The Grifters: Redesigned

Contributers: Sishir Bommakanti, Maura Henline,Lillian Gottwald, Kenneth Sterling Gronquist We read the Grifters for our screenplay assignment. Because the story involved crime, murder and cons. We decided it would be best to replace this setting from a early 90s setting to a 20s setting. By replacing the setting to the 1920s and New York we all of a sudden create a timeless Noir story. New York was booming with money and crime during the 20s with the social climbers, new money and the anti-prohibition institutions all over the city. Along with many other political tension like Mccarthy, women's rights and even teaching evolution. We made Roy a successful social climber who sells bonds and grifts on the side. The females characters: Lilly and Myra were very independent and ruthless. We compared them to the independent flappers of the 1920s. In this new setting, Lilly was helping rigging various gambling institutions/speakeasies in New York. The original screen play never really had a big emphasis on setting. We understood where we are, but the screen play never made any emphasis on the world around them. We felt that setting was very important. it creates an essence, context and gives life to a story. We wanted this Film Noir to be based more on temperature and value than color. by having a scene look warm in colors or cool in colors, we can create a mood. Even selective coloring can create interesting moods. in essence we wanted to place a lot of emphasis on colors/temperature to create this nostalgic crime feel. Because we placed the story in a historic setting, we decided that having good establishing shots throughout the movie will help bring out the essence of New York at that time. Mad Men and Watchmen do a great job of showing news clippings, stories and even subtle references to many things going on during that time. Finally by setting it in a different time period, it gives us more open space to work with. Essentially we took the screen play which we saw as the blue print or skeletal structure of the story, and added essence, a historical context and a more timeless story. As students in a design school we essentially redesigned the whole story but kept its foundation intact.