Classic Film Noir

Here I'm going to discuss different features found in Film Noir as well as some practical work we did in class.

Structure

Film Noir is where we first saw the 'every-man,' the 'femme fatale', villains, henchmen and 'girl's-next-door' all in the same film.

The structure of these movies were quite predictable, the plots would vary a lot of course, but the basic events stayed relatively similar. Not every Film Noir narrative followed this structure, but many would go something like this:

1. Begins at the end, we discover that the 'every-man' is in trouble, and is retrospectively thinking about the events that got him to his current position 
2. Flashback to the trouble beginning, he meets someone, giving him some business to deal with or a mission to complete
3. Will then meet the 'femme-fatale' and the protagonist will  become completely infatuated with her
4. Something goes wrong, causing the villain wanting the 'every-man killed'
5. The narrative will then return to the present, the main character often regretting the decisions he made to get him to this point, and the one's he made next
6. Another flashback to the 'femme-fatale' deceiving/double-crossing the main character, pretending to be in love with the him, and promising to stay with him forever
7. The 'femme fatale' will be killed or punished (usually by the protagonist) after he has lost all feelings for her, realizing what she's done
8. The film will then end with a similar scene the audience saw at the beginning. 

A few other plot points that are often included in the narrative:

• The protagonist will end up with another woman, often known as 'the girl next door,' who he may have ignored earlier on in the film, or he was dating before he fell in love with the 'femme fatale'.
• Sometimes the 'every-man' will be dead in the present (in 'The Killers' for example) and then there will be flashbacks leading to the moment. 

Below is a a generic Film Noir narrative we were given. They were jumbled up, and we were asked to put them in order and then create stills of the scenes. The captions we were given are next to each photo in the presentation. I would recommend watching full-screen.

Music

The music used in Film Noir's were often very dramatic, especially in the title sequences.

The music would sound very orchestral, and climactic. Mainly consisting of brass and string instruments, as well as percussion  This built tension, the mood of the scene was often known before anyone had spoken.

Here are some trailers for Double Indemnity and Kiss Me Deadly, using this kind of music:

  Double Indemnity 

   Kiss Me Deadly

I will be posting more about different features of Film Noir soon.

An Introduction to Film Noir and Neo-Noir

I've always admired how Film Noir's are visually presented, the use of dark and light, shadows, smoke, giving them an un-realistic, mysterious element. The rest of my knowledge was that they were made predominantly in the 1940s and 50s, were filmed in black and white, and had pretty cool names. And that was about it.

But, I thought I would share a little bit of knowledge of what I have learnt so far, in this post.

Film Noir's are usually crime dramas/thrillers and the plot would usually be, as the title tells you, dark. Usually, they pushed cynical attitudes and sex. Although, there was a cynical attitude around the sexuality in these films, especially at the height of their popularity.

Below are some trailers to Film Noir, including The Big Sleep (1946) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

'The Big Sleep' trailer

'The Asphalt Jungle' trailer

Tropes of Film Noir include smoke, dramatic contrast in dark and light, the use of shadows, dramatic music, and a specific set of stock characters, which I will talk about in more detail in a later post. Most Film Noir's also followed a certain structure and had very similar visual elements. 

Neo-Noir is another genre we have been studying, and one I find very interesting. Neo-noir films are modern takes on Film Noir, whether that's using a similar narrative, characters, or just similar visual features used. The narrative can be entirely original and not like a classic Film Noir's at all, but the images created on screen are similar. On the other hand, a similar set of characters can be used, but the look can be entirely different. Neo-noir is very experimental, and adds another dimension to an already brilliant genre. Below are trailers to some Neo-Noir films, Lost River (2014) and Bound (1996). 

'Lost River' trailer

'Bound' trailer

I will be posting more soon about the different features of Film Noir and Neo-Noir in more detail soon.

Media & Me

Since everything I've posted so far has been about Sweded films, I think it's about time I introduce myself, and talk about what Media means to me! (Sorry about the fact that the music starts from the beginning every time a video has finished playing, I've tried, but there's no way to stop that from happening. I would also recommend watching full screen). Enjoy!

Sweded Film Process

Below are the blog posts I wrote on Sweded Films; creating our own and research about Sweded Films.

Editing, Uploading and Sharing

All the editing was completed by Emily, using iMovie. 

We wanted to keep the same feeling that the original trailer brought to the audience (creepy, building tension), but also make it comical, as it is a sweded film. The title cards and production company logos at the beginning were homemade, mainly using a white and red pen on black card. The pieces of music were overlapped with the video, leaving it quiet in some place and then suddenly loud, to re-create the jump scares in the trailer. 

