Jake-Bright's video: The Town That Vice Built

This is a short noir film I made with my group as an assignment on art films for year 12 media class. We could choose any type of art film but chose film noir because collectively it was our favorite style. Film Noir (literally meaning Film Black in French) was the name coined by French Film critic Nino Frank in 1946, to describe the dark, downbeat and black style of the American crime and detective films that had begun to emerge following World War II. The cinematic style of these movies is believed to have originated from pre-WWII European art films and the plot structure from American crime/gangster sagas. It should be noted that film noir is not a genre, but a style of film which can fall in with several genres, and each noir film from both the classic (1940s and 50s) era and post or neo-noir (1960s onwards) era follows a similar plot structure, character structure, setting, tone and view, making the style of film noir instantly recognizable. Film noirs most easily recognizable feature is the use of contrast, chiaroscuro lighting in order to cast dark shadows and patterns. This shadow effect is often used to partially or fully obscure the actors face, which is used to show a dark, cruel, sadistic side to the character. Other techniques can be used that obscure or distort the actors face, such as frosted glass, mirrors or reflective surfaces and other objects, to further manipulate the way a character is depicted, often making them look twisted, warped or perverse. This obscuring is often accompanied by tilted, diagonal camera angles, which serve to add a sense of presence or suspicion towards someone, and often shows the point of view of a character (for example in Carol Reeds The 3rd Man when main character Holly Martin looks up the stairs in the apartment to see the porter, the camera angle is tilted, portraying the porter as crooked and untrustworthy). As well as tilted camera angles, low angle shots and wide angle lenses are used and close ups are often used to emphasize shadowing of characters and setting. Remember that we are amateurs, not Carol Reed, Joseph H. Lewis or Ridley Scott. We did the best we could with the little equipment and budget we had. If you think you could do better go ahead, make your own noir film. Just dont spam the comment box with how you could have done better. Enjoy *All song titles, album and artist information are included in the credits before you ask. *It should also be worth noting that when this film was edited and exported from Adobe Premier Pro the aspect ratio was not perfect. As a result some media players show the film incorrectly, making the actors tall and thin. I am not sure if this will happen on youtube however. This phenomenon also means that some scenes may have black lines down the side from where the frames flipped or shoved to one side in the editing process. *Also, forgive the incredibly cheesy acting, its the best we could do :P