Badly Drawn Storyboards

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Potenial Convo/Script

Guy 1: That's Tony outta the way
Guy 2: (said with arms behind shoudlers, leaning back smugly) Handled nicely, too
Boss: Yeah yeah..what are we going to do about the son?
Guy 2: Well, I've got the mistress covered (nudges guy 1 and winks)
Boss: (Slams fist down on the table) This is serious! What we need is a distraction
Guy 2: Like a girl?!
Boss: Yes, idiot...Now think.
Guy 1: There's always ______________. <---- blank because I haven't thought of a name yet =[
Guy 2: ______?
Guy 1: Yes, _______ ....at this point they will begin to talk about the femme fatale


I always feel that my ideas sound poor, I'm not sure why - I plan to make it look better than it comes across.

Title Sequences.

I would love to response to this opening but I'm not sure, they would work in my piece.



In the opening of Halloween I like the way the pumpkin remains still, and how the camera slowly, and subtly zoom in closer.
I was thinking about doing this with a trilby or a cigerette stick or something like that.

German Expressionism

German Expressionism is the term used to refer to a number of related creative movements which emerged in Germany before the WW1 which reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s.

It was the early film noir, if you like. It spanned across many media including: theater, architecture, music, painting and sculpture. Drama also played a part of the Expressionist movement in Germany, with playwrights expanding the range of what could be depicted on stage.

In film making it is also referred to as Expressionism and is probably the best known part of the movement. During the period of recovery after the war, the German film industry was booming! It was difficult to create films that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German UFS studio developed their own style by using symbolism and mise-en-scene to add mood and deeper meaning to a film.

The first Expressionist films were highly symbolic and deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Golem (1920)
Destiny (1921)
Nosferatu (1922) (Still image above)
Phantom (1922)
Schatten (1923)
The Last Laugh (1924)

Other examples/References

I found these on wiki, and I thought it was quite interesting looking at music examples.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers's video for their song Otherside (2000) has elements of the German Expressionist style. It can also be seen in the video Predictable from Good Charlotte and Rob Zombie's music video for Living Dead Girl.



Other Side - RHCP





http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wqHcD6tv2po&feature=related - Rob Zombie!



Thom Yorke has referred to the influence of German Expressionism in the creation of the artwork for his solo work "The Eraser".

Film Noir Portraiture

I found this photographer online who specialises in noir portraits.




I really like them.

http://www.lafterhall.com/filmnoir.html

The Big Heat

In The Big Heat, violence and criminality contaminate a small city, controlling elections and the police, as well as threatening institutions.

The cast of characters of film noir narratives is present, but, in keeping with many films of the '50s, they have moved out of the shadowy stairwells and back alleys to occupy well-furnished homes and luxurious estates. Much of the violence occurs offscreen - in the diegesis of the film, occuring no doubt in the old haunts of film noir. Violence and criminality still exist, closer and more threatening than ever, but also more menacing. The low-key lighting, off-anfle compositions, and night-for-night photography that distinguishes the visual style is used sparingly in The Big Heat, further blurring boundary between the criminal elements and the rest of society.

Emphasizing the pressing danger to the family unit, the plot of the film takes the audience into two false fronts of domesitcity before introducing the ideal but thretened Bannion family. The opening sequence of the briefly introduces a husband and wife already corrupted. Setting the violent tone, the first shot of The Big Heat is a close-up of a revolver on a desk. As the camera slowly draws back, a hand grasps the gun, a shot is fired, and a man slumps over the desk. The frame continues to enlarge, revealing a woman coming down the stairs. After a cut to medium shot of the woman, her face half in shadow, and a huge grandfather clock reading three o’clock, the sequence goes on to show her coldly assessing the suicide of her husband and making a phone call. Mrs. Duncan, from the opening sequence a policeman’s widow, exhibits the greed and ambition of the archetypal femme fatale, although her sexuality is de-emphasized. A later sequence, an interview between Mrs. Duncan and homicide detective Bannion, visually underscores her duplicity by beginning with a shot of her at a vanity table, reflected in a three-paned mirror as she makes herself up to play the grieving widow.

