Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q1 In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We took a great deal of inspiration from 'The Third Man' as it includes classic Film Noir traits such as the antihero/ villain dressed in all black therefore presenting him as an evil, dark character. So many tilt shots / creative shots are used throughout to put the audience on-edge and feel uneasy, which I found to be very effective therefore we included a number of tilt shots and birds eye shots in our thriller. The use of the hat prop to partially conceal his face and therefore identity presenting an enigma was another idea that we found to be effective therefore we adapted this with our character of Scarlett. Adding a glamorous white headpiece which just concealed a corner of her eye, only this suggested perhaps a lapse in sight/ judgement and also a Femme Fatale with an unusual aspect of purity. Also I took inspiration from the long dark coat, concealing the body and presenting the character as a general enigma, it suggests that the person is secretive and a mystery therefore the audience are left craving to know and understand the character's story. The actor of Tom (the character of Ray) therefore was dressed in a reasonably long, dark jacket which lead to him looking intimidating and enigmatic. The dim lighting, not only in this shot of Harry but throughout 'The Third Man' adds so much enigma and mystery to the plot. Often the characters faces and body's are either partially or completely hidden, and therefore tension is built because every person and therefore member of the audience has 'the fear of the unknown'. If they cannot see what is going on, they are bound to feel much more vulnerable and intimidated by the fact that they don't know if a threat will appear.

The use of alleyways as a location was particuarly inspirational, constantly the characters are shot running down alleyways or travelling by foot alone. This works well as a claustrophobic location, also the mix of the shadows creates a very mysterious and threatening environment for the audience to be placed in. So when selecting our locations, the alleyway was a clear idea from primary planning. Especially the shots of shadows along the brickwork, creating a three dimensional effect therefore involving the audience further. This inspired our scene where the shadow swifts along the stairway, yet I found that using the stair as a setting created an even better visual effect as it slides along the steps, exaggerating the swift and fast movement building tension. 

The overall character of Scarlett was loosely inspired by the character of Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes' love interest) who takes the role of the Femme Fatale often leading Sherlock astray. Though a Femme Fatale, like the character of Scarlett she is not particularly promiscuous yet takes on the role of a dangerous and very glamorous/classy Femme Fatale. Though this is not necessarily typical of the sub-genre, most Femme Fatale's lure the protagonist in using their sexuality and that is what leads to their downfall. Yet I found this slightly more reserved character type more effective as the fact that the character does not need that in order to gain power, creates her as stronger and a slightly more intimidating character. Scarlett's touch of innocents creates the assumption that she can do no wrong and is therefore not a threat, yet the mysterious running away in the night and the enigma behind why someone would be after her contradicts this. The innocence leads the audience to doubt her danger which helps to twist the audience and shock. The dark pink shown here in this image of her is similar to the use of red in the character of Scarlett, it may be slightly bold and therefore powerful but there are underlined femininity and soft aspects. The character of Sherlock also is completely in love with Irene which allows her to completely take control over him, despite his strong character and being a man whom everyone looks up to and admires yet he is completely domineered by a woman. This idea we followed through our thriller, Scarlett is not a feeble weak woman but has the power and control over Ray to lead him to act irrationally (following her in such a hurry). The audience may assume that both characters are too innocent, therefore may question their true morals and personality, doubting and untrusting them.

I also took insipration from the character of Roxy from the film 'Chicago' through her lifestyle, she's very glamorous and aims for an amazing life - which she reaches. Throughout the film her life reaches high points featuring fame and theatricality - presenting an aspirational lifestyle to the audience therefore when they consume the film they find the character's lifestyle desirable and are transported to this different world.  This is what inspired me when creating our own thriller, I wanted to create a piece that seemed so glamorous and perfect that the audience would watch it and become involved due to the fact that it's a lifestyle that they longed for. Chicago also constantly uses the connotations of the colour red, as shown in the advertisement poster - the aspect of danger, lust, brightness yet femininity. Red was a very important aspect of our thriller, though my preference of the opening is in black and white due to the more stylistic feel the mere name of 'Scarlett' attaches all the connotations of red anyway. The stylistic aspect of the film was a  big inspiration, such as slow over-the-shoulder shots, looking theatrical and dramatic shown below. The dark hair, eye make up and lipstick produces a classical feminine character. Both characters are strong and dominate the boring stereotype of the weak and feeble woman, a damsel in distress waiting to be saved by a man. Velma Kelly murdered her cheating husband and does not hide her pride over it, likewise Scarlett carries out an affair quite publicly which would be completely outrageous and unheard of in the 1930's. 

