How does Casino Royale use conventions of Film Noir?

Casino Royale, although classified as an action movie rather than a Film Noir, uses distinct conventions of the genre Noir in it's opening title sequence, as Noir is well renounced for it's dramatic, eventful and on edge openings, and therefore was used as a basis style for the opening of this film.

Below are some example screen shots of the James Bond Film Casino Royale.
                                                             Here is one of the first shots from the opening scene, and it is clear immediately that it has a film Noir genre feel to it. This idea is portrayed not only through the monochromatic colour , which because of the large number of  releases of black and white Noir films, has become associated with the genre, but it immediately feels like a noir film simply because of the deserted night time urban location which adds to the eerie and tense atmosphere created within the shot. The urban setting is used as it is a modern contemporary setting, and therefore makes the scene feel more realistic, and is the basis for the setting in many Noir Films such as 'The Third Man' and 'Double Indemnity.'
 The one alone standing street light and car are used here to create a sense of enigma, as we are unaware of who is alone at night, what they may be doing, or indeed why. Although floodlighting is used to light the scene from below, a street lamp is placed by the building so that the audience can clearly gather enough about the setting and the surroundings to know that it is in a modern deserted location. The use of lighting on the ground and darkness around the edge of the frame, as well as towards the top of the building subtly implies to the audience that whoever has left the car, has left the safety of the light which connotes safety, and goodness, and has unknowingly ascended to his own doom in the darkness, which could represent the fear of the unknown, and the danger the character has putting himself in.

The portrayal of characters in Noir are often misleading and leave the audience speculating about the role of the character within the film. This is shown here by the facial expression of a character in  the opening sequence, where the male appears to have a calm and collective facial expression, which because of the deviant situation he is in, makes the audience feel as if he has grown used to, and is untroubled by the prospect of being in an building alone where he appears he shouldn't be, at night by himself. This feeling of power is also enhanced by the other symbolic codes within the shot such as what the character is wearing. The character is dressed and presented in a smart suit which would imply the character is wealthy and has a high status in society, making him again seem more powerful. 
However, the director has chosen to make the audience question his power, as they have used a high angle shot which makes him appear weak and superior to the audience, along with his eyes which are looking up above him, which could have an interpreted meaning that he subconsciously is looking for guidance and advice, consequently meaning that he is not as in control of the situation as we first assume.

It is a frequent Film Noir feature to use obscured shots to make the audience feel more involved and to feel the moods and tones of the genre, such as the mystery, spying, deceit, lying, and betrayal that are so commonly the key themes in Film Noir films. This Film Noir quality is borrowed and used here, with the obscured shot with the chair placed in the foreground of the camera lens to make the audience feel as if their vision is partially blocked, and the fact that they cannot change the position they view the scene from along with the partially blocked view, makes the audience feel vulnerable, and therefore builds suspense as they are not fully aware of what is going on. This also as previously mentioned, makes the audience feel more involved as it makes them feel as if they are spying on the character. 
Low key lighting is also used here to add to the suspense that the audience may be feeling, as not much is made visible, and so the audience are effectively thrown into a dark room with seemingly ambiguous characters, adding to the terror the audience may already be feeling.
                                                                 

 Composition within Film Noir is usually very carefully selected to show a vibe or feeling to the audience, as well as from characters. This shot has used the rule of thirds to make the effect more dramatic upon the audience, by drawing their attention to the two characters at seemingly opposite ends of the frame. The audiences eyes are then drawn to the centre of the frame where they realise the vastness of the space that is between them, which highlights the level of distrust and suspicion that both characters have towards each other. Also, because of the way this shot is composed, the audience are unable to read the characters facial expressions, and are therefore unaware as to how they are reacting to one another, but have to use the composition of the shot to assess the situation and speculate about how they are feeling towards each other. This is again very Film Noir as the audience are left in the unknown about actions and feelings of the characters, and therefore are put on edge waiting for their response.


