The genre film Noir is dark and depressing, usually portrayed as old detective films or Gangsta films like gun for hire, or films like Sin city which is Film Noir but also has certain areas colored like a woman's lips if they have red lipstick on. The time period film Noir is based in is the 1940's-1950's. The origins of film Noir started because of the Prohibition in America(not allowing alcohol) This is where the Gangsta's game in and supplied Alcohol illegals to people to make profit. The clothing usually portrayed in film Noir are three piece suits (shirt, Waistcoat, Jacket),Fedoras, ties, and shiny shoes, They would also most likely have slicked back hair, guns, cigars, and pocket watches.
The photos that inspired me where screen shots from movies, and peoples work that had been entered into competitions, I looked at all sought of pictures like some one looking through blinds or a an who's face was mostly shadows and holding a gun. I choose these because they looked creative and looked like I could recreate them.
The key light is the brightest and most dominate light of a setup hence why it is called the Key light, helping the key light is the Fill light which is usually placed on the opposite side of the key light to fill in the shadows left by the key light. The last one is the back light which leaves an outline around the back ground. Key and Back lights are the most important.
Gobos, short for go before optics,These are cutouts which are made of metal or glass that can go inside a light fixture between the light source and the lens. These are used to cast a perfectly crisp shadow but require specialized lights that have projection lenses.
Cookies, also known as Cucoloris are cutouts of wood, metal, plastic, or anything that cast a patterned shadow e.g. a blind pattern. Cookies go between the light fixture and the subject.
My Ideas and Photos where all taken at home in the study which has a film Noir feel to it in certain parts of the room, and the near the staircase banisters. The first picture I took was a close up on my models face that was wearing a Fedora, trench coat with it's collar popped and a a cigar in their mouth (near the staircase), The second picture was a shot of my models full body and showing him pretend to light the cigar in his mouth so we could catch the smoke emitted from the match to put more detail in the picture. My third picture was a picture of a Fedora with a toy gun underneath it propping it up and a pocket watch in front of it, I made a cookie to put on the light so it would have a shutter effect, My fourth and final picture was of my model sat on a chair with his legs on the table, a glass of whiskey(cold tea) in hand, a gun in their other hand, an old fan, A cigar, case notes, and a empty bottle of whiskey on the desk, My model was wearing a shirt and waist coat with trousers, Fedora and shiny shoes.
The location of my picture where all at my house, some in the study, and some at the banisters for my stairs. The times weren't a problem we made sure the pictures where taken at night so there was wasn't much natural light to interfere and through the lighting off. The props we used I had at home which where the toy gun, pocket watch, fedora, the only things we had to buy where the whisky bottle. and we made the cigars by rolling paper up. The model was my older brother so we had to work round his work and college schedule which wasn't to hard because he goes to college mostly in the morning and he doesn't work Thursdays so we took the photos on Thursday. The equipment we used was my camera and a LED light and tripod from Grantham college that they let my dad borrow to help with the project.
I took multiple shots from each angle of the area I was in to see what looked like and also adjust the lighting of the LED light that I was using to get shadows, I also experimented with and without cookies to see what it looked like. The ones that had more detail, and weren't to dark or to bright from the lighting adjustments I kept, out of all the all the pictures of the fedora shot I only managed to get one that showed the cookie in effect.
I did all my editing at home using Picasa to turn the pictures black and white and adjust the settings to make it look more old and grainy,In one picture I turned all black and white except for the whisky in my models had which retained it's color to stand out.
I don't feel like it need's improving I like Them for what they are, the only thing I think I could improve would be the lighting. I learn't about different lighting techniques, and about cookies, and Gobos.
My final products stuck almost to a T on my proposal,I had to change the one that was meant to be outside because of how windy and cold it was, so we changed that to be inside and a bit closer up.
