Naming our Thriller

After some thought we decided that we should call our film 'Angel Café'. This is used in irony because it is the man who makes the café non-Angelic, but also the girl, Darcie, has aspects of the Femme Fatale meaning that although she seems Angelic she has a 'dark side' and therefore it is ironic in that sense too. 

Final title to our film. 

Character names - UPDATED

We decided to keep the name 'Adrian Doyle' because it suits the characters, however we wanted to change the name of the girl from 'Agnes' to 'Darcie' because Darcie connotes evil and danger because it means 'the Dark one'. We thought this was more appropriate for our Thriller because 'Agnes' was too boring as our character is not completely innocent - as nobody is ever entirely innocent. 

We have also decided to make 'Darcie' take money from the till after she thought everyone else had left - adding more depth to the character and establishing her more as a contemporary Femme Fatale. 

Question 3: Evaluation

Question 2: Evaluation

Question 2: Evaluation on Prezi

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Analysis

Directed by Sergio Leone in 1984 this film uses many conventions of the Thriller genre such as Noir lighting, the Femme Fatale and isolated figures, categorising it as a Gangster Thriller. 

The film starts with a sound bridge from a black screen to the music of 'God Bless America' which is use ironically because the film itself is about the corruption and gangs in 1920s/30s America and used in even more irony due to the fact that the director is Italian, not American. This is also a direct intertextual reference to 'Deer Hunter' (1978) where the director uses 'God Bless America' in the final scene. 

The first figure shown is a woman dressed in 1920s clothing, setting the scene and mood of the film for the audience. Firstly the only thing shown are the pearls around her neck, used to connote tear drops and as foreshadowing to her death. Unusually for a woman she is shown in harsh key lighting, the noir lighting that is very poignant of the thriller genre. This is unusual for a woman, because the usual lighting on a woman is soft, ambient lighting to show purity and fragility. However, the strong noir lighting is used on this woman to show to the audience that she is the Femme Fatale of this film. The pearls also connote wealth, showing that she may be connected with the gangsters and the wealth of the time. Also the use of a close-up shot gives the audience someone to directly connect with at the beginning of the film. 

As more characters enter the scene the camera changes to behind the woman and she is entirely framed by the doorway and by the men - showing that there is no escape. The men then kill her and she falls onto the bed, but before they leave one of the men turns of the lamp beside her as the lamp is a metaphor for her life because the film started with her being shown in the ambient light of a lamp. 

The next scene is of a man being punched and abused by gang members - establishing the genre to be a thriller film as it very gritty and real. There is a low angle shot of the man falling to the ground, showing that he has fallen and broken due to the torture from the gangsters. A worm's eye view is also used from this man's point of view showing not only his helplessness but also the authority that everyone else has above him due to him being weak and vulnerable. 

The slight tilt shot of a man smoking a cigar is used to show him as an enigmatic figure. The low-key lighting and lift shafts are also thriller conventions due to the lighting giving a mysterious and enigmatic feel to the mise-en-scene and the lift shaft is a claustrophobic space which connotes danger, the sense of the unknown and also the fear of confined spaces. 

Essex Boys (2000) - Analysis

     Essex Boys was made in 2000 by director Terry Winsor and it was shown across 54 screens on the opening weekend, 16 July 2000 - making a total of £111,548. The film is a Crime Thriller with a fairly low budget - which adds to the realism of the film.

   The opening of the film starts with some very effective chiaroscuro lighting (the technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation) to evoke mystery and to give the audience a focus point as the lightest place in an image is where the eye is drawn to firstly. The strong shadows means that the audience is constantly drawn the brightest part of the shot, being the area closest the the lighting - meaning the director is able to confine areas in which the director wants the audience to focus on. An intertextual reference to this is could be the scene in Fight Club (1999) where the light is shining on character to illuminate and show the character to the audience, but at the same time the audience is focused solely on that character without being distracted by any light in the background.