This shot is an example of how Casino Royale uses extreme lighting within it's shots to create an atmospheric Film Noir feel. The chiaroscuro lighting is used here to reflect the characters moral ambiguity, with half of his face exposed to the light, and the other half cast in extreme shadows. The side cast in shadows is left hidden and kept away from the audience to suggest that he has a dark, evil and corrupt side to him that he doesn't want to display to the audience, giving them the impression  that he is dangerous and potentially lethal as we do not know what he is hiding.
However, the side exposed to the lighting leaves the audience able to clearly see one half of him which is lit by strong artificial lighting, connoting that he has a good side to him, and that he is genuine and pure and has good intentions. The fact that he has more light than dark exposed on him would suggest that he is more good than he is bad, but it still reflects that he is not entirely innocent and pure and therefore is a morally ambiguous hero in this film. This is again supported by his hand, which is exposed by the light, and therefore supposedly his good side, holding a gun, which is not something we would think of as being morally right, but this could be interpreted that he has to use necessary evil to aid the good, and that is why he has his 'dark side.'


Guns are a common important prop used in Noir Films, and is one that is again used in the James Bond film- Casino Royale. The gun is used as an important symbol of power, and as we can not see as to whom the gun belongs to, the audience are not sure of who has the power within the scene, and therefore this shot is quite enigmatic as it keeps the audience guessing. This enigma is further carried on by the use of shot, as it is a close up so even if somebody were to take the gun, the audience would be left unaware of who it belonged to. Also, the way that it is positioned in the drawer suggests that no great care is taken with it as it is just left amongst other items, which means that the owner of the gun itself is used to using the gun and does not see it as a potential danger to themselves, which implies that they feel more powerful than the gun, which heightens the power that this unknown character has.
The use of the office draw in which the gun is placed in could also represent the double life that many of the characters in Casino Royale and Noir Films lead, as they all seem to have a dark side, which appears seemingly innocent (i.e the desk draw) but the other characters are unaware of what is lurking beneath their act.

How has working title adapted to changes in the film industry?

Working title began as an independent British film Production Company, founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. During the time of their independence, working title produced two films; these were ‘My beautiful Laundrette’ which was a romance which made a small gross profit of £2,451,545, and ‘Barton Fink’ which was a mystery thriller which made a profit in the USA of $6,153,939.

However, in 1992, Working Title were bought by the Dutch firm PolyGram and since produced the hugely successful Romantic Comedy Four Weddings And A Funeral in 1994 which achieved the highest grossing British film in cinema history for its time with worldwide box office profits of an estimated $245.7 million. Given the huge success of this film, Universal purchased Polygram and therefore Working Title in 1999 as they wanted Working Title to continue to produce small budget British films which would appeal to both the British and American market.

Working Title during when they were first taken over by universal were focused on producing fairly low budget block buster British films that would appeal to American and British cinema audiences. To do this they focused on popular genres such as Romantic comedies, family films and comedies, selling the traditional British culture abroad to aim it to a multi cultural audience. Notting Hill was another hugely successful Working Title film $363,889,678 which used traditionally British representative actor Hugh Grant, as well as the well known American Actor Julia Roberts to star as the lead roles in a romantic trans Atlantic entanglement which again appealed to it’s key demographic of American and British audiences.

Another enormously successful film was the feel good romantic comedy ‘Love Actually’ which was packaged again to appeal to the American and British market by using Iconic British locations and using Well known British actors such as Collin Firth, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, and Keira knightly as well as again including trans Atlantic American romance to target it towards an American audience. Its genre and easy viewing nature as well as wide range of A list actors meant that It’s target audience was going to be wide and varied.

However, changes within technology resulted in changes in the film industry and therefore Working Titles approach to film production. With the increase in Downloading and streaming, as well as the reduced time between theatrical release and DVD many people now wait for the DVD release rather than watching it in the cinema admissions drastically fell, and with more competition from other high budget block buster focused production company’s, working title decided to try to reduce their budget for films even further to mean that there was  less pressure on box office admissions, and to target their films straight to DVD releases.

