My Poster

 

Film Noir Posters

     

Film Noir Posters are typically dark and mysterious to represent what the film is like. However a lot of them are actually quite colourful with most posters using the colours red and yellow somewhere. It is usually the font of the title of the film that is the most colourful as it would stand out a lot more than if it was a mundane, black and white colour. The aim of a poster is to sell a product and I think these posters were very good at doing that. Whereas these days posters are photographs of the actors, to make them more dramatic and interesting film noir posters were actually paint based. I think this gives a very interesting edge to them.

In the posters it is very likely for the actors in them to be smoking as this was a very common practice for that time. Also it is likely that there will be some sort of violence or horror in these posters such as there might be a weapon or the people might be looking frightened in them.

Femme Fatales

A femme fatale is a seductive and mysterious character who use their charm and beauty to persuade other characters to do dangerous and even life threatening things such as murder. The earliest known femme fatale characters are demons, vampires, enchantress's and witches. The french phrase 'femme fatale' translates in english to 'deadly woman'. Although in most films the femme fatales use their sexual charm, some just lie to men to get what they want and sometimes they are in situations that they cannot escape from. Not all film noir films are the same but most of them have the same typical storyline of an evil woman character and a gullable male character, however there are some where the femme fatale actually turns into the heroine of the story and becomes good.

New Build Evaluation

The powerpoint that I presented to my class about the new Barnet College building was successful in some ways and unsuccessful in some other ways.
To improve my presentation I should of been more confident when talking about my powerpoint and should of said more while my photos were up. I should have also used some quotations of the students at Barnet College.

I am happy however with how my photographs and powerpoint turned out.
My photos were not boring and I think I showed Barnet College in a good light.
The photos showed many aspects of the college such as having fun and doing work which I was very pleased with.

New Build Plan

Shots I am planning to take :

• close ups of people working in different departments such as English or Art to show how it is to study at Barnet College,
• long shots and close ups of people inside the college, for example sitting at tables talking to show that it is a fun place to study,
• long shots and close ups of the inside of the college to show how modern it is,
• shots of people outside with friends to show that Barnet College is a friendly place.

Film Noir Brief Plan

Time-line

• The photographs need to be in black and white,
• They need to have high contrast,
• Different angle shots - low, high, close up, long shots, etc,
• The music that I use needs to be suitable for 'film noir',
• There needs to be limited light used in my photographs,
• Cigarettes are used a lot in film noir films so if it is possible I will use them in my shoot,
• I want to use a lot of shadows or objects in my photos,
• The time for each photograph that will be shown will be the same amount of time so that it is even,
• Doesn't have to have a storyline but it can do,
•  It will be taken outside, maybe lit by street lamps?
• If I do use a storyline in my time-line I will have typical 'film noir' characters,
• Some sort of weapon held by the man? A knife?
• Difference in speed in the transitions of the photos.

Poster

• Can be in colour and can be in black and white,
• I want to use a cigarette in the poster because they are used in most 'film noir' films,
• The models in the photo will be a male and a female, the female will look seductive and the man will seem addicted to her,
• Needs a good title for the film and a font that is simular to typical film noir posters and also the actors names underneath the title,
• Age rating in the corner, just like a real film poster,
• Show some violence? Maybe by showing some sort of weapon?
• Show romance between the man and the woman? Some sort of physical contact?

Double Idemnity

Double Idemnity is an Amerian film noir.
It was co-written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler and was directed by Billy Wilder in 1944.
 The film was based on a series written by James M. Cain  in 'Liberty magazine' in 1935. Double idemnity is what happens in some life insurance policies that pays double the payout when someones death was caused by an accident.

The main actors and actresses in the film are Fred MacMurray who plays the insurance salesman, Edward G. Robinson who plays a claims adjuster who finds phony claims as a living and Barbara Stanwyck who plays a provocative wife who wants her husband dead.


The film seems to be shot in a way where the audience feels as if they are actually there seeing it all happen and I think this is really inspirational and it reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock.
 

