Sin City

Title: Sin City

Genre: Action/Thriller/Drama

Narrative: The film explores the dark and miserable town of Basin City, and follows the story of three different people all caught up in violent corruption.

Analysing one frame:

The still image above is the one I decided to use from the film 'Sin City'. I chose this one in particular because I feel that I can easily talk about the camera angles and the way it is edited to create effect. In this frozen image, you can see the character dressed in a black suit who is known as the 'salesman'. You can also see the back view of a woman who is wearing a red dress. The camera angle in this shot is a shoulder shot, giving us the view of the woman. This allows us to see her perspective and gives us an indication of how close the 'salesman' is standing to her. This freeze frame is in black and white, as is the whole duration of the movie giving it the 'film noir' type of feel. However, it is edited in a way so that the red dress of the woman stands out and we can still see the colour. This is another technique from a 'film noir' genre to give her the 'glamorous' look as she is the femme fatal in this film. The way that the man is shown in this still image has been edited very specifically; he doesn't completely blend in with the background, however there is a shadow covering half of his face which almost hides him a little bit, or makes him appear to us as being mysterious, or too good to be true. The focus of the shot however is completely on him, so he does stand out to us and our focus is completely on him. Looking at this shot, I think that there is definitely more camera's around this to give us different angles on the scene. I think there will definitely be one to the side of them both so that we can see how close they are standing together, and to almost create a sense of romance considering the woman is the femme fatal. I also think there will be one behind the man to show where they are and what is behind them. Having watched this clip I know that they are standing on a roof top, and the angle behind them shows us the location of the film and how high up they are, not to mention the fact that they are standing close to the edge. This would create a sense of danger.

Media Roles

Media Roles from Coey1611

Neo Noir

Film Noir Examples

Double Indemnity: 







In Double Indemnity, the femme fatal is shown in a very explicit way. She is shown standing at the top of the stairs in her towel as the third picture here shows, this was very different for the time this film was made and some audiences will have been very shocked by this. Also, the way she is standing makes her look superior as well as being 'flirty' and half naked.
The top picture is the end of the film but is shown at the start because of how the narrative in film noir's are laid out, it shows the everyman broken and injured and talking into the phone about what has happened.

Film Noir Examples

The Black Dahlia:







This film is more of a modern noir and it is edited differently. Instead of being in black and white it is shown in colour but with a filter to fade it out a little and make it seem more classic. The first picture here shows the femme fatal smoking and looking heavily made up just as she is in the older film noir's. The second picture
shows the characters wearing suits just as they would've done in the classic noirs, the air appears to be filled with smoke to emphasise the idea of smoking.

Film Noir Examples

 The Killers:








The top picture here shows the femme fatal in The Killers, laying seductively on the bed; this gives her the idea of being flirtatious and trying to show off her body. The second picture here is an example of the lighting effects in film noir's; as you can see the room is very dark and the shadows reflect the dull gloomy atmosphere. The final picture is an example of the narrative structure again, it shows the end of the film at the start with the two men arriving and holding people hostage to look for the 'Swede'.

Film Noir Features

Camera and composition:

In film noir's, different camera angles are used in different ways to create effect and atmosphere. Low camera angles are used regularly to give characters the idea of being powerful. The picture here shows the femme fatal in 'Double Indemnity' standing at the top of the stairs. The camera angle is low and looks up at her giving her the idea of being powerful as I've previosuly mentioned. The everyman in this film looks up at her which gives the impression that he is below her and must obey what she says. In this case it turns out to be true as the everyman is used and betrayed by the femme fatal.

Editing:
Film noir's are edited in specific ways to make us feel uneasy when watching them. The ones made in the 20th century are nearly always shown in black and white but some made recently in the 21st century are shown in colour but are still distorted in some way. For example, 'The Black Dalia' is shown in colour but it isn't as clear as it could be. It is edited in this way to give it the sense of mystery and make us believe that it is set years and years go. On the other hand, 'Double Indemnity' and 'The Killers' are both in black and white. The main reason for this is because they were made in the 1940s but having them in black and white creates the same sense of mystery that the distorted colour in 'The Black Dalia' does. Also, in the 1940s technology wasn't as advanced as it is now so there wasn't exactly much editing done.

Sound:
In film noir's the sound that is normally used is produced from musical instruments rather than actual computer generated sounds. This is because obviously when the films were originally made in the 1940s they didn't posses the technology to create sound so instead they edited the sound of instruments into the background. The general instruments that were used in the backgrounds were saxophones, certain types of pianos, and trumpets. These were all played in a specific way to give a sense of mystery in the opening and climatic scenes.