1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media projects?

Our two minute film opening was based on the Film Noir genre of 1940s and 50s American films, and the development of this into Neo Noir in contemporary cinema. Therefore, we attempted to adhere to the conventions of Film Noir mostly through mise-en-scene, focusing on location, lighting and costume. It's set in a small apartment room, a stereotypical location for a murder, considering this genre, the crime thriller with the style of Noir. The audiences expectations of this are that the murder in the apartment would be filled with clues. However, as this is the opening two minutes to our film, we felt that it would be more unrealistic if we were to fill the sequence with explicit clues. As a result of this, we leave the scene ambiguous. The location uses the ideology that apartments can be quite cold, emotionally distant places that are used by individuals as a shield from their feelings. We achieved low-key lighting by placing a lamp behind the camera constantly and using others around the room. This uses conventional lighting seen in Film Noir. The protagonist, a private detective, wears dark clothing; black trench coat, grey trousers, shirt and tie. This is the stereotypical costume of a Film Noir protagonist, such as Sam Spade or Walter Neff, conforming to the dress of a detective from a typical crime thriller. Film Noir began as cheap, low budget films which had elements of surrealism in them. We attempted to create elements of surrealism though our combination of modern and old fashioned props and furniture. A 1940s style telephone is the predominant prop here which feels out of place and the furniture in the room has no fixed period of time it comes from, the indeterminable nature of it surreal in itself.

In terms of camera work that conforms to the conventions of Film Noir, we used a number of panning shots to keep focus on the detective as well as static shots. As he moves about the room, we used cross-fades to execute smooth transitions and connote the passing of time. The detective manoeuvring within the camera signifies his control in the scene; the camera is still, subjecting him, but he holds power throughout the scene.

The use of a narrative voice over is conventional of Film Noir, such as Double Indemnity, presenting insight for the audience into the mind of the protagonist. As we only included non-diegetic sound, we also used the song 'Hello Skinny' – The Residents, a band known for their unique sound, always seen to be ahead of the curve, in a similar way to to Film Noir, which had darker ideas and themes, than the 1940s would allow. Although only using a looped clip, the music itself is fairly surreal and we felt the jazz aspect really reflected the period Film Noir hales from.