1. Research 'film noir' focusing on the genre's distinctive lighting style.
Film noir started in the early 1940’s towards the late 1950’s and these type of films were usually described as Hollywood crime dramas, due to being in black and white as this represents evil and mysterious due to the dark colours involved in them. The word film noir was expressed by the French which when translated is called black films, which was first used in 1946 by Nino Frank who is a French critic. Film noir became quite popular in the United States of America during the depression era in the country as the films made were related to the depression in the United States such as crime films etc. In the 1970’s in the USA many classic film noirs was stated as melodramas due to the depression in the states. This then also means that film noirs were then invented and identified by the Americans due to coming up with a series of classic original dramas etc. Since then it has been noticed all around the world and more film noirs have been made to become more mysterious, scary and spontaneous etc.
Film noirs were mainly created by the lighting involved such as low-key lighting, underlighting and back lighting as these lighting effects created more suspense to the film which made them scarier and heart pumping towards the audience. A term used for light and dark is chiaroscuro which is an Italian word (chiaro-light/ oscuro-dark). By using low-key lighting such as having majority of a mise-en-scene makes an image reveal more tension towards the audience due to the dark colours surrounding a certain object or person as the audience will then be only focusing on one part of an image. Also by using back lighting creates a larger scale of shadows which are mostly bigger than the human which means that someone is close towards the person, and by being bigger than someone’s shows they have an evil status due to creating a lot of tension as they seem to be control of the innocent character such as in a classic film psycho as the women involved is frightened when seeing the villain as there is a bigger shadow twice her size in front of her.
2. Find one still image and one short extract and write two paragraphs on each, analysing the lighting and its effects.
This image is from the film stray dog in 1949 and this image uses high key lighting due to being able to see the characters props such as their ‘gangster’ suits and their guns. This shows that these two characters are up to something dodgy due to their suspicious facial expressions and their guns. What relates well with their image is the background due to having a shadow of bars which could refer to prison as this could also relate to foreshadowing as after these two characters appear at a crime scene means that they could get caught and go to prison this is why there could be bars in the background. Also due to their props such as their hats being represents more with their image due to their face being covered and darker due to the hat covering their face this could show that they don’t want other people to see what they are up to as well as they have got something to hide from the audience so by not seeing all their face means that you will not see their identity clearly.
Sin City
This film is a neo noir which is a new black and white film. In this film there is a variety of lighting and effects used such as underlighting to create suspense and heart pumping moments towards the audience, top lighting in order to see the characters facial expression which will give the audience an idea of who and what the character is, whether they are good or bad? Etc, back lighting in order to create more horrific and violent scenes as the large shadows represents villains and dodgy characters. Also there is low-key lighting involved in the film in order to create enigma code towards the audience which means you only see some parts of the character such as when seeing Bruce Willis in the film half is face is covered which connotes that he is up to something as he seems mysterious and suspicious towards the audience as he may not want to show his scared face to the audience or his expressions and thoughts. Finally there is also high-key lighting in the film when characters get caught red handed which means that filler lights are used to catch the villains which could represent to spotlights when catching criminals in real life etc. By using filler lights means that it brightens the mise-en-scene which means you will be able to see what the characters are up to such as their props, their objects and facial expressions etc.
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