STORYLINE AND SYNOPSIS FOR MY FILM NOIR OPENING

Synopsis for opening

Open with a man sitting in a corner, head in his hands covered in a hood. The man appears emotional as he throws objects from nearby over the room. He sits in the room as he thinks. As he thinks he has a flashback, seeing a man walking down a road and seeing a girl, their eyes meet and the problems begin. The film goes back to the man in the room he has various flashbacks which could link to the story which will follow, leaving an enigma for the audience.




Synopsis for rest of narrative 

Later on the man is getting ready for a party with some of his friends, they talk about the girl he saw earlier that day anf he finds out from his friends that her boyfriend is a physco drug dealer.
At the party the guy and girl begin to talk then they get together, the boyfriend bursts in on them and hit’s the guy then proceeds to chase him out the house where he catches him and they both fight. During the fight the guy picks up a metal pipe that’s laying on the ground and brutally attacks the drug dealer, killing him in the process.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (classic film noir review)

This is a film set in LA which tends to be a classic location for film noirs.

In the first scene the classic stylistics of film noir were instantly on show with venetian blinds in the very first scene, also in the first scene , also the main character Walter smokes in the first scene, smoke in noirs is usually used in noirs to shroud characters to make them more mysterious. Despite rain being used in noirs a lot this film only uses it once however the time it is used works well as it is used at a moment of peril. The femme fatal Phyllis appears at the start to be trying to get her husband insurance.

Walter is a damaged man from the start this is obvious as he limps into a building and begins to explain how much of a mess he is in. Walters first encounter with Phyllis they blatantly flirt and there is a chemistry between them he then comes back later that night telling her he wants to be with her they then hatch a plan to murder Phyllis’ husband when he goes on a business trip on a train the plan was to make it look like he fell to his death off the train. On the way to the date they planned to murder Phyllis’ husband there are two obstacles his daughter told Walter that despite the fact that he is a selfish man he is a good father and a good man however it did not take Walter more than 10 seconds to shake it off, the other problem is that Phyllis’ husband breaks his leg this delays the plan and so Walter has to fake a broken leg when he impersonates her husband on the train.




 The murder happens and they pull it off well. Because of the insurance taken out just before Phyllis’ husband died a man called Keys investigate not suspecting foul play at first but his instincts end up telling him something is wrong he eventually figures it all out after Walter and Phyllis turn on each other because of the stress leading to Walter killing Phyllis the film ties together with Walter going back to his office like at the start then it going back to present time and keys discovering Walter in his office who says he would rather go to Mexico than face death but his wounds from the confrontation with Phyllis are to severe and he collapses in front of the lift.

DEFINITION OF NEO NOIR

Neo noir or (new black) is a film genre which is a newer version of film noir with updated themes, content, style, visual styles or media that were not present in the 1940s-50s unlike classic noirs, neo noir films are aware of modern circumstances and technology, there are a few similarities between neo and film noir , having anti heroes in difficult positions, the striking use on light and shadow and the unusual camera angels.

Two examples of neo noir film are BLADE RUNNER a film set In Los Angeles, November 2019, retired police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is detained at a noodle bar by officer Gaff (Edward James Olmos). His former supervisor, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh), tells him that several "replicants" biologically engineered humanoids who serve as soldiers and slaves in off-world colonies have escaped, and have come to Earth illegally. As a "blade runner" while active, Deckard's job was to track down replicants on Earth and "retire" them. Rick then becomes active once again falling in love with a possible replicant (this is never confirmed or denied directly) and he hunts down four replicants who fled to planet earth eventually retiring them all. Rain is ever-present in this film.

Another example of a neo noir is FAREWELL MY LOVELY Set in Los Angeles in 1941, against a seamy backdrop of police corruption, cheap hotel rooms, illegal gambling and jewel trafficking, private detective Philip Marlowe is holed up in a hotel room and growing more weary by the hour. As he explains to his police lieutenant friend Nulty "I've got a hat, a coat and a gun, that's it."

FILM NOIR CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Film noir is made with many different and interesting styles some example of those styles are; during a film noir there is usually rain and a large portion of the film takes place at night this helps to reflect and magnify the dreariness towards the audience so they can see the drama of the film not just in the acting but also in the set and shots, having characters smoking is not just because it was fashionable to do so during the years film noir was being largely produced it does also serve a point in the shot as smoke can bring characters together or obscure shady characters in shadow.

