Short Film Proposal

For my short film idea, I drew influence from the likes of ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ and ‘Sin City’. The reason for such a strange mix of tone (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’s comedy and Sin City’s gritty look) is based on the content of my film. It’s set in a gritty, crime ridden town where the inspiration from ‘Sin City’ is brought in yet the protagonist borrows more from ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’. The parallel’s come from his position and job. Detective Mathews is a cop brought into a murder case and, while his voice and stoic attitude borrows from Bruce Willis’ performance in ‘Sin City’, his deadpan performance and lack of real understanding of his job comes from Harry Lockhart from ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’. I thought it would be interesting to see a character like him actually be given a professional role in the world of crime prevention rather than just being on the side lines.

It plays back the cliché idea of having the murderer be among the people in the room however, instead of a long investigation, it works with the unexpected and has the murderer cave into their guilt and unceremoniously solve the case. The juxtaposition between the style and content is what drove me to want to make the film. Detective Mathews, as the protagonist, starts off the film with a parody of internal monologues that the three protagonists of ‘Sin City’ deliver throughout the course of the film. The aim of this is to point out the overuse of the cliché in such films as ‘Watchmen’ which also fits within the crime genre.

In terms of filming style and effects added in post-production, the film would be black and white for two reasons. One is to capture the look of the film noir genre such as ‘Strangers On A Train’ as well as the strong presence of shadows similar to the works of John Alton (for example ‘The Big Combo’). I looked at John Alton because he was a pioneer of cinematography in the noir genre which seemed perfectly fitting for what I was planning. Looking at his work also inspired me to try and recapture some artistic looking shots that he has used in his films with the likes of ‘He Walked By Night’ coming to mind.

To conclude, my film takes its style and film techniques from the Noir genre, specifically the cinematography works of John Alton, and combines it with a more comedic edge with the idea of broadening the style of ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ with a bit of ‘The Naked Gun’ in because of the similar profession and running on the idea of giving power to bumbling people. The shots would draw influence from the look of other films in the same genre as well as using actor, prop and camera positioning to foreshadow who the murderer is. This will also play into the comedy aspect with the murder itself being very anticlimactic to the point that it wasn’t even a person killed, similar to ‘The Simpsons’ episode ‘Bart of Darkness’ which is shot like an Alfred Hitchcock film, specifically ‘Rear Window’, to make it seem like Ned Flanders is a murderer despite it turning out that it was just a plant.