The making of our Film Noir opening is finally drawing to a close, as I type this the music is just being finished off and we've got a few hours just to tidy up the sound and make sure that the transitions are as smooth possible. Though we agreed that Sin City would be a huge influence on our piece, our music has taken a completely new direction and I can't wait to see the full piece properly. Instead of rock music with used classical-experimental music (a mix of bass, strings and shakers!) a trademark of later work by Debussy, as this seems to 'fit' more with our video.
From the results of my questionnaire, I feel that it is important to delve further into the film opening of Sin City to see if I can make some parallels between our opening and the film without copying it. Though I briefly touched on the components of the film opening alot earlier in my blog, now I feel that is important to go into alot more detail so I know the conventions of it inside-and-out.
The scene opens with black screen for about 3 seconds, with the music already playing- this creates a smoother effect, rather than jumping straight into the scene- it then fades to a gloomy establishing shot, the whole scene is in black and white- except a woman's red dress. The establishing shot is tilted slightly down, making the woman appear to be quite vunerable We immediately hear a male voiceover, that is extremely cliche, a common convention of film noir. She stands looking out on the city, and we see the owner of the voice over enter the scene.
This man is known as the 'Salesman' and he more or less dictates the scene via the means of a voiceover, the actual spoken dialogue comes second to what is going on in his head. This suggest that the Salesman has the upper hand in the scene and is the more dominant of the two characters. I think that this is one of the best conventions of the Film Noir genre as a voice over is an excellent way of presenting the status of characters to the audience and introducing them as well.
The woman and the Salesman exchange words in an over-the-shoulder shot, tilting slightly down to the woman. Once again, this emphasises her vulnerability as a woman and the OTS once again helps us see from the Salesman's prospective. The two characters kiss, and the camera zooms out to a long shot and the effect changes to a comic book style- the contrast turned up so high that the two characters look like cartoons. The scene returns back to normal on a mid-shot of the woman with her arms around the Salesman, we can't see his face- so it makes us as an audience extremely uneasy about what is about to happen next.
The camera eventually tilts up to his face, and focusses there- but even then he is in more or less, complete shadow. He kisses her, and she snuggles into him affectionately. However a few frames later we hear a strange noise, she screen flashes and she immediately collapses onto his chest. The voiceover then tells us that he has just killed her with a silenced gun. The scene finishes on an aerial shot of him holding her as the rain pours down, giving a sense of omniscience and a sense of judgement of actions right and wrong, which is especially appropriate as someone has just been murdered.
Via the means of special effects, the camera zooms out and around all the sky line of the city until there is a complete birds eye view of the skyscrapers. Match-on-action is then used to fade the buildings in 'SIN CITY', the first title shot of the film.
I really like the idea of presenting a situation, then using a title shot rather than the other way around- as this is a rather typical way of opening romantic comedies or family films. A voice over will definitely need to be used as it is such a common convention in both Film Noir and the Neo Noir revival. It's also quite important to have a mix of male and female characters- as a female 'softens' Film Noir, making it quite stylish and slick- if male characters dominate the scene we risk it looking too gritty!
In order to find about what our audience would enjoy in a film opening, via the use of an Internet forum I asked 15 women and fifteen men all over the age of 18, which is what our target market would be, a short survey about film noir. Film noir is quite an obscure genre compared to typical horror and romantic comedies, giving us a certain amount of leeway on what we chose to do, as the conventions are not so strict- the majority of film noir/neonoir films vary extremely in their opening sequences. However, being so obscure, we recieved slightly odd results.
The first question I asked was 'What is your favourite neo-noir film?', many people were unsure were what that meant at first- but as soon as I explained that 'Sin City' came under the genre, they immediately chose that- as it is an immensely popular film. This tells me that it is extremely important that we try and take inspiration from Sin City wherever we can, as it is adored by so many people- and the main purpose of films are to entertain the masses.
