USING THE CAMERA
Visually, noir movies tend to be overwhelmingly dark. All those shadows create a sea of darkness in which the characters seem to risk being submerged in what lurks there. Look for shots that make the most of the shadows you create on location, and which emphasize the psychological tone of the movie.
Elsewhere in the frame you can represent chaos and fragmentation by having jagged lines of light or half-revealed objects. It’s a powerful effect: it leads the viewer to the crucial parts of the frame, creates a composition with impact and the high contrast heightens the drama in a big way.
Noir lighting is about how little you can get away with, but also has a lot to do with what the camera can contribute. Make sure you have manual settings on your camcorder – with both the iris and shutter speed ready for adjustment to darken the image or increase contrast.
LIGHTING STEP-BY-STEP
In a darkened location, arrange the set so you have total control over lighting, closing curtains and if necessary working at night.
A slide projector or overhead presentation projector is an even better no-budget solution as the light it throws is sharply defined. And it allows you to place gobos, or paper masks, to imitate shadows.
Next up, arrange the action so that strong lights illuminate the crucial parts, but try masking wherever possible, to cut down light further.
Many noir films succeed by using deep focus in a shot, where objects are seen further away in the frame to add interest and exaggerate the sense of drama, as seen in Citizen Kane (1941). Once you have the main action lit, pick out occasional details further back with smaller lamps, or throw long shadows against back walls. Or you can point lights right at the camera itself, the glare helping further to reduce the surroundings to black.
Why keep the light stationary? Bounce it off a shallow puddle of water to create Ridley Scott-style rippling, or cast it through a rotating fan.
Next, arrange the camcorder settings manually. Turn down the iris so that the aperture is letting less light through the lens. After a few stops (shown on the LCD monitor by numbers prefaced with the letter ‘f’) you should notice that the grey parts of the scene are now black, and the bright areas are now isolated puddles of light.
EDITING
Use Chapter 21, Editing Methods: Narrative Continuity but also experiment with more unusual editing moments, so try Chapter 22, Editing Methods: Montage to get us inside the heads of your characters. Don’t just give us the plot, instead give us their minds and their feelings right up on screen.
Take a deeper look into montage editing and try out some other branches of montage such as accelerated montage where clips are cut together at shorter and shorter lengths to create a heightened emotional moment or parallel montage where two separate locations are cut together to create links between the two, or with flashbacks for flash-forwards.
Many noir thrillers mess up the editing deliberately now and then, to make us feel uneasy. Try breaking a few rules like adding in jump cuts, cutting erratically without rhythm or making big leaps in time or between places – anything to throw us off balance as we watch. Go to Chapter 13 Shooting and break a few rules.
Voiceovers are a useful, and kind of retro, tool. They tend to be used in documentaries to clarify what’s happening, but in the noir thriller, it’s the opposite – they can be used to confuse us or give us the wrong information – or even speak from beyond the grave, as in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Experts’ Tips
Simon Phillips, producer, Jack Says(2007)
“Noir film was all about characters and mood – which they created with some fantastic, now almost formulaic, shots. They also had a wonderful mix of iconic characters that are so recognizable in many films today. but the question here is not ‘how to create a film noir’; it’s a contemporary film noir that our audience crave, so how can this be delivered? You’ve still got to take the raw ingredients of characters (the femme fatale, the pure-of-heart love interest, the street wise guy pushed from pillar to post) and put them in surroundings that are foreign to them. For Jack Says we have given our leading man amnesia – which allows a certain artistic license for a slightly surreal picture to be painted. but it’s characters and quick-delivery that allow the audience to be reminded of a film genre that won’t die.”
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LEGALESE
Make sure you have done the following:
Checked with the copyright owner if you use music tracks in your movie
Before you shoot, get permissions from any location you want to shoot in
Get release forms from every actor stating that they agree to your use of them in the movie
Upload It
Best site to upload to:
Vimeo
Best communities to join:
Film Noir and Dystopic Sci-fi at Vimeo:
“This group is dedicated to the still growing community of creators of the modern Film noir, dark Fiction and dystopic Science Fiction Movies and Videos. Most material of good quality is welcome.”
Best channels to watch:
Film Noir Channel at Vimeo:
“A Vimeo channel to showcase cinematic hollywood crime drama style films known as film noir.”
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NOIR THRILLER FILM SCHEDULE
Make this movie in any schedule length, from 48 hours to 28 days. See Section 6, Make It Happen: Schedules for more help.
Chapter | Thirty-Eight
Documentary
Experts’ Tips
Anne Aghion, documentary filmmaker, New York
“I make creative documentaries. I’m sometimes tempted to make fiction films, but the truth is it’s much more fun to make docs. You can improvise and go with the flow, whereas in fiction, you have to have everything planned out right from the start.”
