Is Film Noir a Genre?

A short film on the ongoing question: "Is film noir a genre??"

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Narrative Theories

Vladimir Propp - 7 Character

Mr. Vladimir Propp is famous for his 7 character theory. He taught us the narrative theory that in films there are 7 characters. These are as follows: The Hero (who seeks something), The Villain (who opposes the hero), The donor (who helps the hero by providing some sort of magical object), The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way), The False Hero (who falsely assumes the role of the hero), The helper (who gives the hero support) and finally the Princess (also known as treasure, who is the reward for the hero).

EXAMPLES OF THESE CHARACTERS IN REAL FILMS:

CHARACTER ------------ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ------- DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Hero ------------------------------------ The Beast ---------------------------------------- Walter

Villain ------------------------------------ Gaston ------------------------------------------- Phyllis

Donor ----------------------------------- The Enchantress ---------------------------------Undecided

Dispatcher -------------------------------- Belle ------------------------------------------- Keyes

False Hero -------------------------------- Gaston --------------------------------- Undecided

Helper ------------------------------------- The Cursed Furniture ----------------- Lola

Princess ----------------------------------Belle --------------------------------- Phyllis

Tzvetan Todorov - Narrative Structure

Todorov is famous for simplifying the narrative structure and calling it the theory of equilibrium. His theory is split into five stages of narrative structure. These are as follows: A State of Equilibrium, Disruption of Equilibrium or Disequilibrium, Recognition that the disruption has occurred (which is sometimes known as period of disequilibrium) and finally the resolution and the return of equilibrium. Once again I did my own interpretation of this using the Disney Movie: Beauty and the Beast:

Equilibrium ---> Adam is human, he lives in a castle with his servants who are also human. Their lives are happy. Belle and her Father also live together happy - the village is happy and there is no disruption.

Disruption ----> Adam is turned into a Beast for not being kind to an enchantress - his whole castle is cursed and the only way to fix the problem is for Adam to have somebody love him. After all this, Belle's father is travelling and finds Adam's castle to take shelter in. Adam is upset with this and captures him. Gaston thinks Belle is the prettiest in the village and wants her to marry him. She does not want to. Belle decides to trade her life for her Father's and she is now the Beasts prisoner.

Period of 

Disequilibrium -> Both the Beast and Belle dislike eachother, but the Beasts servants know that Belle is the one who will fall in love with him, they try to coax him to be kind and gentle to her. As the time goes on the two grow fond of each other and begin to warm to one                         another. Things are looking good until one night the Beast gives Belle a magic mirror that enables her to see whomever she wishes. She looks at her father and realises that he is very ill. The Beast (now quite in love with her) let's her go to him. Upon her return she finds her father trying to get the village folk to go and save Belle but they all think he's mad. When Belle returns she shows Gaston the mirror and it shows him the Beast. Gaston wanting to be the hero gathers up a mob and hurries to the castle to kill the beast. Gaston locks Belle and her Father away...

Resolution --> Hope is regained when Chip a little tea cup manages to free Belle and her Father. Belle races to the castle to help the Beast. She finds both the Beast and Gaston fighting to the death on the roof of the castle. It's very close but Gaston strikes the Beast with a knife and the Beast is injured. The Beast uses all his strength to shove Gaston off the castle, Belle and the Beast watch as Gaston falls to his death. Belle helps the Beast onto the balcony and tries to comfort him, but he's injured and there's nothing that she can do. As the Beast closes his eyes, Belle whispers, "But I love you". This has broken the curse, The Beast returns to his human form as do all the servants. Belle and Adam marry and equilibrium is returned once again. 

Roland Barthes - Action & Enigma

Roland Barthes was a semiologist and is famous for introducing us to what are known as the action code and the enigma code. The Action code is a narrative device by which a resolution is produced through action. The Enigma Code is a narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved.

Claude Levi-Strauss - Binary Opposition

Claude was a French anthropologist and ethnologist who recently passed away in 2009. He is often referred to as 'The Father or Modern Anthropology' He is famous in media for what he called 'Binary Oppositions'. These are where there is a conflict between two qualities or terms. Some examples of these binary oppositions are as follows: Weak/Strong, Hero/Villain, Good/Evil, Man/Woman, First World/Third World, Protagonist/Antagonist, Young/Old and millions more. 

