Set up a scene and experience with lighting

I set up the scene in my room, it is for creating different lighting. Since Melissa and I couldn't use the studios in the Culture and Art Centre(we have to book it before), it is not very professional.

I used my bed for the scene, and the subjects I choose for lighting are these two bolsters. My room have one window and two doors, which can create three different directions of light. In this picture, the light is from the window on the right of the bolsters (the other two directions of light I have covered by curtains,as the curtains can completely cover the lights from outside). Therefore, the light on the two bolsters is brighter on the right.

And in this picture, I change the direction of light to the right corner. The shadow of the bolsters can show the direction of the light.

And this time, I change to the left. But the light is quite far away so it seems to be quite dark. Well, I think we can still see where the light from since the light on the left is brighter than the other places.

I also used the light of my phone to create different angles and direction of the light to the bolsters.

Here, the light is from the front of the bolster, it highlights the front of the bolsters and the back is almost all in shadow

In this picture, the light is more likely from the bottom of the bolsters, the light is quite strong and make the subject looks quite mysteries and evil.

I also place the light at the front of the subject, but I make it a little bit farther (comparing to the first picture).

Also, I make the light to the left, that is, the light is from the left corner. Therefore, the shadow of the subject is formed at the back and it is slightly on the right.

Here I place the light on the left hand side of the bolster which has a tomato on the top, so the light on the left of that bolster is brighter than the right hand side. Also, because my light is quite strong, it seems to be a hard lighting which can create a sharp edged shadows. If it is use on a person, it can show that the person may have a dark side or a dark past.

Here I place the light on the right of the bolsters. But the light illuminates on the right one is more likely to be a back light, since it illuuminates that one by highlighting its back.

This time I place the light on the top of the bolsters. Since it is hard for me to place the light just above the two bolsters and take the picture, I place it more above the left one. It highlights the top of that bolster and below that the subject is almost covered by shadows.

Because I didn't use the studio light, I just use my phone light and the light from nature(by sun), this is not really professional. But I can still find the difference by using these two type of light. The phone light is stronger than the nature one and it often creates the hard lighting. I think it can also be the example of low key. And the nature light is softer, often creates the soft lighting. Comparing to the phone light, the nature light is more likely to be the high key.
Next time, I hope I can use the studio light to experience the different angle and direction, I think the illumination of the light and the differences will be more clear than this time.

Exploration of lighting in Noir

This video is talking about the basics of lighting for film noir. It is on Youtube. It gives much information about the lighting that is really useful. So I really recommend to watch it!

Also, I have created a voicethread for lighting in noir. I find some shots in films which is in film noir style and some shots in Blade Runner which is neo-noir style. Some of my knowledge is from the video I have given on top.

Here is the link:
https://voicethread.com/share/10172460/

Setting Collage

Melissa and I have also created some collages for setting as well, and here they are:

This is the collage made by Melissa

 Melissa's collage mainly focuses on the traditional film noir settings, she find most of them in some films which was in the classic film noir period. The settings often in a dark, quiet and old place, which can make people think it is dangerous and contain mystery.

This is the collage made by me

My collage is not only find the pictures from the setting in the film which has film noir elements, I also find some other pictures which I think they have some connection with film noir. In my opinion, I think the setting in film noir is often in a dark, quite old place. And things are always happened at night. I think these places can make people feel dangerous and mystery. Therefore, when I am considering my setting for my production, I may find a place which is dark and seems to be dangerous or containing mystery.

Costume Collage

This is the collage which is made by Melissa. This is about the costume, here is the collage:

It is quite interesting that Melissa not only choose the western costume of film noir, but also choose the eastern one. She finds some pictures of Japanese women's wearing which is called kimono, and the picture of cheongsam which is a really typical Chinese style clothing. But in that picture, it is not a traditional wearing style of cheongsam, it is more likely to be the modern one. In that picture, the woman looks quite sexy, this can tell me that I can also choose eastern style clothing for femme fatale. She also find some western clothing which seems quite wealthy(in my own opinion), the wearing of men are always having a hat and a big coat, this might be a good idea of the character of detective.

The review on Headmaster's speech

Today, our school's headmaster, Brendan Wignall, came to our media class and gave a speech about Blade Runner and film noir. He had written lots of science fiction stories on magazines. He has a great passion for science fiction film, especially Blade Runner. He watched Blade Runner original version about 21 or 22, and he had watched it 5 times.

