Change of mind!

Our group made a rushed decision to change what genre of film opening we were going to do. From our gangster research, we discovered a type of film called film noir- which are black and white sleek crime thrillers from the forties that went onto influence many neo-noir films of recent years like Sin City (2005), the Coen Brothers' The Man who wasn't There (2001) and Momento (2000).

They are very stylised, and usually filmed with interesting colouring styles- be it completely black and white, filtered colour, or excessive differentiating between periods of time with colour and black and white. The story centers around an alienated 'do-gooder' be it a private eye, detective or simply a law abiding citizen and an anti-hero, making a cat-and-mouse style affair emerge. They nearly always include a femme fatale, murder and jealousy have strong undertones and amnesia is consider parallel to the common cold in film noir films.

Visually, a shot of ventian blades covering a shady character is an iconic shot in the style of film noir and it will definately need to be employed in our piece. Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide-angle lenses. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed. From the mid-1940s forward, location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir.

The tone of a film is everything when it comes to making anything in the style of film noir. It needs to have a completely moody, dark, downbeat setting- even when it seems like the protaginist is winning.

I am really excited about this. We have a first draft of a script that we managed to piece together in a few hours, so hopefully we can create a brilliant project that truly fulfils all the conventions of film noir.