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity was released in 1944, an American film noir from America. The film was directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva. The film is based on a novel (also called double indemnity) written by James Cain in 1943. Although the film did not win any, it was nominated for seven Academy Awards. In 1998 the film was marked as number 38 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films from the twentieth century. In the more recent year of 2007 it was marked as number 29 for their 10th anniversary list. Double Indemnity is known as one of the classic noirs .

The Femme Fatale - Phyllis Dietrichson

Phyllis is a very well-dressed young lady who clearly likes to look good and impress. She is married to Mr Dietrichson and as the film progresses so do her feelings for Walter Neff a man she met whilst looking for life insurance for her husband. She is dressed in fairly light colours with heavy jewelry and curly blonde hair. This makes her come across as innocent and yet extravagant and wealthy. Along with Walter, Phyllis is involved in murdering her husband in order to get rich from the life insurance the Walter put in place without Mr Dietrichson's acknowledgment. When police and Walter's boss 'Keyes' suspect something Phyllis and Walter panic. Phyllis is a very manipulative woman who is reluctant to be found accountable for her husbands murder. 

               The Fall Guy - Walter Neff

Walter is a smartly dressed man in a suit and tie along with a hat. He likes to look presentable. He is an insurance salesman and that is how he met Phyllis Dietrichson. He helps Phyllis sell her husband life insurance without Mr. Dietrichson's permission. Walter and Phyllis create a plan to kill Mr Dietrichson in order to benefit from his life insurance. Both Neff and Phyllis begin to get paranoid and their love for each other isn't as strong as it originally was. After the murder, Phyllis plans to kill Walter but when faced with the opportunity she cannot bring herself to do it. Walter, however can and does. In the end Walter is found in his boss' office confessing. His boss walks in mid-confession and with some struggle, Walter is arrested and taken to prison. Even though his plan was going so well in the beginning, it all goes wrong and Walter Neff has fallen.

     Lighting
The lighting in Double Indemnity is very dark and contrasting. A lot of the scenes are shot in the night to create extra suspense and contrasting lighting using street lamps, blinds and headlights. Contrasting lighting is very popular in many film noirs, the lighting technique is often referred to as chiaroscuro lighting. Which means light-dark in Italian. The lighting in Double Indemnity is very low key and includes a lot of shadows made my many different props such as blinds, lampshades, people and much more. To the left are two screenshots from the film that represent the use of blinds which are very popularly used in film noirs. Shots from the film like below of Phyllis looking at a man's shadow on the wall and the silhouette with crutches are used to create suspense as the viewer doesn't know who the character is, nor does Phyllis in her situation. The screenshot of the mysterious man on crutches (also from Double Indemnity) also creates suspense and tension. It is also a dark shot making a 'mysterious man' very visible yet very unrecognizable. The misty fog makes the scene very eery and creepy. The use of the lighting behind the man gives a very clear contrast between the man and the background making him stand out very clearly. When it comes to making my own film noir, lighting is a feature that I would like to look at in great detail in order to get it exactly right so that it resembles pre-existing classic film noirs. Key things I will include are: blinds, shadows and high contrast.


            Themes of Disorientation
In the film there are a few themes of disorientation, however not a great deal. One of these is the use of mirrors, although they're only shown one or two times, they are still included in the film which I feel is important. To the right is a screenshot from Double Indemnity in which Walter and Phyllis are talking to each other by looking into the mirror rather than looking directly at each other's faces. This is a unique angle as it shows both the characters backs and faces. Mirrors are often used in film noirs and would be something to consider for my own film noir when it comes to making it.


