Location Ideas

The day after our first group planning session, James and I decided to search our home city of Norwich for locations in which we could set our Film Noir style OTS.

Being both dominant and ominous, the Church of England Cathedral would work alongside the dark, tense atmosphere of our OTS aswell as providing an iconic city backdrop.

The interesting architecture and cobbles of Tombland would work well to connote the 'old city' environment, but the area is popular with both regular visistors and tourists, so it would not be an easy place to film, and is probably best avoided.

Despite the busy nature of Tombland, there are streets around it which are usually quiet, and the buildings still have similar architectural styles. Small features like the old-styled street-lamps would make for an interesting homage to the mise-en-scene of classic film-noir.

Seeing as we originally intended to begin our OTS with the 'victim' character sat on a bench, the seating on Elm Hill will be perfect to use. The following shots could then follow the 'victim' as he runs through the winding streets. The narrow, maze-like nature of the area will allow us to be much more creative in our shots, as we will have lots of patches of varying darkness and light. These could be utilised in order to reveal and conceal characters as we see fit, allowing us to convey a sense of claustrophobia.

Although Gentleman's Walk is another busy area of the city, it is definitely one of the most iconic city environment available. Not only does it boast a vast array of architectural styles, but there is also a taxi rank, covered market and shopping arcade in close proximity. This rich collection of signifiers means that even a short sequence of the 'victim' running through the area would establish the location as a modern city, which is a popular convention of Film Noir.

Similarly to the Church of England Cathedral, City Hall offers an iconic city feature: the clocktower. The plain, bold architecture makes the building look judicial and bureacratic, so the look of the building would juxtapose well with the themes of criminality surrounding the 'victim' character.

There is another bench opposite City Hall, although it is unlikely we will use this in our establishing shot, as it is in an enclosed corner space and is therefore not as versatile as the bench space on Elm Hill. Despite that, it may still be interesting to use the Guildhall in conjunction with City Hall to show a strong orthodox and judicial presence that contrasts with our plot.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral is of particular importance to us, because the building is noticeably more malevolent than the rest of the city, with a sharp, clearly defined geometric shape. We intend to capture the Cathedral in the background towards the end of the sequence, as a reminder of morality and final judgement.

Although we intend to film in the evening in order to utilise patches of darkness to create a contrast in lighting, we are not entirely sure whether the capabilities of the provided camera will be able to cope with such conditions. Because lighting can be affected by a variety of environmental factors, it may be that we film certain sections of the sequence earlier in the day to compensate for the camera's incapabilities. For example, a shot in an alleyway may be too dark for the camera to film in the evening, but better in the early afternoon. If we do this, we will obviously have to ensure that the shots do not reveal the difference in time of day by directly showing the sky, for example. Such shots could be made to look more consistent if filmed skillfully and applied with a tinting effect.