7th Entry – Femme Fatale

Stephanie Norfolk as The Femme Fatale
Luke Jawnyj as The Man In The Back Of The Car

Directed by JOSH BOWER

Filmed on an N95 provided by Amar Singh
Created for The Screening Room Short Film Competition

6th Entry – Done And Dusted?

Yesterdays lack of postage was down to a lack of things to say; there was basically no movement on the project worth speaking of. Today however, Steph did her voiceovers and the final soundmix has now been put together. A brief credit sequence has been added to the end and I’m pretty sure that we’re now good to go!

So, the voiceover didn’t go exactly as planned; we had some issues that we tried to iron out, it did sound right, it didn’t sound right, it sounded right, it stopped sounding right and basically we came to the conclusion that we may need to get the voiceover done by somebody else at a later date. Now however, after much tweaking and shaking, Stephs voice will be making it into the final cut, albeit a little echoey and sharp.

I’ve tweeted the proclamation today as “Nothing special by any stretch of the imagination, just a nice narrative exercise with a tiny bit of vfx”, which I think is a statement I’m going to stick with. It’s been a little bit of fun, practice and experience that won’t really result in much but a 2 minute artsy narrative piece, but I hope it keeps peoples attentions for the 2 minutes that it runs. If people are bored 10 seconds in, then it’s not a success. Comments in respect to this would be welcomed.
Until tomorrows upload, goodnight!

5th Entry – Edited to within an inch of its life!

In the last 24 hours, the footage has gone from a rough draft into a well formed beauty, with it now being quite close to the final piece. Originally, it was going to be full of VFX, with walls, puddles, shadow and colouring effects all being added into the final cut. However a number of obstacles have arisen which mean that camera tracking is a big no no and some tests have proven to not really add anything to the film. As such, everything has being simplified, for the better in my opinion; it is now much more adherent to the values of mobile movies and looks and feels much better than it did do with the test footage being used. Other than a brief (1 second) effect, the film is devoid of image manipulation any further than simple saturation/contrast/exposure. The titles have been added in iMovie, so it’s not as though I’m at any advantage to any of the other filmmakers.

Audio was really the order of the night, with the whole sound being mixed, again in iMovie, which now just awaits Stephanie’s voiceover come Thursday. I’m reasonably happy with the final outcome, keeping the restrictions of the day in mind, so I’m kind of looking forward to releasing it on Youtube on Friday. As it stands, I’m not too sure what my chances of winning are; many of the other entries are in black and white, so it seems like I have conformed to some unspoken fad, which is pretty annoying. The best entry so far is quite entertaining and technically impressive, but it does breach the t&c’s of the competition by having an actor under the age of 18. It’s also a little graphic. I think to be in with a chance, I need to have a punchier start than I currently have…

4th Entry – The Day After The Night Before

It's a wrap!

Shooting took place last night; the actor couldn’t make it, rain put the lights out of use and we were very pushed for time… but it’s shot and in the editing suites, all ready to stick together with magic glue. I reckon it will run just short of 2 minutes, which is a little shorter than I had hoped, so I might have to work on manipulating the footage to stretch things out a little.

Back to the edit I go, till next time, ciao!

3rd Entry – The ring round

I’ve just contacted everybody involved; the driver’s aware of everything he’s got himself in for, the actress is available and ready for action and I’m awaiting a reply from the actor; but everything seems to have come together quite nicely. I have a backup camera just in case the N95 doesn’t appear for whatever reason and the driver is willing to fill in as a character should needs be. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

I’ve created some cards with shot descriptions written on them so I know exactly what I’m shooting and in what order; various factors have had to be considered in ordering the shoot, such as availability of the car, costume change, lighting etc but I’m confident I have the right sequence drawn out. I work till 5 tomorrow and Tom, the actor, is unavailable till 6/7, which means all preparations have really got to be made tonight.

Just hope nothing gets in the way of filming between now and then…

2nd Entry – Further Planning

Tomorrow is the day of the shoot, 15 days before the deadline. Though, in actuality, it’s more like 12 days; it will be worthwhile submitting before the deadline so that it can gain some views and not seem like a last minute entry.

Stylistically, the film will based upon 1930′s American film noir, yet will be shot (in a guerrilla fashion) in suburban streets in Yorkshire, England. Now, the principles of Mobile Movies are that the size and accessibility of mobile phones mean that the films should be kept simple and artistic. However, my intention is to expand further on these principles and look at how advanced these technologies have become, trying to implement one of these cameras into a near professional pipeline.

The camera in question will be from a Nokia N95, which will be used in scenes that will be properly lit (to the best of our ability) and will be enhanced digitally in post-production. The idea of altering the footage in post, other than simple colour adjustments or minor changes, could be a slightly controversial issue, as it takes the film away from the simplistic nature of Mobile Movies.

So, the plan so far is to initially edit together a cut with no CG elements; then, I will tackle a shot at a time, getting them to as near to photorealistic as I possibly can. Then, come the deadline, I will submit only scenes that are not noticeably enhanced.

The attached video displays a test film of the films (working title) logo being etched across a wall. From this test I have decided I will be using Blender and Voodoo to perform the VFX for this film, as they are the programs I am familiar with and, to be honest, are much more powerful than simply using AE.

Relevant Links:

- Test Film
- Blender
- Voodoo

1st Entry – An Introduction

Hai thar!

Welcome to the production journal of my short film, Femme Fatale (working title). This film has been in the works for almost 2 weeks and is intended as an entry to The Screening Room Short Film Competition. “Why are you creating a production journal for this little insignificant film?” you may well ask; well, the reason being is that the next few weeks is to see the launch of The Irish Gandhi, an outlet for all original works by our small team. As such, it will be beneficial to document and recount all of the projects we go through, with Femme Fatale being one of the first to hit the site.

Femme Fatale is a short narrative piece built upon the clichés of film noir; it will be, as much as anything, a lighting, angle and narrative experiment. The concept came about whilst trying to come up with an idea for a mobile movie for the competition, when it occurred to me that the compactness of a mobile phone could allow for some interesting shots inside a restrictive environment, such as a car; the idea grew from there, with the imagery of a “femme fatale” figure sat in the driving seat setting the narrative in motion.

A first draft script and a shot list have been created. Shooting is scheduled for Sunday.

Relevant links:

-  The brief released by The Screening Room
- An example of how a small camera might work well in a car environment (1:53 onwards)