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WHAT IS IT?
Any movie filmed for real with real people in real events, but could also include dramatizations and reconstructions.
Documentary is not what it used to be, and that’s good. It has evolved into a type of movie that contains every other movie within it – you can use bits of animation, music promo, drama, montage – just about anything except probably the old-school documentary where a guy looks at the camera and talks with news clips.
On a low budget this is a great option, as you don’t need actors, just the gift of talking your subject into letting you film them. And most situations seem to lend themselves to scrutiny once you get deeply involved – from a day in the life of a taxi driver, to the inside story of a tattoo parlor, to the story of your friend who survived a car crash.
Documentary – or nonfiction to give it a common name – has now become one of the most interesting places a filmmaker can work. They break new ground, can be totally original, and potentially make big names for their creators. Many nonfiction directors go on to become fiction directors, using the skill of creating a realistic fast-moving story and bringing it to action thrillers like The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass), or State of Play (Andrew Macdonald). It’s a great school to hone your storytelling crafts and avoid big costs and the headache of organizing actors.
MY KIND OF MOVIE?
You’ll be fascinated by stories, and by what is hidden from view. You are intensely interested – even nosy – about other people, and love to get inside other people’s lives. You’ll want to get to the truth, but you are smart enough to know that when you find it, you can’t always rely on it. You often work alone, are well-organized and can handle sound, camera and editing with ease.
Top of your list is to get people to listen to you – and you know that for people to tune in to your movie you need to make it entertaining, so you are going to grab your viewer’s attention by any means necessary.
WHAT’S IT FOR?
Documentary is for everyone. It’s made by the average Jo/e and always trying to tilt at “the man” or puncture the bubble which big business, or the authorities, or simply the plain ignora
nt, choose to live within. It’s the closest the movie world has to Knights of the Round Table, and like any good jousting session, documentary filmmakers know when to put on a thrill or two, but also how to keep their target in their sights. It’s information and entertainment, with high standards of both. It has big ambitions – to tell the truth and nothing but, and it doesn’t matter whether that’s a corruption scandal or a simple tale of life in a small town.
Since the big blockbuster documentary movies by Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and others, documentary is now a perfectly acceptable Saturday night movie, so why not aim for a big audience? There are many more nonfiction cable channels than ever before, and online there are many dedicated channels looking for new documentary material. Citizens journalism is bigger than ever, so you can upload a movie on an issue important to you and get it seen on news sites around the globe.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE ME?
Your documentary movie is whatever you want it to be. It might take a day, a week or a year to shoot, depending on what it’s about, but whatever you choose, be prepared to get wholly involved in the project – you can’t always predict when you need to shoot, and your work hours will vary widely. But as a ballpark figure, give yourself a fixed period to shoot the movie, keep the energy for the project flowing, and avoid getting sidetracked.
HOW HARD IS IT?
Difficulty level:
Documentary is tougher in things like organization and preparation, but easier to shoot. If you like working solo, and don’t always get on with teams, this could work for you.
You need:
Self-reliance so you need to be good at organizing yourself
The ability to think of several things at once (call it a four-track mind)
To be a little cynical
… but also optimistic about carrying on when things get tough
More skill in sound and camera but less needed in lighting or effects
The ability to talk your way into (and out of) trouble
WHO ELSE DO I NEED?
It works well solo but it’s also good to be able to chew it over with other people, so it suits a small and highly mobile team. But draw the line at any more than three people.
A sound operator is crucial, and if you want to be freed up to talk and investigate, then another person on camera would be good.
Practice working with sound a lot before you get into real situations. Make sure that when it comes to the big moment, you can get the mic rigged up, shoot and ask questions, and still get quality sound. Viewers will forgive you almost anything except bad sound.
FIGURE 38.1 Director Franny Armstrong filming from the back of a motorbike in New Orleans for her 2009 documentary The Age of Stupid. The entire film was shot on Sony’s HVRZ1U HDV camcorder. (Credit: Chris Graythen, www.ageofstupid.net)
WHAT KIT DO I NEED?
Not much. Practice making do with very little: just a camera, tripod, a shotgun mic and a tie-clip mic. When you can, get a radio mic.
IF YOU LIKE THAT WATCH THIS
Check out anything by Nick Broomfield: his movies on Aileen Wournos, or Kurt and Courtney (1998), his bio-pic of Kurt Cobain, or Biggie and Tupac (2002). Quietly persistent, he doesn’t take no for an answer, and prefers to hunt alone.
