neo-noir films are extreme close up shots as they convey tension and put the audience in an uneasy state. We decided to follow this convention within our trailer, like this extreme close ups. These help create ambiguity and show emotion as well as to focus on key areas of the femme fatales face. The femme fatale is also made very prominent and obvious in this shot. The femme fatale is a standard character of film noir. A femme fatale is usually presented to seduce the hero and lead him astray, though sometimes the femme fatale could be sympathetic to the hero’s plight. Often, the sympathetic femme fatale was plagued by character flaws or a sordid past that served to cause harm to the protagonist even if she herself did not intend to cause him harm. It is important to focus on the femme fatale as she plays a very cunning role in our film. I felt our trailer has subverted to the focus on the protagonist rather than the femme fatale however we did attempt to represent the femme fatale in negative way. Despite conforming to most conventions of the neo-noir femme fatale, we did, with our knowledge further our femme fatale to be more modern, exciting and captivating for our audience, particularly as our target audience is males aged 16-25. S I C A R I U S
- 15. The next shot is an extreme long shot down the site of the sniper. This does not follow typical conventions of neo-noir as the shot itself is blurred and edited. We felt however that it was key to the storyline and by making it look slightly blurred might make it look more realistic to the viewers. We looked to add this as another convention of neo-noir as it does also symbolise crime and violence. S I C A R I U S
- 16. In this scene, the dramatic change in sound as well as different narrative are used to great effect. It uses and develops classic neo-noir conventions as it poses a steady crescendo within the non-diegetic music. This creates an atmosphere for the audience as if also creates tension. With the change in narrative we can also find out more about the narrative as well as the characters involved. Here we hear two more new characters suggesting there could be more than one relationship, positively and negatively. In this shot we also see a frame within a frame as Sacha, played by Daisy Marchant is standing in door way. When planning this shot we felt that she needed to be leaning over slightly to make herself look more femme fatale and seductive whilst on the phone. The phone was another mise-en- scene convention as it showed the modern technology in use. S I C A R I U S
- 17. In this shot we see an unusual ray of light beaming on the protagonist. Despite this being oxymoronic, having something shining positively on a murder who is negative, we do feel that we needed to make the protagonist more obvious as the protagonist, so by positioning him to be in the light we were able to have this effect. This challenges conventions of neo-noir, but it shows that we have an understanding on how light, particularly natural light can impact our main product. S I C A R I U S
- 18. An extreme close shot is also shown here on one of our props as the focus is on the barrel of the gun. This is significant as it is direct and really clear to the audience. In addition, I think the clarity of this shot, fits perfectly to the timing of the overlaying sound as it suggests that the shooting and violence was going to be impactful. Also, by enhancing the colour ‘blue’ in this image, we made our trailer look more typical to the convention of a neo-noir film. S I C A R I U S Colour Correction: BLUE Colour Correction: RED
- 19. Here we see the start of a long tracking shot, yet another convention typical of a neo-noir film. We edited this shot however to appear a variety of different times to show continuity as well as to give the audience something to relate back to from previous footage. If we played it all in one go it might be boring, hence why we split it up and showed in a chronological order. S I C A R I U S 1 2 3
- 20. In this shot, it looks as though I edited the shot incorrectly as we see the couple joining arms and then walking off as though the shooting had just begun, however, I wanted to make clear to the audience that their relationship was fake as we see the girl link to him as oppose to vice versa. This is important as it portrays betrayal and negativity, particularly in the light of the femme fatale. Again, here we see a very enclosed urban environment, a typical convention of neo-noir that we have shared. S I C A R I U S
- 21. We took inspiration from the American Sniper trailer when shooting this extreme close up. We thought it was necessary as it creates tension and hostility. S I C A R I U S
- 22. Despite making it clear that our main character was our protagonist, we still felt it necessary to put the femme fatale’s actress name first. This go against the typical noir genre. We felt this appropriate because we wanted to make her look as important as the protagonist as without her, the narrative would be unexplainable. It also creates a minor suspense for the star character when his name is revealed. We looked to change this convention to appear different as well as to put emphasis on the characters differently. This next shot again shows reflections of an urban area to show a contrast in locations as well as to conform to the conventions of noir. S I C A R I U S
- 23. The use of editing pace was very important and we made sure we focused on this. From analysing trailers it became clear that many of them used quick cuts to build suspense. We felt this was a key convention that we should look to use as a way of creating excitement in our trailer. This convention could be particularly seen in the trailer to ‘Limitless’ which contains over 20 clips of the film within the 30 seconds, which exemplifies how in many ways the trailer is more about excitement then the film itself. By making quick cuts in Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas we made sure that the editing pace increased throughout our trailer. The editing pace increases in the trailer in this scene as it is the one scene in the film which would have most impact over the reader as it shows the protagonist with the gun, again this creates suspense and an urge to watch the film. Press play to watch… S I C A R I U S
- 24. It’s worth pointing out that one of my favourite shots in the trailer is this one showing Oliver Prior opening his eye when taking aim, I feel this shows mixed signals to the audience, mixing from guilt, desire, pressure and need. S I C A R I U S
- 25. This obscured scene shows the two main characters having an argument as well as the female being violent towards the male. This conforms to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites, as well as suggesting the female has a lot of power too. This obscure scene in an alleyway is another convention of neo-noir. It made the two closer together and enables the audience to concentrate specifically on the characters without distraction. I tried making this shot as realistic but also secretive as possible. It was made realistic with the plant in the vision of the camera as though it was seen through someone’s eyes. It was almost secretive as the shot is low and tucked away as though we are looking in at the conversation they are having. S I C A R I U S THE PUSH
- 26. The high angle, low angle and over shoulder shot here are conventions of noir as it shows different perspectives of the same scene from different angles. This was made clear by the narrative which was placed over the top as it showed that the assassin was in fact employed to do what he does. S I C A R I U S
- 27. The shot of the fire here was used as an enigma code to suggest that something was being burnt in order to keep something away from someone. If something is being burnt in any film it shows that it had a purpose, and that someone was hiding something. This again suggested potential betrayal. The use of bars in this shot was inspired by noir classic Double Indemnity. S I C A R I U S
- 28. The bold title again uses the same font and colour as the rest of the text. We felt it appropriate to use black and white as it conveyed noir like conventions as well to emphasise the style and class that our characters had, particularly as we focused on assassins. The name ‘Sicarius’ as well was appropriately chosen as it again fits the convention of neo-noir, through the use of the most significant ‘word’ in the film. Also, the most typical neo-noir films had only one word in their title which we looked to emulate. S I C A R I U S
- 29. Overall there are many examples were we have followed the conventions of real noir media products such as reflections, bars, femme fatale and extreme close ups. This has helped us strongly conform to the genre of neo noir. There are also many examples of where we have chosen to not to follow particular conventions for reasons such as cost, equipment, time etc. However we did look to utilise as many possible conventions possible as well as trying to create our own and step outside the box and take our own spin on the neo- noir genre. S I C A R I U S