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DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Suggestions >> Film Noir
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 09/05/2006 10:00:34 PM · #1
Remember the dark dimly lit movies of the day? Be fun to recreate that mood with a challenge. I know we had a low key challenge, but really getting into the film noir genre would be fun. But anybody that knows me, knows I LIKE DARK!!!
 09/05/2006 10:03:21 PM · #2
like this,sounds like fun.
09/05/2006 10:03:43 PM · #3
I would love love love such a challenge!
 09/05/2006 10:05:28 PM · #4
oooooooooooooooooo sounds juicy!! I'm in!
 09/05/2006 10:06:15 PM · #5
Dark is good and this is completely different from low key. :-)

Please give us a good challenge description of Film Noir, so that this can be.
 09/05/2006 10:06:21 PM · #6
YES!!!! BRING IT ON!! sounds like a ton of fun.
 09/05/2006 10:06:45 PM · #7
Great Idea!
 09/05/2006 10:14:16 PM · #8
from Wikipedia:

Visually:
"Film noirs tended to use low-key lighting schemes producing stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. ... Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide-angle lenses. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Beginning in the late 1940s, location shooting—often involving night-for-night sequences—became increasingly frequent in noir."

Thematically:
"We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noir oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel...." -Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton

Message edited by author 2006-09-05 22:14:37.
 01/10/2007 01:52:31 PM · #9
This is a great idea, and has surfaced again even more recently:

//dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=502587&highlight=film%20noir
 01/13/2007 10:07:41 PM · #10
I LOVE this idea... let's do it!!
 01/13/2007 10:08:25 PM · #11
It *is* on the list :-)
 01/13/2007 10:09:16 PM · #12
and when might that be???
01/13/2007 10:25:04 PM · #13
Originally posted by love:
and when might that be???


Hee hee, damned if I know!
 01/13/2007 10:39:02 PM · #14

crimeculture.com: quote/unquote:

• Discussions of noir often centre on visual and specifically cinematic elements – on things like low-key lighting, chiaroscuro effects, deep focus photography, extreme camera angles and expressionist distortion. But it is essential as well to take account of themes, mood, characterisation, point of view and narrative pattern. Both literary and cinematic noir are defined by: (i) the subjective point of view; (ii) the shifting roles of the protagonist; (iii) the ill-fated relationship between the protagonist and society (generating the themes of alienation and entrapment); and (iv) the ways in which noir functions as a socio-political critique.

• The cynical, existentially bitter attitude that is generally taken to be one of the hallmarks of noir, creates a tone that can be blackly comic but that, if it modulates too far towards light humour, or becomes upbeat or sentimental, will lose its 'noirish' quality.

• The ‘look’ of noir

Being fundamentally an action genre, and often low budget thrillers, noir used a strong, punchy filmmaking style for maximum impact. Besides its thematic elements which could include fatalism, alienation and transgression, its look was the other half of the noir equation. These films’ long, sharply-defined shadows, frames bathed in inky blackness, tilted camera angles and claustrophobic compositions created an overall aesthetic of nocturnal, subterranean unreality that is easily recognised (and imitated).
Film noir linked this look to its dark plotlines to express themes of shadowy motivations and bleak prospects. Using visual elements in this way to express the story is the basis of Expressionism, an extreme visual style of heightened perceptions. Its sense of drama is at the opposite pole from the style of ‘realism’. Expressionist visual techniques were pioneered in Germany during the 1920s and redeployed in 1940s Hollywood by refugee filmmakers fleeing Hitler like Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Edward Dmytryk and Fred Zinnemann, all of whom are strongly associated with the noir style.
 01/13/2007 10:50:33 PM · #15
I think I really like this idea although I am not very familiar with "film noir" after reading zeuszen's description is this a "film noir" kind of image?


or am I on the wrong track?
 01/13/2007 10:56:32 PM · #16
I'm not sure if this is a "noir" or not, but I love "The Night of the Hunter" (this movie), especially the water scenes. It's a really corny movie in some ways, but it's so much fun to watch.

The other one I always remember is Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" wiki info. We were able to see it on a large screen in Ottawa a couple years ago - I don't know what to say about it, it's really something else (way to be descriptive, ursula).

I wish I could see more like these.

[edited spelling]

Message edited by author 2007-01-13 22:57:16.
 01/13/2007 11:00:54 PM · #17
Originally posted by boysetsfire:
I think I really like this idea although I am not very familiar with "film noir" after reading zeuszen's description is this a "film noir" kind of image?


or am I on the wrong track?


The shadows are towering and unreal and black enough, the two behind the shadows (far left) are just too unwarped to fit. Both water and the wall make a great canvas, the light, too, rakes a good ambiance. The trees, however, are two real and distract from any intended unreality. (Opinion)
 01/13/2007 11:04:07 PM · #18
Originally posted by ursula:
... I always remember is Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" wiki info. We were able to see it on a large screen in Ottawa a couple years ago - I don't know what to say about it, it's really something else (way to be descriptive, ursula)...


As do I remember. 'Something else' as good as it gets.
 01/13/2007 11:07:02 PM · #19
Originally posted by zeuszen:
Originally posted by ursula:
... I always remember is Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" wiki info. We were able to see it on a large screen in Ottawa a couple years ago - I don't know what to say about it, it's really something else (way to be descriptive, ursula)...


As do I remember. 'Something else' as good as it gets.


Right. :)
 01/13/2007 11:09:57 PM · #20
Originally posted by zeuszen:

The shadows are towering and unreal and black enough, the two behind the shadows (far left) are just too unwarped to fit. Both water and the wall make a great canvas, the light, too, rakes a good ambiance. The trees, however, are two real and distract from any intended unreality. (Opinion)


thankyou, I could not have expected a better response. I think I get it.

And yes it would be a great challenge. we may see some more fresh faces on the front page after this one.
 01/13/2007 11:12:06 PM · #21


The two on the left (above) are the better examples IMO. The two on the right (above) would be fine settings, but lack a human element (a psychological mode).

Here are three more:



RKT's image (far right), to me, feels noir mainly because of subject and title, less by any technique other than perspective.

Message edited by author 2007-01-13 23:33:13.
 01/13/2007 11:52:55 PM · #22
Originally posted by zeuszen:


The two on the left (above) are the better examples IMO. The two on the right (above) would be fine settings, but lack a human element (a psychological mode).

Here are three more:



RKT's image (far right), to me, feels noir mainly because of subject and title, less by any technique other than perspective.


Good examples...Bottom three I completely agree. Top 4, although interesting, really aren't film noir-ish.
 01/13/2007 11:59:19 PM · #23
Originally posted by Cutter:
...Top 4, although interesting, really aren't film noir-ish.


Pourquois non?
 01/13/2007 11:59:51 PM · #24
like this?

01/14/2007 12:22:53 AM · #25
There's plenty of negative space but the true shadows remain on the face, which is an innocent one sans the kind of psychological darkness one would expect. The straw hat is folksy and thus anti-polar to the theme. The expression is hopeful, if anything...

The composition is simple and, despite the surprising lack of a field of view, not particularly accomplished in the kind of compositional sense one would expect in a noire (superfluity on the left/compacted on the right).
Noire, to my sense, calls for urbane methods and milieus.
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