Research into Film Noir Movies.

The brief states that i must make a short film lasting approximately 5 minutes. It also asked me to choose 2 out of the 3 ancillary tasks, i have chosen the poster and the radio trailer. I have been researching some popular noir classics of the 30/40/50's and these 12 films have extremely appealed to me and some especially through their film posters. Here is a list and i will be posting later with my analysis of some of my favourite films.

M 

Casablanca

The Blue Dahlia

D.O.A

Murder, My Sweet

Rope

Strangers on a Train

North by North West

The Third Man

Point Blank

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Rebecca

The Scarlet Claw

I will post annotations of these movies film posters.

Film Noire costume research

Virtually any single element of Film Noire is seen as iconic. The first and strongest signals of noire characters have to be the way they are dressed. The iconic leading men of Film Noir were known as being brooding, hard drinking womanisers, they resort to quick wit rather than violence. To emulate these characters it would be a good idea to dress similarly to them as that with give the audience a clear first impression of who we are.

The classic style is the three piece suit, it allows the look good without attracting too much attention to himself. The jacket is usually unbuttoned to not only show off the vest below, but also to show off their pistol to make the other character feel uneasy but still not give a hostile impression to others not involved.

Since dark, uneasy weather was often used in Film Noir as a means of foreshadowing dark, mysterious, and dangerous situations, the detective often wore a large coat to add to the feeling of gloom surrounding the set. Often worn with the collar popped up to shield, or conceal one’s face. These have come back into style recently so acquiring one of these should not be too difficult.

A clever thing with Film Noire was the fact that you felt that the characters were stylish without even trying to be, like in such films as 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Big Sleep'.


     

Example of a three piece suit

Example of a Trench coat

Research of Noir films

da film nware jornruh iz totes a gd jornruh. it iz lyk defz ma fave

Film Noire music soundtrack research

This song will give a very 'Noire like' aura and help add to the dark, moody scenes we will be filming. This being played at the same time as the track below will help add an even darker and spooky effect.

Film Noire setting research

During a scene when someone is walking down the street next to a wall, we will set up a series of intense lights just out of the shot and slightly behind the action. This will cast the shadow of our character slightly ahead of him as he walks down the street. As the character passes the light source, the shadow will go from behind to in front and will move farther in front the farther he gets from the light source. We think this will add drama to a scene(look at example below).

We are aware that a lot of film noir pieces use window blinds to create stark contrasts and shadowy lighting to an interior scene, we may do the same by placing a very intense hard light outside a window, and slant it so that it looks like another source of light such as a street lamp. We will Partially close the blinds to get the desired striping effect on the wall and across the forehead of our character. 

Film Noire lighting and filming research

classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning.In traditional lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination.
Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector. The light in film noir lighting is very crisp and precise. We will focus our light to fall exactly where the characters are placed and nowhere else. 
We are trying to achieve crisp blacks and stark whites effects. We will set up the light so that we catch just the edge of our character's face or hat or gun. i want our characters silhouetted against a splash of light in the background. We want light coming through a window blind to cast striped shadows on your character's face and the background (look at image below, a clip from Film Noire). 

In our film we are going to constantly be thinking about the shadows and make them sharp and crisp with intense lighting on a small amount of the set.

Deciding the Genre.

There are many inspiring directors and actors that were created in the 1930/40/50's such as Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, Fritz Lang and Basil Rathbone. Many if not all directors from this era seem to follow a very specific visual style, which is the film noir genre, here is a list of some classic camera conventions used regularly in film noir:

Location filming was becoming much more popular in the 1940's and in most films were not filmed in a set but in a real place as the directors believed it gave greater realism,

Low angle shots,

Dutch angle shots,

Wide angle Shots,

Mirror shots (this is where the characters reflection is in one or more mirrors),

Night for night filming instead of day for night,

Low key lighting.

After researching the ways in which the director uses the camera and some of the general styles within the film noir genre, i believe that we could recreate this very well in a modern day era. I think that this genre will be perfect for our short film as it gives us a good excuse to film at night, which means there will be no people around to get in the shots and it will create a nice, tense atmosphere. In addition it means that we can film in black and white which is what i was planning on doing anyway. Also the era is not that far from the modern day so it will be a lot easier than our previous production which was set in 1890's/1900's.


