Analysis of an opening sequence of a Film Noir

Analyse the opening sequence of a Film Noir

The opening scene of a Film Noir often starts with an establishing shot of the setting e.g. The city. This shot leads to a close up on where the main characters are or a murder that has taken place. These shots give the audience an idea about where in the world the place is typically in America e.g. New York. The film is normally shot in black and white, as it uses low key lighting and uses shadows and the dark to represent crime and murder. The opening dialogue in the film is usually between two private detectives or the main protagonist and the femme fatal this gives the film a story and lets the audience know early that this femme fatal is not to be trusted.

The camera angles in a Film Noir are normally deep- focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarred editing and skewed angles. They uses these kind of camera work as it uses the lighting and shadows to represent the story and can let the audience see what the director wants to see, for example dark shadows on murders face to hide his identity in scenes. In Film Noirs women are usually two different types, one being the femme fatal a strong women who is mysterious, gorgeous and manipulative. the other woman being, loving, trustworthy and dutiful. The women in the opening sequence usually are there to manipulate the main protagonist, getting him mixed up in something big or getting him to do her dirty work, this leads to the enigma of the film, e.g partner murdered or someone close to the main protagonist murdered, doing the femme fatals dirty work.

The audience can easily tell if a film is Film Noir in the opening sequence as it is unique to other films, stands out and follows the same narrative throughout all Film Noirs, like the protagonist, normally a private detective or a vigilante, who wears a typical costume of a big overcoat, fedora hat and suit. He is usually cold-hearted and is seen as an anti-hero, not afraid to do something against the law to solve a crime. In the opening sequence of a Film Noir it normally has the enigma show which the detective has to solve throughout the film, the enigma is usually a murder and is connected to the femme fatal or caused by the femme fatal. The enigma is used in the opening sequence to show the protagonists getting closer and closer to solving the case as the film progresses.

In the opening sequence the audience is usually already introduced to the main characters, usually the private detective and the femme fatal. In the film Maltese Falcon these characters are introduced within the first scene, this allows the audience to know who the main characters are. The film only allows the audience to know what the detective knows so at this point the audience has no suspicion for the women being the femme fatal, this makes it a surprise later in the film when the detective starts to realise, the woman is manipulating him.  This is effective in this genre as the audience feels like they are on this journey with the main character as they learn things when he does.

In Film Noir the director uses sound to represent the mood in each scene the sounds used are usually melancholy downbeat music, jazz, uses silence and quiet music, sudden noises and off screen sound, e.g. sirens or gun fire. These sounds are used throughout a Film Noir as it builds up the narrative and to add to the story as it progresses. Sound is used a lot in Film Noir as it is useful to set the mood and build up tension in scenes. 

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

What is the 180 degree rule?

The 180-degree rule is an on-screen relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.

What is the match on action?

A match on action, a technique used in film editing, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.

What is the eye line match?

An eye line match shot is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking.

What is the shot-reverse-shot?

A shot-reverse-shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversation or two characters just looking at each other or an object. It is a shot showing what the character is looking at, and is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it.

We incorporated these shots into our final film

We used this shot in our film to show the view of the person; this shot is useful as it makes the view suspicious of this slightly off camera person.

We used this close up shot to make the view focus on what he is saying and fully show the emotion in his face. This shot was useful as it is an effective shot and fitted well in our film.
This angled shot was used to show the characters to the audience and show that one of the characters was being followed building up suspense.

 



We then used a low angle shot into a high angled shot to show the two characters walking up the stairs this was a good effect and transitioned nicely into each other these shots were used to show two different points of the two characters walking up the stairs.

The film making process was efficient and was easier to create as we were following our storyboard we made previously. The storyboard was easy to follow and allowed us to use a variety of shots in our film. Filming around the sixth form was great for our film as our film was about bullying in school, we filmed during lesson so we was able to avoid getting other people in our shots.

The adobe premiere was easy to use and helped me understand what to do when editing. I learnt how to cut the clips so I was able to get only the useful bits for our film, and I also learned how to add music so our film had music to go with our film genre.