Production 1: Contextual Appoarch

During filming session, we spent a lot of time on testing lighting as we are all beginners of this film noir. Besides that, we also don't have any lighting materials as those materials cost us too much. In this case, we decided to use flashlight apps in phone, and luckily we made it. But we also faced some problems like no enough group members involved while shooting and this made us hard to adjust the lights and camera, unsatisfied our final video, main character (me) unable to speak english well and memorize the script because too nervous while shooting. These problems cause my group members spent a lot of time to shoot only little part of what we supposed to finish shooting in that day (14th September), so we decided to shoot again on the next day (15th Sept).

Scene 1: Wake up
Story : At early morning, Jose woke up from her nightmare. She was nervous and can't even take breath because the nightmare was too real and fearful and it was already been her dream since she was 8 years old. She ate her medicine to calm herself down. After she felt better, then she went to bathroom to wash herself up before going to work. 

Woke up from nightmare

We use key light from the right side of the subject and fill light from the left side to separate the background and the subject.

We used lighting to create the half shadow on the face.

Eating medicine

We use key light in front of the subject to show the clear actions of the subject and black mounting board to absorb the excess light.

Getting up from bed

In this scene, we used the low angles to create the effect that show the clear half figure of face.

Scene

Out of the Past (1947)

In our scene,

In this part, we used the concept of rule of thirds.

We want to show the main character got down from the bed.

Washed up before going to work

We use the key light from the left side of the subject.
Besides that, we also use daylight from the left side of the subject but we covered the excess daylight by using black mounting board.
We decided to use mirror to reflect main character while washing herself up.
We focused on the reflection of the subject but not the real image of the subject.
This is because we think that this will show more better composition and more creative compared to just only the subject washing herself up.

Scene: Brush teeth

From the side of the subject

We did the image reflection.

In my own opinion, I think this scene should shoot in more brighter light from my left side and the shadow need to improved. Besides that, I think the angle from camera need to be adjusted a bit far away from the subject.

And the bathroom need to be like this, I mean a bit dirty or old for making the interior more interesting and more noir feeling.

Scene 2: Mysterious student approaching
Story: Jose was giving her lecture while a student was late and came in interrupting the class. After the class, the mysterious student walked at the last one and stood in front of Jose without talking.  After a while, the student told her to stay low profile but not standing in front of the class teaching and questioned her about her own identity.

Giving lecture

We used key light from the left side of the subject and back light of the subject to separate the background and the subject.

Watching her student walking out of classroom

We used the light from outdoor to form silhouette.
Example

In our scene,

Another type of film noir imaging is silhouetting of the characters against a light background such as in the The Big Combo.

In addition, I think there should have a scene like this while the student approached and satirised the lecturer and it would be better.

That's all. Thank you :)

Contextual Studies: Contextual Visuals

Visual interpretation

There are few aspects that we look into while interpretation.

i. Lighting

As a beginner of shooting the film noir, I researched the basics of lighting for film noir.

There are three main lights that are important:

a. Key Light - brightest and the most dominant

b. Back Light - Separate the objects and background

c. Fill Light - only use it while necessary, complementing the key light

I would like to use symbols to designate the different lights.

The characteristics of each of these lightings

Bring in the KEY LIGHT

Bring in the FILL LIGHT

Bring in the BACK LIGHT

Some classic examples of film noir lighting come from movies such as The Third Man, with the long cast shadows on the walls of the dimly lit streets along with the dutch tilted angle of the scene.

The Third Man - Long Shadows, Dark Streets, Running Man

The Third Man - Long Shadows, Dark Streets, Balloon Peddler

Another great example of Film Noir lighting in a movie is High Sierra, in which the lighting was done to look as if lit by an oil lamp.

High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino

The low lighting is low in this scene and gives away the feelings the two characters have for each other. The lightning is not as low as in criminal lighting where the light would be coming from the floor, but lower as in the height of the oil lamp itself to make it look realistic.

Another type of film noir imaging is silhouetting of the characters against a light background such as in the The Big Combo.

Low-key Lighting

The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning, a style known as chiaroscuro.

In traditional lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination. Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.

Low-key Lighting (Interiors)

Out of the Past (1947)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Killers (1946)

Night-for Night Low-Key Lighting (Exteriors)

Double Indemnity(1944)

The Killers(1946)

Deep Focus

Deep Focus is a style or technique of cinematography and staging with great depth of field, preferred by realists, that uses lightning, relatively wide angle lenses and small lens apertures to simultaneously render in sharp focus both close and distant planes (including the three levels of foreground, middle-ground, and extreme background objects) in the same shot: contrast to shallow focus (in which only one plane is in sharp focus).

Examples of deep focus

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Big Combo (1955)

The Killers (1946)

Unconventional Camera Angles

Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle and skewed, or Dutch angle shots.

Dutch angle

The Third Man (1949)

Low Angles

In a Lonely Place (1950)

Out of the Past (1947)

Touch of Evil (1958)

High Angles

Blade Runner (1982)

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Watchmen(2009)

Smoke

Smoke is also mostly appeared in film noir.

Example of smoking in noir

Blade Runner (1982)

 The Man Wasn't There (2001)