Call Sheet For Contemporary Film Noir Opening

Date: Monday 15th February 2010
Location: Cameron Mears' house, Shafto Road.
Directions: From town, go to Norwich Road all the way down to Bramford Road, which you follow straight to Shafto Road.


Call Times
Meet in town with equipment at 4pm.
Travel to Camerons house and get there by 4:30pm
Shooting begins at 4:45pm
Expected to end by 10pm


Crew
Directing: shared role
Sound man: N/A
Production assistants: Shared role


Talent
Cameron Mears : victim, deceased
Amy Meitiner: suspect, bullying victim
kira knight: suspect, jilted lover
Ben Halliday: suspect, drug dealer


Equipment:
Sony DV1 Camera
Standard tripod for Sony DV1 camera


Props
Alcohol, Sofa, Beds, Drugs, Ipod Docking System.

Second day of shooting

Date: Wednesday 10th March 2010
Location: Ben hallidays house, Holbrook

Directions: 92 bus from Cattle Market bus station, takes you straight there.

Call Times
Meet at Cattle Market bus station at 9am
Travel to Bens house and get there by 9:35am
Shooting begins at 10:00am
Expected to end by 4:00pm

Crew
Directing: Ben halliday and Amy Meitiner

Sound man: N/A

Production assistants: Shared role

Talent
Amy Meitiner: suspect
kira knight: victim, deceased
Ben Halliday: suspect

Equipment:
Sony DV1 Camera
Standard tripod for Sony DV1 camera

Props
Alcohol, Sofa, Beds, cigerettes,

by kira knight

script for noir film opening [first draft]

First script draft [changed idea through filming]

EXT. HOUSE. NIGHT
A row of detached houses all similar in appearance, sit side by side. They are old and run down, much like the surrounding area. It is the early hours of the morning so it is very dark and completely silent, the only light comes from the street lights standing in front of the houses and one solitary house which has all the downstairs lights on.

INT. HOUSE. LOUNGE. NIGHT
The room is large, with two large stained sofas opposite each other. It is clear that a family live here from the photo on the wall. However seven clearly intoxicated young adults lay around the room. Three of them crowd on one sofa while one very ill man lays spread out over the other. The rest of them lay or sit on the floor. Low diegetic music plays from the stereo. It is clear that there has been a party. Alcoholic cans and bottles litter the floor – all of them empty. One very uncomfortable looking guy named DAN, propped up against the side of the sofa, stands up.

DAN
(Irritably)
Fuck this; I’m off to find a bed.

GIRL ON SOFA
There’s no beds left.

DAN
I don’t care. I’ll push someone out if I have too. I’m not sleeping on that floor, someone puked on it – I can smell it.

GIRL ON SOFA
Well good luck, Dan.

DAN
Night.

DAN leaves the room.

INT. HOUSE. HALLWAY. NIGHT

DAN walks out of the lounge and stumbles up the stairs. The hallway too is littered with bottles and cans. DAN tries his hardest to avoid them on the stairs.

INT. AMY’S HOUSE. SPARE ROOM. NIGHT

DAN enters the spare room, looking exhausted – the bed appears to be empty, breathing a happy sigh DAN throws himself happily onto the bed. He realises there is someone inside.

DAN
Sorry man, I didn’t realise there was anyone in here.

DAN pulls back the covers to find CAMERON inside covered in blood. He is dead, and has obviously been murdered.

By Amy Meitiner, producer

noir opening editing treatment

The editing for this piece will be clean and use continuity editing up until the flashbacks where, to create the effect of disorientation, things aren’t in order, shots are skewed etc. Editing to create flashbacks isn’t intended to look cliché so we’ll go about it differently – when zooming into the guy’s face (when he finds the body) a bright flash will be edited in to the scene to tell the audience we’re going into the character’s mind. The light will slowly fade into the scene where we see the suspects and the reason they may have committed the murder. As this is a flashback of a drunken party, the editing can feature continuity editing, jump cuts, discontinuity editing to disorientate the audience. The music we will reflect the action but also the noir characteristics of the piece. Upon zooming out of the guy’s face, the bright light will appear again and the zoom out will be sped up to invoke a sense of panic.

As the action is quite detailed, the opening titles will be placed before the starting scene. The typeface will be simple, but also reflect (along with colour) the noir feel of things.