    The use of lighting is further seen when 'Jason' appears in front of the car as the windscreen wipers are turned on to clear the dirt. This is used to connote dirt and filth about Jason as a character, that he is a troubled character and also a dirty character that is involved with the underworld of society. The use of lighting is to focus the audience directly onto Jason as the lighting is only on Jason, nothing else is illuminated around him - showing him to be a main character.

     Thriller conventions are used to show the genre, the wet streets and unglamourous location of the concrete filled streets of Essex make for a dim location that crime such as this could occur. Also the 'run-down' car makes it seem that these people are of a lower class living in the suburbs of a city.

     The next key location is the tunnel, although it looks harmless to begin with, when looked at in depth it hides many metaphors about the characters - foreshadowing events to come - also because it is a vanishing point the audience knows that there is something going to happen at that point.
    The tunnel itself looks like a barrel of a gun, which is a thriller convention in itself because guns connote violence and death - which could be seen to foreshadow upcoming events to do with the characters in the car.
    As the characters drive past there are signs on the floor and on the side of the road. The sign saying 'STOP' could indicate that the character driving the car should stop the car because they are going to put themselves in danger or somebody else - which is shown to be true later in the scene.
   Another sign, on the floor this time, says 'STAY IN LANE'. This could be said that it was used to show that they should stop and stay in the correct lane of life, a metaphor for Jason  being a bad influence on Billy and that he should concentrate on being on the correct path of life and stay away from the dirty underworld that Jason belongs to.
    

The 'loud' shirt and the laid back pose suggests to the audience that Jason is very vain and arrogant. The bright colour shows that he is a dominant male and demands attention, but the relaxed pose suggests that he is very comfortable with everything in his life and he is aware of the fact that he is very dominant and can ask for anything and get his own way because he has power in his domain. 

The reflection of the lights on the tunnel onto the car that Billy's driving is used purposefully by the director to connote prison, violence and danger. It also is used to show Billy as a weak, easily lead character and Jason in the background very dominant and laid back about the situation. The bars connote jail and the car connotes a journey, showing to the audience that Jason is guiding Billy on a dangerous journey towards a life of crime and perhaps jail as that's where Jason has just arrived back from. 

  The Thriller convention of a seemingly endless landscape is prominent in Essex Boys, such as when Jason attacks the man in the Essex marshes. The vanishing point connote danger and shows the audience that something is going to happen before it happens, such as Jason throwing acid over the man. It also is seemingly endless, which along with being a Thriller convention it shows that Jason has no moral boundaries - that he will do anything for revenge or his own pride without thinking of the consequences or the impact upon others.
  The use of this long shot as the van drives away reinforces this idea of Jason having no moral boundaries or stability because there is no limit to the landscape - used as a metaphor. Also the use of the white van is because of the connotations of danger and the enigma around 'white vans' - this is used to try to show them as enigmatic figures because the audience doesn't know much about them as of yet and it also connotes the danger aspect as well as the fact that they want to remain enigmatic to hide their identity from any crimes committed. 

   

Question 1: Evaluation

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

Our Thriller ‘Angel Café’ was inspired by many Thrillers and the key influences that the thriller conventions have on the mise-en-scene of a film. The Third Man was a key aspect in the ‘noir’ style to our film – with the strong shadows and key lighting at some points. Also the wonderful cinematography used by Carol Reed, the director, influenced our tilt shots – such as the tilt shots used on doors and windows, of which is echoed in our film by the tilted window shot and also other tilt shots used.

 The enclosed space of the café and the freezer where the female character is locked in is very similar to the enclosed and claustrophobic spaces such as the toilet scene in 'Witness' where the young boy witnesses the murder. The dim, chiroscuro lighting was something that we tried to show and use in our own film. With the lighting only being from inside the café, it is ambient lighting, just like in Witness.

 

The costume for our Thriller was inspired by the costume in Carol Reed's 'The Third Man'. The sleek black coat and wide rimmed hat, which is typical of the 1940s Thriller, was a key influence in the costume of our own thriller. We thought that it creates an enigma due to the man being able to hide himself under his clothes - making the audience not know who he is - remaining enigmatic.