On Campus News

Jordan Ray Allen and Babette Siobhan discuss their film noir short film �Red Handed�

By Naomi Laeuchli
posted Jan 24, 2013, 19:55

Jordan Ray Allen and Babette Siobhan, two students at Cape Fear Community College, talk about writing, editing and directing �Red Handed� a film noir short film, full of gangsters, double crosses, drama and a beautiful femme fatale. They discuss the process that went into bringing the retro feel to the film and the challenges that arose along the way.

Can you tell me a little bit about the film 'Red Handed'? And the experience filming it?
Jordan Ray Allen: 'Red Handed' is a homage to the classic film noir genre: mobsters, tommy guns, agents, starlets flirting with danger for the sake of a flashy lifestyle, jazzy tunes, heavy brass numbers, the whole enchilada. My producing partner/Director of Photography Babette Siobhan, kick started this whole thing one day by saying to me: "I want to light a black and white film." That sparked something in me and the rest was history.
With each passing generation, film noir in the fashion of 'Red Handed' has become a forgotten gem for cinema. While I have seen parodies in the recent years, I have yet to see a serious film noir done the way we just did. We didn't set out with the goal of single handedly "bringing the genre back to life", but wanted to play our part in giving it CPR. I want to believe there are other filmmakers and fans of the genre who feel like us.
At twenty eight years old, I've dubbed myself �Vintage Kid". I'm all about progression, but have a special place reserved in my heart for nostalgia. I felt 'Red Handed' would not only express myself as a writer-director, but personally. I am a huge believer in making what I would actually watch if it weren't made by me. Growing up, I was always a fan of the "look but don't touch" kind of films. Oldest story in the book: Don't even think about sleeping with the boss' girl.
Working on this film was a blast. A 100% collaborative effort. With the exception of one scene which was an interior, we shot the whole film at night. That's usually no-man's land for the indie-student filmmaker, but we had a dedicated cast and crew in place. More importantly, our film instructor Duke Fire, hauling an equipment truck to and from set daily to ensure we had what we needed.
The film never felt like work. It was a camaraderie and it was bittersweet to say goodbye to everyone once we wrapped. I knew I would miss coming to set and being around such dedicated people, but also knew that I was heading straight to the editing station to put it all together.

The film's main story takes place against the backdrop of a presidential race. This was an interesting choice. As the screenwriter and director of the film, what was the idea and influence behind this?
JRA: Good question! It was a subliminal way of saying that we live in a country where some people believe politicians are corrupt, others believe they are completely honest, some are on the fence and then there are those who don't care to discuss politics at all. The presidential election is big business. This is the person we are putting in charge of our country. And yet, some of the American people aren't 100% sure about him or his agenda? As we've seen in the past, not every citizen is happy with who takes up residency in The White House and what they do with their terms(s).
With my character George Kelly being "President of The Underworld" his people know exactly what they're getting when they either elect him head of the organization or he simply claims it as a dictator would. They understand his laws very clearly. If broken, the penalty is death. While I don't condone violence or murder, it is comical to me that George is irrefutably branded by society as the bad guy and yet, he runs his criminal organization with the utmost honesty and integrity and feels salty that someone is stealing from him; thus validating the president's claims of "There's no honor amongst thieves."

From the dialog to the actors, from the credits to the very shots themselves, 'Red Handed' does an excellent job of recreating the feel of an old time film noir. How did you accomplish this?
JRA: Thank you very much! In my mind that was always going to be final look; black & white with an aged appearance as if it were from a film reel hanging out in grandma's attic for the past fifty years. Due to the meteorite rise of the HD camera, we have gained super clarity on-screen but have in my opinion, lost the "film look" that psychologically puts the viewer in a world much different than that of their own. Once we wrapped and I looked at the footage, I kept seeing a really expensive HD video look. For me, it needed to look old and harsh. I didn't want to simply desaturate the film to black & white, slap a "This Is The Era" text on-screen and hope it would make people feel as if it were like the classics. I had to go deeper. How deep? I can't tell. Ha. I like to keep some secrets to myself, but please know that it was a relentless and tiresome effort in post-production to achieve the vintage look and feel of classic film noirs. I've gotten feedback from people who like the story, but don't like the look and would prefer it to be in color or less contrasty, etc. On the other hand, I've gotten very good feedback from people who said the film instantly takes their mind into the classic noir realm. Those people, I feel they "get me". Ha ha. I'd like for Babette to shed some light (pun intended) on creating the look while on set.

