Major Project Research- Clothing

My piece is a noir style scene set in the 1950's therefore the clothing is an extremely important part of it. I took inspiration from Humphrey Bogart as he is considered one of the most influential actors to the noir style creating what it is seen as today, The more like him I can get Eddie the better. Therefore Eddie will be dressed in similar wear:

A classic gray three-piece suit was pretty much the standard uniform of the private dick, allowing him to look good without attracting too much attention to himself. Cut slim, the jacket is always unbuttoned to not only show off the vest below, but also to allow a little breathing room for the snub-nosed revolver tucked under-arm.

A quality fedora with a thick band was made to be worn with a suit, so make sure yours matches as closely as possible. Avoid feathers or other adornments tucked into the band, the goal here is a style founded in sleek minimalism.
When buying a hat like this, you get what you pay for. A hand-formed hat will stand up to years of wear and weather, while a lesser copy will begin to lose shape and look shabby.



Since inclamate weather was often used in Film Noir as a means of foreshadowing dark, mysterious, and dangerous situations, it’s no surprise that the detective often wore a beige trench to beat the gloom. Often worn with the collar popped up to shield, or conceal one’s face.
Trench coats today are not the saggy-sack your father donned on rainy days, they’re fitted, modern, and cut a stylish silhouette. Brands like Burberry and H&M all make fantastic trenches in a variety of styles and at nearly any price.


The only thing I will change with this clothing arrangement is the tie in the three piece suit. I will give Eddie a red tie and make sure his trench coat is always unbuttoned so the audience can see the red tie amongst the black and white. This is to show connotations of danger from Eddie right from the start to raise tension from the audience, I want him to clearly be a detective but so the audience are under the impression he is a detective that is on the boundaries of being bad. I hope to achieve this with the performance but emphasise it with what Eddie wears.

Dress The Part: Film Noir; Erik Adler; 2010; Dress The Part, Lookbook; http://everyguyed.com/lookbook/dress-part-film-noir/

Major Project Research- Keying background

I looked up a few more tutorials on how to key in backgrounds and it really doesn't seem like it would be that difficult. The probability is I would be green screening my entire film as it seems easier than actually finding a suitable location that looks like a 1950's New York rooftop that we can film safely on. I looked up how they created the green screen for Sin City (Miller, 2005) and found this gem:



Someone has decided to remake the opening to Sin City using their own green screen and it has come out great! This is completely on green screen and they have just rendered the film to include red, black and white only. This is what I will do in the editing stages of my production to make it come out in this effect.

Keying seems to be quite simple and I feel I have learnt the basics in class already after our After Effects Tutorial lesson however the video below gives me information on how to create a more authentic green screen keying that makes the footage look more transposed into the background which will be essential in my piece. I think there is no real way to create this film in a real location due to both risk assessments and controlled environment reasons. I want to control the environment to the image a want and therefore it would look a lot better through having the background my own created skyline silhouette.


Sin City Green Screen; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jrDKTkkK7E; Arthur Mah; 2012

Green Screen Keying with After Effects by Andrew Kramer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQphUOZGZCc; Tubetape; 2009

Major Project Research- Soundtrack

When researching the films that most suited the film I wanted to convey there was only one track that I thought would properly convey the mood i was looking for. What mostly attracted my to this soundtrack is the similarity of inevitable hopelessness that the song brings. Although I have tagged my idea as an action drama more than a thriller now I still think that it has a lot of thriller elements that can't be missed especially the ending as it raises tension. This soundtrack is the perfect tool to do that, it raises tension extremely well and can even be played at the end when all is revealed as this still captures the mood of surprise.
The soundtrack is very simple and has been hailed by critics for making Shutter Island a commercial success. This soundtrack is widely recognised and I think as I am aiming for a neo noir style action thriller the track will only help give the isolation of the character who sits on the boundaries of good or bad a boost for the audience to get the emotion I aim for them to have. As I am not planning to put in any dialogue as well this soundtrack will say it all for me.

