FMP- Cranes, Cigarettes and Colour Correction

So, in my 3.1 - 3.2 (if you haven't read it it's on my blog) I outlined some different techniques I wanted to try during the production of my FMP. Those being; the use of a camera crane, the use of black and white and fake cigarettes. In this blog I'll be talking about how each aspect went and if I feel I have improved in some way on the subject.

Firstly we have the camera crane. Now although we did some tests with the job before shooting I was still sceptical where or not it would give the kind of shot I was looking for. However, we decided to use it anyway. We got some good advice from our lecturer Ed who told us to put more weight on the base to keep the crane steady, creating a smoother shot. Using the crane on set was a challenge. This was down to two reasons. Thaw first being that without any counterweights, you were really having to fight the Jib making operating it much more difficult. The second was that I couldn't see what we were shooting. My monitor decide to pack up on me so we were very much shooting blind.

All in all I like the shots. Although there is a significant amount of shake it blends in nicely with the era of film we were inspired by. Many shots in the film are much longer and more draw out then people are used to in modern Hollywood but that's due to the style and pacing of the genre. 

Second we have the use of black and white. I played around with many different ways to achieve the film noir look and settled on simply desaturaizing the image and then adjusting contrast, normally lowering the shadows making the image look more defined. Overall I think the images came out looking great! Every shot really plays to the genre and the black n white adds to it drastically. It adds that level of mysteriousness that was such an important part of film noir.

Third and finally is the fake cigs. Now we spent a lot of time on hand making them out of everything from tea to parsley but in the end we settled with real smokes. The actors were happy to use the real things so in the end we got a few packets and that was that. However, I feel like my research into that topic will help me in the future.