Mediaev
- 1. Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products?
- 2. Narrative The narrative is a strong example of how this short film uses generic conventions of typical Film Noir films. One particular example of this is how the story of the film is not completely obvious to the audience. From my research I have found that a lot of original Film Noir try to create mystery and complex throughout, this is something that I wanted to also create in the trailer so that it feels like it engages the audience and so it is an enigma that makes viewers want to come see the film in cinemas. The reason I wanted to create a complex plot was so that I can create mystery, suspense and so that it would seem like there was more to the story rather than being straight forward. The trailer narrative also makes use of techniques from original Film Noir as it uses different characteristics such as the theme being crime related, the use of femme fatales and relating to greed, crime and female sexual connotation.
- 3. Setting/Scenes The trailer uses generic conventions found in Film Noir like the setting of the film. I wanted to use modern settings and from them create very typical Film Noir scenes. This is something that I think I achieved very well because from the final product, all the settings seem like they were actually set between the 40's to 60's. One particular scene in my trailer is one which can be commonly found in a lot of Film Noir. This scene is of a good cop sat working at his desk with typical low lighting trying to solve a mystery. I have also incorporated generic conventions into the setting of the film by including a fight scene against a brick wall which makes the scene look more urban and street like. There are some elements of the trailer where features of modern day Film Noir have been included which cleverly challenge the normal scenes found in this film style, this fight scene is one of that.
- 4. Mise en Scene The Mise en Scene in my trailer has a strong representation of Film Noir and elements of this is found in almost every shot. The Mise en Scene is the main aspect that has to have the strongest Film Noir reference so that an audience can immediately identify the style. To be able to do this I researched things such as Film Noir settings, props, characters, clothing, lighting, editing and camera techniques, all of which I have included in my film. A good example of how this trailer uses these generic conventions is through the use of clothing. My characters were suited in things such as trilby hats, suits, fur coats and very glamorous jewellery which are all typical. The lighting is another example of when Film Noir has been strongly included in the Mise en Scene as the majority of settings are dull and only have one lit area. In the Diamond Noir trailer there is only one setting that is fully lit which allows the audience to recognise the setting straight away which is meant to be a set during daytime. Although the idea was to create an old Film Noir trailer, we experimented having the fight scene set in day light, which challenged the classic conventions to see if this would work with the rest of the film.
- 5. On the other hand the rest of the lighting techniques were characteristic of this style and worked really well in the final edit the trailer. An example of this is in the femme fetales scene where she is in a dark room and only her face is lit. This is also featured in the scene with the cop sat at the desk where he is also the only part lit in the setting creating tension and point of focus. When we were filming the trailer, the props that we used were all typical of what would be found in Film Noir. The shot of the femme fetale looking into the mirror is a shot that I have found in this film style and is very effective and creative, this is why we wanted it in our film. The scene where the good cop is sitting at the desk is another part of the trailer that uses a prop which is also representative of this style. In this scene the cop is given a paper file with typewriter style writing on which suits the time and style.
- 6. Editing The editing of the trailer is part of the trailer that uses many different elements that are from Film Noir. The black and white filter that we put on top of the footage is probably the most obvious Film Noir editing that is in the trailer. This is the one thing that allows the audience to establish the style of the film. Without of this effect then I would be hard to pass the film off as this style. If we didn't have the black and white filter on the footage then all the other features of the film wouldn't look like this style. The title style and length of the trailer is something that uses conventions of real media products by the title font, style, colouring and wording. We made sure that the length would use conventions of real Film Noir productions/trailers, and by doing this we made sure that each shot only lasted a number of seconds and that the whole trailer is short keeping the narrative a mystery.