Evaluation

Film noir

Outtake video

Diary

Film Review

Film Review analysis

Poster

This is my poster for my film noir. It is clear to see that the poster is linked to the film as the characters appear on both the poster and in the film, this makes it easy for the audience to connect the two media. I chose this photo because it helps to convey the feelings of all the characters. My friend Ewan is in the middle of the two girls because it shows how the girls both have a connection to him. It helps to inform the audience that the plot involves a love story between the three. I believe the outfit of the male is appropriate for the film noir genre but to improve, I would have included a fedora hat. The outfits of the females I feel could be more appropriate but because we had to film after sixth form, it was difficult to bring different outfits.

I used an editing software to put the black and white filter over the image. By doing this, it is more identifiable to the film. I also used the software to blur out the background which creates greater emphasis on the characters and leads to viewer to focus on them.

I included my production logo in the top which also appears at the start of the film. The BBFC rating is in the bottom left and is clear to see, for legal reasons. I included the month of release which is in large font and stands out, so the audience can clearly see when the film is out. The title and tag line are in a different colour to the rest of the poster. This is red, which connotes love and death - both of which are in the film. The title is in the largest font and the work 'unidentified' creates the question of what is being unidentified and builds suspense in the viewer as they want to know what the film is about. The tag line is a rhetorical question which makes the viewer involved in the poster as it uses the word 'you' and makes them think about their own personal experience.

This is the type of place my poster would be shown, as well as in bus shelters, cinemas, billboards on the side of the road and throughout retail parks. These are all places that will reach out to my target audience.

Film Posters

Is film noir a genre?

Film noir is a style of filmmaking characterised by elements such as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks and intricate plots. The style of genre was prevalent mostly in American crime dramas of the post-WW2 era.

Film Noir was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura (1944). A wide range of films reflected the resultant tensions and insecurities of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are readily evident in noir, reflecting the 'chilly' Cold War period when the threat of nuclear annihilation was ever-present. The criminal, violent, misogynistic, hard-boiled, or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were a metaphoric symptom of society's evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict, purposelessness and sense of injustice. There were rarely happy or optimistic endings in noirs.

Analysis of film noir 2