Storyboard

·        First shot in the opening sequence is an establishing shot of Birmingham. 

 

·      Femme Fatale in detective’s office explaining about what has happened to her jewels.

·      Over the shoulder shot of the characters speaking.

 

·      Femme fatale hiding her jewels trying to frame her former husband of stealing them.

·      Close up on her hand stashing the jewels in his apartment.

 

·      The 2 detectives go to the former husbands house to look for the jewels that the femme fatale has stashed in his apartment.

Synopsis

       Diamant Synopsis

• Director- Jordan Cunningham 
• Femme Fatale-
• Detective- Thomas Hendry  
• Victim- Jordan Twiggs

Plot

A woman wants revenge on her former husband, and so she claims that he stole her jewellery from her apartment, which is worth millions of pounds. The femme fatale then goes to the detective explaining her story blaming it on her former husband. The detective claims that he will try and put a case together for her. The plot then is left on a cliff hanger  to whether the woman gets found out for blaming it on the man or whether the man gets punished and arrested for his actions and the woman wins.

Location

Birmingham - with establishing shots at the start to set the scene and let the audience know where the film is taking place. We can do this by showing some iconic buildings in the city centre of Birmingham for example the Bull Ring. We have chosen this location for the film as there are many unique features for the film to take place.

Characters

In the film we have three main characters that are in it, like any other normal film noir we will have three main characters and they are: Femme Fatale, Detective, Victim. We are using these sorts of characters to create a hook for the people watching the film. When using these characters it shows the audience that it is a traditional film noir as most of the film noirs that were made used these types of characters.

Studio Logo

Diamante Script

Script – Diamanté

FADE IN:

EXT: BIRMINGHAM CITY CENTRE – NIGHT

(An Establishing Shot of the city)

INT: OFFICE –WAITING ROOM – NIGHT

(Detective is about to close up and go home when he sees a woman walking in.)

WOMAN – I’m so glad I’ve caught you! I’m in need of some help.

DETECTIVE – So what can I do for you my dear?

WOMAN – Is there somewhere abit more private where we can speak?

DETECTIVE – Sure, come on in to my office… Want a drink?

WOMAN – Sorry I don’t drink.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

INT: OFFICE – DETECTIVES ROOM – NIGHT

(Both Detective and Woman walk into the office, and then Detective reaches out and grabs his finest bottle of whiskey and pours himself a glass.)

WOMAN – Right so this is where it all started, yesterday after coming back from my trip to France it appeared to me that some of my most precious jewels have gone missing. These are not any ordinary jewels these are the rarest, finest diamonds that someone can get their hands on! I do have a little idea of who could be behind this.

(Detective whips out his notepad and writes down what the woman is saying to him.)

DETECTIVE – So tell me more about the man that you may think stole the jewels.

WOMAN – His name is Hubert and lets say we have abit of history, this man is my ex husband and well we didn’t split up on good terms.

DETECTIVE – Okay I’ll try my best to get a case together sweetheart.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

EXT: HUBERTS HOUSE – BACK GARDEN – MORNING

(POV Shot: Woman hiding her jewels that she claims had been stolen by her ex husband in his back garden.)

(Detectives go into the mans house to search for the jewels that are believed to be stolen from the woman.)

Mind Map

Mr Judge Feedback

Medal: Your current posts are of a good standard and some are excellent

Mission: What we need to see now is you completing the outstanding tasks as soon as possible. 

The last feedback posts targets have not been met. What we now need is to see is your evidence for; Stereotypical representations of gender, designing and creating studio logo's and your understanding of the correct conventional title orders as studied in class. Some images are also required to enhance the look and design your blog. 

Also the BFI data task that was set yesterday has not been initiated, this needs to be completed in order to evidence audience research. 

Stereotypical Representations Of Thriller/Horror Genres/Characters

Representations

Representations have been pre-established in genre films such as the Horrors and the Thrillers. Certain representations have now become stereotypes and Dracula still remains the most recognizable character in Horror films.

Dracula has a number of stereotypes that people associate him with, some of these are:

Alot of the time Vampires such as Dracula and others are associated with bats and they're often able to transform into as part of their traits.

The most popular vampire thing that people remember is his costume which consists of a very white face, black slicked back hair and a big cape which comes down to the floor.

Something that's also recognizable on vampires is their fangs, these are often very sharp and sometimes have blood all over to make them seem even scarier.

Vampires drink blood! Its believed that blood is life after all, so it makes sense that an undead being would feed on blood to survive.


Cultural Representation:
Hollywood has always been a white centric, the actors are all white males with black, asian actors being a small minority. Actors such as Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Morgan Freeman are braking the mold. It changed in the thriller Se7en as Morgan Freeman has a leading role.

Gender Representation:
Females has predominately been the victims in thrillers or the femme fatale. Since the Silence of the Lambs it has changed that.

Heterosexual Representation:
Having a homosexual protagonist is almost entirely rare in Hollywood. It's not very heard of as they're normally masculine. Thomas Harris is that all antagonists such as serial killers have homosexual tendencies which has formed a negative stereotype.