Babette Siobhan: To understand Film Noir, is to understand shadows. At first, I was deathly afraid of them. But as we started shooting, I had a lot more fun with them and learned to view them as almost another character. Especially the alley scene and the final scene at Skip's apartment. In both scenes, George is lit from below to accentuate his menacing actions. Another classic Film Noir trait I notice a lot is the "eyelash shadow". The women are all lit high and at a 45 degree angle from the camera to create this beautiful shadow from their eyelashes that falls across their cheeks. I had a lot of fun with that on Cammy. The other classic lighting trait of a Film Noir is using hard light. Pretty much all of the scenes involved little to no shaping of the light. This caused a lot of contrast, interesting shadows, and a general hardness which I think compliments the subject matter.

All the actors did a brilliant job in their roles. How did you find them? And how did you help get them into the mindset of the film noir?
JRA: They will be very pleased to hear this! Marty Siu casted the majority of the agents and mobsters for the meeting scene. The lead actors are friends of mine. Rebecca Wapner as Cammy, Sean R. Herman as Skip, veteran actor and entertainer Douglas Meyers as George Kelly, Michael Shaw as Carlo and Marcus Clay as Grady Williams. Getting them into the mind set was a fun experience. I would invite them over to my house and read the script aloud in the wise-guy voice while playing the vintage music I intended to use during their scene. I had hoped that on set, somewhere in their subconscious, the music would still be playing. I wanted them to speak in the old dialect and accent if they could channel it. Rebecca informed me that the reason why "Old Hollywood" actors sounded different back then was because they were trained to speak in a "Transatlantic Accent". My brows rose. The things we learn.

What were some of the challenges of making a film like this?
JRA: It was really just a matter of keeping cool and not getting overwhelmed. This was Babette and my most ambitious project to date. We raised funds via an Indiegogo campaign, raised noise about the film in the local community and got veteran film industry people to counsel us through. We knew a lot of eyes were on us and we didn't want to screw up in front of everyone. Sink or swim. We swam, but definitely got our fair taste of salt water. We almost didn't get the vintage vehicle for the film. The owner was very certain that if it rained, he would not bring it out. Day of the shoot, it rained, no car. At that point I didn't want to reschedule, I thought we could still have an effective film without it. Babette sat me down, looked me in my eyes and said: "If you don't get this car into the film, you will never forgive yourself." Scary words. A few days later, we got the car. I could go on and on about what was challenging for me, but from a Director of Photography standpoint, I'd like to let Babette share some of the more technical challenges she faced while trying to compose a shot or two or three. :)

BS: Some of the biggest challenges I faced as the Director of Photography was due to the simple fact that we were making a student film. Limited manpower, supplies and experience. Many shots were the product of collaboration between myself and the camera team, Brennen Poetter and Kyle Messina. For the first scene between Cammy and Skip at her house, I had these awesome dolly shots planned out, not to mention a cool venetian blinds effect, but because of the railroad-apartment-like location, we simply ran out of space and were unable to achieve the design. That scene is still my favorite from Red Handed, but I always imagine it much slicker!

What do you hope to accomplish with 'Red Handed'? And what is your next project?
JRA: The goal is to get 'Red Handed' out to everyone and their mothers! It is a well written, well directed, well acted, well lit and well shot film. And I don't say that from a biased place, but an honest one. Everyone worked hard on this project and I sincerely believe it shows; from the wardrobe, hair and makeup, art direction, script supervision, our Production Manager and Assistant Directing keeping it all together, just everything. I'm proud of the team we assembled.
In terms of promotion, 'Red Handed' is currently on our website: Royal Court Cinema. Film festivals are in our sights as well. For me personally, I have mainstream-friendly feature length screenplays that I am looking to strictly sell, not direct. With 'Red Handed' I'm hoping it will entice prospective producers and agents to give me a shot in the big leagues. At the end of the day I really hope this film spawns nothing but great things for all parties who helped to create it.
Next up for Babette and I, is a smaller-scale four episode web mini-series called "Royal Court Cinema Presents: Long Story Short" slated to film next week. Summer of 2013 we will begin production on a film which is currently untitled but is practically "Locked, Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels" meets "Buffalo 66". We keep bouncing between making it a really long "short film" or going the distance and making a feature. I'll keep you posted. To learn more about us and see our past works, please visit our website which was listed above. We don't wanna spam this interview. Ha ha!





Resources:

Royal Court Cinema