My own noir idea.

There are a group of people at a house party. Everyone is drinking and having a good time. Until one of the party goers finds one of their friends brutally murdered with nothing but a note left next to the desk table saying 'whos next' They close all the windows and doors, lock everything up and try to get hold of the police. but its a remote place and thus hard to get signal. They alll huddle but as someone else gets murdered everyone starts to get suspicious of the little group they have. But no one wants to leave until police arrive. A girl tries to flirt with the lead boy trying to solve the mystery. To get out of something everyone wonders? As murders occur slowly and surely the group of remaining people try and save themselves.


The first few minutes will just be of the party goes having fun. Dancing drinking etc. This is where you get introduced to the main charcters. Then the scene ends with the charecters downstairs hearing a loud bang from upstairs.


The editing will be continuity editing when everything at the partys going normally. But as the suspicion arises with the deaths, the angles could become more askew and strange to match the feelings of the charecters. Plus it brings a bit of classic noir to the contemporary one we're filming. The shots should be quite sharp, quirky. Out of the ordinary as it was. A lot of random focus points. Plus a mixture of diagetic and non diagetic sound. And also silence, because that can be just as important to set a scene, eg tension.

Sin City.

Sin city is one of the most modern and talked about neo - noir films. It was one of the most highly anticipated film to be released in 2008. Being a graphic novel, it had a lot to live up to for the fans of sin city, But also a lot to live up to in the sense that this film was a anticipated neo - noir. It had to stay to the conventions but also branch out to a new level. A level in which none of the old neo - noirs could get to. They had to use the new technology they had well to make effects interesting yet watchable. To much would take it out of the noir theme. But even though this film is very over the top, it keeps to, and extends the conventions perfectly, and so it seems effortlessly.

The plot is strangely in chronological order, in classic noirs, they would usually start at the end of the film, and works through to see how it got to the point at the beggining. But in this film, its as if your cut to part of the film where you have to work things out for yourselves. The classic noir directors loved doing that, confusing you and making you think whereabouts your at. It has a lot of overlapping sub plots in the film. It has three interlocking stories. ''that yellow bastard'' where Bruce willis playing Hartigan, a police detective saves a girl from being raped, but the story is left thrown in the air as he is stabbed in the back by his parter in the business. the second story then goes into ''the hard goodbye' where a very hench Mickey Rourke plays a heartbroken Marv. After his hooker girlfriend is killed and he is framed for it, he runs the streets looking for the real killer. The third, the big fat kill, is when Clive owen aka Dwight has to dispose of a body without anyone finding out, but its a tough ride to freedom.

These sub plots are all very ''whodunnit' based. They all have the classic noir story lines but using neo - noir charecteristics too.

The colours used in this film are used to define certain people or main trends throughout the film. For example the blood in this film is either a pure white or a bright glowing red. Both in which stand out from the dreary grey background. One of the charecters, ''the yellow bastard' is shown in, of course, bright yellow. He is percieved as a horrible man, the worst. He is transformed after Hartigan ruins him. He was once a normal black and white charecter. Then transformed into this.

The Dialogue in Sin City is to me, the key feature of this film. It's the same witty and cunning banter, just like in the classics. The male husky, angry tones. And the females seductive innuendos. The dialogue really keeps the classic moments of film noir back in the 40's to this neo noir film. Another very good feature is the mis - en - scene. Whats in the film. the settings the props. All keeps to the conventions of film noir. The rain, the dark alleys. Every man has a gun.

This seems like the type of film, that in years to come could be revoultionary. It has opened up a new visual to movies, and ''The spirit' has already tried to copy its way of filming. It has done an amazing job of keeping to the neo - noir ways. It uses old conventions mixed with the new techologyy to create an amazing film.

Neo - noir

Neo- noir,( from the greek neo, which means new) is a contemporary notion from the original film noir, which updated themes, which are still based around the original film noir. Things like visual elements, content and most importantly, colour. It re-defines film noir in the sense that the elements of the film are the same, but with a new spin of conventions added to it. Its something different, which keeps the fans of noir interested. Sin city is probably the most famour of neo - noirs. Relased in 2005, its famous for its art work. It is based heavily on old film noir movies, with the plot, voice overs and visuals. Black and white are the sole colours throughout the film, but theres also bursts of red, yellow and blue in some scenes. The bright colours are used for certain charecters in the story.

Murder by Contract directed by Irving Lerner(1958)

Murder by contract is a lean stark film. It opens when we meet a young man named Claude who is coming into a career as a professional hit man. Claude passes his test by his employer. He becomes more creative in taking out his targets, and soon lands a large move, which is an assignment in the West Coast. The music in this film is jaunty and warbling. It feels quite different to the usual film noir.

The maltease Falcon directed by John Huston (1941)

The story concerns a San Francisco private detective's dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time Roger Ebert

Three of the best films in film noir is :

Double indemnity directed by Billy Wilder (1944)

Its based on a married Queens woman and her lover. Ruth persuaded her boyfriend, Judd, to kill her husband Albert after having her husband take out a big insurance policy—with a double-indemnity clause. This film uses the use of real time and remembered time. Using effects like flashbacks which is narrated by a voice over occasionally, so you can understand the story line, so when it comes back into the present you know another fact of the underlying story.

Cinematography and Editing.

