Angel Cafe Final Cut

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Question 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

The media product produced reinforces many conventions involved in the thriller genre. Some of these generic conventions involve; criminals, a menacing female, cops, femme fatale, drug addicts (find out in the rest of the plot, not in the opening) and aspects of greed, for example, the girl taking the money out of the till for her own personal use. By creating a mysterious character with
an enigma, it presents a twist on the average story line. In a
genre such as the Thriller genre, this is a very important part. For example, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we find out at the very end of the film, that a case Blomkvist has been looking into for months, he finds out she is alive and living in another county. However by making the female character have a devious, dishonest side, by stealing money from the till, she doesn't seem so blameless and angelic. The idea of her being a little twisted and distorted came from the influence of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander is a powerful character with her own intentions. She is very independent woman who has had to fend for herself a lot of the time.

The character in ‘Angel Café’ has to be independent and fend for herself as well, Lisbeth was a big influence on our character in this respect. She is an up-to-date valid representative image and definition of a femme fatal, she is alluring, mysterious and rebellious, she can stand on her own two feet and defend herself. Femme fatale’s are very common in the

thriller genre. For example, Janet in Psycho, is in some respect a femme fatale. The image of Janet in the shower just before she is murdered, shows her in-ability to move or go anywhere. She is trapped in the corner of the shower.

We linked the idea of claustrophobia into our thriller, seeing as that is a general fear among our target audience. In the ‘Angel Café’ we have put the female role in some of

for the female role in our thriller, the fridge in which she is locked in.

Yet another influence for the small confined spaces was the Toilet murder scene in Witness. The little boy has only the toilet cubicles to protect him from a killer that he has just watched murder someone.

In the 'Angel Cafe' this could be the case with Agnes and Adrian, he OR she could be the murder, trying to protect one's self from the harm the other could do to them.

Another influence came from Essex Boys scene where they kidnap a man from the fish market and contain him in the

back of a white van. The colour white represents surrender and to

the same situations as Janet was. For example, confined spaces, in Janet’s case, the shower and bathroom where she is murdered, and some extent, surrender and weakness.

I think the use of confined spaces, it is not only a generic convention of the thriller, but it works very well with the plot of our

opening. The influence we have taken on board was a great help when it came to choosing a small space.We felt that a fridge fitted in well with the rest of the location. The

girl took the money from the till, which makes it possible for her to be a killer, however her age may restrict this thought. Most of our target audience would probably see the man as the killer. The fridge that is used in ‘Angel Café’ is white, signifying that she

would rather admit to what she has done rather than in Janet’s case, be killed.

The lighting we use and the final effect of the frames in Black & White, it portrays the noir film image to the audience. It also makes the opening into a more adult and independent style film, due to the wash out of colour. With the colour it would make it look more like an unprofessional production. It also means that inter-textual references were easier to find and achieve. When editing it was easier to edit the brightness settings when the film was in black and white as the brightness transitions were a lot simpler and more subtle. Generally 'Angel Cafe' looks better in black and white.

The costumes fit well within the Thriller genre, especially the Noir sub-genre of Thriller. The final choice of costumes was decided on a traditional look for the man, a long dark coat and hat for the male role. The main influence on the costumes was probably from The Third Man. The characters Harry Lime and Holly Martins were the ideal image for our male role of Adrian Doyle, a middle aged man, with a wide rimmed hat and a long dark coat. For the female, we picked a traditional waitress's costume, however a leopard print fur coat. We thought this would be

recognisable for the rest of the film. It also gives her a different side. When she has the coat on, she is being deviant and not the blameless youth she was. Whilst wearing the coat, she steals the money and gets locked in the fridge. It almost foreshadows that something unfortunate for that character in particular will happen when she puts it on. The leopard print shows she has a ‘wild’ side, contradicting her stereotypical image of a young girl being, care-free. The inspiration for this character’s costume was Eve from Once Up-

on a Time In America. Despite Eve being glamorous and laden with pearls and the girl in ‘Angel Café’ not being so rich, we can still make the link via costumes. Eve wears a silk blouse and a long expensive coat, which she takes off before she is shot. In our thriller it is the other way round.

When planning, the final decision was to film in a cafe, with an inter-textual reference to The Third Man, when Holly Martins is in the cafe waiting for Harry Lime. Half way through The Third Man, The main character Harry Lime is introduced whom everyone believed to be dead. On the decision of using this idea of the café being our location for our Thriller, knowing that is it not a stereotypical location for this particular genre but generic due to the enclosed spaces and could be potentially threatening. Despite this film, filming in a cafe isn't that aspect challenges yet fits ironically well with the general genre.

Question 7

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

The learning curve I have experienced in media has been huge. All of the aspects have been large factors to apply or treat as a rule to the edit, the shoot, and the planning.

