Research

Film Noir Genre
-Suits and Hats, formal looking clothing. Handguns would be used, which would be either magnums (western-style) or glocks (like the ones I used).
-Focused on crime (usually murder) where the characters would be involved in heists or con games.
-Lots of conspiracies, false accusations, and adulterous affairs.
-Betrayals and Double-crossing.
-Greed and Jealousy motivations.
-Often centres on a pirvate eye/lone detective or criminal gangs.
-Heroes are very flawed and morally questionable.
-Literal identity of a 'dead man walking'.
-Protagonists filled with existential bitterness - alienated, moody.
-Black and White, saxophone music, voiceovers.
-Stock characters include the hardboiled detective, femme fatale, corrupt policemen, gangsters, jealous husbands, and... intrepid claims adjusters...?
-City location that is more like a maze, includes bars, lounges, nightclubs, gambling dens...
-Climaxes in industrial areas - warehouses, factories, trainyards, powerplants.
-Night setting, very low lighting. Lots of use of shadows.
-Pessimism, hopelessness. Characters become trapped in unwanted situations.
-Cultural paranoia and widespread corruption.
-Steadfast virtue rewarded and vice severely punished.
-Sexuality and dangers of women.
-Focus on the criminal rather than society producing criminals.

I watched a couple of film noir classics, "The Maltese Falcon" and "Little Caesar"  for inspiration and an idea of the genre. Google helped me get a feel of what my scenes and characters should look like.

For my camcorder and Vegas, I already knew how to use these. I did, however, pick up a few tricks from watching Christian edit various films. For After Effects, I worked out how to use the UI by myself (only the parts I needed to use) and watched a few of VideoCopilot's tutorials (www.videocopilot.net) to learn the basics of masking/applying effects and colour correction.