Conventions of Film Noir

Although film noir technically isn't classed as an genre, the range of styles, feelings and themes that film noir produce make an amazing film type to watch. Film noir usually focuses on bring out dark and mysterious moods and tell a story very enigmatically. Not only are the stories told with a lot of thought, film noir brings out a lot of unique styles when shooting with the use of one light source, the big and strong shadows and the claustrophobic tight areas.

The biggest part of any film noir would be the obscure and ambiguous story lines that leave you amazed and stunned at the end of any film. The stories are usually about a couples betrayal, or a deceit of a friend which lead to unthinkable endings to the stories. Generally the story revolve around mobs of gangsters as well because of the era the films are created or based on, which lead to crime and investigation stories. When it comes to the police officer, he usually isn't the kind of guy you would expect him to be and would have sides of evil and shame in them.

As the stories in film noir are quite dark and mysterious its fitting to have deep shadows and minimal light to bring out darkness in some characters and to put people in the shadows who might of done wrong. A typical scene that focuses a lot on the lighting would be in some alleyway with only light coming from a lamppost, these scenes are a perfect example of how lighting is used because you are focused to what is happening in the light, and with the shadows they get amplified on to a wall or the floor which give the scene more depth and ideas about the characters. The idea with the light also means that you can hide part of a persons face, doing this can give people an idea that there's two sides to this person and that one side might be dark and evil person compared to the light and honest man.

In this particular scene from the film 'The Third Man' it has a range of interesting things in it that link to the conventions of film noir. Firstly in the shot nothing is centred and uses the Rule of Thirds to give the scene more variety. In the shot, it has the shadow of the man running on the far left side of the shot and to the right of the shot it has the one light source coming out from the archway. Secondly, the shot is very low to the ground and is pointing up to the shadow on the wall, the shot is also on a tilt which brings a variety in the shot and a sense of disorientation with the man running.

To conclude, the themes and moods that film noir creates are very tense and exciting but at the same time creates an enigma and leaves you feeling disorientated and surprised. All this is done by the use of the imaginative story lines, and the unique use of the light and shadows.