                Cigarette Smoking
In the film Double Indemnity, almost EVERY ONE smokes. Including Phyllis, Walter and Keyes, three of the most important main characters. Each of these characters smoke in tense situations for example: Phyllis begins to smoke when she is about to shoot Walter. Walter smokes as he is dying and trying to escape Keyes' office. Phyllis and Walter both smoke average size cigarettes. Keyes however, smokes much bigger cigars and when he does, he never has a light. Walter always has to offer him a light, Keyes never asks. However, at the end of the film, Keyes lights a cigarette for Walter as Walter is incapable and no longer in control. It's interesting how cigarettes, cigars and smoking is used in film noirs (including this one) to create tense themes and situations. It is also interesting and something to take note of, that in this film in particular the cigar smoked by Keyes is used to represent that he is in control, he has the power as he is the boss and he wins in the end as he finds Neff guilty and neither Neff or Phyllis get away with the murder of Mr Dietrichson. It's something that I will take into consideration in my own film noir.

Use of Camera, Editing and Sound
In Double Indemnity there are multiple tracking shots as the camera follows the characters walking around the house, office, streets, etc. The photograph to the right is a perfect example of a tracking shot used to create tension and suspense, The camera follows Phyllis Dietrichson as she walks down the stairs to where she first meets Walter Neff. This is an important shot as it is where everything first begins. There are also a variety of close up shots of faces including Walter, Phyllis and others. The example seen to the right, is of Phyllis and Walter kissing. This is an important shot as it shows the relationship that the two have. It shows their intimacy and love for each other that helps to drive the murder that the commit together. There are also multiple shots that are known as 'static shots' in which the camera stays in one place as the characters walk around the set freely. These shots allow a lot more action and movement to take place in the frame showing a lot of space and it also gives room for props that may be important in a scene. Often, a static shot involves one character close to the camera in the foreground and one in the background. This could be used to represent the importance of one character to the other. In regards to sound, there is one specific song written by Miklos Rozsa that is constantly replayed throughout the film to create suspense, tension, panic or even to show action. The short clip to the left is the opening two minutes of double indemnity that includes this specific song that Miklos wrote. It involves brass instruments, strings and bass percussion. Along with the recurring soundtrack, there is a voice over from Walter Neff as he tells the story of the murder he committed. The voice over is happening in present time for us and the rest of the action is all past tense, until we see Walter Neff in Keyes' office confessing. Voice Overs are also very popular in Film Noirs and would be something for me to consider when creating my own film noir.


From watching and researching Double Indemnity I have been able to learn a lot about the conventions of classic film noir. I now known more about lighting, characters, costumes, camera, editing and sound. This will all benefit me when I come to creating my own film noir. I will be much more experienced in creating a film noir that is relevant to the film noir style as it is a style that is very specific. From this piece of research I would like to remember to use high contrasted lighting in my own film noir.

The History and Conventions of Film Noir

"A style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and meace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944-54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder." (-Google)

For the second year of my media course, our coursework task is all focused around 'Film Noir' a genre of film. The genre of Film Noir began in the early 1940's and stretched to the late 1950's. However, there are plenty of film noirs that are still watched and loved today by the fans of film noir. Film noir began before the United States entered the second World War and began to properly flourish towards the later stages of the war. Some well-known film noirs include: Double Indemnity, Detour, The Killers, Kiss me Deadly, The Aspect Jungle and Sunset Boulevard. Film Noirs are known for being dark and twisted. They're often shot in black and white and include the famous film noir characters: Femme Fatale, The Fall Guy, Cops, a Detective and more. In French, the term 'Film Noir' translates literally to 'Black Film'. As mentioned earlier, film noirs are commonly shot in back and white which explains the term 'black film'.

Film noirs have roots in German expressionist cinematography. German expressionism is an artistic movement which began in 1910 and carried on through to the 1920s. It included photography, theatre, painting, sculpture, architecture and cinema. There were huge oppurtunities in the Hollywood film industry and due to the dramatic growth in Nazi power, many were forced the leave Germany including many of these German expressionists. One of these was Fritz Lang and along with other directors including Robert Siodmac and Michael Curtiz, they brought a unique dramatically shadowed style of lighting to the mis en scene to Hollywood. In Hollywood was where they would begin to create some of the most well known and most successful film noirs.

Interestingly, Film Noirs were not always referred to as 'Film Noirs'. In the 1970s they were often called melodramas. The 1940s and 1950s awre often known as the classic period for film noirs in America. They are commonly known as stylish Hollywood crime dramas and are famous for their dark and abnormal conventions. The key theme in almost all film noirs is crime, most often murder. Film Noirs include a crime investigation involving a private eye or police detective. Films are commony shot in urban locations including big cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. Scenes are often shot in dark alleys, luxourious lounges, offices, bars, nightclubs and casinos. 

