screenplay/script

Screenplay for 

Private Investigations

Written by

Paddy Brown

Scene 1 - 

Ext. Night time. Dark Lamplit street

From a high angle we watch a man dressed in a black trench coat, carrying a briefcase, walk up a street. The score is playing. The camera then cross dissolves to show him turing into a house and leaving the frame. We never see his face throughout the film. Fade out.

Scene 2 - 

Int. Private investigators office

Fade in. We see a white door being pushed open (POV shot of the man in black) and we are introduced to the private investigator’s office. The score is still playing. The camera settles on the PI sitting behind the desk in the middle of the room. The man then walks into the frame from behind the camera and he walks up to the desk, and the camera cross dissolves between shots of him taking off his hat and lights a cigarette. The score begins to die down. No dialogue has been spoken yet but the PI has a look of mixed surprise and fear on his face, suggesting he is not happy to see the man.

PI: there’s no smoking in here

The man leans forwards and flicks ash into a crystal ashtray

Man: yet you keep the ashtray, for decoration?

PI: never saw the need to get rid of it, it completes the room

Man: no, the rug completes the room, perhaps the poster of Stanwyck or the ceramic plant pot. The ashtray tells me you wish to accommodate your clientele, your initial statement to me suggests your apathy to have me here

PI: The poster is Dietrich (pause) and I mean no insult. It is after hours and I have had a long day (his hand extends towards a bottle of whisky and a glass containing a measure of the drink), how can I help you?

Man: help is not the right word, I need to know what you can do for me and to what extent I can confide my request with you 

The PI looks suspicious, he sets down his drink and looks at the man

PI: I always offer the best in client confidentiality, dependent on the agreed premium

Man: (smiling - we just see the side of his face) that is good although I believe you will accept my proposal under vocational rather than mercenary intentions.

The PI begins to shuffle uncomfortably in his seat, appearing nervous. The man passes a photograph across the desk and the PI lifts it up. Cut to an over the shoulder shot of the PI holding the photo. We see a beautiful young woman wearing sunglasses. The camera moves out to see the husband watching the PI 

Man: beautiful, isn’t she?

PI looks up sharply

PI: yeah, em I guess, who, who is she?

Man: my wife (pause) do you know what it is like to be in love?

PI: em..

Man: (talking over PI) it is the best and worst feeling, because when you are so, devoted, to someone, only to find out they are fucking around-

PI looks very nervous, the camera begins to move between the PI and the photo, suggesting a connection

Man: -it tears you apart inside and slowly what you thought was love turns sour, into something filled with hate.

Man: and deciding what route to take the retribution is difficult but I have decided to leave it to the hands of others

PI: (submissively) and that is where I come in

Man: I want my wife dead. Or the man she is with dead. That is where you come in. I want you to choose. Does this proposition seem appropriate?

PI: (looking away from the man) yes

Man: you understand what I want?

PI: (now looking directly at the man) yes

Man: good

The man lifts up his briefcase and pushes it across the table towards the PI. The camera focuses on the PI opening the briefcase but the man remains in frame as he extinguishes his cigarette, lifts his hat and stands up. He faces the PI. In centre frame we see the briefcase on the desk, with the PI to the left and we can see the man’s hands and the tip of his hat. 

Man: I heard that you worked on the Corleone and Capone homicide case. I knew the Corleone family well. One day young Henry Corleone came to me and told me he had slept with Don Capone’s daughter. Henry was fearful of the reaction of the rival Capone family to this dishonor. He had been given a choice; leave the girl or leave the country. A smart man would choose one or the other. Henry chose to dishonor both his own and the Capone family by moving in with this girl in the neighborhood. A week later they found him they found him in five bin bags behind the Corleone restaurant.

The PI is watching the man intently, terrified

Man: (lifting his hat onto his head) a smart man makes the wise choice to save himself

The man turns around and leaves. The PI is looking in the briefcase. The camera cross dissolves to show us what is in the briefcase; a gun, money and a passport. We hear footsteps coming from above, someone is coming down the stairs. Fade out white.

Scene 3 - 

Int. Private investigators office

A woman enters the doorway of the office. We are introduced to her from toe to head slowly. She is dressed in white. She leans seductively against the door frame and the light from the hallway illuminates her blonde hair and dress against the darkness and shadows of the office. It is the woman from the photograph.

