Themes and evolution of Short Film

The primary theme in which my film is driven by is the sense of misplacement, hence the reason that I titled the film as such. The scenario of the film is what would happen if a character from a specific and iconic genre filled with noticeable film conventions, this being the noir genre, was thrust into a more realistic and relatable environment. Seeing a gruff, long coat wearing detective walking down the darkened streets of Plymouth to assess a very simple and null situation that befalls many people was a bizzare yet intriguing concept I wanted to go further with. With a genre I have set to imitate, I set out to look up the iconography and mise en scene of the genre which led me to the work of John Alton.

These are shots captured John Alton featured from 'He Walked by Night' (Alfred Werker, 1948), 'T-Men' (Anthony Mann, 1947) and 'The Crooked Way' (Robert Florey, 1949). I find these shots the most fitting to my film purely because they are less extravagant than other shots he was provided and focus on two or three characters which fits because my film also features three characters.  As my film idea progressed due to me finding a genre to focus on, I was able to scout locations in order to capture the shadowy look that Alton incorporates on a regular basis. Due to this, a night time setting was picked to incorporate shadows for a stronger effect.

There were some changes to the iconography due to the placement of the protagonist in a modern setting which mostly comes down to the costume. The classic look, as seen above, is wearing a suit, fedora and trenchcoat. The reasons for the changes were down to observations I have made recently regarding how the clothing items are portrayed now. Fedoras and Trilbys have been overused by many people and has gone beyond the point of relevancy. The coat is cotton and shorter due to my actual problem of finding long coats and instead used my own personal one instead. The suit was adjusted slightly to capture the smart casual look which drops the tie. Overall the outfit I went with is very reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes' clothing in the TV show 'Sherlock'.

This was picked due to this being a modern interpretation of an iconic detective as well as my interest in the show itself.