 Film noirs use other styles/settings like low key lighting (something that creates a strong contrast between light and dark areas of the shot) high angle shots, a gloomy underworld of crime and corruption, a very specific iconography (guns, urban settings) anti heroes and disillusioned jaded characters. All of this presents a dark atmosphere of pessimism, tension, cynicism and oppression

Crime and murder is a common theme in most if not all film noirs in addition to this theme is the standard issue greed, and jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation in these films. Film noirs tend to focus on a hero that is clearly not the bog standard hero we now come to associate with the word hero, these “anti heroes” are so clearly flawed in so many ways and morally questionable it can at times become unclear that they are supposed to be heroes that is how far from the norm they stray.

Femme fatales are usually powerful women who are generally not to be messed with as they are very powerful and dangerous people who have a romantic relationship with them usually end up dead or destroyed and just shells of their former selves. Femme fatales use their sexuality to seduce men and to get them to do what they wish at times, however the woman usually manages to make the man feel he is in control of her, not realizing her power, which can usually be connected to why these men meet such grizzly ends.


TWO EXAMPLES OF CLASSIC FILM NOIR

Some examples of classic noir films are Stranger on the Third Floor a story of a man called Michael Ward a reporter and the key witness in a murder trial. His evidence is that he saw the accused Briggs standing over the body of a man in a diner this is instrumental in having Briggs deemed guilty. Afterwards Ward’s fiancée Jane is worried whether Ward was correct in what he saw and Ward becomes haunted by this question. Next Ward’s neighbor is killed the same way as the man in the diner. But Ward is arrested for trying to point this out to the police. And so Jane goes out to try and clear Ward by finding the sinister stranger that Ward saw on the stairwell.

Another classic film noir is Phantom Lady, After a fight with his wife, Scott Henderson, a handsome and successful 32-year-old civil engineer picks up a mysterious woman in a bar and they go out. The woman refuses to exchange names, becoming the phantom lady of the film. When Henderson returns home, he finds cops waiting to question him because his wife has been murdered with his necktie. Henderson and the cops try to find the phantom lady who can provide him with an alibi but fail. It's up to Carol Richman, Henderson's loyal secretary with a secret, to trace the phantom lady and set Henderson free. In what may be the film's most famous sequence, rhythmic inter-cutting between Elisha Cook, Jr.'s frantic drumming at a seedy night club and the leering responses of sexy secretary Ella Raines climaxes in a heated sexual encounter without actually showing a sex act on the screen.

FILM NOIR HISTORY AND OVERVIEW

Film noir started in the 1930s however films from that time period were not classed as film noir they were a set of films that were being called gangster movies which some film scholars believe film noir is just an extension of this genre but that is a topic still up for debate.

Film noir did not gain popularity until the 1940s one of the films that pioneered this new film genre was stranger on the third floor. Coincidently the first 20 years of film noir were the best years this genre ever saw 1940 through to 1960 were regarded as the classic period.  Nino frank was a film critic born in Barletta-Italy; Frank is the first known person to coin the term film noir. This name was given to films that had a dark seedy undertone in Hollywood in 1946.

Film noir has usually convoluted storylines involving flashbacks and voiceover narration used as a structuring device; classic storylines usually involve a male hero who clearly has flaws and seemingly appear to audiences as an antihero. Some of the other classic characters are a hardboiled detective, corrupt policemen, femme fatales these strong women are directly reflective of what was going on at the time theses films were being made, women having important jobs helping America work in male absence taking jobs at steel mills for example and these women were made strong and independent and once men returned from the war they were struggling to come to terms with this new breed of self independent women who before they left were seen as second class citizens.  

World War 2 had been a major factor in why these films were so dark, seedy, drenched in paranoia and pessimistic. The oppression of the Nazi Germans on many eastern European countries saw many talented Jewish directors move to Hollywood looking to make a career in directing bringing with them their own sad stories and emotions transmitting them into the films that they made.

Film noir started off as B movies this is what you used to get when you went to the cinema an A movie and a B movie two for the price of one. These B movies were usually made to test out new talent actors/directors due to the budget of these films being so low the studio paying for them didn’t tend to take much notice of them so the directors could put in more creative styles of their own choosing and have darker messages in the film.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Hello my name is Rhys Hayman i am an AS-Media student studying at suffolk new college. In this assignment i will have to make a two minute opening sequence of a film noir for viewing of the ages 15-18. The film should reflect the pace, mood and styles of film noir, the film will have music and titles.

By the end of the assignemt i should be able to demonstreate skills necessary to making and editing a film. My research and planning will be done to help with the project and have my skills to make them adequate enough to succesfully make my film.

After the film is done i will make an evaluation of the finished film product paying my main attention on the area that i was in charge of , to help with the evaluation i will be making a short film as a preliminary exercise so i have something to compare with.