Pitching Our Film Noir

We presented our ides to the class to show how far we've come since the start of the process and where we hope to go next with it. 

Pitching Our Film Noir Ideas from Cassia Lima

Voice over planning

In our lesson today we began to write the voice overs we are going to use throughout the film. The first one we've written will be at the start of the film to set the scene for the audience and introduce our characters. Our second voice over takes place once Charlie gets her diary back and she realises that Scarlett had it and has found out about her obsession. We were going to link these voice overs to the diary as a confessional for Charlie and also create interest for the audience to make them wonder what happens to it at the end.

Character Profiles

These are some images that we edited and i have not included in the film above. 

This image of Cassia - our femme fatale Scarlett - has been edited to make the right side darker making her stand out more on the left side and giving her a sense of mystery. Her red cardigan and dark lipstick stand out against the black background and so make her seem like a dangerous character.

We also decided with our femme fatale that we are going to have her hair back in a bun away from her face. It shows her neck and makes her look more sexual.

This image of our protagonist Charlie (played by Hollie Moss) has been edited to make her look softer and lighter. Her pale clothing, skin and hair stands out against the dark background and so makes her seem innocent and young.

This image of our victim Richard (Josh Volpe) has been edited to darken the right side of his face giving him a sense of mystery. His red shirts stands out against the dark background and connotes death and danger.

Props

This image shows all the different props we're thinking of using in our film. The cigarettes and telephone are common props within film noir and so keep our film true to the genre. The diary is going to be used as a confessional and an insight into the protagonist's mind and we're also going to link it to the voice over, another key convention of film noir. The exam paper shows that our film is set in a school, subverting film noir settings and making our film more unique.

our film noir ideas

We made this video of us showing all our current ideas of what we want to do with our film. We thought it would be a good way of planning and presenting our ideas to the class. We also used the Brick soundtrack to keep it with the film noir feel.

Planning

Brick Class Analysis

Brick - Class analysis

In today's lesson we analyse Brick as a class, splitting it into different sections and focusing on each of them in turn.

We looked at Todorov's narrative theory and applied it to Brick. The narrative theory states that a narrative starts off in a state of equilibrium which then gets disrupted, turns into disequilibrium, gets resolved and returns to equilibrium. In Brick, the narrative goes from Emily being alive and still being connected to Brendon, to Emily going missing and calling Brendon causing him to become involved, then the disequilibrium of Emily getting killed, Brendon constantly being beaten up and getting involved with The Pin and his gang, and then the resolution of the bad guys getting punished and Brendon getting away.

We also looked at how Propp's character theory could apply to Brick. The hero would be Brendon as he puts it on himself to find out what happened to Emily and why it happened. The villain in Brick could be one of many people. It could be seen as being The Pin who starts the gang in the first place, or Laura who sets everyone up for a downfall or Tug who kills Emily and Dode. The helper in Brick is The Brain who gives Brendon all the information he needs to help him find where Emily could be.  The dispatcher could be Emily as she phones Brendon and gets him involved and motivated. The princess in Brick is Emily as she is seen as the innocent girl, which is shown through her blonde hair and white clothing.

The enigma code is questions that the narrative answers later on. It can also be used to keep the audience interested and intrigued. Brick uses enigma at the start to make us ask who the body is and why they're dead. It immediately makes the audience want to find out what happened and why. Brick constantly uses enigma through disturbing flashbacks, quick jump cuts (particularly during violence) and creates suspense to make the audience want to keep watching and asking questions that the film will later answer. 

Brick uses stereotypes of both people and film noir. The Brain wears glasses and is usually seen on his own and in the library, the stereotypical view of smart people. The Pin has a cloak and walking stick which can be seen as being stereotypical of people in power. The film uses specific lighting, stereotypical of film noir and also includes death, yet another stereotype.

Brick uses different ideology such as good versus bad, with the bad people getting punished, the idea of an underdog - Brendon - being able to solve such a big mystery on his own, intellect being valuable yet taken for granted with the use of The Brain and teenage pregnancy/drugs/popularity/love triangles.

Brick uses many different examples of conforming to but also subverting the genre of film noir. Brick conforms to the genre by using flashbacks, having a complex plot with both an anti-hero and a femme fatale, and the use of flashbacks. However, it also subverts the genre by being set in a school and mostly being set during the day rather than the night. It also doesn't use the common convention of the genre of pathetic fallacy/rain with the weather mostly being sunny.

Brick constantly uses semiotics throughout the film. Femme fatale Laura is first seen wearing red - the semiotic for danger, in contrast to the good female, Emily who is wearing white - the semiotic for innocence. Tug is wearing white, once again the semiotic for innocence and purity, which is ironic as he is the murderer. Tug's gang also wears white in juxtaposition to Pin's gang who wear black - the semiotic for death.

Finally, Brick uses many different binary oppositions. There is the stereotypical binary opposite of good versus bad but also the opposite of selfish and selfless with half the characters aiming to do good within the film and the other half creating destruction. There's also contrast in colour with good people wearing white and bad people wearing black, total opposites.

Planning - Locations

Planning - Locations

We decided that we wanted to use an office in our film and so today during the lesson Cassia and I took some photos of the English office to see how well that would work with our film. The location is the same block as the classroom we want to use and so keeps the film in the same place and as the block is old, it gives it an old sort of feel. We discussed different angles we could shoot from and think it would be a good place to use for our film.

We like the idea of having an over-the-shoulder shot of the teacher looking out the window at the protagonist walking past.

We also like the idea of filming through the window in the door to follow the film noir convention of obstructions and creating the sense that audience are seeing something they shouldn't.

Film analysis - Brick (2005)

Planning - locations

Planning - locations

So far we have discussed two possible locations where we could shoot parts of our film. As we decided originally, part of our film will be filmed in a school. We decided to use one of the rooms in the older part of school to make the location fit in more with the film noir style. We have decided to use K10 as it has big windows in which we can use to create different lighting and it is a decent sized space. The door also has a round window in it which we also thought we could use to film through to create a different and interesting shot.

We also thought we could possibly use Hitchin. It's cobbled roads and old style buildings could create an interesting setting for us to film in. Lib took some pictures of possible places we can shot and also spoke to two different shops to ask if we'd be able to use their shops as locations for filming. Hitchin could be a really interesting place to film in and create the sense that this is a film noir.

Planning - first ideas

Planning - first ideas

Last week we put our original ideas down onto a spider diagram to start getting an idea of where we wanted to go with our film.

We started thinking about what sort of characters we wanted, where we wanted to set it and what a possible storyline could be. Whilst this will most definitely change throughout the filming process, these ideas just give us a base to build on.
We wanted to keep our film in the film noir style of black and white and use some conventions but we also want to make it a bit more modern and so we're going to make some conventions more modern and set it in a school, a setting that is not frequently used in film noir.

Planning - timetable

Planning - timetable

Along with planning first ideas for our film this week, we arranged what times we would all be free during the week to film or get together and discuss. I put this in a timetable so it's easy to see when we can do things and start planning when we're going to film and edit.

WEEK A	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1			Everyone		Lesson
2	Everyone	Everyone			Everyone
3	Everyone
4	Lesson	Lesson
5		Lesson			Everyone
6

WEEK B	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1		Cassia, Emily, Lib		Everyone
2		Everyone
3		Lesson	Lesson	Everyone
4	Everyone		Cassia, Lib, Bethany		Cassia, Lib, Bethany
5	Lesson		Cassia, Lib, Bethany		Lesson
6	Lesson

Film analysis - L. A. Confidential (1997)