How Is The 'In Bruges' Conventional/Unconventional Of Thriller?

Just some notes taken in class, when we were discussing several British gangster thrillers and how they are linked to conventional thiller.

Conventional

Lighting shows battle of morality in the contrast of light and dark

Mis-En-Scene shows a theme of bleakness and darkness

Gothic, angular, sharp settings, churches and statue of cupid shows moral ambiguity

Unconventional

Large, light space, focuses more on the characters being insignificant than relying on the theme of intrapment and isolation shown in films like 'The Third Man'

Burger King references to modern culture, doesn't create its own world like many films in 'Film Noir' to display morality, good and evil.

Scenes of comedy

Continuity Map

This is the map plan for my continuity task, in which a character must walk through a door, sit at a table and have a two line conversation with another character, showing camera shots and storyboarding the scenes

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The Conventions Of L.A Noir

L.A Noir is a sub-genre of film that takes elements such as moral uncertainty, deception and bleak content and displays them in the bright, famous and glamourous setting of L.A. The use of the bright setting shocks and creates unease the audience, the bleak, harsh happenings taking place in what can be seen to many as 'paradise.'



In the opening for L.A noir film 'L.A Confedential,' many comparisons can be made with the opening for 'The Third Man.' Both use a bright, cheery soundtrack alongside the seedy, dark plot to unsettle the viewer. This is also achieved by the narration, a light, happy voiceover of the crime and dark scenarios taking place, the voiceover also mentions L.A being "A Garden Of Eden", ironically conveying themes of morality and moral battles, more irony is conveyed by the voiceover when the audience is informed that L.A have "the best police force in the world.

Audience Research

My proposal was to interview teenagers in their musical taste of "emotional rock", giving them the popular name "emos". This interview was to determine how these "emos" watched and heard about films. I expected for many to not go to the cinema often, as they known to be withdrawn individuals; with this in mind I also expected them to watch films alone, and only hear about new films in most ways except word of mouth, or friend recommendation.


















The age of the twenty people I questioned
10 males and 10 females.

Out of the 20 "emos" I interviewed, a majority 12 watched 1-5 films a month, this was expected as an average. Out of these films watched a majority 9 out of 20 stated that horror was there favourite genre, which was expected as they are commonly associated with gore, death and horror, 6 of these 9 were females, which was also expected as the social group "emos" are predominantly female.

When given Empire Magazines top 5 films of all time, a majority 7 picked 'Star Wars' as their preferred film, this was unexpected, as horror film 'Jaws' was also in the list, that only 3 people chose.

When asked how many times they go to the cinema, only 1-5 times a year expected of the prehaps anti-social and isolated people interviewed. This was the case, as a large 50% agreed, one participant even stating that she never goes to the cinema. With this in mind, I predicted that the majority would state that they preferred to watch films at home, and many would answer that they watched 1-5 films weekly or even daily at home. This prediction was correct, as 50% of people questioned answered that they watch 1-5 films at home a week.



The next question was to determine how many people they preferred to watch these films with. My expected result was that a large majority watched films by themselves, or with only 1-2 friends. Out of the 20 people interviewed, 9, almost half, of these people stated they watched films by themselves out of preference with the next highest value being the 7 that preferred to watch films with just 1 person.


The next part of the questionaire was focused towards film marketing, asking the audience how they heard about films. The expected results were that the majority would not hear about films due to word of mouth, most probably the internet, or television. The results back were suprising, with the methods of word of mouth and television both gaining the majority vote, with 20% of the votes each.

The last question was what attracted the people questioned to a film, there was no expected majority as it is impossible to pinpoint what the narrowed audience would pick due to their social group. The majority vote was a tie between genre and plot, with 5 out of 20 each voting.

What Noir Conventions Are Shown In The Opening Of 'The Third Man?'

This is a page of notes made in lesson, when we were analysing the opening of film noir film 'The Third Man'

Binary Opposites and Enigma in Film Noir

Binary opposites are pairs of opposites used to create intrest, drama and conflict within films.

In this shot, taken from the intro to 'The Third Man', for example, the bold, opaque darkness of the buildings contrast imensely with the light of the sky, hinting at a battle of morality, good and evil. This conflict reflects the moral struggles within the film, as protagonist Holly Martins struggles to find his friend Harry Lime despite Lime's immorality of selling faking penicillin.

This can also be seen in this shot of 'Double Indemnity' protagonist Walter Neff. The contrast of shadow and light on his face emphasising deception and moral ambiguity, reflecting the plot of Neff dispatching of Phyllis's husband for the insurance money.

Another classic binary opposite used in film noir is that of male and female. In another shot of 'Double Idemnity', despite the male not even looking at the female, reinforcing male dominance, the female is behind him, emphasising the femme fatale qualities of deception and taking the male and also the audience by suprise.

In these pictures of the opening of neo-noir film 'The Black Dahlia' many binary opposites are used. There is imense contrast of light and dark, white buildings against the night sky, connotating images of a battle between good and evil, this battle is turned on its head with the white costumes of the criminals and the black costumes of the police. The mention of the main characters boxing nicknames 'Mr Fire v Mr Ice' is also a binary opposite.

An enigma is a mystery that is shown commonly at the beginning of the film, usually setting the plot and mood for the rest of the film. Enigmas are used to draw in the viewer and keep their attention, they're questions waiting to be answered.

The intro of Neo-Noir film 'Sin City' uses many enigmas to hold the audiences attention, the characters are nameless and have no introduction, the female character's death a complete mystery. Many questions are asked when viewing the scene that the audience must watch the film to answer.