To start, maybe one of the most important rules is the 180 degree rule. This was enforced during the filming of the preliminary task and all three shoots of the thriller opening. When finished filming the preliminary task and got onto editing, we had realised that we needed to shoot some more footage because we had broken the 180 degree rule. Continuity was then therefore an issue. We had to wear exactly the same clothes, and have everything exactly how it was the day before.

Leading on from this, shot reverse shot and camera angles were of utmost importance in media. If you don't plan the shots by either creating a shot list or a story board then you are gambling your shoot and the time you have used may have been. wasted completely. The importance of a range of camera shots, is to show your ability and skill when using the camera. It also improves the look of your film because it highlights different aspects of your film, whether it be the dominance of a character through a low angle shot or a facial feature via an extreme close up.

The importance of a cliffhanger was noted when we were editing the preliminary task. We had a clear cliffhanger, and it was memorable. However in the thriller opening, we had a choice as to what our cliffhanger was. It could have been the girl taking the money out of the till, or the man locking her in the fridge. I think it was good to have been able to have that choice of cliffhangers, rather than having one and not be happy with it. I am happy with our final cliffhanger, we have involved 3 major moments in the film; Adrian entering the cafe, Agnes stealing the money from the till, Agnes getting locked in the freezer by Adrian.

Appropriate titles are also important. To have silly titles would have made our efforts look poor and make them look amateur, however by having professional consistent titles, this sharpens the film and gives it an edge. Involving titles like 'Produced by...' 'a film by...' 'sounds by...' and the actors name, makes it professional. The titles are a feature that complete the final cut. Without them, it would look a little empty and unprofessional.

One thing I did find challenging was shooting the footage with three people (including myself) and editing with it being just Alex and I. I found helping each other out frustrating because our edits were very similar and therefore needed to avoid repeating what I had already done to my footage to Lauren's. Our thrillers are independent and quite different but it was still a personal challenge.

This is the footage we didn't use. FOOTAGE

We didn't use this, because of several reasons; The male actor, the location, the lighting, the camera angles/shots.

The male actor was to young for the kind of character we were going for. He was also to slim. We realised this when we tried to edit our material, instead of using shots of both the male actors, we only used one, we completely disregarded this material.

The location was too small. Despite generic thriller having enclosed small spaces involved in them, this space was not at all big enough. We struggled to fit the tripod into the room. This affected the quality of our camera shots and limited us to very few spaces to place the tripod.

As mentioned before in previous questions, lighting was a huge issue in the first thriller shoot. It was winter, so it got dark early, we were not in a well lit area, which meant we had to somehow create non-ambient lighting which was impossible. So filming inside was our only option. When we filmed our other shots for the second and third times, it was January/early February and therefore it was lighter in the evenings, we also were at a different location, the area was well lit as we were in the middle of a town and we had access to reflectors and a powerful torch.

The strengths of my production are specifically the camera shots chosen in the final edit. We chose a great range of filmed shots, ranging from low angle, close up, tracking, etc. I think the choice to put the film in Black & White and make it a noir thriller was one of the best ideas. It washes out the unwanted colour of the mise-en-scene. After asking a few people their opinion on Noir or colour, a majority of the vote was noir, so we went with our target audience's opinion.

The weaknesses of my production are the focus of the camera in some of the shots. In some shots we zoomed in, instead of moving the camera closer which means that the shots are a little blurry.

The most important factor I have learnt about film making is the importance of planning. If I'd have planned the shoot properly the first time around, we wouldn't have had to have filmed 3 times, maybe only 2. It came down to not posting about the cast and changing the location on the second shoot. Also we had to travel quite a long way to reach our locations which meant they were harder to get to. A thorough plan means that your shoot will run smoothly and to plan. If i was to repeat this then I would set the location first and the actors and build my project around those factors. Changing the location and the actors half way through the filming was hard to adapt to.

I have learnt so much from this project and hope to continue to learn more and more for the rest of the course.

Question 6

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Working with technologies such as digital cameras (etc) has taught me that if you plan a film well enough, it will run smoothly. However after filming our opening 3 times, we learnt as we went on, experience is a big part of learning about filming which is where the preliminary task worked well to introduce us to using cameras and editing the material.

When editing the preliminary task, it was relatively simple. However we did not have to include transitions such as cross-fade. Also we did not have to use a soundtrack running underneath the footage.

During the construction of this product, I understand the importance of practicing stills and camera angles, also knowing how your camera works. I completed the main camera angle stills early on in the course and therefore was pretty confident on how those shots were supposed to look, this was not the case with the video camera shots though. If we had practiced before, not including the preliminary task, we may have only had to have done 2 shoots, instead, we did 3 and ended up getting very frustrated with the duff shots.

