Film Noir

Film Noir

Film Noir is the term given by French film critics to a group of films made in Hollywood from 1941 to 1958.


These characterized their pessimistic, dark themes that show the darker side of human nature.

They are filmed using low key lighting to give the film hard, sharp look with strong areas of contrast between light and dark.

Lightning is used to create atmosphere in these extracts:

This is an extract from Farewell my lovely
The lightning used here is low-key lightning and we can see shadows on the wall and silhouettes.

This is an extract from The Big Combo 
The lightning used here is very low so they used low key lighting in this scene. since this was a low budget they didn't have enough money to get what they wanted so instead of an airport they used a car park and instead of an airplane they used an off screen sound of an airplane and flashing lights to cause the illusion that there was an actual plane in the scene when there wasn't. So lightning is a very powerful tool in the film industry and can be used for a lot of things.

The Art Of The Title

I used this because it is a very creative and unique way of opening a film which no other films have done or even if it has been done before, at least no to this standard. I like the way this is edited with Deadpool beating up the criminals whilst they are frozen in time. He seems to be having the time of his life, even through the debris and blood splashing around him, what makes it even more interesting is the fact that Deadpool has the time to communicate with the audience whilst in a brutal fight. He says funny things which makes it more engaging for the audience. This is certainly a thought out opening sequence of a film.

Title Sequences

The production company of panic room is Columbia, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The title ident became popular as Columbia( Sony Pictures is a part of the big six in Hollywood Studios)





The production team of the girl with the dragon tattoo was also produced by Sony but they used an ident not recognised by the audience as this was the first film Sony had produced.







The production team of this film was Newline Cinema, which is owned by Time Warner which is also popular as it counts as one of the big six studios. We see the title through a short footage which is the first thing shown in the trailer. The title "panic room" gives viewers an idea of the genre that the film will portray because panicking is a negative emotion.

Idents

IDENTS 

FILM PRODUCTION STUDIOS: INDEPENDENT AND BIG SIX

  These are the six major command approximately of box office taking of 90% 

1. Paramount 
2. Universal
3. 20th Fox Century
4. Warner Bros Pictures
5. Walt Disney
6. Columbia Pictures

The Indies or Independent Film Productions

1. Warp
2. Film Four
3. Icon Productions
4. Focus
5. 

THE PURPOSE OF STUDIO IDENTS

 Ident is designed to identify a particular studio. It is the the logo. it needs to be memorable and easy for the audience to recognise.

The purpose of it is that it is designed to give you some form of announcement as to watch program or channel you are on 

Re branding so the channel can keep up to date.

An indent is a moving image so it makes it visually stimulating so you can identify what the narrator is talking about.

Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing: retains a sense of chronology  and generates the feeling that time is moving forward.

• May use flashback or flash forward but the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Key Techniques

• Eye line match

We see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut to a shot of what they are looking at.

• Match on action

We see a character start an action in one shot and then we see them continue in the next.

• Graphic Match

When two shots are linked with a similar shape or composition of an image. When two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look.

• The 180 degree rule

This is the basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left or right relationships to each other.

If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects it is called crossing the line

Shot/Reverse Shot

Used in conversations and arguments.

Speed/Style of Editing

EDITING

Editing is the process of looking at all the footage shot during or making of a film/TV Programme and placing it in a desired and joining it together.

• there are two key areas to concentrate when editing

1. Speed of editing- How long does each shot last.

• In each film a seconds lasts for a couple of seconds or minutes
• The speed of editing will help determine the mood of what is taking place on screen
• If the audience is to feel anxiety and suspense the editing will be quick- scenes and shots changing frequently. Example in an action sequence.

If the scene is a relaxing scene then the shots lasts longer and doesn't change frequently. For example in a romantic comedy.





















Nevertheless a film does not have to have editing. the film Russian Ark does not have any editing at all, it was all dome on one take with the use of a stedicam and a digital camera. This required a lot of organisation.

Scenes at the beginning of a film must be long enough us to be able to understand what is going on. It is also slow to introduce the main character as it begins to tell its story. Lets use spiderman as an example.

We can see that the pace of the opening sequence is different based on the speed of editing.

STYLE OF EDITING

This is hoe shots are linked together. The movement from one shot to the next is called transition.

Straight cut- It is the common and "invincible" form of transition.
One shot moves instantaneously to then nest without the audience realising it. Straight cuts can help maintain reality. They do not break the viewers suspension of belief.

WIPES

One image is pushed off screen by another image. It is used to signal a movement between different locations that are experiencing the same time.

JUMP CUTS

A jump cut is where the audience's attention is brought into focus on something suddenly. This occurs by breaking the continuity.

Analysis Of Modern Thriller Openings

In this blog post i am going to analyse these for the openings of thrillers:

• Camera
• Editing 
• Sound
• Thriller conventions
• Mise en scene

Thriller conventions

• Cliff hangers
• Red herrings
• Maguffin
• Suspense
• Shock
• Enigmas

MEMENTO

This film has an extremely difficult narrative structure where events are told in 10 minutes segment but backwards. This echoes the confusion that the main character feels as he tries to remember events that took place.

The opening scene of Memento is a really effective one based on the editing and the sound or music put in place to go with it makes it very suspenseful as well as confusing for the audience. It allows the audience to almost immediately connect with the main character because neither of them know what is going on so they share the same confusion.

BRICK

This is the opening scene of a film called Brick. It functions quite well as an opening scene as it gives elements of suspense which is what you find in every thriller. It uses a lot of close up shots to show the emotions of the character although it doesn't really give anything away regarding whether he killed the girl or found her dead. It is a bit similar to the opening of Memento where it has someone dead and cuts to when they were alive and the story begins to unfold.

ZODIAC

This opening scene was really surprising and editing. At the start it started off normally with no suspense but then it stats to build up and what really created a shock was when the two characters were killed out of no where that was really surprising and not expected.

SOUND EXERCISE AND EVALUATION

Our plot for this sound exercise is about a woman who is being investigated by a detective for murder. We tried to include all the sounds that we could regarding diegetic and non diegetic.

At the start we used a non diegetic sound which was a little narration of the suspect talking about her being caught.

via GIPHY

In this give we showed a diegetic sound with both the suspect and detective slamming their hands onto the table and it was very effective as it showed their heated argument.










via GIPHY


In this scene we used a non diegetic sound where the detective slam the door when coming in and this is shown by the suspect getting startled in the GIF and you can hear the sound more clearly when you watch the actual video which will make the non diegitic sound technique more effective.

















via GIPHY


And here we have a diegetic sound of the chair slamming which is to show the frustration that the suspect is going through. Again this GIF will be more effective once watched in the actual video above with sound.
There is a lot of dialogue that is diegetic as well. I think we captured each sound effectively as it can be heard clearly. This is due to the way we handled the sound equipment given to us to use. We made sure that the equipment was not too close to the actors and not too far so the sound can be captured.

Shifty