The Film critic Nino Frank was the first to actually use the term 'Film Noir'. This is what he said;

"Thus these 'noir' films no longer have anything in common with the usual kind of police reel. They are essentially psychological narratives with the action - however violent or fast paces - less significant than faces, gestures, words - than the truth of the characters, this 'thir dimension' I discussed a short while ago."

Below is a Power Point pointing out and explaining conventions and codes of film noir.

                     

Seeing Our School in Two Different Ways...

We were set the task of videoing our school and creating two short films that would display the school in a positive light and then a negative light. We used different camera angles and movements to create different effects, for example: We used multiple panning shots of the empty school with litter blowing across the fields and playground which created a very sad, lonely effect that worked perfectly for the negative film. In contrast we used close ups on bright flowers and nature that helped to fill the frame with bright happy colours that worked brilliantly for our positive film. In some cases, I used the same shot in each of my films to show how editing can create different moods, it also showed that filters have a big impact on the mood and so does the music. This task really helped to broaden my knowledge and experience of using the camera to set the mood and to create different effects. The task also helped me to learn more about what editing can do to change the mood of a film and why choosing the right music and filters is so important in cinematography. With the negative film I chose to use much longer transitions like cross fades and fades to black. This made the film seem a lot slower and sad which really matched the music and was very effective. With the positive film I used much shorter transitions like straight cuts, shorter cross fades and the Gaussian fade (found in final cut) this again matched the more upbeat soundtrack and presented a much snappier, quicker joyful film which is exactly what I wanted.

In my positive film I used the settings in final cut pro to brighten the images and to increase the exposure making them all much happier and colourful to add to the effect of the positive film. This was really effective as it showed all of the clips in a bright and happy way rather than a dark and miserable one. In the positive film I chose to include a lot of people talking, smiling, doing productive activities like reading or practicing an instrument as these are all very positive things that are seen as good. For the positive view of the school we used brighter filters and lighting to really show how the school in a brighter more welcoming light that really made the positive atmosphere of the school stand out as much as possible. I feel that the positive film was enhanced even more because of the light, upbeat music which really affected the mood of the film only adding even more to the positivity of the bright shots and the happy subjects within the shots. In contrast, the negative film contains no colour whatsoever which I feel helps to make the film look a lot darker and emotional rather than bright and happy. I also chose to increase the contrast and exposure on all of the footage in the negative film which helped to sharpen the images as not all of the clips were the best quality. I always made all of the transitions between clips either fades or cross dissolves which made the clip come across as a lot slower and thoughtful rather than snappy and happy like in the positive film.

This project really helped me to develop my camera and editing skills and learn even more about using the camera and editing techniques to my advantage to change the mood of footage. This skill will be extremely useful when it comes to filming and editing my final film noir for my coursework.

The Breakfast Club

As a class, we were set the task of recreating a couple of minutes of footage from a famous film. Having a small class, we simply split into two groups. Our group decided to recreate a scene from one of my favourite films "The Breakfast Club". As a team we decided to recreate the scene in which the teenagers are running around through the halls, stairs and doors in order to try not to get caught by their teacher after having previously collecting some drugs from Judd






Nelson's locker. We chose to recreate this scene because of the resources that we had to film and the variety of shot types we could add incorporate into our recreation. There were a lot of shots in  which the camera had been attached to a tripod and dolly so that the camera would remain steady and balanced whilst following the pupils as they rain through the corridors. These types of shots would be very simple for our group as we had a dolly and tripod to attach our camera to. Being in a school we also had hallways, lockers, doors and all of the other props already there for us so it would be an easy scene to recreate. However, we did  come across the issue of not having wide enough corridors seeing as the Breakfast club was set in an American high school whilst we go to an English school with much more narrow hallways making it hard for us to film whilst running across the halls. However scenes like the one above were easily recreated as we set the camera on a tripod making sure to get the wall on the left in the frame and the door behind us.

