Going off on a tangent of interest, I've decided to look into Private Investigators, one because it breaks down the more general theme of film noir into something more specific and focused, two because its something which already has a possible set of creative and branding outcomes.
A private investigator or PI for short can go by many names, such as private eye, private detective or inquiry agent. Private investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. A handful of very skilled PI's work with defence attorneys on capital punishment and criminal defence cases. Many also work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims. They can also be hired to work on cases of adultery, child custody and alimony in order to gain grounds for divorce or for the process after.
Most PI's require a license depending on the country or state, this also depends on whether they are allowed to carry firearms or not. Some are ex-police officers, some are ex-military, ex-spies or were perhaps bodyguards and security guards. While they may investigate a police matter, they do not have the power of police, and as such only have the same powers a civilian would have. They must keep strict documents of all activity if called upon in court.
The Truth Seeker:
The truth seeker can wear any costume, whether that be a private eye or a criminal. Their primary goal is to navigate the convoluted maze of the noir universe to find a critical answer. The Hunted:
The noir protagonist is frequently pursued and hunted from the beginning to end of a film. He is usually a male and an outsider. He finds it difficult to connect with a universe which seems so ruled by chance, so inherently absurd. He may find himself drawn into rebellious criminal acts in defiance of this absurdity. Femme Fatale:
The most subversive element in most film noir is the female character, who is often a femme fatale. The femme fatale is a black widow, the spider woman, from the male perception, an evil and castrating bitch. Strong female characters willing to use their own sexuality as a weapon in order to level the playing field against men.
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Chiaroscuro Lightning:
Low-key lighting in the style of Rembrandt or Caravaggio, marks most noirs of the classic period. Shade and light play against each other not only in night exteriors but also in dim interiors shielded from daylight by curtains or Venetian blinds. Hard, unfiltered side-light and rim light outline and reveal only a portion of a face to create a dramatic tension all of its own. Cinematographers such as Nicholas Musuraca, John F. Seitz and John Alton took this style to the highest level in films like Out of the Past, Double Indemnity and T-Men. Odd Angles:
Noir cinematographers favoured low angles for several reasons. Firstly, this angle made the characters rise from the ground in an almost expressionistic manner, giving them dramatic girth and symbolic overtones. In addition, it also allowed the viewer to see the ceilings of interior settings, creating even more of a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia, appropriate emotions for the world of noir: High angles could also produce disequilibrium, peering down a stairwell over a flimsy railing or out of a skyscraper window at a city street far below. Moving Camera:
For directors like Ophilis and Lang, the camera that slides across a room past an array of foreground clutter or tracks a character through a crowded cafe had a relentless and fateful quality. When combined with a long take, suspenseful sequences were subtly enhanced. The Urban Landscape:
Noir films are often set in urban landscapes, particularly the cities of Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The metropolis with its circles of light under streetlamps, dim alleyways, a press of shadowy pedestrians and wet, grimy streets is the perfect milieu for the nightmarish events of noir. Flashback & Subjective Camera:
Whether introduced via a ripple effect or simply a smash cut, the past palpably intrudes in film noir via its flashbacks. The flashback can be filtered through a single characters point of view or ostensibly detached and objective: seeing the past gives a reality that no amount of speech can match.
To further break down our topic and to start to relate it to design, I am looking into how elements of Film Noir are branded in this day and age. For example; how a private investigator might brand himself in relation to business cards and letterheads, if we were thinking in the normal design conventions.
Or perhaps how a barber shop might brand itself in a 50's style, maintaining that black and white aesthetic.
Or how cigarette packets were branded back in the time when cigarettes were openly smoked, as much so in Film Noir by a hardened detective on the case.
A Noir influenced Beer label. It reminds me of the opening credits graphics of an old 50's film.
Any gaming fan will of heard of L.A. Noire. A modern throwback of the genre where you take on the roll of a detective in 1950's L.A. Shows how modern culture still takes influence from and shows appreciation for the genre.
I was previously doing Westerns but found myself surprisingly unenthused by the topic, perhaps as I did a project in a similar style previously of around the same time period. However I still wanted to keep the film interest so I have re-settled upon Film Noir. What is Film Noir?
Film Noir is a cinematic term used to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, in particular those which deal with cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. It is regarded as extending from the early 1940's to the late 1960's and it's influence can also be seen in more modern ventures.
It is associated with a low black and white key which took influence from experimental German cinematography. Many of the stories and the attitudes of Noir derive from hard-boiled crime fiction born from the US great depression.
