Production Overview and Induvidual Contribution
My group's film was called "Nothing Personal". At first, we all worked together to create an original script using ideas we had from our own treatments. This original treatment/script had basically the same phone call that we had in the final version, but instead this one lead to the girl friend getting killed as the boyfriend went to save her after originally betraying her. This script was a bit too cliched, so we changed it around a lot, but its central themes were still tied to betrayal and unfairness. We made it so that the audience would be much less sympathetic with the boyfriend, John, than in the original version. We did this by having the boyfriend not save the girl in the end and just have him watch as she gets taken away. This improved the script a lot and we worked well together, putting all of our ideas into one project, which is nice.
After we revised the script, we went on to make the two column script and location diagrams. We split up the work 2 and 2 once we got the first scene finished; Crystal Dwyer and I worked on the shots, Crystal Ding and Vincent worked on the first location diagram. I think that this worked out reasonably well, for I got to contribute a lot to the shot description, but it was not as much of a group decision as the script. It would haven been better if the other 2 had more input. Also, we ended up having to change the shots we had during production later because these shots did not work out as well as we wanted them to, so next time we can learn about how to plan the shots more realistically.
I also had to make the location diagram for the longer scene, because I knew the area the best.
After we finished all of the pre-production, I had less of a role in the actual production; I just helped out with sound and shot continuity. Crystal Dwyer was the camera opp for the whole time pretty much and Vincent acted, while Crystal Ding and I worked on the sound and shot continuity.
In retrospect, I probably should have advocated for more use of the tripod, for looking at the shots now, especially towards the end, they are a little bit too shaky and raw looking. At points, we sort of wanted it to look that way, to create a sense of chaos and uncertainty, but it appeared sort of silly at more basic shots, such as the close ups. Also, it was a problem that we did not take the 180 degree line into more account, for we actually broke it in the beginning of the main scene. I was able to edit this out in my version of the film, because the shot was not necessary, but it did take away from some of the dramatic tension after being edited out. Maybe we rushed the production slightly much during the main part of the film in the dark area, for it was getting late and our parents wanted us home, so some of the shots may have suffered, and one or two complicated shots were omitted in interest of time and reality.
Of course, I had to edit my own version, so I contributed to that almost entirely. Editing the project was hard because of some sound issues, placing the clips in the most effective order, managing the time spent in each scene, and the 180 degree line.
The sound of the machine varies from clip to clip, even if they are supposed to be at the same time, so this is sort of distracting, but I used music to take away from the machine's sound. Also, putting the clips in a nice order and keeping time were connected, for I did not want to spend too much time on the "meanwhile John was walking" part during one part of the dialogue between Dick and Maria. Another edit that I tried was to fix a lighting experiment that we tried, where the lighting in a nice establishing shot was too different from the rest; I put a red tint on it in order to make it seem more cohesive with the rest of the shots.
Other than this edit, I just had issues trying to make the clips come together in a smooth manner.
Evaluation as a Whole: Film Critic Style
A. Casting
All of the actors appear to fit their characters reasonably well, for Maria (the girl) looks sweet and innocent, while the two main male actors appear a bit more impending and suspicious. Maria definitely has a different personality from the two males, but both of the males seem to have more similar, evil characteristics. Even so, their personalities are different enough, for Dick the drug dealer seems to be more cocky and not regrettful of the bad things he does, while John is slightly more regretful, but is more of a person who uses girls, or a "player". The actors did act their parts well, but sometimes Dick (the drug dealer) was a little too cheesy, and Maria may not have put the right type of inflection on her lines, but they were convincing enough. John was really good most of the time, for he was just the right amount of caring and not caring about Maria. Also, all of the characters have distinct appearances, so it is hard to mix them up. The extra gangsters work out fine; they do their parts well and seem impending enough.
B. Acting
Sometimes the acting is slightly cheesy, but I do think that the audience will feel sorry for Maria and completely dislike John, for they are convincing enough and their dialogue is acted out emotionally.
