Film Noir Elements in Online Gambling Content
Rent film gear from local filmmakers.
Rent film gear from local filmmakers.
Film Noir (from French “noir” stands for “black”) is a term that is used in the film-making industry to describe a certain set of movies that emerged in the 1920s in the United States. This term primarily applies to crime dramas that feature scenes of black and white throughout the movie. It is important to note that this new way of film-making emerged during the difficult worldwide period of the Great Depression.
Now, when it comes to the type of content that film noir elements could be part of, online gambling is one of them. Online casinos have paved their way in the digital presence, either through websites that pop-up in the corner or through ads in digital platforms, which aim to reach a broader audience.
There are a number of tools that are necessary for content creation in general, online gambling content included, such as video creation and editing tools, graphic design ones, and social media ones. Nevertheless, apart from mastering the tools, one is also expected to have an affinity towards visualization.
Apart from that, different aesthetics can be applied to a content that is produced for the digital world. One of them is film noir, which can be used based on what the content creator wants to produce as the content. There are many features of film noir that can be used in digital content, such as Lighting, camera angles and storytelling techniques.
In this blog, we will see how these techniques can be incorporated in online gambling content. Let’s see it together!
Film Noir Lighting
Lighting is one of the prominent features in film noir that can be used in online gambling content production. Typically, this cinematic feature is all about dark-themed Lighting that creates a suspenseful atmosphere in the scene. This feature allows one to highlight one specific thing, while the rest of the environment is either gray or dark.
In order to illustrate this idea, we will have a look at a real example of how this could be used.
Example 1
Let’s say that we are creating a video for an online casino in Canada. We take a few shots of the scene of somebody playing from the comfort of their home on their phone or computer. The main scene is a man in front of his computer playing modern online slots in Canada.
Once we apply film noir Lighting, the rest of the surroundings which could be distracting for the viewer is immediately dimmed out. In that case, the only part of the visualization that is bright is the screen of the computer. As a result, the attention is primarily kept to that part of the scene as it is the most important one.
Film Noir Camera Angles
Another enthralling part of the film noir technique is the camera angles. This is usually done in either close-up shots or low-angles. Similar to the Lighting element, this is also done to create more suspense and drama in the final product of the content creation. In movies that incorporate film noir, these scenes are usually the ones that create a tension in the audience and keep them on the tip of their toes for what’s about to come next.
In order to illustrate this idea, we will have a look at a real example of how this could be used.
Example 2
We’ll keep using the same example that we used above for the content of modern online slots in Canada. Let’s now imagine that we are shooting the scene where the player is trying his luck at slots and is waiting for the final set of symbols to show on the screen. By using the film noir camera angles, we can record the player’s eye, or more specifically the retina of his eye, which mirrors his computer screen.
The shooting of his eye reflection is also a way of raising the tension while impatiently waiting for the figures to stop. In addition to that, through a low camera angle we can capture the player’s leg that is shaking and which again implies this tense atmosphere that usually is built before the catharsis happens.
Storytelling techniques
Storytelling techniques that are an element of film noir are actually quite similar to the ones used in other cinematic contexts or writings. Film noir movies usually feature overly complex characters who tell their stories also in complex manners. That being said, nothing is directly told here and most of the storytelling invites the viewer and gives them food for thought which they need to digest. Usually, the stories are not told consecutively, but rather the viewer has to connect the dots throughout the scenes.
In order to illustrate this idea, we will have a look at a real example of how this could be used.
Example 3
We are still shooting content for the modern slots in Canada which we have introduced later. In addition to the elements of Lighting and camera angles, incorporating storytelling to the online gambling content would simply make it more interesting.
In this specific case, we could add storytelling elements such as voice over narration and while the player is waiting for the symbols on the slot to stop, we can talk about the game contextually. Apart from that, we can include flashback storytelling about that one time when we were dreaming and saw that triple 7 showed up on the screen and you screamed out of joy.