Research - Lighting.

Traditionally in film noir, lighting is KEY through the way it can add special techniques to the shots given on screen, such as :

This picture shows the use of Key lighting from beside the camera, which is generally placed on the right side of the camera. Then it showing "Natural" light such as lamposts, etc, this gives the effect of night & although it simply sets the scene it also emphasises light on the characters face giving it shadows and shades.

An origninal "film noir" lighting shot is the use of the blinds, this is when the lights are placed behind the blinds in order to give it a shadow effect. and therefore may give the audience the scene set of an offcie for example. This is very good when doing a wide shot as it can emphasise the location of the character and initially what's happening.

Women were often shot very differently to men in film noirs as it was to show off their beauty and sexuality, for example in the picture on the left a woman is shown in fairly little light, this will be to show her main features rather than her entire body. By doing this we are focusing on upper-torso and face as a opposed to her entire body, also we are somewhat focusing on her "smoking" as this was very popular in the way it made smoking attractive through women doing this.

Also women aren't often shot in harsh lighting, and it is generally softened through using gels, these are what can put on to the light in order to change colour or in this case the soften the light. By doing this it somewhat makes the shot sometimes "blurry" and therefore once again empahsises the beauty of the character.

I am aiming to get my lighting certificate tomorrow, so then we can begin filming straight away.