Film noir visual style is characterized by unbalanced compositions, low-key lighting techniques like chiaroscuro lighting, and unconventional camera angles. The aural style features elements like voice-over narration, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, and dark scores composed by artists like Miklos Rosza and Bernard Herrmann. Noir evolved over time from the 1940s to the 1950s to use increasingly experimental visual and aural techniques that conveyed a sense of fragmentation and decay.
3. Classical Hollywood
Style
3 Balanced composition
3 Well-lighted
3 Three-point lighting
3 Linear narratives
3 Conventional editing
4. Three-Point Lighting
3 KEY light = main source of
illumination (if used alone it will
leave shadows)
3 FILL light = a secondary light
source, less intense than the key
light (helps remove shadows)
3 BACKLIGHT = placed above and
behind the subject (used alone will
produce a silhouette of the
subject)
5. Lighting Ratios
3 Traditional lighting ratio (low-
contrast ratio) is:
3 Key - 2
3 Fill - 1
3 Noir Lighting Ratio (high-contrast
ratio) is:
3 Key - 4
3 Fill - 1
34. Deep-focus
Cinematography
3 A use of the camera lens and
lighting that keeps both the
close and distant objects being
photographed in sharp focus
3 Why is this important for film
noir?
37. Diegetic &
Non-Diegetic Sound
3 Diegesis - the world of the film
3 Diegetic sound comes from
within the frame story.
3 Non-diegetic sound comes
from outside of the frame
story.