Elements of film noir

Femme fatal:
- Anna is clever and uses her seductive charm to try to emotionally manipulate Charlie, when he doesn't budge she shows she is too smart for him and knows he is a detective. She manages to get her way through both emotional manipulation and blackmail. The only way she knows how.

- Veronica is the cold heartless and beautiful owner of the company, nothing gets past her she is powerful and always gets her way.

Victim of circumstance/private investigator
- Charlie was just trying to shut down a company that he believes was doing something morally wrong, but after being outsmarted by Anna he finds himself working for the company he found immoral and trying to do the impossible, undermine Victoria.

This is a complex plot

narration and voice over is used in the form of a tape recorder

Crime and murder- They are running an illegal business and using hit men to take out anyone who might know about it.

Greed- Anna wants to be the most powerful and richest person in the company but the only way she can do that is through blackmail.

Betrayal- Anna betrays Victoria by trying to blackmail her.

It will be set in an urban jungle.

Subverted fairytale

Subverted parts of the fairytale

Straw to gold --> Paper to money

Rumplestiltskin helps the daughter so she is able to marry the king --> Charlie helps Anna as she attempts to be in charge of the company

The king has all the power and the ability to have anyone he wants killed at his mercy - Veronica has all the power in the company and has the ability to have anyone she wants hit by a hit man.

The father brags to the king that his daughter can turn straw into gold --> A worker is overheard telling a hit man to assassinate someone because he knows too much about the business.

Rumplstiltskin tears himself in half --> Charlie is shot

Daughter gives her ring to Rumplstiltskin --> Anna sends her ring out to the next hit eventually just before charlie death Veronica retrieves the ring and sends it out to him.

The big story in case the table wasn't clear

Charlie was a private investigator suspicious of the behaviour of a group of people as he notices they are paying hit men. After investigating them for a while he follows a man down a dark alleyway who is paying a hit man. Charlie follows the man as he drives away to a secret underground factory. Walking inside the factory Charlie is mistaken for a worker and seated at a desk. Charlie soon discovers that this is an illegal business that makes paper into illegal money. The business is also paying hit men to take out anyone suspicious of the business. Charlie soon meets Anna, the beautiful intelligent manager of the business who is suspicious of him immediately, telling him to get to work but eyeing him. She doesn't trust him. Anna sends out many hit men onto people who she fells might know about the company, as it is part of her job. Before a hit is completed Anna has the job of sending out "the hit ring" a ring that marks the person the hit men must hit so they know who to look for. The ring is always retrieved before the next hitSoon charlie meets Veronica. The beautiful dictator of the business she runs everything. Anna watches Charlie while he works knowing there is much more to him than meets the eye. Charlie after working a shift in the factory records what he has seen into a tape recorder not quite believing how much information he has got on the case. He is thrilled at the though of being able to expose the company and shut it down for good. He drives back to his house and notices his door is open, walking inside he discovers Anna sitting in his living room holding a martini and looking perfectly relaxed. He is shocked by this but remains cool hiding his briefcase subtly which contains all the documents about their business he has been investigating. Anna is smart and cunning and has a plan of her own. She seductively attempts to emotionally manipulate Charlie into helping her find information on Veronica. Anna wants to be in charge of the company and she needs some blackmail on Veronica in order for her to back down quietly and surrender the company to Anna. Charlie will not be swayed by Annas feminine charms. Anna then slides his detective badge across the floor letting him knows subtly that she knows he is a private investigator, not jus any old worker. This puts Charlie in danger as he knows how easily hit men are hired for this company. It hits Charlie's feet and he picks it up trying to hide his shock at the fact Anna has discovered his identity. Charlie now knows he is in danger. Anna knows he doesn't really work for the company and if he doesn't help her to become head of the company he knows he is facing the threat of assassination as Anna could easily send a hit man after him. It would be easy. Reluctantly he agrees to find information on Veronica. The two meet in secret many times investigating Veronica's office and passing any information they find to each other. Charlie works in the business comittedly and full time, knowing that the alternative is death. Charlie and Anna often meet in secret giving each other a meeting destination though only coordinates and a note to "come alone." to discuss Veronica and start to become very close. Charlie, despite not investigating anymore, still records his experience into his tape recorder.  Meanwhile Veronica is getting suspicious of the two. She begins to find evidence about what they are doing, all their notes and information. Being very clever she pieces together what Charlie and Anna have been doing. She sends a note with a set of coordinates on it and a note underneath that says "Come alone". Both Anna and Charlie don't realise the note has been sent by Veronica and think they have both sent it to each other. Anna and Charlie emerge out of the shadows after arriving in the location. Anna immediately notices that Charlie is wearing the hit ring. Shocked she asks him where he got it from before a gun is fired and Charlie is shot. Charlie falls to the ground while Veronica emerges from the darkness. Anna immediately breaks down as her and Charlie have become close but she is pulled away from Charlie by Veronica who places her hand over her mouth to stop her screaming and causing a scene. The film ends here leaving the audience questioning what is going to happen to Anna.

