What are the conventions of film noir?

Evaluation; Question 1

Location 2

The House

Originally we intended to use a multi storey car park for our second location but this proved difficult so we decided to change to this house, which would in the story be the house of Ruby's current lover. We will film in the evening so the lighting will make the location feel more claustrophobic and enigmatic, typical traits of film noir movies. 

The big wooden door and single source of light (porch light) will give the scene an eery feeling which teamed with music will increase the tension giving the audience the feeling that something bad is going to happen. The bars on the porch give a sense of entrapment, which suggests Ruby has no escape from her inevitable fate. 

We will use an extreme close up of Ruby's hand trying to open the door. This will add some confusion and the audience will wonder who's house she is trying to get into. This adds to the mystery and tension of the plot line as there are a lot of loose ends that will be explained later on in the film. The close up will give a sense of claustrophobia, which will highlight that Ruby is alone, making her seem more vulnerable. 

The open space of the drive up to the house is bleak and empty which suggests the loneliness of Ruby, it again will make her seem vulnerable and look small against the grand scheme of things. As we will film at night the space will look more suspicious - as in, it will heighten the feeling that something bad is going to follow.

This is where the attack will take place. This location is similar to large empty spaces used in films such as Essex Boys. 

Location 1

The Office;

We are going to use this business office located in Watton for the first part of the opening of our thriller. We will use props and lighting to make the office appear a film noir style detectives office. The big wooden desk covered in in various documents works really well to make it appear a police office. The office we have created is similair to locations seen in films such as Casino Royale and The Third Man. It is claustrophobic and enigmatic which compliments our story line and theme perfectly. The mounds of work suggest to the audience that our main character (Ted Lived) is a busy man, devoted to his job who has little time to do anything but work, it also hints at a dark side of him as his work is not neat in his office, it is sort of like an area of mess and destruction which pre-empts the role he will play in the film. 

We have made a folder to imitate a confidential police folder with images of a young girl attached to the top. The images of her are those that she doesn't know have been taken. This will make the audience wonder if his intentions are to protect her like a detective should or whether they are darker than that. Also placed on the desk is a passport and a map, this suggests that Ted travels, whether that's strictly business or for darker deeds, the audience will not know. This adds to the enigma of the storyline and our main character. 

Within the office is a filing cabinet which Ted will walk over to and get out the document. This is a typical piece of furniture featured in a police style office which make the location more realistic and believable in our thriller opening. Again the office appears similar to those featured in Casino Royale. It also suggests to the audience a feeling of secrecy, as within the filing cabinets are confidential documents. This highlights that Ted has an important, high class role in society as he is trusted with such secret documents. 

Location planning

Treatment

A desk in a detective’s office (props around the room to indicate it’s a detectives office such as lots of paperwork, police badge etc.) with a silhouette of a man dressed in full black, with a long black coat, and black hat shadowing his face, tapping his nail on the desk. His phone and hand is lit up by a lamp on the table. He receives a message causing his phone to light up. He takes a deep breath and looks at the phone, cuts to over the shoulder shot of the phone. Message from an unknown number, the message reads “Hollywood car park, 42 Angel Street, Norwich, 9^th floor J” He has one leather glove on as he opens a draw, you see him tugging on something but never get to see what. He then puts the item in his pocket and as he walks out of the room he puts on the other leather glove. During all of this, you never get to see the man’s face.

Cuts to a woman with a suitcase walking towards the car park, the shot comes from the neck down so we never see her face. Following the 180 degree rule.  She is dressed in a bright red dress, with black heels. All you can hear is her footsteps as she walks along the pathement. You then see that the lift is out of order, and she makes her way up the staircase, using a low angled shot, level with the staircase. It then cuts to shot of a sign that says “9^th floor”, with a graffiti “J” on it, and the camera slowly moves down, and as it sinks you see the women go up the final step, and the camera then reaches the bottom step and you then hear a scream, followed by a choking sound.

Our opening to our thriller takes inspiration from such thrillers as, “The Third Man”. The way you never clearly see our character has been taken from this film, in the way that it hides one of the main characters, “Harry Lime”. We have decided to take this idea, and use it as our own as it creates tension and enigma in the plot. As for the way our characters look, again this is taken from “The Third Man”, but not only that, also “LA Confidential”. Both films use classic film noir costumes for male and female, and that is approach we would like to take. 

Characters, Costumes and Props

Characters Costumes and Props 2