Websites on Film Noir

http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/home.html

http://americanfilmnoir.com/

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Film_Noir

These websites are really helpful in teaching the key codes and conventions of film noir, also giving examples of various features and iconography that helped inspire our own opening title sequence within the genre.

Codes and Conventions of an OTS

Codes and conventions of opening sequences from kcasmedia

This is a slideshare that represents the key codes and conventions of an OTS, this is very useful to us when deciding what we need to include in our own sequence. 

Analysis of an Opening Title Sequence

Abertura: American Horror Story - Asylum from Televisual on Vimeo.

This is the opening title sequence to the third season of the popular horror drama, 'American Horror Story'. The season was first aired on 'FX Horror' on the 17th of October 2012. Each season the show follows a different narrative in a different time period, but it often uses the same actors to play characters in each season and many say that this relates to how all the seasons will culminate. This 'OTS' is from the third season, 'Asylum', which based in a 1960s mental asylum.

This opening is just over one minute in length and is made up entirely of dis-jointed and highly-stylised shots of character and setting. The titles appear on screen in a signature bold font on a black background that is seen in all the seasons.


The sequence is very concept driven and does not display much information about the characters or plot. The dark lighting and disconcerting music create a creepy atmosphere that conforms with the horror genre.

The pace of shots is synced to the changes in tempo of the music, which makes the sequence flow and immerse the audience, which is essential to the horror genre.

The titles are set at regular intervals and start by introducing the main actors featured in the show. It ends with the show title which is typical in most opening title sequences, especially those for television programmes.

The sequence creates an enigma for the show by only representing the theme and not introducing any of the characters or plot through anything other than fast-paced shots that say very little about the characters in question. This draws audience attention as they will want to discover the characters in the show.

Sudden crescendos in the music are designed to shock the audience and create a foreboding atmosphere that will scare the audience. This is a well known musical technique in the horror genre, but is particularly interesting here as it is such a sudden contrast from the low-level clanging sounds in the rest of the track.

Aladdin: A Film Noir - Photo shoot

In order to further our understanding of the genre, we experimented with the elements of mie-en-scene with in Film noir.

During this activity we learned about the effects shadowed lighting had on how we would edit into black and white and change other aspects of color-balance. For example, when editing the photos involving a lighter flame we had to experiment with the contrast levels in the image so not to lose the sharp angles of the shadowing once we had added black and white filters. Converting a traditional story into the film noir genre helped us with our understanding of typical plots and characters in film noir.

     

Continuity Task

The Conversation -

This is the continuity task I filmed with Emily and Lily. We planned the camera angles together and I controlled the camerawork. We took the 180 degree rule into account by keeping the tripod in a central position and turning the camera.

We also included a shot reverse shot editing technique to show a connection between the characters and an action match on Lily opening and closing the door.

We used this exercise to practice continuity and how we ensure that camera angles do not contradict each other.