Playing the game --> our idea finalised

So after much deliberation, planning and brainstorming we have finally come up with a set idea for our film, and the set characters. Here is the updated series of events;

Action	Location/props	Lines
Charlie is in their car driving down a dark street. They reads a document in a folder and look at a file about The Father. They talk into their tape recorder. They puts the tape recorder away and walk out into the darkness of a street to investigate	(Street in Tedder avenue)  Document on Father Bella’s mums car	“0240 hours. Wednesday morning,  July 13th, 2014… Potential criminal suspect has made their way to Grim Lane, goes by the name of …. “
Charlie is hiding in the darkness. Pull focus to father who is talking to an assassin and hanging him a profile.	(Street in Tedder avenue)  Document on father Document on Max Patterson	“Max Patterson. 30 years old. Some say that he almost found our spot, so we’re suspicious. Just kill him.”
Father gets in his car, drives away. Detective gets in her car and follows him. Slow subtle car chase	(Street in Tedder avenue)  Bella’s mums car Libbys dads car
Establishing shots of the money being made cut between click of boss’s heels and clicking of the money being made. Detective walks in someone hands her a shirt. Employer grabs her places her in a work bench. King walks in. King examines a bill and starts shouting at a employer for bad quality. Anna walks in and uses feminine charm to get the king to shop shouting at employer.	(Basement of Bella’s parents office)	“Hurry up, you’re late. Nice disguise, but its first day in business. Learn to be more prompt.” "Don’t say a word.”
Cut shots between detectives eyes and suspicious business. Detective looks over at another employee who looks sternly back at her noticing that she is not working. Ana comes and slams her hand on detectives desk after seeing detective not doing any work.	(Basement of Bella parents office)	“hey! Get back to work.”
So detective gets in her car talks into her tape recorder drives home. Detective takes brief case out of her car about what she has been investigating. When she gets home her door is already open and Anna is sitting in the living room sitting in a chair holding a martini. lDetective hides her briefcase discretely that she had brought in rom her car. Detective goes to reach for a gun. Anna uses her feminine charms to get detective to research the king.	Libbys living room	“TI want to find out more about the king and your going to hell me”
Anna uses her feminine charm to convince detective to investigate the kings. Detective eyes Anna then goes and pours a drink.  Anna throws detective badge at her feet clatters to represent that she knows that she is a detective working against the company. Detective realises that she cant be the good guy anymore. She has to help  Anna get in power or be assassinated. Detective raises glass and sculls it knowing this will be hard. She doesn't want to do this.	Libbys living room	“I want to find blackmail on him.” “I WONT TELL (KING) if you don’t”
Detective is working at the company eyes Anna. Anna eyes her back. They are both working.  Ana puts a note on desk with coordinates and writing that says come alone.	Garage of bells parents building
Detective walks past Ana and passes her a file that has the (KINGS) name on it and a photo f her.	Somewhere dark and dingy
Detective is talking into a tape recorder in her/his car lots of shots of anna and detective exchanging eye contact, papers, and files meeting at certain locations, and the king getting suspicious and starting to find clues. Ana sends people who are going to be assassinated next a ‘death ring’ and after assassination or hit ring is returned to the company for the next person.	Detecives car	“I’ve been working on this project for 3 months. I’ve dug myself into this whole. *explain stuff that is happening*”
The king finds different coordinates and realises whats happening then sends a coordinate to the detective and Ana and they think that they have sent it to each other so they all meet at the same place. He also sends the ring to the detective.	many different locations
Detective Anna King all meet. Anna asks detective where he got that ring King pulls out a gun and shoots detective. then pulls Anna away. Slow motion of her shocked face and emotions. fade out.		“Where did you get that ring”

