Media Studies 3 - Shona Isla

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005f919

The short film I watched is called LeCheval  2.1 .  This is one of the most random short films ever, but has quite a funny wee storyline! Although the film was very strange it used a lot of clever camera angles and had a wide range of camera shots. I found the reasonably humourous part of it was when you think the guy is coming to some sense of reality then goes off on another tangent and decides he’s a cow!  The shots I thought were best was the very last one where the french dude just appears from among the cows and decides he must be a cow too, this shot has a side mid-shot of the man.

The other day in class we started to watch a documentary on film noir. We got through two motifs/conventions of film noir before the bell:

Backround

The fillms were usually shot in Los Angeles. They were low budget films, which usually took about two weeks to film. The main plot was usually showing the darker nature of man, and normally people were set out to find the truth. Film Noir has been said to be a style rather than a genre, which the french created. The french also emmulated the style in the 1950s/1960s. The films were sometimes seen as communist, and down rated, so that meant that there was a smaller audience going to them. In film noir the characters are usually trying to find a new self, and most of them are attempting to go somewhere else. Furthermore, there is also a conspiracy of paranoia running through the narrative. It is also seen that ‘Touch Of Evil’ was the end of the film noir period. Lastly, in these films the violence provokes the action within the film, and the use of danger lets the audience know whats going to happen before the characters do.

Lighting

The lighting in the film noir style is a key aspect as it helps to create the moral or cultural codes in the film. Light and dark can evaporate through good use of lighting. Secondly, the director would usually spend more time with the actors rather than the lighting as it would be so simple yet effective to do and set up. The low key light would also create shadow of shadows. Aditionally, the film production company could probably save money too, as they wouldn’t have to pay for many extras as the shadows from the ligths could place as  a whole croud. So - three extra’s shadows could then create a whole crowd(audience) for the film.

Femme Fetale

The femme fetales in the films were mostly the centre of attention, and more often than not the powerful, seductive, evil characters. They idea for them was taken from women out of the bible and from greek mythology, like ‘Pandora’s Box’. In film noir the femme fetales aren’t stopped by the males, yet in Neo Noir they are stopped. Women could also be seen or represented as out of place in such film styles like film noir. The femme fetale are menipulative to the male characters, and use blackmail against them. They are greedy as well. The females will also end up doing what ever they need to, to get what they want, like murder.

By watching this documentary I know have a stronger grasp of the film and neo noir concept.

The other day in media we watched two scenes out of the films, The Hitcher and The Lost Highway.

The scene from ‘The Hitcher’ that we watched was the opening one of it. By watching this our group got a better idea of how to work with what we have, as this opening basically uses just a car as its setting, and doesn’t really have that much props. So, as we may have a constraint for equipmen, this could help us out.

In ‘The Lost Highway’ we watched the scene from near the ending of it, though it could have been an opening to it. By watching this I got the a sense of different vibes you can get of simple facial expressions, and clever use of camera angles.