Major Project Research, Fluid movement style- The Spirit (Miller, 2008)

The Spirit has majorly influenced my style for my developing project. This is because of the similar distinctive neo noir style used in Sin City but most of all on the way the movement of the spirit is shot in the film. The top picture is a perfect example of how I imagine Eddie Norman, my character to run. I have very much used The Spirit character as a mould in which to build my main character as I wanted to convey similar conventions of what the spirit represents onto Eddie, obviously they have a lot of difference for example Eddie is a detective and middle aged, he struggles to obtain the same amount of fitness as the villain in my story and is a lot more dangerous than The Spirit in the sense of Eddie being out of control, willing to shoot someone just to stop him commiting a crime again, wiping clean the city by bringing himself to their level, he is almost one of them.
The main source of inspiration in this film is the fluid capture movement in this film, this is green screened and has a graphic novel approach where everything seems surreal in this film the top picture is how I imagine some of my shots to be like except the shot a lot closer to the character. At the end I imagine a similar shot to the second one as Eddie walks from the darkness shooting the villain. The scene is also an influential style on what I imagine in my film. The mist rising on the rooftops obstacles scattered around obscuring maze of rooftops that is still left and dangerous ledges scattered around. This surreal world is a perfect image for where I would like to place the story.

Major Project Research- Colour Palette

Colours I want to use in my final piece are fairly easy, after researching into Sin City I have decided I will only use three colours used in a monocrome sense to give a distinctive style to the audience watching, I aim to show it is neo noir but will have to achieve this further with other production components such as lighting and costume.
So these are the colours I will use:

 White: The colour evokes purity and spiritualness. White is considered the purist of all colours as it is colourless. It contrasts with most colours and can oppose almost all other colours.

Black: Black contrasts well with white. Black and white films are considered old now however arthouse films often use black and white to convey duality in their films. This is what I aim to do when filming as duality is a crucial part of the plotline in this film. I hope the monocrome colouring will emphasise the ending more as well as emphasise the connotations of the next colour.




Red: The connotations of this colour have become widely recognised in film ever since colour films first began. Red stands for passion and danger. It is also a strong blood colour used in a lot of action films. I will use red in this film just as Sin City (Miller, 2005) and The Spirit (Miller, 2008) does. Eddie's tie will be rendered red and so will the blood when either character is shot. I think this will give a unique neo noir style but with a twist.

Major Project Research influence- Sin City (Miller, 2005)

Sin City has a very specific visual style that I have recently researched in more detail. Sin City is a graphic novel adaptation straight from three books create by Frank Miller; 'The hard Goodbye', 'The Big Fat Kill' and 'That Yellow Bastard'. Robert Rodriguez described the story as 'a translation, not an adaptation' (IMDB, 2011) therefore they have clearly tried to create the same style as the comic. This meant the film was shot nearly entirely on green screen rather than using real locations as they tried to fit it in so much with the image of Frank Miller. This is an interesting way of doing things as although it was very time consuming for the post production, the over shooting would have been a lot more controlled and it would be a lot easier to create and exact visualisation of what they would want on literally a blank canvas.

Also another interesting component of Sin City is it's palette in the final film. They render most of the film black and white except for a few reds and yellows throughout the film. The reds are used to show the danger and are used as clear connotations throughout, however for me this rendering is extremely interesting as it gives the film a unique style that ended up with the production company winning a Technical grand prize at Cannes Film Festival. I am intrigued on this neo noir style and will use this as a final influence on my proposal.

Major Project Research- Character Description

Name: Detective Eddie Norman
Age: 46

Facial Description: Rugged features with a five O'Clock features, stress lines under his eyes and his eyes held open by years of heavy coffee drinking and smoking. His hair is slick, combed neatly in a side parting under his 50's hat.

Description: Eddie is a serious detective that has seen his fair share of bad experiences in the 1950's New York underworld throughout his long stretched career. His mind set on the job his failed marriage has just created more of a parting between his emotions and his job, he is purely professional. Now a private eye he keeps his formality in the clothes he wears but really he wonders in the underworld of New York bent on justice being served against those who deserve it. He dresses smart but doesn't play by the rules, he has learnt that these people need to be punished to learn to be lawful and he is the one to do it doing anything to get the job done. He has become his job and that is his life.

Clothing: He wears grey formal trousers with shiny black shoes to match. He has a suit tucked away under his grey trenchcoat and a bright red tie underneath that stands out from the rest of his clothing. He wears a hat over his slick black hair, the hat is a formal 50's noir hat with a black ribbon tied around it, Eddie is formal but his personality shows he is anything but clean.