For this transformation i have cropped the photo to get rid of the bottom left hand corner as i did not feel it added anything to the image. I then desaturated it to make it more Noir and more mysterious.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Transformation to Noir 2
For this transformation i have cropped the photo to get rid of the bottom left hand corner as i did not feel it added anything to the image. I then desaturated it to make it more Noir and more mysterious.
Transformation to Noir
Before
After
I took this picture in my bedroom with the blinds tilted down slightly with light partly filtering through. In photoshop, i desaturated the photo to remove the blue from the walls and to create a Noir feel. I feel i can develop this work by possibly adding someone to the image. I could then have the shadow across their face such as some film noir films made in the 1940s. I might have them wear a hat to create an older feel to it. For example this picture below is famous as the shadows created by the blinds is across his face.
I like this iconic photo as it represents Noir at its best. There is a mysterious feel to the photo and i want to try to re-create that feel later in my work.
After
I took this picture in my bedroom with the blinds tilted down slightly with light partly filtering through. In photoshop, i desaturated the photo to remove the blue from the walls and to create a Noir feel. I feel i can develop this work by possibly adding someone to the image. I could then have the shadow across their face such as some film noir films made in the 1940s. I might have them wear a hat to create an older feel to it. For example this picture below is famous as the shadows created by the blinds is across his face.
I like this iconic photo as it represents Noir at its best. There is a mysterious feel to the photo and i want to try to re-create that feel later in my work.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture.During the period of recovery following World War I, the German film industry was booming. However, because of the hard economic times, filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German Universum Film AG studio developed their own style by using symbolism and mise en scène to add mood and deeper meaning to a movie, concentrating on the dark fringes of human experience.
Various European cultures of the 1920s had embraced an ethic of change, and a willingness to look to the future by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd sets, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism include Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), both directed by Fritz Lang.
German silent cinema was arguably far ahead of cinema in Hollywood. As well as the direct influence of film makers who moved from Germany to Hollywood developments in style and technique which were developed through Expressionism in Germany impressed contemporary film makers from elsewhere and were incorporated into their work and so into the body of international cinema from the 1930s onward.
A good example of this process can be found in the career of Alfred Hitchcock. In 1924, Hitchcock was sent by his film company to work as an assistant director and art director at the UFA Babelsberg Studios in Berlin on the film The Blackguard[4]. An immediate effect of the working environment there can be seen in his expressionistic set designs for The Blackguard.
Various European cultures of the 1920s had embraced an ethic of change, and a willingness to look to the future by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd sets, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism include Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), both directed by Fritz Lang.
German silent cinema was arguably far ahead of cinema in Hollywood. As well as the direct influence of film makers who moved from Germany to Hollywood developments in style and technique which were developed through Expressionism in Germany impressed contemporary film makers from elsewhere and were incorporated into their work and so into the body of international cinema from the 1930s onward.
A good example of this process can be found in the career of Alfred Hitchcock. In 1924, Hitchcock was sent by his film company to work as an assistant director and art director at the UFA Babelsberg Studios in Berlin on the film The Blackguard[4]. An immediate effect of the working environment there can be seen in his expressionistic set designs for The Blackguard.
What is Film Noir?
Film Noir is used primarily to describe Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes or sexual motivations. The classic film noir period was the early 1940s into the late 1950s. There has been other films which has tried to incoporate noir into their film such as 'Brick'.there are other types of noir such as neo-noir or science fiction noir. Films in these genres can include Blade Runner and Sin City.
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting). Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature.
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting). Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature.
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