Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We used a variety of conventions to suit our film noir genre. We went with the stereotypical male detective and femme fatale. We chose their costumes to fit the conventions of a film noir; the detective wore a suit and hat and the femme fatale wore a long fur coat and looked glamorous. Over the years the detective has always been represented in a familiar way for the audience to recognise. 2 films i have analysed are 'Se7en' and 'The Maltese Falcon' which are both film noirs and include a main detective role. Even though the time periods are different and you can tell more previous detectives are slightly more modern, the main attire is still the same. 'Se7en' has challenged the roles of the detective however because they have used a different ethnicity compared to a typical white ethnic man. 

'Se7en' detective somerset, 

'Maltese Falcon' detective, more dated but
still clear detective image

                                       

















Films like the Maltese Falcon  emphasize the main detective and femme fatale roles. In my opening sequence I looked at other femme fatales images for inspiration. This included the one from the 'Maltese Falcon', she is demonstrated as a vulnerable character who commonly wears expensive looking clothes, such as fur and leather, and we used this image to decide the outfit of our femme fatale. Even though in this image the femme fatale 


The lighting we used was low key and we tried to use just natural light or a single light source to film in. This creates a contrast of shadows on the face and portrays a dark atmosphere. The music we chose fit to the mood of our film. It also showed the time era we were demonstrating throughout our film. 
We were going to challenge the conventions of a film noir by using a female detective, but when we went to film using her, it didn't look right. So we decided to stick to the traditional male detective.