Main Task-Diary Entry 1

In my team I am working with Lauren Cooper, we have done a rough outline of our plot and have been looking at places for us to film, we are going to get the numbers of a few locations and ask if it will be possible to use them. We have had to change a few things in out plot because we re watched some film noir openings and realised that we were missing some conventions such as a voice over. Later on we are going to be writing our first script and decide who is going to do which parts of pre- production. We have decided in production time I am going to be the director and shared the camera man role with Lauren. Lauren is going to be the editor and the producer. We have chosen these roles because I want to improve on my directing and camera skills, Lauren wanted to do the editing as she had never done it before and also wanted to do camera work as well because we both want to improve on it.

Main Task- Similar Products- Film Noir Posters

Most of film noir posters are cartoon pictures, the posters are mostly bright colours this seems unordinary because film noir is in black and white. The brightly coloured film posters is to attract the audience in to make them want to watch the film. They make famous actors names stand out in bold and a bigger font size, because most of the audience go to see a film because of the actor not because the actual film. Film posters tend to have to main characters on them as it shows who the film is based around. The position of the character on how they are standing/posing shows there personality to give the audience a look in to what the characters are going to be like and who is who.

Main Task-Similar Products- Film Noir Openings

The Killers
The opening of The Killers is mainly got titles on, but before the titles, there is one element i would like to use during my production which is where they are driving in the car and the lights of the car (outside) is the only light element used, i think it creates a great effect and it sets the scene, as the light slowly goes on a sign as the car gets closer, it reads 'Brentwood' which sets the scene of where they are.

I watched the first 2 minutes.

Crime Wave

The opening of Crime Wave is very interesting as they start in the car and got to a gas station, as they are looking for something but unsure of what it is so it keeps the audience guessing. The element of this opening is that where the camera is placed in the car it makes you think that you are in the car and a part of what is going on I would to use this in my production because I would want to make the audience feel that they are a part of our film.

i watched the first 3 minuets.

Danger Signal

The opening to Danger Signal is really interesting as it grabs your attention straight away and when the clip finished i wanted to keep watching it. I like the different camera angles they used during the clip and the different place as it make you realise where this is set and the newspaper used in it also help you understand what has happened and the sort of film noir that it is.

I watched the whole clip as it is only short.

Main Task-Similar Products- Conclusion

To conclude all of the film noir film clips I have watched and read about so far they all have a similar plot where someone is killed somehow then the good guy is running away or trying to find  the bad guy with the help of the femme fatal, in some cases though she is the one that killed the person and the good guy is trying to protect her.  They all seem to end with an open ending to keep the audience guessing. They also have common things such as a detective or high authority police, gangsters involved and a love interest involved.

Main Task-Similar Products- 5 Film Clips

Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet smell of Success is set in New York City, they say that ‘your reputation is everything and if you’re not careful it could be destroyed overnight’. The director transforms New York City to a dystopia soaked with jazz, smoke and criminals what noir films all have. The film follows ‘Sidney Falso a press agent without the burdens of morality’. He is hired by J.J Hunsecker, New York highest newspaper columnist, to stop his sister from marring Dallas who is a young jazz guitarist. Therefore Sidney puts some reefers on him and spreads rumours that is a Communist, Thing seem to have worked and the relationship ends. However this isn’t the last we see of Sidney his is summoned to Hunsecker’s penthouse only to find the sister attempting suicide. Hunsecker walks in on Sidney saving her and accusing him of rape. Fates are decided and lives are destroyed as the truth comes out. In this film no one is innocent.

The Big Heat

The big heat is a violent and intense film, but most of the violence and deaths happen off screen, unseen. It starts off with a death of a police sergeant. There is a detective assigned to the case, Dave Bannion, believes that foul play may be involved. Bannion has reasons the think that a powerful gang of criminals has infiltrated the police force and bumped the sergeant off.  However the department’s higher upper force the case closed and one of the witnesses willing to provide information is murdered. He insults the suspected mob boss only to have wife killed with a car bomb as a result. Using methods at his disposal and the help of the gangster’s girlfriend Debbie, he cuts a path of violence and anger through all the obstacles in his way.

Out of the Past

Jeff Bailey is running away from a past that he can’t escape from. At the start of the film we see bailey as the operator of a small town gas station, On day he is forced to meet with a gambler called Whit Sterling. On the way to the meeting, he confesses his past to his girlfriend. It seems that he was one a private eye who was hired by Sterling to his mistress Kathie after she shot him and stole $40,000 from him. Bailey managed to track her down to Acapulco. But he ended up falling in love with her. However one murder and terrible discovery later, he decided to leave her. Now his past is caught up with him as he travels to meet that man he betrayed. But when he confronts Sterling, Kathie is there. On man’s past will lead him to an uncertain future. It is left up to the audience to make the final judgement concerning the sad, strange case of Jeff Bailey.

The Big Sleep

Philip Marlowe is a detective played by Humphrey Bogart. He finds himself in the employ of the sick and dying general Sternwood , who asks him to keep an eye on his daughter Carmen who has fallen in with a bad group of people. Too bad he is distracted by her beautiful older sister Mrs Vivian Rutledge. Things begin to get out of control as people start dying all around Marlowe and he gets involved with powerful criminals, an underground pornography ring, and several nasty cases of black mail.

The Killer

It starts where two hit men invade a small town and kill The Swede who puts up no resistance.  We learn that the Swede used to be a member of a gang of thieves whom he was pushed into betraying by femme fatale Kitty Collins Colfax .The Swede is fully aware of his transgressions and knows that he cannot escape his fate and so he greets his punishment like a man instead of trying to escape from it. We then follow an investigator and a police detective as they struggle to track down his killers and bring them to justice. 

Main Task-Similar Products- Film Noir Definition & Conventions

Film Noir is a term to discribe stylish 'Hollywood crime dramas' expectally the ones that emphazise on the cynical attuited and sexual motivations in the 1940s to the 1950s. Film noir is characterized in low-key lighting in black and white, a urban set and cynical characters.

Conventions of a Film Noir:

• Black and white                                        
• Set in 1940s - 1950s                               
• American
• Filmed at night
• Narriator
• Low-Key Lighting
• Creating shadows from lighting
• Glamorous female actresses
• Set in a city
• No handheld camera
• Interesting camera angles
• Tone
• Adetective is usually the anti-hero