Film noir was marked on its visual expressionistic lighting and the deep focus and the depth of field. They would jar editing or use juxtapositioning of elements to baffle the audience and make the storylines seem more misleading. Some of the elements they made sure they would use in editing are shadows, skewed camera angles, cigarette smoke and gloomy appearances. This straight away gives the depressive feel straight away, in which noirs would try to acheieve. The settings tended to be claustrophobic and with low key lighting. This gave a more personal feel. It's like you are on the charecters level in the small room as a voiceover plays about the bad they have done.They used confusing fades and transitions to keep the audience feeling quite unsettled. They would put use piano music to underlie the becoming story line to give a seedy or erratic feel [depending on what scene is playing]

The femme fatale

The stereotypical 'dangerous women' was around in the 1920's with 'the vamps.' These women reinforce film noir. The 'ordinary Joe' detective is lured in by her 'superwoman powers' This linked to how America felt useless to Europe conflict. The femme fatale tend to be in a love triangle. Threatening a nuclear family. Or herself being married and falling for the 'hero' of the film. They are always beautiful and have a lot of class. This helps with the seducing of the antagonist. They always end up having a second motive to which they originally tell the male.

Characters

The male characters always had the same dark haired 'hard boiled' look about them. The sort of person you wouldn't want to be caught down a dark alley with. None of them look like they have heard the word fear. They tend to be associated with underground crime and corruption, in which gets them into a troubled situation which they tend to have to fight they're way out of. This can make them be known as an anti hero.Theres always a Hero who falls in love with one of the promiscuous leading ladies. ''femme fatale'' The film normally starts with the male character confessing of something they have done wrong, or them in some kind of trouble. They are usually telling this via voice over. Then we go back and recap what happened for them to be at this point of time. Although they are hard boiled. They are easily seduced by the femme fatales. It hardly takes any time at all. He will do anything for her, which usually leads him into the trouble that he is in at the beginning of the film

Mise - En - Scene

The locations tend to be in the back alleys and offices of detectives. Dark streets, rainy nights and shadows are always a main part of film noir

The one major prop needed and used in film noir is a gun. Every male character tends to have one, even the female characters if they’re the daring, seductive type. Here are some general codes and conventions of film noir:

-dark streets

-rainy nights

-shadows

-smoking

-women

-taboo language

-guns

All these put together make the perfect film noir movie.

All of these conventions helped towards giving the film a seedy, eerie look which is what was being reflected at the time with what was happening in America. Nothing was what it seemed. It was based on betrayl and lies and the conventions had to reflect this. The dark streets and rain would give a dramatic feel to the films. The dark streets made it seem like you never knew who was going to come round the corner next. The shadows were mainly what you'd see first, before the person. So it gave a mysterious feel to it. You'd never know who was where. And that was a frightening thought. The guns, taboo language and guns gave a cool edge to the charecters. They all had a careless element to them. So call and collected no matter what situation they were in. Because they could handle it. The women were seductive and the men were hard boiled [usually detectives] who wanted to go it alone, until they met the beautiful women who always had a trick up her sleeve.

Characteristics of film noir.

Story-lines and narratives

The story lines tended to be very twisting and elliptical. The narrative was usually very complex, hard to understand. It made you think and concentrate on the words. The story usually has underlying eerie background music and accompanied by a series of flashbacks. The dialogue between characters seemed to be very witty. The men tend to have sharp tongues, and when they talk to women the conversation always turns to innuendo. The 'hero' of the movie always tends to make cynical remarks to his life.

Kathie: Remember the mountains? Higher then these, with always snow on them…We should have stayed there.

Jeff: I’m trying to remember something else.

Kathie: I never told you I was anything but what I am. You just wanted to imagine I was. That's why I left you. Now we're back to stay.

Jeff: And I have nothing to say about it.

Kathie: Have you? Whit’s dead, bundle of papers will do you no good, if Joe was around you could use him but Joe’s dead too. So what are you going to do about Eels and Fisher, that matter what are you going to do about this? Someone has to take the blame, nothing on me but I’d make a fine witness for the prosecution. Don't you see you've only me to make deals with now?

Jeff: Build my gallows high, baby.

brief example from 'out of the past'

There is hardly any lighting in film noir. In fact a pure lack of it. They usually use one dim table lamp or moonlight through some venetian blinds. Anything that causes some shadow in the framing. The ambiguous shadows causes the scene to seem more eerie. The locations were usually dark, dreary places. Like a dim bar or a detectives office.

History of film noir.

Film noir is a film type that emerged from the untied states in the 30's and became mainly popular in the 40's. Quite a few of the films reflect the tensions of the 40's time period, which is why it was so popular. It also conflicts with the optimism of musicals and comedies that were evident in Hollywood at the time. The theme of film noir were conventions like paranoia, despair and bleakness. All which reflected the cold war period. It's described as a crime drama which emphasizes cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Though strictly speaking, film noir isn't a genre as such, it's more a mood style or 'tone' of a film. Film noir budgets were very little. They were produced by low budget companies and filmed in small locations. Though film noir was a great deal to cinema, the magic soon faded for many reasons. Tv crime shows pushed film noir aside. As it had a higher budget and more appealing as it was on the TV screens, usually in a series. It was something for the viewers to latch onto, the colour and glamour was put back into crime. The film noir genre was dead by 1955.