The brief

My name is Emily Atkinson, and welcome to my Advanced Portfolio Media Blog. From the choice of A2 coursework briefs, I have chosen to make a short film, with two ancillary products including a poster for my film, and a film magazine review page. This brief was instantly the most appealing one for me as short films cover such a huge spectrum of styles and the opportunity to create one seemed so creatively boundless. The supporting products seemed like a logical choice as we were familiar with Photoshop following on from our AS Media coursework and we could visually create a consistent theme running through all three products. 

I decided to create a short film noir alongside my classmate Hannah Duncan. Below are some mood-boards and inspiration I have garnered from google images by searching the various names of classic and famous noir films of the forties, like The Maltese Falcon, The Lady From Shanghai, Double Indemnity and The Big Combo, along with their vintage film posters from the period.

Why?

We began with the premise to shoot a film in the classic black and white style of silent films, German expression then latterly film noir. Both styles are very visually expressive, and have a distinctive look which we hoped would be a less obvious choice for a student film. We were attracted to the idea of learning more about a genre we weren't particularly familiar with while creating the film.

In terms of plot, we initially wanted to detail the intricacies of a relationship between a man and a woman and convey tension between two people in love, through exploring a number of different paths a conversation can take if one small thing is said or deliberately not said, crosscutting through time – in rewinding the conversation and anticipating the next outcome.

When we began to favour film noir we started to consider the codes and conventions already typical of the genre and realised it was what we wanted to experiment with in our own film. In a progression from our former ideas, we decided to toy with portraying an adulterous femme fatale in a conversation with her partner as both guilty and innocent, leaving it open until a possible closing twist at the end.

We realised that a five-minute film may have been too short a time-space to express such a complicated point, and decided that it was not conventional enough for a noir film anyway. We finalised our film idea by opting to show an adulterous femme fatale out for dinner with her partner, being confronted with evidence of her infidelity and watching their relationship unravel before the audience are compelled to ask, “Where can they go from here?” We hoped to round this off in traditionally bleak, inconclusive and pessimistic style so typical of the genre we are adopting.