Bottle dramas are usually established in TV series- it usually occurs when production ran out of money/budget but they still have to produce something. It is also used in minimalist theatres, improvisational theatre. With limited resources, script writer, cinematographers and editors have to be creative to keep the story moving. It is usually script heavy and dialogue driven- the dialogues is what keep the scene moving, revealing the characters. go through the experience together.

In our weekly readings John Belton mentioned how Rear Window is a blend of theatrical and cinematic space

Theatrical Space- Set deign and certain kind of camera movement to construct to establish a concrete unified space

Cinematic Space- Editing, framing and camera movement to construct a more abstract, psychological cinematic film space.

In Community- a simple question leads to principles and trust issues within a group of friends. Characters are forced to empty their bags, every bags leads to a new discovery between each character and to the audience.

I love the movie Coherence! Was quite bored at the beginning but James Ward Brykit did a great job by keeping the audience engaged with a limited space throughout the movie. It is very dialogue/story driven- my mind keeps thinking all the possibility to the mystery the characters were trying to solve.  I find bottle drama very relatable to film students- with limited budget and resources, filmmakers were forced to be creative in their storytelling.

The Killers(1946) is a classic noir film. The use of shadows, hush lightings, reflection and flashbacks Instead of following through flashback of the protagonist, we followed through a list of flashbacks from different perspective. I was lost halfway through the movie from all the different flashbacks but I can see the classic narrative noir structure in the movie.

Noir has many interpretations, some argued that noir is a genre, visual style, movement. Charles Higham quote that Film noir is a genre deeply rooted in the nineteenth century’s vein of grim. It may be considered as a genre between 1940s-1950s, in my opinion, noir has evolved from a genre to a visual style. In our readings, Rebecca mentioned “that Film noir is not a genre, it is not defined as are the western and gangster genre by conventions of settings the conflict, but rather by the more subtile qualities of tone and mood. ” In today’s neo-noir film, instead of following a set of noir conventions, directors use some noir conventions to interpret their film. Most of the Coen brothers’ films has very strong elements of noir but it may not necessary reflect it as a genre.

During the mid semester break, I did lots of reading and research about film noir. Watched movies such as, Double Indemity, Body Heat, Drive, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Big Lebowski as reference for my PB3. I argued that neo-noir is not a genre, it is a visual style. I tried to blend in noir visual style with comedy in my genre sketch but the outcome did not turn out as well as how I thought it should be. The comedy elements were not strong enough. I tried to proof how noir as a visual style introduces the world of the protagonist differently.

After our mid semester break, we watched some video clips of- Interview with Vampire, Bram Stoker, Underworld, Twlight and Only lovers left. We identify similar conventions used in these movies and we compared  how the rules in vampire movies changes to adapts to modernity. I can see noir elements in this week’s vampire screening, as long as the movie reviews darkness/underworld/guilt, noir elements fits best visually into the narration style.