The actors do generally absorb themselves into their role, all three of them, though Dick did seem to translate some of his normal mannerisms into his character. All of the lines are clearly spoken, though sometimes the machine in the background hindered their clarity a little. The edit fixed some of these issues, but the machine sound was still evident. Towards the end, the actors were a bit tired, so I think that John's lines could have been delivered more convincingly, but Maria was generally "energetic" the whole time and Dick stayed in the same character throughout. The actors were nice off the camera, too. They came even though we had to change the filming time on short notice and were only off task sometimes. (They listened to our directions and were patient.)
Exemplary Acting by Dick
C. Script
The lines are always appropriate to the situation, and they never say too much. A lot of stuff is implied, such as what is in the bag and what Dick will do to Maria in the car, so we show rather than say everything. The lines are customized to each character, for they are in all different positions in the situation, and have different personalities. The plot does make sense, though the audience does have to take for granted that Maria could not see John and that she could not open up the door, but these are not too hard to believe and do not really have a place to be explained in the movie. The situation develops from the phone conversation foreshadowing problems with a bag drop off, then a conversation between Maria and Dick where Maria is thrown into the car after learning of John's betrayal, and finally, John comes out of the shadows and talks to Dick about his debt and calls a new girl friend to do his dirty work for him. This shows a conflict: did John really betray Maria, or will he save her? Then it has a resolution: No, John will not save Maria, he knew of the plan all along, and he plans to do something similar to another girl.
D. Wardrobe and Make-up
The outfits do fit the characters, for the guys look rough with their dark colored clothes and Maria looks sweet, even though she is wearing dark clothes also. The time period is the present, so their clothes fit the time period and their ages well. The colors are dark and muted, and generally go with the dark themes of film noir, but the labels were a bit of a problem with the male characters, for they were slightly distracting. The colors of the clothing separate themselves enough from the wall and the darkness, and are complemented by the warm lighting. The make up does not really apply, for the male characters did not use any, and there did not seem to be any issues with Maria in the variety of shots.
Label issues
E. Music and Effects
The music does not really distract from the dialogue, for it is low enough to be played in the background and is usually during non-dialogue shots. The music is dark and foreboding, fitting the general mood of the film. It is more modern sounding with electrical pianos and such than a traditional noir film, but this is fine, for the film takes place in current times, and can benefit from more contemporary, edgy music. Sometimes there is too much sound track, but it is meant to overshadow the background ambienceThe voices were originally a little overshadowed the at times, but it has been mostly fixed.
F. Staging, Props, Mis en Scene
The set design is supposed to look edgy and urban, to set a dark and chaotic tone. We created this set by making John's room look messy and edgy, to show how he is not the "perfect" boyfriend. This set is not too distracting, for the full extent of the room is only shown for a few seconds while John is not talking, leaving the room. The lighting is fine, though it is a bit too bright and the sound is clear. The second set is very simple; it is just a brick building in front of a parking lot. There is nothing here to distract the viewer, but the environment is not too plain, either. It is rough and violated looking, as if it is part of the urban sprawl, the "underworld" of the city. The lighting is essentially one source and dim, making it the perfect lighting for the scene. The sound was a bit hard to get constant, because of the changing sounds of the machine. The actors always stick out from the set enough, so that is not a problem. There are no problems with the props, for they are all contemporary with the film.
Dark, urban area; an important part of film noir.
Room crowded on purpose to characterize John.
G. Lighting
The lighting was never a problem in the first scene, but the wall scene had some problems, because the lighting with the car lights was colder than the warm lighting of the light above the scene from the wall. This caused consistency problems, but I partially fixed the problem by putting a light red tint on the car lighted scene we used. There is enough lighting to easily distinguish the actions of the characters and a sense of depth and the lighting fits the time of day, for it is at night for the most part, and the first scene takes place near night time, so it makes sense. The dim lighting worked well for the wall scene; there are very deep shadows, a characteristic of film noir.
Dim, warm lighting on the "crew".
