Film Noir

For my third genre I am going to look at Film Noir.

Film Noir tends to centre on visual and cinematic elements, things like low key lighting, chiaroscuro effects- (Chiaroscuro in art is characterised by strong contrasts between light and dark), deep focus photography, extreme camera angles and expressionist distortion.

For the scene in Rumpelstiltskin that I am going to adapt, I would probably have the room turned into an office.

The set, I think, would be quite minimalist, but would rely on lighting and shadows to set the mood. Perhaps Rumpelstiltskin is a gangster of some kind.
I can imagine all the male characters wearing one of those gangster 'fedora' hats.

Screenshot of film 'The Big Combo' (1955) 

The image depicts a mysterious mood with the help of the fog drifting through scene.

The scene I will be adapting is an indoor scene.

http://www.pictureshowman.com/images/articles/Big_Combo.jpg 

Here is a quick sketch of initial ideas for the scene I am going to adapt. I have included what I think are the key elements that depict Film Noir.

If I am to continue with Film Noir as my chosen genre, I would make sure to have venetian blinds on the set as they would cast interesting shadows. The stripes could create visual tension and the feeling of instability or imprisonment (suggesting cage or prison bars).

Screen shot: Film: 'Kiss of Death' (1947) Showing use of Venetian blinds in shot.

http://cinepad.com/filmnoir/windwvm.jpg

Second Genre Choice

The second genre I would like to look at is Gothic Horror- combining both horror and romance. By the Victorian era Gothic had ceased to be the dominant genre, however, in many ways it was now entering its most creative phase.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer best known for his works in the Gothic genre, or ‘Dark Romanticism genre’. His work was mainly influenced by tragedies that filled his life, including the death of his wife due to tuberculosis.

During the 19^th Century tuberculosis (or consumption as it is also known) was named The White Plague. It was seen as a ‘romantic disease’. Suffering from tuberculosis was thought to increase the sufferers’ sensitivity. The slow progress of the disease allowed for a ‘good death’ as sufferers could organize their affairs.

The disease began to represent spirituality, purity and temporal wealth, leading many young, upper class women to purposely pale their skin to achieve the consumptive appearance. The disease made people waste away, becoming very thin and pale, yet it was seen as beautiful.

The film ‘Sweeney Todd’ (2007) is a good example expressing this. Set in Victorian London in the early 19^th Century, it portrays pale and ill looking characters, with dark rings under their eyes. Yet the audience finds them beautiful and appealing.

Screenshot: Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett, 'Sweeney Todd' (2007)
http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/de57/SweeneyTodd.jpg

To create the sense of a Victorian Gothic Horror genre in my chosen scene, I would perhaps have a large beautifully constructed room, but with decaying walls and gothic furnishings. The room would be grand, yet uncared for. Rumpelstiltskin could be a strange little man, or could be a monstrous creation of some kind (i.e.) Frankenstein.

Again, I have drawn up some quick spider diagrams of the genre to start the ideas process.

Genres

I have started to look into different genres for the narrative. My chosen genres are:

·         Science- fiction

·         Gothic Horror

·         Film Noir

The scene I have chosen to adapt is:

“The Queen Sat up all night, searching her brains for his name like someone sieving for gold. She went through every single name she could think of. She sent out a messenger to ask everywhere in the land for all the names that could be found. On the next day, when the little man came, she recited the whole alphabet of names that she’d learned, starting with Balthasar, Casper, Melchior... But to each one the little man said “That isn’t my name”.

If I am adapting this scene into a science-fiction genre, perhaps the scene would take place in a lab, where she is literally searching her brains- (brains in containers that are connected to a computer?)  If it is that far into the future, anything is possible.

A quick sketch showing idea.

The brains in the containers is similar to the preserved heads of characters in jars in TV program 'Futurama'. (Below)

 

     

Perhaps Rumpelstiltskin is in the form of a powerful computer system? A virus? The idea being that when she was first locked in the lab and told to make gold out of metal, she stumbles across a computer programme which she downloads. It is this programme that was able to create the gold; however, now becoming more powerful it is able to take control.

Just an idea...

The idea of a computer system taking control/overriding all computers, reminds me of the film ‘I, Robot’ (2004), in which computer system ‘V.I.K.I’s artificial intelligence has evolved, and is able to control all the robots.

V.I.K.I Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence  

Screenshot from film 'I, Robot (2004) 




I have drawn out a quick spider diagram of the sci-fi genre.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Narrative and Genre

Rumpelstiltskin

Rather than look at another play or text, I have decided to stay with my chosen Grimm's fairytale; 'Rumpelstiltskin'. 
The story tells of a miller, who, in order to make him appear more important, lies to the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold.
The king calls for the girl and demands that she spins a room full of straw into gold by the next morning or be executed.
A strange little man appears in her room offering to spin the straw into gold in exchange for her necklace, and the following night for her ring. On the third night she has nothing left to give, so she promises her first born child to him, not knowing what the future held for her and in hope that it would prevent her from being executed.
The girl ends up marrying the king and has a baby. The strange little man returns asking for what she promised him. The girl (now queen) offers him wealth and riches instead of her baby. The man refuses, but finally agrees to give up his claim to the child if she can guess his name in three days. At first she fails, but on the second night a messenger overhears the man dancing around a fire and calling out his name in the woods “Rumpelstiltskin”. On the third day she repeats his name. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry at this that he tears himself in two.

Other versions of the story have him ‘running away and never returning’; whilst others have him ‘driving his foot so far into the ground that he creates a chasm and falls into it, never to return’.


My initial ideas were to completely modernise the storyline, by setting it in the present day. For example, the scene in which she stays up all night thinking of all the different names would show her searching the internet on a laptop. I’m not yet sure whether I would modernise all elements or whether I would change only a few which could then contrast against the interior of a castle set in the 1800s.
Perhaps this could lead to a sci-fi genre?
Another idea was to have post-it-notes covering the room; a modern element that would convey the idea that the task of guessing someone’s name is quite impossible, especially if it is a strange, unknown name such as ‘Rumpelstiltskin’. On each post-it-note would be a different name.
The post-it-note idea came from the film ‘Bruce Almighty’ (2003), in which Bruce makes all prayers materialise in the form of post-it-notes, which cover every inch of the room he is in and everything in it.


Bruce Almighty (2003) Film Still, post-it-notes
http://www.setbuild.ucreative.ac.uk/09/wordpress/2009/03/