Our mission was to deliver a very short short in the style of Film Noir.
Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura (1944).
http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
Not initially recognised as a genre, merely a trend or a "look", a visual style identified by a French critic, Film Noir has become synonymous with gritty crime dramas. Often violent, always involving characters of dubious reputation (whether as protagonist, antagonist or both).
Looking into the mechanics of the imagery, we find several visual themes used throughout.
The most obvious visual effect (accentuated by its use in black and white photography) is low key lighting. Contrary to its apparent meaning, low key lighting is used to produce images of high contrast. The key light being far stronger that a weak (or absent) fill light.
I've mentioned chiaroscuro in a previous post but here's a reminder:
Artists recognized the power of low key lighting long before photographers came around. Painters during the Renaissance and Baroque periods often used a technique known as "chiaroscuro" to achieve a similar dramatic tone for their images. Chiaroscuro comes from the Italian "chiaro" meaning clear/light and "oscuro" meaning obscure/dark.
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-shooting-low-key--photo-3427
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Caravaggio (c.1601-1602)
https://cdn.tutsplus.com/photo/uploads/legacy/326_lowkey/lowkeytut-2.jpg
What were the other elements? Deep focus? The extreme camera angles? The long shadows? I'll have to get back to you on those.
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