07/02/12

Film Noir Research

http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/glossary/index.asp

 This is a site I've been looking at to find out what the key features of Film Noir are, and how they work. From this I've selected a few which I'm aiming to include in my media product.

Point-Of-View (POV) Shot
A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character's eyes would be, representing what the character sees.

To the left is an example of a point of view shot, it shows the audience what the character is looking at. I feel this could be very effective in a two shot with a couple, this would help link in the genre of film noir to the point of view shot, as a typical convention of film noir is a femme fatal and her relationship with a male. 

Femme Fatal is the french term that literally means "fatal woman”; an irresistibly attractive woman who leads men to destruction.

Flashback
An alteration of story order in which the plot moves back in time to show events that have taken place earlier than the one already shown.

Voice Over
Voice overs are recorded dialogue, usually narration, that comes from an unseen, off-screen voice, character or narrator who can be heard by the audience but not by the film characters themselves; narration often conveys the character's thoughts, either as a “voice” heard within one's head or as other narrative information and commentary; often a technique in Film Noir.

I think that the flashback and voice over could work really well together, to explain the flashback in the opening of our media product I think that the voice over could explain a previous argument between a couple, represented by the flashback. This would help us to include two more conventions of Film Noir within our piece.