1. Question 1
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what ways does your media style
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products.?

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. ‘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.

7. 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.