The film noir opening - initial ideas

Before diving straight in to planning a film noir opening, we each individually came up with a synopsis as an idea. Then, when we got into a group of 4, we shared our individual ideas and combined them to design a final idea.

The synopsis idea for my own film noir:
- In the beginning the audience sees a man (person A) who has been kidknapped and is locked up.
- The audience sees flashbacks to the person A being followed and captured by another character (person B). Person B’s identity isn’t given away in this scene.
- Then the screen switches to the beginning of the story. Person A is sitting in a café with his wife (person C). Person A receives a phone call about his relative dying and that he’s inherited lots of money.
- The audience then see person A and C walking home from the café after the good news. They seem happy to have inherited lots of money, but they don’t look like they need it. When they arrive home at their large house, they find a blackmail letter on their doormat.
- Person A is very worried about this and furiously burns the letter on the fire. Person C doesn’t seem worried at all, which makes the audience feel suspicious of her.
- The next day, person A discovers person C is missing, and he goes out to look for her. Person A discovers person C murdered in a dark alleyway.
- Person A walks slowely back to his house after discovering person C. He realises he is being followed by someone and this is the scene that we see at the beginning.
- Person B turns out to be person A’s brother, who hasn’t inherited as much money as peron A. Person B is about to kill person A, but then person A offers to give all of his inheritance share, and more, to person B. Person B acceots his offer and runs off. The audience then see person B being taken away by the police for murdering person C. Person A gets all his money back and spends it on a posh grave for his wife, person C.

A detailed synopsis of my opening scene (the first two points shown above)
- Person A is walking through the town high street at night time. There aren’t many people about, and the street lamps light where person A is walking. The shot changes to an over-the-shoulder shot of person A walking along and feeling cautious.
- The camera follows person A briskly walking home, and he keeps on checking behind him, as he can hear footsteps.
- Person A stops walking and turns right around to check if anybody is really there, or if he’s imagining it all. There is nobody behind him so he turns back around to walk onwards. Then person B appears right infront of his face, and the screen instantly turns to person A alone in a room. The audience only catch a glimpse of what person B looks like. His face could be covered or he could be wearing a mask to confuse the audience. Compared to person B, person A is very well dressed and you can tell they are very wealthy.
- The screen then switches to person A chained to a chair in the middle of a room. The shot could produce shadows through a Venetion blind? But the overall lighting will be very low, and the amount of furniture in the room will be limited too. This wil reflect person A’s lonely emotions at this point.
- The audience will then see person A looking up as a silhouette of person B enters the room. That will be the end of the scene, and the story will go to the very beginning.

A rough treatment for the opening sequence – ECMS etc.
- Editing: the opening sequence will consist of many short and snappy shots of person A walking along.
- Cinematography: there will be an over-the-shoulder shot as person A walks along, and a long shot to show how alone person A is on the street and once he is kidknapped. There will be extreme close-ups of person A’s face to show his emotions and facial expressions in great detail.
- Mise-en-scene: the street where person A is walking along will be empty of people, and street lights will give the scene an orangey glow. Person A’s costume will portray the image of wealth e.g. a suit, or many designer labels on his clothes. The room where person A is being kidknapped in won’t be shown as much if a clever lighting is used e.g. only highlighting person A (his face in a spotlight).
- Sound: I would use a tense, up-beat piece of music that will cover the entire opening sequence. This will reflect person A’s anxious and tense feelings as he is walking through the street, and will make the audience feel as person A feels. The music would be a modern track to ensure the film can be classed as a contemporary/neo noir.

How my idea was combined into the final group idea
Once in our groups, everyone came with their own ideas to incorporate into the final idea. We began by reading each others ideas first, and then picking out the best pieces from each. The ideas that we decided to use from mine was the dark room scene with light shiny through a Venetian blind, and a chase scene where someone is being followed.