Typical Film Noir Lighting Effects

You can see that the lighting has been placed above the pair here. This causes shadows on their faces, and silhouettes of the rest of their faces and shoulders.

Two of these photos are silhouettes, one of these has a shadow, so this means the lighting must have been placed behind him. The other one has the effect of smoke around the bodies. The photo of the man shows he is smoking, because the effect of smoke is in the photo. Finally the photo near the lamp post shows that the lighting of the lamp post is used.

The femme fatale is used here to make us feel we have to look up to her. This is because the photo has been taken from a low angle shot. The effect of smoke is again used here, and the background is black whilst the foreground is clear. This gives the effect that the woman looks as if she has been places in front of a black background and it doesn't look as real as it would if there was a clearer background. This effect is the opposite to when a silhouette is placed infront of a background, but the foreground is just black.

This photo clearly shows the lighting shining down on the femme fatale, it is a typical pose of a femme fatale, looking sophisticated, dark lipstick, curly hair, dress, heels and not smiling. The background and foreground are clear but the light from above causes shadows underneath the subject.

Our Experiments for Film Noir Lighting

This photo has the light coming from underneath him, causing spooky shadows above him.

This photo has light coming from above him, to cause shadows underneath him.



This photo has light coming from above them in between them both, to cause shadows on half of their faces.





This photo is a silhouette of a body, keeping the background lit up, we did this by putting lights from the left and right of him shining on the background.





This photo has a shadow of the person next to him, this was created by putting the light to the right of him.

Today's progress

Today, we gathered together and filmed our opening title sequence, the weather was great because it was a dark, cold and clear night. Next, we are going to upload it and then we are going to experiment with voiceovers of the girl's thoughts, title fonts and music. With title fonts, we are going to either add it on iMovie, or we may film/take pictures of it written on paper, the floor, etc. The music, as our opening title sequence has no speaking unless we have a voiceover, we are going to put a mysterious, tension building bit of music throughout. We also haven't totally decided on a name for our film yet.

Camera Angles/Shots and Editing

I studied different camera angles and shots, to see which ones I should consider using in my final project. Here is a list of some camera angles and shots, and also whether I think they would be relevant to use in my film.

- High angle shots are when the camera looks down, it's to make us feel better than them, and it makes this person feel small and not important
- Low angle shots are when the camera looks up on someone, because they are better than us, and it makes them look big and important
- Canted angles are when the camera isn't straight and it is normally used to either fit in a longer view, or to diorientate people
- Pans are when the camera moves side to side, to see a larger view of things, or to move across to reveal something
- Tilts are when the camera moves up and down, this could be to see a longer view of something and to also reveal something, but it could also emphasise the size of something
- Tracks are when the camera follows the subject, for us to see what is happening, or to simply follow someone
- Reverse tracking is when the camera zooms in on the subject whilst the camera operator physically moves away from the subject. This tends to be used mainly in horror films and it is used to disorientate people
- Framing is when the central point of the shot is surrounded by something else, this is used to put more attention on the subject and it focusses on them, you could also get the feeling of being watched
- Eyeline match is a shot of the subject looking at something in one shot and then what they are looking at appears in the next shot
- Graphic match, is two or more shots places together that are linked graphically eg. a shot of a candle flame with a burning house. This shot is usually used to show similarities between different narratives
- Action match, is two or more shots placed together that are linked by action eg. a person hitting a punchbag with a person being beaten to death. This is used to create the same effect as a Graphic match shot
- Cross cutting, is cutting between two or more narratives, shows different narratives from different points of view, it also builds tension
- Parallel editing, is cutting between two similar narratives, eg. an athlete running in a race and then a criminal running from the police. This is cutting between two similar narratives
- Jump cut, the same object is filmed from different distances, cuts between the shots rather than zooming, this is a disorientating technique and can jolt people, it is also unrealistic
- Shot reverse shot, is repitition of shots eg. over the shoulder shot of character A looking at character B to over the shoulder shot of character B to over the shoulder shot of character B looking back at character A, it is used in soaps to show a conversation.

The angles/shots/editing techniques that are highlighted red are ones that we plan to use in our opening title sequence.

Door and Window picture evaluations

African girl looking through window of hut.

This young African girl looks very happy, yet we can tell that she doesn't know about living environments, to her living in a hut, is probably a normal life, but to us it's poor. She seems grateful for her home, and the lighting of the picture shines on her face, to show her emotions.

Boy looking through a door with a window.

This photo looks like the boy has been trapped in his house, and wants to go out, but he isn't allowed. The house also looks quite posh, so this could show that he is watching other people's lifestyles. The angle of this photograph shows that somebody has taken in from the side, and not from directly infront. However the boy doesn't look very happy, so it could show that he is poor, and jealous of other people?

Young girl stepping through doorframe.

This photo could represent child growth, or care. For example, it shows a young

girl learning how to do new things, for example stepping over big steps on her own. It could also represent care, because we don't witness anybody else on this photo, helping the child, or teaching her. The lighting on this photo is very natural and represents daylight.

Young girl looking through the back of a car window.

This girl's face shows confusion, we can see in reflection, that she is looking at a house. Maybe she is been taken away, and doesn't understand why. The composition on this photo shows the girl's

emotion well and what she is thinking about.

Viewing a girl through a door frame.

This photo could give off many thoughts, I think it looks like the lady is trying to design, make, or arrange something. The room that she is sitting on looks very empty, for example because she is sitting on a little stool. She could be decorating a room, and reading instructions. The lighting on this photo, shows that it is daylight because it is very natural.