Film Noir is French for "black film", first applied to these Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946. Before 1970 however this notion was not widely accepted and they were referred to as 'melodramas'. It is still debated whether Film Noir should be classified as a specific genre.
It encompasses a range of plots. The main figure could be a private eye, a detective, an ageing boxer, a hapless grifter, a law-abiding citizen turned to a life of crime or even someone who was caught up in it all from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Stacked heels and camera trickery were used during the filming of the 1946 version of 'The Big Sleep', to make Humphrey Bogart - who was shorter than female co-stars Lauren Bacall and Martha Vickers - appear taller.
In the Coen's noirish thriller Miller's Crossing, the line"Jesus, Tom" is said seven times, by four different characters.
According to the BFI, The Third Man is the “greatest British movie ever made”. Oddly, it also comes in at 57 in the American Film Institute’s “Top 100 American films”.
Because Orson Welles turned up two weeks late for the filming of The Third Man, men in “fat suits” had to be used as body doubles for several shots.
Cecil B DeMille was paid $10,000 and a brand new Cadillac for his cameo in Sunset Blvd. When Billy Wilder went back to him to film a necessary close-up, he demanded another $10,000.
There are three Maltese Falcon statuette props left in existence, and each is valued at over $1m – more than it cost Warner Bros to make the actual movie.
Pierce Patchett’s brothel in LA Confidential, in which the prostitutes are film star lookalikes, is based on a real place in 1940s Hollywood.
Noirish high school thriller Brick features a number of references to classic film noirs: the “long-short-long-short” car horn signal employed by the main character is stolen from Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.
While filming Chinatown, Jack Nicholson often stalled shooting to watch basketball on a portable TV. Director Roman Polanski eventually became so enraged he smashed the gogglebox with a mop.
While often described as a genre, many claim film noir is more about the use of a visual style – i.e. low key lighting – and tropes such as “the femme fatale”, “the cynical detective” and a plot riddled with mystery and deception.
1940’s Stranger on the Third Floor, starring legendary noir character actor Peter Lorre, is widely regarded as the first ever film noir. Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958) is often called the last of the classic noirs.
“Neo noir” movies that consciously echo the noir style include Body Heat (1981), Shattered (1991) and Basic Instinct (1992) – Sharon Stone’s sex vixen might be the most OTT femme fatale in cinema.
The Coen brothers often tip their hats to film noir while twisting its conventions: Fargo swaps a gritty urban setting for the supposedly wholesome rural Midwest, while The Big Lebowski casts a lazy stoner in the detective role.
Scholars are divided on whether film noir is a recognizable genre like the Western or the musical. Most agree that the term is best used to define a style and a period in American cinema, rather than a distinct genre. The points below help to illuminate this definition.
The term film noir, French for "black film" was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946. It was not used by filmmakers of the time, and was not in common parlance until decades later.
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and complex motivations, but elements of the noir style are recognizable in a wide variety of genres.
Both literary and cinematic noir are loosely defined by: (i) the subjective point of view; (ii) the shifting roles of the protagonist; (iii) the ill-fated relationship between the protagonist and society (generating the themes of alienation and entrapment); and (iv) the ways in which noir functions as a socio-political critique.
The primary literary influence on film noir was the school of American detective and crime fiction, led in its early years by such writers as Dashiell Hammett (whose first novel, Red Harvest, was published in 1929) and James M. Cain (whose The Postman Always Rings Twice appeared five years later), and popularized in pulp magazines such as Black Mask.
Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, but the dominant style is considered primarily a post-war phenomenon.
Cinematic elements of film noir include low-key lighting, chiaroscuro effects, deep focus photography, extreme camera angles and expressionist distortion.
Voice–over and flashback were persistent stylistic and narrative elements of film noir movies. Double Indemnity and Detour are examples of movies that successfully used these techniques.
Many film noir stories include a femme fatale character. A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. The phrase is French for "deadly woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and allure. Although typically villainous, femme fatales have also appeared as anti- heroines in some stories, and some even repent and become heroines by the end of the tale. Femme fatales of history and literature include the convicted spy Mata Hari, Mohini of Hindu mythology, Cleopatra, and the Biblical figures Eve, Delilah, Salome and Jezebel.