However these films still made huge profits with Working Title producing successful international targeted films such as the family targeted audience ‘Mr beans Holiday’ which used the already well known and established popular British character Mr bean, played by the Iconic British Actor Rowan Atkinson, which with the lack of dialogue and simple humour appealed to the international audience, especially when including other international characters, meant that it had a huge worldwide audience and managed to make a profit of $229,736,344 with a budget of only $25 million.

Although Working Title mainly stick to the niche low risk, low budget market, they have since released films such as ‘Paul’ which was seemingly aimed for a box office release rather than a DVD release with a significantly higher budget and using more modern technology available in the film industry such as CGI to compete with other competitors. The budget for Paul was $40,000,000 which mainly was due to the extensive use of CGI used throughout the film, as well as for the fairly well known British actors Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. Working Title did however still try to appeal to an American market by setting it in America so it would be culturally relevant to an American audience. The film only made a Gross worldwide profit of $37,984,015 which was arguably down to the limited market the film was targeted towards, as it would’ve been a teen hit, but because of the age 15 certificate it meant that it had lost a large proportion of its audience. It also was a sci-fi comedy which meant that it was mainly aimed at boys which further limited its target audience and meant that it was not set out to produce good box office takings like the film was supposed to be produced for.

With the lack of success from such higher budget and therefore higher risk films, Working Title decided to avoid trying to compete with blockbuster cinema films and focus on producing a continuous stream of low budget successful genre orientated films instead of using the new available technologies such as creating 3-D films or heavily using CGI which would increase the production costs.

One of Working Titles most recent films Anna Karenina which was produced within a budget of £31 million and was based on a well known best selling novel, included well known British actors such as Keira Knightly, and Jude law which appeal very much to the international adult market, and Aaron Johnson who appeals very much to young teenagers, which along with the choice of the international locations, meant that the film, although unique in genre, had a fairly wide and certain audience. As it was a historical period theatrically executed romance, it appealed to the older market which have shown to be one of the largest growing cinema audiences which meant that the film was constructed carefully to ensure a wide and broad audience was there waiting to receive the film.

Working Title have changed the type of films they produce to changes which have occurred within the film industry, such as the decreasing sales of box office admissions, and high numbers of competitors with cinema aimed 3-D hit films. As well as this, Working Title have seemed to grasp the importance of aiming films at an international audience in improving profits, and that low budget television and DVD focused films are the way forward for their company within the film industry.

Preliminary task-continuity editing

The aesthetic style of Film Noir

Film Noir is a detective, spy thriller genre of film which was especially popular in between the 1930's and 50's and is well known for both its particular and select styles of lighting, strong characters, and dark ominous tones and themes.
'Noir' is literally a translation of the French word meaning 'black' to reflect the consistent bleak moods present within Noir Films.

Lighting in Film Noir is a key aspect of the genre, as they focus on hard and severe lighting, which as many were created in the 40's and 50's were created in black and white, helps create a further extreme and dramatic effect. 
This black and white  element is also used to outwardly portray a characters qualities to the audience. This can be done because of the two juxtaposed
  connotations of the colours black and white. The colour black creates ideas such as death, misery, danger, mystery, and the unknown, whereas white connotes ideas such as innocence, purity, and goodness.
 For example, the image on the bottom right of the collage shows how the mans face is split into black and white through the use of lighting. This represents the characters two seemingly contrasting personalities, his seemingly innocent side and his darker more dangerous side. The darker side of his face creates a mysterious enigmatic impression to the audience as we are unaware of what other aspects of themselves the characters may be hiding. Also the way in which the shadowing falls on the face is as often done in a way that stops the other characters within the shot from being able to see the dark side that is exposed and therefore the possible dangers that the characters may bring.
This dramatic effect is created by the (very often) single strong harsh light source which creates strong bold shadows which can help to build tension, by playing on dramatic irony so that the audience can speculate about what is going to happen, and are more aware than the characters within a scene, resulting in the audience feeling more engaged and therefore more connected with the characters within a scene. 

