Film noir literally means "black film" in French and features themes which are more negative than positive, with an overall dark and shadowy outlook--being filmed in black and white. This film genre takes in detective and crime noir as well as many gangster films of the 1930's.
So it was back in November that I took part in a Film Noir Workshop with Creative Photo Workshops. My images from this workshop have received a great deal of comment from my friends and family. Generally they like the images and it was based on this popularity that I decided to load a few images to the website Strobox.com. Loading photos to this site is about sharing info so it is important to show a diagram of the lighting setup so others can see how you did a particular image. Some of my images have got praise some have been roundly criticised but in all they are trying to give you pointers to improve.
So it was with some surprise I received an email from the moderators of strobox to say you did not win but we are giving you a prize anyway. That is a Bokeh Masters Kit. A what you say? Well that will be the subject of a further post. Meantime I decide to do some reasearch on Film Noir and with the help of Goggle and Wikipedia here is a bit of a summary.
Film Noir- Many of the genre's hallmarks: a cynical private detective as the protagonist, a femme fatale, multiple flashbacks with voiceover narration, dramatically shadowed photography, and a fatalistic mood leavened with provocative banter.
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting).The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color films Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while Slightly Scarlet (1956), Party Girl (1958), and Vertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critic.
Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm
Noir heroes are flawed humans and always shown to have character imperfections. Many of those heroes are detectives, taking the cases of mysterious women who draw them into a tangled maze of evil by making use of their hypnotic sensuality. Detective noirs are among some of the most popular films of this genre. Films like the Sam Spade mysteries began the whole detective and crime noir sub-genre and cemented actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the minds of noir buffs. Here are some 40's and 50's examples of Film Noir.
The Maltese Falcon, Shadow of a Doubt, The Big Sleep ,The Killers
The Asphalt Jungle, Sunset Boulevard,Kiss Me Deadly ,Touch of Evil
Believe it or not this style of film is still being made today and in the 60's the science fiction noir was recognised.
Chinatown,Raging Bull, Blood Simple are more recent examples with Alpaville as the science fiction example. I must say that I am wanting to do more of this style of shooting.
