I worked as the director in my group for our opening to a contemporary neo noir film. It has qualities of other neo noir films such as: Brick, Rhian Johnson, Seven David Fincher and Memento, Christopher Nolan. I was inspired by the features of noir films such as dark lighting, the theme of crime and a main character that the viewer can relate to. Our opening illustrates a normal student finding a dead body of another girl, which then leads onto a flashback to when she had last seen the girl. (An example of the dark lighting in Double Indemnity) The mise en scene used in the opening was an important feature as the setting had to be a believable place for one to find a dead body. We set it in a large park and the normal setting illustrates how bad things can happen to anyone. The silhouette of the large tree where the body is found looks quite formidable and the reasonably late afternoon light makes it is dusky which adds to the uneasy feel of the opening, as does the gradual progression of the girl walking through rustic streets and small alleyways. It was essential that the shot of the girl under the tree made it clear to the viewer that she was dead, so I thought she should be laying down in a slumped position with her hair over her face. I also tried to make it look like she was hidden behind the tree so she wasn’t completely visible to everyone in the park.
(A shot from the opening illustrating the way the girl's coat stands out under the large tree) When we shot the opening it was raining, which made filming slightly difficult because we wanted to get clear shots. However, the rain added to the dark and sinister feel of the opening and comments from others they said it fitted well with the type of noir opening. Another feature of the mise en scene was the clothing that the two individuals in the opening wore. I didn’t want to show the girl’s face in the first shot of her, instead I chose to use shots of her walking; especially focusing on her shoes. The shoes became the girl’s recognisable feature so it is clear in the flash back that it is the same person, the unrevealing shots also make the viewer more intrigued as to what she looks like and makes them feel slightly uneasy as information is being withheld. I took inspiration from another contemporary neo noir film Brick that focuses on the character’s shoes in the first shot which makes them recognisable of the character. (Closeup of the character's shoes in Brick) Furthermore, I also thought it was important for the second girl who is found dead to be wearing something obviously recognisable, in this case it was a brightly coloured purple coat. This makes the shot of the dead body stand out under the tree and also makes it clear (as with the shoes) in the flashback that it is the same girl. Those who commented on our opening also said they thought that the casual clothing, especially the purple coat worked well within the opening sequence.
As director, I chose to use a voiceover in the opening. The hard boiled style of the voiceover works well with the slow pace of the opening and the way it is spoken makes the character seem very frank and almost detached about the situation. It also makes the main character’s situation clear to the viewer as the opening progresses. The film Brick inspired the use of the voiceover because the main character also speaks over the action and I think this technique worked really well in our opening.
The choice to use a flashback was influenced from other noir films like Brick and Double Indemnity. The main character in Brick is a detective type character that solves the mystery of a girl’s death and our main character was in the same position. Our opening also has features similar to that of Double Indemnity because both the main character in our opening and Double Indemnity tell the story and look back on the events that have happened. The flashback helps to unravel the story and enables the viewer to piece together the events that have happened, it also illustrates how the two girls had spoken before only days earlier, which adds to the feeling that something bad could happen to anyone which is un-nerving for the viewer.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome of the opening. I think that the mise en scene and the techniques used such as the flashback and the voiceover worked especially well and helped to create the feel of the opening that was intended. The feedback from the viewers illustrates that they agree and they commented especially on features such as clothing and the setting. If I were to change anything about the opening I may have slowed down certain shots, such as the girl walking towards the body to increase the tension.