Plot

An insurance salesman for Pacific All Risk called Walter Neff comes back to his office in Los Angeles at night at the start of the film. He is in pain, sits at his desk and starts to saying a memo into a dictaphone machiene for his colleague Barton Keyes. This dictation is what starts the film which is a flashback of what happened to Walter.

During a routine house call to renew an automobile insurance policy for her husband, Neff meets Phyllis Dietrichson. He is very attracted to her and they become flirtatious to one another until he become worried when she asks if it was possible to take out a policy on her husband's life without him finding out. This is when he realises that she is contemplating whether to murder her husband and he doesn't want to be involved in it at all.

Phyllis follows him to his house and starts flirting with him a lot more.
Even though Neff told himself he doesn't want any part in this murder, her flirtation and his gullibility gives in and he agrees to kill her husband with her.
As he knows a lot about how they could trick the insurance company, he creates a plan in which her husband will die a very unlikely death in which he will fall from a moving train.

As this death would be seen as an "accident" this will trigger the 'double indemnity' part of the policy, which will cause the insurance company to pay Phyllis twice the normal amount of money.
They carry out the murder and no one suspects that his death was fowl play.


Neff's colleage Barton Keyes believes at first that her husband died of accidental causes but the "little man" inside him keeps telling him that something is wrong. He then believes that his wife and an unknown accomplice are behind the husband's death. Even though he knows Neff very well and is his colleage, he never suspects that Neff could have anything to do with this. Barton Keyes is not the only thing that Neff should be worried about.

Phyllis's step daughter Lola (Jean Heather) tells him that she is convinced that Phyllis has something to do with her father's death and that her mother died of simular, suspicious circumstances while Phyllis was nursing her. Even though Neff is concerned that Lola could blow his cover if she finds out, he is also worried about what might happen to her as she is a threat to Phyllis and as both her parents have been murdered.


He then finds out that Phyllis is actually seeing Lola's boyfriend called Nino behind him and Lola's back. Her unfaithfulness to him helps him realise how much of a monster she really is and how important it is for him to save himself from his involvement with her and the murder.
He comes up with a plan to make the police believe that Phyllis and Nino actually carried out the murder of Lola's father which is actually what investigator Keyes believes now anyway.

Neff meets Phyllis at her house and she admits to him that the reason she was seeing Nino was so that she could provoke him into killing suspicious Lola in jealous anger. Neff is now completely disgusted and as he is about to kill her she shoots him. As he stands there wounded, he starts to walk towards her telling her to shoot him again. She can't pull the trigger and he then takes the gun off her.

Phyllis then tells him she was never in love with him "until a minute ago, when i couldn't fire that second shot."
He tells her that he doesn't believe her and pulls away from her as she tries to hug him. He presses the gun against her side as she looks pleadingly at him and he says, "goodbye baby" and shoots her twice and kills her.

Neff then hides outside and walks up to Nino as he walks over to the house to visit his lover.
He advises him to not go into the house and to leave and contact, "the woman who truly loves you."
He agrees and walks away avioding what could of been strong evidence against him that he had murdered Phyllis if he had gone in the house. Neff, who has grave injuries, drives to his office and sits at the dictaphone to explain all that has happened.
 
Keyes arrives in the middle of the confession and has heard enough to understand everything.
Neff then tells Keyes that he is moving to Mexico rather than facing a death sentence, but it is too late for him as he falls to the floor before he can reach the elevator.


Key Features 

• The narration is in first person throughtout the film. It starts as a man talks into a voice recorder as he confesses what has happened. The film is basically his confession as he is talking into the voice recorder.
• Every character smokes which is very typically film noir.
• The characters costumes are very film noir as the men are dressed smartly in suits and hats, the women wear little dresses and high heels.
• Light is very limited in a lot of the film. In some parts there are street lamps to cause deep shadows and sometimes show the characters as silhouettes. At some other parts of the film there is parts where light is coming from blinds so that the light is in stripes which is very mysterious and interesting.