Film Noir - Why I Love It

Originally Film Noir was a film movement in the 1940s to 50s that showcased a darker side to cinema. From the sets that were constantly drenched with rain to the performances that always had there roots stuck firmly into their character stereotypes, Film Noir was certainly the movement that swayed hollywood from the happy, jolly, "everything is just spiffing" tale too its more dark and sinister, almost manic depressive, side.

Modern Film Noir however has turned into something even darker than before. It ranges from films like The Dark Knight (Batman 2) which are very much Hollywood's take on being inventive and out there to Sin-City which really is. The genre seems to have warped from films that were largely based in L.A. And relied on stock characters to pull along complicated and sometimes incomprehensible plots to an umbrella genre that now describes any film that is in black and white and/or doesn’t end up with a happy ending.

 

I hope to incorporate the ideas into my Film. For example like Sin-City's The Orange Bastard, I could make the feel of the film more Gray and take out most of the colour so only the vivid remain. I could also make it more aggressive and angry like in most of the scenes in any Christopher Nolan Film as I feel it adds more dimensions to the films, can help to build more of a relationship with the characters and plus anger always connotes madness. 

Pics of Filming

Interesting Film - Brick

I watched an interesting film last night called Brick. It was set in and around an American high school but it was different because it had all the conventions and was in the style of a 70s detective show/movie like Starsky and Hutch. For example there was a euphemism or acronym for every other noun to the extent that they almost had an "underground" language that towards the end you could understand which helps to unify the audience. Another convention was the generic character profiles, that the principle was the tough main chief constable that was willing to make a deal for information, the protagonist was the lone wolf, don’t care what anybody thinks don't play by the rules sort of guy and there was the femme fatal in the form of the drug dealers girlfriend with the wandering eye.

The story was of a lone wolf outsider who after the death of his girlfriend enlists the help of his best friend (in the form of the guy who knows everything about anything character) to track down the person responsible for her death and upon doing so discovers a web of lies, deceit and corruption that results in a master plan that no living man could ever have conceived.

Although I thought the film was very good, it was shot beautifully and it had Joseph Gorden-Levitt (one of my favourite up and coming actors) there were some bad points to. For example it was very samey, there wasn’t very much variation in the colour or edit from shot to shot which was probably due to the gimmicky, quirky, 70s style but it hindered it massively as the film didn’t really seem to go any where and unfortunately the sort of Dirty Harry style of acting came across at some points to be quite wooden as I don’t think that it works on the modern stage.

From this I have learnt that my film will be made or broken on the back of the acting and the story. This is because, as in the film, in closed net stories you get drawn into the characters and their backgrounds so if the performance is poor, the whole thing becomes unbelievable (which is the opposite of what I want as one of the vital conventions of a thriller is that, in their own universe, what you see on screen could actually happen) and it all falls down.

All in all I think it was a brilliant, quirky film that’s only faults came from its own gimmick and it will be very useful in developing the feel of the film.

Set Design

I started of by approaching the management of the house to see when I could film and if it was possible so that I didn’t set my heart on an impossible dream. 

After they told me that they had some free dates but only over a two day period I originally thought it would be impossible but after scouting around the are and unable to find the perfect set I made the difficult discussion that I would try to get it done in just the little amount of time I was given.

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Even though in my eyes it was the perfect place to film, the room was completely empty. To make it look like a lived in office I had to transport a mixture of furniture from my home, my Granny's home, Max's home and Potbury's furniture store. 

After testing out the Futon as a Chaise Langé, I found that it didn’t look right and I decided a Black leather chair and a foot stool instead. In the end this worked better than I hoped as it allowed more movement In the characters and it matched the chair behind the desk which helped the aesthetics.