Today's planning

Action	Location/props	Lines
In her car driving down a dark street. She reads a document out of a folder and looks at a file about the father. She puts it away and walks out into the darkness of a street to investigate	(Street in Tedder avenue)  Document on Father My mums car
Detective is hiding in the darkness. Zoom out to father who is talking to an assassin and hanging him a profile.	(Street in Tedder avenue)  Document on father Document on Mat Patterson	“Max Patterson. 30 years old. We are all suspicious of him so just kill him.”
Father gets in his car, drives away. Detective gets in her car and follows him. Car chase (subtle)	(Street in Tedder avenue)  my mums car Libbys dads car
Dectetive talks into her walk talky.	my mums car walky talky	“Ive noticed some suspicious business I’m going to investigate.”
Establishing shots of the money being made cut between click of boss’s heels and clicking of the money being made. Detective walks in someone hands her a shirt. Detective says yes. Employer grabs her places her in a work bench. King walks in.  king examines a bill and starts shouting at a employer for bad quality. Anna walks in and uses feminine charm to get the king to shop shouting at employer.	(Basement of my parents office)	“Quick your late your the new employe right?” "Don’t say a word.”

Brainstorming

Anna: 

• is a phoney. pretends to know something that the King doesn’t and he uses her in advantage of that
• it actually a detective
• could pretend she has “the Kings” money

King:

• a criminal

An anonymous person was supposed to meet with The Criminal in a secret town spot. Anna happened to be walking around late at night (or she could be a cop) and follows the anonymous person, suspiciously. The criminal mistakens anna for the person he is meeting with and talks to anna as if she was the person that he was expecting. Anna cannot see his face in the dim.

*2 body guards grab anna from around the corner* 

The Criminal says, with his back to her “I’m here, you idiot. You’re 28 minutes late. What did I tell you about being prompt. We could get caught here.”

Anna is speechless unknowing what is happening, so she goes along with it, knowing that she has gotten herself into trouble

The Criminal reminds her that she is yet again late in giving her payment

The Criminal locks her up in their own ‘jail’ and another person in another jail cell (rumpelstiltskin) is the person that helps her from across the hall being unseen and telling her how to survive and what to say to the criminal

New idea:

Characters	Film Noir Character Type	Role	Other Details
Anna	Femme Fatale	Successful Money Forger	Uses her femininity a lot to get out of trouble and persuade people
King	Corrupt Official	Money Forgery Overlord	Controlling and always keeping on top of things and always wanting more money (could be always suspicious and on-the-edge about people discovering his forging?)
Rumpelstiltskin	Detective	Double agent cop (21 Jump Street)	Gets involved in the forging to gather info
Anna’s father	Family (ps i think it’d be cool if he got killed at some point so as anna has some reasoning but idk)	Anna’s father and accidental snitch	Likes to get drunk in the bar

