Tuesday 11 May 2010
Preliminary Exercise
The Exchange
This exercise was all about testing our knowledge of what we have discovered about the techniques and greater understanding of Film Noir. Also, the skills that we have learnt so far and putting them into effect, just like we did in the preliminary exercise. This exercise was more complex as we had to tell a story through cinematography and show the importance of sound/music as we could not use our voices. This exercise also gave us an insight into the pre production paperwork we are going to have to do when it finally comes to shooting our opening of a Film Noir. I felt that this exercise went better than the preliminary exercise as we have more skills than before and we also used music and sound to set the tone of video. The major thing that could of gone better would of been the editing as we had to use the shot of the helicopter to help the continuity.
Film Noir Opening - Vengeance
What is neo-noir?
It wasn't until after 1970 that film critics began to consider "neo-noir" as a separate genre by its own definition.
Unlike classic noirs, neo-noir films are aware of modern circumstances and technology/details that were typically absent or unimportant to the plot of classic film noir. In the films of the early 1940s and '50s, audiences are led to understand and build a relationship with the protagonist or anti-hero. Neo-noir films of post-1970 often reverse this role. Unconventional camera movements and plot progression remind them that they are merely watching the film and not partaking in the story.
Modern themes employed in neo-noir films include identity crises, memory issues and subjectivity, and - most importantly - technological problems and their social ramifications. Because these fundamental elements are as ambiguous in practice as their definitions, film theorists argue that the term "neo-noir" can be applied to other works of fiction that similarly incorporate such motifs. Robert Arnett states that "Neo-noir has become as amorphous as a genre/movement, any film featuring a detective or crime qualifies. It is because of this genre's ambivalence that neo-noir is still shaped and interpreted so malleably today.
Example Of Classic Noir
Private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) calls on new client General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) at his Los Angeles mansion. The wealthy general wants to resolve gambling debts his daughter, Carmen (Martha Vickers), owes to bookseller, Geiger. As Marlowe is leaving, General Sternwood's older daughter, Mrs. Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), stops him. She suspects her father's true motive for calling in a detective is to find his friend Sean Regan, who had mysteriously disappeared a month earlier.
Marlowe goes to Geiger's "rare book shop." Agnes Lowzier (Sonia Darrin), Geiger's assistant, minds the shop; the detritus of an illegal pornography operation. Marlowe follows Geiger to his house and hears a gunshot while a woman screams, and he breaks into the house. He finds Geiger's dead body and Carmen, as well as a hidden camera with an empty cartridge.
Vivian comes to Marlowe's office with scandalous pictures of Carmen she received with a blackmail demand for the negatives. Marlowe returns to Geiger's bookshop, and discovers that they are packing up the store. Marlowe follows a car leaving Geiger's store to the apartment of Joe Brody (Louis Jean Heydt), a gambler who previously blackmailed General Sternwood. Marlowe returns to Geiger's house where he finds Carmen. She initially claims ignorance about the murder of Geiger but then insists Brody killed Geiger. They are interrupted by the owner of the home, Eddie Mars.
Marlowe follows Vivian to Joe Brody's apartment, where they join Brody and Agnes, and later, Carmen, who wants her photos. Marlowe takes the photos and sends Vivian and Carmen home. After Brody admits he was blackmailing both General Sternwood and Vivian, he is suddenly shot and killed; the assailant flees. Marlowe follows and apprehends Carol Lundgren, Geiger's former driver, who has killed Brody in revenge for Geiger's death.
Marlowe next visits Mars' casino, where he asks about Regan, who is supposed to have run off with Mars' wife. Mars is evasive and tells Marlowe that Vivian is leaving bad IOUs in his casino. Marlowe unsuccessfully presses Vivian on her association with Mars, then returns home to find Carmen waiting for him. She admits she didn't like Regan and mentions that Mars calls Vivian frequently. In the morning, Marlowe learns that Regan has been found in Mexico.