Risk Assesment

Pre-Shoot Log

Main Sequence

Long/slow zoom to Ext/C/UP of eye over VO in a cell maybe pan across a shelf with things on it in either his bed room or his cell after the events in the psychiatrists office

Cough dissonance 1^st is real cough 2^nd is to get attention and cuts to PY in office PY starts in focus and then refocuses in real time to TV

uncomfortable silence 4-5 seconds F/B

then mutters line 4 like a child, twiddling his thumbs. Pull from PY to TV

head in hands/disappointed/parent like for line 5

line 6 disgruntled teenager arguing back for no reason snappy cut on every brake in sentence maybe to Py

line 7 when interrupted whole body language changes slumps ect camera stays on him as TV starts speaking

line 8 leans forward, stares into PY's eyes

line 9 tracking around characters snapping across 180 line ending in mid shot over PY shoulder of TV

line 10 - 12 reverse static, default continuity editing

line 13 slow tracking shot from a low angle 30 – 150 until after “sea of pure imagination” or on line 14 with the chuckle must be said as if he is talking on the top of his head, through his ass.

Line 14 cut mid shot/ C UP for line and then 15 – 18 reactions/reverse

Line 19 picks up glasses and reads from exclamation marks up to screaming then slow track on TV from 60 – 35 on “why are you following me” then stop on comma and FB to slow punch on “ stop following me” which is also muttered by TV. Then mid shot on PY for last sentence

Line 20 Ext close up of both eyes or face first part look down and then look up, stare at PY

21 – 22 pull out over PY shoulder

23 as TV say me in 22 PY gets up and camera pulls out to both in frame then refer to diagram maybe a pan with him after the window finish on 90 degree on close up of PY facing window.

24 extreme close up on TV FB of silhouette on camera

25 sitting back down over shoulder of TV (back to default shots)

26 over top of line images of man in different locations when in the street refer to diagram

27 – 31 default camera

32 – 33 same as before but maybe FB

34 goes to close up to show eyes

35 reaction and reverse

36 ignored him maybe reaction of PY shrugging it off

37 slightly louder than before shuffles paper to change conversation

38 normal until TV says “all you stand for is a scam” then PY gets up again to the window Tv also stands and continues to have a go you watch TV get up over PY shoulder then refocus onto PY's face after he gets up TV talks all the way through

39 turns around body language changes/more agitated/uses hand signals to emphasise points and walks around

40 close up of smile (twisted) cuts to same shot before of PY looking out of window towards camera and TV over shoulder talking

41 turns around sharply more angry starts to sort paper on his desk while saying lines avoiding eye contact shot of Luke walking behind TV who doesn’t move fixed on PY

42 getting up to leave turns to camera and smiles

43 same shot as before but smile drops

44 cut as TV turns around and gives long speech, long shot and slow zoom as TV walks toward PY while talking until face to face

45 same shot PY smiles then Luke grabs arm and TV stares once more into PY's eyes

46 as he says what he says up until satisfaction then slow zoom in close up of PY until “and when” the switch to TV same shot. Then for last sentence switch back to PY and stay on him with slow pan across to Luke closing the door behind them. Then he turns around and the VO of line 47 starts as he is staring out of the window

47 is a slo mo shot of TV walking down the corridor close up of his face. Cut to long shot slo zoom out as he walks through door, on what’s the point music stops and cuts to same shot as opening shot and music stops

Fight Sequence

Walks down the street, tracking shot, then kids come into view 10-15 more seconds of walking then he notices them stops for a second and continues to walk on.

Then a following shot behind him he looks over his shoulder and cuts to the two kids walking and chatting.

Then back to him as he stops and turns around to face the kids, they aren’t looking where they are going and thus they bump into tom camera is at a low angle mid-shot of both the kids and tom.

He then says why are you following me and it goes to a reaction shot of the kids looking confused.

It then goes back to the same shot as before as he hits one of them in the face and get a safety of the kid being hit in reaction.

He then goes on to batter him on the floor while screaming why were you following me and maybe get a slo mo of a low angle of toms fist coming down onto him.

The other kid then jumps on his back to try and wrench him off and they both fall to the left off the camera.

He then continues to batter the kids until they are both unconscious on the floor and he then gets up and looks around for witnesses and there is a point of view shot of him looking around he then runs off past the camera.

Audience Interviews

Location Hunting

Cast List

Tom Verity - Max Hesmondhalgh


The Psychiatrist - Mike Berenger


Hallucination - Luke Griffiths


Two Attacked Teenagers - Oscar Hesmondhalgh and Mike Bowditch