Michael Moore is an acquired taste, and you may prefer not to acquire him, but he has shifted gear in the whole documentary medium in films like Fahrenheit 911 (2004) or Bowling for Columbine (2002).
James Marsh’s Man on Wire (2008) blends thriller with documentary and got an Oscar. But track down his early movie, Wisconsin Death Trip (1999), to see an original talent do something extraordinary.
PREPRODUCTION ESSENTIALS
Release forms; budget; health and safety sheets; crew contracts; copyright release for music if used; shooting schedule.
USING THE CAMERA
Your camera has an ego even if you don’t. You might fall under its spell and start to show off how great it is, playing around with effects, manual controls and lenses. Better to play it cool, and restrict yourself to just point and shoot.
Keep the camera steady – hand-held doesn’t have to mean shake ’n’ blur.
Film for longer: point the camera and keep it drilling its gaze at your subject. Let the camera stay still and you’ll get some fascinating moments as your subject forgets the camera is there and starts to relax.
Record everything, every step and moment. Keep the camera running throughout – as you get out of the car, as you take a crucial phone call, as you ring a doorbell. It gives us a bigger picture of what’s happening, but also makes you look more honest as we get to see all the “behind the scenes” stuff surrounding each part of the film.
You are a part of the movie. Telling the truth also means coming clean that this is a movie and, yes, the person behind it also has an opinion too. Like it was tough to get that interview or maybe you felt uneasy talking to that other person. Don’t over-do it and dominate the movie but your insight of what’s going on is as valuable as the person you talked to.
EDITING
Documentary movies play it straight. If you get too flashy in the editing you risk making your movie look like it was too manipulated. People will think you are trying to mess with their heads and lead them to think a certain point of view. So just edit in a low-key way, with no tricks and no post-production effects.
Avoid music promo-style fast cutting for the main part of the film. Keep the clips a few seconds or more.
Music works well to focus your main ideas. If you have an idea you are trying to get across in the film, take some time out and use a montage with music midway through to really make that point strongly. Get clips we have seen or were missed, use a different style of editing – either faster or slower – and give us something different.
Even if a clip doesn’t look great, keep it in if it helps tell the story. Focus on what the movie needs to show, not whether a shot looks nicely framed.
Take time out. If you are showing a lot of stuff happening, a lot of action, take some time to slow things down and give us time to think about we have been watching. This consolidates the movie and reminds why we are watching, like those catch-ups before a weekly TV drama, but without the cheesy voiceover.
Use subtitles or on-screen text to make clear what is happening, and what we need to know. Tell us what city we are in when we cut to a new interview. When we cut back to a previous interviewee give us their name again. Use opening text to set the scene. Maybe even use ticker-tape scrolling words across the foot of the screen to add more information.
Experts’ Tips
Nick Broomfield, director, Battle for Haditha, Kurt and Courtney, Aileen: Portrait of a Serial Killer, London/Los Angeles
“I think that in many ways the world is more complicated now than ever and documentary is a way that people get information into areas of the world and life that they don’t know anything about. Documentaries give you that knowledge, they give you an inside story, an experience of being with those people and spending time with them and learning how they think, how they view the world and their reality. But then you understand their thinking and in a way documentary can do that better than a newspaper article or anything else. What a first-time filmmaker should look for is a story that they feel people don’t understand a lot about, that they can get access to.”
“Documentary is so informative and I think it’s always fascinating to look into another world that you don’t know anything about – particularly if it is characterled, not the filmmaker putting all his opinions in, which is less interesting. It’s something that documentary can do and it is very hard for drama to compete with. Drama is very good for certain subjects, thrillers, comedies, or love stories; documentaries are amazing for looking at the world of reality.”
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LEGALESE
Permission to shoot in the places you need to go: get a written or emailed response to allow you to shoot if that place is not open public space.
&nbs
p; Release forms from all participants: that goes for all interviewees, and anyone else who appears in image or just by voice in the film. They sign the form and you keep it.
Responses: if you are shooting a documentary that shows one side of a controversial event or incident, get hold of a statement from whoever the bad guys are and put it in the movie. If they won’t respond, put up a few words saying that you gave them the chance to respond but they declined.
Upload It
Best site to upload to:
Vimeo and OneWorld TV
Best communities to join:
Documentaries group at Vimeo
Best channels to watch:
Documentary Film at Vimeo:
“A place for Vimeo’s documentaries including full documentaries, single chapters, or extended trailers, over 3 minutes in length.”
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DOCUMENTARY SCHEDULE
This movie suits any length of schedule, particularly a 14-day shoot.
Chapter | Thirty-Nine
Music Promo
WHAT IS IT?
A short movie designed to promote a song or piece of music.
Stand-Out Shorts Page 21