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.

Film Noir | What is it?

For my work I am very interested in the style of film noir, and using moving image to portray my narrative, I like how these films are very Atmospheric, by doing this it adds something more to the image and gives a stronger idea of what the characters may be experiencing through the film whether it be using this or dialogue.

Film Noir began in the 1940's when inspired by numerous screenplays being written based around crime fiction. The storytelling was highly stylized and very theatrical. Often the imagery used within Film Noir was taken from the earlier era of German expressionist cinema as many of the early noir film directors came from Germany to Hollywood. Film Noir explores various chapters covering many themes such as physiological, lovers planning murders corrupt policemen etc. This style film was admired by many and audiences responded to the more adult orientated type of film certainly by end of the second world war. In 1946 the films were recognised for being visibly darker than your average film and much more cynical for this reason they were given the title of "Film noir" its literal translation being "Black film". It is still heavily debated whether film noir is a film genre in its own right, however a style of film consisting of doomed romanticism, lost innocence, corrupt cops etc is still generalised in this way today.

Despite being popular and being used a lot, This is the sort of theme I would like my story to take, I feel it would fit well with the brief, given that the nature of these style of working are quite mysterious without giving too much away, From this I will continue my research into film noir and the styling of how to place together my narrative.

Some Popular Noir Films:

• Double Indemnity
• Gun Crazy
• Touch of Evil
• Kiss me Deadly
• Blood Simple
• The Big sleep

Part of Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder  in 1944