Final Film Posters

The final film posters have been created. Using elements of our Mise En Scene and costume, we produced high quality posters in order to promote our movie and develop our marketing campaign further. In contrast to the black and white effects used in the production, the posters are bold and striking, not monochrome as you would expect. Bright colours are used such as red to attract the attention of the target audience. The reason behind using highly saturated posters it to contrast with the darker atmosphere of the movie itself, therefore intriguing the audience, convincing them to watch the film.

To ensure our poster had a professional look, we checked we made no spelling or grammar errors on the names and titles. We used the software, Photoshop, to create our posters and used tools such as the lasso tool and affects to make sure our poster was high quality and advanced. We want our posters to be displayed in a variety of areas such as billboards, bus stops and across cinema. 

Marketing - Photoshoot

 As a part of our marketing campaign, we needed images to use for posters and our future website which we will construct alongside our opening sequence. Therefore, we took some photos with a variety of facial expressions and character position as well as some images of props to help us create our marketing features.

Marketing - Interviews

As the filming finished, we decided that interviews with cast and crew members would have been an important method to promote and advertise A Dame With A Clue. As explained in the research, it is a clever way to promote a film when asking members of the cast and crew questions, as it can draw audiences in. Below we have filmed two interviews: 

Interview 1 with Myself as Lana Lombard

Interview 2 with Elona as Director

Marketing

Alongside our filming and editing process, we need to think about our film becoming a success with methods of marketing. Since our film is low budget, we need to convince and persuade many people so see our movie. Alongside posters and other ways to advertise, we decided to include a website to give our movie a professional appearance as well as a modern twist since we are making our marketing method unique to how Film Noir is usually promoted. A website will widen our target audience internationally and more people will be able to hear about our film. 
The link to our website is: 

http://adamewithaclue.wix.com/adwac

As well as having a website, there are other methods we have used within the website to promote our film. To encourage Film Noir fans, we have released short clips and previews of voiceovers and music to persuade users to watch the movie. It also builds up suspense and excitement to those who wish to see our film. The research below further develops our methods of marketing. 

Student Feedback

We presented our feedback in the emaze below based on our first draft of the Film Noir opening sequence. We will use this feedback to develop our opening further as we have taken on criticism to make our production better.

Teacher Feedback

In response to our first draft, our teachers gave us feedback on what to improve on to perfect our opening sequence. We received good points as well as criticism to take onboard.

A Dame with a Clue First Draft

Our first draft is now complete for A Dame with a Clue opening sequence. In order to be given feedback based on the movie opening, the first draft has been uploaded for everybody to see and share opinions on.

Script

Dialogue is majorly important during an opening sequence, since it reveals many elements such as the narrative. The exterior shots includes dialogue between the two main characters. The Femme Fatale meets the detective, therefore dialogue is necessary and we have put together a script in which both main characters will follow. Since our production heavily revolves around binary opposites of male and females, the majority of Lana's lines are persistent yet softly spoken. However, the detectives speech remains rough and lots of slang is used to emphasis his casual personality.

 

Both pages of the script are shown above. All necessary script requirements are included such as stage directions, speech and use of props. 

Shot List

Exterior
Dutch tilt/pan shot of building - exterior building shot which is a traditional Film Noir convention
Close up shot of lamp post - zoom out then stop at medium shot of Lana's back to the camera - walks towards lamp post
Wide angle shot of Lana Lombard under lamp post - looking suspicious
Medium close up of Lana opening the office address note
Behind the shoulder shot of Lana opening the office address note
Wide angle shot - Lana walking towards the gate of the supposedly office building
Car interior window shot - inside of car point of view as if someone is watching Lana (standing under lamp post) from inside
Close up/level angle - Lana's footsteps - exterior - going to the office
Still shot - Lana walking in to frame - walking in an alleyway with back towards the camera

