Conventions of Noir films

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 fairy difficult to create the blind effect on a
limited budget and without professional lighting equipment.
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 ofThe Dark
Knight

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.
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.
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.

5. Mise-en-
scene and
locations
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 office
To 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 ruralWarwickshire.
Finally, after scouting multiple bars and attempting to simply create
one, we settled on using theGlobe 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.

6. 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 scruffyish with his shirt and
jeans combo. A key Noir trope for an morally ambiguous
protagonist is the trenchcoat, 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.

7. 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
overs.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.