Noir Iconography

My Top 4 Films

1. Inbetweeners

This is my favourite film for a number of reasons, for example, I think that this is much better than the second inbetweeners, this is due to the fact that it would of been hard to beat the first inbetweeners due to the fact that its way more hilarious. This was originally aired on E4 from 2008-2010. The episodes involved situations of school bullying, broken family life, indifferent school staff, male bonding, and largely failed sexual encounters.

2. Inbetweeners 2

Like I said previously, I don't feel that this was funnier than the first film this is the main reason why its number 2. However this still covered the same areas as the above. Released in 2014.

3. The Impossible

This had me in tears, and not many films can do that in fact I think its the first that I've cried at, and as its based on a true story that's even harder to believe but it is true. Definitely hit me hard but I loved it! released in 2012, genre: drama. Its about a family caught in the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami. Actress Naomi Watts who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. This is a typical disaster film, due to the fact that an ordinary family are on holiday and somehow manage to survive such a disaster.

4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This was by far the better out of the two as it had a better storyline than number the 'Dawn of the planet of the apes'. This was released in 2011, genre: Sci-Fi, its unusual for me to watch Sci-Fi as i'm not really into this genre but this film proved me wrong! And it ended with a great cliff-hanger however its a shame that the following film (Dawn of the planet of the apes) didn't really appeal to me as much as the first planet of the apes! This is a Sci-Fi film due to the fact that this is a prediction into what will happen in the future however not in our life time, hopefully. Filled with lots of conflict between the apes and the humans which packed a great storyline.

Noir as a genre

We as a class put our ideas of what we think is included within the genre. After putting our thoughts forward It was clear that there is a lot more to noir than we originally thought from femme-fatale to gangsters etc, this will help us in the future when we do more activities on noir. The diagram below shows our work we contributed towards!

For some extra knowledge I researched further into the film noir genre

Top 10 film noir

"Guns, dames and hats: you can't have a Film Noir without them, can you? Take a look at the Guardian and Observer critics list of the best 10 noirs and you'll realise things aren't that simple" 

The above is just a little snippet of some of the information which I have rad which I feel links nicely with Film Noir!

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/nov/29/top-10-film-noir

Extreme camera angles         Canted angle         low angle (camera view is looking up)         high angle camera view is looking down) Unconventional portrait angles         Partial profile         Full profile        Obscured faces         Low/high angles      Close ups of expressions        Extreme close-ups (face filling frame) Severe lighting        Sometimes called chiaroscuro        Often artificial sources of light        Deep shadows        Harsh highlights Dramatic         Extreme deep focus         contrasts of scale looking through or along things         creative camera point of view (POV)         doorways         windows         stairwells         smoke         streets Simple narrative         the message is melodramatic and clear         focal point is clear and easily found         backgrounds may be busy but do not distract ( techniques include out of focus/dark/simple) Men Bad boy – villain / hats / partially obscured / think Al Capone ‘gangster. He has a mean moody expression. Hero – clean cut / handsome / strong / active / smiles / clear face / smart / Anti-hero – was often the victim – the man who chose the wrong path and is redeemed – he is often less educated/working class/vest tops/ manual labour / heart of gold/always courage Women Femme fatale – she challenges stereotyped of women in the 1940s - smokes / sexy and sexually active /powerful / independent / confident / educated / Redemptive woman – the girl next door’/the girl through whom the anti-hero is saved / vulnerable / traditional and family values / innocent Locations         Urban         Bars / clubs         Streets         Cars         Rooms in houses         Factories/bridges Props Red lips Cigarette Gun Smokey environment High heels Suits fedora

All About Me

This is a video all about me!

Jurassic Park SWEDED (for bekindrewind)

The Dark Knight Sweded

The Matrix - SWEDED (for be kind rewind)

The three examples of films are sweded because they are extremely low budget and the films will all contain the main scenes and quotes which are recognisable as you will see when viewing each video. The idea of 'sweded films' came from 'Be Kind Rewind' (2008)

Summer project: The creation of a Swede film

Summer project: The creation of a Swede film

Our summer task consisted of our group (Adam, Aidan, Lilly and me) creating our own version of an existing film and turn it into a ‘sweded film’ which came around from the production of Be Kind Rewind (2008).

Planning:

As soon as we had organised our group, the biggest decision was upon us ‘what film should we base our swede off of?’ unfortunately I was not able to attend such a vital brain storming session. These were some of the films suggested:

• Shaun Of The dead

• Terminator

• Pulp Fiction

• Saw

• Final Destination

The final decision was to choose Saw (2004) after vigorous planning, the group finally agreed together after taking lots of factors into consideration such as; cost, popularity and key well known scenes , etc., fortunately I agreed with their decision due to the fact that I was really familiar with such a great film, who isn’t?

Structure and story boarding:

We started by watching the film and picking out the key scenes which we felt were needed in the final swede, but these scenes had to be key so that our viewers can easily recognise what film we are doing! 

After completing the list we then created a story board/basic summary of the final scenes we are going to include, bearing in mind the time we have to present this and how possible the scene is to recreate.

Filming Day 1

Unfortunately I wasn't available during the days the group decided to begin filming but I was told what took place while I was away, which overall sounded like a great success and indeed it was! The group memorised the script and started filming with a camera and a tripod which allowed them to create more creative and steady shots. Adam played the role of doctor Lawrence and Aidan as Adam S.

Filming Day 2

Involved we as a group needing to find a successful fake blood recipe which wasn't easiest as it needed to be cost effective we found one which didn't cost much to make but we found that it was way too lumpy meaning that it didn't look realistic, resulting in a little bit of trial and error. The substance consists of honey, red food colouring and soy sauce to ensure it wasn't too thick. 

The last thing we wanted to do was mess the floor up with stains of our mixture everywhere so we laid down some clear perspex sheets which helped protect the bathroom floor. However there were downsides to the sheets which were that when filming the sheets often reflected light at the camera affecting some of the footage. Overall filming was a success as I was back meaning that I could contribute to everything!

Below is a link to a video which we recorded on the day which involves a quick visual update on our progress

http://vimeo.com/105892162 there may be a few issues with the viewing due to the fact that some of the video is not loading on some computers.