ABOUT FILM NOIR

Classic Film Noirs were originally made in America. The heyday years of Film Noir were started in the 1940’s, during and after World War 2 and continued into the 1950’s.

‘Nino Frank’ gave Film Noir its name, in France, in 1946, and the term was first used by French film critics. As a lot of films that were being made at the time had a lot of the same features, the French noticed this so called it Film Noir. The term ‘Film Noir’ only existed after they were made.

Film Noir is ‘black film or cinema’, which looks ‘dark, downbeat and black’, with typical storylines which are depressing usually crime and detective films.

In Film Noir there was a lot of fear, despair, crime and violence, which could have reflected from the war, as this started after World War 2.

A film genre is the similarities in the narration which the film is based on. Film Noir is not a genre but is considered the mood, style, point-of-view, or tone of a film.
Film Noir is a mood; this is shown by minimal lighting, dark streets and long shadows.

When these films were produced there was an ‘A’ or main picture which has stars, a famous director, spent a lot of money. Then there was ‘B’ movies which were much smaller, and had more artistic freedom as no one was that bothered if the film was not a success, because they didn’t put as much time or money into making it. Film Noirs came under ‘B’ movies.

Film Noir was influenced by private eye crime books of Pulp fiction authors, with detectives and a lot of crime.
Film Noir developed from the crime sub-genre and gangster movies, it often used the same set and crews as ones used before, for other films.

The visual style of Film Noir is, very dark, and depressing, with long shadows, dark streets, creepy looking, and circling cigarette smoke.

The aural style of Film Noir uses soundtracks and background music to show the mood of the scene and to explain the characters, for example if you have a bad character the sound track may be very fast, dark, and loud. A lot of Film Noir films used ‘voice over’ for different affects.

All Film Noirs have crime or detective themes; this is based at an audience that likes hard, biting crime dramas.
The characters are quite simple, as normally you will have the detective, and the bad guys, and these are the characters that always appear in Film Noirs. They will normally be dressed in the typical detective costumes, for example long coats, and typical villain costumes, and looking scary.

WELCOME

Hello, my name is Charlotte Constance, welcome to my blog. I am studying AS media at Suffolk New College. This blog will be updated as I go along in the course.

For the coursework I will be making a Film Noir film opening with three other people, and during this, I will have the chance to experience using the camera, looking at the directing, where/when we shot it, the storyline, and using editing equipment. Whilst doing this I will be updating this blog, to show exactly what I have been doing over the course, and everything I have done towards the opening to this film. I will talk about the background of Film Noir, and discuss what it is.