L.A. Confidential | Film

For my research one of the films I was advised to watch was L.A. Confidential, it wasn't something I had seen before although I knew it had some similarity to what I wanted to do. I found the DVD in the library and was able to watch it to gain some inspiration for my work and the style I want to create. I took down notes whilst watching the film of anything I thought might be useful to me:

Opening Scene:

• Narration / Voice over - Description of the time the film is set in 'Hollywood' 'Glamour' 
• Brooklyn accent to voice over
• Typewriter style introduction

Frequent Names : Noticed in other films of similar era:

• Micky Cohen
• Johnny
• Bud
• Jack / Jacky / Jacky boy

Genre Styling: Typical for Noirs

• Femme Fatale
• Drugs
• Prostitutes
• Corrupt Cops
• " Organised Crime"
• Cover ups
• Photographers
• Journalists

Slang Used :

• Ruckus
• Homicide
• Nick names for Cops
• "On the QT" (Quiet)

Throughout the film the narration carried on through, with this there was also the sound of a typewriter typing up a story as the narrator who was speaking was telling the story of what was happening at key points of the film as well as typing a story for the magazine he writes  as his character in the film (hope that makes sense) this only stopped (from the key parts) when the character was killed off throughout the film, this I thought was quite a nice touch whether it was the idea I do not know but it is something I noticed whilst watching.  

Narration or a voice over, however you want to look at it is something I want to experiment with for my digital piece I feel a voice over in this style would work really well for what I have created or want to create, however rather than doing it from the point of view as a journalist I would like to do this as a Detective looking in on the story or the detective in the story to almost guide the audience through the story whilst watching. 

As you can see in the image above in some of the opening credits the film introduces some of the key characters in the film by the use of a typewriter style font which I think works quite nicely, I feel this works well with the motion image but I'm not sure it would work so well with my still photographs however it might be something I can experiment with later when it comes to putting together my work. 

Overall I feel this film has helped my work, the narration and the dialogue throughout the film has helped me to make decisions on what I would like to come from my digital piece, given that it is to be taken in film stills style watching this style of film really helps to figure out the style of images I want to create and the way I can later edit my work to fit this genre specifically.