H. Titles and Credits
I think that the titles are characteristic of the film because the main theme contrasted with the elegant writing. The film is raw in comparison the cursive writing. One might expect the titles to be more raw looking, but I like how the titles are simple and elegant, “betraying” the darker themes of the film, and connecting a sense of betrayal in the title itself. The titles appear to remain legible and seen throughout the title and credits; they are not shown too fast to be read, either, so that is not a problem. The titles do not interfere at all with the visuals for they are only shown with a black screen in the background. The titles may be too short and not give credit to those in the film at the beging, but all of this information is given at the end. It is elegant and simple, belying the raw subject of the film.
The title fading in; simple, but noir
I. Camera Operation
Sometimes the camera work was a little bit awkward in movement because the camera op did not always use a tripod. In the edit, sometimes the transitions between shots and dialogues were strange because of this, but it normally was not too distracting. We adhered to most of the rules of shooting, but we forgot about the 180 degree line and did not notice that we broke it with one of our shots. In the edit, I was able to omit the original clip that broke the line, but next time, we might not be able to do that, so we need to be more aware of this. Sometimes shots seem to jump
around too much, also.
180 degree issues (shown earlier, but demonstrates this point)
J. Sound
The microphone was placed so that the sound would be heard well, and Crystal checked the sound levels when a new character began to speak, so the audio is constant. I needed to change the level of this audio, but that was because I was using the audio from a different shot for a behind-the-characters shot. Sometimes the music is distracting from the dialogue, but I am going to fix that. The only major problem with the sound is that the sound of the machines going in the building are not constant throughout all of the shots, creating some discrepancies in the dialogue. I am working on minimizing this. Other than that, there are no extra noises and the audio is clear.
K. Editing
All of the edits and transitions connect with the subject matter, for they are raw and dark, only using cross dissolve and cross fade; nothing cheesy. I fixed the visual perspectives in the film, so the visual perspective is generally constant, but it may change one time, but that should be all. There are not too many scene changes, and the centers of interest do not seem to change much, though the first shot of the 2nd scene on the wall is further away than the last shot of the first. The shots do show what is happening well, except maybe in the dialogue of Dick and Maria where its is mostly shot as close ups, not in usual dialogue form, meaning there are logical physical statement; what is implied by the dialogue is happening in the scene. The film does follow what people would generally expect to happen shot wise, even in some of the strange dialogue shots. The edits I made try to keep the story going fast, but it was hard to make it go fast in the 1st scene in the bedroom, but otherwise the story is told time efficiently. I paced the "meanwhile" scene so that parts of John walking were seen in between each piece of dialogue so that the film did not spend too much time in between lines on the "meanwhile" walking scene. There does not seem to be any major technical or continuity jumps in the edit, but the edit could flow better, for sometimes the shot transitions are a bit jerky and they say their lines too quickly. The scenes are generally time efficient and get to the "point", but the first scene takes too long to develop.
L. Story Analysis
There is no narrator, for the story tells itself through showing the actions and dialogue of the characters. The implied narrator is essentially John, for the story follows a lot of his actions from his point of view, though this narration switches for a while to show Maria’s point of view during her encounter with Dick. The spectators of the story show how everyone seems to accept the horrible events of the story; it is as if there is no ally for those in need, and if there is, that is not good enough to conquer evil. This idea often appears in film noir like this one. We fill the narrative gaps by assuming what is in the bag (drugs) and what happens to Maria after she is taken by Dick. The time is presented chronologically, but with different shots shown of what is happening at the same time, making the movie classical, The genre is neo-noir, for it is a dark film that shows the raw edge of life and how it is unfair, though it takes place in present time in color. The genres evolution is at the stage where the genre begins to change, though keeping a similar formula. The movie shows how socially the world is a dark place where no one is completely safe with the ones that they love, for they can be betrayed. This film shows the uncertainty of a growingly complex world for teenagers who get involved in the “underworld” of drugs, a relevant issue. The dialogue in this film is very short, but tells the story well enough when accompanied with the images that show what is going on. The film has slightly stylized dialogue to emphasize the unfairness of the situation; John says “Me too.” when Maria tells him that she loves him to emphasize his selfishness. At the end, we can see that he is going to continue to be a horrible person when he asks another girl for a favor. The universal human traits that are shown are anger, hesitation, and fear; we can see all of these traits in Maria. The characters do not articulate themselves much; Maria is the only one that outright says her fear. The other two main characters show their personalities through their actions and indirectly through their words. There are not any direct motifs or anything, except maybe the car as a symbol of entrapment, for that was the place that Maria was trapped because of John’s betrayal. Since this is not really a deep motif/symbol, it does not add much to the film, for it is obviously is when Maria is trapped. The film is told mostly from John’s point of view, though it switches to Maria for the dialogue between Dick and Maria. It is interesting to have John’s point of view most of the time because even from his point of view, the viewer is still not completely sure of his motives. The narrator does not establish much of a rapport because there is no narrator.