Interior
Tracking shot - Lombard walking in hallway to detective's office - voiceover
Blocking shot - blinds (Film Noir convention) - interior - office - introduction to Reynolds, drinking, working on desk
Close up/level angle/over the shoulder - match on action - Detective Reynolds name on the door - Lana knocking on the door outside of office
Medium angle - match on action - of Lana coming into the office
Shot reverse shot - conversation between Femme Fatale and Detective about the case
Close up/over the shoulder shot - Reynolds opening the note/clue that Lombard gives - Lombard leaves
Level angle shot of Reynolds on the phone asking someone what they know about Lombard
Level angle shot of femme fatale walking out of the room
Mise en scene close ups to portray 1940s era e.g. old fashioned telephone, typewriter, decanter, costume (putting down gloves), items on detective's desk

Shooting Scheduele

Today's focus was providing ourselves with a shooting schedule which we will be completing throughout the week. Having a schedule to hand allows us to make the most of our filming abilities. We will have a clear vision and representation of what we are trying to film and this will make sure everybody is in required frames and important conventions are included. 

Exterior Shooting Schedule

Interior Shooting Schedule

Location and Risk Assessment - Interior

The second half of our filming will be the office scene which is located in a school office. To ensure we remained safe, we researched the location and stated some of the precautions in case any incidents took place. 

This risk assessment includes the risks that we face and what should happen if we become involved with a risk. Our nearest A + E location is also included as well a first aider on sight. This was further approved by our media teacher. 

Risk Assessment and Location - Exterior

Here below is our location information and risk assessment which ensures we are safe around any possible hazards. Our risk assessment was then signed by our teacher to show we had filled it out appropriately.

Using this allows us to control our filming and our location and the nearest hospital at this location in case of an emergency with anybody on set. 

Filming Prep

We are now beginning the filming phase of our production. Our first filming location will take place in Brentwood. We will film all of our shots tonight outside, making them exterior. They will be shots of myself as the female character. Elona and Angel will be filming the shots from a variety of angles and having two people film gives us the advantage of filming a variety of shots at the same time. We are filming, however, on an estate where people live and we don't want to get in the way of resident's lifestyle or annoy them whilst filming. To avoid these issues, we have been provided with a permission to film letter which covers us to film due to educational purposes. If there are many misunderstandings, we can present them with this letter to avoid any problems. 

Final Title Order

As part of final preparation of editing, we have decided the order in which are titles will appear on-screen. We took into consideration the way titles were displayed in other Film Noir motion pictures. We used elements of classic Film Noir titles such as using several names together on-screen and modern opening sequences of individual names appearing and combined the both together. This allowed us to display our titles in a modern yet conventional way to give the Film Noir a modern twist: 

1. Production Company
2. Film Title
3. Actor Name 
4. Actor Name
5. List of Actors Names
6. Casting
7. Co-Producer
8. Costume Design
9. Music
10. Director of Photography
11. Production Designer
12. Editors
13. Writers
14. Executive Producer
15. Producer
16. Director

The Maltese Falcon Timeline

As we are approaching the filming phase of our opening sequence, as a method of inspiration we decided to use another Film Noir to perfect and correct the order of shots within our opening. This research has given us methods and ideas for our shots and the order of shots. We chose "The Maltese Falcon" to analyse and annotate shots and this allowed us to make brief notes based on the angles, shot types and order. 

Audience Research

It is vital to ensure that we have a target market for our movie and an idea of who we are creating the film for and how to make it pleasurable for our chosen audience. If we do not succeed in this part of the movie making criteria, we may not include important features that are needed to appeal to an audience and this will disinterest people in coming to watch our production. This will eventually make it unsuccessful on the big screen, and we wont be able to achieve our main ambition on reintroducing the Film Noir Genre. 

Institutions Research

Today, we produced some research based on institution and how this portrays the type of films they are distributing. Budget is also an important factor to think about which has been incorporated into our research. Whoever distributes our film, it is important to consider the factors stated above as if we don't use a correct distributor, we won't be able to afford aspects of the film since it is low budget and we may even be attracting the wrong target audience. 

We plan on releasing our film in January, since this is the time when academy award films will be released. This will then increase the popularity and quality of our movie.