Film Noir has a literal translation of 'black film'. It is typically set in the early 1940's to the late 1950's. Film Noir is a visual style, with roots from German cinematography. It is usually the genre of some sort of a crime drama. It consists of low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions. This creates moods and expressions from the shadows and silhouettes that are created. This then creates a sense of mystery. In terms of lighting, bright lights focus on and capture characters eyes, shoulders, hats and the face in order to create stark shadows for criminal lighting. The overall lighting is quite low-key, with high-key lighting every now and then usually to symbolise a meaning and create effects.
The lighting used for this image is low-key lighting. Although we can tell this is natural light as the male figure is standing next to a window and the light seems to be coming from the sun outside, dramatic shadows are created with only a key light and back light. The effect is known as chiaroscuro. In this particular image, we may assume that the key light is possibly coming from the left side as his face is brighter and most influential. This means the there may be a less bright back light is on the right to help create shadow, with no filler light as the shadows are quite sharp.
Moreover, the underlighting used helps create a more mysterious effect. As he is holding a pistol and peering outside, the audience may assume he is waiting to shoot someone. His hat also helps to make him look more of a character of mystery as he may be some sort of detective, those are the usual connotations we would pick up from this image due to the props used. This image successfully fits the purpose of a film noir and we can tell straight away due to the black and white colour, the mysterious mood created and often, half his face showing with light.
'The Third Man' is a British film noir set in 1949. This clip mainly uses high-key lighting as it is set outdoors, therefore the lighting looks natural and filler lights are also used throughout. However the movie still looks quite dull. Shadows are created in this scene using key lights and back lights.
The first major and obvious lighting used is to show the different zones, the signs say American zone, British zone, Russian zone and French zone. The lighting used on these symbols could possibly represent meaning. We can see that the American zone sign is bright and well lit all over, possibly conveying a message that America is good and trustworthy. Next, the British sign is readable, but has shadows on it created by the lighting and gate beside it. This may be to portray a message of mystery and that some of the British are good and some bad, or somewhere in the middle. Similarly, a shadow is cast on the French zone although it is slightly faint, therefore has less of an effect. The Russian sign has the same lighting as the background is not any brighter or dimmer, this could mean that they blend into the back and the soldiers don't really stand out or go out of their comfort zones. The places can represent the countries as well as messages about the soldiers as that is what the clip focuses on during the first few seconds (29 secs). Furthermore, towards the end of the scene towards 1:47 mins, as the male figure rushes up the stairs, the top lighting creates a shadow on the wall of the silhouette and staircase. In the shadow we focus on his briefcase and hat. This creates a sense of mystery as we wonder what reason he has flown in to the country for. We see him check in with his passport just before at 1:30 mins. This film obviously represents a film noir as it obtains all the features and lighting effects.
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