Storyline

• There is a secret business of money forgery 
• (KING) is the ‘Corrupt Official’ that is the overlord of this business and (ANNA) works for him along with very few others
• They are so rich that they pay assassins to kill anyone who may be suspicious of being in knowledge of their secret business
• (ANNA)s father likes to get drunk because (some tragic backstory that bella can easily come up with)
• A detective goes to a bar after a longs hard day’s work
• One day (ANNA)s father gets too drunk in the same bar and spills the beans about (KING)’s business “they makes money and don’t need to do anything but press a print button.” 
• He was telling this to his drunk friends so they wouldn’t have remembered that (ANNA)s father was telling them that “if you wanna make some more cash come to *address* on *day of week*”
• The detective overhears this in the bar and decides to investigate
• The detective becomes close to (ANNA) to trick her into letting her join the money-forgery
• (ANNA) has a contemplating look in her eyes as she doesn’t know whether to assassinate the detective or not bc she knows about the company, but then decides that she can be in on it
• When the detective is in, we see a lot of the relationship between (KING) and the workers
• (ANNA) then somehow finds out that the detective is actually a detective and kills the detective

*quick idea for ending* - The detective gives (ANNA) a jacket to wear while working because she was cold and (ANNA) feels something in the pocket and we don’t see what it is yet. Later, (ANNA) goes and speaks to the detective and they say something along the lines of:

ANNA: (suspicious of detective) You’re happy to be making all this money, right?

DETECTIVE: (nods) It’s pretty convenient

ANNA: Pretty convenient? It’s damn right convenient, this is how we are able to live our lives … Just out of curiosity; have you told anyone about us?

DETECTIVE: (frowns and shakes head) Of course not…

ANNA: (using her femme fatale attitude) You do know what would happen if the word got out, wouldn’t you?

DETECTIVE: Yes…

ANNA: We pay assassins to take out any person that could be suspicious of being in knowledge of our little money making business down here.

DETECTIVE: I know…

ANNA: Well you should’ve drilled that into you head before you got yourself in this mess (or some sassy line before she kills him)

Straight after she says this, Anna then has someone else kill the Detective right in front of her. She chucks a ‘cop badge’ on top of the dead detectives body which is what she found in the jacket earlier.

Popular film noir films

Sunset Boulivard

"A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity." (IMDB)

Femme fatal: Norma Desmond

"Innocent" person who gets involved: Joe Gillis

Victim: Betty scaefer (She is murdered in Norma's jealous rage)

Thieves highway

A war-veteran-turned-truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw (IMDB)

The third man

Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. (IMDB)

The maltese falcon

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette. (IMDB)

Strangers on a train

A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement (IMDB)

Our idea

So after throwing around a  few ideas about what sort of fairy tale we would like to subvert we settled on Rumple stilt skin. It seems to have some of the story conventions of a films noir e.g lying deceit, trouble, threat of murder bargains you cannot fill. We have decided to brainstorm how we can turn some of the characters in this folk tale into below the law film noir characters.

The central characters in this story are

The father-  The father is a miller with a beautiful daughter. He had to go and speak with the king and wanted to seem important. So for some reason he thought it would be a good idea to tell the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. A bit of an idiot if you ask me considering she couldn't.

The king- Some greedy guy who wanted to girl to spin straw into cold. he imprisoned her in a room full of straw and a spinning wheel and told her to spin it into gold. If she doesn't he will kill her. After her third night of 'succeeding' he decides that he will marry her... Wow lucky her.

Daughter- The unknowing victim of her fathers bragging gets thrown into this situation. She can't in fact spin hay onto gold. She acquires help from Rumplestiltskin for the three nights she has to do this, giving him her possessions and promising him her first born child, however getting out of this offer in the end.  She ends up marrying the king.

Rumplestiltskin- He helps the Millers daughter spin yarn into gold. He is promised her first born child when she becomes queen. She cries and protests about this and he tells her she can get out of the deal by guessing his name. When she hears his name from a servant and tells him he gets so frustrated he literally tears himself in two.

So our side of how to turn this nutso fairy tale into something that you would call a film noir:

The King- The Leader of a mass fake money producing and assassination organisation. She is greedy and loves the idea of turning paper into money. She is very rich and runs a successful business. She however. She pays assassins (real money) to assassinate anyone who knows too much about their illegal money business.

The father- One of the workers at the mass fake money business. She is at a bar one night and gets drunk spilling all the secrets of the organisation to an officer who is having a drink. When the 'king' finds out about this she finds the father unrelaiable and has her assassinated.

