Film Noir- Diary Entry 5

Yesterday we filmed all of our production at the Sawtry Workingmans Club. It went well and was finished in about an hour due to most of our film being a continueous shot. The Club were fine with us filming and we took in place all safety cautions before filming. The risk assessment, storyboard, conformation to film at the club and recce are all done too and will be uploaded to the blog today or tomorow.     

Film Noir- Character Info

This is the list of the main actors in our production, their roles, gender, where they live and their mobile numbers.

Chris Lawrence (07889244844)-
 Male, 17, lives in Sawtry, plays Tony Montoya

Emily Read (07951485817)-
Female, 17, lives in Gidding, plays Crystal

Daniel Oloafe (07713587067)-
Male, 17, lives in Folksworth plays Hugo

Ollie Howells (07895393523)-
Male, 14, lives in Sawtry plays Support Henchman

Ryan Smith (07958312025)-
Male, 17, lives in Sawtry plays Detective

Film Noir- Shot List

Below is the shot list for our film Montoya Downfall

Film Noir- Shot List

Film Noir- Production Schedule

Below is the production schedule for our film Montoya Downfall

Film Noir- Production Schedule

Film Noir- Diary Entry 4

Me and Sam have just finished up the shot list and production schedule given to us by Stephen. We will upload them to the blog as soon as possible but at the moment are working on the storyboard and recce for the production.

In lesson work: Lighting workshop- lights

Key Light- This is the main light, the strongest and has the most influence on the look of a scene.

Fill Light- Secondary light and placed on the opposite side of the key. This usually has the scrim on it.

Back Light- Behind the head of the actor in shot.

Using Scrim- When filming a femme fatale scrim is ideal as it softens the shadows and lighting and gives a suave look to them. In the shot below the barn doors have also been partially closed to give a mysterious effect.

Lighting a villain- When lighting a villain you want the shadow to be large and the angle pointing up to make them look bigger such as in the photo below.

In lesson work: Lighting workshop

In the second lesson of the lighting workshop we learnt the different positioning of the lights and how they can portray your characters, along with some more rules listed below-

Lighting Safety:

1. NEVER mount one of the lights outdoors without someone manning it at all times
2. ALWAYS switch the light off when not in use
3. ALWAYS make sure the light is parallel with one of the legs
4. The lights are HOT so ALWAYS wear gloves
5. NEVER look directly into the light
6. ALWAYS warn people when you're going to switch the lights on
7. ALWAYS work with lights at a low level to start with
8. ALWAYS use a surge protector
9. NEVER try and replace a bulb
10. REMEMBER to include the lights in the risk assessment.

We learnt about the standard method of lighting in video film and photography, this is known as three point lighting.

The technique uses three lights, called the key light, fill light and back light.

From our group Stephen nominated to do the lighting workshop as only one person from the team needs to pass the workshop. Therefore Stephen will be in charge of lighting on shoot.

Film Noir- Diary Entry 3

Stephen has started on the shot list and production schedule, which we will finish tonight as we need to establish when we will be filming. Tonight I will also start the storyboards with Sam, Stephen isn't available due to work commitments.

Film Noir- Character Bio's

Here are the character bio's for the four main characters in our production. Tony Montoya the gang leader, Detective who is working undercover in the gang, crystal who is Tony's girlfriend and Hugo the lead henchman.

Character Bio of Gang Leader Tony Montoya:

Character Bio of Crystal Tony's Girlfriend:

Character Bio of Detective:

Character Bio of Lead Henchman Hugo:

Film Noir- Diary Entry 2

At the moment i am working on the character bios and have almost finsished them. As soon as i do i will upload them so the other members of the team can get them on their blog. Tomorow Sam is coming round so we can do the recce, storyboard and shot list for our production.

Film Noir- Diary Entry 1

Today me and Sam begun the character bio's, they are quite short as there isn't to much detail about most of the bad characters as we want them to be mysterious. We need to add pictures to the bio's but so far we aren't sure who our actors are so we are going to wait until we have definate actors before adding their pictures to the bio's.

Film Noir- In lesson work - Lighting workshop

In our last lesson we begun the lighting tutorial that gives you the information needed to use the lighting kit for our production. So far I've learned how to set up the lighting kit and how not to kill myself in the process.

I've learnt all the names and equipment that are included in the kit, which are:

-2x Redheads
-2x Stand
-2x Barn Door
-2x Bulb
-Power Lead
-2x Power Surge
-Gloves
-Set of Clips
-Set of Gels


I've learnt the uses of the kit, for example the scrim is used to dim out the lighting, which makes shadow less upfront and causes the light on the face to be duller.

Next lesson we are finishing the tutorial as we still have more to learn about the lighting kit. Below is an example of scrim and the typical lighting kit we will use in our production.

Film Noir- Similiar Products- Script Second Draft

For our second draft we changed the last line of the script because you cant really tell who that the detective is undercover, so we thought adding this line would make it perfectly clear that he is.

Montoya Downfall Second Draft