Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Evaluation Of Thriller Film "Captured" Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My group's thriller "Captured" was primarily inspired by Se7en, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Heavenly Creatures. It is also influenced by This is England, which isn't a thriller but played a large part in our idea. The title is short snappy and cuts to the chase, similar to Se7en or Psycho, they state what they are about and clue the audience in. Just as Se7en is about seven deadly sins, our thriller is about someone being captured. But the title could also refer to Jason be captured by racism or Caesar being captured by love. Not only does the film use conventions used and made by these films, it develops them and challenges them. For example, our thriller is set in a grungy city street,lit by street lights,pouring with  rain, similar to those in Witness and Se7en which use the traditional conventions which connote  moral decay, destruction and violence. But our thriller is also set in a secluded wood, where no one can hear anything, just as the murder scene in Heavenly Creatures is set in a trackless woods.

The woods challenges thriller conventions, the usual dark urban areas and small claustrophobic spaces are challenged and changed into surrounding woods, which have just as much of an impact if not more through the woods enclosed around you, making you even more claustrophobic than usual. Similar to the opening of the first episode of The Killing TV series when the victim is running away from her attacker.



Another convention that is clear in our thriller is the use of a modern interpretation of the femme fatale, our femme fatale, Helen Strong is mysterious,elegant but also deviant, just as the conventional femme fatale is. But Helen is a mix of conventional and challenging, as she is inspired by characters such as Lisbeth Slander(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), who challenges the conventions,fights back and defends herself and Eve(Once Upon a Time in America) who is elegant and helpless. The Lisbeth Slander side of Helen is more through her appearance than her actions, but is more like a sixth former than a 29 year old computer hacker.
The soundtrack in the attack scene is generic and cliche. It builds up slowly, gets louder and louder, frightening the audience. Just like in the shower scene of Psycho, although the soundtrack in Psycho is more high pitched and discordant. Whereas the soundtrack chosen for the attack scene is more frightening than creepy. I thought it paid a large resemblance to Jaws, which is a mix of genres, but the soundtrack holds generic aspects of thriller music.
The deep humming music throughout the first part of the film was inspired by The Killing, which reflects the idea of panic,menace and doom.
John Williams - Jaws Theme




Found at Jaws Theme on Duck.fm

Horror Movies - Psycho - Shower Scene Theme




Found at Psycho - Shower Scene Theme on Duck.fm
One of the most commonly used conventions, is the use of knives. Psycho is the most applicable to this as the famous shower scene involves a knife. As well as the knife we used a shovel to show the audience that there was a possibility of Caesar being buried either dead or alive. This links in with the claustrophobic space within the thriller, being buried,being one of the most terrifying, as shown in Kill Bill 2 when the bride is being buried alive by Budd's cronies.



Another use of conventions, is the use of flashbacks and flashforwards to develop and create an interesting narrative. The use of flashbacks and flashfowards makes the audience think, develops the storyline making it increasingly intriguing. There is a use of flashbacks and flashforwards in several thrillers. Frailty's storyline is based upon a flashback throughout the whole film, at the beginning of the film the main character has grown up but has a flashback about his childhood concerning his religious father, murdering people thinking that they were demons.

Which also ties in with our thriller as Jason could think that ethnic minorities are "demons". Another film that uses flashbacks is Kill Bill 2, when the bride thinks back to her training with the master as she tries to break out of the coffin. This is a similar use to our flashbacks, our flashbacks represent thoughts within Jason's head and also within Caesar's head. The flashbacks are reminders of what Jason has done, reminding him of the times that he slammed the door in Caesar's face and the way that he followed and attacked him. Our film also challenges the conventions of flashbacks by having flashbacks within flashbacks to develop the story and narrative further.

Racism Article... Relating to Thriller.