I changed my next few questions slightly, though two people had seen Momento- and chose that to be their favourite, I focused the next question solely on Sin City in a big to receive better answers. Now, I knew people liked Sin City, the next step was finding out why, and what part of the opening scene drew them into the film. The choices were dialogue, camera/editing, costume and effects- and it was dialogue and effects that came out top. As I have already gone into Sin City on my blog before (in depth analysis of the opening sequence coming shortly), the opening scene features a stylized, high contrast black and white effect and some dark and confusing dialogue! Though people had now told me that they liked the effect of Sin City, which uses black and white- I wanted to see what else they would like, and here- I got rather varied results. The majority of people would prefer to see my film shot in black and white, with a b&w/colour mixture coming in second. This was quite interesting as in our original planning, we had never really thought about having a combination of colouring effects like that. This has changed my mind slightly, as even though the top result was black and white- and we have already edited our film in black and white, it would be silly to ignore the close second result.
I then asked about the two main characters in Film Noir, the 'femme fatale' and the 'protagonist'. So far we had introduced them right away, complete with dialogue- but it was important we found out if that was what the audience wanted while there's still time to change it!
I have learnt many things from just asking people from an Internet forum questions, although it would have been easier to ask my classmates- many of them aren't yet in the demographic for film noir yet, and many are unsure what film noir even means. However, I am pleased with the format I used because I received a mixture of ages and lifestyles to answer my questions. It is painfully obvious that Sin City needs to be a big inspiration to our project, and although we are coming to the end of it now- whenever a connection can be made to it, we need to go for it. However, we don't meet the protagonist and femme fatale so early in Sin City, because it features an ensemble cast and not a distinct partnership- but our audience feel that it's extremely important that they are introduced in the opening sequence.
As I am playing the 'femme fatale' in our film opening, it is important that I research how they present themselves on screen and famous femme fatales in both Film Noir and the Neo Noir revival. I have picked my three favourite femme fatales and analysed them.
Too Late For Tears (1949) Lizabeth Scott as Jane Palmer
'She got what she wanted...with lies...with kisses...with murder!' is the tagline for the late forties Film Noir, Too Late For Tears. Alan and Jane Palmer are a young couple living in the Hollywood Hills, Jane is beautiful, vivacious and enjoying her second married after the 'suicide' of her first husband. They are on their way to a party, when a bag of 'dirty money ' is throw into their convertible. Alan wants to turn the money over the police, but Jane, being the femme fatale of this story disagrees and wants to keep all of the $60,000 that is inside the bag. Alan doesn't want to displease his beautiful wife, so locks the money in a safe and turns his attention onto trying to convince his wife to do the right thing. Jane wears alot of monochrome colours, and always has smooth glossy hair, however- the main thing you notice about her when she walks in the room is her full, pouted lips. She is on the confident/arrogant borderline, and extremely aware of all her charms. She starts lavishly spending the cash due to her lowly upbringing and will even resort to murder to prevent anyone else getting their hands on it. Her husband Alan ends up weighed down with concrete at the bottom of a lake, a detective who she seduces ends up poisoned, and it turns out she even killed her first husband before Alan! She meets a grisly end when she and her money escape to Mexico, the truth comes out on a ritzy hotel balcony- and she falls to her death when Mexican detectives raid her room.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Lana Turner as Cora Smith
The Postman Always Rings Twice is the story of a dissatisfied, married waitress' affair with a hapless drifter named Frank Garfield who starts to work in her restaurant, which is owned by her much older husband Nick. As femme fatales tend to be 'darker', Cora fights against this genre- always dressing in virginal white and sporting a platinum blonde hairstyle, the majority of femme fatales were brunettes in Film Noir to show the darker side of their personality,also to distinguish them from 'Hitchcock Blondes', a breed of character concieved by Alfred Hitchcock, these 'Hitchcock Blondes' were icy, beautiful and sophisticated...but not necessarily evil! Cora is also first seen with a glossy lipstick case, constantly used to exagerrate her full lips (I think we've got quite a theme, here?!) and used a symbol for her character. They start an affair almost immediately after they meet and even elope together, however- being a complete Femme Fatale, Cora knows that without money they wouldn't have much of a life together. They return back to the resturant to destroy the goodbye note that Cora left and immediately begin planning ways to kill Nick, so they can keep the resturant for themselves and enjoy a fruitful life together. After a clumsy attempt, they finally manage to murder him after staging a drink driving accident, but local police see through this and try and get them charged for murder, they are released quickly and fixing their damaged relationship. Whilst out driving, the happy couple to kiss, only for Frank to swerve and crash- killing Cora. Her lipstick case drops to the floor, she is represented by that glossy symbol of glamour in life and death. Due to his track record with cars, Frank is charged for her murder and is found guilty. Faced with the death penalty, his last lines show that he is very much under the spell of the femme fatale:
'Father, you were right. It all works out. I guess God knows more about these things than we do. Somehow or other, Cora paid for Nick's life with hers. And now I'm going to. Father, would you send up a prayer for me and Cora, and if you could find it in your heart, make it that we're together, wherever it is?'