Genre Lesson

Genres;

- involve a process of categorisation
- used by both film producing/distributing institutions AND audiences
! used by producers/directors to define easier and to sell
! used by audiences to judge whether they want to see it
- work through a prior knowledge
- minimises economic risk
- aides advertising
- institutions like things they can 'package' easily
- give the audience predictable pleasures
- involve innovation, inflection/subversion of the generic conventions

A good genre piece should live up to its certain expectations, but shouldn't be too predictable. Most are predictable with a twist

Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet is a 1986 American mystery film, written and directed by David Lynch. The film exhibits elements of both film noir and surrealism. The film owes a large debt to 1950s film noir as it contains and explores such conventions as the femme fatale (Dorothy Vallens), a seemingly unstoppable villian (Frank Booth) and the questionable moral outlook of the hero (Jeffrey Beaumont) as well as its unusual use of shadowy, sometimes dark cinematography.

Blue Velvet represents and somewhat establishes Lynch's famous "askew vision". It also introduces several common elements of Lynch's work. Some of which would later become trademarks of his films including: distorted characters, a polarized world, damage to the skull or brain and the dark underbelly of large cities, or in this case, small towns. In key scenes, red curtains show up specifically in Dorothy's apartment which have since become a trademark of Lynch films.

Blue Velvet has been compared to Hitchcock's Psycho ('60s) because of its bleak treatment of psychotic evil, as well as having an established link with Rear Window ('54), one of Lynch's favourite films. The idea of both films is curiosity, leading to an investigation that draws the lead characters into a hidden, underworld of crime. The film's thematric framework hearkens back to Poe and early gothic fiction, as well as films such as Shadow of a Doubt ('43) and The Night of the Hunter ('55) and the entire notion of film noir! Lynch has called Blue Velvet a "film about things that are hidden - within a small city and within people".

The most consistent symbol in Blue Velvet is an insect introduced at the end of the first scene, (1:35) when the camera zooms in on a well-kept suburban lawn until it unearths, underground, a swarming nest of grimy bugs! This is generally recongnized as a metaphor for the seedy underworld that Jeffery will soon discover.

It is very uncomfortable at times, but I enjoyed it. It is everything a modern noir should be. Very surreal, I loved it.

The Usual Suspects!

The Usual Suspects is an American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. Starring Kevin Spacey! =]

Singer read a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects" after Claude Rains' line in Casablanca. He thought that it would be a good title for a film. When asked what their next film was about, McQuarrie replied, "I guess it's about a bunch of criminals who meet in a police line-up", which, was the first visual idea that he and Bryan came up for the poster: five guys who meet in a line-up =P

The film is narratively hollow and dramatically derivative, Byran Singer's puzzle-homage to Tarantino is nonetheless well-directed and well-acted, particularly by Kevin Spacey! (kickassssssssss!) who won a supporting Oscar ;)

You can see the elements of film noir right at the start of film! The opening is just beautiful ^____^

Sine waves shimmering upon a black harbor on an elegant loop. The music is awesome too, a string orchestra, piano and bell, etc.

Thanks Ms Moore!

The Good German is a 2006 adaptation of the novel by Joseph Kanon. Set in Berlin; following the Allied victory. The film was shot on black-and-white photographic film. It is designed to imitate the appearance of film noir, classic 40's noir. Although it also includes material - such as sexxx and swearing. This would not have been acceptable or prohibited by the Production Code!

A still illustrating the film's use of a Classical Hollywood visual style, including black and white photography and a 1.33.1 aspect ratio. Although the finished piece is in black and white, it was actually shot in color because this allowed the use of faster film. Also it afdorded the ablility to use 'green screen' techniques. The color was then reduced in post-production through the use of a digital intermediate to a grainier black and white. This was done to blend with the carefully restored archibal material!

I love the poster =] It pays homage to the classic film Casablanca. Another classic noir film.

