eval 1

1. IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
Dan Mclean

2. Standard
Convention
s
Deep-rooted in the darkness and depression of post-war
America, Noir was a gritty realisation of what reality was
dishing out.This came as a breath of fresh-air to
audiences so conditioned to the happy/inspiring tales of
films during the wartime period.
These films often related around mafia/detective/crime
drama in, sprawling urban landscapes.This leads to the
melancholy feel of dark, rain-sodden alleyways and the
foreboding set-pieces of tall skyscrapers. Another key set
piece for many noirs would be the classic, claustrophobic
bars of which many-a-scene would take place.
These conventions are often paralleled in Neo Noir
productions, some even going as far as to implement the
black and white colours of those original Noirs.

3. Our
Production
In our piece, we attempted to emulate the gritty, underworld feel of
those Noirs of old through dialogue and locations. Whilst writing it, I
took into account the fact that we had chosen to produce a Neo Noir,
that despite having similar conventions to the standard noir, is ,more
often than not, set either in the present or future.With this in mind, I
endeavoured to create both dialogue and actions that wouldn’t seem
out of place in a current Neo noir or police procedural, whilst also paying
homage to the classic works. Despite classic Noirs’ frequent use of
chiaroscuro, we ended up not using as its fairly difficult to create the
blind effect on a limited budget and without professional lighting
equipment.
Location-wise, we tried to emulate the city-scape feel of noirs through
the usage of claustrophobic alleyways and bars.This cemented the
genre for the audience and made it clear it was a noir.
Due to the broad application of the term ‘Neo Noir’, we were able to
apply affects, dialogue and action similar productions that also come
under the same umbrella. For example, our action scene, whilst out of
place in some classic noirs, could be considered a convention of many
Neo Noirs due to their far broader spectrum, for example the likes of
The Dark Knight. Our climactic scene was conventional as it showed the
detective being morally swayed into the poor decision of violence as is
expected of Neo Noirs.
“I’d been out of the
game for around 2
years now. Drowning
my sorrows in the
cheapest whiskey I
could buy. I’d kept
the office open, but I
only took the small
jobs I knew I could
take. Nights were
tough and long, and I
faced them on my
own.”
This is
conventional of
noir as it is a
narrated line from
the lead detective
and shows his
depression and
alcoholism –
common themes in
Noir.

4. Characters As with most Noirs, we attempted to include our own
stereotypical cast set up.
We included the likes of police detectives, the morally
ambiguous anti-hero and the sexually forward and
potentially dangerous femme fatale, Scarlett Mulway
Both Scarlett’s personality and appearance play into noir
conventions, with her being scantly clad and
manipulative. Her body language is often quite forward to
suggest her sexuality.This is commonly seen in noirs as
the femme fatale frequently uses this to manipulate the
detective.
Even Scarlett’s movements were part of her character,
here we see her flirtatiously tucking her hair behind her
ear

5. Characters Booth – the main character and anti-hero – is seen as an
alcoholic with a troubled past that is clearly rife with
struggle.We also decided to give Booth a history with the
Serpent (the murderous antagonist who leaves a snake-like
mark on his victims) making this story a more personal tale.
The character of Jason Booth is very traditional noir – an
alcoholic detective with aggressive depressive tendencies.
The costuming and mise-en-scene of him was a big part of
the character, with his scruffy look and presence of bottles in
most scenes.We also went for the classic noir trench coat
look, but altered it slightly from the conventional beige to a
shorted black one.
Also, we chose to bring in a team of detectives to help Booth
on his case, attempting to bring down the Serpent after
returning A new twist we decided to add was the connection
that Jack Eckhart, the head Police detective, and Jason Booth
which is often unseen in classic noirs, taking away some of
the darkness from the story.

6. Mise-En-
Scene
Noir props and mise-en-scene include many things that
convey the dark genre, including things like weapons, drink
and dark clothing, as well as dark alleys, bars and shady, run
down offices. Of our 3 filming locations, we made sure they
all applied to the Noir genre – these being an alley, bar, and
dingy officeTo give the office (which was actually just the
bar’s function room) a more noir motif, we added empty
bottles, random cash and a messier, disorganised feel to the
desk/table.
The alleyway was an easy choice as, with the added filter in
post, made it look far more urban and shady than rural.
Warwickshire. Finally, after scouting multiple bars and
attempting to simply create one, we settled on using the
Globe Bar and grill.They were kind enough to let us use their
noir-esque bar for both the fight scene and the reunion of
Eckhart and Booth.
The dark mahogany of the bar really helped to convey the
noir theme. Despite being unable to film in rainy conditions, I
was able to add a rain effect in the editing process to further
cement the films position on the gothic noir genre.

7. Props and
Costuming
An extremely crucial part of conveying to the audience that the film
is a gritty Neo Noir production are the props and costuming. In our
production, we kept people in generally smart attire, with the level
of scruffiness depending on their personality. Jack Ryan’s drunk man
appeared scruffiest with a scraggy tie and roughed up shirt to
convey his poor life choices and state in the film.
Booth wore attire that would almost be considered appropriate for
an undercover police detective, however due to his troubled past
and alcoholism he’s portrayed almost scruffy-ish with his shirt and
jeans combo. A key Noir trope for an morally ambiguous
protagonist is the trench coat, despite being unable to get a classic
beige noir looking trench coat, we were able to give him a long
black over coat which resembled that of those on the big screen.
These all accurately conveyed his fairly low social status and
crippling depression. Due to their fairly high position in the police
department, both Jack and Janet wore the smartest attire including
the likes of done-up ties and blazers, this clearly conveyed the
better state of their lives and higher social position.

8. Narrative
Tropes
Our production featured a plethora of narrative tropes for
the neo noir for example the usage of black and white in
the character title cards and the flashbacks.One of the
biggest conventions people think of when thinking of a
noir/detective movie is the usage of narrative voiceover.
When writing the script, I really tried to emulate that of
the stereotypical monologue voice over.
These introduced the character of both Booth and
Scarlett (the femme fatale) as well as explaining the death
of Booth’s previous lover and the role of the serpent in his
life.
As well as being a frequently used noir convention, these
narrated scenes also help in the reduction of cost and
filming time, something that is key when creating a low
budget film.
BOOTH:
(Narrating/VO) This
isn’t the first case I
knew I could handle,
but didn’t take.
Granted, she didn’t
take it as well as the
others… She also
wasn’t the last one in
my office that
night….