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I'll be working in the neo noir genre, so I'll take influence by having the character types of the detective, investigating what's going on in the narrative as the protagonist, the anti-hero possibly as the sidekick, who assists the protagonist, and then the 'femme fatale', who is normally the mysterious love interest.

The syntactic elements of a Neo Noir film tend to revolve around crime, drama and mystery, so the narrative of my production will be have that as a main theme.

Visually to fit with by chosen genre I will use quite low-key, dark and harsh lighting, similar to the kind of effect seen in 'Drive', where a mix of really dark and really vivid colours, contrasting against each other. Which gives a kind of chiaroscuro effect, often seen in neo and film noir.
For Example:

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Synopsis:

A teenage girl, Max, is out late and witnesses someone getting kidnapped, but after getting no help from the police she takes matters in to her own hands, and investigates the kidnapping herself.

Detailed Narrative Outline:

A teenage girl, Max, is out late at night and witnesses someone getting kidnapped, but as she goes to get help she is knocked unconscious by an unknown person. When she wakes it's a day later in the same place she finds a crumpled note in her pocket, in her own handwriting with some seemingly random numbers and letters on it. But she has no recollection of how it got there. Confused and disoriented, she goes to the police but meets a perceptually creepy officer who doesn't take her seriously and don't seem to care, so she takes matter into her own hands and investigates what happened and where the kidnapped person could be and what the note really means. She enlists the help of a friend Mia to help her, who is skeptical of the whole thing but goes along with it. When investigating they realise that the person taken was just one of many to have gone missing. So thinking that it's all some how connected and the message has something to do with it, they investigate further but they receive an anonymous message warning them to stop as they may uncover things they really don't want to know. But Max ignores the warning and carries on, but Mia gets taken as a consequence to this. After some research Max discovers that the letters and numbers on the note was actually the number plate of the police officer she met before. Now suspecting that he is involved in it some way, she plans to follow him to see if there is anything suspicious. So late that night she follows him to a place in the city which looks like an old warehouse, and finds some of the people that went missing, including Mia. In order to get her friend back, Max plans to set herself up and get taken so she can break them out. She gets a weapon to defend herself, and sees that there is a group of corrupt officers who have been taking people from that area. Then she manages to find her friend, and the two plan to escape. They break free, but realise they can't go to the police in fear of them being one of the corrupt officers.

Codes and Convention:

The memory loss and mystery is a recurring theme in a few neo noir films, such as Mulholland Drive and Memento, so I have chosen to make the story similar to that. Also my production takes influence from the film Brick, which uses the conventions and themes of a film noir film in the setting of an American high school, as my film has students as the main characters. Brick also has a character that has gone missing.

Main Characters:

Max Caulfield

Max is female, 19, a student, wears t-shirts, jeans, hoodies and vans/converse trainers, which are all generic clothes associated with teenagers. Because my target audience is predominantly young women I thought having the main character a similar age to them would make her more relatable.

Also there is a lack of good representation and diversity in neo noir films because the majority of characters are white males, so a film with a strong female character might be more interesting, particularly to the female audience. She acts as a detective and investigates what happened to her, and her memories and the disappearance of the person she saw. Which is what most of the men do in other films but I thought having a teenage girl in that role instead would be a different take on the classic 'detective' character.

Mia Wallace

Mia is female, 19 and a student with Max, her name is the same as the character from Pulp Fiction because my film is a homage so it's a reference to a classic neo noir film.

She is kind of Max's cynical sidekick.

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Todorov's Theory:

The equilibrium is disrupted right at the start of the narrative when the person goes missing and the protagonist gets knocked out and loses her memories. The protagonist then attempts to restore the balance by investigating what really happened.

Propp's Theory:

The hero - Max

The villain - the corrupt officers

The dispatcher

The helper - Mia

The princess (or prize)

The donor

The false hero

Levi-Strauss' Theory:

The binary opposites in my production are good vs evil, where it's the protagonist against the mysterious kidnappers, which could also be protagonist vs antagonist. Then the kidnappers and the people being kidnapped would be empowered vs victim.

Barthes' Theory:

I think my film would fit in the enigma/hermeneutic code because of the mystery in the narrative, and the clues to what is really going on, like the note at the start and things they slowly find out as they investigate. It could also be referential because it is a homage to neo noir films and may reference them throughout.

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I plan on filming around Digbeth and the Custard Factory in the Centre of Birmingham, because there's a lot of empty streets with long roads and empty warehouses. It's also quite industrial, urban and near some canals which also might be suitable for filming.

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There are also some old car parks in the centre of Birmingham that look like old warehouses, which I could possibly use.

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Also for the scenes inside where the two main characters are investigating, I can use my own room as I am the same age as them so a teenager's room would be appropriate.