The sequence of shots is very important, especially when editing into such an adult genre such as a Noir Thriller film. I learnt that the pace of the opening has to be consistent to encapsulate the audience and encourage them to watch the rest of the film. In the final edit of the 'Angel Cafe' we used mostly the 'cross-fade' and 'cross-dissolve' effects, also 'fade to black' to transition the clips. 'Fade to black' gives the illusion of passing time. In the 'Angel Cafe' before the final edit there were quite a lot of long walking shots. We solved this by fading the clip to back, it makes it appear like time has passed since the last clip was shown, and allows you to crop the clip to a further extent.

I learnt that camera angles are one of the best things in your arsenal when filming. The shot alone can imply something that you don't have to spell out. For example, in 'Angel Cafe' we see the male role of Adrian Doyle walk past the window, however the camera is on the outside and he is inside the cafe. This suggests that they are alone together, and isolated from the rest of the world. They are trapped in. This is much like the shot of Holly Martins in The Third Man when he is sat in the window and the camera is on the outside filming him from the other side of the glass.

In the amount of time our thriller has to fit in (2 minutes) and due to the sub-genre of our thriller opening (Noir) we decided not to incorporate flash backs or flash forwards because of the plot. It would over-complicate the existing story line.

In the final edit, we laid the black and white filter over the top of the original colour. It sophisticates our opening sequence.

When we initially set out to shoot 'Angel Cafe' we were filming strictly by what we had planned on the shot list. This was not the best thing to have done, after filming another two times, we realised a lot of compulsive ideas come when you're on the set filming. Our FIRST SHOOT was unsuccessful for the reasons that there was not enough light when we filmed the darker parts of the thriller, for example, when she is looking for the keys at the end and he grabs her shoulder. It was too dark to edit the brightness of the frames and change the look of the shot. This was one of the main reasons why we had to abandon the whole shoot. We had also filmed all of the wrong shots. We were adamant that mid-shots were the way forward when we should have referred to our research, then would have realised that close ups, high and low angles were the right choice. This we carried forward to our second and third shoot.

I have had quite a lot of editing experience, and find that essentially most editing programmes are very similar. After already having experience with Adobe Elements via the Preliminary Task, i found editing this quite simple. However we had to involve more transitions and cuts, titles and sound edits. Placing the titles was the one of the hardest parts of the edit. We had the sound title at the beginning and it simply did not look right. We tried shuffling the words about to see if that would change our opinion on it, it did not. I suggested moving it further down the timeline of our edit, and it turned out to look better because of the composure of the shot.

The titles process was one of the quickest processes in the whole ensemble of them. After coming up with production company names etc, we got onto Adobe Elements and designed some. We tried 3/4 different looks for each title but decided on a consistent font for all of them. The titles are all white, contrasting the dark image of the opening. They suggest the surrender and objection from the victim Agnes in 'Angel Cafe'.

The sound was easy enough to find, we were initially going to do a blurred sound of the radio in the cafe on in the background as non-diegetic sound, but during the filming sessions forgot to involve a clip of a radio and therefore the audience may not understand that was the intention. However, knowing that we wanted a slow creepy soundtrack for the first sound when the characters and their situations are being introduced. But then we decided on a more intense sound for the cliffhanger. We found these sounds by typing into sound cloud, 'Creepy Piano' for the first one and 'Tension' for the second. We have snippets of diegetic sound during the clip however wanted something to go on top to increase the tension in the audience and throughout the opening.

Question 4

WHO WOULD THE AUDIENCE BE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The primary target audience for our thriller 'Angel Cafe', was aimed at young women between the ages of 16-25. Young people feel the effect of fear and what triggers their fears when watching films like 'Angel Cafe'.

Despite the thriller being an old style, Noir thriller, which is an adult sub-genre, it would appeal to young people, women in particular, because one of the main roles in our thriller is female. She is deviant and dishonest, yet appears helpless and dependent on other people.

The phobias and fears that appear in our thriller that may effect the target audience are, claustrophobia, stalking and helplessness. Also the fear of being found out or found guilty. This especially applies to young people in their teenage years as the go through the rebellion stages.

The fear of being followed and watched is one that effects everyone. The idea of an extra presence and being alone is one that haunts people. This can also confuse the audience, but purposely. For example in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this film has a slightly deceptive plot, it tricks the audience into thinking someone has been dead for 40 years, yet they are alive.

Our target audience would be quite intelligent, either still be in school, further education or job training. The rest of our plot for the thriller is a little complex and would need concentration and focus to wholly understand what is going on. It all starts where the girl takes the money out of the till.

I don't think the target group would like films where there is no outcome or no systematic story line, for example, a chick flick film like Bridget Jones. Our thriller is similar to The Third Man, and maybe Thelma and Louise, because of the link to women trying to fend for themselves and have the Femme Fatale image. Other films that are similar to 'Angel Cafe' are; Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Thelma & Louise, and Sunset Boulevard.