Sound and music

The main focus of this post is to justify the sound and music we’ve chosen for our Film Noir Opening piece. To open, we’ve chosen a really soft, downbeat piece of music for the titles that sound-bridges into the first scene. This, in my opinion, creates an effective juxtaposition of sorts between the innocence of the white used in the title along with the scene of the character waking up compared to the silent shot of finding the girl in the bed bruised and bloodied.Next, we have the voice-overs. The reason we collectively decided to include a voice over is because we felt that the audience may be slightly confused and needed some insight into the character’s mind. I think the way it turned out is really effective. It compliments the scene, clarifies what’s happening, sets the audience up for the flashbacks and improves their relationship with the character. The voice-over of the girl is one of my favourites though, and the way it’s edited, in my opinion is really effective. We applied heavy reverb to her voice and added delay and a really eerie echo which is not only frighteningly ghostly, but makes the audience wonder why the male character is hearing this and makes them question his innocence.Finally, the music we used for the flashbacks, is a piece by an artist named Peaches. The music had a very grimy, seedy electro feel to it and we liked that it had very subtly appropriate lyrics. The line; “seems you got a little bit more than you asked for” also builds the sequence up and builds suspension and awe, things we definitely wanted to create in this opening body of work. Unfortunately, the music, named ‘More’, we used for the flashback sequences is not royalty-free so we will have to research how to propose to XL Recordings/Kitty-Yo, the owners of the song, for permission to use the material, organise to pay royalties, etc.

By Ben Halliday, editor

noir opening mis-en-scene art director treatment

The props used : alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, ‘soup’ sick, bed, sofas, system, blood, make up for the bruises

The Alcohol and cigarettes are typical of noir tendencies, we wanted to keep some classic noir conventions in there so people who watch our opening can identify what type of film it is.
The drugs and the ipod docking system give it a modern kick to keep up with the contemporary feel of our opening.

Costume and make up = We want to keep the costume casual, like everyday wear of young adults but we wanted to add a noir flair. We will do this buy keeping the shades of clothing dark, for example blacks, greys and dark/navy blues. Or women with red lipstick and red nails. Not all charecters will dress this way because we need the modern edge once again, to keep the contemporary feel. If we had more charecters and time we would deffinitly keep to these guidlines perfectly. But seeing as we have minimal amount of 'main' charecters we will stick to the guidelines as much as possibly can.

We also will use costume make up for the 'femme fatale' to look beaten up and hurt. I will buy some purple lipstick mixed with eyeliner to create a bruised effect on the cheekbones and above the eye. And buy some costume blood to give the extra drama effect.

Location = Camerons house
- kitchen
- bedroom
- bathroom
- study

Second Location = Bens house
- bedroom
- living room

by kira knight

new synopsis idea.

The scene opens with kira and ben in bed together, it seems like they're sleeping. Ben wakes up opens the curtains and looks in the mirror and se's something on its cheek. It's blood. He walks over to kira and pushes her over. Her face is bloodied and bruised. He doesn't know what to do, so he paces around. He starts to have flashbacks of the night before. These include ones of kira getting upset and asking him to hook up. But he says no. He then goes back into reality. But starts to think again.. More flashbacks come to him. He doesn't know what to do. He snaps back into reality. Someone walks down the hall and opens the door.

synopsis for noir film opening

Scene opens in the early hours of the morning around 4am, in the front room of a house. From the various alcohol bottles and cans strewn around the room and young people in their early 20’s either passed out on the floor or occupying the sofa, looking ill, it is clear that there has been a party. A rather bedraggled guy called Dan gets up and tells the room that he is going to bed, as he leaves the room and descends the stairs, the camera follows him. He walks into the master bedroom, and falls onto the bed exhausted, but then realises that there is already someone inside so he pulls back the cover. Cameron lies inside dead covered in blood – he has been murdered. A close up of Dan’s reaction followed by a big white flash of light leads to a flash-back sequence of the party in its early stages and the possible killers and motives.

By Amy Meitiner, producer

Treatment for the exchange

Treatment
Storyline: A male is walking towards a darkened tunnel to meet up with another male to exchange some money for drugs. He starts by walking along the park by himself looking shady. He walks around the corner towards the tunnel. You then the second male emerge from the dark tunnel looking twice as shady. The first male walks towards him and they exchange an approving nod. They then exchange the money and drugs over. And then they nod once more to seal the deal. The second male disappears into the shadows of the tunnel. The first male walks off in to the distance. He goes to meet a girl waiting for him at the gazebo just uphill from the tunnel. He shows her the ‘goods’ and she smiles and kisses him on the cheek, then walks away leaving him alone feeling hard done by. His motive was to get the girl via the drugs.

