Dead Face Arts proudly presents the pre-production diary for my short Film Noir piece, Crime Of Passion.

So, basically the reason I have been really slack in updating the blog over the last few months is down to this. I have been creating a heavily cliched Noir piece, as when the idea came to me I had never seen a Stop-Motion film in this genre (much to my chagrin this fact has changed since, but it is in a very different style to my final film so I don’t really mind).

Months of planning have gone into the project so far, including this animatic video, which helps me plan out the actual animation I will be doing over the next few months. The audio is just scratch at the moment, it will be recorded properly with full cast soon.

Main Outline

I chose this genre and plot outline as I believe it was more innovative thanthe other film I considered making (which was a Rocky-esque stop motion based around the rise back to fame and glory of a Mexican Luchadore by training, having faith and facing his aggressor).

My film is titled Crime Of Passion. This is because I wanted to make it similar to  1940’s and 1950’s films of the same genre, in that the title of the film usually gave a hint to key plot elements and thus made the film easier to digest to the target audience. My target audience are fans of the genre and artistic films, aged 18-50. I believe these demographic suits well as although people older enjoy the genre, I believe people of certain generations do not have a liking for stop motion animation.

The plot centres on the character Hal, and the relationship he has with his wife Molly; it will show the downfall of their marriage and the spiral into decay which will pan out over flashbacks. The film starts with Hal on a roof retelling events leading up to the reason he is on the roof, which turns out to be throwing his wife off of the roof to simulate a suicide, after he caught her cheating with his friend Sonny. Leading up to this, however, the telling of the story hints that it may in fact be that Hal is going to commit suicide, until the final payoff of the film. Originally I was going to have Hal kill himself as the climax, but I was advised by my lecturer Adam Comiskey that it may be better to add a more machismo ending in order to better accommodate Hal’s smoking and general demeanour throughout the narrative.

I believe the narrative will work well as it breaks away from the Todorov Equilibrium theory, whilst using it as a guideline for the events to happen throughout the films. Although a new norm is established, it is by no means stable and thus leaves the viewer wondering what could happen next to Hal, and whether he would be found out and pay for his crimes.

Aesthetic

Animation wise, the films that will influence the style of my film will be the animation style of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Jan Svenkmajer’sAlice (1988), as I like the fluidity of actions, plus the oddly weird and slightly juddery way in which the characters move.

 In terms of set design, I want to make the sets look relatively realistic in that I want the audience to be immersed in the diagesis, suspending their disbelief and relating to the characters. Also, as the film is in the Noir genre, the film will be in black and white with heavy contrast. For this to be successful, the sets and characters need to be very readable as the desaturated tones will need to be clear enough to pick out detail.

 As previously mentioned, my film will be in the Film Noir genre. This entails heavy usage of a single light source in most shots, and having a heavy contrast between black and white. A good example of this done in film is in the night time scenes in The Maltese Falcon (1941; John Huston), which feature rich and extreme contrasts between the light and dark areas of the shot, with little middle ground between the two. After creating a basic cardboard animatic, I created a fully lit version with the cardboard mock-up set and characters. An example of this can be seen in the ident picture on the pages of this production bible.

 Also a key part of the genre, my characters will fulfil the visual roles in which their gender types display.

The main protagonist Hal (and technical the antagonist in my narrative) will show the character traits of having a receding hairline, strong build and a distant look in his eye as if he had seen many bad things in the past. This is key in the genre as it boom around the end of the Second World War; many men were trying hard to cope with many of the horrors which they saw in battle, whilst still remaining stern and not expressing these feelings. To also give hints of his downfall into his vicious crimes near the end of the plot, he will have a marker of in his aesthetic design which wills reveal to the keener eyes in the audience. This will include his smoking throughout the rooftop scenes (to show his disregard for the happenings of the story, as he casually partakes in his vices as he narrates).

 The wife, Molly, will have a combination of housewife traits and seductress ion her design; this is again to give hints towards the scene where Hal finds her cheating in bed with another man. This includes the use of a homely apron and  having her mainly in the kitchen through the film, whilst also showing more cleavage and leg than a wife normally is deemed right to in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Sonny, the other man, will be less likable looking than Hal. This is because I want the audience to understand how a man could come to commit the criumes which Hal does, and making the other man less desirable in the viewer’s eye helps boost the idea that Hal isn’t entirely evil.

I have chosen to include these hint markers in these characters as it adheres to Chekhov’s Gun theory, in that everything I am adding to the film including character designs will add to the narrative and push the plot forward.

Model Design: Test Work

I have decided to work with Super Sculpey for the heads of my characters, and then animate in Adobe After Effects any facial expressions or mouth movements which need to happen in order to match the dialogue of the film. I think this will be much easier and accurate than move my characters slightly every time I replace the mouth piece f I were to use interchangeable jaws etc. to create speech.

In the first few weeks of production, I created a set of heads, but after talking with my lecturer Adam Comiskey, I realised their size was too large and that I’d want to be working in a much smaller scale in order for the armature to support the head well. I also had trouble creating them in a way which looked more human, as I have a tendency to create heads that look more like chimp than man in cranial structure.