Throughout 'Chicargo' the setting and locations are amazing visually - tall beautiful buildings, elegant dressing rooms, stages full of glittery costume and red lighting. For cinematography lovers, Chicago combines theatricality and film by using all sorts of media devises. The locations I took inspiration from, the tall buildings with dim lighting and flawless settings excites me as a member of that audience, as if being placed into a world of perfection and the utmost glamour. This escapism I knew I wanted to apply to the thriller, therefore when Scarlett reaches the large hall at the end, we made sure to get a well-filmed extreme long shot capturing the vast size of the building; which makes Scarlett seem as if she's only a piece of this world of style and glamour. Chicago often uses staircases as a setting, such as when Billy Flint and Roxy are giving a speech to the press - because it's symbolic of people being beneath them, ie. in our thriller Scarlett is presented as upper-class and very glamorous in a time where there will ofcourse of been people less fortunate than her therefore may represent her social status.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Primarily when we began filming our preliminary task I was very excited at the thought of using the camera and it's equipment such as the dolly to menuver it, believing that it would produce good quality shots every time with ease. Yet throughout my preliminary task I realised that more difficulties arise than what you would expect, the dolly became fragile and brought great difficulty to filming in actual fact. For example this shot of Chloe's feet as she walks towards the camera is incredibly jolty and shakey due to a dolly wheel being slightly faulty. When it came to experimenting with the camera and different creative angles we tended to stick to the more simplistic camera angles that we had more experience and felt safer with ie. mid shots. This developed as we began thinking about how to create our thriller, by creating our preliminary task we became aware that on certain surfaces dollys can be almost impossible to use correctly - creating a smooth and effective shot. Therefore when choosing locations often they were places that we had visited and trusted, believing that the passers-by would be minimalistic and the paths would be smooth.


The preliminary task lead to much more confidence with directing the camera than I had primarily, especially since we had chosen to do a classic Film Noir film, therefore unusual angles such as birds eye and tilt shots are used throughout. With our preliminary we did not have to deal with certain shooting issues that we did with our Thriller. A majority of this was to do with the different locations, since with our preliminary everything was shot indoors at school when most students were occupied in lessons. Whereas when filming our thriller we had to consider the weather conditions since it was partially located outside, in other words rain or extreme weather would have an impact on the shot/ may damage the camera or costume. However we found that in the alleyway that the forceful wind added an aspect of building tension and pathetic fallacy - it's appropriately dramatic, as if a moment before a storm therefore foreshadowing that something negative is about to occur. One of our key parts of location was the City Hall steps - I was certain from the primary stages of planning that the huge staircase and beautifully old-fashinoned, grand wooden doors would set the scene for our film. On the other hand with our preliminary task locations were barely thought of, we selected a clear and empty school corridor and decided to set the thriller in that space. This was convenient at the time yet did not possess many connotations, create stylistic shots or add any layers to the task.

