WEEK #3—Diana Herrera—Shady Film Noir

Film noir is all about emphasis on attitudes, pessimism, and menace as the dictionary describes it. There is mystery that tends to lurk in every film noir frame. After doing my research on what this genre is and why it makes it so unique, I noticed that shadows play an important role in all of this.

 

Shadows are one of my favorite things to play with and be in awe with. The reason why I feel moved by shadows is because there is this sharp definition of shapes, curves and textures that I find so appealing. By simply seeing the way light and shadow falls on an object, I am able to imagine the feeling of that object in my hand. I love sensory. I love touching things, which is not all that sanitary, but I do it anyways because I love to feel the curves, angles, and corners of things.  When sharp shadows and lights are casted on an object, I am able to imagine how that object would feel in my hand. Another thing I find appealing about this style is the cleanliness of the peoples faces and objects being hit my light. This also ties in with the sharpness of the shadows. There are no washed-out images. It sounds so weird when I say this out loud or write it down. Pervious to this quarter, I had never really stopped to identity the reasoning behind this interest. The lighting and angles of light in film noir really add definition to the bodies and surroundings. I can see this based off of this research image I provided above. 

I took this a picture in my undergrad. I feel like this image really reflects and connects with the theme of film noir. Every night after a long day of school and rehearsals, I would walk back to my car and pass by a long row of trees that ran parallel to the florescent parking lot lights. I always found this to be a beautiful sight. I was in complete awe of the way the stark lights washed over the tree branches. It gave them so much definition and sculpting. The shadows casted on the tree branches were so defined and sharp that I could not look away. The overall environment was so cold, mysterious and moody. The shadows are so bold giving such a grand statement that gives me goosebumps. The feeling is equivalent to when I see the Film noir pictures.  I wish I had a better image of the full tree to really show the sharp lines of the bark.