For this project we had to plan and make a short movie sequence for a film of our chosen genre. We chose to make a neo-noir film. Our scene is an extract where the main character is walking and finds a dead body, then there is a flash back to when she had first seen the person before they died. We used each of the micro elements such as sound, editing, mise en scene and cinematography. I was the cinematographer. I chose to do the camera angles in the style of a neo-noir film such as brick as we studied this film earlier in the year. The first few shots establish the setting and the main characters appearance. There is a low angle close up shot of the characters feet walking and as she goes further away it turns into a fairly long shot of the area she is walking into. This is to show the audience where the person is going and that they are walking. The next shot is of the main character walking with the camera tracking back, with a profile shot of her. This is a particularly artistic shot and I aimed to make it look as unique as possible. The composition and placing of the person in the frame makes this shot stand out as a minimalistic, noir style shot. This is a screen grab from this scene After this there is another low shot of the pathway and a puddle close to it. It is raining. I put the camera lower so you could see the rain going into the puddle, this looks good and also shows the audience the kind of atmosphere and setting that the character is walking in. she then walks past and goes out of shot. The next shot cuts to a different scene, a tree. The audience do not know what this scene is and it is later revealed in the sequence. This slowly pans down and then cuts straight back to the main character walking. This shot was a moving shot of the character walking past some buildings. This shot then goes back to the tree, getting lower. This increases the tension in the audience and makes them wonder what this scene is. The next few shots are standing shots of the character walking towards her destination. The camera then moves round as she goes into an alleyway. I placed the camera fairly far away from the character and as it moves around she is facing away from the camera. I chose to put the camera here so you get a sense of the character moving and going from place to place and getting closer to her destination. The next shot is almost like a previous shot but with the camera following the character rather than moving backwards. The camera is moving with a wall on the right. I chose to do this shot because it refers to the earlier shot but shows the different setting and also is quite artistic placement of the camera. The next shot is of the character walking on a path then walking in between some trees onto some mud. She then stops and the camera moves in on her feet. I chose to move the camera down to her feet because it emphasises the fact that she has stopped and makes the audience wonder why she has stopped. It then goes to a point of view shot of what she is looking at. This shows the audience a new setting, the previously seen tree, where a dead body is. This then shows a close up of the dead body. This shows the girls clothes so the audience know who she is. There is then a cut to a two days later scene, and a girl is walking down a hallway. I placed the camera slightly to the left of the hallway. This was to change the composition of the shot. There is then a close up of a girl walking through a door and then the camera is moved inside the door to give the effect that the girl has just walked through the door. I then placed the camera behind the two characters now in the room. I did this so the audience can see what they are looking at on the wall and so you can see both characters. One character then leaves and the camera moves around to follow her out. Over all I think our project went well and the cinematography suited our chosen genre.
In our short film we were trying to create the idea of Neo-Noir, using the opening scene of the modern neo-noir film “Brick” (Johnson 2006) as an inspiration to start. The focus for our film was to connect the two characters together who are anonymous by using a flashback after finding the dead girl. Flashbacks are a useful way of connecting events together, so that audiences can understand why or how something happened. However it still gives the audience a sense of uncertainty, or unanswered questions. This is what we were trying to portray as we were not sure ourselves whilst doing the storyboards, why the main character would find the dead girl as opposed to any other person. So we decided to show a time before the incident where the characters had met.
For the sound we decided to use a voiceover to explain to the audience what was happening at certain points of the main girls journey. This was used to emphasize, rather than using non-diegetic sound which would draw the audience away more. Using diegetic sound is common in a neo-noir film, therefore connecting the genre to our film more. We had the idea of using a voiceover from the film “Double Indemnity” (Wilder 1994). We also used the sound of the rain coming down on the pavement as like using a voiceover it draws the audience into what’s happening in front of them. However our voiceover does not explain everything that is being shown, so it still keeps the audience thinking. We stopped the voiceover when the girl is found making dramatic pause. We made the pace slow, and confusing as we didn’t want to give too much away. We also used some sound that the camera had picked out, such as we wanted the emphasise on the weather, so we had the rain naturally falling onto the pavement. Weather is important to a Neo-noir film as many want to show the idea of darkness and gloom. We also had the sound of footsteps, this creates a build up and also leaves the audience waiting for something to happen.
When we went out to shoot our film we obviously had not planned the weather, however the rain was perfect for the feeling of uncertainty and again this type of gloomy, dark atmosphere is typical in this genre. The Mis-en-scene is usually the first thing that draws the audience in, our film we shot in several dark alleyways around Cambridge. In the flashback we wanted the dead girl to be wearing something symbolic, so that the audience could connect the dead girl to the flashback previous. Our characters symbolic clothing was her purple coat. In “brick” this idea is used as the bracelet the girl wears is zoomed in on, in both reality and flashback. Between the images of the girls journey are several shots of the surrounding area before the dead body is discovered. We decided to use these shots to show how enclosed the body was, and giving the idea of the both girls journeys to and from school. This idea of being enclosed is seen in the opening scene of “Brick” where the boy is kneeling outside what appears to be a large tunnel with the dead girls body floating in the water.
Being confused is typical for an audience to feel when watching a neo-noir film until slowly the plot is unravelled and the characters connection to each other and what is actually going on is revealed. One example of a Neo-noir film that uses this is “The Big Sleep”. Aswell as having the flashbacks and the voiceover to reveal the plot, we also lengthened the shots, therefore giving the audience more time to take in what is happening.
To conclude, I feel happiest with the voiceover used as I feel that without it, the story would not fit together as well but also gives the effect of the girl’s journey from her perspective. I also liked the sound of the rain picked up from filming, as it brought the atmosphere to life more. I think that we could have improved how long we took to plan as it slowed down the amount of time we had to film. Overall, feedback was good and I am happy with the final editing.
