Task juan conventions
- 1. IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? Dan Mclean
- 2. Standard Convention s Deep-rooted in the darkness and depression of post-war America, Noir was a gritty realisation of what reality was dishing out.This came as a breath of fresh-air to audiences so conditioned to the happy/inspiring tales of films during the wartime period. These films often related around mafia/detective/crime drama in, sprawling urban landscapes.This leads to the melancholy feel of dark, rain-sodden alleyways and the foreboding set-pieces of tall skyscrapers. Another key set piece for many noirs would be the classic, claustrophobic bars of which many-a-scene would take place. These conventions are often paralleled in Neo Noir productions, some even going as far as to implement the black and white colours of those original Noirs.
- 3. Our Production In our piece, we attempted to emulate the gritty, underworld feel of those Noirs of old through dialogue and locations. Whilst writing it, I took into account the fact that we had chosen to produce a Neo Noir, that despite having similar conventions to the standard noir, is ,more often than not, set either in the present or future.With this in mind, I endeavoured to create both dialogue and actions that wouldn’t seem out of place in a current Neo noir or police procedural, whilst also paying homage to the classic works. Despite classic Noirs’ frequent use of chiaroscuro, we ended up not using as its fairy difficult to create the blind effect on a limited budget and without professional lighting equipment. Due to the broad application of the term ‘Neo Noir’, we were able to apply affects, dialogue and action similar productions that also come under the same umbrella. For example, our action scene, whilst out of place in some classic noirs, could be considered a convention of many Neo Noirs due to their far broader spectrum, for example the likes ofThe Dark Knight
- 4. Characters As with most Noirs, we attempted to include our own stereotypical cast set up. We included the likes of police detectives, the morally ambiguous anti-hero and the sexually forward and potentially dangerous femme fatale. Booth – the main character and anti-hero – is seen as an alcoholic with a troubled past that is clearly rife with struggle.We also decided to give Booth a history with the Serpent (the murderous antagonist who leaves a snake-like mark on his victims) making this story a more personal tale. Also, we chose to bring in a team of detectives to help Booth on his case, attempting to bring down the Serpent after returning A new twist we decided to add was the connection that Jack Eckhart, the head Police detective, and Jason Booth which is often unseen in classic noirs, taking away some of the darkness from the story.
- 5. Mise-en- scene and locations Noir props and mise-en-scene include many things that convey the dark genre, including things like weapons, drink and dark clothing, as well as dark alleys, bars and shady, run down offices. Of our 3 filming locations, we made sure they all applied to the Noir genre – these being an alley, bar, and dingy office To give the office (which was actually just the bar’s function room) a more noir motif, we added empty bottles, random cash and a messier, disorganised feel to the desk/table. The alleyway was an easy choice as, with the added filter in post, made it look far more urban and shady than ruralWarwickshire. Finally, after scouting multiple bars and attempting to simply create one, we settled on using theGlobe Bar and grill.They were kind enough to let us use their noir-esque bar for both the fight scene and the reunion of Eckhart and Booth.The dark mahogany of the bar really helped to convey the noir theme. Despite being unable to film in rainy conditions, I was able to add a rain effect in the editing process to further cement the films position on the gothic noir genre.
- 6. Props and costuming An extremely crucial part of conveying to the audience that the film is a gritty Neo Noir production are the props and costuming. In our production, we kept people in generally smart attire, with the level of scruffiness depending on their personality. Jack Ryan’s drunk man appeared scruffiest with a scraggy tie and roughed up shirt to convey his poor life choices and state in the film. Booth wore attire that would almost be considered appropriate for an undercover police detective, however due to his troubled past and alcoholism he’s portrayed almost scruffyish with his shirt and jeans combo. A key Noir trope for an morally ambiguous protagonist is the trenchcoat, despite being unable to get a classic beige noir looking trench coat, we were able to give him a long black over coat which resembled that of those on the big screen. These all accurately conveyed his fairly low social status and crippling depression. Due to their fairly high position in the police department, both Jack and Janet wore the smartest attire including the likes of done-up ties and blazers, this clearly conveyed the better state of their lives and higher social position.
- 7. Narrative Tropes Our production featured a plethora of narrative tropes for the neo noir for example the usage of black and white in the character title cards and the flashbacks. One of the biggest conventions people think of when thinking of a noir/detective movie is the usage of narrative voiceover.When writing the script, I really tried to emulate that of the stereotypical monologue voice overs.These introduced the character of both Booth and Scarlett (the femme fatale) as well as explaining the death of Booth’s previous lover and the role of the serpent in his life.As well as being a frequently used noir convention, these narrated scenes also help in the reduction of cost and filming time, something that is key when creating a low budget film.