Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As with all Film Noirs, the themes and conventions are vital to create the correct atmosphere, even down to the music and camera angles. Our group researched these, watching numerous Film Noirs such as LA Confindential, Double Indemnity and Brick to find common themes. We discovered common themes where:

 

•       Characters who have broken, shady backgrounds
•       Use Of Mirrors
•       Urban Setting
•       Corruption 
•       Disorientation Devices (such as blur or dutch angle shots)
•       Other than Brick, all of them where set in 1940’s America
•       Smoking was used throughout the film
•       Strong female characters, often bound to death or tragedy (femme Fatale)
•       Lighting was used in all to create an atmosphere of foreboding danger
•       Suits with trilby’s where worn by men, while dresses where worn by women.
•       Low Key Lighting
•       Gang Crime, Murder and Drugs
•       Voice Overs

 

Now we had a strong idea of what it takes to create a believable film noir we used our knowledge to create our film. Starting with what our characters names where and what they wore. Bones Frisco, Adrianna and Barnaby Frisco all decided upon as they were uncommon in today’s society, but not in the 1940’s. We chose what our characters wore as well to highlight who they were, such as Bones and Goodwin wearing grey to highlight the fact that they are not understood fully enough to make judgements and also it creates a link between the two with them wearing the same colour. Adrianna wore a dress, to highlight her key role as a Femme Fatale. A dress is used to create an allure of sexiness while empowering the woman with a sense of high class in society.

 

The use of Black and White was almost not worth thinking about. Creating our film in colour would require more work to make an atmosphere of Film Noir. Black and white creates this atmosphere without any hard work required. While colour Film Noirs exist, they are often high budget unlike our film, where the budget was about £10.

 

Our film title "Le Mortel Liaison" was chosen to be in French due to Film Noirs roots in post world war countries such as France and Germany. These countries where in states of depression and ruin. The first film noirs came from these places and it shows, with the themes of broken society through corruption, characters often having shady, shattered backgrounds and crime taking over a city, much like they where in post war France. 

 

Dutch Angle's are commen in Film Noir's to represent that something is not quite right in the scene, giving a sense that something is off. We used this in the finale, to show Adrianna's state of mind, with her thoughts being off and confused as she has shot Barnaby. It also shows how the world featured in 'Le Mortel Liaison' has been disrupted with the killing of our main character, which follows the conventions of Betrayal in Noir's.

 

 

Lighting was also used in film noirs to create an atmosphere, things such as low key lighting will create an air of mystery or danger around a character from just one light, making a Chiaroscuro effect which was key for our film was in Black and White. An example of this is when Frisco is leaving his house and he turns and enters the light source coming from above. This creates shadows on his face, drowning but also highlighting others creating an uneasy tone for the next few scenes.

 

 

 

Voice overs are also key to Film Noirs, they are used to fill in the background story (like in our film) or to narrate the characters thoughts. I found that when adding our voice over, it immediately felt like a film noir.

 

Our Film Noir challenges the conventions of film noir as our Noir had no set time, unlike many Noirs which are set in 1940’s America. This allowed us to use modern cars for Frisco and in our audience feedback, no one seemed to mind. Also, our film noir is set in England, which is unusual for true film noirs. These choices where all down to budget, and we tried to aim for a 1940’s setting wherever we could, shown in props such as the telephone in Frisco’s office and the gun used in the finale.