Woman: (seductively) what did he want?

She moves towards him quickly but gracefully and he stands up to greet her, keeping one hand firmly on the briefcase. They embrace and kiss but the briefcase catches the woman’s eye and she breaks away from him, the PI closes the case with his hand and looks at her, distracting her gaze.

PI: (looking into her eyes, lovingly) nothing.

Fade out

Scene 4 - 

Ext. Night. Dark Lamplit street

Fade in. The same score is playing again. The man is walking back down the street after leaving the PI’s house. He is smoking a cigarette and walking straight towards the camera. As he moves closer we see him smiling although his face is hidden. He breathes out smoke and glances at the camera. Fade out.

The End

Production Diary

My filming will be divided into 3 days, for 4 scenes.

day 1 - scenes 1 and 4 - thursday 2nd april

intentions: 

to film the opening and closing scenes where max as 'the man' walks up and down the street.

description of filming: 

this was a fairly straight forward shoot as nothing particularily intricate was needed. no dialogue or changing stage directions were needed; i just needed the man to walk up and down the street. 

the problem of modern cars in the frame and driving up down the road was not a serious issue as it will not interfere with the film much. there were a few shots ruined by residents walking into the shot!

i shot the scene where the man walks away from the house towards the camera first. it was shot from ground level and only needed a few takes to get it completed. i tried different angles such as low and higher angles and where the actor should look in the shot. for the second scene i wanted a high angle so i bought a tripod which can be attached to most lamp posts, railings, trees etc and placed it halfway up a large lamp post. i left it filming and got the actor to walk up the street a few times before climbing up and checking the footage and adjusting the angle. after about 12 takes we had some decent footage and filmed the last scene which was a medium shot from ground level of the actor walking up to the house and i tried lots of different angles for this scene such as high and low angles and shooting from the other side of the street.

success:

 all three scenes were completed in about 10 takes each, just to give more variation in angles and different shots and i am happy with the footage.

day 2 - scene 2 - sunday 5th april

intentions: to film the longest scene which involves the actors max and paul as the man and the private investigator talking in the PI's office. 

filming description:

i decided to shoot the footage in chronological order as no order was needed for filming and it was easier for the actors to follow. i filmed about 5 - 10 takes of each shot because of the many different factors which would contribute to bad footage (framing, bad acting, forgetting lines, mispronounciation, sound issues, camera movement and shaky footage) and also to try different angles. generally the filming went well. running through the dialogue and stage directions with the actors as well as showing them where the camera would be before filming anything helped a lot so we were able to go ahead and start producing decent footage straight away.

success:

it took us about 3 hours with breaks to complete what i thought was a high standard of footage. around an hour was spent going through the motions with the actors before filming and then i was able to film all 14 different shots with different angles and many different takes fairly easily.

day 3 - scene 3 - monday 6th april

intentions: to film two shots where the man's wife appears in the doorway of the PI's office and they kiss. this is an important scene as it reveals an important twist in the story. the audience may or may not have seen this twist coming but the scene is also important as it suggests what route the PI is now going to take.

filming description:

it took around an hour to film these two shots because i tried many different angles and took many shots to ensure i had decent footage. it was also important, because of the gap in dialogue in this scene, that the acting was very natural and that took a lot of takes to get right

success:

i am happy with footage and although it was perhaps the hardest to film i feel the products are decent.

Statement of intentions

Main message or theme

My main intention for the feel of the film is to build tension. The message I want to convey is the classic feel of classic noir

through the basic synopsis of the film that secrets do not stay secret for long. I will use many of the basic conventions of noir including films set in the darkness of night with rainy streets where black and white picture is used to display a world of crime and betrayal. it is a character exposition that i hope will leave the audience gripped by the characters actions. The picture below shows the sort of image I want to associate with my film.

The general story of my film is about a man entering a private investigator's office he tells the PI his wife is having an affair. He then tells the private investigator that he wants either his wife or the man she has been with killed. The twist in the story is that the private investigator is the one having the affair with the man’s wife and the husband knows this. The P.I must then make a decision about what he is going to do. The story is not resolved, leaving the ending of the story open to interpretation.

