Georgia Alliston, Angel Duncil, Elona Woodford & Luke Weldon

A Dame with a Clue

Genre

Our opening sequence is going to be a Film Noir. Film Noir is a French term relating to Dark Film. It displays the darker sides of the cities and towns located in America such as greed, crime and murder.

Most Film Noir contains lots of mystery as they traditionally cast a detective who typically solves a crime throughout the duration of the movie.

Film Noir has a high range of genre conventions varying from decanters and long trench coats to smoking and femme fatales which are dominating, powerful female characters that manipulate and control the detectives involved.

Target Audience The audience of film noir contains people who are generally interested in film such

as media students or gigantic film lovers. Noir usually contains crime, romance and drama. The audience would be heavily

entertained and thrilled when watching a production since it is usually within the 40’s/50’s decade. They can take an interest with the styles that are viewed within films of this era.

Noir is also heavily based in major cities such as in New York to give you an alternative perspective on the city in this era.

Film Noir attracts and appeals to a wide demographic, because of the different aspects the film has, including cinematography, it is not necessarily directed to one specific genre or age.

However, some of the themes associated with Film Noir include greed, murder, sex and crime. This content was considered inappropriate for younger viewers therefore our audience will be limited down to a more mature, adult audience.

Narrative – Opening Scene Lana Lombard hires detective Rick Reynolds to investigate the murder

of her late husband. Rick is reluctant to take on her case as the police department has already captured the suspected killer. He questions why Lana would want to investigate further and why she does not get on with her life with all the money she has inherited from her husbands death.

Lana argues that the real killer is still out there and has not been caught. She is worried for her own life. She pulls out evidence to further persuade Rick that the killer is still out there.

She also pulls out a pile of cash and because he is in need of a pay cheque, he reluctantly takes on the case. Though he is suspicious of this “dame with a clue "and her motives.

Narrative – Rest of Movie Rick investigates the murder of Lana’s husband but along the way

finds himself in hot water. He is pursued by a mysterious stalker which turns out to be a distant relative of Lana.

Rick then realises that he has been mislead and that Lana is really the killer and the man already captured by the cops is her real love who she had hoped would be released once she framed someone else for the murder.

This reveals her real motive – that she wanted to run off with her love and the money.

The film would end with Lana attempting to kill Rick but he ends up killing her.

Location The location of the opening scene is going to be

filmed on an old fashioned quiet estate. We are going to use. We are going to use Clements Park in Brentwood as the general location is quiet, the buildings are old fashioned and some of the lamp posts surrounding the area are typically traditional which will be perfect to include to emphasise the time period it is set in.

The second location we must ensure to include is an old fashioned office. We are either planning to find one from a friend or we are converting an apartment into an office style room. We must ensure we follow the same qualities such as old fashioned furniture, traditional detective equipment and outdated wall styles.

Inspirations The Big Sleep has a manipulative, femme fatale

woman in the narrative which is how we are planning on our female character to be portrayed. We will also base our costume on her look in the poster such as the hair and makeup portrayed in the poster.

We were heavily inspired by a BBC Four documentary called “The Rules of Film Noir” which includes lots of information on genre conventions, character types and location. They heavily emphasised on the fact that we must include “A dame with a past and a hero with no future” which is a key convention for Film Noir.

Humphrey Bogart is a very important inspiration to our Film Noir as he also stars in many black and white films based around murder and crime. He is a heavy inspiration especially on his accent.

Laura Bacall was a very popular Film Noir star during the Golden Ages of Hollywood therefore she is a key inspiration for Mise En Scene

Characters – Opening Scene Rick Reynolds: A typical detective

who is running low on money himself. Tends to be a heavy drinker with a bottle of whisky and decanter on his desk. Opening scenes of a noir will include a monologue of him perhaps discussing the weather conditions or his current state. Then when

Lana Lombard: She is typically portrayed in the opening scene as a vulnerable woman looking for help. Femme Fatales are always used to convey the film noir genre therefore she will be presented as a flawless character with bright red lips and a cigarette holder. However, her

the femme fatale enters, he will state how beautiful she is but he is not stupid enough to realise that there is something deceiving about her appearance.

plans are to try and fool the detective with her manipulative motives to get away with the nasty deeds she has committed.