Preliminary Exercise

This exercise was set for us to test our skills with a camera, sound equipment and to see if we could shoot a short scene effectively using the skills we have learnt so far this year. We had to consider the 180 degree rule line, eye lines, shot reverse shot, continuity, rule of thirds, shot types and seizes aswell as editing. We also did pre production work such as storyboards and scripts. It also helped us to discover how we could work in a group and use everybodys ideas. The thing that could of gone better would of been the use of the 180 degree rule but as this was our first time using the camera we will learn from this when it comes to our next 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

This was our final piece of work this year. We used all of our knowledge and skills we have learnt so far to produce an opening of a Film Noir. The opening is about an undercover cop setting up a meet with a notorious drug dealer, however the cop is double crossed by his partner and is left for dead in a deserted wood. Summing up I believe that this was a sucessful peice, particulary the voice over of the undercover cop, the music and realism and the stylistics of a Neo-Noir. However I think that we could of worked alot better and shot alot of footage, but due to all of our group not turning up sometimes this was not the case. We could also of done alot better at cinematography as some of our shots were not sharp and in focus.

What is neo-noir?

Neo-noir (from the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black) is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual
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

.The first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the process of a criminal investigation, not its results. William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay.

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.

Styles, codes and conventions

Typical noirs are often crime based in their narratives and usually include some sort of law enforcement character investigating a mystery and pursuing a villainous character. Some examples include The Maltese Falcon, The Killers and The Stranger. An atypical moral message is that crime doesn’t pay.Typical characters that crop up in noir films are a hardboiled detective and a glamorous woman in need of assistance. Prime examples of film noirs with these characters are Out of the Past and Kiss Me Deadly.Characters are often ‘alienated’ from the wider public and tend to be loners such as Robert Montgomery in The Chase. The actors usually portray these sorts of characters in a calm subtle manner. Locations are often in the middle of large cities such as White Heat. As far as lighting goes most noirs are filmed in a black and white style or close to it but there are exceptions such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo which is shot in colour.A lot of film noirs contain voiceovers by the main protagonist such as more recent noirs like Chinatown and Bladerunner.Most noirs are filmed in low key style like Out of the Past and Kiss Me Deadly, but others are shot in a more complex way such as Lady in the Lake where the protagonist is shown only in mirrors.In classic noir some flashbacks were used but special effects have become more common with more recent noirs like Twelve Monkeys and Minority Report. Whilst special effects are used extensively for comedic purposes in the parody Who Framed Roger Rabbit

History of film noir

The term Film noir or “Film Black” is a cinematic term used to describe stylish Hollywood crime scene dramas and those that empathise cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Film Noir classic period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940’s to the last 50’s, although the first Film noir was way back in the early 30’s. The term Film noir was first applied to the black and white Hollywood movies in 1946 by French critic Nino Frank and was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era. The question of whether film noir has its own genre is still an on-going debate among cinematic historians and critics to this day. Film noir is deeply influenced by German expressionism, a cinematic movement of the 1910’s and 20’s. German expressionism consisted of developments of theatre, photography, painting, sculpturing and architecture. With the opportunities of making it big in America and the constant threat of growing Nazi power led directors such as Firtz Lang, Robert Siodmak and Michael Curtiz making the move to Hollywood and bringing along with them their lighting techniques and psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-ecene. All three of these directors would go on the make some of the most famous and classic Film noirs ever made.