In what way does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Conventionally, in film noir, there is extreme weather, often dramatic mist or heavy rain. Although I could not get a rain machine or dry ice, I created the illusion of heavy rain.

Firstly I gave the character of Mrs. Thorwald an umbrella, to suggest the presence of rain. Furthermore I added a rain sound effect. Although you cannot see any rain, as it is fairly dark this does not matter & the illusion of rain is created effectively.

Lighting & Contrast

Another convention of film noir is the use of lighting, creating strong contrast and dramatic shadows.

I used an external light, and held it low one the ground to create these conventional shadows.

Due to the period that film noir first came into existence, they were

originally made in black and white. I therefore made my film black and white,

for authenticity .I also dressed my actors in period

clothing, and used props which appeared to be of the era.

Often in film noir, there is a femme fatal, a mysterious and seductive woman, which I did not have as such in my film. I challenged this convention by using an elderly lady, who was revealed to be dangerous but was not seductive, using her sexuality for power, but her harmless and sweet façade instead.

However, I was also incorporating conventions of dark comedy and sci-fi, meaning things had to be more surreal

than they usually are in film noir. Therefore I used the disturbing image

of Mrs. Thorwald removing her head and replacing it with another.

Dark humour was created at the sight of the comical heads on the

shelf.