Exploration of music in noir

When I have a look on Youtube about the music in noir style film, I find that there are plenty of pieces of Jazz music. That is Jazz noir music. Here is one of the Jazz noir music that I have found on Youtube:

The instruments that have used in this pieces that I can hear are the piano, the saxophone and the drums. I know that saxophone is a really important instrument in Jazz music. Its tone is low and it lasts quite long I think in this pieces. I think this non-diegetic sound is more likely to use when the character was in the bar or chat with the others. 

But, Jazz music is not the main music to the classic era of film noir. It is more likely to use as a source music, which is the stuff that comes off jukeboxes, radios etc. in the scene.

Most of the music in film noir is modernistic orchestral music. But here, I just can find the modern noir songs. So here I give one of the songs:

Plot over view

Today, me and Melissa have talked about our plot of final project - filming an opening. We think we will film about revenge. This idea is from Cynthia, and we think it is great to film in noir style.

The title of the film is ''Knowing that you can't do it''.

·The story is about a man sets out on a journey of revenge that he knows is doomed to die. The whole process of filming is that the man from the start to the destination, interspersed with memories, at the end of the plot, the man took out a gun, calmly pushed to open the door.

·And here I also want to write some about the film:

·The Godfather was a killer when he was young. One of his duties was to kill the man's father(this man is the main character), and he accidentally killed the man's mother by mistake in the execution. And the male owner's mother is godfather's biological sister, and she has not known her brother is a killer. Out of guilt for his younger sister, and because he had broken the rules about not killing women and children, the Godfather adopted the man and dropped his job. (When the Godfather assassinated, he chose his sister to take him to school. He didn't know that his sister had come back to fetch the book which her son had left behind.

·After Godfather has dropped his job, because of his fame and hard work, he gradually became a big shot. In that time, he is raising the man. He wanted the man to lead to a normal life, but the man seemed to be ill-natured at heart. One time the enemy broke into the house to try to kidnap the man when he was only 14 years old. The man shot down the enemy and cleaned up the scene calmly before the godfather came back. The Godfather found that the man had been secretly learning the martial art and the skill of killing with one of his old fellow, so he finally gave up and let the man take over the mantle and become a killer.

·In fact, the man has already known that the Godfather was the murderer of his parents' death. In that day, he also went home by hiding himself in his mother's trunk, since he didn't want to go to school. And he had seen everything. Yet for more than a decade he has said nothing, and perfectly concealed his hatred. At last, at the age of 20, he finally has the same ability as his master, the Godfather. This means that the man is as well as the Godfather. So now, he began to delay his revenge for 11 years.

·He knew this trip would never come back, and if succeeded, he would kill himself after killing the Godfather for returning his foster care. If, after all, the Godfather is still better than him, he will attack the Godfather as killing himself and they will both die.

Research lighting in film

This is the research that written by Melissa:

There are some information from internet :

Soft front light / hot backlight

A popular technique in film lighting is to use a soft (diffuse) light source from the front and a stronger, more directional light from the  back, so that your subject has a hot edge. The soft frontal light is known as the fill light; the light at the back is known, unsurprisingly. As the backlight.

We can also arrange the lights to leave darkness between the area illustrated by the backlight and the area illustrated by fill light, just depending on how moody you want the shot to be. It is very hard to control, although the moodiest films tend to avoid leaving dark shadows on the faces of female talent.

If you want a different look, backlight can also be soft, but it should still be hotter than the fill.

And we should light our film or video shot by shot. I mean that when you relocate the camera to shoot a different angle, the light must be move as well to ensure the subject is always lit correct. I think it is very important, because audiences will feel involved in your film or video when you did light your film or video shot by shot.

Mixing color temperatures

Using different color temperatures can be used to great effect. This simply means using lights of different color in the same shot.

This was used to great effect by James Cameron in the steel mill scene of “Terminator2”, in which he used blue and orange light ( consistent with moonlight and molten steel respectively ).

The only caveat with this is. that you must determine the relationship between the two different color before filming, because it is not really possible, for example, to make the blue bluer without also making the orange bluer ( i.e.less orange )

Examples

1.Putting real film lights outside windows instead of relying on natural light - always worth it

Tips : Filmmaking is all about designing a look from scratch and then executing it on the shoot itself, which means that control is everything in filmmaking.

2. No color in your shots must ever be an accident

3. A beautiful blue can be achieved with HMI lights and a digital camera set to tungsten balance

4. A beautiful “Matrix” - style green can be achieve by shooting with regular florescent lights with the camera set to tungsten balance

5.Soft pools of light on actors’ faces can produce a very interesting look

There are three light sources in the shot: hot light from the back, dim soft light over the whole scene and a brighter soft pool of light in the top half of the singer’s face.

This shows how the most interesting discoveries in filmmaking are made while you’re actually shooting something, but it will only happen if you keep an open mind and are not too stressed.

6.Daylight-balanced light in the background with tungsten—light from the front, with the camera set on tungsten balance

The still below uses exactly the same technique, with a different subject ( a porcelain rose )

7.Backlight vs. no backlight

There two frames are taken from my first film: the first has no backlight and the second was shot with backlight ( a daylight-balanced Kino Flo):

Tips : The effect of backlight is clear: it increases contrast, reduces “muddiness” and enhances perceived sharpness.

Information form : http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/filmmaking/film-lighting-tips.html

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.