The camera angles used within Film Noir are usually quite obscure, often using many low or high angled shots, to create a skewed effect, reflecting the tone and mood of the film.
It is quite conventional within film noir to frequently use extreme long shots (as shown in the 2nd image on the left on the first row of the collage) to establish the setting which may also be used to show the isolation of characters and therefore the vulnerable position they may be in. As well as possibly being used to show the remoteness of their surroundings, Extreme long shots can be used to show the space between characters which can therefore be used to non verbally communicate ideas such as suspicion tension  between the two characters.
As well as this, the use of extreme long shots can be used to hide a characters identity, creating a more mysterious, enigmatic and thrilling scene as only the distinct outline is visible to the audience and the audience are therefore unaware of that specific characters emotions or again indeed their identity which makes them appear more threatening and builds anticipation within a scene.
 Tight shots are also commonly used in this sense (an example of these can be seen below under the Film Noir Examples) with the characters obtaining the majority of the shot resulting in the audience being unaware of the surroundings, further building the suspense, tension and sense of unease as the audience feel restricted and almost cornered by their limited sight, which makes the audience feel the panic that usually the characters themselves within a scene are too experiencing.
Contrastingly, extreme close ups although are not as commonly used, are still present in Film Noir as they are used to focus on often certain important props or a characters emotional response, which the audience may have before missed.
  Obscured shots are often used within Film Noir to 
make the audience feel more involved with both the film and the genre. This is a shot which creates the feeling of hiding as if the audience themselves are onlooking the situation and almost spying on them. This can be created by using a tilt shot shown in the example which is perhaps how somebody in that position may look at the characters, or often objects are placed infront of the camera to directly block or "Obscure" the audiences view, in this case, the stairs are put infront of the audiences view which created the impression that they are crouched hiding on the stairs. This shot is frequently used to put the audience on edge and build suspense and tension.

Extreme angles are used to create a more dramatic effect and again are used to build tension within a scene.
Extreme high angles are used to either establish a scene and a setting in often to relation to characters, or commonly to make a character appear powerful to another. 

Extreme low Angle shots are used therefore to make a character appear weak and vulnerable in contrast to another character, as shown here.




The body language and composition within the shots in Film Noir are over exaggerated as well as carefully composed to portray the characters in the exact, often stereo-type, character role given.

This is an example from the Noir film 'Double Indemnity' by which the use of exaggerated body language is used to establish character roles, as well as lighting to effectively portray and connote things such as innocence or mysteriousness to reiterate character roles and help set the dark and bleak mood of the film.






The other elements of Mis-En-Scene such as Props in Film Noir are very limited. As you can see from the example collage below, the consistent theme of props used are limited, but the frequent appearance of cigarettes is not unnoticed. This is probably because smoking was regarded as glamorous and sophisticated at the time of many of these films were produced in. Also because of the nature of the genre, guns are also a frequent occurring prop used.

Costumes are also very similar within Film Noir as they usually require a glamerous and attractive woman, therefore wearing distinctively feminine and seductively suggestive clothing such as dresses, a detective or inspector who dress to their stereo type and therefore wear trench coats and hats which therefore are also used to hide their identity, as well as businessmen who will appear smartly dressed to conform to their 1950's gangster role in suits,hats and ties, to represent their state of wealth.

The locations used in Film Noir are usually busy urban settings in major cities in America such as New York so the audience feel like they are aware of where the story is taking place. However, the sets and locations within the cities are often quite small such as alley ways, bridges and staircases to give the impression of claustrophobic and trapped people in big places, which could link back to the idea that they are trapped in a situation and although it may appear they have everywhere else to run to, they are actually far more limited in choice than it would at first appear.