Narrative structure

I have chosen a linear narrative structure because I feel it works best not only in cooperation with the genre (noir) but because it will work coherently with a possibly complicated story line which relies on subtext. The time constraints of the film will force me to make the hidden motives of the characters clear without too much exposition and compromising the style and essence of the film. Despite being a convention of noir, a disjointed narrative would be too hard to film effectively due to time restraints.

What were your influences?

My main influence for the film is the noir genre on a whole but specifically the classic period between 1940-1950 which included famous noir films such as the Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity and the Big Sleep (shown below from left to right respectively). Many of the films made in this period also followed the same sort of storyline such as the femme fatale or private investigator story lines. my film has elements of both these devices.

In terms of directors my influences would include John Huston and Billy Wilder for their work on classic noir during the early period. Also the work of John Alton as a cinematographer, who was expert at presenting the noir feel on screen, and who also often worked with Wilder and Huston.

I also got some influence from the work of Italian 17th century artist Caravaggio whose use of chiraocuso in his paintings has helped many directors present a sense of darkness and light. The picture to the left is an example of how Caravaggio would use light and darkness to accentuate his subjects a

nd this effect can be seen in many noir of the classic period, in the work of Alfred Hitchcock and most notably in the films of Martin Scorsese such as Casino and Goodfellas.

Hitchcock will be an influence for me in conveying sense of tension in my films as he was the superlative director in tension in cinema, especially in films such as North by Northwest and Rear Window, where the audience is frequently left guessing and on edge and even unsure about the fate of the characters.

For my film dialogue I want to draw influence from the master of cinematic dialogue, Quentin Tarantino. In order to avoid making my film seem as if it is made up of just a series of camera shots I want to incorporate some of the razor sharp dialogue Tarantino introduced in films such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, although I do not want the dialogue to feel as naturalistic as much of Tarantino’s dialogue would be, such as the breakfast diner scene in Reservoir Dogs (shown below), instead I want to draw influence from the more classy elements of his films and the smooth yet casual style of dialogue used by the likes of Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction.

My film will also be littered with homages to the noir genre, making it somewhat of a showpiece of the classic films and also the more post modern. For example the private investigators office will include a poster of the famous noir femme fatale Marlene Dietrich. Other references will be made to my influences such as the Maltese Falcon and the Big Lewbowski in the first few moments of dialogue alone, and a character's monolouge at the end will reference serveral different gangster sagas, while also helping to explain the story in subtext. i hope this method will help to build the film as a piece of classic noir.

How will I use these influences in my film?

I will use the influence of classic noir of the 1940s to recreate the style and feel of those films in my movie. Many of the most famous films of this time followed similar story lines to mine, many of which, such as the Maltese Falcon included a private investigator, a femme fatale (the wife) and a bad guy (the husband). The use of macguffins in noir was very popular such as the eponymous falcon in Maltese and the microfilm in North by Northwest and I will include a macguffin in my film in the form of the briefcase presented to the P.I by the husband.

The lighting used in the film will draw influence from the work of Caravaggio and also John Alton. The classic noir look of a darkened street with characters dressed in overcoats will feature at the beginning and end of the film and the use of chiracuso will be shown in the private investigators office through the use of low lighting (the man will remain in shadow and the PI will be under the light) throughout the film we will not see the husbands face, creating a sense of anoniminity and danger, whereas the P.I will be seen in full light. The wife will appear in a white dress with light around her (in a hallway) and in contrast the PI will be in a more darkened setting (the office), a technique used in most Scorsese films to introduce the leading lady, such as Casino and Goodfellas, two films with fairly dark and relative story lines.

Explain how you want your film to look and feel, consider lighting, sound use of camera, mis en scene, editing etc.)

I want my film to look like a traditional film noir, and have the elements of an homage, like the Maltese Falcon or Double Indemnity but I want to bring in style such as that of a Tarantino film rather than the dirt and corruption shown in others noir such as Sin City (neo-noir) or Touch of Evil. I will film the whole of the film in black and white to recreate the classic noir feel and hope to open the film with the husband character walking up a lamplit and rainy street (like the classic noir image shown above), perhaps with slow, almost eerie music. The film will be based in the past but no set date will be made clear in the film. Hints as to the date of the film will be provided in the wife’s hairstyle and the poster of Dietrich on the wall which suggests a 50’s timeframe. I will probably use a long shot for the opening scene to establish distance from the character, which is important in the film, (like Hitchcock characters are there to carry a story, the story does not carry them), and the majority of the film will be shot from someone’s POV, either the man’s or the PI’s. Close ups will be used on inanimate objects such as the photograph of the woman and the briefcase but no such camera interaction will occur with the characters, keeping a feel for the distance from them.

