Unit 10: Film Production

Learning Aim A
The Watchmen -- Neo-Noir
A typical film noir would consist of an anti-hero protagonist
and tends to leave out the protagonist’s true personality, an
example is shown in Rorschach’s Journal from the movie
The Watchmen in which is the first scene to introduce
Rorschach. The scene is quite direct and jumps straight to
the crime scene, the first and only thing we can establish
about the character is that “the world fears him”, this
promotes the idea of anti-hero behaviour as he can see he is
trying to fight crime but seems to be ‘feared’ by everyone. A
convention of a neo-noir is how a main protagonist is
perceived to be both good and bad and pessimistic in trait,
this is shown in the ‘Rorschach’s First Journal’ scene, where
we can understand that Rorschach is flawed as he is a
character on the fringe of society and believes that fear and
violence solves all problems. This promotes the conventions
of a neo-noir due to the fact that the protagonist of most noirs
are imperfect and generally an anti-hero who stop at nothing
to uncover the puzzle or mystery.
The Watchmen -- Neo-Noir
Rorschach introduces himself with a voiceover of his journal. The purpose of his monologue is a key element in normal noirs to show a
sense of determination to discover clues. Rorschach’s low raspy voice also give off the idea of being elusive which adds on to the
mysterious effect on the scene.

Even though The Watchmen can be classified as an Action Superhero film, it has a lot of conventions to being a neo-noir despite the
story being set in a dystopian world. Film noir locations are famous for its generic run-down urban setting and is generally raining or
damp. This is identical to the settings in the scene and the use of lowkey lighting and saturation decrease to perform a dark and
enigmatic setting to represent the night. Normal film noirs mainly used black and white in there scenes, as a result of this, the use of
lowkey lighting and low saturation shows signs of a neo-noir because of the idea to keep in colour but stick with the idea of it being a
noir. Lastly, the strong silhouettes from objects like the lamppost at the beginning are also an idea used in film-noirs.
The Watchmen vs The Dark Knight
Both DC films uses the conventions that display neo-noir,
especially in this scene from The Dark Knight. The beginning
of the scene, they use key features of a neo-noir as Gordon's
face is half lit in a dark interrogation room. The use of one
side being dark and one side being lit is also used in
Rorschach’s diary. However, the difference between The
Dark Knight is that it follows the conventions of a film noir in
this specific scene as Batman is portrayed as an anti-hero.
He is seen as one as he proceeds to attack the Joker,
locking the door so the police cannot stop him.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire -- Sci-Fi
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire follows the conventions of
sci-fi as it takes place in a dystopian future where game
shows involve the death of people from each district and the
citizens who are watching it are not phased in the thought of
people killing people. This is a good example of sci-fi as it
places us as the viewer in a world that could possibly exist.

‘The Interview’ scene from The Hunger Games: Catching

Fire uses many conventions of the sci-fi genre like costumes
from the film which displays iconography of sci-fi as it is
bright and glamorous, even though most of the outfits that
the tributes wear are some sort historical but with a sci-fi
twist. The mise-en-scene from the interview captures an idea
of sci-fi through the people of Panem like Caesar. This shows
a conventions of a sci-fi film as we can see a conflict
between new and old through Katniss and Caesar, where
Caesar has a more futuristic style of clothing and Katniss has
a natural look in her wedding dress.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire -- Sci-Fi
The use of both warm and cool colours are the characteristics of other film genres such as comedy or action, however, throughout the
scene we can see that the warm and cool colours are flashing in the background and used for practical lighting thus showing us more
elements of a futuristic world. Furthermore the genre incorporates hypothetical and science based themes into the plot of the film. The
use of diegetic sound as the lights turn off and the lights glitching at the end of the scene has the ideas of it being a sci-fi genre due to
the fact that it displays the theme of technology that is revolved around the movie.

Catching Fire vs Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Sci-fi in the two films are portrayed differently as they are both set in a different era in their
own worlds. The Hunger Games is based in the future, however, it is a lot closer to our
modern age compared to Star Wars which is set in a fantasy/futuristic era and takes place in
space. In star wars, it uses more conventions of sci-fi, displaying bright colours to represent
laser beams, explosions and the control panels inside the ship. The hunger games is more
lenient with the bright colours.

Similarities is that the use of red lighting in the interiors represent danger. The siths primary
colour is red and the use of red in the ship symbolizes danger as they’re at war - Behind the
scenes of the interview, Katniss prepares to go inside, she is known to be the face of the
rebellion. Danger.
American Gangster -- Crime Drama
The ‘Fed Up’ scene from American Gangster shows many
elements of it being a typical crime drama since the film
follows a male protagonist “Frank Lucas” and his story and
his heroin trafficking organization and one the conventions
of a crime drama is for us to witness the rise and fall of a
crime boss.

It’s also categorized as a crime and drama from the

iconography of the distinguishing look of mobsters who
wear suits; the majority of suits from the scene are quite dull
and dark, symbolizing mystery and fear. The suits are also
60s related as Huey is wearing a white-black striped suit
with textured purple lapel, possibly labeling himself as some
sort of stereotypical pimp. The mise-en-scene presented
from the scene captures the thought of crime for instance, a
gun is armed and used, drugs like cocaine are being used
and the result of violence.
American Gangster -- Crime Drama
The lighting in the film is also saturated to provide a dramatic effect and also presents the time period of where the story takes place
which is the 60s.