Example images of Film Noir
The above images show the repetitive conventions within Film Noir, such as the strong chiaroscuro lighting to cast strong shadows for a more dramatic affect, the glamorous role that women portrayed, shown through their flawless appearance and suggestive clothing, as well as the idea of deceit, betrayal, and the clashes between the two genders as a key theme.

Batman-Dark Knight Rises

Anna Karenina

How to shoot a conversation

When shooting a conversation, as the focus of the shot is to capture the dialogue, body language and facial expression of the characters, only a few shorts efficiently capture these vital elements in a conversation meaning it is common for very few shots to be used when shooting a conversation.

 However it is important that even if few shots are used, that the shots constantly change to still keep the audience engaged, and to make sure the audience are aware of both characters verbal or non-verbal (body language, facial expression etc) responses to one another.

In despite of their being few other shots other than close ups, or indeed extreme close ups or mid shots, usually in a conversational scene there is a momentary extreme long shot of the setting. This is known as the establishing shot as it informs the audience of the setting in which the conversation is taking place.

Extreme Long shot from 'Leap year'

Master shot from 'Leap Year'

An example of this is from the film 'Leap Year' where by the audience are at first introduced to the setting, although only for a few seconds, it is enough to show that they are in a remote, romantic and traditional setting which importantly sets the mood for the conversation they are having.

Another type of shot which is almost always used is a master shot. This is the shot of all characters present in a conversation and is usually a mid to long shot which displays both characters dialogue and body language or facial expression. An example of this is once again used in the film 'Leap Year' in which both the characters are in the frame with both of their faces clearly in full view to the audience. Although this is a mid shot of the characters, they are still close to the camera meaning that the audience can therefore clearly see both characters facial expressions and body language within one shot.

Over the shoulder shot-'Leap Year'

The arguably most common type of shot used when shooting a conversation is an over the shoulder shot as it makes the audience feel as if they are truly in the setting and present at the time of the conversation. It also makes the audience feel involved in the shot, but able to view it from a slight distance so that they can take in what is happening in the shot. It also reminds the audience of the other character in the scene, as for example if a point of view shot was used entirely through a dialogue scene, the audience would feel too emotionally involved and forget about the other character to whom the first is talking to. 

Close up from 'Leap Year'

Close ups are also extremely important when shooting a conversation as it is often needed to show a characters emotion or opinion to something which has been said, and a close up can be equally as effect as dialogue and is often used so that the audience know immediately of the response of one character from what another is saying or said. An example of this is again from the film 'Leap year' when the female character is having an epiphany about what the other character is actually saying, and the audience are therefore informed that she understands the situation, without the other characters dialogue being interrupting.

                                                                                                  

   Another technique used when filming conversations is the 'shot reverse shot' filming method. This is when the camera is often, but not always, a point of view shot, and captures somebody looking at an object. It then cuts to what they are looking at, and once more to the person looking at the object. 
Here is an example below from Harry potter, when Ron and Harry are introducing each other, the shot reverse shot is frequently used, as well as later when Ron is watching the chocolate frog, a shot of the chocolate frog jumping out of the window is shown, and Rons facial expression after.

Also, it is important to consider when shooting, the number of cameras and sequences in which they are shot in. For example, the order in which you film things will differ depending if you are shooting the sequence with one camera or two. This is because if you are shooting with one camera it is commonly thought to shoot the Master shot first, being the main shot with both characters in, and then the individual character shots, and finally pick up shots (the odd shots such as extreme close ups of somebody's hand.)
However, if you are shooting with two cameras, you should shoot the Master shot, whilst shooting the pick ups, and then two cameras can be set up to shoot each characters individual shots at the same time, which is a less time consuming and  more convenient method of shooting.

To make the shots seem smooth and consistent in dialogue scenes in which their may be fast paced movement, match on action should also be considered. This is the means of cutting from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the shot before to create the impression of continuity.

It is still also important to consider the 180 degree rule as to not confuse the audience on the seeming change of position of the characters.