Film Noir's lighting emphasizes shadowing and harsh lighting in order to create a sense of volume and depth in films that embodies the film noir style.
It originated out of Europe after the Second World War and the 1940s and 50s saw the rise and huge success of the film noir genre on the silver screen. Today, the look is still popular in such films such as Black Swan and Drive and Sin City.
The film noir look is using low-key lighting as well as emphasizing shadows and harsh lighting which will capture the dark side of American life: urban crime, mobsters and thieves. To light a film noir style, there are three basic things to remember;
- To get hard crisp shadows, use a small intense light
- Emphasize the difference between high and low-key lighting
- Use at least 500 watt lights to get solid crisp backs and stark whites
A fogy background can also have a great effect to a silhouetted figure, especially when lit from the back. Shadowy figures are a big part of the film noir look and a well used technique even in modern days. Again, using intense lighting, set up a series of lights that will be out of frame and slightly behind the actor so that the shadow is projected on the wall behind.
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The image shown here is a good representative of what film noir is all about. Low-key lighting has been used to creates a mysterious setting as you only identify the two characters as female and male. Back lighting is also used in the image because a silhouette is created. You can also notice the contrast between the female's shadow being darker than the male's shadow. This indicates that the female shadow has a deeper besides meaningful character to the male as she made to be noticed more. Also the foggy background aids in enhancing the silhouette figures. It makes the shadows stand out and look more rounded so you can therefore identify a few details about what the shadow is or what props they may poses.
This example of an film noir extract has many different lighting techniques to fit the theme of film noir. At first, the scene seemed to be low-key lighting as you could only see shadows and dark lighting. However as the scene goes on, it moves on to high-key lighting, as more filler lights were used. The effects clearly portrayed a poorly lit scene and the contrast between light and dark is much less pronounced. However, lighting was used on the characters faces for effect for example the main character had top lighting glistening on his face making him recognisable. On the other hand, the character he was talking to had no lighting on his face which created a dark and mysterious feel to the extract. This can convey that character to being a antagonist to the extract as the iconography of that effect is usually associated with the villain.
This example of an film noir extract has many different lighting techniques to fit the theme of film noir. At first, the scene seemed to be low-key lighting as you could only see shadows and dark lighting. However as the scene goes on, it moves on to high-key lighting, as more filler lights were used. The effects clearly portrayed a poorly lit scene and the contrast between light and dark is much less pronounced. However, lighting was used on the characters faces for effect for example the main character had top lighting glistening on his face making him recognisable. On the other hand, the character he was talking to had no lighting on his face which created a dark and mysterious feel to the extract. This can convey that character to being a antagonist to the extract as the iconography of that effect is usually associated with the villain.
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