Plot Synopsis

Susanna is a young, attractive female who has a dream that she is being killed, by an unknown male. Soon after her dream, she bumps into an attractive male who offers her a great deal of flattery and compliments. She enjoys the male's company and believes something could happen between them due to the male’s affection towards her. Unknown to Susanna this man is not what he may seem as he and other gangster males rob and kidnap her for her riches.

Character Planning

Susanna Rose (Pretty young woman) - Young woman who is lucky enough to have a great deal of riches. She shows these off by wearing jewels and living in a grand house. She soon becomes the victim of a crime when the man she falls for robs and kidnaps her. Susanna enjoys male attention which allows the male to worm his way into her life more easily. She is a valuable woman who enjoys being pretty and receiving compliments.

Zipper (Weedy, younger gangster with very little power) - The weedy character who is often pushed about by the older and more experienced robbers. He is new to the robbing game and is usually forced into the tasks the other men do not wish to uptake.

Pepe (the brains of the group. The geek) - Pepe is the brain of the group. He creates the plans and often looks at robberies in a reality context. He is the brains of the group.

Riff (The broadly built, boss of the group. The decision maker.)- Big, top gangster who is in charge of all robberies. He instigates the robbery on Susanna’s house. He is in charge and no other gangster has more power.

Terrance (The attractive male of the group) - As the sweet male who flatters the young woman. This then leads to him robbing the woman as he is part of a group of gangsters.

Ten Point Tralier Plan

10 points for our trailer illustrating the structure:

· 4 men sitting round the table smoking, there is a dim light allowing just the men’s faces to be visible.

· Unknown to the audience, a woman’s dream is portrayed. This includes one of the four men trying to kill her however she one knows that it was a male, she is unsure about who it was.

· The woman wakes up confused and in a cold sweat as someone was trying to kill her.

· The woman calms and gets ready for her normal day. In this it shows her putting on jewellery. This emphasises the amount of riches she has.

· The man are sitting in a cafe drinking coffee and talking business.

· The woman is sitting alone in the same cafe when approached by one of the four men. He is very nice to her so she allows him to speak to her.

· The woman agrees to go on a date with the male and in this section we see the man flattering the woman.

· In this section, the woman tells the man about the dream she has had about him killing her. He tells her this is strange and he would never hurt her because of his feelings towards her. ("This is so strange, not to worry, no one will hurt you, it’s just a silly dream").

· The male and the woman arrive back at the woman’s house where they are quick to see the woman has been robbed. The men robbing the woman appear to be the gangster like males seen at the beginning of the trailer.

· To end... we simply see a male’s hand covering the woman’s mouth. This is the hand of the charming male, who had taken the woman out on a date.

   

Film Noir Mood Board



Film Noir Mood Board

This is my film noir mood board. Within this mood board, I have included many pictures of dark (black and white scenes). This is because film noir is known for having low key lighting throughout the film. Even when some photos include colour, the lighting is still very low key and dark. This is one thing which film noir includes the majority of the time. As we can see, there is a lot of smoking included in this mood board. This is because around the time of the setting, smoking was a common thing to include in the film. It was also seen as 'the thing to do' in gangster films like shutter island and Double Indemnity.

Characteristics of Film Noir

Characteristics which may be seen throughout film noir would be things such as a beautiful but promiscuous female. A typically blonde woman would usually fit this character. These women were deceptive and always seemed to manage to trap the hard-boiled detective into falling in love with them. Smoking was also a common theme seen in film noir. Often, the attractive female would be the one seen smoking as it was seen to be a ‘sexy’ thing to do. However, a great amount of the characters would have been seen to be smoking due to how popular it was at the time. In the 1940s, the health risks of smoking were not as well-known as they are today, meaning that smoking was a common thing which most people did. This would have been seen in film noir to make it more realistic to the time. Dark shadows (the unknown) and low key lighting, were also seen to be shown throughout film noir. This links directly with the name of the film type. ‘Film Noir’ or ‘Black Film’ does exactly what it says it does, the film would be very dark and would encourage people to think about the unknown.

When and where Film Noir was first used

The 1950s and 1950s were known for being the common period for film noir. Many French film critics began noticing the theme of ‘black films’ (film noir) in 1946 however many of these films were released in 1944. Films such as ‘Murder, My Sweet’ were released with the film noir theme. This film received awards for the best motion picture at the time. Other films such as ‘Double Indemnity’, ‘The Woman in the Window’ and ‘Laura’ all seemed to show the same theme which was film noir. Film noir was and is not seen as a genre, it is seen as more of a mood or theme through films. Although these films were released in 1944, sources claim that ‘Stranger on the Third Floor’ which was released in 1940, was the first film to fully feature film noir themes throughout.

Trailers

Shutter island (2010)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio

 

Shutter Island - Film Noir:

 

The shutter island teaser trailer includes many themes related to film noir. One being the amount of smoking. As the film was set in 1954, smoking would have been seen as a normal things for people to do, however, it is also a many aspect of noir. Along with this, the weather in this film is constantly raining. It does not often show much sunlight or dry weather, which indicates that this recent 2010 film focuses on noir themes. Even though the noir theme is present, the film is still a recently made production.

 

Throughout the trailer, a voiceover is present. This includes Leonardo DiCaprio telling the story of how his trip to ‘Shutter Island’ began and ended. The way which a voice over is present connotes that the film style is partially noir. In other films such as ‘Double Indemnity’, the voiceover continues to run throughout the film. The main male character is often seen telling the story to his colleague in the insurance business. Alike this, shutter island includes Leonardo Dicaprio explaining the storyline.