1. Question 1 - In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge the conventions of real
media products?

2. Narrative
The narrative is a strong example of how this short
film uses generic conventions of typical Film Noir
films. One particular example of this is how the
story of the film is not completely obvious to the
audience. From my research I have found that a lot
of original Film Noir try to create mystery and
complex throughout, this is something that I
wanted to also create in the trailer so that it feels
like it engages the audience and so it is an enigma
that makes viewers want to come see the film in
cinemas. The reason I wanted to create a complex
plot was so that I can create mystery, suspense and
so that it would seem like there was more to the
story rather than being straight forward.
The trailer narrative also makes use of
techniques from original Film Noir as it uses
different characteristics such as the theme being
crime related, the use of femme fatales and
relating to greed, crime and female sexual
connotation.

3. Setting/Scenes
The trailer uses generic conventions found
in Film Noir like the setting of the film. I
wanted to use modern settings and from
them create very typical Film Noir scenes.
This is something that I think I achieved
very well because from the final
product, all the settings seem like they
were actually set between the 40's to 60's.
One particular scene in my trailer is one
which can be commonly found in a lot of
Film Noir. This scene is of a good cop sat
working at his desk with typical low
lighting trying to solve a mystery. I have
also incorporated generic conventions into
the setting of the film by including a fight
scene against a brick wall which makes the
scene look more urban and street like.
There are some elements of the trailer
where features of modern day Film Noir
have been included which cleverly
challenge the normal scenes found in this
film style, this fight scene is one of that.

4. Mise en Scene
The Mise en Scene in my trailer has a strong representation of Film Noir and
elements of this is found in almost every shot. The Mise en Scene is the main
aspect that has to have the strongest Film Noir reference so that an audience
can immediately identify the style. To be able to do this I researched things
such as Film Noir settings, props, characters, clothing, lighting, editing and
camera techniques, all of which I have included in my film.
A good example of how this trailer uses these generic conventions is through
the use of clothing. My characters were suited in things such as trilby
hats, suits, fur coats and very glamorous jewellery which are all typical. The
lighting is another example of when Film Noir has been strongly included in
the Mise en Scene as the majority of settings are dull and only have one lit
area. In the Diamond Noir trailer there is only one setting that is fully lit which
allows the audience to recognise the setting straight away which is meant to
be a set during daytime. Although the idea was to create an old Film Noir
trailer, we experimented having the fight scene set in day light, which
challenged the classic conventions to see if this would work with the rest of
the film.

5. On the other hand the rest of the lighting techniques
were characteristic of this style and worked really well in
the final edit the trailer. An example of this is in the
femme fetales scene where she is in a dark room and
only her face is lit. This is also featured in the scene with
the cop sat at the desk where he is also the only part lit in
the setting creating tension and point of focus.
When we were filming the trailer, the props that we used
were all typical of what would be found in Film Noir. The
shot of the femme fetale looking into the mirror is a shot
that I have found in this film style and is very effective
and creative, this is why we wanted it in our film. The
scene where the good cop is sitting at the desk is another
part of the trailer that uses a prop which is also
representative of this style. In this scene the cop is given
a paper file with typewriter style writing on which suits
the time and style.

6. Editing
The editing of the trailer is part of the trailer that uses many
different elements that are from Film Noir. The black and
white filter that we put on top of the footage is probably the
most obvious Film Noir editing that is in the trailer. This is
the one thing that allows the audience to establish the style
of the film. Without of this effect then I would be hard to
pass the film off as this style. If we didn't have the black and
white filter on the footage then all the other features of the
film wouldn't look like this style.
The title style and length of the trailer is something
that uses conventions of real media products by the title
font, style, colouring and wording. We made sure that the
length would use conventions of real Film Noir
productions/trailers, and by doing this we made sure that
each shot only lasted a number of seconds and that the
whole trailer is short keeping the narrative a mystery.