Characters & Representation: Male one: Ben Halliday.
He is the antagonist. He is getting into dodgy dealings for reasons we don’t really know until the end of the film when we see him meeting the female at the end. He is the modern day antagonist, but with underlying noir ethics.

Male two: Cameron Mears
He is the modern day anti hero of the film. He is the drug dealer of the production. In noir terms he would be the man who gets the antagonist into trouble, even without knowing it.

Girl: Kira Knight
She is the femme fatale. Even though she’s not in the scenes till right at the end, you can tell that she’s done the typical job of getting the male to do whatever she wants for her. He has got the drugs for her, to impress her, and all he gets in return is a peck on the cheek. Typical femme fatale.

Cinematography:
Because we are using a modern story line to make it have the classic noir feel we will use things like camera angles, music and costume to bring it into the film. The camera angles will be askew to make the scene seem more awkward and hard to take in, like Dutch tilt, like in classic noir films. We shall use loads of high and low angle shots to make characters look superior and inferior. Also the depth of focus to create the illusion of confusion.

Mis – en - scene:
The performance of the actors has to be very blunt yet subtle. It has to be obvious what they’re doing for the audience but secretive enough to be dodgy dealings going on. The location will be quite open, it’s as if you don’t know what’s happening, just seems like a normal day with normal people. But the tunnel gives away the shadiness of the operation. It looks like a dodgy area and that’s where the exchange happens. Sort of like an alley way in a noir classic. As it’s modern we have the location and the acting of the characters to rely on to give it the noir feel. Plus the camera shots (explained above)

Music
For our sequence we’ll need to track down some noir-type music with a modern twist. Lyrics in the music would need to be really specific so ideally, we’d need an instrumental piece… At first thought, an instrumental Amy Winehouse song would have been a great contemporary noir feel though without lyrics, the music sounds too up-beat and happy so we needed to explore other options or go for a quite angular, less noir piece of music that still sets the mood.

Props, Costumes & Make-Up
The only props we need are, a small clear re-sealable bag containing sugar/flour, money and cigarettes. The small bag will represent cocaine for the “drug-exchange” and the money is to be given when the cocaine is handed to the character. Using drugs as the exchange in this sequence, much like film noir, touches on contemporary issues (in this instance drugs) as do the cigarettes and how the people who smoke are perceived.

The costumes we will use in this sequence will have elements of modern-day fashion mixed with the noir styles, colours and fit. The “femme fatale” of the sequence will be wearing a red dress with flat, black, patent leather boots; a smart-casual, yet mysterious look. The character buying the “cocaine” will wear darker colours, a blazer, dark jeans etc and lastly, the drug-”dealer” will be wearing similar clothing to the cocaine recipient.

Make-up in the sequence isn’t really the main focus. The usual powder will be used for the camera but the make-up style on the femme fatale is the main focus. Foundation and powder will be used but simplistic dramatic black eye-liner and mascara will also create the image of power and mystery. She’ll also wear red lipstick with is representative of women during the noir era too and widely used in the films shot back then.

Exhange risk evaluation sheet

synopsis for the exchange

Storyline: A male is walking towards a darkened tunnel to meet up with another male to exchange some money for drugs. He starts by walking along the park by himself looking shady. He walks around the corner towards the tunnel. You then the second male emerge from the dark tunnel looking twice as shady. The first male walks towards him and they exchange an approving nod. They then exchange the money and drugs over. And then they nod once more to seal the deal. The second male disappears into the shadows of the tunnel. The first male walks off in to the distance. He goes to meet a girl waiting for him at the gazebo just uphill from the tunnel. He shows her the ‘goods’ and she smiles and kisses him on the cheek, then walks away leaving him alone feeling hard done by. His motive was to get the girl via the drugs.