M. Ideology
We can tell who the bad guys are because they are implied to be doing things that are not condoned by society and that are obviously immoral. The actors are not all the cliché “bad guy” types, though Maria is a somewhat typical good girl, though she is doing a dirty deed, even if it is out of love and devotion. The two guys do not look all that threatening, but their actions and dialogue show that they have evil intentions. The cinematic themes make sense with the style and ideology of the film because the characters are meant to look like young people late in the 2000s decade in a dark situation; the clothes are contemporary, but are either dark or dull. The characters talk about the same way as other Californian teenagers would. The mise en scene, editing and décor give an urban edge that shows the corrupted, raw truths shown by this film’s ideology. There are no “flashy”, out of place objects or effects; everything is centered on the darkness and corruptness presented in the film, from the dark urban area scene to the fade to black transitions. The protagonist is a spokesperson for the film makers in a way because he shows the opposite of the ideas that the filmmakers seem to condone, for the character John is often shown in a negative light with his dialogue and reactions. The cultural values embodied in this film include the want to trust a boyfriend or girlfriend with each others’ well being, as well as the idea that a romantic relationship should be exclusively between two people; these values are shown by their violation in the movie. The girl in the movie is portrayed very weakly and defenselessly; she does resist her capture violently, but she allows herself to be used and does not try all possible ways of escape. The film does essentially adhere to the genre conventions of film noir and more specifically neo-noir, for it portrays a dark, raw and somewhat realistic situation that does not have a happy ending, in a modern atmosphere in color. The film has a dark, menacing tone that mocks the pure values of Maria, who trusted her shady boyfriend, and reinforces the tainted outlooks that John and Dick had on life.
Connection to Film Noir
I think that our film is definitely neo-noir, for it has the dark themes of betrayal and entrapment set in a violated, isolated urban area.
It shows people at their worst, showing how nasty a person can be when it comes to getting what they want, as shown by John using Maria to save himself from Dick. These humans are deeply flawed, but John is not shown as a completely evil person, because though he used his girlfriend and plans to use another girlfriend, he did have some reservations on his actions at first, as shown by his conversation with Dick.
John's redeming qualities are few
John being a total "bad guy"
John, the main character, is a multi-faceted character. Maria also changes, too, for she goes from the sweet, easy to manipulate girlfriend to a bitter person fighting for her well being, even though this is only shown by her banging on the windows.
Also, we put some of the characteristic "underground dealings" or film noir; this film is all about a conspiracy of sorts, though it is a small scale one invoving the bag, which is implied to be drugs. Dick is shown to smoking a cigarette to add an edge and show his nochalance toward taking Maria.
Also, there is a struggle, which makes the theme darker, evoking a stronger sense of entrapment when Dick's cronies overpower Maria two to one and lock her in a car. The car really does show how she is trapped; she is now in an enclosed space, not in the open air, free. She is also fragile, an important characteristic of film noir; humans are fragile and easily hurt, as Maria is shown to be when she is taken advantage of by John and Dick.
The lighting is dim, and creates harsh shadows that are very characteristic of the dark mood shown in the shots taken in film noir.
A dark shot that has a good sense of depth and
lighting.
This dark and creepy shot foreshadows the horrible events to come, and transitions well into the next scene, which is dark and outside.
Overall, this film clearly shows film noir characteristics with its moody, but raw and realistic story full of betrayal that strikes deep in the heart. It is set in a dark, urban place that reveals the undeworkings of a corrupted teenage world.
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