Conventions of Film Noir

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles
The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.
Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.
Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.
Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.
Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]

'Our Friends in the North ' 70s Development Questions

How does Mary Change and how does this represent the wider context?

As the audience watches both clips in contrast the first thing you notice is that there social roles have changed this is due to womens progress during the 70's when education was becoming more common, and lots more women had successful careers. Mary is represented in the opening shot with lots of books around her as an intellegent woman, much similar to Helen who in the 60's was seen as arrogant this shows how social status ammong women has changed. Tosca resents this as he likes to think is superior in the relationship.

What signs are there that Tosca and Mary hold different ideologys and who is struggling with hegemency?

Mary and Tosca's relationship clearly has come from in love, to who owns what (materialism) Tosca's ideology is still that Mary should be the the 'quiet housewife' she once was and refuses to leave her as its 'his home', she believes they were too young when they got together. Here the shift in Hegemency is that Tosca believes that Mary should always be the passive quiet woman she once was.

Preliminary Task + Questions

What camera and editing techniques and codes did you use in your film and how do they influence the audience’s understanding of the film?

Our film was supposed to be a drug deal, we used for the opening shot a shot of my feet moving, similar shots are often used in gangster films to make the character seem dangerous. we used a high angle shot, a point of view shot, a two shot and a final panning shot. The music is a dubstep/trance to keep the viewer on edge i think the characters have a great influence on the street gangster effect (costume).

How did you use new technologies in your construction, planning and evaluation ?

We already had a ruff idea of what type of film we were going to make, the real help was in the editing side of the film because we already shot the film once and used different shot types for each shot. without the editing software the film would have been terrible. Having the use of youtube and blog was good because you can get other people opinions.

How successfully does your final product meet the brief?

Original Brief: “Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

The above was the original brief we told stricly not to break the 180 rule, i think we did this well. as the line of site is not broken and viewer can follow the eye, on the extreme close up of my hand opening the door the next shot is of me coming in side this was well in time and well constructed.

Shooting Schedule for 'A Heavy Hook' Designed by Kareem Thompson

Kareem and me discussed the times and dates in which we will be shooting 'A Heavy Hook' they are shown in the sheets below and the times should be suitible for everyone. However we end up comprimising and end up shooting on the 2nd and 3rd of January

'A Heavy Hook' Soundtrack Research (Aaron Attila)

This song by the EZ Rollers 'walk this land' inkeeps with the gangster look it has that jazzy upbeat tempo, connotes the Essex Gangster look. could have been used for A heavy hook, however I tried to find similar style tracks on unsignedweband.net.



Here is another soundtrack with a similar 'gangster' effect however this has less of specified steriotypical type of film it would be used with. it is called Little Green Wing and its used in Reservoir Dogs one of my all time favourites.

Thriller Planning 'A Heavy Hook' Storyboards

'A Heavy Hook'

There is no writing to accompany the shots however ive have taken the care to put them into order, to match the narrative structure. On some of the shots there is numbers in the top right and corner ignore these, there is 'SHOT' and then the number all in capitals where the description would normally be. the Narrative structure contains all the detail about what the shots mean for clearer specification. For example shot 1. on the narrative structure is SHOT 1 on the storyboards. Thanks.

4. Thriller Film Audience Research. Expectations of Characters In Thriller Films

Interview Number one


1) Name: Josh
2) Gender: Male
3) Age: 17

What Characteristics do you expect in thriller characters?

I would have thought alot of the characters have something shifty about them, maybe vulnerable or menacing or slighly mental.

What sort of environment if you had say one, do think characters from thrillers create?

Awqward Anxious Tense

Do you think that having believable characters is important for dangerous characters?

Yes, because if they do not a prensence, and arent imtimdating you find yourself faulting the actors and writing off all the films they have been in.
As a male how do you percieve women in thriller films?

I think having a female is incredibly important in thriller films to have identity. Alot of brilliant thriller films have what is known as a femme fetal. By having a dangerous women i think it challenges represenatitional issues.


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Interview number two.


1) Name: Sue
2) Gender: Female
3) Age: 48

What Characteristics do you expect in thriller characters?

Because of the vast Sub-Genre's in thriller films i think its a case of finding the right person for the right job. Obviously different characteristics are required for different roles in film. If the person in the film is supposed to be intimidating, then you find an actor who looks slightly intimdating.

What sort of environment if you had say one, do think characters from thrillers create?

On edge atmosphere, borderline unprodictability.

Do you think that having believable characters is important for dangerous characters?

Yes obviously, because if you made a gangster film with a load of thirteen year olds it would hardly be believable.

As a female how do you percieve women in thriller films?
I think they are important because you need to have a balance bettween males and females, Especially for the development of modern day cinema i think women should have more challenging roles for example maybe a female bouncer?.


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Interview Number 3


1) Name: Tom
2) Gender: Male
3) Age: 29

What Characteristics do you expect in thriller characters?

They have to be crude, dangerous, snakey and know how to hold a conversation.

What sort of environment if you had say one, do think characters from thrillers create?

Strange Uneasy Mysterious

Do you think that having believable characters is important for dangerous characters?

It is absolutely imperative, take every good thriller film you've watched, all the films you liked tend to have good reviews and have a fantastic cast often renowned actors who have built up a repuatation.

As a male how do you percieve women in thriller films?

I think having a female is essential to create a good production, because when you have a women around dangerous characters often she is hiding something, and turns out the be the 'doom' maker.


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