Deconstruction: Typography in Film Noir

Hotel Noir, released in 2012, uses this style for its titles and trailer. It contains two staple motifs of film noir, smoke and monochrome. However, the use of a sans serif block font is a fairly recent convention. It is seen in several modern film noir movies, perhaps in an attempt to appeal to action fans, as this style (block font with metallic effects) is used mostly in gritty action movies. This can be seen here and in Gangster Squad's promotional material.

However, looking at older, more traditional film noir movies, one can see that this was not always the case. In these examples, some other styles are used.

This example uses a slanted, striped font. Striped fonts were common and most likely used to resemble the neon signs of the time in which these movies were set, the stripe being the space between the neon tubes. It is an interesting effect, one that would be easy to do, but an effective minimalist representation of a neon sign. It can also be interpreted as an art deco style.

This one is interesting for its use of a delicate cursive font for one word and a blocky serif font. They are a stark contrast to each other, making the title stand out.

Editing: Tape recorder sound effects.

I downloaded some free to use music to add into our opening. I felt that jazz music would be the most appropriate considering our genre is film noir and this is common convention for the genre.

I dragged the audio from the downloads in to final cut pro. I used the blade tool to cut it at the same time the tape recording started so that I could adjust the volume of that section independent to the rest of it. I reduced the volume so that the voice over could be heard more clearly along with the tape recorder's clicks and whirring. I felt that this music did not fit the second part of the opening where the detective was getting ready to meet the kidnapper, so I had it cut off at the same time the tape recording ended, which additionally created more tension and had a nice dramatic effect.

I think this music was the most fitting I could find and is adequate for the first part, but we need something more tense for the second part.

Deconstruction - Amateur Film Noir

Deconstruction of Amateur Film Noir

To see what was possible for our own production, I decided to deconstruct another amateur piece.

I'm a big fan of the music used in this film. It's a downbeat jazz song with saxophones and pianos, very popular music to use in classic film noir and exactly the kind of audio I'd like to use in our own production as it sets the atmosphere very well. No other sound effect is used but I think this is effective for the opening of a film as it gives little away. 

A woman's feet, presumably the femme fatale of the film, are seen walking down the street. She is wearing heels and a skirt which are commonly used to represent sexuality and seduction, which are generic character traits of the femme fatale role. This gives us an idea as to what to look for when finding costumes for our film. An unusual editing technique is also used where the feet are seen walking blended in with the mans face to imply that he is thinking about her.

The man is also seen drinking alcohol which is a big feature in the film noir genre as it represents stress. Many of the detectives in the films have troubled pasts and are hardened characters who use alcohol to cope with the stress of being a detective. 

A fedora style hat is worn, another implication for our own costume. For male costumes hats like these are a key feature and seen in many classic films.

An extremely common motif of violence is the use of guns which is seen below. I really like the way the gun in seen in the shadow before it's seen in the mans hand as high contrast shadows are big in film noir. Also, the shadow is shown on shuttered blinds which are commonly used for lighting effects.

Audience Feedback on First Draft

After completing the first draft of our film opening we collected some audience feedback in order to improve. The audience had to look at the genre, conventions, sound, titles, editing and improvements. 

The first piece of feedback we received suggested that the transitions could be improved by being clearer. After receiving this we made an improvement to the transitions in our opening scene. However, they liked the titles, voiceover and cigarette scene. 

The next piece of feedback we received suggested that we should use a stereotypical location of an American street but this would be very complex to do without being in America. So instead we will stick to an alleyway and detectives office which are also stereotypical locations used in film noir. On the other hand, they liked our female voiceover, typography and match on action.

This feedback suggested that the time period was unclear and there were cars seen in the background. However, when we looked back at this the cars were very far off in the distance and could be seen driving past the entrance of the alley way therefore only a few flashes could be seen and they could have been cars from the 1950's.

 

Another piece of feedback we received helped us to improve our opening scene by making the lighting less bright in order make the money in the briefcase visible. But they liked our voiceover, titles and music. 



