THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF FILM NOIR.

When watching a film noir you may notice similar techniques used, or locations. A typical noir will be told in a non linear sequence, the opening scene may show the death of our main character then they would narrate their decadence, relying quite often on flashbacks; another example of something commonly used is low-key lighting, low-key lighting tries to create an chiaroscuro effect with contrasting little light to vast amounts of dark. This creates large looming shadows that fill characters faces and give the audience a paranoid feeling; combine this with extreme close ups that are often used and it almost makes the picture unsettling.You really see the fear in the actors eyes.

An example of an extreme close up in low-key lighting.

Noir directors usually filmed night-for-night, which literally means, they filmed at night, this is what gives the genre those shadows and darkness, it was also cheaper. Another favourite was to use the venetian blind effect, due to a lot of the stories being about crime, investigators, there were often scenes set in the offices of these characters. A classic example of this technique was in Double Indemnity, when our fall guy is in the office of his own firm with his own investigator who has invited the only witness to a pre-meditated murder, our fall guy isn't sure if the witness will identify him and this is when the venetian blind effect is used, as if he is already behind bars. Using effects like this in Hollywood was unheard of because they didn't want their big stars to have shadows hiding their appearance. If the audience weren't already uncomfortable enough directors would obscure their scenes by shooting through objects, such as frosted glass, reflections or even the shadows themselves. If our fall guy was unlucky enough to get a bad dose of some awful narcotic, a dutch tilt would perfectly make the audience sympathize with him, it makes the audience see our guys trouble with movement and stabilization.

An example of the famous Dutch Tilt.

Taking the scenes from dark dingy night clubs and ram shackled hotels, to fancy restaurants and the best bars in town, makes the films more believable, it engrosses the audience more, they find themselves in these places daily. Our hero in a film noir will usually be pushed beyond his limits and during the course of a film noir you will notice the effect it will have; his dress sense will start getting sloppy, his shirt will become untucked, his tie slightly a-skew, blood will eventually stain his clothes and even in black and white you will know blood on the clothing. His mental state takes a beating too, he will start smoking and drinking heavily making his survivability more and more unlikely.



The music and sound FX of a film noir can be said to be very lonely and pessimistic, there's likely to be a musician wailing the blues in a bar where our perps are at. A great example is in The Killers, through the whole scene a piano is playing off screen, and when the two murderers come through the door the piano plays a few very different chilling keys. A lot of the sound will be emphasized such as breathing, music or certain characters speech, to draw further attention to objects or characters.