The film noir genre will work well with our short film because very often a film noir story is developed around a hard-hearted and cynical male character like Humphrey Bogart in casablanca, this is the kind of detective i am hoping i can portray in our production. However i want to also make the audience relate to him in a sense that they feel they would do the same thing in his situation and therefore respect him.

Film Noire genre research.

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas. This is the style we are going for with our film. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, a style with a low key black and white visual style. Crime is usually the main element for film Noire, where greed and jealousy is usually the main motive for the crime. A crime investigation by a private eye, police detective or a concerned member of the public is the most prevalant, but far from dominant, basic plot. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. Film noirs tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm.
Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities; Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular are the location of many of the classic films.








We want style to be a large part of this short film

Film plot

Establishing shot


Camera pans from left to right of oxford from the top of st.marys tower, cuts to close up of detectives face at line "No way", detective is standing in darkened alley smoking a cigarette. narration continues throughout establishing shot.
Detective: (Narrating) It all started 6 years ago. It was my first case in the new department. Homicide. looking back on it, the promotion probably went to my head. I wanted to prove my worth to the force. I ended up in a bed for 3 months, eating food through a god-damned straw. They used to call this the city of dreaming spires... But no ones dreaming anymore. he gave me the slip once, and shit, he thought he'd gotten away with it. No way, (toking a cigarette, dirty cough) not this time. (leans into the light for the first time) This time your mine boy. (chucks cigarette on floor and stamps out)

Approximately: 45 secs

Interrogation

Detective: You're a difficult man to find John. Do you know why we're after you? (Casual/Relaxed)

Villain: There's always a reason with you people. (Calm/Casual)

Detective: Do you know why IM after you? (Intrusive/Interrogative) 

Villain: Oh? Didn't recognise you there detective, Hows Jimmy doing? (Said with a smile/Smug/insulting)

(Flashback of Jimmy looking practically dead, detective sat by the bed with head in hands. Nurse: "the poisons gotten into his blood stream detective, we've never seen anything like this before... im sorry" detective gets up and punches the wall. obscured effect) 

Detective: I'll pretend i didn't hear that... (Through gritted teeth)

Detective: Listen, we can either do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, its your call John... (long pause)

Villain: (Runs away)

Detective: Hard way it is.

Approximately: 30-40 secs

Flashback 

Jimmy is tied to a chair in a dark room with only one bulb, the camera uses a dutch angle shot to capture the villain entering the room.

Jimmy: do you know how much shit your gonna be in for messing with a cop?

Villain: Thats the least of your worries Sergeant. (Pause) Did you know, theres a great deal to learn working at a power plant. Practical things(grabs jimmy's face) Have you ever heard of plutonium? Lovely substance, fascinating properties. We used it on the japs back in 45. Did the job. Very efficient. Now IM gonna use it on you. 


Jimmy starts struggling and his body and face gets obscured by the villain pouring the vial into his mouth. all you can see of jimmy is his legs struggling frantically.

Approximately: 20-30 secs

*CHASE SCENE* Include - match-on-action

At the end of the chase scene the villain runs into dead end, detective catches up with gun pointed at villains head.

Approximately: 1:30

Confrontation

Detective: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Time to face the music, (name).

Villain: Times a fickle thing detective, im afraid your last song has already begun.

Detective: Cut the crap and beg like the dog you are.

Villain: For a detective, your not the sharpest of men are you?

Detective realises that during the chase scene brawl hed been stabbed with a toxin (flashback)

Villain: Ive got the cure right here in my pocket, you can still leave here with your life.

Detective: Or i could just kill you right here. Right now.

Villain: The stakes are high detective, sure you want to take the risk?

Detective: Ive always been a gambling man...

Villain: Well ive always been lucky......BANG

Villain drops to floor, dead. Detective slumps against alley wall next to garbage can and pulls out a cigarette. Same narration from the beginning starts "They used to call this the city of dreaming spires... Coz this city's so god-damn fucked, they cant bear to ever wake up."

Approximately: 1-1.20 min

Final shot: Detective dies and hand falls to floor, cigarette rolls out of fingers and camera steadily zooms out using a crane shot.

Approximately: 15 secs

Research on Location

Oxford is a great place for filming, it offers a great deal of incredible architecture. Our film will either be filmed during dark hours, or in Black and white to make the film feel like it has been shot at night. 
Certain alleyways in town would make a great scene and help create the 1950s style aura, most of our filming will be done in these certain environments. We can even choose to film on our own streets due to the type of scene we are trying to set. A lone villain and a lone detective, on a dark journey.