Film Synopsis

In the early 1990’s Detective Alfred McGuiness is the last of his kind, a tough as nails, act now talk later kind of detective. McGuiness wants to leave his mark on the policing world before he is forced into an early retirement by his superiors. He gets his chance when a student is murdered in college and there are no witnesses to provide any valuable evidence, with three suspects possibly being the killer including the victim’s teacher, ex-girlfriend and best friend, McGuiness sees his opportunity to go out with a bang.

Film Synopsis Update

Over the last week I have began to write my full film synopsis and allowed the project to start to take shape, whilst a lot of the details have yet to be placed into the story I am certain that the full film synopsis which will include the scene which I shall be filming will be placed on my blog before the 1:00pm deadline on Friday 30/09/2011.

I have also recently updated the brief on my first post of my blog. Removing the short synopsis I already had on the blog to be replaced by the full synopsis on a post of it's own, tomorrow, I have also extended the information to that of the full brief including how to work in a group, reflective analysis and the number of marks that this unit of coursework will take up.

Codes and Conventions of Film Noir

Codes and Conventions of Film Noir (Detective Films)

I will be looking at the codes and conventions of the Film Noir genre, but to be more specific, Detective films. Detective films are a very hard to categorise. A lot of the conventions that can be found in detective films can easily be found in other genres as well, and is placed under the umbrella of the crime genre. In short, for a film to be considered a detective film there are two definitive items that are required, the first is a narrative that follows the investigation of a crime, the second is a detective like character as the main protagonist. There is also a second type of detective film which is called an ‘Inverted detective story’ in which it shows the criminal committing the crime at the start of the film and then goes through the investigators journey to unravel the mystery, usually clearing up most of the points such as why the crime was committed and who committed it on the way. A popular example of an inverted detective story is ‘Dial M for Murder’ by Alfred Hitchcock which shows the crime being planned at the start of the film, and has the story unravel with the characters figuring out who the real mastermind behind the plot was. A good example of a more classic whodunit storyline is from the TV series ‘Monk’ which features a number of locked room whodunits in which a character is killed in a near impossible scenario from which a criminal could enter or leave, for example, a locked room.

With a detective protagonist, the detective sub-genre becomes much easier to break down and define. For example, most detective characters are usually male and display a sense of American masculinity, whilst female detectives have started to infiltrate the genre over the last few years, male detectives are still portrayed as the most popular. The protagonist is usually morally questionable in detective films, usually having some form of dark past or secret that placed them in the current situation, such as in the case of detective films, the detective may have some past experience that procured them the skills or grit to be the only one good enough for the case.

Detective films and novels are usually set in heavily populated cities and the murders in an enclosed space, so as to allow the detective character to get really close to the suspects involved. Camera angle wise this can be shown by using close ups of the character and eye-line match ups to show the proximity of the characters that are in the film. Another prominent camera angle that is used in detective films is the low angled shot, this shot is effectively used to make characters (usually the detective) look far more menacing and intimidating, most notably during questioning or interrogation of other characters. Some good examples of these would be films such as Citizen Kane or Star Wars were evil or more menacing characters were shot with a low angle shot to amplify their status.

Most films in the crime genre (thrillers un-included) are set somewhere between the timeframe of 1920 and 1950, because of this most detective films usually use a black-and-white special effect to straight away set a time zone for the film. Other effects that can be used are to cast the shadows of blinds or banisters across a character (usually whilst they are sat down) or to actually film night time scenes during the middle of the night versus using special effects and lighting to emulate it as most Hollywood genres would, this is most commonly referred to as ‘night-for-night shooting’ versus ‘day-for-night shooting’ which is used by other Hollywood films. Characters faces are usually obscured by shadows to fit in with the mysterious theme of investigations and crime, when used to the right effect, partially or completely hiding a characters face can achieve a number of accomplishments as listed below

• It can hide the identity of the perpetrator of the crime

• It can show the divided personality of a character

• It can show that a character is deep in thought or does not wish to be disturbed.

A number of narrative devices are used in detective films, one of the most notable being the use of flashbacks to remind the audience of an earlier clue that may have been forgotten. Another device that is widely used in this genre is the voice over narrative. Usually given by the protagonist these narrations are used to recap previous events of the film or can be given as a monologue either at the start of the film to properly set the scene, or at the end to give the film a morally good ending. Inverted detective stories also sometimes use a non-linear story line, showing the crime happening and then having the detective (through flashbacks and description) redevelop the crime from the ground up, discussing the reasoning behind it and the motivations of the perpetrator.

Detective films are usually very downbeat and pessimistic, despite having the detective capture the killer towards the end directors usually make it clear that someone in the film has still been murdered and that a number of characters have been placed in a situation which they had never wanted, pitted against fate there was always the possibility that if the judgement of the detective were wrong, then it could have been them going to jail whilst the perpetrator of the crime was able to go free. Critics have always declared the entire film noir genre (of which crime and therefore detective films are a sub genre) to be depressing, and that the general tone of these films is a ‘hopeless’ one.

A2 Film Studies - Creative Product Brief

This particular unit of coursework is worth 50% of my A2 course alonside my small scale research project, making it 25% of my full A-level. It is worth 60 marks whereas the small scale research project is worth 40 marks. The different portions of the unit are as follows.

- Aims and context (Required for assessment)

- Creative Product (45 Marks)
- Evaluation (15 Marks)

The film / video production option of FM3 gives me the opportunity to develop an extended sequence from an imagined feature or develop a complete short film between 3 and 5 minutes.

With both of these options I am meant to engage with the issues raised in FM1 in relation to the production of meaning and the study of film stylistics and theory. I can undertake this task as an individual and it is advised that I do so, but if I do work in a group then my production role within said froup MUST be clearly defined and I will need to provide evidence of my contribution in terms of that role and I will be assessed on my performance in that role.

The film studies department advise that each student should plan and produce a short film or extract and that other students within a study group (4 people max) will help them. You will work on each others films. All students will aid everyone in the study group and they will in turn recieve help on their production.

It is clearly vital that if I am contributing to a production group that I must be reliable, committeed and I must accept the final decision of the person who's project it is. The finished production should clearly show evidence of the individual roles while group members may assist in various roles I will will be assessed on the role I have chosen as my primary role.

This will form the basis of my refleective analysis.

The reflective analysis should select key features of the creative project and reflect critically on both the creative process and the product, focusing on the contruction and the impact of my specific role and how meaning has been created. In order to aid me in this I have produced this blog which must be updated weekly (by 1:00pm on a Friday) to allow for effective monitoring. This will take the form of a production diary and record my progress an creative decisions made.