Arthur Edeson, the cinematographer of Casablanca, paid particular attention to photographing Bergman. A softening gauze filter was used along with catch lights to make her eyes sparkle. The whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffeably sad and tender and nostaglic". Bars of shadow across the characters variously imply imprisonment. Dark film noir and expressionist lighting was used in several scenes, particularly towards the end of the picture. Rosenzweig argues these shadow and lighting effects are classic elements of the Curtiz style, along with the fluid camera work with the use of the environment as a framing device.

Storyboarding Lesson.

Storyboarding is no substitute for filming and editing, but it's a very useful tool for planning! The storyboard process was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s!

A film storyboard is essentially a large comic of the film produced beforehand to help film directors and cinematographers visualize the scenes and find problems before they occur. Often storyboards include arrows or instructions that indicate movement.

Hitchcock's films were strongly believed to have been extensively storyboarded to the finest detail by the majority of commentators over the years, although recent research indicates this was exaggerated for publicity purposes.

Other directors storyboard only certain scenes, or none at all! I find this like shocking, although it must be a very long process, storyboarding an entire film. Personally, I can't film without some sort of a storyboard - but I have only shot a short film. I think the storyboard is essential, just I am not very good at drawing, I prefer to write or make notes.


I plan to do a storyboard and an animatic.

Animatics

I love animatics, they give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in a sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or sound track is added to the sequence of still images to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together. Animatics are good as they allow the directors and animators to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. Often storyboards are animated with simple zooms and pans to simulate camera movement.

Example:

(click to see bigger)

The Devil's Rejects Storyboard
from this website, www.famousframes.com

Neo-noir Research

Neo-noir is a type of motion picture that incorporates elements of film noir but with updated themes, content, style. Basically a more modern sub-genre of film noir. Some examples of this are: Blue Velvet, No Country for Old Men, Se7en and Sin City. These films usually include both thematic and visual elements of films noir. As many classic film noir were independent features, is it fitting that many neo-noir films are also independent.

By the 1970s, newer motion pictures were sometimes earning comparisons to earlier films noir. Unlike classic noirs, neo-noir films are aware of modern circumstances and technology - details that were absent to the plot of classic film noir. The term can be applied to other works of fiction that incorporate these elements. A prime example of this is, Blade Runner.

Neo-noir is very tempting!
But I think I want to keep it classic and stay loyal to 50s-style noir.

Mindmap!

(Click to see it bigger).
Identifying the big picture, characters in order to create a logline.

Film Noir Research

Some research on the genre, its sub-genres, but mainly focusing on certain elements such as characters and roles - i.e. femme fatale, coppers, etc.

"Film noir is a cinematio term used primarily to descibe stylish Hollywood crime dramas particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression".

The Big Combo (1955) is an American film noir released and directed by Joseph H. Lewis. The film was stylistically photographed by cinematographer and noir icon John Alton. This film noir is considered by many film critics as one of the best work of legendary cinematographer John Alton. Even though most people associate brass music (trumpets, saxophones, etc.) with film noir, most employed orchestral (strings) scores. However, The Big Combo is one of few film noirs to have a brass score.

John Alton was an American cinematographer. He photographed some of the most famous film noirs of the classic period. He won an academy award for the film: "An American in Paris".

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I like the cinematography I am coming across. I am going to come back to this and develop this research further.

What I want to focus on right now is characters.

A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon.

The phrase is French for "deadly woman". She tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty and charm. Typically, a fatale is exceptionally well-endowed with these qualities. In some situation she uses lying rather than charm. She also may be a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape.

In contemporary culture, the femme fatale survives as heroine and anti-heroine, in Nikita and Moulin Rouge, as well in video games and comic books! Examples of this - Elektra, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. The protagonists (main characters) of Desperate Housewives use sexual allure to get what and whom they want.

Classic Femme Fatale

Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres: from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comdies, though her greatest successes were romantic dramas.

In the film A House Divided (1931), she was hastily dressed her in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline. Davis was rebuffed by the director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?"

Cinematographer Karl Freund told the head of Universial Studios Bette had "lovely eyes". Bette Davis is most famous for her eyes.