The Maltese Falcon Opening Scene

Film Noir - The Maltese Falcon

Film Noir – The Maltese Falcon

This is a typical Film Noir of the 1940’s that follows the typical codes and conventions of a film in this genre.  It has the traditional detectives and the victim/femme fatal with some sort of enigma fitted in to it.

Firstly at the beginning of the film there is some sort of text about why the film is called The Maltese Falcon and it states that ‘ the Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted with the rarest jewels but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery. Followed shortly after this there is an establishing shot of the city in which the film is set in, this is San Francisco, a big city in America that is stereotypical of a Film Noir. The enigma in this film is the man getting shot and the big question is who killed him? Also red heroines are things that leads you onto something that doesn’t exist.

The detectives in this Film Noir follow the old school clothing, which is a Trilby hat or a Fedora hat which a long overcoat. They dress generally very smart and presentable as possible when doing their job and to make them look the part. Also in a lot of Film Noir and also in The Maltese Falcon we see the men/detectives with cigarettes all the time this is because the smoke created an effect and contrasts with the black and white theme. This is created by low key lighting, low key lighting is basically just one light from a certain angle which created lots of shadows and is quite iconic when it comes to the early Film Noirs. When the woman walks in the man asks her to tell him the story right from the start, so she does and then when the other detective walks in, it seems like they’re leering her in by the way that they’re looking her up and down as though she was a piece of meat. This may be reflective to how woman were perceived generally in this era of society.

In Film Noirs private detectives are used more traditionally as they’re known for being able to bend the rules to suit them, rather than the typical policeman who has to abide by a set of rules. However a private detective who works for himself or a private company can do abit more dirty work without getting caught out. When we see the scene of the man in his office we see a number of items laid out on his desk such as a telephone, a clock, a notepad and also with the phone constantly ringing it gives a feel of him being a detective and always having calls from people about solving scenarios and mysteries for them which a detective normally does.

The femme fatal in this Film Noir is Mary Astor and she plays the innocent woman. There is a phrase called ‘The spider and the fly’ which relates to the Film Noirs when the femme fatal has some sort of story and they try and get the detectives on their side and then use them to their advantage and get what they want through them. Also in this film the femme fatal is innocent and has a young British accent. When the woman has a problem or something that needs solving, in this case she needs to find her sister. Normally in our society if you needed help and some assistance then you would go to the police and they would then sort it out for you however in the 1940’s they needed to go to them for help and to gather a case around their problem. Also when the woman comes into the office and explains to the detective what’s happened and what she would like him to do she don’t really make eye contact with him, this could show that she is guilty for something that she has done or that she may be hiding something from the detectives that she don’t want them to know. When the detective gets murdered then this could all be planned by the woman who came to his office and that she wants to other detectives to do her dirty work and find out who done it, as they wouldn’t really suspect her.

When the detective gets killed Humphrey Bogart don’t seem that bothered about it, he says I don’t want to see the body this could be because he comes across as quite cold and has a tough exterior. Also he could not want to see the body as he’s guilty or knows something crucial about the murder. When the two detectives come into Humphrey Bogart’s office they’re interrogating him by asking lots of questions about the murder as if it was him, also Humphrey Bogart gets put into the newspaper getting blamed on the murder.

Overall I think that this is a typical film noir that follows all of the codes and conventions such as keeping it black and white, also following the stereotypical characters roles like the detectives and the victims. The way that the women get treated in this is also typical behaviour of this time period. Personally I wouldn’t watch this film as the genre doesn’t really appeal to me that much, however it does seem to be a good film for the genres.

MR JUDGE FEEDBACK

1.   NO BLUE VELVET SCREEN GRABS IN PLACE

3.   TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING OF SE7EN WITH IMAGES AND VIDEO EMBED FOR SE7EN (good analysis - but screen grabs required) 

4.   CHRISTIAN METZ MODELS OF GENRE DEVELOPMENT – HORROR (12D ONLY) + IMAGES

5.   FILM NOIR & HISTORY OF GENRE (HSR) + IMAGES/VIDEO EMBEDS

6.   STEREOTYPICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THRILLER/HORROR GENRES/CHARACTERS

7.   TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF OPENING OF A HORROR FILM – WOMEN IN BLACK/SCREAM etc.

Christian Metz Models Of Genre Development

Christian Metz’s Model of Genre Development

The Experimental – By experimental we mean the phase of early films that explored and experimented with the horror genre and its narratives. These are a few examples.

·      The Cabinet of Dr Calgari (1919)

·      Nosferatu (1922)

 

Early horrors were the aftermath of world war that had just happened not long ago, this could be due to the gruesome stories that came away with the soldiers when it was over.

The Classic – By classic we mean the phase of films, which established the narrative conversations of the horror genre in its most successful & defining period. These are a few examples.

·      Dracula (1931)

·      Frankenstein (1931) made by Universal

 

The Parody – By parody we mean films that have mimicked the horror genre in some comical way.

·      Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

·      Carry on Screaming (1968)

·      Scary Movie (1998)

The Deconstruction – By deconstruction we mean films, which have taken the generic elements of the horror genre and amalgamated them into varying sub genres. These are films that need developing and mixing of genres.

·      Se7en (1995)

·      The Sixth Sense (1999)