Feedback On Our Pitch And Idea

We presented our pitch to our teachers and our class. They gave us some helpful feedback so that we could improve our presentation for the real thing.

What we did well:

• Thought about genre and characters typical to the genre
• Thought about costumes and props
• Thought about possible locations
• Didn't read off the powerpoint
• Used media terminology well

Improvements and things to think about:

• Make a script and memorise what you are going to say
• Make your powerpoint presentation visually pleasing, by using pictures
• Add photographs of props, costumes and locations
• Finalise locations
• Make sure actors are reliable
• Do audience research
• Is there a modern audience for a period noir film?
• Look at Coen Brothers film: The Man Who Wasn't There

Our Pitch

For our pitch we have decided to do a powerpoint presentation which will include any pictures that we feel are relevant and bullet points that our class can read in order to follow what we are saying.

Narrative:

Our narrative will be of the film noir detective genre. The basic story outline will entail a detective answering a phone call that is a lead to where a murderer is hiding - with the captured femme fatale. We think that this is a good story line because it is simple, yet has many enigmas and does not give away too much.

We will show a rough storyboard that we have drawn up so that the class can see the different types of shots we plan to use, the lighting we think will be effective and the props and locations.

Characters:

In our opening we will have the three most typical characters of the film noir genre: the detective, the murderer and the femme fatale.

The detective will be wearing attire typical to the 1940s, including a trench coat and trilby hat. We have decided that our detective will be Jack Harris (one of our group members brother) as he is 18 - but looks older - and also looks a lot older than anyone we could have cast from our 6th form. Jack can also legally smoke and will be useful as the typical 'detective' from 1940s noir films normally smokes and tends to look quite rugged and unshaven.

Our murderer has not been officially cast yet because we will only need a pair of hands and a male shadow. However, he will need to be quite tall and broad in order to cast a big enough shadow. We think that we will ask the a level drama group as we know many of them will be interested in our project and they won't be nervous in front of the camera due to previous experience.

The femme fatale will be played by Kate (at the moment) as she looks the part. We will dress her in rather revealing clothes as she is supposed to be a sex symbol.

Location:

We haven't yet decided on all our locations but we have the following:

• Kitty's bathroom has old fashioned-looking taps and plenty of space to film so this will be suitable for the shot of the murderer washing his hands.
• The scene of the detective talking on a pay phone has not yet got a confirmed location, however, a dimly lit road with a lone telephone box would look very effective - especially if there was a street lamp lit over the telephone box. Furthermore you will be able to see the full attire of the detective. Although, this will hard to find as we live in a modern part of London so we would have go to a more up market place in London in hope of finding an old telephone box.
• The scene of the detective walking into the abandoned building will be shot in the stair well of Yulia's building as this is dimly lit and would cast shadows.

Props:

The only props we will need are:

• 1940s style cigarettes (roll ups - as they do not have a filter)

Target Audience:

We have already stated that we will target our film at an older audience as they will appreciate film noir more.

Target Audience

We have decided to pitch our film to a more mature audience, as we think that they would be able to appreciate the film noir genre.
We also don't think that the younger generation would be as interested in a film shot in black and white, as they have grown up with technicolour and usually think that black and white films are old and boring.

We have decided that we will survey people from the age of 16 and older in order to see what they like to see in a detective/noir film and what they think is overdone in recent films. From our survey we hope that we will get more concrete ideas and have more of an idea of what our audience will be expecting from our opening.

Research Into The Genre

For our film opening we will be using the popular film genre Film Noir.

- What are the conventions of the genre?

• Low key and chiaroscuro lighting
• Femme fatale
• Black, white and grey
• Cynical and hard-hearted male protagonist
• Murder
• Detective
• Twisting storylines
• Amnesia (suffered by protagonist)
• Ominous shadows
• 'Skewed' camera angles
• Dark, gloomy interiors
• Ambient music
• Dark alleyways
• Rain-slicked streets
• Dimly lit apartments

-The genre's recent success

Film noir films were very popular in the 1940s and '50s, but have declined in demand since the introduction of technicolour film. A few well known examples of film noir are The Big Combo (1955) which was directed by Joseph H Lewis and became famous because of the iconic noir shot at the end of the film of a silhouetted man and woman surrounded by fog (shown above). Another well known film noir director is Alfred Hitchcock who is famous for the films: Strangers on a Train (1950), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) , Notorious (1946) and The Wrong Man (1956).

More recent noir films have been technicolour, however they still retain classic conventions of the genre, for example Snatch (2000) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004).

Originally the film noir genre was used to describe stylish Hollywood movies, but has spread worldwide since the 1960s as nowadays more and more countries have the means to produce high-budget films and distribute them.

-Film Noir openings
Most noir films begin with the opening credits (even in neo-noirs) and then in a typical opening the main characters are introduced (normally the detective, femme fatale and a murderer) through a series of cutaways to them, most of the time showing how they are all connected. In all noir films the opening will create some sort of an enigma, and in many that we have watched the enigma is what the detective is investigating.