Codes and Conventions of a 'Film Noir'.

During the early 20th century, Edison created the camera, and with it, the film era began. Cinemas began to emerge during the 1920's and became hugely popular within society. During 1939, there were more movie theatres in the US than banks and something called 'Block Booking' was created. Block booking was something that the five big production companies (paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century fox, RKO pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) did to create more money. When movie theatres wanted permission to play their films in the cinemas they had to pay for the film, the companies then sold the films by 'block booking'. This meant that theatres would have to buy several films in one block that contained the big film that they wanted and a few others that weren't as big at the time. This way the movie theatres would play all of the films as well as the one big film, meaning that the production company would get more money. This turned it into an industry, made to create profit.

Where did the 'Film Noir' genre originate from?
 Film Noir was one of the first genres created in Hollywood, it was created as there was no colour with the first camera so all films were black and white. These films tended to cover any taboos and hot topics at the time such as crime, sex and murder. Film Noirs were films that made the most out what the directors had, many of them tended to be set in the city or in a large house and the lighting was usually low key. People would go to a cinema and watch these films as they were most popular at the time, this meant that production companies started rolling out Film Noirs as they were preferred to other genres at the time and created a lot of profit for these companies.

How did the golden age of Hollywood reinforce genres?
Genres were created through Hollywood as when a successful film was made of a certain genre, that film would then be remade in different ways, and thus the genre was reinforced. For example, if a horror film was made and it was popular and created profit, it would be remade and tweaked to create a new film of this genre. Other genres such as romance and thriller may also have been popular and created a lot of money for Hollywood which is why they are a popular genre today.

Which Genres became popular in Hollywood?
Western was the most popular genre when Hollywood emerged, another popular film would be the horror genre. Horror films were low in budget and popular in cinema so created a lot of profit for major production companies. Most horror films were based on books such as 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley. Film Noir was also popular in Hollywood as again, they were very cheap to make and all followed a similar story line. Film noirs were always created in black and white and had very low key lighting which allowed them to be made very cheaply but the storyline made it very popular in Hollywood which allowed the production companies to make a large profit.

Why do audiences like film genres?
Audiences like film genres as it allows them to go to the cinema to watch a film that they know they will enjoy as they have purposely gone to watch that type of film. By having genres, audiences are able to find out which genres they do and don't enjoy through experience and will then go to watch those films in cinema if they do.

Film noirs are famously known for their man enigma/hook. A film noir is usually centred around a hot topic such as crime, murder or sex. The film will always include a female character - The 'Femme Fatale'. This character is usually a damsel in distress who is looking for help from an unsuspecting male, the male will end up falling in love with her or there will be an altercation between two men over her and she usually ends up either in jail or dead. The 'spider and fly' theory comes in here. This is where the female character (the spider) creates a web of lies or secrets and draws the male (the fly) into this web. She then gets the male involved in all sorts of precarious things such as murders and various other crimes. Many people would say that this genre of film degrades women and is very misogynistic towards them as it always portrays the women to be the antagonist. However, others would argue that it shows us that women have power over men and that they are in fact equal. Many film noirs were made after WWI or around the time of WWII which was a heavy influence on the films at the time, German expressionism was something that began to grow after WWI as there were no foreign films allowed in Germany at the time which increased the demand for domestic films.

There is always a protagonist (who is usually male) in the film who gets caught up with the Femme Fatale's lies and secrets. This male usually has a signature element about them. For example in 'The Maltese falcon', the main male character, Sam Spade rolls his own cigarettes and has a small pouch of tobacco that he uses. This character also usually has a partner who dies and then he gets caught up in this murder.