Film Noir - Music Video

 

Over the past few days my group and I were given the task of creating a 'Film Noir' music video between  1-2 minutes. To begin with this seemed impossible because there is no music video that entirely uses the conventions from 'Film Noir'. However we were pretty positive when it came to creating this because we wanted to focus on lighting instead of a narrative that fitted with a sound track. This is why we chose the song Darude Sandstorm; the music video for this song is terrible and involves someone running around with a briefcase being chased by some bad guys. Our video was a spoof of this because it was such a simple idea, which we could easily adopt.

 

The conventions of 'Film Noir' we used to create this music video included:
Grainy soft black and white look in order to connote mystery and set a time and era for the video. We wanted to cancel out digital noise because this looks like a sickly grain. On the other hand we wanted grain to be added in post so we tried to minimize noise by lighting the scene as much as we could while still maintaining a dark look. We used the three point lighting technique with one key light, a back light and a fill light. Our fill and or key light was mainly our phones torches but we did use a big light as a back light and spot light.  

Shadows played a key role in selling the idea of 'Film Noir' to achieve shadows we used artificial light in order to create vast amounts of light in a given direction. This worked well with most of the shots however some shots required light in more than one place in order for it to work. I enjoyed experimenting with light because it provided us with new angles to try in order to get the shadow. Further it allowed for a bright light transition, which I feel made it more visually abstract much like German Expressionism.

As a group we faced many challenges, first one being time. The reason was is we only had a two day window before we broke up to do this, therefore we had to come up with an idea on the spot and stick with it. Our next problem was light, because the school was so bright we had to get creative in how to make it look dark. Firstly we chose two of the closed off areas in the school: the hall stage and art fire exit. Then we re-lit it under low key lighting in order to give it a dark and mysterious tone. This involved blocking out natural light from windows etc. Our goal was to use the shadows and angles to create a sense of confusion and mystery.

Final improvements would be firstly to use mounts for the camera in order to keep the movement smooth and calculated while being handheld. Secondly to think about timing with the music and pacing of footage. Finally to gain experience in lighting a scene in the dark and figuring out how to get the slits in film noir because we tried many different things to try and make it work but it didn't.

Film Noir Movement - Research

http://petapixel.com/2015/07/04/a-look-at-the-striking-low-key-black-and-white-style-of-film-noir-cinema/

The film noir movement in the 1940 's - 50's was originally a post war genre in which the conventions of typical hollywood cinema in the 1930's was challenged. This is because originally in the early days of film directors relied on three point lighting in order to light the whole of their subject. On the other hand film noir used low key lighting to present certain characters and or places as mysterious. These mysterious shadows were used to connote ideas about a character as a plot device. The lighting allowed for symbolism to foreshadow certain aspects of the characters motives and true desires. The intense use of lighting can create disconnection or suspense for the narrative, this helped keep an audience gripped within a crime drama.

The use of bold camera angles from low angles to dutch angles allowed the audience to be taken on more of a visual journey in order to allow for the audience to convey their own meaning behind the story. Due to these films being in black and white lighting was the strongest aspect within the film noir movement. I wanted to look at this because there are not many music videos, which really utilise these techniques in order to create a story and i find that very hard to understand because the use of lighting can tell at story without sound. This could be really helpful in my music video because the use of low key lighting can  create suspense without obstructing the music. Furthermore the lighting can be used to create symbolism, this can further make a complex narrative without the use of dialogue. I would also want to further research the use of smoke within the film genre because in music videos this is common.

Media Analyses - Audience

Eminem's target audience for his songs and music videos mainly consist of a variety of fans that listen and watch his content. This means that every group of people within his target audience get something different from the same content. The target audience for a rap artist such as Eminem, with his comical and conflicting real life lyric would implicate that he is aiming at a mass audience of predominantly young male teens in the age range of 15 to 25. The reason I say these ages is because within this music video Eminem is referencing a fan who has listened to Eminem from this age. Most of his target audience have grown up with his music proving it a big influence and this creates the idea that Eminem is a heavy influence on people who have listened that long. 

I believe this to be the case because he seems to open his world out to the audience, aiming for them to understand and appreciate he's struggles of life, as if they may have been through similar struggles, this is his unique selling point or niche. However seeing as he has made tracks with other artist this may have extended his reach to even females, An example of a track which implicates this is 'Love the way you lie' which features Rihanna. The issue is age & context. It not only divides friends, but also divides Internet Forums. "I’m 22 now, I listen to Eminem’s earlier work and I feel nostalgia to back when I was 15, but I don’t particularly relate to the issues he was going through. I don’t hate women, I don’t plan on rebelling against my parents because I don’t even live with them and I’m not a flat broke teenager." The “older” users (18+) on this forum feel as though MMLP2 is ‘whack’, while the younger generation (13-17) think its ‘dope’. This is perfectly fine because it all refers to age context. The artist is still rapping to that demographic; 13-17 year olds like he did back in 2000, however, this is a different generation.

The reason that Eminem's audience listen to his music is because they have an effect need. This is shown in the music video below because the character 'Stan' is relating to Eminem because he feels that they are the same. Although this is an extreme example of his audience I can't just look over the fact that this fan killed himself over Eminem. By relating to Eminem it gave him hope and emotional pleasure, which kept him going but also drove him to his death, furthermore but listening to this artist it helped him talk about his troubles in life and served as a form of escape. Eminem’s radical views and rebellious nature further shows the idea that the 2 Step Flow theory could change peoples opinions on the government and their company through their idol.

The media product was very emotional for Eminem's fanbase because the song was wrote the same year Stan died. The audience rebelled against this media text, not because of the artist but more the record label. This was because most of the lyrics were censored causing a huge uproar in the Eminem community because most of his loyal fans respected his lyrics, which were all very raw and uncensored.

• 15-25 Age and Influence
• Struggles of life (Relate) - Niche because they share anger
• Age Context - Family and or Rebel 
• Effective Need - "Stan" Emotional pleasure
• 2 Step Flow - Idol 
• Warning