The private investigators office and the lamplit street will be the only locations and will follow a consistent theme - dark, lamplit, shadow - to show a sense of darkness and suspicion and hopefully tension. For lighting on the street obviously the street lamps will be used and as no distinct clarification of the character is needed this should suffice. For the PI’s office the room I will use is painted white so in order to have low key lighting very little lighting will be used, perhaps just with an overhead light and a desk light. The introduction of the woman in the film will show the contrast between her and the men in the dark office so she will appear in a well lit hallway. also the camera work will remain close to the men, showing them taking up most of the frame, focusing on them in the darkness, creating character exposition.

Explain why you want it to look and feel this way

I want to make my film centered on tension because I believe it holds the viewers attention better than a more obvious film. In the words of Hitchcock, ‘a bomb can provoke the most powerful emotional response in an audience (fear) but it must never fulfill its purpose’, i.e it cannot go off - an audience will be gripped far more by the possibility of a shocking event than it will by watching the event unfold, and this is why I hope to create a film filled with subtext coming from the simplest of expressions such as a character’s smile or the female characters dress and movement or the lighting and framing of characters. (such as the man dressed in all black, or the PI appearing out of frame to show his fear)

As well as the feeling of tension created by the suggestion of murder in the film I want to try and evoke my audiences involvement in the characters by introducing them all to the screen before any drama occurs and also give the audience an idea of their personality, for example the man dressed in a full black suit and hat. I want to make him out to be a powerful and dangerous character. Another method I hope to use is to put the viewer at ease with casual interaction, before having a character come out with an abrupt statement such as ‘I want one of them dead’ which will being them back to the tension and hopefully grip their attention.

mise en scene planning sheet

Location:

i have two locations in my film, one is a dark rainy street, lit by lamplight with small narrow terrace houses. the real life area of this setting is a street on Saul Street in Downpatrick. i have chosen this location as it fits the general feel of my film (in the house style and structure) and also becuase i know someone that lives there so i can use his house for the man's entrence at the start of the film. this location will be used for the first and last scene of the film so it is important to show it realistically to the audience.

my second and last location is the private investigator's office where the main part of the film will take place and the scenes between the PI and the man and also the PI and the woman. for this scene i will use a room in my house which will be converted to suit the needs of the scene. it is a small room and will be dimly lit with suitible noir style design and i hope this will help set the mood of the film. it is important that there is room in the office for the camera to move and the woman and man to interact. i also need to film out towards the hallway in the third scene. the locations should be easy enough to use. i only need one actor for the more difficult location, the street, and filming in my own house should be easier than shooting outside or somewhere else.

Props:

i do use a lot of props in my film, most of which are referenced in the dialouge and some which will be used to make the location look better. all of my props will be used within the private investigator's office. those without relevence to the script include (exlcuding the table and chairs), the name plaque on the PI's desk, the lamp on the desk and some file blocks in the room. props in the office which will be mentioned in the script, (mostly in an homage fashion) are the crystal ashtray, which will be used throughout the film (crystal because it will seem more old fashioned),the large poster on the wall of Marlene Dietrch (a classic noir femme fatale) and the rug on the floor. the props used by the man are the photo, which is used to introduce the female character to the plot, and also to provoke a response from the PI, his cigarettes, which are used to promote a sinister feeling about the man (also the bad guys are generally smokers in movies, although most characters in noir smoke, only the man smokes in my film), and the briefcase which the man carries that acts as the central macguffin in the story. the briefacse is on screen at the start of the film and will be an important centrepiece at the end. in the briefcase is contained three other props will will help explain the story, a gun, symbolising death, money, showing payment and corruption, and a passport, showing the PI is goin to run away. the briefcase is important in helping the audience interpret what is going to happen as the story in left on somewhat of a cliffhanger.

below are photos (from the right to left) of the briefcase and its contents, the poster, the PI's name certificate and the desk and what is on it.

