Noirish Project is the working title for a film noir feature film, which begins shooting next month. We will start off with a scripted premise, or a scripted Act One, and discover the rest of the film while we're making it, so that the journey of the characters becomes the journey of the filmmakers.
The film itself is about the nature of perception, how we interpret the signs which confront us, and how that interpretation changes as our desires change. At the heart of the film is an ambiguity of action, which I have coded as a film noir:
Naive, small-town boy Billy, has stolen the family jewels, and handed them over to small-time scheister, Jimmy, who in turn takes them to the local Fence to sell them for cash. When the jewels turn out to be fake, Jimmy barely escapes with his life, and returns to Billy empty-handed. Billy thinks Jimmy is screwing him over, and gets Jimmy to take him to the Fence to get the jewels back. However, when they discover the Fence has gone missing, they realise their journey has only just begun ….
The character Billy is totally dependent on Jimmy, because Jimmy is his only connection to the Fence, and therefore, must interpret everything Jimmy says or does in relation to his goal of getting the jewels back, and this interpretation is viewed through the prism of whatever context the character happens to find himself in.
The film will be dense with intricate, repetitive, formalised dialogue, which will serve to describe events, meaning that much of the action will take place “off-screen”, so in the minds eye of the beholder. We'll be using static shots, of long duration, to let the intricate dialogue unfold in real-time. The general universe of the film, will again be low-grade, hopeless and listless, with scenes of intense expository dialogue intercut with scenes of inertia, and loss of focus on the central thrust of action. We will be shooting in black and white, on the streets of London, and structurally the film will encompass a road movie element, which will take us outside the city, and to various parts of the UK.
Once again, I will be producing aswell as acting in the film, a multitasking challenge which I have explored previously on this blog. This dual role can distract from performing the scene, and this distraction can lead to a loss of commitment, which in turn may result in a loss of energy. We're only talking about 1 or 2 percentage points, but still.... Anyway, in terms of the general performance style, we will be flipping between bravura, and something more disciplined, but always simple, forceful, and true. Overall, we will be paring back the performances to include only the essentials, which will lead to minimal, direct style.
This is very much the starting point for Noirish Project, and I'm sure it will expand and contract, simplify and complicate as work on it evolves, and may even change radically over time. Either way, I look forward to documentating the project here, over the coming months.
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