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Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.?

My thriller opening is a film inspired by but also challenging some of the generic thriller aspects through the use of mise-en-scene characterisation and construction. The primary location of our thriller was at a café in Bungay where I work, this was useful as unlike our previous location it enabled us to have a lot more freedom and time in which to film. We used ambient lighting within the café in order to create a gloomy atmosphere. This was particularly important as the lighting enabled us to give the café the correct look and atmosphere for the thriller, much alike to the opening scene of Essex boys. When the man is in the garage the ambient lighting creates a very gloomy atmosphere, setting the tone for the film.

The location was primarily credited from a scene in ‘The Third Man’. The scene shows Harry Limes gazing out of a café window using a low angle tilt shot. This is a shot that we referenced where we did a shot of Adrien walking towards his table and sitting down, through the window of the café. The location, being in a café also adds realism and reality to the thriller, making it more threatening for the audience as it could happen to them, whilst using generic thriller aspects. We shot our opening in a way to make the location appear unglamorous, which reflects the mind-set of the characters but also shows the corruption to come. This was inspired through many different thrillers, such as the opening to Essex Boys, which was filmed in an unglamorous garage location, with cobwebs hanging from the walls and similar lighting, also the murder scene in Witness, which is filmed in grotty public toilets.

Another important location is the closed space of the freezer of which ‘Darcie’ is locked into. This is a very generic thriller location, as closed in spaces connote the fear of claustrophobia and there being no way out, strongly foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen. It can be seen in many different thrillers such Harry Limes in ‘ The third Man’ being trapped in the sewerage, which is a very closed in claustrophobic space and relates to the idea of the unglamorous grotty location, and the buried alive scene in Kill Bill, where the woman is shut in a coffin and buried, a particularly good use of claustrophobic spaces. This connotes many fears of being trapped but also death, and allows the shots to be taken at many interesting and different angles in order to emphasise the lack of space. The reasoning for doing this is that it connotes the fear of there not being a way out suggesting that something is going to happen, whilst posing the question and idea for the audience of does she get out?

When choosing the costume of ‘Adrian’ we tried to show his personality traits whilst incorporating thriller aspects. The trilby hat for example exploits Adrian as a mysterious creepy man, whilst posing him as quite threatening also. We got the idea for the trilby hat after watching ‘Once upon a time in America’ and ‘The third Man’ and using the villains and Harry Limes outfit to influence our decisions on Adrian’s costume. Although this is a generic old fashioned costume idea, it also works in the contemporary style that we were going for, as it can also be seen through dangerous today. An example being through Derek Branning on Eastenders who wears a similar outfit yet still poses strong threat and danger. The long black coat connotes danger and fear and again poses Adrian to be quite threatening and also appear to be hiding something, which are all crucial factors in his persona. It also adds an element of power to his character, as generally men of that age don’t tend to dress that way, not only making him stand out, but as it’s a smart attire also giving him the element of power.

‘Darcie’s’ outfit is also used to show her personality traits. The waitress outfit is referenced from the waitressing scene of ‘Thelma and Louise’ and the idea of a ‘uniform’ from ‘Jackie Browns’ air hostess outfit, where both women aren’t just innocent, which is something shown also in Darcie. The fact she’s wearing a uniform connotes the idea that she is harmless and a victim which is not strictly the case such as concentration camp workers wore SS military uniforms and were far from innocent, the uniform could simply be a suggestion of a hard working girl who’s underpaid and steals, or could suggest further corruption. Similarly to that of ‘Jackie Brown’ we have used the uniform to exploit Darcie’s personality. The fact that her skirt is very short, completely contradicts the idea of innocence and hints that maybe she’s not as good as she seems. The leopard print coat is also a suggestion of perhaps being cheap and the fact she stuffs money into the pocket on the leopard print coat backs up this suggestion. The leopard print coat is very gaudy and exploits the fact that Darcie is confident and suggests that alike to the woman on Kill Bill vol1 who wears gaudy tight clothing. She won’t be easily beaten. This is crucial to ensure Darcie's personality isn't posed as the generic femme fatale seen in many thrillers such as Psycho and in literature such as The Big Sleep. Darcie's personality was influenced and inspired by Lisbeth is The Girl With the dragon tattoo and the bride in Kill Bill, both deviant powerful women.

Another particular importance is the intertextuality within the shots we used. We intertextualy referenced shots from other thriller films in order to connote with the thriller genre, and also to raise the awareness within the audience that something bad is going to happen. Firstly, the example of using the high angle shot of 'Darcie' Pouring boiling water into a coffee cup, is referenced from the scene in Pyscho where Marion is in the shower, and is used prior in the build up to her murder. This then connotes well with something bad happening, which raises tension within the audience. The low angle tilt shots were inspired by the shots of Harry Limes in the streets of The Third Man. The shots were of the city and of Harry Limes in dusk, the shots; particularly of Harry Limes give a sinister tone suggesting that there is danger, which we thought to be a perfect idea to use within our thriller, mainly why we used many low angle tilts of Adrien but also one of Darcie to suggest her deviancies.