L.A. confidential

Conventions of film noir

Using camera angles and filters to make a place look happy/positive and then making it look scary

Scary

Georgia and I used a camera and a tripod to film an area in our school and make it look scary. We firstly found an isolated area, this was the playground (it was empty as everyone in the school was in a lesson). Georgia then set up the camera on the tripod and filmed at a low angle, using the handle to make it pan the area. I then stood inside of the building and looked out of the window right at the camera. Luckily, there was a crow making noise in the background, this gave the video an ominous feel and teamed with the black and white filter that we edited onto the video we created a scary looking place.

Happy

For the happy video we used the same location; however, we had the tripod set on a dolly and put it on a level that would be at eye level of the characters to make the mood seem happier. The characters walk chirpily with happy faces and a bounce in their step through the building and away from the character. We did not use a filter because it didn't need one and cut the sound as there was a crow making sounds in the background. Instead we put the song 'we are young' over the top to make the scene happy.

Sound effects

Re-creation of a scene from 'Forrest Gump'

The real scene that we used from 'Forrest Gump':

We chose this clip because it was easy to recreate and doesn't have any angles that are too unrealistic to create; however, there were lots of different camera angles that would help us to practice using the camera.


The recreation of the scene that we did:

We used Charlie, myself and James for the characters, with Georgia as the camera woman. Firstly we found the clip on youtube, we then copied down the script and filmed the clip without sound on a phone. Our recreation was filmed on the school field on a bench, Georgia then used the clip on her phone to find out which camera angles are where and then took the role of director, telling Charlie and James what to say and when. 

Creating music

Camera and microphone research

In order to find out which position it is best for the camera with it's microphone I, alongside Georgia and Charlie, recorded short clips of the same conversation with the microphone in different positions with covers and using just the microphone on the camera. The results were as follows:

Film Noir Information

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There are more Neo Noir films on the following website:  http://listverse.com/2012/02/01/10-outstanding-neo-noirs-of-the-2000s/

A guide to Film Noir - Robert Ebert

Film Noir is . . .

1. A French term meaning "black film," or film of the night, inspired by the Series Noir, a line of cheap paperbacks that translated hard-boiled American crime authors and found a popular audience in France.

2. A movie which at no time misleads you into thinking there is going to be a happy ending.

3. Locations that reek of the night, of shadows, of alleys, of the back doors of fancy places, of apartment buildings with a high turnover rate, of taxi drivers and bartenders who have seen it all.

4. Cigarettes. Everybody in film noir is always smoking, as if to say, "On top of everything else, I've been assigned to get through three packs today."

5. Women who would just as soon kill you as love you, and vice versa.

6. For women: low necklines, floppy hats, mascara, lipstick, dressing rooms, boudoirs, calling the doorman by his first name, high heels, red dresses, elbow length gloves, mixing drinks, having gangsters as boyfriends, having soft spots for alcoholic private eyes, wanting a lot of someone else's women, sprawling dead on the floor with every limb meticulously arranged and every hair in place.

7. For men: fedoras, suits and ties, shabby residential hotels with a neon sign blinking through the window, buying yourself a drink out of the office bottle, cars with running boards, all-night diners, protecting kids who shouldn't be playing with the big guys, being on first-name terms with homicide cops, knowing a lot of people whose descriptions end in "ies," such as bookies, newsies, junkies, alkys, jockeys and cabbies.

8. Movies either shot in black and white, or feeling like they were.

9. Relationships in which love is only the final flop card in the poker game of death.

10. The most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic.

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