 

Overall, the feedback we received helped us to improve our opening scene. It was useful to see what people liked and to make sure the genre was clear. As we knew the storyline well it was also helpful to have people who had never seen it before to watch it in order to make sure the storyline was also clear.

Deconstruction - Drive Opening Credits

Deconstruction of Drive opening credits

As contemporary film noir is a particularly limited genre, we had to look elsewhere for sources of inspiration. I chose to deconstruct the opening sequence of Drive (2011), as despite not being a typical film noir it does display some elements conventional of the genre.

Immediately the typography is seen, written in a pink display font similar to how film noir titles often combine plain fonts with show fonts for a contrapuntal effect.

The main actors name is seen first followed by the name of the film which emulates the typical order of titles shown in classic film noir. Often the names of actors in old film noir were well known within the genre and big stars such as Bogart and Bacall were in many different films. The title is also shown above a night time cityscape, a typical noir setting. Many films were set within inner cities, particularly shifty backstreets and bars, and the nighttime setting helps to create suspense and mystery. 

The scene then cross dissolves into the man sitting in the car. The titles also appear and reappear using fade in and out transitions which are commonly seen in film noir, for instance in this film opening the titles fade into each other. 

In the next shot where he turns to face the road, the lights from the city illuminate half his face and create contrasting shadows and highlights which is another element heavily used in film noir to create suspense and anonymity. 

For example in this screen cap, a silhouette of two men is seen highlighted by light coming from the edges, creating a dramatic contrast. 

A scene with cars is also shown, an element highly linked with action because of many car chase scenes. Cars are also a stereotypical masculine interest which links to the protagonist of film noirs consistently being male, with females used as plot devices or obstacles to over come (femme fatale).

On the back of the man's jacket a motif resembling a gang sign can be seen, and gangs are a recurring feature seen in film noir. 

Finally, the way the light from the windows shadows on his jacket can be seen as reminiscent of the venetian blind effect seen in detective's offices.

Despite not being an actual film noir, 'Drive' contains many subtle elements of it that can be included in our own work. 

Costume Femme Fatale Deconstruction

Inspiration: The Femme Fatale

Make up

My first inspiration for part of the costume is the make up and hair style from Sin city posters featuring the femme fatales. Much emphasis is on the colour of red, especially red lipstick which stands out on the monochrome background.

The femme fatale is the dangerous seductress who causes trouble for the protagonist, and sometimes is the antagonist in a film noir, and red is often used as a representation of blood and danger but also lust and romance suitable for a femme fatale. 

Femme fatale make up:

• Simple soft curls
• Dark eyes, winged eyeliner 
• red lipstick 
• Pale complexion

Costume: Inspiration 

Marilyn Monroe was the was the glamorous fashion icon. In the 1940/50s women often wearing form fitting clothes, something Monroe fully embraced the classic little black dress, much like an elegant femme fatale . I wanted to base the femme fatale appearance around her as she had a glamorous which would have influenced many women's fashion choice.   

   

I can see from this deconstruction that our femme fatale character doesn't have to be dressed elaborately,as the style is quite simple, but tight fitting or long and flowing to conform with the dress style of women in the 1940 and 50s.          

Deconstruction of Female Actors

 

Film Noir Female Characters

Lead Female actor:The main lead woman is known as the 'femme fatale'.The femme fatale's role is to block the male lead in his pursuit of solving a crime/problem. They are promiscuous women who are seductresses for the male characters, they are glamourised as the sultry, dramatic double-dealing women who are the cause of an issue- either through a betrayal or double-crossing. When working against the femme fatale she is normally stopped, or destroys the main lead man, resulting in a not so happy ending.  

The 'Good Girl': To contrast with the 'femme fatale' the view of the traditional family woman is introduced. A 'normal' reinforces the innocence of the 'Good girl' and highlights the allure of the femme fatale which draw the audience towards her. She is often depicted out of place and a damsel in distress and the victim of circumstance.

