Analyse how the opening scene of Sin City uses the conventions of film noir to set up audience expectations

Film noir is a very popular style of film it’s not a genre as it commonly called. Film noir is shot in black and white and uses non ambient lighting combined with ambient lighting to set the mood and tone of a scene. These films often heavily feature crime and adultery, frequently these films with have a theme of trouble and evolve a male hero/role or female role (femme fatale) who will be trying to escape trouble or the inevitable.
Sin city is not shot in the traditional film noir style but still closely follows the conventions. Sin City is a neo noir film meaning that it isn’t totally black and white but has aspects of colour in this particular film the colour is used to highlight a certain aspect of the shot, for example a key object or item of clothing ( red dress ) to show something or to imply something. The Red dress is a key item in the opening scene because it is highlighted in colour to bring the audiences attention to the dress. The colour red implies danger, and ideas of sexuality, making the female character seem attractive.
Sin city opens to a dark night scene where a woman stands on the top of a tall building in a dark city. This woman has a red dress on (implies danger) and red lipstick (seductress) behind the woman is a loud party with large windows emitting allot of light which provides this scene a large amount of non ambient light to set a vibrant happy mood, contrasting with the huge dark city which shows us how small and helpless they are amongst such darkness. The woman is not alone for long when a well dressed man approaches behind her. Already conventions of film noir have entered the film the sharp dressed man who could be the hero enters casting an eerie shadow and the woman who would appear to be the femme fatal of our story. A voice over then begins (which is another convention of film noir) this voice over describes the male entering and the dialogue being produced sets a very dark tone ‘she shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dieing tree’ this opening sentence features heavy suggestions of death. The male then offers the woman a cigarette which she takes. Smoking is also a common feature of film noir as it is considered stylish and glamorous. He then leads on to light her cigarette this shot shows intimacy between the two characters, a close up of the lighter is also included to make sure the audience do not miss this intimate gesture. In this scene iconic props are often used and there is a close up of each prop used this is another frequent film noir convention as these iconic props can be easily used to set the scene. The woman then asks if the male character is bored of the party, and he begins to talk very personally complimenting her and telling her he has been watching her and she is perfect, this is very romantic and the woman seems to fall for his clever pick up lines. He then says its her eyes he has fallen for, a close up of her eyes comes on screen and they change from black and white to green only for a moment to highlight her eyes and draw all the audiences attention to this feature. He then says he sees she is sick of running in her eyes and she embraces him and the dialogue stops and the voice over comes back in. the whole screen becomes inverted and the two characters kiss. The voice over describes what the man is saying we know see that the voice over is what the male in this scene is thinking. ‘ I tell her I love her…..The silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot’ he shoots the girl shocking the audience after this very romantic and intimate scene keeping the audience very enthralled and curious as to what happens next the camera then pans out to show the whole city and how small these two characters are.
This scene sets up the film very nicely as it has elements of death crime deception and intimacy. This scene leaves us wandering as to what unfolds through out the film the clever use of coloured objects highlight key points in the scene such as the red dress and the female’s eyes. Conventions of film noir are frequently used in this scene to develop the ideas of darkness and crime and it is very successful and allows to get right into the storyline and sets us up for the story to come and allows us to predict the theme of darkness crime and trouble.
Harley Evans

Elle the Fragrance by YvesSaintLaurent

Analysing Printed media advertisements
The model is standing in a suggestive manner and she looks very seductive and attractive, she is wearing a suit implying she is sophisticated and intelligent but the suit is very revealing and also tells us that she is very beautiful. The open suit adds a sense of eroticism to the whole advert. The way the model is dressed also adds a sense that she is very dominating the open erotic suit in black alongside the heavy make up and tied back hair makes her seem very dominating and powerful. The model is aged around 20 to about 25 years of age this makes woman aged around 20-25 years old relate to the image and find it more pleasing and more of a necessary product to make them more beautiful and intelligent like the advert implies. The model is wearing very heavy make up and the bright pink lipstick perfectly matches the colour of the product and also making the woman seem more glamorous and stylish. The advertisement is shot in a studio we can tell this through the artificial or non ambient lighting in the background, the lighting also reveals the ideas of good and evil on the woman’s right side the light is bright however on her left side the lighting is very dark and shows us the idea of good and evil or naughty and nice perhaps. The bright background lighting contrasts with the dark clothing the woman is dressed in. The colouring of the advert is very clever as the majority of the advert is black and whites but the actual product is very bright and colourful and clearly highlighted to show consumers what they are buying, the product is also being used as a spray can and the products name “Elle” has been elegantly sprayed in a large font across the image. The product being sold is a fragrance and clearly this would not leave a trail of pink writing this has been edited on via computers and software. The writing is bright and vibrant and attracts attention instantly and is easily recognised and acknowledged as the product title. The camera angle is looking directly at the woman showing her whole body waist upwards. The image itself isn’t particularly culturally specific but the name of the company “Yves saint Laurent” is French which adds a slight French theme to the advert making it more culturally specific. The product itself is a bright pink bottle which draws attention and then the detailing of the bottle is all gold adding glamour and elegance to the product and making it seem far more attractive. The model, the bottle and the font all combined add a very high class or wealthy feel to the advert and product. This advert would be sexist but the product is trying to be sold to women making it acceptable but if the same advert was selling say a brand of beer to men the woman would be being objectified and revealed to sexism, however being that the product is for women the advert is acceptable and allowed to be produced. The whole advert gives off the theme of glamour, style and eroticism making this advert very drawing for women as I’m quite sure most women want to look sexy, beautiful, powerful and intelligent at the age of 20-25 and this advert really sells that point and implies that if you wear this fragrance you will become this attractive and powerful woman. The advert gives the impression that wearing this fragrance will make you a powerful and dominating woman the woman is alone on the camera giving us the idea she is single and successful as she looks wealthy and upper class in her suit I get the impression that she would be working high up in a successful organization or the leader of this company or what ever it is, this idea of being single and working and being an independent woman is a recent idea and isn’t the traditional thoughts of women, this advert gives off the impression of the very modern woman who is powerful wealthy and independent.

Harley Evans