Traditional Film Noir

The term film noir describes a type of film that is often dark and shady in its outlook. The word 'noir' is french for 'black' which attests to the grainy black and white that was used in the film style. Film noir was a totally new idea, instead of cheery movies it visualized doomed heroes, manipulative people and hidden personal lives. The lighting used in film noir was very dark, creating long shadows and claustrophobic atmospheres that are stereotypical of the film genre. image used from: http://blog.ctnews.com/meyers/2010/07/18/rent-it-now-%E2%80%98film-noir-classic-collection-volume-five%E2%80%9D/ The pictures above show several very common shots used in Film Noir such as: - A silhoutted shady looking figure, smoking. Smoking was very popular back in the 1940's before the health risks had been set in concrete. Smoking gives an air of secrecy and criminality. The silhouette shows how this man is presumably up to something sinister. - A shadowed figure walking down a lit street. The use of shadows in dark films dates back to the first ever horror movie/thriller film, 'Nosferatu'. Crisp shadows were used so that you could clearly see the outline of the figure. To get a good crisp shadow, you need a small intense light. This is called hard lighting You can create hard lighting with a small, very intense lighting fixture. image used from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/NosferatuShadow.jpg