Veronica Lake

  In 'Blue Dahlia' Lake's appeared as Joyce the estranged wife of Eddie Haywood, she plays the femme fatale who ends up helping the protagonist in his pursuit to fix an issue and leaves with him at the end, and it's suggested that their characters have a romantic relationship. 

Editing Cigarette Glow Effect

I added a glow effect to when the detective lights his cigarette, more specifically, I darkened the rest of the clip, as in my deconstructions, I found lighting was very dramatic. I also felt like it emphasised the sound of the lighter lighting.

I started by copying the clip on to a new layer above the current one. It lined up exactly and was completely identical. This was within the nested clip which had the black and white filter over it, so it appears in colour in the previews.  I adjusted the lighting of the clip underneath to be darker using the colour correction and exposure levels.

I then applied a vignette mask to the clip on the top, and moved its centre to be over the cigarette lighter. I then adjusted the falloff and size until I thought it fit, and it was complete. I did ideally want to apply this effect to many clips within the opening, but when I tried, the preview rendering dropped to unbearably slow speeds, making it impractical.

I like how this effect looks, but I think it makes too much of the frame too dark, so if I were to do it again I would lighten the top clip instead of darkening the bottom clip.

Harlem Sunset First Draft Evaluation

We have completed the first draft of our film opening and received feedback on it. Overall the opening was very well received, especially our sound editing and use of filters.

After my own inspection of the piece, I found a few other minor issues, namely, the sound clipping at the end. The woman's voiceover is too loud, causing some distortion. This can be fixed in final cut very easily, so it is a change I will definitely make. It will, however, require balancing the music and sound effects as well. The distortion can be found around 2:00 minutes, on the lines "I'd just knock him out, and move in to the next one."

Secondly, the continuity error of the ransom message. The man states that they will meet at "midnight tonight" but when the detective is shown in the alleyway, it is very obviously broad daylight. We attempted to edit the footage to make it appear more like night time, but this negatively affected the quality of the video in other aspects, so we decided to leave it. Thankfully, it did not seem to be a major issue, as in the class feedback, no one mentioned it. Fixing this would require us either reshooting the alley scene or re-recording the voice over. It also seems unusual to have a kidnapper meet the detective in bright daylight, but this is too impractical to fix at this stage in the production.

We received some criticism concerning our mise-en-scene and time period. Supposedly, the costume and tape recorder were not from the same time period, however this is not something we can fix as we do not have more appropriate props available to us, and it would require reshooting, which we cannot do this late in production.

Editing: Focus blur animation

In our film opening, shortly after the blinking animation, I edited the footage to imitate someone's vision slowly focusing on an object, as it adds a sense of realism and helps reinforce the narrative.

I started by selecting the focus blur from the blur filters and applying it to the clip I then centred the effect so that the focus was on the actress' face. I preferred this to the other blur filters as it blurred more at the edges than the centre, which is more realistic. I set the time to the point where I want the transition between "out of focus" and "more focused" to begin.

I then adjusted the values for the focus blur to obscure the image more, to resemble a person's vision shortly after waking up. I then toggled keyframe animation for the "amount" and "softness" values (+ icons in the diamonds).

I then moved the timeline forward slightly and toggled the keyframes again, and adjusted the values. I did want to adjust the interpolation of the keyframes, but I could not find a way to do so in final cut pro. The result can be found at 2:13 in the opening. The effect ends up only being about a second long, but I think it adds a lot to the piece and makes the events clearer (makes it more obvious that he has been struck in the head). If I were to do it again, I would most likely make it longer.

Peer Feedback Improvements

Improvements Based on Peer Feedback

Cleaner Transitions

After receiving peer feedback we learnt we had a couple of things to fix. The first of these was the filter which flashed in between transitions. This is because there was a gap in between the fade in and out effect, and because the transition was placed on the video, it didn't apply to the filter, causing it to flash in between the two transitions.

