Introduction
My challenge was to use the items in a “mystery box” to develop a rudimentary plot and characters in the Film Noir style that involves a crime being committed (murder wasn’t an acceptable option)as well as create a movie poster to go along with the project.
WHEN: Late 1990’s or early 2000’s, in the years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
WHERE: Small desert town somewhere in the Baja, California peninsula where a movie is being shot and many sets have been constructed.
WHO:
Karen Young
DOB: November 5th, 1962 (37 years old)
Place of Birth: San Diego, California
Place of Residence: Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Actress
Sex: Female
Eye Colour: Hazel
Hair Colour: Dark brown
Height: 5’5”
Distinguishing Features: N/A
Karen is a half-Hispanic, half-Caucasian woman who was born, raised and still lives in Southern California where she makes a living as an actress where she has made a small but reputable name for herself. She is happily married to Thomas von Hahn and has been for 11 years when the mystery begins (the couple were wed in 1988). She is an acquaintance of Dale’s, having worked with him before early on in her career and has a friendly but not particularly close relationship with him.
Surprisingly down to earth, laid back and warm, she doesn’t have enemies and it is hard to imagine who would want to harm her.
Dale Robertson
DOB: June 8th, 1947 (52 years old)
Place of Birth: Nowhere, North Dakota
Place of Residence: Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Actor
Sex: Male
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Blonde (formerly), what’s left of it is going white with age.
Height: 6’0”
Distinguishing Features: N/A
Dale was born in a small town in North Dakota to parents that hated anything different from them, which has had a major impact on his life. He left home after graduating from college and pursued his dream of becoming an actor with quite a lot of success but this has been waning over the years as he ages, something that he hopes to change with this film. He is divorced and has a grown daughter that doesn’t speak to him anymore. He is also seeing a psychiatrist for paranoid thoughts (actually undiagnosed delusions) focusing on minority races and is deeply closeted, terrified of what coming out might mean for his career.
Sherry Ridley
DOB: July 31st, 1955 (44 years old)
Place of Birth: San Diego, California
Place of Residence: Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Writer
Sex: Female
Eye Colour: Green
Hair Colour: Red
Height: 5’7”
Distinguishing Features: Lots of freckles
Sherry is the the widow of John Riley, the late author of the book that the movie being shot is based on and is a crime novelist herself. She has been involved in the production of the film to ensure that the film adaptation remains true to the vision that her late husband had in mind. She had some casting pull and actually picked out Karen for the role of Adriana Cruz.
Sad and lonely after her husband’s death in 1996 (by suicide) shortly after he published the book, she struggles to get by as a now single mother to a teenaged son. She had no previous relationship with Karen or Dale and hardly knows the latter but she has come to be a friendly acquaintance of the former. It is her who investigates the events surrounding her colleague’s assault and puts herself in danger to discover the truth.
Quietly strong and resilient with a tough facade to hide her softer qualities, she is more than up to the task.
WHAT: A mostly unknown but reputable actress is found in a motel parking lot savagely beaten into a coma, with no witnesses to the crime and no obvious suspects to pursue it is up to the producer of the film to look for the person or people responsible for this heinous act of violence.
HOW: Karen Young just happens to come across Dale Robertson shortly after a significant event for him occurs. It is truly a case of “wrong place, wrong time” and (in this case) wrong person. When he carries out the crime almost as soon as he encounters her.
WHY: Dale Robertson (who is suffering from a undiagnosed/misdiagnosed mental illness) believed that Karen Young knew of his secret and was going to expose him, which lead him to savagely attack her in a fit of paranoia.
Materials
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Draw & Comp
Microsoft Word
iPad
Macbook Pro
Pencils
Paper
Methods
*Look through the items
*Brainstorm connections
*Structure story and characters
*Visualize characters
*Distill story to an economic storyboard in Adobe Comp, Photoshop & Illustrator
*Generate thumbnails for poster in Adobe Draw
*Create poster
Challenges
I found it hard to think of a crime that wasn’t murder which was dramatic enough for the genre and the time constraints with this project coming at the end of term were considerable.
Triumphs
I think I did the poster in a very unique, modern way that was fitting with both the story and still paid homage to the classic Film Noir posters.
Conclusion
I didn’t learn too much in this project because it involved using skills that I already had for the most part. If I were to do it again though I probably would’ve done a different kind of story for fun.
