Studio Photography - Film Noir Unit 25

                       The easiest way to think of film noir is to cast your mind back (or ask your parents) to all those dark, black and white movies they'd often show on a Saturday afternoon featuring some guy as a private detective stood in the shadow of a street light smoking a cigarette with his face shaded by the rim of his hat and quite possibly with a gun in his hand as he checks out the glamorous doll across the street who may or may not have killed her husband....it's all about moody, dark and dramatic. Now I could go on about how it was a term introduced in the 1940s by a couple of French critics called Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier but I wont, but that doesn't mean you can't go over here and fill your head with a little more of an insight into it, but for the purpose of this entry in my blog I'll say it simply just means dark or black. Now as an example of film noir outside of the movie industry, To show you an example of this I'd have to pick something such as this which ois more likely than not just a movie still from one Humphrey Boagarts many movies but it gives you a good indication of what you should be looking for regards shadows and lighting.......

                                 

         ........but then I'd want to show you a link to a few people that have had a go at a little film noir in more recent years with some interesting results  including this one from a guy called  Jim Ferreira


                                   


                       So now it comes down to the basic set up for a classic film noir shot and to be honest it's not a million miles away from it's bedfellow low key as it's primarily a single light source shone through 2 polyboards but with a slightly wider gap to increase the light spread than low key. There is also a low level snoot with honeycomb pointing up at the backdrop to not only provide the background with a light source but to also allow inclusion of shadow prop such as a knife or hammer to be projected onto the backdrop.

                                     

                        Now I know it was early days but I feel I should include my own example as it helps as a reminder to myself how I could adjust things next time such as making sure my model actually made the effort to turn up in something more suitable to the genre we were trying to portray but also on a more serious note I think the eye contact shouldn't be in the direction of the camera and would be better aimed in the direction of the mystery assailant plus I would go for more light on the face especially with it being a female co-star so I could possibly widen the polyboards a touch or incorporate a reflector to bounce some light back on the darker areas of her face.