Question 1 evaluation

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

By Sorrel Grundy

Introduction

My thriller is called Cold Case which is a mysterious thriller which has noir flashbacks. In my thriller opening the protagonist is a character called Sophie who is a criminology student and is looking into the cold case of Eve Walcott who was murdered in 1953. This leads to her becoming paranoid that she is being followed by Eve’s killer.

Locations When choosing my locations I had to make sure that they fitted with both the noir part of

the thriller as well as the modern day and so had to find a location which was in a sense timeless.

One of the locations I chose to use was Elm Hill in Norwich, I chose this because the street was built in the 1500-1600 and so does not look out of place in either of the time periods you see in this thriller. This location also reinforces the noir element of this thriller because it is a similar location to the one used in The Third Man. The streets in The Third Man are labyrinth like as are the streets around Elm Hill. In The Third Man Harry Lime uses the labyrinth like streets to escape and in my thriller this is the place where both Sophie and Eve get stuck.

A location that we also used was The Forum Library in Norwich. We used this location because it allowed us to show the audience that Sophie was a student who was dedicated to her studies. In addition libraries have been used in my thriller as they are also labyrinthine and are a place of knowledge and so a place of sin as the first sin was forbidden knowledge. A library is used in the fantasy thriller Buffy The Vampire Slayer, in this show the library is where Buffy researches vampires and demons and runs into a lot of danger and so I wanted to convey this in my thriller through the use of The Forum Library.

Another location I used was by the River Wensum , I chose this location because there is only one viable way out and so Sophie is stuck with no way out. The railings and bars added the effect that Sophie was imprisoned by her fate. This location is similar to the one in at the end of The Third Man when Harry Lime is trying to escape from the sewers and he comes to a bared grate. In both instances the location uses generic conventions to solidify the character being trapped in a situation they are unable to get out of. In both of the situations in these locations the characters are exceedingly desperate to get out of the situation they are in, in The Third Man Harry Lime reaches his fingers through the grate to try to escape and in my thriller Sophie is trying to open the gate anyway she can. This location is also similar to one in Harry Potter and the Camber of Secrets - which is an adventure fantasy film - where Harry is trying to escape from the Basilisk. In all three of these circumstances they character is trying to escape but has become trapped.

Character

In my thriller there are 4 characters although we only know the names of 3. The first character we meet is Sophie Carter who is the protagonist in this thriller film. She is a criminology student and is looking

into the unsolved case of Eve Walcott. When she is researching the case she finds that there are many similarities between herself and Eve which makes her slightly paranoid. At the end of the opening we find that Sophie is in possession of Eve’s necklace but we are unsure whether or not they are related. The character of Sophie has similarities with both of the women in the film Jackie Brown. Both Sophie and Jackie are the protagonists of their films which is challenging a generic convention of thriller films as in most the protagonist is male. Although Sophie does challenge the genre by being a female protagonist she also uses generic conventions and stereotypes of women in thriller films as she ends up as a victim which is one of the similarities she has with the character of Melanie from Jackie Brown. Both Sophie and Melanie are too smart for their own good and this eventually leads to them becoming victims and being dominated by male characters.

The second character we meet is Eve .The character of Eve is one of a vulnerable young girl who found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. She is a factory worker in the early 1950's who finds a devastating end on her way home from work on the 22nd of January 1953. The case of her murder is never solved and we do not know much about her character apart from that she had a necklace which was very important to her. I chose the name Eve to reference the film Once Upon A Time In America and the character called Eve in it. Both Eve’s are victims and are both killed by men but their similarities do not end there as both characters’ deaths lead to the death of others and so this reinforces the stereotype that women are weak and cannot save themselves or others.

The third character we meet is Henry Lime , we do not know very much about this character but one thing we do know is that he is a murderer. This character is the spark for all the events that happen in the film. He is the murderer of Eve Walcott who was never caught and has since inspired a copy-cat killer. I based this character on Harry Lime from the film The Third Man as the audience do not know anything about him; he is mysterious and dangerous. This character reinforces the stereotype that men are the “baddies” and that they are stronger than women. This character is always in the shadows which adds to the mystery behind who he is and why he killed Eve.

The final character we meet is a young man who is wearing a hoodie, we do not know much about this character apart from what we can deduce from his body language and demeanour. He seems threatening from the way that he towers over Sophie and his hoodie makes him seems even more threatening. The character who I think that this character is most like is Jason Locke from Essex Boys as they are both thuggish and threatening.

Characters and their inspirations

Costume

Each of the characters had very defined and specific costumes which helped to outline the character and both use and challenge generic thriller conventions.

Sophie’s costume had many different parts to it. Sophie’s costume was modern but smart, to give the audience the idea that she is important and knows what she is doing. She had smart black jeans, with a simple grey t-shirt, a blue jumper and a blue coat. She also has a rucksack which shows the audience that she is a student and serious about her studies. Her costume is reminiscent of the character Kim from the film Taken. This character is young but wants to be treated as an adult and so thinks that she can handle adult life and situations but in the end she cannot which is similar to what happens to Sophie.

Eve’s costume is very specialised as it had to fit with 1950’s fashion and so had to seem authentic. I did some research into 1950’s fashion to make sure that Eve looked like she was from that time period. She wore a dress which came down just above the knee and a long black velvety coat which came down just below the knee. The coat is the main part of Eve’s costume which is classic to the 1940-50’s era of fashion, it is also typical of noir thriller films for example Anna from The Third Man. What this costume needed to do was to let the audience know what time period Eve was from and I think that it did this.

Henry’s costume had many connotations with it as it is a very classic costume which has been used in many classic noir thriller films. Because of the connotations that come with this costume it had to be right so that the image of Henry that the audience got was the one that I wanted them to. Henry’s costume was a fully shiny grey suit with a grey trilby hat which is that type of costume that 1930-50’s gangsters would wear both in real life and in noir and other thriller films. This was one of the ways that I used generic conventions in my thriller film as this is an iconic look and could be inter-textually referenced to many different thriller films. The films I chose to reference were Once Upon A Time In America because of the ruthlessness of Maximilian “Max” Bercovicz but with the mystery of Harry Lime from The Third Man.

The Youth’s costume was very simplistic as we only see his upper-half. He is wearing a red hoodie, the fact that the hoodie is red in itself connotes danger and malevolence. The hoodie is associated with anti-social behaviour and thuggishness which reinforces the character’s intentions. This costume was based on two characters the first being Jason Locke from Essex Boys who is a violent character who is very anti-social and the second is Pete Dunham from Green Street who is a thuggish character who is dangerous and malicious.

Costumes and their inspirations

Prop’s & Objects

All the props used in my opening either help to move the thriller forward or tell the audience something about the character.

The first props we see are library books these books are all linked to murder or crime which lets the audience know the main theme of the film. This was inspired by Buffy The Vampire Slayer as they use books to find information on the demons they will be facing which is what Sophie is doing even if she is doing it inadvertently.

The next prop was a school bag for Sophie, this prop was used simply to consolidate the idea that Sophie was a student and that she was dedicated to her studies. It also shows her age and innocence, this associates Sophie with the Character of Veronica from Veronica Mars which is a crime drama where a school girl solves crime which fits with the themes and events in this thriller. This challenges generic conventions as the vulnerable women in this thriller is educated and was close to figuring out the mystery without help from a male character.

We use a library computer on which we created a case file for the Eve Walcott murder, in this document we had a picture of Eve and a description of what happened to her as well as crime scene photographs and pictures of her belongings which included a picture of Eve's necklace. Having a case file makes the thriller as a whole more believable as in real life there would be a case file and also in shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation they used props such as case files.

Eve's necklace is the next prop, this is also the most important prop as it is what links the characters of Eve and Sophie together although we (the audience) do not know the connect yet but we do know that the necklace is important as it is the main focus of a few different shots. This uses generic conventions and develops them as well because in films such as Titanic there as been a piece of jewellery (a necklace) which is important to the plot of the film and to develop the generic convention I made it the object which links the characters of Eve and Sophie through the time gap.

Lighting

Lighting is a very important convention in thriller films. There are three main types of lighting which are used in films and they are chiaroscuro, ambient and non ambient.

I used all of these types of lighting in my thriller film, the first one I used was ambient, this was also the one which I used most, this is challenging generic conventions as in most thriller films the light used is non ambient. In this shot I used ambient lighting to show that at this point Sophie did not feel as though anything was out of the ordinary and also so that in later shots we could make the lighting darker to show the change in mood.

Throughout my thriller I used chiaroscuro lighting as this lighting is common to thriller films as it connotes a sense of good and evil/ right and wrong. In this shot I used chiaroscuro lighting to show that Henry Lime was wicked and immoral, through this shot I tried to recreate the shot from The Third Man when the character of Harry Lime is finally introduced. In these two shots the light is coming from a different direction and this is to imply that there are many similarities between these two characters but one big difference. That being that Henry Lime the character from my thriller Cold Case did not get caught once he killed someone whereas Harry Lime from The Third Man did.

Sound

The piece of sound I used in my thriller opening is called Prison and uses generic conventions as it is similar to other pieces of music used in other thriller films. The soundtrack was used to heighten the feeling of suspense and intrigue. Our soundtrack has moments of crescendo and on these moments the action is at a point of importance which is another way that the soundtrack uses generic conventions.

We also kept the ambient sound from when we were filming in real time so that it seemed more real than when we were filming in the past.

We also used a sound bridge which is another way in which our sound uses generic conventions.

Camera Shots, Angles & Movement The camera shots, angels and movement helped to use, develop and

challenge the generic conventions of a thriller film. A camera shot that I used quite a few times in my thriller film was a

tilt shot, in film tilt shots are used to create a sense of confusion, disorientation or to create a nightmarish, paranoid ambience. I used this shot because the character Sophie is becoming increasingly paranoid and it heightens the feeling that she is being followed. I also used a tilt shots for Henry Lime when we were trying to recreate the famous Harry Lime shot in the doorway, when using tilt on this shot there were different objectives to the shot as for this tilt I was trying to produce a intuit of menace and intimidation.

A camera movement shot that we used in our thriller was a tracking shot which is when the camera follows the character/s. This is a close up track of the character Sophie, this shot is also in slow motion so that the unveiling of the character Henry has a bigger impact on the audience. By using a tracking shot we get to see both characters while still having Sophie as the main focus of the shot as she is in the foreground. Having Henry in the background gives the impression that he goes unnoticed and makes us unsure to whether or not he is really there of if he is a figment of Sophie’s imagination.

Camera Shots, Angles & Movement

The use of close ups is common to most films and to all genres, close ups are conventional because they allow the audience to identify with the characters emotions and also intensify the suspense and tension of the scene. We used close ups for these reasons but also to inform the audience that both Sophie and Eve were being followed. Close ups like this are also used in the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo when she is also being followed. We wanted to create the same feeling of tension through our shots of Eve and Sophie even though our characters and the character of Lisbeth are very different the situation they are all in is the same as they are all being followed.

We also used pan shots in our thriller which were mainly close ups, we used pans to show information for example we used a pan shot when showing a close up of the case file, we panned from the information to the picture so that the picture was revealed last so that it had a more significant effect. This is used in the film Inglourious Basterds opening when the Nazi’s come looking for Jewish people , this pan reveals to the audience where they are hiding, this is the effect we were trying to recreate.

Conventions Of The Opening To A Thriller Film

We used a sound bridge of high heels walking, which are commonly associated with middle or upper class women who are sophisticated. This is also used in Once Upon A Time In America during the opening sequence, the sound bridge in this is a phone ringing and later in the scene Noodles answers a ringing phone. So my sound bridge uses generic conventions.

Cliff-hangers are a convention of a thriller film opening as they entice the audience and set the mood for the rest of the film. Our cliff-hanger has the protagonists stuck in a corner with no way out but there are openings such as kill bill volume 1 where you see the end result of something but do not know what happened before it.

A convention of the opening to thriller films and most other genres of film are the opening titles, for my opening titles I used the font Baskerville Old Font, I used this font because it is in-keeping with both time periods, looks smart and professional. When placing the titles we chose to have each one in a different place except the actors names which we kept in the bottom right hand corner. The titles we used use generic conventions to reinforce the genre and setting of the thriller film.