In what ways does your film develop, use or challenge conventions of proper films?

NOTAGE TO GO ALONGSIDE THE FOOTAGE

Background to my film…• KILL ME SLOWLY• Logline: After the drastic effects of the Korean war, lingering loose threads of the

Great Depression, and the recent outbreak of McCarthyism splintering an even bigger divide between citizens, America in 1954 is not the best place to reside. With rumour of another economic Depression due to shortages, Detective Inspector Bishop (Robson Howes) doesn't know where he stands.

• This dark twisted tale • Alienated, isolated, and alone, work-a-holic Bishop though committed to his

job, has extreme difficulty with holding any relationship, especially with women. He resorts to silently murdering those whom he feels knows too much about him or threatens his knowledge. To escape this, he turns to whiskey, cigarettes, and chess.

• Business has been slow around town recently and the Detective has just murdered and covered his tracks for yet another dead woman. But his trails are not completely covered, and they never are.

• Head smart, dangerously attractive Darcy (Imogen Downes) claws her way into his alienated world, but is it safe? Can Darcy's charm allure and contain, or will she end up like the rest of his girls?

LocationLocations presented in noirs often give off a ‘claustrophobic’ feel. They are typically dark, cold and plain – in other words, not places you’d want to ‘be’. Therefore I feel like I have conformed in this particular region of my film as I used a brick wall, a narrow street, and a corner of a room. All common locations reflecting an ‘uncomfortable’ feel to my film. Although shot in the present day, I tried to closely mimic the classic locations. Therefore I believe I used the conventions, however also slightly ‘modern-ised’ them.

The DetectiveI obviously needed a ‘detective outfit’ for Bishop. I was fairly limited to what I could choose as traditionally, a “detective” has a specific uniformed look. I however, approached his costume on a more modern route, taking inspiration from Leonardo Di’Caprio’s character in ‘Shutter Island’, the 12th Doctor, and a modern drawing of an interpretation of a noir detective.

The GirlAs the audience doesn’t really see her costume a lot in the opening, I focused on her entrance and first impressions of her, made by the audience. Therefore I had to concentrate on things like how she was positioned, her make-up, where her eyes were, and where she’d appear in the opening.I challenged the traditional noir as I took inspiration from Lady Gaga’s video to Paparazzi. I really liked the eye makeup, and the random second-long flash/bulb/cutaways to the dolled up dead girls.

To the best of my ability, I somewhat tried to re-create some of the shots…

The positioning, the marks on her neck, the eye makeup and the red lips were all things I concentrated on mimicking. I however styled her hair to fit a more 40’s look, therefore traditional noir conventions foreground this!!

TitlesUSED/DEVELOPED CHALLENGED

Block-y font is used Not always in the centre

They have a slight shadow Air time is approx 4 seconds

They are an off-white colour Less titles are used

The foreground is pretty plain I framed my shots around my titles (I feel noirs tend not to do that)

The surname is below the first name

Slightly 'skinnier' font

The first name is in lowercase Positioned diagonally eg. Just Like This

The surname is in bigger capitals

Slow fade transitions

Words like ‘and’ ‘in’ used

PropsProps are very significant in film. Each prop/set dressing is there for a reason – whether it’s symbolism, a metaphor, or subtly foreshadowing the future, ALL props have a purpose!! My survey results said that a favourite part of Noir was the style, therefore I had to choose props carefully…

Like me, this film was also trying to recreate a noiry look. So I used his photo to inform me of the props/angle/posture when filming my detective at the desk.

Editing

The ‘classic’ image of a Noir consists of shadows, figures, fog, black and white, high contrasts.My opening follows a fairly conventional ‘noir editing’ path as it is in black and white, with contrasts toyed with, enabling me to reveal and hide certain aspects from the audience. The only colour present would be there for meaning – to signify a difference between the characters (power, gender etc.)I decided to bring out the red in my female’s lips. This is a challenge of a ‘traditional’ noir as it mimics Sin City (a neo-noir from 2005)

Noir in a nutshell. I stayed fairly conventional, however challenged some ‘editing’ aspects such as fog and silhouettes as I feel it didn’t fit into my opening smoothly.

Camera shots

CHALLENGED – focus pull - no opening I watched used this, therefore I believe this is a modern twist and a convention I challenged

USED – shadow/silhouette effect is widely used in this genre

USED – he’s ‘reaching’ out of the shot towards the audience, making them feel uncomfortable

DEVELOPED – close ups are conventional, however the prominent red lips mark modern-ness

USED – canted/squiffy angles are used to make the audience feel uncomfortable

Music/LightingFurthermore, I believe I challenged a couple of conventions due to the music I chose over the top of my film. I did this in order to add a modern spin on my film (listening to audience research).The openings I analysed used classical music quietly in the background, I however used a saxophone piece loudly over my video. I used saxophone as it is similar to the Sin City opening scene music. Similar to the ‘older noirs’, this music does not play loudly over the top of the action but quietly, mimicking ambient music that ‘blends in’ with the scene. I did not do this, my music ‘blasts’ over the action on screen. Saxaphones have connotations of jazzy/happy/dance-y people, therefore my music could be seen as contrapuntal. Scoresese also uses contrapuntal music in the fight scene in ‘Mean Streets’. As for lighting, I filmed inside which meant I had the power to manipulate lighting to my advantage. I experimented a little bit, using torches, umbrellas infront of lights, and using a ‘cookie’ which is something you use infront of a light to get a desired effect, such as the blind effect.In conclusion I was used the conventions for lighting as being able to control the lighting meant I could control shadows/what the audience did/didn't see.