Major examples of film noir include: The Maltese Falcon (1941) – although not entirely in the true noir style, often considered the first film noir, and certainly one of the earliest films to employ the cynical hard-boiled style, particularly in its dialogue, taken almost entirely from Dashiell Hammett’s landmark 1930 detective novel of the same name Double Indemnity (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Out of the Past (1947), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Crossfire (1947), T-Men (1947), Criss Cross (1949), They Live By Night (1949), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), The Big Heat (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), generally considered the last film noir
Other films not considered strictly film noir but exhibiting many of the characteristics: The Third Man (1949), To Have and Have Not (1944), Notorious (1946) - and a few other Hitchcock movies
Examples of neo-noir (more contemporary films that employ elements of the style, usually self-referentially or as homage): Chinatown (1974), The Long Goodbye (1973), Body Heat (1981), Pulp Fiction (1994), Blade Runner (1982) – an example of noir style used in an unrelated genre, in this case, science fiction.
This afternoon myself and Ross met to brainstorm some ideas and lay down things the direction we had in mind with relation to the brief guidelines, and perhaps more importantly, things we wanted to avoid.
Off the bat we were both in agreement that we wanted to avoid any overused cliches of 'britishness' that could be easily fitted to this campaign. For example:
Tea parties
The Queen
Ted 'Bakery' (Scones etc)
British Idioms such as Tally-Ho and Pip-Pip
After affirming these things as no no's, we began to list and discuss different aspects of each culture and also what Britain and America share. We both felt we didn't want to project an image which could be seen as poking fun at the British in order to appeal to the Americans and to get an easy tick next to the box for humour. It needs to be more subtle whilst still projecting a certain cool and charm about our British way of life.
British Culture & Associations
Sunday Best
Pigeons
Music> Rock 'n' Roll> The Beatles> The Rolling Stones> The Who> Jimi Hendrix
Michael Caine
James Bond> Shaken Not Stirred
Hitchcock
Sherlock Holmes
Monty Python
David Attenborough
Union Jack> Red & Blue
Britpop> Oasis> Blur> Wonderwall
American Culture & Associations
Burgers
Milkshakes
Fries
Muscle Cars> Hotrods
Freedom> Liberty> Brave> Eagles
Guns> Cowboys
Gambling> Poker> Vegas> Atlantic City
Bourbon> Whiskey Bars 'Saloons'> Prohibition
Shared American & British Culture & Associations
Explorers
Flags> Red, White & Blue
Democracy> Free Speaking
Atlantic> Across 'The Pond'
Music Types
'The War'
These are only brief but it has given us an important plateau to which we can base our concepts knowing we are on the same wavelength. We plan to work separately on some concepts and then come back together on the wednesday the 20th. Though we both have shown a keen interest and can see a large potential in the concept 'Across the Pond'. Both in a literal, cultural and conceptual term.
We have logically designated research topics in order to utilise our time. This results in 4 main topics to begin with: the brand, American culture, British culture and the relationship between the two. These will undoubtedly create further avenues of research we can follow but it seemed a good starting block to better understand the context and audience.
<insert analysis about the look and the brand> Background:
'No ordinary designer label'. Having launched as a shirt specialist of some repute in Glasgow Ted Baker quickly became the place to buy some of the very best contemporary men’s shirting around.
From the beginning Ted has had a very clear, unswerving, focus on quality, attention to detail and a quirky sense of humour, so much so in fact that the first stores used to provide a laundry service for every shirt purchased – something that gained the quickly growing brand the title of ‘No Ordinary Designer Label’. Everything produced under the Ted Baker name has his personality woven into its very heart.
As you would expect from Ted, the approach to marketing the brand remains the same as it was from day one … primarily by word of mouth and out of the ordinary marketing. What other brand would give away Paxo stuffing at Christmas, a can of chocolate bunny hotpot for Easter, or even special world-cup 2006 football cards, Roy of the Rovers style? Ted remains one of the only brands to be built into an international designer label without an advertising campaign.
As Ted chooses not to advertise, he must do everything he can to support the collections in a more consistent, different and fun manner. We hope you’ll agree our new ‘no ordinary designer website’ does this down to a tee.
Ted Baker is one of the fastest-growing leading lifestyle brands in the UK.
The collections have expanded rapidly since its beginnings as a menswear brand in Glasgow in 1987.
Today Ted Baker offers a wide range of collections including: Menswear, Womenswear, Global, Endurance, Accessories, Fragrance, Skinwear, Footwear, Eyewear and Watches.
Ted Baker has a portfolio of stores in the UK and the USA and is also present in leading department stores.
After signing three new territorial license agreements in 2006 and initially opening stores in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai we've continued our expansion in 2007 with the opening of a further store in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, three in Kuala Lumpar and two each in Dubai and Jakarta. We also have locations in Taiwan and Bangkok.