Three film opening comparisons

SIN CITY

The film opens with the opening titles telling you who produced the films. 'Trouble maker studios is written in black with a background of fire. You hear a gun shot with a shell falling to the ground. This helps set the tone of the film before you even see any sequence on screen. Its very dark and grim. The flames disperse and you hear the sound of busy passing traffic and Jazz music begins to play. The film starts with a black and white bleak scene on top of a balcony. A women dressed in a long red dress [ the only colour in the opening, along with her red lipstick] walks to the edge of the balconly, leaning ono the side. You then hear a man with a husky voice who begins to do a voice over. ' she shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree' This is the opening line. He carries a serious tone, he builds up imagry and its strange because no one speaks in metaphores and similies. After some speech a man walks over to her, he's wearing a sharp suit with slicked back hair. He offers her a cigarette and they both smoke together. she says ' are you as bored of that crowd as i am.' indicating that they are at some kind of party together. 'ive watched you for days, you're all a man could ever want' He says. This gives us a little background information, but not enough to really know what is going on just yet. Rain starts to fall as they embrace. The scene turns into animated monochrome effect. The voice over returns saying ' i tell her i love her' and she is shot in the back instantly after. At first, we don't know who it is. Until the you see the gun in his hand. Which confuses the audience of why he would kill someone he loves. The final thing the voice over says is, 'i'll cash her cheque in the morning' This brings up a whole new motive. The camera then pans out and gives an establishing shot of the city.

This is obviously a film with complete neo - noir conventions. The voice overs, the confusion, the props and costume. The black and white setting. These are just a few. The opening of the titles straight away gives the impression that this film will be some sort of crime thriller. The sound of the gun shot gives us this impression. The dialogue is the typical hard boiled noir character. Confusing, with a lot of imagery. The sort of dialogue we really have to listen to to understand. Not like evrery day language. It gives a little background information, but not enough to know if it is the start or ending of a film. But as most noirs/neo noirs start at the end we can only presume we'd have to watch on and see how that situation had arisen. As the rain falls, and the scene changes to a fake monochrome effect. This makes it seem as if it's not real. A dream of some sort perhaps? It's one of those conventions where it becomes confusing and we don't really know whats happening. The sound, and mise- en - scene is very important to this opening scene. The music, an old, slow, jazz tune. Is very noir themed. It sets a seedy type of scene where anything can happen. The mise- en - scene is more than important. It tells us what kind of film it is. The womans red dress against the bleak black and white background makes us think this is important. Because she is the only person who has any type of real colour. As its red, it could stand for lust, romance or danger. [typical of noir/neo noir themes] The cigarette they smoke together also is very noir, the smoke lingers in the air and its a very typical convention. It gives the charecters a cool edge. A careless edge. The rain is another typical convention. It adds drama to the scene. The one thing about this film is they have made everything more over the top, as if they are telling you, without stating it is a neo noir. For example the cigarette smoke is very visable. The rain is thicker, they both look very fake. Because they want the audience to see it and to get the picture of the neo noir feel.

Dark Knight

The dark knight is a thriller film. The titles are very dark too. The 'warner brothers' symbol is in a dark navy colour surrounded by darkness. Which is then evaporated into blue smoke. Which fades into the current day. There is eerie music playing in the background. With slight violins to give it a frightening touch. It sounds as if a clock is ticking, to show the essence of time, and how it is running out. There is an establishing shot to show where the film starts. The music cross fades into the starting sequence. There is then about five cut away shots to see men in different locations, weraring clown masks. We never see their faces in the sequence. They have big guns and bags and are approaching a bank. It pretty much speaks for itself. They are about to rob a bank. They all travel in from different locations. They cut to the different men in different locations as they are speaking. ' So why do they call him a joker' The film is based on batman and the joker so straight away they are talking of one of the main charecters. They break into the bank shooting passers by and getting into the safe. Then all the men with masks start to betray each other by shooting them after they have done one of their tasks of getting into the bank. They say they were all promised money, thus they want it for themselves. A bus crashes into a building as they bundle the money in the truck the last surviving robbers are shot by the last robber there. He takes off his mask and reveals himself as the joker.

This film is set in the day time, modern area of New York. But dark events are happening. The sound throughout the scene stays very eerie. Though the pace gets quicker, this represents the rush of time and how they are under pressure to rob the bank before they get caught. The mis-en-scene is pretty dark. The masks have a frightening film as you don't know who these people are and why they are doing this task. All you know is that they are doing it for the joker. They have typical conventions like a big bank safe and the equipment to get into it. The guns they use to kill off each other and the by standers. The shots are very simple but effective. Establishing shots, close ups and high and low angle shots. The close up is used in one particular point that makes the most effect. This is when the joker reveals himself. The shot stays on him for a good 3 or 4 seconds which is important because up till this point the shots have all been snappy and quick to keep the pace up. As the shot stays on him, we know he is going to be an important charecter in the film. The high and low angle shot is used in a particular place too. There is a bank owner who tries to get his own back on the robber with his shot gun. The first angle you see him in is a low angle shot to make him seem heroic and brave. By the end of the scene he is on the floor with dynamite in his mouth, in which the joker put in, and they use a high angle shot to show his feeble and afraid body. This is important. This shows how if you mess with the joker there will be hell to pay.