I sought to fix this by using the blade tool to cut out the parts of the filter from where one transition ended to where the other began. In case this didn't work, I disabled this section rather than deleting it. I did this both in between the fade to colour transition, and for the blinking effect.





However, this succeeded in stopping the filter from flickering on and off in between the transitions. Now, when the shot fades out, it fades to a plain black screen rather than a grainy black screen with the outline of the filter on. 

Overexposure

The other main criticism we received was that when the money was in the briefcase, it was too bright to be able to tell what it was. This was due to the 50s TV black and white effect we applied to the entire film which made a lot of the brighter shots very overexposed. 

To fix the problem, I first removed the 50s TV effect from that particular clip.



Then I completely lowered the global saturation of the clip, making it black and white without needing the 50s TV filter. Despite making this clip a slightly different shade of black and white to the other clips, you can easily tell that it's money in the briefcase where it wasn't as obvious before. 

























I'm pleased with the changes as they were the only rectifiable criticisms we received and were simple to do, yet made a lot of difference to the film opening as it made it look cleaner and made one of the pivotal points in the film less ambiguous. 

Peer Review - 1st Draft

First Draft Peer Feedback

The feedback we received on our first draft, found below, was overwhelmingly positive. 

Some of the features that received the most praise were the sound, particularly the music track and the voiceover, and the typography. Many people said it showed many common conventions of film noir such as the black and white and the typical street setting. There were a few criticisms, some that we will be able to improve and others that we won't as they would involve refilming parts. 

One that can be improved on is our transitions; this was something I picked up on previously and had aimed to fix anyway. As we used a grainy image over the top of the footage rather than a traditional, built in filter, it often flashed in parts where it wasn't meant to in between the fade to black transitions. 

Another thing which needs to be improved is the exposure on the money in the briefcase which I have discussed in this post. I aim to correct this the same way the shot of the face was corrected.

This is an example of an improvement that we will be unable to make. We noticed at the time of filming that the tape recorder said "V-Sensor" on, however as we were lucky to be able to obtain one at all we took no notice of this even though it was not era appropriate. Also, this person picked up on cars flashing past in the background of one shot, something none of us had ever picked up on. However, there is no way for us to fix this. As it was not something we or anyone else noticed we hope it doesn't greatly affect the film. 

Overall, the feedback was positive and we were glad to see people liked some of the small details we added. Although one person said that they were confused by the time period, feedback from others said that the film conformed to the era so we aren't worried and will seek to improve the parts that we can. 

Editing - Colour Correction

Colour Correction

Most film noir has a very high colour contrast within the black and white and I aimed to recreate that using colour correction in our footage. The high contrast creates a more shadowy effect which I think is very effective for the genre. 

I found that an easy way to achieve this was by altering the exposure of each of the clips. This had to be done individually as each of the clips had slightly different lighting so was quite time consuming. A good setup usually was to lower to exposure of the shadows and highlights while raising the exposure of the mid tones. This created a good contrast between the darker and lighter areas without getting rid of the details. The amount varied with each clip.

One place I felt this worked particularly well was on the shot of the feet walking in front of the fence as the shadows are very prominent. 

However, one place where this wasn't as effective was on the shot of the money in the briefcase. As the money was already quite overexposed, adding the 50s TV black and white effect made it so white that even bringing the exposure all the way back down could not bring back the detail on the paper. This might make it difficult for people to understand what the shot it meant to be showing.

The same problem also occurred with one shot of my dad's face as he's quite pale. To rectify this, we removed the 50s TV effect from that particular shot and instead lowered the saturation to give it a black and white effect. Although this made the shade of black and white slightly different to the rest of the film, there was no extreme difference. 

The one other problem with the exposure editing is that the face of the other man looks very dark in places. However, I'm not particularly concerned with this as I feel it makes him look like more of a villain and quite like the effect.

Overall, I'm pleased with the effect that the colour correction gives despite causing some problems with overexposure in some places. I don't think these issues cause a problem with the overall film, however.