WHATS THAT?! OVER THERE! IN THE SHADOWS!

One of our assignments this week was to “watch at least two of these movies and think about how the film is shot.” We had to think about, “how the cinematography captures the feelings and aesthetic of noir that we’ve been discussing so far?” and  “write a post in which you share 2-3 still captures that demonstrate elements of Noir and explain your thinking.”

The movie I chose to watch were:

Killer’s Kiss (1955) (Required) and one of the following

He Walked By Night (1948)

Some common things I noticed about the way the movies were filmed was that they all used the classic heavy shadows with a single light source. This is common throughout all noir films. I’m not actually sure if a film could be considered noir without the dramatic blackness on portions of the screen. Some examples are:

Then of course I noticed the typical noir “venetian blinds” style of film:

Both of these elements add to the suspense effect. They can use shadows to have the audience focusing on one thing or person in particular, or they can use the darkness to allow shadowy figures to get around unnoticed. Typically, the darker the lighting the more dramatic the scene is going to be. Lighting can affect audiences just as greatly as music. It guides where people look and how the mood is set. You can tell a great deal about the scene based on the lighting.