Make up:

there will not be any make up on my male actors, mainly because noir actors were not cast for their looks but for their ability or character, i do not wish to make a beauty pagent of the film. the woman character in the film will wear make up, pale make up which will help accentuate her against a dark background (the chiracuso effect used by martin scorsese). her blonde hair will also be worn up in a style similar to that of the heroines and femme fatales of the classic period, perhaps if possible, with a resemblence to the style of Marlene Dietrich in the poster on the PI's wall.

Costume:

the man: old style black hat (rimmed, blues brothers style), three piece black suit -white shirt, blazer, waistcoat - with a black tie and three quarter length trenchcoat, black shoes. 

the man is dressed in this fashion not only becasue it would have been the attire of the more wealthy individuals of the time but because the all black look is fairly intimidating and will hopefully create a sense of threat and give the man a powerful superior feel.

the private investigator: black pin stripe trousers, black shoes, white shirt, suspenders, blazer on back of chair.

the man is dressed in his daily formal attire but has began to dress down near the end of the day, he is obviously more casually dressed, making him seem at home. the contrast of style between the two men will also suggest the superiority of the man in full suit.

the woman's costume is also very important as it is integral in creating the chiraocuso lighting effect. she will wear a long white dress and black high heel shoes. the white represents an innocence in contrast to her actual deeds in the film and is used by many directors, especially Martin Scorsese, to introduce female actresses.

below are photos of the costumes being used for the man and the PI.

Sound:

the sound in my film will not play a major role in the film and the majority of sound will be diegetic and in the form of dialouge between the characters. other diegetic sound will include the woman walking down the staircase. the stairs at the location are in close enough proximity for me to able to use them without ehancement or sound effects. the only non-diegetic sound used in the film will be in the form of the soundtrack which will be an instrumental version of the dire straiuts song, private investigations. the sound of this song fits perfectly with the feel of my film and it is probably not coincidental that the band named it private investiagtions as the score seems to come straight out of a classic noir. this soundtrack will feature during the opening and closing scenes of the film where the man is walking down the street. it will also play into the next scenes for example it will continue to play while the man walks into the office and will die down just before the dialouge begins. at the end it will start to play as the PI is closing the briefacse and replies to the woman and will continue until the end of the film. as the only noticible sound outside of dialouge the track is very important and will need to be played to effect, hopefully to create a dark, foreboding yet oddly romantic theme to the film.

Lighting

the lighting in my films plays an important role in creating the classic noir feel. low lighting and making shadows is the key element to film and the use of carravaggios technique of chiraocuso is also very important as one of my main influences. for the intitial and closing street scenes the lighting will take the form of the streetlights only. having been to the location and night i believe this should be sufficient lighting in order to be able to film in the dark. this scene should reference the interpretation of noir mentioned in my statement of intentions that the genre consisted of 'films set in the darkness of night with rainy streets where black and white picture is used to display a world of crime and betrayl. this statement fits my intention for the film perfectly and i hope to recreate this feeling with the street scene and street lamp lighting should be sufficient to produce this effect.

for the scene in which the two men are talking methods of noir lighting (dark and shadowy) and chiraocuso lighting will be used. the man will appear in total shadow throughout the film to hide his face and create a sense of mystery and in the office the PI will appear under the light. to acheive this a desk light will be on beside the PI and focused towards him and a low overhead light will be on above the PI (although if this creates to much light it will not be used). this will create a contrast between the characters and will demonstrate the 'light from darkness' effect used by caravaggio. this effect will also be used when the girl comes on screen. she will appear from the light of the hallway and the PI will remain in the darkness of the ofice, creating a contrast between all the characters; the man in complete darkness (bad) the PI in semi-darkness (troubled) and the girl in light (a sign of innocence, also used by scorsese) but the girl walks into the darkness, showing she is used to it. this may not be relevant to the story as all of the characters have been bad somehow.

