Research - Sunset Boulivard

Sunset boulevard a film made in the 1950s and directed by Billy Wilder, the name boulevard arose from the Los Angles and beverly hills boulevard in which joins them.

During the beginning it is shown of Joe's struggle with money & being successful in the business as he pleads to people for money, however he also unsuccessful in doing this, therefore he has no other option but to accept a poor-paid job from a newpaper in Ohio and although doesnt want to accept helping Norma with some jobs at home as he owed her a "favour".

As time goes by Joe becomes dependant upon Norma as she falls for him and buys him expensive gifts, but as he realises she has fallen he tried to escape.. but is guilted into moving back when she attempts to commit suicide.

After a great deal of conflict due to the sciprt writing issues and other females feelings for Joe, Norma threatens to shoot herself but when ignored by Joe she shoots him as he leaves & leaves him dead in her pool, as shown in the opening scene.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale

What is the story about and how does it convey the story to the audience?

The story is about a young scene writer in which is found dead in a woman's pool to whom is believed to have trapped him as "her man". Her name is Norma Desmond, and uses his financial issues as an excuse to maipulate him. the story is conveyed to the audience through the voice over by Joe (the writer found dead) throughout the film in order to inform the audience of what is happening such as; previous issues leading up to the story.

What production techniques are used to bring the film to life?

In my opinion i found that overall what stood out most in my head was the opening titles and the use of listing the cast and crew members through the same style as the road names, shown above. By doing this is attracts a great deal of attention through it's relation to the street name and therefore the film title, this is displayed through moving along the road and the names appearing on the road as they would to display the road name.

How is it conventional?

The movie uses fairly conventional techniques such as;

- Black and white filming

- smoking

- a murder

- crime scenes

- and the use of a femme Fatale (Norma)

What props and why? 

They used police cars and the beginning when the body was discovered displaying to the audience that a crime had been committed and the story would be based on the events of this crime. Also they use the main location at a "large house" which is very conventional of film noir movies and conveys that the characters are from wealth and power, which will convey they're character's actions in the film.

Where is the setting, why is it used & how is it portrayed?

The setting is in "beverly hills" of which is known to be the houses for the rich and therefore displays a great deal of wealth and power from the characters in the film, it also shows contrast between the detectives and the other characters.