Spate of racist attacks alleged at UEA


A foreign government is being urged to stop sending students to the University of East Anglia after a spate of alleged racist attacks, it was claimed last night.
The university's Saudi society is writing to the country's education minister, claiming its members no longer feel safe and have lost faith in Norfolk police. Representatives of other foreign students are considering a similar move.
The claim was made by Kaleem Ullah, president of the UEA's Islamic Society, who witnessed a racially-aggravated assault near the Norwich campus last week involving up to 12 youths.
Mr Ullah said he knew of 15 to 20 racial incidents, including assaults and harassment, involving UEA students of different nationalities in the past 10 months.
"The police are incompetent and don't seem to be interested in protecting the public."
But police and university officials said that while they took such incidents seriously, only a fraction of that number had been reported to them.
Mr Ullah witnessed an assault on two of his Muslim friends at about 10.20pm on Friday as they walked home along a path from the Sportspark to Bluebell Road.
"They were quite badly attacked - it was an ambush. They were on the floor being kicked and hit. One escaped and ran towards my house and banged on the door," he said.
"He informed me he had been attacked and another person was still being attacked. I came out and saw him still being punched and kicked by six or seven teenagers."
Sgt Ian Fox, head of Norfolk police's central area domestic violence and hate-crime unit, said: "We're concerned there are reports of an increase in racist attacks at the UEA which are not reflected in reports made to police.
"Since the beginning of November we have had one racially aggravated assault at the UEA reported to us - the assault on Friday - which is under investigation by CID officers.
"Hate crime of any kind will not be tolerated and to this end our three specialist hate-crime units, along with minority ethnic liaison officers and safer neighbourhood teams, work closely with local communities to identify and engage with all minority groups and to encourage victims to report crimes."
A UEA spokesman said security was being stepped up following Friday's attack.
"We have every sympathy for the students involved and are working closely with the police who hope to identify and arrest the culprits," she said.
Our film represents this racism with the community today and makes an example of it. Our film is putting a message across about racism, showing the audience what mindless,inconsiderate people racists are. This article is just one of many racial attacks in Norfolk in recent years. This also links to our thriller as the character Caesar is studying at university.

"Captured" The Final Cut

Independent research into the thriller genre: Se7en







Original Storyboard:

Sunday, 20 March 2011

Re-cap: Changing of Film Title

For my own reasons, I decided to change the name of the thriller from "Snap" to "Captured". I think that Captured is a more powerful and meaningful title. It links to the capturing of Caesar in the camera of Jason Strong as well as suggesting that Caesar has been captured by Jason at the end of the opening.  Snap seemed to be too light hearted and its meaning has diminished from the original idea.

Costumes

Caesar's Costume
Caesar's costume consists of:
  • Stylish White Shirt
  • Black Trousers
  • Black Belt with Silver Buckle
  • Black Work Shoes
  • White Puffy Coat
We have decided to use the shirt because if signifies that he is quite respectable along with the trousers and shoes. All of these give Caesar status. We chose the white coat because it makes Caesar stand out, it catches the audiences eyes, in the light and the dark and makes him the centre of attention. The idea of his attire to be respectable came from the character Detective Somerset from Seven, Somerset wore shirts and black trousers, common attire for a  respectable detective. Yet the puffy white coat gives Caesar a younger look about him. These ideas also came from the character Milky from This is England, Milky also wears shirts and black trousers but it gives him a different look. Not a respectable look but a casual look.



Helen's Costume
Helen's costume consists of:
  • Pink Scarf
  • Long Black Coat
  • Black Leggings
  • Black Heels
We decided to dress Helen similar to "Lisbeth Salander" because we wanted her to look dark, mysterious and perplexing. But we didn't want her to be as indiviual as "Lisbeth", we wanted her to have a stereotypical femme fatale look because she is our representation of a femme fatale. The heels are our main signifier of her being a femme fatale, they seem to be a common signifier in thriller films. The pink scarf is a signifier of feminine aspects of the character, gives her a more of an "Eve" look from Once upon a time in America.



Jason's Costume
Jason's costume consists of:
  • Black T-shirt
  • Camo Hoody
  • Blue Jeans
  • Tatty White Trainers
  • Necklace with Cross Pendant
Jason's costume was established through his background, as an ex-soldier he has been fitted with a camouflage jacket to give the audience an inference into his past just as the knife does. He is also wearing a black T-shirt so that the Cross Pendant shows up easier on him. Jeans are casual attire and are also practical for the character. The tatty white trainers are also practical and casual but they also show that he is always out and about considering the condition of them. The cross necklace indicates his  strong beliefs in Christianity and shows he is a practising Christian. Jason's character links to Combo from This is England because of his beliefs and racism, but he dresses similarly to him as well as combo wears camouflage trousers.

Re-cap: Changing of Character Name

The character formerly know as David Strong has been re-named to Jason Strong. The name Jason suggests modernity and masculinity. As well as being linked to some other violent characters such as Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th and Jason Locke from Essex Boys. Both of these characters are savage,violent and aggressive just as our character.