Film Noir: Film Ideas

On the 10th of January Toby, Ellen and I all sat down and began brainstorming ideas for our film. We decided that we wanted to do the film in black and white, making it similar to films such as Double Indemnity that we have studied. After also looking at Black Dahlia, despite liking the film, we did not feel that it was as effective in the style of Film Noir as Double Indemnity. Personally I feel that the black and white effect on the film reflects the darkness of the era that the genre came out of, and so by keeping to this colouring we can come closer to acheiving a Film Noir style short film.

Through deciding the style that we wanted we came to designing our storyline.
First we chose the characters we wanted involved and then developed their traits to lead us to a storyline.

A detective is on the hunt for a drug dealer, and the dealer's female sidekick (our 'Femme Fatale') comes and tells the detective what are supposed to be the details of the dealer's plans to earn a lot of money. She tells him that she will be killed and so therefore creates a sense of urgency in the detective's mind to catch the dealer. The detective eventually finds the dealer and after shooting him is told that actually the female is the one who had control over the crime and will have now got away with the money. The detective tries to catch and stop the female, but discovers that she has got away. The whole story will be told as a flashback, with inserts of narration.

This is a very simple storyline, but as the film can only be a length of 5 minutes, it is an achievable idea.

On the 12th of January we decided on our characters and their names, using inspiration from films we had seen as research beforehand.

Characters:

• Detective John Carter - Main character, who falls for the femme fatale's ways and goes to find 'bobby'



• Bobby - Bad guy who is made out the leader in a gang who do drug dealing, but is also a murderer so the police are after him anyway.



• Bonnie Kensington - Femme Fatale who is the mastermind behind the drug dealing scandal; she tempts John Carter with her seductive manner and sob story



• Scarlett Lena Jones - Bobby's sidekick



• Chester - fellow policeman



• Archie - fellow policeman

During the planning of the characters, we decided on our opening scene, and how we wanted to portray it. It was important for us to make clear that the story was being told as a flashback, so this scene was key to not only setting the scene, explaining some of the story, but also allowing the audience to understand the layout of the screenplay.

A first brief paragraph of an idea for the narration going over the first clip is:

Detective John Carter: "I was told that these photographs of the towns latest criminals contained some of those we have before seen on many occasions. They were not wrong. 'Bobby' as he had been known had been in these photographs of the most wanted since he murdered my father. He had also been drug dealing since I began my job back in '54. This lady was supposedly known to have a connection with him. I knew it was my job to try and find the two so that I could finally be at peace with the death of my father. Had I known what wool was to be pulled over my eyes, things could have ended very differently."

This speech is supposed to exemplify not only a negative air that is so prominent in 'Film Noir' films but also help the audience to warm to the character. As he is the lead, we need the viewers to feel some kind of emotion towards him, and in this film it will be as though they are on his side. This is evident in the way we have immediately let the audience into his mind - they know what he is thinking and therefore automatically feel closer to him. The fact that he has told of his father's death also brings them closer to him - perhaps even leading them to trust him. I think by having this kind of speech at the beginning it really sets the mood. In double indemnity, the story is told as a flashback, with an office scene at the beginning. I felt this was incredibly effective and therefore feel it will hopefully be as effective in our own rendition of a 'Film Noir.'
It will be told in a rough american accent, with hesitancy and sharp, quick wording.