As part of my preparation for our Second Experiment where, as a group, we will be looking at expanding on our first silhouette experiment and delve into silhouette in a Neo Noir style scene with contrasting colours and shady characters. I’ve decided to analyse a scene out of John Wick (2014) from director Chad Stahelski and Cinematographer Jonathon Sela. This scene and the film as a whole feels as though its a huge homage to the film noir genre of the 30’s and 40’s while strongly fits within the new neo noir genre through its dark themes and colourful, contrasty images. In this scene John Wick infiltrates a nightclub where his enemies are expecting him. Shooting countless henchmen but ultimately ending up empty handed without his target. This scene is creatively lit with extremely warm and extremely cool colours. Both contrasting each other. Depending on where the characters are placed in the environment, subjects in the foreground can be lit with blue light and the background with red light or vice versa. Occasionally a mix of both within the same shot can be seen as the characters move through the creatively lit environment. The moving lights add a lot of movement to the frame and enhance the visual speed and urgency of the fighting. The coloured lighting doesn’t seem to have much of a narrative motivation and seems like more of  a stylistic choice. The stylistic elements of the scene with the neon lighting almost takes a front seat to the action, creating an extremely stimulating image. Spectacle over Substance is a complaint many have with modern films yet there’s something extremely artististic about this scene and the film. 

Overall, I really like the visual style of this scene and the contrasting colours definitely enhance the visuals on a stylistic level. I would like to incorporate similar lighting techniques in our second experiment while similarly choosing Neo noir style action and suspense to correlate with it. 

Scene Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HSoOFdJ3s