Film Noir Ingredients List
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Character Conventions:
Central Characters:
Private Investigator/Detective/Plainclothes Detective
A law abiding citizen lured or forced to commit a crime or a victim of circumstance down on luck.
A Femme Fatale
Other characters often include:
Corrupt officials, policemen or gangsters
Jealous Husbands/Wives, friends or family
A nosy character, journalist, police informant who may wind up missing or murdered.
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Plot Devices:
Complex or deliberately confusing plots
Flashbacks or temporal changes to interrupt the flow
Narration or voice-over to develop the story
Crime or Murder. Theft, robbery, heist
Greed and Jealousy as criminal motivation
False accusations, betrayal, double crossing
Memory Loss by a central character
A number of suspicious characters who have motivation or motives concerned with the crime.
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Visual Conventions:
Low Key Lighting, High Contrast
Dramatic Shadows, Hard Shadows (from objects i.e. blinds, railings)
Obscured Faces, characters or details.
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Cinematography Conventions:
Low Wide-angle shots
Canted/Skewed shots to create disorientation
Shots that create distortion. i.e. through glass objects, curved windows, vases etc.
Shots of reflections in glass, mirrors or shiny objects.
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Tone or mood:
Disillusionment, disenchantment, melancholy
Bleakness or pessimism
Desperation
Alienation
Ambiguity
Moral Corruption, Evil
Guilt
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Additional Conventions:
Often set in an urban jungle or sprawling city.
Bars, Lounges and illegal gambling dens.
Climactic scene in a visually complex or industrial setting
Commonly set at night or in a rainy (depressing) city
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