Q1) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
In the opening to my Thriller film, aspects of the genre are immediately introduced to the audience by the title ‘Thief’. This suggests that someone is targeting individuals to steal from them, which relates to the Crime Thriller ‘Snatch’ (2000, directed by Guy Ritchie). It reflects the content of the film, therefore reinforcing the Thriller convention. The locations that I have used were inspired by the urban, gritty locations of the film ‘Essex Boys’ (2000, directed by Terry Winsor). For example, at the beginning of ‘Essex Boys’ the characters ‘Billy Reynolds’ and ‘Jason Locke’ are in a rundown garage with cobwebs, which I recreated in the subway scene giving it a dystopian effect.
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| This is a screen shot from 'Essex Boys' |
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| This is a screen shot from 'Thief' |
I have also used intertextual references from the film ‘The Third Man’ (1949, directed by Carol Reed) through the subway scene where Eve becomes confounded by where she should go, reflecting ‘The Third Man’s’ sewer scene where Harry Lime becomes trapped in a labyrinth of nightmares with no escape. Also, the confined space of the subway can be linked to the film ‘Kill Bill: Volume 2’ (2004, directed by Quentin Tarantino) where ‘The Bride’ is trapped in a coffin, emphasising the claustrophobic space and mirroring the low ceiling of the subway that I filmed in.
I have used specific lighting to create suspense and unease. For example the morose, grey lighting in ‘Essex Boys’ gives the film a sombre and dark undertone that has been reflected in the cashpoint scene in my Thriller ‘Thief’. The fact that ‘Jason’ severely beat up someone in broad daylight enforces fear onto the audience which I have used in the cashpoint scene where ‘Will Block’ blatantly stalks his victims. This makes the situation more frightening as identity theft and mugging is very common at present, making the Thriller ‘mood of moment’. The washed-out lighting also mirrors the blandness of the character ‘Eve’s’ personality and that her costume of a red scarf and gloves goes against the typical connotations that the colour red usually signifies. Normally this colour portrays that the character is dangerous, however I have used the aspects from ‘Sin City’ (2005, directed by Frank Miller) where the characters ‘Goldie’ and ‘The Customer’ both wear red dresses to give the effect of danger but are in fact victims. This indicates that not everything is as it seems subverting a traditional ideology, demonstrating an ambivalent attitude towards the character’s personality and whether they are good or evil. ‘Eve White’ can also be compared to the character ‘Eve’ from ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984, directed by Sergio Leone) which is where we got the character’s name from. It signifies the evening (darkness) or a build up of something that is about to happen such as Christmas Eve. Even though ‘Eve’ is interrogated and threatened by the police she still doesn’t reveal any information, leading to her being murdered, which is like the subway scene where ‘Eve White’ tries to fight for her bag in ‘Thief’ but ends up with it being stolen. Also in ‘Once Upon a Time in America’, ‘Eve’ discovers an outline of bullets on her bed as a warning from the police and is a premonition that she will die there. In my Thriller ‘Thief’ there is an outline someone’s body in spray paint on the subway floor, indicating that something will happen to ‘Eve White’ which will end in her misery.
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| This is a screen shot from 'Once Upon a Time in America' |
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| This is a screen shot from 'Thief' |
However, this contrasts the character ‘Scarlet Fraser’ who is the second girl that ‘Will’ targets. ‘Scarlet’ is a femme fatale like ‘Lisbeth Salander’ in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ because of her brooding demeanour and costume of a black leather jacket and hood. Also, her fringe is hiding her face like ‘Lisbeths’ and therefore hides her identity making her appear mysterious. She is a rebellion of the stereotypical femme fatale like ‘Gilda’ from the film with the same title (1946, directed by Charles Vidor) who is elegant unlike ‘Scarlet’ who is rough and edgy. Because the two girls in ‘Thief’ look so alike it gives an effect they are the same person and have a split personality. This compares to ‘Nina’ and ‘Lily’ from the Thriller ‘Black Swan’ (2010, directed by Darren Aronofsky), ‘Eve White’ being the ‘White Swan’ or good side whereas ‘Scarlet Fraser’ is the ‘Black Swan’ or bad side.
This is a trailer for the film which shows the battle that ‘Nina’ has with herself, and that ‘Lily’ is just a metaphor for her ‘bad side’.
