Costume for Detective Character

He will need to be a hardcore, conventional, cliche, iconic detective man to make his identity/character type and hence the genre of the 'film' and what is going on in the narrative clear. Hence his costume will clearly be VERY important.

Images of Film Noir era detectives:

coming soon...

Detective Hat

We must have a good hat. Quick google search of 'film noir' presented me with the following images (these all taken from first two pages I believe):

........hat hat hat hat. We must have a hat like this!

Beige/Camel trenchcoat/raincoat

I think veeeery important. Second only to hat. See above 'detective hat' pictures, and most feature such a coat.

(eBay items).

Costume for Femme Fatale (Cat)

I've been researching typical 50s clothing for women, especially dresses/glamorous outfits.

Here are some relevant images/items I found.

50s-style dresses

Clearly they liked their a-line, calf-length full skirts and halternecks.

Clothes from actual femmes in Film Noir films:

Will put some screen shots here.

Costume for Band

Just posted on the group blog asking for James' and Luke's measurements, as I'm thinking agood place to get cheap and decent costume (especially seeing as I think we're considering a slightly retro/80s feel with the blazers) would be a second hand shop (vintage or charity), tk maxx, or ebay.

James

I think we discussed him wearing a (slightly tight?), black blazer with the sleeves rolled/pushed up a little, and the buttons at least partially open.

Some images of similar/possible looks along these lines.
I think there is a shirt/t-shirt debate to be had here. A shirt certainly allows for nice sleeve-rolling (see last image) and may prevent the looking-too-young syndrome. I think it just needs trying out.

Luke
I can't recall what specific role Luke was going to fill?
However, I think a similar outfit to James could work. Maybe a different colour combination (e.g. James could wear a white shirt and dark blazer, while Luke could wear both black shirt and black blazer?). He could also wear his clothes slightly differently, e.g. more or less buttons undone. This would cement the band's image, be aesthetically appealling, whilst also cementing these band members together. The costumes shouldn't look identical I think because this could look a little big boy band or amateur?

Others
We don't know who will play the other members, but I think the previous idea about them being somewhat similar but not identical is appropriate?

What I think we need to achieve with the costume is:

• to make the actors seem slightly older than they are
• to address/convey the band's image/genre/style and cement this with the musical genre
• for the band to look physically/sexually attractive to at least the relevant portion of the target audience (heterosexual females/gay men)
• for the style of the the costume and appearance of the band in the performance to not jar too much with the visuals of the narrative.

Band Members: Gender

Thoughts on the actual band members:
I remember discussing the possibility of having a female band member, but I can't rememeber when. My initial reaction to this is that it might not work with the image of the band as a whole. I don't know why but I feel that bands' images 'work' when there is a female frontwoman, in that it sets up a sort of powerful female image to the band, and leaves possibility for this member to be the object of male affection/attraction and female admiration, they may be able to identify with the image of a powerful, leading woman. However, I feel that when there is just a random female band member women do not relate or identify or respect them, and they are rarely the object of much male attraction, and they can alter the image of a band alot by their presence. 'Gold' is also quite a masculine song, with the female being the object of male attention, especially given the direction of a love interest that we are taking it with the film noir/detective narrative. I think that perhaps the presence of a female musician could confuse the male-female dynamics for the audience, especially given that I think James is going to star in the narrative part as well.

The Third Man

amazing shots, aesthetics etc.



some good ideas for location?



loooooaaads of dutch tilts going on here

BLK FEEDBACK

Your research is taking a really interesting direction Angela, well done. Plenty of prgress demonstrated.

(Cracking exam results btw!!)

Film Noir Film Research

I've been researching film noir, specifically trying to find those films of the genre that are seen to be typical or iconic of the genre. This should help us when it comes to shooting the narrative sections of the video, with the iconography, visuals, acting, shot types, after effects etc.

I have been looking at websites, including http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir, http://www.imdb.com/chart/filmnoir. I have also been browsing http://www.amazon.co.uk/ for available film noir titles.

Titles I am probably going to try to view are:

• Double Indemnity- because it appears it has amazing visuals as oppose to just a good story. A quote from a review on it's imdb page; 'This is one of the best films of all time, not necessarily because of its story but because of the acting, direction, cinematography, lighting, and just the way that the story itself was told'. Sounds pretty good. Also has a classic femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson) and development of relationship between her and her male 'victim'.
• The Third Man - being sent for rental by http://www.lovefilm.com/, how exciting.
• Deadly is the female (possibly)- because it features 'a nice guy who is led astray by the bad woman' (from the imdb review).
• The Big Combo- I really wanted to get hold of because it apparently produced some of the most iconic images of the genre (wikipedia) and some of the stills I have seen from the film support this. The male protagonist is also a detective in this title, who romantically desires the mistress of a big-shot criminal. Quite similar our initial idea for character types, I think. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that it is available in the region 2 format, but I might be able to rent/buy it used and play it on the dvd player of a computer of an owner who doesn't mind me changing their player to region 1 (apparently you can change these settings only 5 times before the drive locks).