Final Images

Since this will be my final post I thought I might as well make it a fairly extensive one. Above is the final 5 images that we have chosen, this was indeed not an easy process, I was originally left with 15 images in which to choose. Indeed a number of images had to be judged by certain criteria such as: 1. Photographic Technical Aspects 2. Relevance to Theme 3. Helps Progression of Narrative or Idea and of course a long list of other elements such as tone, composition, lighting, model communication etc. Indeed the list of criteria was extensive in order to include the best photographs. I feel this is perhaps a very good indicator that the photoshoot was a great success. The photoshoot does possess elements of narrative or perhaps an underlying theme. It conveys the beautiful but deadly "femme fatale" reminiscing about a past love now dead. Due to the atmosphere in the scenes, the crude posture of the model and the rather malevolent gleam in her eye, it seems to imply she may have had a hand in his murder or death. Indeed there were a number of photographs that were too cliche or revealed far too much of the narrative, this is one element of film noir that is frequently overlooked. The feeling of details or information being cloaked, you always feel a step behind the plot. I would have to say that the final imagery does possess contemporary elements, and perhaps should not be viewed as pure film noir. Instead we can see influence from Sin City, the way in which parts of the imagery is highlighted in order to glamourize and romantize the femme fatale. There were a great variety of ways in which we could have shot the imagery, I was considering adding text to the imagery. The kind of language and quotes you would encounter in Film Noir such as

Hollow Triumph
Paul Henereid: You’re a bitter little lady.
Joan Bennett: It’s a bitter little world.

Farewell, My Lovely
Dick Powell: I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom.

However I felt this would perhaps add unneeded elements of humour and woud thus be counter productive.Film noir had it's own type of lighting, most of which was typified by hard lighting and low-key settings. Often the director or photographer would use shadows to create shapes in the background or sometimes even on the actors. A familiar one being a streetlight shining through the venetian blinds of a private eye's office. I tried to emulate this lighting effect however it proved rather problematic due to direction of light and also the gaps in the stencil in which I cut out to place on the light was far too wide.

Although, film noir is a cinematic technique, this type of lighting is quite easily done in still photography. You can achieve fantastic results using as little as one light or more if you have them. I find that using one light on the subject with a reflector to bounce a small amount of light to bring out some details in the shadow areas works great. But again this downgraded due to the sheer brightness of the wall colour in my rather claustophobic.The great thing about film noir lighting is the delicate interplay between the light and shadow which can add an air of mystery or even glamour to your subject.

I found the model, Flik was very adept at portraying the femme fatale, since the main focus of this shoot was based upon her there would have been quite alot of pressure on her. In the past I have worked with models that were not very convincing and it was clear to see the constructivism and amateaur nature due to the models emotions and facial expressions, however I feel Flik does indeed make the imagery that much more convincing and beautiful.

This is one of the other possible postproductions routes in which we could have took and while it certainly does appear less cliche, we agreed that it didnt stay faithful to our concept Film Noir.
Overall I am very pleased with the final results.