Yet I learnt to deliberately select locations which would add layers of meaning - such as the dressing room scene, the touch of the candles, cream walls, vintage newspaper added to the vintage feel of the opening.
From our Preliminary task to the planning and creating our thriller, I gained particular ideas on what I would like to explore with the creation of the thriller. Firstly I became aware that the sub-genre of thriller that I wished the thriller to fall under was Film Noir, since I found it so stylistic and glamorous with many creative possibilities. Such as unique costume, unusual camera angles, stylistic editing and minimalistic title sequences. It was also a genre I knew little about, therefore had the opportunity to explore and learn within the genre. The preliminary also helped develop possible character types for the thriller since with our preliminary task we based it in the modern day, with modern characters with lots of speech. The use of modern characters meant that we hardly introduced character when acting as we merely acted as ourselves, which meant that often we found it amusing and difficult to focus. Therefore we chose to involve classic characters that would almost certainly ensure pure focus and be so unusual that we were constantly Film Noir inspired. We found that during our preliminary task not having any objectives for the scene meant that the piece had little point and often we found ourselves lost. Whereas after our research within the openings of other thrillers within various films, we found that often either the character, location or perhaps some aspects of narrative/themes. Therefore when thinking and planning our thriller opening, I knew that I had to think of different aims and for the first half of our thriller/ dominant part I wanted to fully introduce the character of Scarlett.  Hence the vast shots of the character preparing herself since every prop we used had a connotation of her personality. Firstly the rouge red lipstick connotes her passionate yet dangerous side (since red connotes blood etc.), followed by the glamorous diamante earrings - slowly placed in suggesting that the character of Scarlett is careful and does possess classic feminine qualities that a woman in this era would possess. Then the diamonte earrings are a clear reference to her weatlth etc. We built her personality and character in order for the audience to identify with her, so that when she was in danger they would feel a sympathy for her therefore resulting in the tension and build up being effective. Whereas in our preliminary task there was no introduction of characters, we went straight into dialogue/plot.
Not only this, between creating our preliminary task and our thriller opening, we learnt of the importance of music. Non-diagetic sound was completely unthought of in our first task, no music or sound effects were used to engage the audience in anyway. In terms of diagetic sound we were novices also, when it came to editing our preliminary we had issues with the diagetic sound of a photo-copier in the background, different volumes of characters and clarity of speech. None of which we predicted. Therefore in terms of our planning for our thriller, I had full awareness of different sound aspects that we had to pay attention to/ be aware of. For example when filming outside the City Hall I knew that we may have difficulty with various diagetic sounds of vehicles, yet the thriller was set in the 1930's therefore there would not be loud and modern car engine noises/horns blaring. I found that my preference is diagetic sound as it sounds more realistic, therefore when desiring a jewelry box tune for the very beginning, we recorded the sound of a real jewelry box for on average two minutes then when it came to editing looped it, continuing to remove any hitches or blips in the sound. This created the impression that the piece is realistic and I believe engages the audience as if a non-diagetic sound sounds reasonably unrealistic the audience can be removed from their engaged state - simply being reminded that they are watching a film. When a thriller needs to build tension and engage in order to be effective I knew that this would be a negative thing. Yet due to safety aspects we could not use a real gunshot, therefore I searched for the most realistic sound effect of an old-fashioned gun (in order to fit with the time era) and it seems to work well. I've learnt that sound is so important when it comes to truly bringing the audience into your world, especially when that world is the dramatic, glamorous, unusal world of Film Noir.

Actors featuring in our thriller

The character of Ray was played by Tom Battell. We chose Tom to feature due to firstly his size, he is a tall broad boy for a seventeen year old and looks much more mature than his age. Therefore as the tension-builder or the possible villain (in the audience's eyes) we were aware that his size would help, and be emphasised by low-angled shots, a scary, intimaidating persona. Yet there are aspects of Tom's features which are likely to portray him not as a wholly dangerous man - which is the desired affect, we wanted to portray him as a lovable husband also and it is his Femme Fatale of a wife Scarlett that has lead him to follow and kill her. This is shown firstly in the photograph of the couple happily smiling together, the audience should understand that their relationship is not filled with hate and this man perhaps wants to regain what he has lost (his wifes affection). The removal of the wedding ring should be a strong implication that Scarlett is having an affair, matched with the lipstick appliance and dressing up, we hope that this will become apparent to the audience. Therefore Ray is not the villian of our piece. Tom Battell's curly hair and dimpled cheeks present a lovable, sweet aspect to the character of Ray that we needed to portray this, in order to put across a certain aspect of likablility if you will. Tom Battell is also a good friend of mine therefore I was aware that I could rely on him to be at our locations when he said that he would be and that he would give a good performance (as I have seen him act before). Tom was also very comfortable with us and therefore was able to work with us well when it came to shooting and he was very happy to do so, working with a pleasant actor made the filming aspect a lot easier. Tom was also about the same size as my dad therefore when it came to costume and props, we were able to easily get ahold of vital clothing which Tom did not possess which fitted him with ease.
The character of Scarlett was played by me. We done this due to the difficulty finding a female actress, also as I am very comfortable acting in general we knew that we wouldn't have many limitations if this was done. Also since it was towards my own thriller I was erged to be there on time, to have my costume and props and give a good performance - probably more so than if we had gotten another actress to take part. Yet this meant that my ability to film particular scenes was limited, though when I was off screen and we needed singular shots of Tom I was able to film shots and direct.