Rumplestiltskin- This is the officer who hears this. She decides to go and work undercover at the illegal money business to investigate them and get to the bottom of the legal things they are doing. Unfortunately things become quite complicated.

The daughter- She is very high up in the illegal money and assassination organisation, she is in charge of overseeing the production of the money and has lots of power in the underground business. When the undercover officer comes to investigate she is impressed by her outgoing personality and her unwillingness to back down and gain access to information. The two become very good friends.

Thing get further complicated from here. The 'King' who knows an officer when she senses one recognises 'rumplestiltskin' immediately as someone who is working undercover. She immediately informs 'that daughter' that she must assassinate her as she has her trust. She offers her a large sum of money for the assasination. The problem is the 'daughter' doesn't really want to because they have become such good friends.

The daughter corners 'rmplestiltskin' and is about to shoot her when she realises that she cannot do it, the 'king' who is too furiously greedy to ever let anyone find out about her illegal business is watching her do it. Seeing that she cannot she comes up behind the 'daughter' and shoots rumplestiltskin with her own hand. The daughter is devastated but the king tells her it is all part of the business and being successful.

We have used some of the character ideas from the film noir ingredient list.

The private investigator is the character of rumplestiltskin.

The king and daughter are both femme fatals

the father is the informant who is murdered as she is unreliable

rumplestiltskin is a nosy character

We are using the idea of both crime and murder

greed and jealousy is the motivation of the 'king'

There are also a number of suspicious characters who have motivations or motives concenred with the crime

The new assignment

Today we received our new assignment. It is quite an interesting one. We have to make a film noir based on a fairy tale, nursery rhyme or folk tale that we will subvert.

There are a few ingredients to a film noir and we received them on a table.

The central characters are: 

Private Investigator/Detective/Plainclothes Detective

A law abiding citizen lured or forced to commit a crime or a victim of circumstance down on luck.

A Femme Fatale

Other character in film noir are often: 

Corrupt officials, policemen or gangsters

Jealous Husbands/Wives, friends or family

A nosy character, journalist, police informant who may wind up missing or murdered.

All of these characters are the under belly and dark side of society or get involved with it in one way or another, lading to shady scenes and dealings and law breaking. 

The Visual conventions of a film noir are often

Low Key Lighting, High Contrast

Dramatic Shadows, Hard Shadows (from objects i.e. blinds, railings) 

Obscured Faces, characters or details.

 These visual features are a very crucial part of film noir they make for dramatic settings and visual scenes, they make for a very iconic look that ca be easily recognised as film noir. 

Tone or mood

Disillusionment, disenchantment, melancholy

Bleakness or pessimism

Desperation

Alienation

Ambiguity

Moral Corruption, Evil

Guilt

Relating to the idea of the underbelly and dark side of society the mood of these are often sketchy, suspenseful and pessimistic. 

Plot devices

Complex or deliberately confusing plots

Flashbacks or temporal changes to interrupt the flow

Narration or voice-over to develop the story

Crime or Murder. Theft, robbery, heist

Greed and Jealousy as criminal motivation

False accusations, betrayal, double crossing

Memory Loss by a central character

A number of suspicious characters who have motivation or motives concerned with the crime.

The plot devices also relate to the idea of the dark side of society. the main idea being crime and the catagories that fall under that are exceptionally prevalent in film noir films. The idea of theft, murder, identity theft and greed and jealousy as motivation totally relate to the genre of film noir.  

Cinematic conventions

ow Wide-angle shots

Canted/Skewed shots to create disorientation

Shots that create distortion. i.e. through glass objects, curved windows, vases etc.

Shots of reflections in glass, mirrors or shiny objects.

Additional conventions

Often set in an urban jungle or sprawling city.

Bars, Lounges and illegal gambling dens.

Climactic scene in a visually complex or industrial setting

Commonly set at night or in a rainy (depressing) city

You can tell the sort of film a film noir will be. It certainly isn't set in a beautiful sunny day in the countryside.