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.