Scene I — The Agency Scene

In continuation of our planning for our film noir short, we wanted to start developing our visual ideas, so beginning to create a storyboard was a logical step.

We had previously discussed wanting a scene to be set in the press office of the newspaper agency, but we had not finalised the specific ins and outs of what would happen in the scene itself. We supposed that drawing some initial ideas down might help us plan the content and structure of the scene better. We began to storyboard this scene in a freeform manner using Post-It Notes, so we could re-order shots as we went.

The shots read in chronological order from left-to-right. The shot details are as follows:

1.   CU lit cigarette in ashtray on desk. Possible off-screen dialogue from the boss/editor.

2.   mid shot of smartly-dressed Robyn (femme fatale), half-obscured by darkness, w/ back to camera and facing editor, who is completely obscured by darkness.

3.   fragmented ECU of Robyn's face, talking or being talked to

3a. focus shift to Scott (protag) standing in doorway with two coffees. dressed semi-formally.

4.   CU of coffee being placed on editor's table by Scott.

5.   long tracking shot of Robyn leaving room, tracking backwards w/ focus on her. Leaves frame. Scott stands gormlessly looking out at her.

Blade Runner Analysis

Here is a short analysis of Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi action film Blade Runner. It is noted for borrowing many tropes from classic film noir to create a pervasive and effective atmosphere. It would do us well to learn from this film, often dubbed a neo-noir, to create a similar tone.

Initial Planning

Today we began to plan what direction we wanted to take for our film noir short. We have the rough outline of a plot premise, with some character ideas developing.

We knew from the outset we didn't want to shoot on-location scenes in our local town, as it is not becoming of the noir genre and many locations have been over-used in previous years; we decided to film in a city of some sort, and deducted that Cambridge would be ideal. It has a distinct architectural style, and is not too far away to be easily-accessible to us.

The intricasies of the plot have yet to form, but we know that we wanted our protagonist to work in a field with the potential for moral dubiousness, à la classic films noir, but decided on journalism as it is a more up-to-date and commonplace profession than policing or detective work. The protagonist, who we have tentatively named Scott, will be an intern working at a newspaper agency, while the femme fatale (Robyn) shall be an infamous yet mysterious journalist who has got herself in too deep with a drug scandal.

I have transcribed the main bullet points of the rough notes I took down in the lesson below.



Planning -- 22nd January

• Plot:
• Writing/newspaper?
• Drug lords/dealers?
• Newspaper clippings? Jarring objects.

• Setting:
• Cambridge
• back streets, less pretty areas, etc.
• Press office
• classroom with blinds?
• Dom's basement

• Characters:
• Protagonist
• intern -- fall guy
• possible actor: Chris Mutter?
• Femme fatale
• high-ranking journalist?
• in too deep with drug lords/a story.

• Titles
• Title of piece:
• possible inspiration from LA Confidential:
• city of the angels?
• trouble in Paradise?
• Title of newspaper:
• The Herald
• The Bugle
• The Citizen

LA Confidential Analysis

I have made a concise analysis video regarding the 1997 neo-noir LA Confidential, in particular discussing its use of conventions of classic films noir. It is one of my favourite films, and I think its treatment of conventions could be useful in guiding where we want our short to go.

Film Noir Introduction

I have created a short film to discuss film noir as a concept:

Film Noir Mood Board

Coursework Brief

The A2 Media Studies coursework we have been set requires us to produce:

• a 5-minute short film in the style of film noir,

alongside two ancillary pieces picked from a list of the following three:

• a film poster complementing the film;
• a radio advertisement for the film;
• a magazine review page for the film.