The picture of our school headmaster, Brendan Wignall

He thinks that Blade Runner is film noir look, which means it contains the elements of film noir. He mentioned that Blade Runner is the last major film which made without any computer graphics, so all of the tower, the city, the car, the spinners are all models, they are not made by computer graphics. And the reason for most of the scene in Blade Runner took place in the dark or in the rain is because they were the places in the daily life and they seemed to be perfective but actually, they were plastic. And this is because they didn't have enough money to give a good set, that means, they couldn't make the set good enough. According to this, the headmaster said that we have to always consider the money when we are producing a film as it is important.

About Blade Runner, the headmaster also says that the original one(which is the first one) was too dark and too European, which was the answer of the audiences in America which were the tested audiences for this film. And if he can make some change in the new Blade Runner, he says he will make less sexiness, since in Blade Runner, even in Blade Runner 2049, there are so many scenes which contain sexiness. Also, when one of the students in the class asked him about who did he think is the femme fatale in Blade Runner 2049, he said that it is hard as there is no a really definite answer. Since Blade Runner is just contained the elements of film noir but not all of them. It can just contain two or three elements, therefore, in my own film(which I have to make it relevant to film noir), I can just get three or more elements from film noir, but not that all. Well, in this question, the headmaster view is that we can just find the character which has more elements of femme fatale, for example, sexy and dangerous, than the others, that could be the femme fatale of this film.

At the last, the headmaster also talked about our coursework, which is that we have to create 2 minutes opening of a film which is relevant to the film noir. Our teacher asked him about what story or the topic should we use for our film in nowadays, and his answer is that we can make a film in far Eastern, such as Japan, China(Shanghai, etc), he didn't really recommend the British film noir as he thinks it is not quite suitable. He also gives a suggestion about how to make an opening of a film. He recommends us first to sketch out the whole story of the film, and then go back to the beginning since it can be easier if we do like this. I think this is a good suggestion which I may use it when I am doing my coursework.

And finally, I took a picture with him for a memory. Here is the picture:

The picture of me and the headmaster

Well...I think it is not really good so......

Make-up Collage

This is the collage of make-up, which is created by me. As we work separately - I do the make-up collage when Melissa does the costume one.
Here is the collage:

I like the red lips of the femme fatale, and actually, I have found some other colour of the lips of the femme fatale, such as dark purple. But in my opinion, red is much better and I may use this colour to my character. For the eyeshadow, I prefer the colour which is more likely to the cold colour. For example, the purple colour or the blue colour. But I also will consider the brown colour, since it looks great to the femme fatale as well.

I also find some hairstyles, for example, the hairstyle of the woman which is a single horsetail. This is the one that I like the most. As it looks really nice. Although I know most of the femme fatale will let the hair down to show more sexiness, I think this hairstyle is also really attractive and sexy. Therefore, I would like to use this hairstyle to my character.

Character Collage

Melissa and I have created some Character Collages. Here are my two Character Collage:

Character Collage for a Japanese anime 

 This is the collage of a Japanese anime call'Bungo Stray Dogs'. The story centres on individuals who are gifted with supernatural powers and use them for different purposes including holding a business, solving mysteries, and carrying out missions assigned by the mafia. The story mainly follows the members of the "Armed Detective Agency" and their everyday lives.

Most characters in the series are named after famous literary authors and/or characters in their works, including Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Atsushi Nakajima, Agatha Christie, Osamu Dazai, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Rampo Edogawa, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Kenji Miyazawa, Doppo Kunikida, and Akiko Yosano.

I choose six characters in this collage since the settings of them are really suitable for film noir style character. There is a detective which have a dark past. And he is not always positive and he will do anything to get the truth or his want. This is really similar to the character of detective in film noir. The clothing of them also can inspire me, since the clothing is quite similar to the clothing in the 1940s. I might use this anime as an example.

the character collage 

 This is another collage of film noir. In this collage, the picture of the detective can show the characteristic of this character is that although he is a good person, the hero in the film noir, he will have some bad habits. In the first picture of detective, it shows that the detective is not always positive, he might have a dark past, this can give a good inspiration for me.

Also, the pictures of femme fatale show that the femme fatale always shows her sexy but she is independent and powerful. She might attract men but she won't rely on them. I might set my character of femme fatale as a sexy and powerful woman. Her appearance will attract men, but she is an independent woman.

And this is the character collage created by Melissa:

The pictures that Melissa has chosen are mostly from the films that are in film noir style. In these pictures, it shows that the characters in the film noir style often contain some mysteries, they might be a good person, they can also be a bad person. I might set some mysteries to my character as well.