Scarlet Street (1945)
Joan Bennett as Kitty March
Christopher Cross is an amateur artist and cashier who falls for a beautiful prostitute after he tends to her after a fight with her boyfriend, he quickly falls in love with her as his own married life is volatile- his wife Adele is bullying, controlling and still very much enamored with her first husband, a policeman who died trying to save a woman who was drowning. The beautiful prostitute is Kitty March, and her and her boyfriend Johnny know that Christopher feels very strongly for Kitty. As Christopher has spoken about great art to Kitty, she mistakes him for a wealthy painter- together her and her boyfriend plan to milk this 'wealthy painter' for all his money. Kitty claims to Christopher that she needs protection, and therefore needs an apartment- desperate to keep up appearances he steals from the bank to put Kitty up in a lovely apartment, that also doubles as a studio for himself.His wife Adele's husband turns out not to to be dead, so Christopher is ecstatic because now their marriage is no longer valid. He runs to the apartment he has bought for Kitty, only to find her in Johnny's arms. He is shocked, but so in love, he asks her to marry him, this is the response he gets 'Oh, you idiot! How can a man be so dumb? I've wanted to laugh in your face since I first met you- you're old, ugly and I'm sick of you! Sick, sick, sick!'. Out of anger, he stabs her with an ice pick. Because her boyfriend Johnny is a pimp and generally has a bad reputation, he is charged with her murder- but Christopher is freed, but forever haunted of images of Kitty.
3 SECONDS OF BLACK, FADE TO POV OF 'THE MAN' RUNNING TOWARDS AN OUTBUILDING, HANDICAM EFFECT, HE PUTS HIS HAND ON THE DOOR. CUT TO 'THE MAN CREEPING ACROSS A ROOM, CCTV EFFECT. PARALELL ACTION OF THE 'FEMME FATALE' DIALING A PHONE. CUT TO LONG SHOT OF 'THE MAN' GOING UP A LADDER, CUT TO AERIAL SHOT, CUT TO LONG SHOT. HE EXAMINES THE ROOM AND HIS PHONE RINGS, CUT TO CLOSE UP.
The Man:
I told you not to ring me here, you know this place is wired.
CUT TO CLOSE UP OF FF.
Femme Fatale:
Why would I care if the place is wired? I know fully well you can't be traced back to me.
CUT TO CLOSE UP OF MAN.
The Man:
There we go again, always thinking about yourself.
CUT TO FF.
Femme Fatale:
Did you get number four today? Hopefully he screamed just as much as his brother.
CUT TO MAN, LOW ANGLE.
The Man:
Don't worry, it's all been taken care of.
CUT TO LONG SHOT, THE PROTAGANIST IS WAITING AND THINKING- OUTSIDE THE OUTBUILDING. A VARIETY OF LOW ANGLE, LONG SHOTS AND CLOSE UPS.
