Concept Development

11/06/15

This post includes information on how I have developed my ideas on the style of my short film.

Initially, I came up with the idea of a production of Film Noir. This rather old film genre has always appealed to me; I find it a very attractive style of filmmaking. As gangster/crime genre films were born in the use of Film Noir, thus, I considered the possibility of this genre. Following on from this train of thoughts, I further realised that in relation to practicality, this genre does not require an elaborate location like action films nor does it need extensive levels of post production like sci-fi films.

This picture is used as the background of this blog.
It influenced my decision in creating a Film Noir production and I would like to recreate it. 

The picture above depicts the silhouetting of two characters in Joseph H. Lewis's 'The Big Combo'. Produced in 1955, it was one of the first of crime genre films to be shot from an arthouse perspective in mind. This is to say that, as a Film Noir production, famous cinematographer John Alton invested time in making the appearance of the film the most important feature. In relation to Lewis's other notable films - including 'Gun Crazy', produced six years earlier - many critics argue that the script and plot of this particular production was a lot weaker than others.

I believe that this may reflect the nature of my short film. By this I mean to say that I believe I will shoot the film predominantly to illustrate my film production skills rather than to show my creativity and script-writing ability.