Tech noir as a new genre?

• Main Author: Ng, Kelvin Kong Lip.
• Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media::Broadcasting::Motion pictures and films::Film theory and criticism
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/14777
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Film traditionally reflects the concerns of the culture and the mind set of society of any point in time. Tremendous technological advancements and the wiring up of the entire world into a global village have had its effects on the content of recent Science Fiction films. These effects are shown through the themes of the literary movement of Cyberpunk. The visual representation of these themes through the aesthetics of classic Film Noir results in a collection of films that fits into neither genre properly. This paper examines how the traditions of cyberpunk, a sub-genre of science fiction, and classic Film noir synergise to create a new hybrid structure. This hybrid structure forms the basis for a proposition of a new film genre called Tech noir. This paper then continues to examine this new genre based on a traditional framework for genre study and attempts to present, in the form of a short video, the internal confusion and deliberations within the mind of a generic tech noir protagonist. The methodology includes past research on science fiction, film noir and genre studies and film analysis to determine the feasibility of proposing such a genre. The paper, combined with the short video, presents a case for an attempt at identifying a new film genre.