The Protaganist:
Retrograde amnesia. That's what I have. I've lost all my old memories- but I can make new ones, unfortunately for that guy inside. I remembered his face after he tried to kill me this morning, he obviously didn't order the hit though. Oh no, I could bet my life that he's speaking to them inside now. Not in person, that'd be stupid. But.....whoever is on the other end of that phone knows how to cover their tracks. I've met them before, I can't remember what I did to them or who they are or why they want me, just that I'm number four. And I won't be dying anytime soon. Showtime.
Like almost every project one undertakes, things go wrong, get better and change along the way. Throughout working with my group on our film opening we have experienced a change of genre, and about three changes in script. However, as the majority of footage has been filmed, we've got no more time to make any changes or revision- the script may vary for the last 10 seconds we need to film though, however!
We felt like nothing really 'happened' in the original script, and therefore needed to create a short situation that would really draw in the viewer. For example- Sin City presents itself with a character (not a main one, but as Sin City used an ensemble cast- it puts us in a different situation to them) killing someone in the first two minutes. The violence is 'suggested', there is not any gore as such and it is done in a really slick and stylish manner. This was really our main inspiration for our practical. A situation, an action and a single title sequence.
We needed to present a mystery to the audience, that left them going 'what? who are these people? who's number 4?'. Film Noir is basically a genre of crime films- just without actual policemen or detectives, just a single, slightly rough around the edges do-gooder taking on a malicious group or person. Neo-Noir like Mulholland Dr. and Brick present the main characters right away and a slightly far fetched situation that does not get resolved til the end of the film.
We managed to crack the second take of femme fatale filming in about half an hour, which was alot quicker than we anticipated. I imagine that it was because was knew exactly what were doing as most of the planning was done the day before. We knew what shots we wanted and how we wanted them done- totally remembering to keep the red lips. I had saw a film from doing some internet night before called Double Indemnity from 1944, making it a 'real' film noir. Barbara Stanwyck played the femme fatale, a woman trying to convince a man to kill her husband- claiming she'd split the money with him. On a level, this mirrored the relationship between out femme fatale and the 'shady guy' on the phone. Because of this incorperated sunglasses into our scene, and tried to mirror some of the close up camera shots- allowing the audience to be immediately 'invited' to build a relationship with the femme fatale very early on.
To make the most of the lesson time we had, we pulled James and Ky up from editing and lead them to a disused warehouse about 10 minutes walk from our college. Here we were going to do a scene to open the film, a point of view shot of Ky (as the 'shady guy') running towards an outbuilding and putting his hand on the door. Inside of the outbuilding would actually be our school backstage area!
We told him to keep the camera loose in his hand to create a disillusioned effect so common to Film Noir. This is used in the first scene of the Neo-Noir, Brick. It looked extremely effective and we got back in time to edit all of our footage to black and white, and up the contrast and shading! Our footage looks absolutely beautiful!
Another late blog! It must be said, I am REALLY neglecting this. Here are a few filming logs that I had stored on my memory card.
Today it was time to film the the femme fatale scene, a common counterpart of Film Noir. We decided to use the dark room, one of the locations that actually stayed the same, but then we were faced with the issue of lighting it! If we turned all the lights on, everything in this cluttered room would be visible when we really just wanted a kind of 'sketchy, warehouse' effect. This problem was easily resolved by getting hold of three office lamps, and covering one with a sheet of clear red paper to give me (I was also playing the femme fatale) a warm and inviting glow.
We thought today was actually quite successful, getting everything done- but as we were importing it to the computer our teacher pointed out that we had positioned our lights wrong so my lips were actually in shadow, when a full pair of red lips were as important to a femme fatale, as a femme fatale is important to Film Noir. We rescheduled filming for the next day, feeling pretty annoyed that we had wasted a whole day- but we decided that only me and the resident camera man, Alex, would film the reshoots leaving Ky and James to try their hand at editing the material that we already had. I believe this is probably the most systematic way of doing things, and as not to waste more time- we'll make sure we divide the roles in the group equally.
I then asked about the two main characters in Film 
he femme fatale:
