Tuesday 13 March 2012

In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ? Question1

 

Still of Frances McDormand in FargoUtilizing the weather at the time (snow) gave our thriller an interesting authentic setting very similar to that of Joel Coen's classic 'Fargo'. We were very lucky and acted quickly to get the best shots possible in the snow before it melted the following day.The snow also gave our production a brutallity and coldness and made it a lot easier for us in terms of conforming to the sophistication of creatring a thriller film.

Our costume choice  however was inspired by Terry Winsor's 'Essex Boys' , especially the protagonist of our production whos costume choice was based on that of Essex Boys' Jason. The black Jacket and smart black shoes gives our protagonist a sophistication which is also arguably a noir aspect.

In terms of certain shots in our thriller , many of them are somewhat very similar to that of various thrillers, us as a group have researched. The birds eye  shot of Robin Lubach in the confined toilet was chosen due to claustrophobic spaces being a classic generic thriller convention. The famous US thriller witness is where we got this idea from: the scene in which the small boy witnesses the murder taking place in the toilet of the train station.

The worms eye view shot of myself , whilst dragging the dead body was based on the iconic shot of Robert D'niro holding the gun in Once Upon a Time in America.




The props chosen for our thriller effect the final product enormously. The use of the phone ringing  gave our thriller a somewhat poignancy effect , as the female character will never be able to  answer. It also had a spooky eerie effect on the audience as the ringing of the phone doesn't actually stop ringing till the end. Th

Another prop we used was a bracelet. Which was very significant as it gave the audience a focus point and something to ponder over as it appears in multiple scenes. We got this idea from the horror film 'The Ring' where a ring is the main focus of the film.


2 comments:

  1. Don't forget to number your questions Jonathan, this is very important. Will give feedback as soon as I can.

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  2. Your points are undeveloped and you have too few refeences to research to place your response above Level 2. You need to use the support that is available and to look at blog archives and an example of a Year 12 Evaluation sent to us by the Chief Examiner last week!

    I suggest you also google http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
    for support. For example from this site

    "Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles: The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia...." Identify which of these moods your film communicates.

    Also re narrative structure and how you can link your use of the convention of flashbacks to conventions of the genre, again from www.filmsite.org....."Storylines in film noir are often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks)....... Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed....
    Here you can reference films like "Memento" or Tarangino's Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown with convoluted plots ....

    To strengthen I suggest you organise your response focusing on how you've used developed or challenged genre conventions in aspects of mise-en-scene uploading screen shots or clips from your production and thrillers you have research, advised structure:
    Locations............
    Character types.....
    Costumes .......
    camera angles ......
    Lighting......
    Sound ......
    Props.........
    To continue with character types you have the binary opposites with the two male characters, on large and inscrutable like the main character in No Country for Old Men contrasting with the troubled young man fighting his demons in the bathroom; his body languages suggests somebody sinking into a foetal position.

    The notion of split personality or psychotic behaviour is another feature of the genre to include ambiguity/enigma surrounding the two males in your film. Think about Normal Bates in Psycho, Louis's impulsive and off the wall killing of Melanie in Jackie Brown....
    To continue with character types you also have the binary opposites with the two male characters, on large and inscrutible like the main character in No Country for Old Men who lurks in the featureless landsape of middle America, contrasted with the troubled young man in your film fighting his demons in the bathroom; his body languages suggests somebody sinking into a foetal position.

    The notion of contrast or binary opposites is also a feature of your locations providing visual appeal and relating to the themes of good/naivety/passivity and power/menace/evil a feature in thrillers such as.......

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