This document discusses how the media product uses and challenges conventions of film noir genre. It summarizes that the opening sequence includes characters like gangsters and detectives to follow noir conventions. However, it challenges conventions by having one character fulfill multiple roles. The sequence uses settings like alleys and bars commonly seen in noir but challenges conventions through the locations chosen. It incorporates themes of murder, betrayal and jealousy demonstrated through one character rather than many. The sequence follows flashback and narration conventions but pushes boundaries by breaking the fourth wall and having the character speak directly to the audience. Overall, the opening sequence aims to intrigue audiences using noir conventions while also challenging expectations through unconventional character roles and story approaches.

1. Kenya Bell
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We researched things for the noir genre such as the characters, settings, themes, visual style,
narrative and the progression of film noirs. We included characters such as gangsters, a detective
and a main character that is a mix of detective, corrupt police and a protagonist. Our gangsters are
Tony Pensiero (Show a clip of Tony in the video), Paulie (Show a clip of Paulie in the video) and
Frankie (show a clip of Frankie in the video). Using these specific characters ensured that we
followed the conventions of a noir film, as they are normally centred on gangs causing trouble in
there nabour hoods.
A noir film is conventionally used to show the audience that the characters are stuck in the city
where the gang is, and if someone stayed there too long they would eventually become a part of
that city forever. We showed this in our media product through the story line and characters. The
storyline shows the journey of one detective that starts to question if he is on the wrong side, and
eventually makes his decision after the gang had shown him the way things could be run from the
other side (After this put on the scene where Hudson shoots Tony). The way we showed this
convention of feeling trapped through the characters was by making the characters i.e. Tony get
the detective involved very early on the job (Show the scene where Tony is talking about Hudson
to the other two gang members) As you just hear on the video Tony said ‘new’ meaning that the
characters don’t even need to be trusted to be able to join in on the gangs operations.
Being the main characters it has a lot of roles such as being the detective, corrupt cop and a
protagonist. Having one character with a lot of roles develops the conventions, because this one
character will now become the main focus of the audience and they will involve themselves more
in our film to make sure in the end they understand this character Dominic Hudson. (Show a still
image of Dominic Hudson)
Conventionally dark alleys, bars/lounges, police stations, and empty streets are used in noir films
and we achieved using some of these in our opening sequence. The settings we chose to use where
an office, a living room and a street which is located close to brink burn. The office was the police
station in the opening sequence (Show a clip from the office scene), we used an empty street for
the murder scene (Show a clip of the murder scene) and we also used a lounge which included a
lot of conventions in its self. (Show a clip of the gang scene)As you can see in the video there is a
pool table like there would be in a high gang members house, this is a strong use of the convention
because it makes the noir film look like it is set in the 1950’s.
Making sure we had the right location for our filming I went out to different locations and took
photos. (Show the images of the locations I took) After me and Mathew talked about it we decided
there locations did not have the right mise en scene for a noir film. We chose to stick to the
conventions of noir looking places to make sure the audience believed it was filmed in the 1950’s.
The opening sequence we created uses acouple of conventional themes but they challenge the way
they are usually used. The themes we used where murder, betrayal and jealousy. Again we
challenged the conventions by making one character use all of these on his own. Normally feelings
like jealousy and betrayal are portrayed from different characters however we have challenged
this and made only one character feel all these emotions making Dominic more edgy and an
interesting character.
There are different types of narrative such as flashbacks, voiceover narration, first person
narrative and flash forward narrative. We decided to use a mixture of the narrative conventions
such as flashbacks, a first person narrative and a voiceover narration. We used all of these in our
opening sequence to make the film seem interesting and intrigue the audience into the film with
little glimpses into the past.
Me and Mathew both researched different institutions to make sure we had a wide understanding
of who was most likely to produce our noir film, Snake in the Grass (Show the image of the title). I

2. Kenya Bell
did this by taking a wide variety of noir films from different points in time, and picking a couple to
see who produced them and how much money the film made. I chose Warner Bros as a conclusion
although Mathews researched showed that paramount pictures, was the produces that produced
more Noir film so we chose paramount pictures.
Me and Mathew both looked at two different opening sequences each, which meant that we could
chose a variety of conventions to bring back and use in our film. One of the conventions I found
was a flash forward, this was in the film opening Bugsy Malone. (Show a clip off the opening
sequence of Bugsy Malone in our video) We decided that using a conventional flashback would
give our noir film a nice smooth feel, giving the audience just enough glimpses into what is to come
during the rest of the film. (Show a flashback from our opening sequence)
I also looked at Sunset Blvd’s opening sequence. The title order for this film are different from the
modern conventions of titles. I didn’t chose to use the conventional title sequence like shown in
Sunset Blvd, because in now day it would bore the audience and they would not find our opening
sequence interesting and therefore will not watch our film. (Show an example from the film with
the titles all shown at once on a black screen) Not following the titles convention will make our
noir sequence modern and more watchable.
I liked the convention where the film Sunset Blvd showed the murder victim in the opening
sequence. We incorporated this into our opening sequence by showing Tony Pensiero lying dead
on the floor at the end of the sequence. (Show the clip where Tony is laid dead on the floor) We
used this convention because it intrigues the audience and makes them question why Tony got
murdered? What will happen to the rest of the gang? What happened the operation they were on?
This will make them want to watch the rest of the film to be able to find out answers.
Mathew watched the opening sequence for James Bond Casino Royale and this opening sequence
was focused around gambling and private meeting rooms. To follow this convention we decided
to include a private room in our opening sequence. And this opening sequence also lets the
audience know what type of character this person is. (Show a clipwith the gang hide out on)
(Show the titles time lines when we are speaking during the video) For further research we needed
to find out the chronological order that the titles should appear on our opening sequence. We did
this by looking at two different opening sequences. I looked at Natural Born Killers and Mathew
looked at James Bond Casino Royale’s opening sequence. This allowed us to see how long the titles
should stay visible on the screen, and which order they should go. To make sure we followed
conventions we used their orders of titles. Although we did challenge one title convention by
putting the name of our film at the end of the sequence. We chose this order so that the title of our
film was remembered in the audiences mind right at the end of the film.
I created a survey, which was given out to a wide variety of
people, so that we could find out what they would expect to
see in our film. However doing this showed us that 90.9% of
the peopled surveyed knew nothing about the noir genre or
the conventions it normally follow.
Even though the audience didn’t know as much about the noir
genre, they still liked some of the conventions that are usually found in noir films. This was things
such as plot twists which are a huge convention of noir. We made sure we used this convention in
our film because 70% of the audience liked a plot twist, therefore using this convention will give
us abigger audience. An example of how we used a plot twist is when the detective murdered Tony
Pensiero (On the video play the murder scene while one of us is speaking this paragraph)
After finding out this we decided that we should stick as closely as we could to the noir
conventions. An example of this would be when we picked the names for our characters such as
Tony Pensiero, Paulie, and Dominic Hudson (In the video show clips of the characters saying the
names)

3. Kenya Bell
However we did challenge some conventions of noir. These where things such as not including
some conventional characters like the Femme Fatale. We made this decision so that our audience
focused more on the storyline of the one main character Dominic Hudson, rather than focusing on
a romance that would distract the character and the audience.
Also we pushed the boundaries for the narrative of the story, because in our opening sequence we
create anarrative where the character is letting the audience in on all the secrets by directly talking
to them. This is challenging conventions because we have broken the 4th wall between the
characters and the audience. (On the video show the scene where Dominic looks at the camera
towards the audience)