Codes And Conventions Of Film Noir

Codes And Conventions Of Film Noir

The Main Character of a typical film noir usually ends up trapped in a difficult situation, most commonly with a woman (The Femme Fatale). The main character is usually a typical male who has a normal life and is chucked into a dilemma where he has to do what he is told to do by the woman through blackmail and bribery. This makes the woman dominant in every situation so the main character has no choice but to follow instructions. Film Noir's covered a wide range of genres, from gangster to detective films, and from stories to films. Story lines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, Everyman in film noir fell victim to temptation or was framed by the femme fatal.

Film Noir's were typically made in black and white this wasn't because it was cheap and cost-effective, although it was an advantage; it was to give off a dark and sinister background to the film. The mood is set by the colours used, the setting, the dialogue, the lighting which was adjusted by certain objects which made shadows to create silhouettes, Venetian blinds were commonly used to break up to picture so much so that you couldn’t quite distinguish the person, as if they were being sly or cunning. Smokey rooms from a cigarette gave the impression of a weary and gloomy mood to the situation giving the film that bit more tension. The music was quite jazzy but mysterious which made the situation seem sneaky and undercover and this also made the films that bit more tensed than others. Ideology was used a lot in film noir, and it sent the audience questions and messages, and even sometimes lessons and values of characters.

Flashbacks were commonly used to tell a story or to refer to the past of the story to explain something or to make the audience think and wonder about what’s going on, who’s she? What are they doing? Etc. Many Camera Techniques were used including deep-focus allowing the foreground and the background to be in focus at the same time; low-angled shots looked up on someone to maker them dominant and seem more powerful than something or someone else. And looking down on some one gave the impression of a weak and mindless person.

History of 'Film Noir'

History of ‘Film Noir’.

Film Noir’s were made very cheaply and effectively with new directors and up and coming actors play the parts. They had to be cheap because they were normally made by a multi millionaire company, who at the time were spending thousands of money on the blockbusters and kind of ignored the ‘B-Movies’ as they were called, this meant that the directors had more to play with, they could go deeper into the scripts, and make twists and almost confuse the audience, and people weren’t used to this, so it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

 Pulp Fiction magazines heavily influenced the  creation of Film Noir, with the hard boiled characters  in Pulp Fiction Magazines, and were transferred into  films and into Film Noir’s. Almost all film noir plots  involve the hard-boiled, disillusioned male.

Also Gangster films influenced the creation of Film Noir, with their crime and gangster sub genre plots, film noir used theseto create films similar to this sub genre, gangster films were very popular in the 1920’s to late 1930’s but soon died outbecause of their same plots and same crew members, with actorsin many films similar to each other.

Another influence to Film Noir is that the World War 2 had just ended, at it was a depression time, with dark and lonely times, so the film producers expressed that depression and created films about it. With the Nazi’s taking control of France it was hard to make movies, so Hollywood made them and imported them a few years after the World War and it showed on the screen

 it was a dark time for the world. And in some ways some of the films replicated the Nazi’s codes.

With the world war going on, the jobs the men left behind had to be taken by the women, and as soon as the war finished the jobs were taken by women, and not all of the women wanted to give their jobs up, and most men disagreed to this because women were being united and becoming stronger, and the women didn’t want to go back to being a housewife, they enjoyed work and it was a different experience, and even some film noir film's replicate this with the women being the stronger character on screen. But some directors didn’t like women working so the films showed this by making women a very sneaky and dangerous character on screen, (The Femme Fatlale).  So there was a huge jealousy between Men and Women.

Eastern Europe affected the making of film noir’s, because many people fled the country they were born in the world war due to the threat of the Nazi’s, mainly Jews in France and Germany, so the directors and film workers fled to Hollywood. And their experience, ideas and interpretations were passing over to the films America was creating. So it gave new ideas and a lot of new films about dark times in the war.

German Expression also triggered in some early Film Noir’s with the German directors using the stylistics of German expressionism in the 1920’s onwards. And that generated many odd and wierd scene's

What is ‘Film Noir’.

What is ‘Film Noir’.

Film Noir means ‘Black Film Or Cinema’. It was created by the French film Critic Nino Frank in 1946. He noticed the trend of the films being transported by America to France, and with most of them being dark, mysterious, shadowy, and black. One of the most famous first, Film Noir was, The Maltese Falcon. Made in 1941, but originally made in 1929. It was directed by John Huston. Film Noir’s normally follow the crime and detective genres.

The Brief

The Brief

I am going to be assessed on how well I produce a Contemporary Film Noir opening to a film. And this work should represent Film Noir with a modern twist using the same codes and conventions, stylistics, values, traditions, narrative, and mood originally from Film Noir. We will be assigned into no more than 4 people in a group to complete a contemporary Film Noir.

Whilst this is progressing, I will be adding posts onto this blog to show how (I am, and my Group) are progressing towards producing The Film Noir Opening. This will involve researching Film Noir and getting familiar with the Filming Equipment.  And progressing to our final practical work, this will be to create a 2-3 minute opening to a Neo-Noir (as I have said above), using the modern day stylistics, locations, codes and conventions and many more features will play a factor on how successful it will become, I hope to achieve a high standard final piece and hopefully impress, by showing my editing skills I have learnt before taking this course.

I also hope that you will enjoy reading and interacting through my blog, with pictures, videos, texts, and audio. Which will all be added as I progress through my course.



Welcome To My Blog.

Introduction

Welcome To My Blog, My name is Nathan Ramsey and i am currently studying As Media at Suffolk New College, and i will use this to record my progression through the course.

Links Will be in Red and underlined.