Reflections:
The Empire:
<insert issuu about ted baker barber shop, kids range, events etc>
'For our purposes, the history of the West should start in 1763, when the British authorities, to defuse tension with the Indian tribes, decreed that white settlers in its American colony would stay east of the Appalachian mountains - a pledge ignored, after 1783, by the independent USA'. - Simpson, Paul 2006
Westerns as a genre take their roots from the American westward expansion, causing warring with the indigenous tribes of Native American Indians and a certain degree of lawlessness and pioneering earning it the nickname 'the wild west'.
The vast majority of Westerns are set after the Civil War ended in 1865. 'The West was the place where America was being made and, in a fantasy that continues to draw thousands to Hollywood today, unsatisfactory lives could be remade. The Wild Wests heroic heyday lasted less than thirty years. In 1890, the US Census Bureau declared the frontier officially no longer existed. But it lived on in the hearts and minds of writers and filmmakers who perpetuated, expanded and reshaped the legend of the West, enhancing America's self-image of resilience, resourcefulness and courage. They were preoccupied by what was then recent history: the rise of the cattle empires, the quest for law and order, conflicts over ranges and railroads. Real mundane hardships soon augmented by the dangers of cardsharps, claim jumpers, confidence men, quickdraw killers and wild Indians' - Simpson, Paul 2006
10 facts about Westerns:
Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry -
Many other genres have drawn on Westerns as influence including space travel films - influences in other films make for interesting cross overs and shows the power of western story plots
None of our modern concerns exist in Westerns, they are free of society in a sense - It can be reliving to imagine a world without the modern pressures we face today.
Westerns usually involve a stand-off between the hero and the villain - Many moviegoers rarely get a chance to do this in real life and can live through this scene, perhaps as an imaginary duel between them and their boss at work.
Take characters straight from actual historical findings and events - gives the characters a sense of realism and shows how different directors can perceive the same person
Sometimes were advised by living legends of the time - because the films were made so close to the actual time period it could have real life accounts from people such as Wyatt Earp.
Was so popular that it was massive in Europe at the same time, the French had 'horse operas' (silent westerns) before world war 1 - shows its worldwide appeal and influence
227 westerns were made in just one year in 1925 - good westerns had to deal with a lot of competition to stand out
Westerns were made in the West, Hollywood to be specific - authentic to context
The first actual Western is considered 'The Great Train Robbery' (1903) - extremely close to the actual wild west period.
'according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.' - (John Berger)
Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485).
Shows a women looking at her distorted reflection, we see in the mirror what she would see, not from our perspective. We are led to think she is primarily interested in looking upon her own reflection.
Alexandre Cabanel ' Birth of Venus' (1863).
We see how she covers her own face with her hand. This is seen often in contemporary photography and advertising. It looks like a focus on the body instead of her face as a character.
Sophie Dahl for Opium, `Photography.
Sexual references, hand touching breast, legs open. Originally landscape but deemed too indecent, was turned portrait which gave a greater focus on the face and was then deemed acceptable, though it is fundamentally the same image.
Titian's Venus of Urbino, (1538).
Passive nude. Berger compared it to MANET 'Olypia'. The hand over by it's position looks casual in one and defensive in the other. Feels voyeur, relaxed.
MANET - 'Olympia' (1863).
Defensive, looks wealthy due to the cloth and slave giving flowers. The tilt of her head looks as though she is addressing us.
Ingres 'Le Grand Odalisque' was used by the Guerilla Girls as a feminist rights protest campaign within the art world.
MANET - Bar at the Folies Bergeres, 1882.
We can see her from two positions, one as ourselves and one as the character who can be seen talking to her reflection. A comment on social perception.
Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' (1979).
Doubling of the gaze, we are reminded of the gaze of the camera and the gaze of the figures. Instead of feeling like an invisible spectator, you are being looked upon as you are looking upon them.
Coward, R. (1984).
The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets.
Eva Herzigove, 1994.
Wonderbra billboard advert. 'Hello Boys'.
Coward, R.
The profusion of images which characterises contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women... a form of voyeurism. Peeping Tom, 1960.
Dolce & Gabbana, 2007.
Male bodies are reflected as a fitness way, it is not passive. They return the gaze. Feels like a celebration of the human body. Different to female bodies in advertising.
Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'The Seven Year Itch' (1955).
Freud describes the enjoyment of looking upon another body. The cinema is a perfect environment for voyeurism. The pleasure of looking has been described as a split between an active male and a passive female.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
A visual spectacle to be consumed. Overly sexualised object. Pleasure is in the fantasy of her destruction. Seen as powerful but still seen as a sexual female object.
Painting by a women showing an active role, forceful. The arms are emphasised, not the body. The gaze is challenged.