   After these tests, I created some more test heads for the male characters, and made them on a better scale for the size of set etc I was to make. I learnt this time round that even the slightest variation in heat can cause the Sculpey to burn, and so this is another factor I must take in to account next time.

   I have narrowed the best four down after feedback with Adam Comiskey, as he has advised me on the more successful ones.

Character Background

HAL

Hal O’Riley is a Brooklyn born, hard-boiled police detective, serving under the San Francisco Police Department. He started his career as a beat cop in the NYPD, but was promoted to Traffic Detective when he single-handedly discovered the identity of a local murderer. After 5 years in the force, he moved from New York City to San Francisco as it suited him more to be away from the corruption of New York in the late 1930s. Here, he met his wife Molly, and they had a happy marriage for the first few years. After a promotion directly from Traffic to Homicide (as a result of another detective dying in the line of duty), Hal’s relationship with his wife digressed into arguments and fights. This was mainly due to Hal striving to remain a decent, honest man whilst fighting the corruption which eventually made its way from New York to San Francisco as the war intensified. He developed a heavy dependency on both nicotine and alcohol, drinking a bottle of brandy most days. During this time Sonny, Hal’s long-time friend from New York, transferred out to San Francisco much to Hal’s delight.

MOLLY

Molly Hemmingway is a San Francisco native, born in the city and living there most of her life. She is from a nouveau riche family, making their money in oil at the turn of the century, and had large aspirations from a young age. Much to the chagrin of her parents, after returning back from studying for 4 years at the recently established Saint Joseph College in Connecticut, Molly fell deeply in love with the working class detective Hal O’Riley. So deeply, in fact, that she stopped caring for her grand ideas of being on the forefront of female independents, marrying and becoming a housewife whilst her husband provides for them. As time went on, their relationship worsened, and Molly became empty and longing for change. During this time she met Hal’s old friend Sonny, and their friendship began to grow.

SONNY

Sonny MacCochlain is an Irish-American cop from Brooklyn. Much like Hal, he worked in the force for a relatively short period before being promoted to Traffic Detective. He was paired with a veteran of the force for a while, before being paired with Hal upon hi previous partner’s retirement. Here they struck up a brilliant friendship, becoming close friends within the space of a few months. A few years later, Hal became disillusioned with police work in New York due to the rising number of bent cops working with the Mafioso contingency in the city. During this period, Sonny became lonely, better and resentful towards his former friend. A few years later he received a letter from Hal enquiring into how his life has turned out, and including pictures of Hal an his new wife Molly. Enraged that Hal’s life had turned out so well whilst he was left alone, Sonny spiralled into self-destruction. On the brink of the abyss, he realised he himself could change his life: he decided to move San Francisco, and take Molly for himself.

MEANINGS

I chose the surnames of the characters for specific reasons:

MacCochlain descends from the Gaelic word for hood, as Sonny’s character is of a usurper who cloaks his true intentions to get what he wants.

O’Riley comes from the Irish name Ó Raghallaigh which means descendant of Reilly or Raghallaigh. Reilly itself has been defined as meaning ‘courageous’, which works well as the name of a protagonist. To hint towards his downfall also, I chose the spelling O’Riley as there was an American child murderer named Riley Dobi Noel in 1995 whilst intoxicated with drugs. The name O’Riley hints towards Hal being literally “Of Riley”, and thus has the ability to kill someone defenceless against him.

Hemmingwayis thought to come from the name of a village in the Halifax Parish which was wiped out entirely by the Black Death. This alludes to Molly’s fate n the finale, as she is ‘wiped out’ by Hal. Hemmingway itself derives from the words Heim which is a generic Old English place name for a town, and the word way meaning a path. This works well, as Molly is the path to Hal’s destruction.

 Though these surnames are not mentioned in the body of the animation, I believe they help me understand the character more, and force me to think deeply about aspects of their characters in order to name them. This in turn gives me information to apply to my writing process, as it allows me to apply each characters personality to situations; it also allows me to write scenarios based around these traits, such as Hal’s constant smoking and reasons for his aggression etc.

  Main set building

The main set for my film will be built after the pre-production testing s completed. I intend to build my main set walls from plywood or M.D.F., and ether wallpapering or creating a stone effect depending on the set. I also intend on making furniture from similar materials, and layered cardboard. I intend on painting the set to accurate colours (as the real versions of the set items would be) as opposed to doing it on a greyscale. This is because I want an accurate portrayal of what the items would look like in a 1940s-1950s black and white film to add to the genre authenticity of the piece.

(I have after consideration decided to make the interior sets out of reinforced cardboard, as they are small enough for this to be of a secure and sturdy nature. I will however make the exterior set out of the aforementioned wood, as it is a larger frame which needs more support which I do not believe cardboard can suffice.)

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I thought Id share what I have been bleeding and sweating over the last few months!

Alexz