For the ninth film, I made a film noir mashed with some kung fu elements.  The shoot itself happened nearly two months ago at the end of September (which is when this film was originally slated to be produced and released).  But of course, here we are, closing in on the end of November, and the film is finally nearing completion.

One of the main things I focused on during planning and production was lighting.  Film noir is known for being full of shadows and all sorts of contrast between light and darkness (both visually as well as thematically).  So I knew going into the production that I couldn’t just turn on all the lights in the room, light everything evenly, and still get the right look for the genre.  I also knew that I would be turning all the footage to black and white in post-production so as I shot I was more concerned with exposure and shadows then I was with color.

We got together in the early evening and shot everything that night.  I was able to run a single light through the ceiling panels in the storage room we were shooting in so that when I turned it on and combined it with some fill lighting in the background, I got a lot of great hard shadows and silhouettes.  The main scene in the film is something of an interogation scene, so having the single overhead light fit the mood I wanted to create.

Fox Clark (who’s been in couple of my other films this year) played the lead, with Will Dick playing the main villain and Allison Welch playing the character of a femme fatale.  I’ve uploaded some pictures (wonderfully shot by Chris Davis) from the shoot on Flickr here.