Post 11-Advanced production skills workshop 1

In the lesson we began by discussing 'Film Noir', which translates as 'Black Film'. Nino Frank,1946, a French film critic came up with the idea and introduced it to Hollywood. Film Noir reflected the trend of American crime and detective films, and also encompassed a dark, downbeat 'Black' theme. Film Noir however should not be described as a genre, it is a style/mood/theme of the film in question.

Film Noir is  a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, 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.These films display the insecurities of the time period. They also counterbalance the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies. The general story's portray a cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character who encounters a beautiful, promiscuous, a-moral double-dealing and seductive 'Femme Fatale'. She may persuade him into being the 'Fall Guy', often following a murder.



Once we had watched the clips of Film Nior we began talking about Highlights and Shadows. The use of black and white can manipulate the space of the scene, as well as this it can show inferior and superior characters, for example dark lighting would represent an inferior antagonist character, in contrast, bright lighting represent a superior character and the protagonist. Black and White film creates shadows and there are two types of shadow, the first being Cast Shadow. A cast shadow is created when the object, for example a character, blocks the light source and thus 'casts' a shadow. An attached shadow occurs when lighting fails to to illuminate part of an object because of its shape and size.

We light objects by creating both highlights and shadows to create our sense of a scene's space. There are two different ways to describe shadows; attached and cast. Lighting also shapes a shot's overall composition." In the shot below the gang members are brought into a unit "by the pool of light cast by the a hanging lamp. At the same time, it sets up a scale of importance, emphasising the protagonist by making him the most frontal and clearly lit figure."

Finally we discussed how lighting can affect our sense of shape and texture. We watched  Lemon by Hollis Frampton  as this illustrates this very well.

After watching this short film i realised how much you could manipulate the shape of an object through the use of lighting. So following on from this we got into two groups and attempted to rein act what the video showed. The group i worked in used a sea shell, we had black paper, and a torch. We turned all the lights off and put the object in the middle of the black paper and moved the torch around it going on top or below it, seeing how we could effectively use lighting. The video below shows our attempts at stylistic lighting.

I feel that the skills I've learnt in this workshop will very prove useful when it comes to the production of my own film. I can now fully understand the effect that lighting has on a film, i will now be able to add bits of my knowledge into my own production, thus improving the overall quality of the film. I am pleased i completed this workshop and feel it have given great incite into the importance of lighting within film.