Film noir: Mise-en-scene & Editing

Money was scares during the time when film noir was at it's peak, so expensive "hollywood" editing was not usualy used, however, the editing that was used was unique and gave film noir it's identity. Like in many films today, Continuity editing was widely used to make the film flow nicely and make sence.

It was well known for making the viewer feel disorientated. It was usually non-linear story lines that start at the end and tell the story in flash-backs. Also to make the viewer feel uncomfortable they used jump cuts and juxtapositioning which is not what we are used to in everyday lives. They also used to shoot day for night using filters to which was cheaper, but gave the image of it being night time.

Low key lighting was used along with venetian blinds to make scenes hard to see, and this leaves the viewer wanting to see more. It also made the scene appear more mysterious and literally ‘dark’. The contrasts used in film noir were usually dark blacks and whites - greys were rarely used. It was usually that the hero of the movie was lit up with a brighter light, whereas the villain was a ‘dark shadow lurking in the background’.

Exterior settings are often urban night, deep shadows, rain slicked streets/alleyways, dimly lit and abandoned places. They used familiar locations to make what was happening seem even more real to the viewer.