Tuesday, 20 July 2010

My first film noir poster


Here i have my first film noir poster that i have done. i have just used and old photo to experiment with the contrast, the shadows and turning it black and white. Also putting things like titles in thr ight place and where to put the actors names. All just a practice go to see how it goes and to see whta i need to improve on. I need to improve on the size of the title as it should really be bigger and be the outstanding bit on the poster. Also noir posters have alot more to doing with a person on their posters i do have a person in mine but is very distant and not very clear at all. My poster does have some noir features but in order to fully complete the task been set, i will need to reflect on what has been said and try again with a different picture.

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Further editing .



I have came back to this image for the second time to edit it further, this time i have adujed the brightness and contrast this enabled me to make the end of the ally darker then the rest of the photo and givign the barbed wire and the top of the photo shadow but also making it a little brighter then the rest of the photo, creating i feel a better effect of film noir.

My own photos


In these images i have tried to create a film noir type of photo, by adjusting the hue and saturation levels and turning the original picture into black and white. Then making the whole picture darker. I think I have done quite well with achieving the look of film noir, its dark, the actuall picture is of barbed wire, which creates an effect of crime, drama and just abit creepy. this one out of the two i feel is better and the one i like the most and fits the criteria the most.

This picture above i feel is okay you can see the shadow on the phone screen and the angle the photo has been taken, where it is over the shoulder to create the feel that someone is looking over you and the wind blur creates i feel a sense of fear and also a cold feeling, although this has more film noir characteristics, i feel the other image is better.

Monday, 28 June 2010

Film Noir .



Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime films, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low key black and white visual style that has roots in German expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the depression.
The term film noir is French for 'black film' first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era Cinema historians and critics defined the noir canon in retrospect; before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas The question of whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

German expressionism and its influences.



The basis
During the period of recovery following World War 1, the German film industry was booming. However, because of the hard economic times, filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German Universum Film AG studio developed their own style by using symbolism and mise en scene to add mood and deeper meaning to a movie, concentrating on the dark fringes of human experience.
The influence
As well as the direct influence of film makers who moved from Germany to Hollywood developments in style and technique which were developed through Expressionism in Germany impressed contemporary film makers from elsewhere and were incorporated into their work and so into the body of international cinema from the 1930s onward.
In 1924, Hitchcock was sent by his film company to work as an assistant director and art director in Berlin on the film The Blackguard. An immediate effect of the working environment there can be seen in his expressionistic set designs for The Blackguard.
The influence can also be seen though out the rest of Hitchcock's career. In his third film, The Lodger, Expressionism's influence extends to set designs, lighting techniques, and trick camera work.. In his later films, this influence continued through his visual experimentation, in the shower scene from Psycho blurred image seen through a shower curtain. Hitchcock said, "I have acquired a strong German influence by working at the UFA studios Berlin”. Hitchcock's film making has influenced many other film makers and has been one of the ways German Expressionist techniques have got into the present day.