Camera

the use of intricate camera angles will not be a nessesary technique in my film as rather than relying on action set pieces my film is more of a character exposition. the most commonly used camera position in my film will bethe POV shot. it will be used from the man's POV for most of the film while he is talking to the PI) and a POV of the PI will be used near the end when he is watching the woman in the hallway althopugh this is just to introudce the female character, the man's POV or over the shoulder shot will tell most of the story and the audience will see most of the film through his eyes - affilliating them with the villian of the piece. as the man speaks most of the films dialouge the audience will feel more like they are part of the film as the man's speech is coming from near to the camera although occasionaly the camera will move to show part of the man, we do not see much of him. this leaves him, as my main character, still steeped in mystery and creates an uneasiness among the audience.

i will make most of the camera movements deliberately slow as it is a slow building film and a film intended to build tension will not usually use pacy and fast camera angles. slow tilts will be used to introduce the wife character. the camera will not stray around the surroundings as this sense of disorientation of the audience not knowing exactly where they are and having part of the room obscured will make them feel uneasy and possibly build a sense of tension. low or high angles will be used to distinguish superiority between the characters, for example the mans POV will be at a hign angle to the PI, making the PI appear lower down. zoom angles will also be used to focus on important objects such as the briefcase or photograph and a slow tilt between the PI and the photo will be used to suggest a connection between the woman and the PI.

costumes being used for the man

 high angle POV

costumes being used for the PI

the PI's name certificate 

 the desk and what is on it.

below is a picture of the office location.

of the briefcase and its contents

the poster

over the shoulder shot

the low key lighting being used in the office

narrative structure

Narrative Structure Chart

Does my film fit the conventions of a typical narrative structure??

Exposition: (opening)

The film opens with a mysterious man in black walking up a dark, lamp lit street. You cannot see his face.
The man then enters the private investigators office with is also badly lit and shadows remain around the man. This scene is setting up the mood of the film and the meeting between the two main protagonists.

Development: (what the film is about)

The men begin to talk across the desk in the office. Slowly tension is built up as the man talks about his wife having an affair. This explains the man’s reasons for being there and gives an idea of what is happening in the film.

Complication (a turning point in the plot)

The man tells the private investigator that he wants his wife or the man she is having an affair with dead. At this point through the private investigators nervous action it is hinted that the P.I is in fact the man who is having the affair. This leads the audience to wonder what will happen next, is the man going to kill the P.I or does he really know about the affair?

Climax: (the dramatic point near the end of the film)

The man passes the P.I a briefcase which we see contains money, a gun and a passport. It is now made clear what the P.I is being asked to do – make a choice and probably kill his lover, the man’s wife. The man leaves the building and while the P.I is looking in the briefcase the wife comes down and asks what her husband wanted. The P.I closes the briefcase and replies ‘nothing’ they kiss.

Resolution: (how the film is left)

The film is left on somewhat of a cliff hanger as although it is made fairly clear through the P.I’s reaction to the husband that he will choose to kill the wife, nothing is resolved in this way, therefore leaving it open to speculation.

SCENES:

my film will be split up into 4 different scenes in order to distinguish settings and the characters needed. i hope this will help establish a clearer narrative and make filming easier and more organised.

Scene list:

1. the man is walking up the dark street and enters the house

2. the man talks with the private investigator in his office

3. the woman comes down the stairs (from the PI's house) and talks with the PI

4.the man is walking down the street away from the house

Film Treatment

The film opens on a dark street, we watch a man from above as he walks along the street in a dark trench coat, he is wearing a hat and smoking a cigarette, he turns under the streetlight and enters a house.

We follow him into the private investigator’s office. The P.I appears shocked to see him. The man introduces himself and takes a seat, lighting a cigarette, although we can only see him from behind. He tells the P.I that his wife is having an affair. They then talk for a while, the P.I becoming seemingly increasingly more uneasy, before the man pushes a large black briefcase towards the P.I. He informs him that he wants either his wife or her lover killed by the P.I.

The man then leaves whilst the P.I is staring at the briefcase which we see contains a gun, a passport and the picture of the wife. We hear footsteps coming down the stairs into the P.I’s office. A woman walks in, its the same woman in the photo; the man’s wife. She asks the P.I what her husband wanted, knowing he may have discovered her. The P.I responds by snapping closed the briefcase and replying, ‘nothing’. She walks over and kisses him, while his hand rests firmly on the case.

The film finishes with a shot of the husband walking down the same street away from the office, lighting up a cigarette and smiling devilishly to himself.

The end