Pollock, G (1981)
Cindy Sherman, "untitled Film Still 6. 1977 - 79.
Turned image like the Opium advert. Mirror facing away so can't see any reflection. Focus on the face. Would of been perhaps sexual but has been challenged and the gaze has been altered. Awkwardness with her hand, looks strange, challenges conventions of the male gaze.
Barbara Kruger ' Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face' (1981).
Figure turning away from the male gaze. 'Hits' is a direct attack against female objectivity.
Sarah Lucas 'Eating a Banana' 1990.
Eating a banana is a sexual reference but it feels self-conscious. The realisation of eating a banana in public could look sexual. She's almost saying 'what are you looking at'. Almost challenging the viewer.
The mail caught with fake story of the Amanda Knox trial.
Social networking is used to perpetuate the male gaze/ the gaze of the media.
Susan Sontag (1979) 'On Photography'. To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.
Reality Television. Appears to offer us the position as the all seeing eye. The power of the gaze. Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption of a type of reality. Editing means that there is no reality. Contestants are aware of their representation. We are only seeing an edited version, it's not reality. It's mediated.
The Truman Show (1988) Peter Weir. Look at this reality concept.
Big Brother 2001. Gives us the female and male body to focus on. Voyeurism has become everyday and saturated. They are aware they are being viewed, not truly voyeur.
<look at further reading and do independent research>
Social Control. How society affects the way we behave and our actions. Pre-determined by society.
Institutions in terms of groups or things which have organised practices. Artists and designers work within these institutions, this tells them ultimately what's good and what's bad and directs their practice.
Aims:
Understand the principles of Panopticon.
Understand Michel Foucault's concept of 'disciplinary society'.
Michel Foucault
(1926 - 1984)
Madness & Civilisation.
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
The Great Confinement (late 1600's). Madness was looked upon differently. More like a village idiot mentality.
Anyone who was seen as lacking in social productivity was put into 'Houses of Correction' to curb unemployment and idleness. This included, madmen, criminals, single mothers etc. Anyone who was seen to not be useful to the overall institution. They were forced to work through physical punishment.
In the 18th century these houses of correction had begun to look unsavoury, they were starting to seem like a mistake. This gave birth to specialist institutions to house these people such as prisons for the criminals and asylum's for the mentally challenged.
In the asylum's they were almost treated like children, being rewarded for good behaviour and punished for the other. Foucault states this as the beginning of modern practices such as psychiatry. He begins to see how these institutions have started to alter people's consciousness.
Punishment was used by the state as a statement of power over it's people. Public disciplines showed the people the consequences of not obeying them. Such as the Guillotine in France.
Foucault was interested in how this spawned the modern 'disciplinary society'. "Discipline is a 'technology'". He calls this study Panopticism named after a building called the Panopticon proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791. It was designed as a multi-functional building, meaning it could be a list of things including prison's and asylums. What was special about this was the mental affect it would have on it's inhabitants. Each cell faced inwards towards the centre of the cylindrical building where lied an observational tower holding the prison guards. This is really all they can see, their supervisors, not the other inmates across the way. This meant constant supervision, meaning any bad behaviour would instantly be spotted, trying to project a mentality of good behaviour because there almost seems no point in acting in any other way. The Panopticon internalises in the individual the conscious state that he is always being watched.
Was claimed to be able to reform prisoners, treat patients, instruct schoolchildren, confine but also study the insane, helps supervise workers, helps put beggars and idlers to work.
Foucault says the Panopticon is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, it's power, it's surveillance of bodies and it's 'training' of bodies.
Modern examples;
The open plan office, a modern panopticon. The workers can always be seen. Changing their behaviour knowing they are being watched, being put under scrutiny.
Open plan bar's, everyone is visible, mainly to the bouncers and the staff. This changes the way you may behave.
CCTV cameras record most places, which affects the way you behave.
Pentonville Prison was a correctional school. Each pupil was in a space divided with barriers from the pupils sat immediately next to them, all they could see was the lecturer at the front.
It's a form of mental discipline, all educational facilities employ these methods whether they are aware of it or not.
Panopticism as a mental mechanism has a physical affect on our bodies. Disciplinary Society creates what Foucault calls 'docile bodies' which are self-correcting and obedient. Without anyone forcing you, you begin to feel guilty if you don't meet this social expectations such as eating healthier and not eating your 5 a day.
Foucault and Power:
His definition is not a top-down model as with Marxism.
Power is not a thing or a capacity people have - it is a relation between different individuals and groups, and only exists when it is being exercised.
The capacity of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted.
