Emily Hardy and Tiffany Leung's research into classic film noir

Film Noir: Codes and Conventions

They use certain shots to make the viewwe feel uncomfotable and to create tension:
-high and low angled shots
-extreme close ups
-refelctions obscured through objects
-dutch tilts:

  This was used a lot in German films of the 1930s and 1940s.
They use everyday locations to make whats happening seem more real. Normally in dodgy areas to normal locations:
-often rainy on damp streets
-low key lighting
-high contrast (dark blacks and whites)
-urban locations

The sound used reflects the sense of foreboding in the films:
-downbeat jazz music
-heavy breathing
-quiet and silence
-discordant/grating music
-sudden noises
-voice over of protagonist

Editing follows many traditional crime characteristics:
-non linear at the start then tells the story in flashbacks
-generally use continuty editing
-jump cuts


It is important we know all of this as we then know what kind of things we need to included in our film to make sure it follows the typical conventions of a film noir. We will have to include some of these things for it to work effectively. 

Film Noir - By Tiffany Leung

As a group we have decided to base our film black and white (film noir).

Film Noir of this era is associated with a low key. Black and white visual style. A cinematic term used to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas.

The 'dark' downbeat and back the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theaters following the war.

Examples of Film Noir:

• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Murder, My Sweet (1944)
• Double Indemnity (1944)

Film Noir s not a genre, but rather a mood, style, point of view or tone of a film. It's helpful to realize that 'Film Noir' usually refers to a distinct historical period of film history. 

Film Noir films (mostly shot in gloom grays, blacks and whites)

Thematically showed the dark and unhuman side of human and nature. It emphasizes the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience.

Primary characteristics and conventions of film noir:

Classic Film Noir were: Alienation, Disillusionment, Pessimism, ambiguity, evil, desperation and paranoia. Story lines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted and typically told with foreboding background music and flashbacks.

Females in Film Noir, 2 types:

(1)- Dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women

(2)- (Female Fatales)- Mysterious, Duplicitous, Gorgeous, Unloving, tough-sweet, unreliable and desperate women.

The male protagonists in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to choose and what to take.

The first detective film to us shadowy, nihilistic noir style was The Maltese Falcon. the film used low key lighting and inventive and arresting angles. unusual camera angles- sometimes low to the ground, revealing ceilings of the room- are utilized to emphasize the nature of the characters and their actions.

This research carried out by Emily on some of the codes and conventions of film noir provides us with a brief insight on typical aspects such as editing and camera angles to consider within our title sequence. We have discussed these various features and have decided to include the various camera angles to increase tension a main emotion we intend to provoke out of our audience.in order to become familiar with these shots a two of our group members have dedicated time practicing these which will ultimately be beneficial when filming the real thing. 

Among some other research we conducted as group we came accross a particular aspect of editing we considered suited to our film noir theme. This was an entire scene in black and white, however the main antagonist in a bright red dress. We were quite fond of this idea and plan to do it in our piece. Although instead of the red dress we will have our male antagonist in a red tie. We chose to alter this due to it being common in a few films we have seen, therefore thought to add our own modern twist to it. The reason for a red item of clothing, standing out amongst the uniform black and white is to signal a sense of danger to audiences hinting Thor character to be bad.

From their work I've learnt about The classic film noir, and the codes and conventions that come with it, this is useful because we intend to create a film noir title sequence and so will have to include some of these in our work .