Individual Noir Initial Ideas - Opening Sequence & Treatment (ECMS) for “Murdered!”

The screen is black. The first shot of the opening sequence, the establishing shot, fades in from the black. The camera has been placed on the ground, next to a tree, and is looking down a footpath, with trees acting as a fence on either sides of the path. A man runs past the camera, but all we see of him is his feet. The camera is slightly tilted, but not much of a Dutch Tilt. The personnel titles appear vertically on the trunks of the trees as the man runs past, through the first few shots of the film.

The man is young, in his mid-twenties, and wears a black leather jacket, black jeans, blue and white trainers, and has black crew-cut hair.

Also, as the man runs past the trees, he reveals them, then on different shots he runs past the trees one-by-one, and the titles seem to “wipe” away as he runs past each name. he cannot see these names as these are for the viewer, and have been added through editing (post production).
The next few shots are of him running through a park, and he glances behind him several times as if being followed. Finally he reaches a long and winding stone driveway. He runs all the way, without stopping, until he reaches a large mansion hidden by trees in a large park. Several Dutch Tilts are used when he runs up the driveway, and all we see when he eventually gets to the door of the mansion is his feet and the light from inside on the floor when the door is opened.

After ringing the door bell, the exhausted man is let in and he runs through the mansion. Heavy, pounding, fast-paced music runs throughout the whole opening sequence. The camera is placed on the banister of the grand, red-carpeted stairway, which spirals upwards in a square-shape. The camera, placed at an angle (Dutch Tilt) pans right to follow the man as he runs up the staircase, not missing a single step.

The next shot is placed on top of the ledge above the doorway where he will run through once coming off the staircase. He does run through, and the camera tilts down slowly as he approaches the door to keep him in frame.

The next shot is from behind a chair. In the chair sits another man, the landlord of the mansion and grounds, a man much older and in his sixties, much more formerly dressed and sitting behind a dark brown desk. The younger man runs through the open doorway and slows down quickly before approaching the desk. The camera is placed behind the head-rest on the armchair, at the eye level of the landlord.

The younger man reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a white envelope. Inside the envelope lies one hundred pounds. It is not a gift, but a loan re-payment. The landlord was the loan shark, yet now is repossessing people’s properties - from those who didn’t repay him for his generosity some years ago.

The landlord smokes a posh (and very expensive) cigar, and places it on the ashtray in front of him. As he blows-out smoke from his mouth, it begins to swirl around the room. He instructs the younger man to close-over the blinds behind him, in case anyone was watching. The camera pans to the right and follows the younger man approach the blinds. The camera is then placed in the doorway (wide-shot) and is still 9no movements). The younger lad closes the blinds, then the camera tracks to the right in a semicircular fashion, as the younger man comes back around to the front of the desk (he walks to the left as the camera tracks to the right). The camera stops behind the landlord’s chair. THE LANDLORD’S FACE IS NOT SEEN THROUGHOUT!

The younger man sits down opposite the older man, and makes himself comfortable by stretching out his legs and placing his feet on the table to the left of the landlord and consequently where the camera is placed. Whilst the younger man had been closing the blinds, the landlord had browsed-over the envelope (inspected it).

Now that they are both sitting down, the next camera shot is a kind-of over-the-shoulder shot on the landlord’s left shoulder. He takes one more puff of the cigar, then pierces open the envelope with his envelope-opener (a blunt knife). YET WE STILL DO NOT SEE THE LANDLORD’S FACE!

The focus on the camera changes at this point, from the whole picture to just the envelope. The landlord pulls out the money, then takes yet another puff at the cigar. Very little light is being let through the windows now, since the blinds are blocking most of it (giving the effect of the Venetian Blind). He is pleased with what he sees.

The next shot is an extreme close-up of the cigar as it burns in the ashtray. The conversation between the two men begins. The younger man is revealed as being called Fredrick, the older man referred to as “Sir”.

Sir- Good. You have exceeded my expectations. Tell me, if your father was still around, would he, perhaps, repay me for my time?
Fred- I don’t know, Sir, maybe. But what about my wages? I got a kid to look after.
Sir- Yes, I see.

The landlord (Sir) opens a desk and takes out fifty-pounds. This is the young man’s wages. The sounds are all we hear, and the sound of Fred (the younger man) getting up and scraping the wooden legs of the chair along the floor tells us that eh is leaving.

The cigar is taken by a hand, then the older man whistles to his white, furry cat. Behind the chair once more, the camera watches as the cat jumps to its owner’s lap. The camera physically moves upwards, without panning or tilting, to focus on the landlord’s (Sir) lap. He calmly strokes the cat’s fur as he puffs more of his cigar.

The camera now tilts up to the black ceiling, and the name of the film appears - “Murdered!”. The rest of the personnel titles appear, along with the main actors’ names. The opening sequence ends and the camera tilts down from the black ceiling, revealing the landlord to now be sitting in his lounging area, still stroking his cat and smoking his cigar, but overlooking the whole room from his desk chair.

Later in the film, the landlord who was only revealed as “Sir” in the dialogue, is called by his real name, Henry Screamer. The younger man who we only know as Fred was the personal assistant of Henry, yet we do not see him again and is referred to only as “Fredrick” by Henry and other characters. Also, the cat does not play a big part through the film, as it is accidentally shot with a gun when on Henry’s lap by another character when the two characters (Henry one of the two) dispute over a disagreement.