The Matrix

This film is different from the rest of the neo noirs as it is based in the future in which reality is seen by humans as the Matrix: a simulated reality made by machines in order to subdue the human race. One man, Neo, who may be known as the protagonist, rebels against this thought and wants to free people from this 'dream world' and back into reality. This is a great futuristic neo nor. The colours are all dark greens and blacks and this theme runs throughout the whole film. It has the eerie feel and the unconventional story line which really brings out the classic side to this neo - noir.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is one of the most famous neo noirs because it literally is a noir but with colour. It is based in a new time, but it has the all the conventions. The femme fatale, the mixed up story line [Flashbacks in a sense] and the murders and the seedy happenings. It starts with two charecters in a diner talking. And then moves to different charecters story lines which all end up linking in some sense. The next charecters you meet are the two 'detectives' who work for the Marsellus. Vincent vega is constantly flirting with the Marsellus wife, mia wallace. He has to look after her while he is away, but knows if he does any more than Marsellus will kill him. So he has to restrain himself to stay out of trouble. The other narrative is Butch Coolidge who is a boxer and has to loose a fight purposly for the Marsellus. But he takes the money and tries to run away with his wife, in which Marsellus puts all his best men on to find and kill him. All in the all, the conventions of the dark places they go to, the cigarettes, the alcohol and the almost sadistic narrative. All racks up giving a perfect neo - noir film.

three neo noirs

Brick was made in 2005 it was written by Rian Johnson. The film is set around a detective story that is based in a highschool. A young boys ex girlfriend is killed, and when he finds her he deciedes to find the truth about who killed her and why. The plot is based around the noir 'harboiled' typical stories. It uses the 'whodunnit' storyline, just like a typical noir. It uses the eerie conventions to make it feel akward for the audience. Its brilliantly done and keeps to the conventions but with new elements.

the exchange

Peoples initial ideas is that they loved the location that we used. It was one of the main praises we got for the whole video.

For the cinematography they liked how we used our tilts and our over exposure. But somone suggested that we use more close ups to provide the audience with a sense of emotion of our charecter, which was a very good point and we would keep in mind for our next filming, which will be our contemporary noir opening.

They liked how we had edited our music so each individual charecter had their own tune in the short film. But they suggested our editing could have been a lot tighter with some of the cuts. Plus they believed we could have put in more noir stylistics. E.g. dutch tilts and other askwed angles. Which if we would have more time we would have slotted in to give it the noir feel, but it was a very tight shooting session with getting to the location etc, thus we didn't have time to get in all the shots and angles in we wanted to. So we went for what we could do in time, but still trying as hard as possible to make it look as good as possible.

They believed our narrative was easy to understand, and commented especially on our use of eerie stylistics. E.g. shadows and Silhouettes. But the only downside to this was they said some of our filming didn't have the correct focus to it. Especially the scene with the pan up of kira [me] as it seemed too over exposed when the pan stopped at the top.

They liked how the antagonist had a shady look and that you never saw his face. The protagonist was equally as shady, but you could tell he was doing it all for the femme fatale, like he was out of his elements. The femme fatale had the red dress to show danger and seduction.

They thought our fade away at the end took away momentum and the camera zoom was also a bit unstable. Which is understandable, it wasn't the best ending to the exhange. But we would have planned to take away a few of the shots at the end, but needed them in there as there was a standard amount of shots we needed in the small film.

All in all it was suitable for our target audience.

what is the exchange?

For this exercise we had to have people exchanging something of our choice, but we had to give it noir elements. So we chose our location, the dreary parts of christchurch park to give it the dark, seedy element that all noir movies have to them. Our story line was a guy meeting another in the dark tunnel of christchurch park and exchanging 'drugs' then sharing an approving nod. And one of the guy then goes of to meet a girl and they do yet another exchange and she walks off, leaving him looking rather sad as he expected her love in return.

We had to add the guy meeting the girl at the end as we didn't have enough shots for the first scene, and it filled it up perfectly, still keeping the noir feel.

We tried to place in noir elements as much as we could. For example we used silhouettes for the dark feel of danger. We dressed the femme fatale in a red dress to symbolize seduction and lust, her role was to get what she wanted of the protagonist, in which she did.

There are certain elements which if we could have achieved we would have done. For example filming at night, or having rain [if it wouldn't have ruined the equipment] But for what we had, i think we did a good job in capturing the feel of film noir.