Thriller - Rough Cut

Above is the first rough-cut of my thriller opening 'Scarlett'.
Improvements to be made

• The entire piece needs to be edited in black and white as it appears much more stylistic and helps to create a vintafe 1930's atmosphere. 
• The sound effect of the jewelry box slamming is slightly out of sync with the shot, therefore that needs to be edited to a second earlier as it is quite obvious it's out of time. 
• There are a couple of incidents where the jewelry box sound effects jolts and the audience are able to hear where the clips of the sound effects over lap, this needs to be edited by a fade or perhaps cutting the sound clips more appropriately. 
• The beginning titles need to be adapted time-wise so they are on-screen for equal amounts of time because in this cut it varies slighty.

Pleased with

• The beginning sequence in the dressing room - flows reasonably well. 
• The titles appear to work quite well, and they are very simplistic therefore do not look tacky or ruin the vintage eeriness. 
• The shot where Scarlett glances over her shoulder - enigmatic, vaguely resembles the shot of Harry looking over his shoulder in 'The Third Man' 
• Symbolism of the lioness - the Femme Fatale running into the night under a big powerful lioness, symbolises her strength of character and her danger yet the paw upwards as if pleading for help is almost a hint to the audience that she may be in desperate need of help.
• Shadow along the step - creates tension and looks very Film Noir. 
• The shot of the picturesque alleyway with the two lamposts - inspired by the scene in The Third Man when the lead character is waiting under the lampost surrounded by the darkness.

Sound necessities of our thriller

At the beginning of the thriller it will open with the sound of a slow sickening jewellry box tune, repeated as the character of Scarlett prepares for her venture out into the world of the 1930's. Any non-diagetic sound will be silenced to emphasise this tune, which will bring a larger effect when the jewellry box is slammed and there is silence for about five seconds. We have recorded an old jewellry box sound which we will loop round continuously, it sounds more effective and realistic.
As Scarlett is shown leaving the building (her house) the second piece of music will begin, this will be a classical piano or violinist piece which is simple yet builds up therefore gaining tension throughout the remainder of the into.
We recorded the sound effect of an old tower chiming, since it sounds so definite and classic therefore may merge into our opening well. Therefore we're experimenting now with whether that sound effect could be used to provide a sense of location or emphasise the time zone.

We will add the sound effect of a gun, though a gun is not shown in the clip (due to the likelihood at it looking tacky, from an incorrect time and the difficulties of carrying around a pretend gun in a busy city) the sound effect should make it more enigmatic and more of a shock to the audience. This will be used after a shot of the male character smiling slightly, to make it reasonably easy to follow that the gun shot is most likely from him. Even though a gun will not be featured it's such a stereotypical prop used in Film Noir therefore will only put further emphasis on the genre, we took this inspiration of a gun as an important prop from 'The Third Man' in the sewers when the guards were searching for Harry and the scene came to a conclusion by the shooting of him. This was appropriately dramatic and intense, it built up well and worked with the enigmatic music filled with tension - so this brought us inspiration.

We used a diagetic sound track of a jewelry box similar to that featured in the youtube clip above, yet slightly more sinister, we looped this to create an on-going sinister atmosphere.

The storyboard of our thriller