This task was really effective in helping us to learn more about the camera and the different effects different angles have.  To the right is both our Breakfast Club Recreation and the original hallway scene. We decided not to edit the two together into one film as they aren't completely timed identically and the sound would have also been timed differently making the two very noisy and confusing to watch together at the same time. So instead we have the two separate so that the comparison can be made more clearly. We made sure to constantly be watching the original breakfast club scene in order to get our recreation as accurate as we possible could. Watching our version of "the hallway scene" from the breakfast club you can see very clear similarities between our version and theirs, there are some slight differences like the timing and where the cuts are. Some of the camera angles and movement are also slightly different because we weren't able to get it as accurate as we had originally planned due to the limit of space and tripod. I am really pleased however, with the final outcome of our recreation of the Breakfast Club because when I watch our version, I feel almost as though I'm watching the actual film itself the two are so similar. If I was to re-do this task I would try harder at getting the timings more accurate and working even harder at making the camera angles and camera movement exactly (or as exact as possible) the same as those in the original film.

 I would also recruit more actors and actresses as we were one or two short meaning we couldn't film all of the different scenes as closely as possible because we didn't have enough people to film all of the scenes in "the hallway scene". Within this task we have used a variety of camera angles and movement including mid shots, long shots, close ups, tracking shots, low angles, high angles and a whole load more. This task has helped me to learn how to make different camera angles using a tripod and dolly as well as what different effects they have. For example, the shot of us running through the hallway was filmed with a tripod attached onto a dolly so that the camera could move steadily. This gave the effect of action and created a hurried and panicked atmosphere as the camera moved in front of us at a reasonably fast pace showing that we were in a hurry and running from a teacher. The shot reaction shots of us and the teacher showed the connection between us as the teacher moved at a slow, relaxed pace whilst we were moving much faster and so did the camera. 

       

Foley Sound

Foley Sound is the reproduction of sound effects heard in films, videos and other media. The sound is recorded separate from the original recording as this enables the audio quality to be much sharper and enhanced. Foley sound is often created in a studio using sensitive microphones in order to pick up every sound wave possible. A well known technique of foley sound is to use coconuts to create the sound effect of a horse galloping across the countryside. Foley sound requires a lot of patience, time and concentration. Multiple takes are often required to make sure that the sound is just right for the video it will be edited onto.

Sound effects created are often done so by using obscure objects that have no relation to what you are seeing on the screen. A key example of this is car tires screeching across a road. What you see is the tires screeching as smoke comes out and you think that that's what you're hearing but in fact you aren't. What you're actually hearing could be a hot water bottle filled with air being rubbed back and forth across a wooden table. Below and to the left, what you're seeing is a very busy foley sound studio in which hundreds of props used to create foley sound have been scattered across the floor and every worktop. This demonstrates just how technical and just how much work and time goes into creating foley sound. Foley sound artists have to be accurate when recording and this can often take multiple recordings to get the sound to match up exactly with what you see on the screen. As a class, we decided to try and make our own foley sound. We were shown a list of different sounds that we could choose to make including: fire, rain, a crash, footsteps, keys and some other options. We did multiple recordings of each sound effect and tried different ways of recording such as walking on gravel and then walking in heels across tarmac. Each recording made very different sounds as in one you could...

hear the sharp footsteps as the heels walked across the tarmac whilst on the other hand you could hear the gravel crunching underneath some much heavier footsteps. We also tried recording the different types of rain by using a hose pipe to pour water on top of different surfaces like metal, concrete, gravel and water. After recording a variety of sounds we were told to put the foley sound to a film that either already existed, make one ourselves or just make up a narrative to go along with our sound effects, the video below is my example of how foley sound works, it's called "campfire chillout". The film tells a story of a girl who is simply leaving her house to go for a walk in he rain, she locks up, pops up her umbrella and starts to walk off, the rain suddenly stops and the scene becomes a lot brighter and sunnier. As she is strolling she hears a sudden smash of glass and it frightens her. She continues walking to find out what the noise was and stumbles across a young boy having a fire in a clearing, it turns out that all along the voice was in fact the young boy, the girl gives up her walk and decides to join the young boy in his little camp out.