After the trailer was edited, Emily sent Chloe and myself a link to it, giving us a preview of how the final product turned out. We were all very happy with the end result, as it was very similar to the original, just A LOT funnier, and much more silly, which is exactly what we were going for.

I then shared it to Twitter and Facebook, giving the opportunity for friends, and other students in my Media Studies group a chance to look at our work, and see what they thought of it, maybe even sharing it to others themselves. Below are some screenshots of where I shared our work:

Twitter

Facebook

I'll be uploading the final trailer soon, along with the original for comparison, I hope you enjoy!

Shooting the Trailer

For me, shooting the trailer was definitely the most fun part of the entire process. We shot everything at Emily's house as it gave a similar feel to the one featured in the movie.

The first shot was the of the exterior of the house. The camera was tilted upwards, giving off an ominous, looming feeling. This is used to make the audience feel more vulnerable, corresponding with how the characters feel later on. The house is also where everything, good and bad, takes place. Below are two shots, one from our trailer, and one from the original. 

The scene shot in the bedroom was really fun, and we didn't really have to adjust the setting too much, as the bedroom we shot in was very similar to the room featured in the trailer. However, because I was ill for a short period of time whilst filming, Emily had to edit around this scene as I wasn't there to finish it acting in it. Emily had to overlap the scene with music and edit around it, to make sure the continuity was consistent. Below are some shots from this scene:

After these shots had taken place, lighting and costume really came into play. Torches and candles were used to put focus on something in particular, or to hide certain things, building tension (or as well as you can making a Sweded film!). Masks and veils were used to re-create the demons in the film, as well as wigs to show changes in character.

In certain shots near the end of our trailer some inky looking footprints are shown, being looked at by someone walking down a corridor with a torch. Those shots were carried out by Emily making tiny inky footprints on pieces of card, which looked like the floor. In one shot, a tiny piece of fabric is used to look like a rug.

Overall, I really enjoyed the filming process, wondering whether certain shots would turn out well, the lighting was right, and whether our shots were close to those of the original trailer.

Also, well done and thank you to Emily and Chloe for filming around the times I wasn't able to be there!

Research/Planning Our Sweded Film

The research that went into our Sweded film was quite simple. Firstly, we watched the original teaser trailer for 'Insidious Chapter 3' many times to get a feel for the film and also how many different scenes, shots and settings there were in the trailer, as we were trying to re-make the trailer as accurately as possible.  As there are more characters in the trailer than were in our group we made had to adapt it slightly, but it wasn't too much of a problem as they were more background characters and were only featured in the trailer in one particular scene. 

Script

The script for our film was almost of the dialogue in the original trailer. We wanted to make it as close to the real trailer as possible, so we kept the majority of it the same. 

Script used during the making of our Sweded film

Music & Sound

At the end of the trailer 'Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips' is sung acapella by Chloe and Emily, as we could not use the original track or add any backing digitally. Throughout the rest of the trailer, short pieces of music were created with a keyboard, to give an eerie effect throughout. I'm very happy with how the music and sound turned out as it makes a massive amount of difference when watching something. Even if there is barely anything happening in the scene.

Storyboard

Emily created a storyboard, showing every scene individually, with brief description of what would happen in each one. Storyboarding really helped as it gave us, whenever we were in a scene an image we needed to create and keep that in mind when visualizing the scene. Storyboards also helped everyone involved understand the structure of the the project and exactly what's going into the end product. 

I'll be posting more soon about the rest of the process. 

An Introduction to Sweded Films

Our first assignment was to create a movie/trailer, Sweded style. Before I did anything, I needed to find out exactly what 'Sweded' was. So, I did my research, and here's what I found out:

The idea of Sweded films was first born in 2008, when the film ‘Be Kind Rewind’ starring Jack Black and Mos Def was released. The film’s plot in a nutshell is: Jerry McLean (Jack Black) and Mike Coolwell (Mos Def) are working in a video-store and decide to re-make many different types of movies after Jack Black’s character erases the shops video-tapes by accidentally creating a magnetic field. They re-make big-budget movies (Ghostbusters, The Lion King, just to name a few), with a handheld camera and no budget. In the film, the videos take an extensive amount of time to 'arrive' at the store and are sold at a higher cost, because, as Jerry and Mike tell their customers, they are from Sweden, hence the name, ‘Sweded’. Below is the trailer for 'Be Kind Rewind':

For many years, people have been re-creating movies and trailers in the Sweded style. They are supposed to clearly be badly made, using shoddy costumes and often using home made props and music. Below is an example of a Sweded trailer from the YouTube channel ‘Dumb Drum.’ The majority of their videos are Sweded re-makes.

I really enjoyed making our Sweded trailer and I will be uploading posts about the process very soon. Enjoy!