Film Noir

Components of Film Noir

As previously stated, our film will be shot in a Noir-Style. This is not to say that our film will carry similar narrative conventions of Film-Noirs as our film is a psychological thriller set in present day, which is not a usual genre or setting of common Noir films.

In terms of aesthetics, we aim to produce a film with distinctive Noir look. Film Noirs consist mainly of the following cinematographic elements-

• Low-key lighting
• Hard lighting to produce solid shadows
• Black and white
• Heavy use of shadows 
• Chiaroscuro

In order to create a film-noir look the standard 'three-point lighting' system will not be used as this simply sets out a character from the background with minimal shadows. We will not use a fill light in order to create deep, solid shadows from a hard key light. A back light will still be used most of the time in order to make the character set out from the background where appropriate. We will experiment with varied lighting structures to see what effects we can produce (silhouettes, shadows etc.). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pi (1998, Dir. Darren Aronofsky). In terms of visuals, Pi is very similar to how we aim to shoot our film and is a great example of the noir-style. The blacks in this particular shot are deeper than usual noir but the contrast of hard light and deep blacks make for a very interesting look. Also, Pi has very similar conventions as our film as it is a psychological thriller.

 

 The Killing (1956, Dir. Stanley Kubrick). Again, Kubrick's The Killing is a great example of film-noir. Again, the shadows are very profound in this film and the blacks are very deep. There is more of a cold look to The Killing, this something we also aim to achieve in our film.

 

 

 

 

Cantered Angles/ Obscure Angles

Another feature of film-noir is the use of fairly experimental angles.

 

 

 

 

 

The Third Man (1949, Dir. Carol Reed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Citizen Kane (1941, Dir. Orson Welles)






We also hope employ the use of these types of angles in our work. They would be especially appropriate in particular scenes depicting psychological trauma.