In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
Being seen in the first image is a screen grab of the film title and how it looks in the thriller opening, it is also the third title in the opening after the production company and lead actors name. We had many ideas for what the title could be that were all based around describing aspects of the main character, but we ended up going with Furor. We felt that it would be interesting to describe the main character because it is very different to the convention of the title giving away the weakness to the protagonist. By describing the antagonist it makes it clear who is the main character in the film, since it is not usually the antagonist but the protagonist to be the focus of the film. Furor means rage or fury which is how the antagonist feels before murdering a former boyfriend. The rage and fury all stem from her previous boyfriend winning the lottery and the fact that she feels as if she deserves the money. So the characters rage and fury plays a key role in the film as it is because of that the murder is committed in the first place. Additionally Furor is not a common word so not all of the audience would get this, but hopefully they would have a better idea of what it could mean by the end of the film.
Setting and location
The whole film set in ordinary settings, this is to go with the convention of thrillers where they use ordinary settings to make the audience feel that it could be happening all around them, and that it could one day happen to them. It also makes the characters feel more authentic to the audience as they could see themselves in that position. The opening is therefore in an ordinary looking setting of a normal woman's bedroom with a few things out of place to give an insight into the character. We chose to block out natural light so it the setting would feel hidden and secretive and so the antagonist does not want to be seen.This is shown in the second image, which is part of the panning shot as it shows the room with curtains closed to block out light. We also chose to very much limit the amount of possessions this character had because she was not meant to be well off and would so, have a greater desire for the lottery winnings.
Costumes and props
In the thriller opening there are many key props and costumes such as the clock, photo frames, newspaper, purple dress, white dress, lipstick, film posters (image to the right), giant words and the film Fatal Attraction. We chose to have two dresses used one purple and one white to show different things. The purple dress in shown in the third screen grab, even though in the image it is hard to work out the colour in the opening it is clear. The purple represents the characters power and the white showing innocence and the red lipstick was used to show danger. We chose these because they contradict each other and that creates a sense of mystery. The clock and Fatal Attraction are linked by them both being stopped at exactly 12:12 which was done to represent the characters precision and accuracy. While the posters and the giant words are homage's to different films with the words being similar to the one on the tree in silence of the lambs. The newspaper was made by bringing in and old newspaper and printing off one sheet with newspaper format and attaching it to the front, the newspaper was then used for when the antagonist first finds out about her previous boyfriend wining the lottery. Also there was rope hanging from the back of the door to raise questions in the audience's mind as to why she had rope hanging from the back of her door. We also used some of the more classical props from film noir's and old thrillers of having a smoking cigarette and whiskey bottle and glass.
Camera work
We used a variety of shots in the thriller opening including close ups, panning and extreme close up shots. We used a panning shot of the room so the audience can see the whole setting. There was close up shot of the main characters face at the beginning as she opens her eyes. As seen in the fourth screen grab I chose to use an extreme close up of the paused film to highlight the time it is paused on and to make sure the whole audience notices the timing as that it what the shot opens with and then comes out to show the whole screen. We also used different angles for different shots for example with the shot of the door we used an upwards angle to make the door look daunting. We also had an over the should shot of the newspaper and when the image is being circled this is to let the audience know that they are looking at the same thing as the character.
Title font and styles
An example of the titles is in the fifth image as it shows one the opening titles, all of the titles are the same and have similar movements when playing. The titles are cracked and shake around the screen, and unlike the usual convention of the title in some way reflecting the movie. We have chosen them to more reflect the protagonists mental state (a bit cracked and shaky). Also with the titles being white on a black background, it makes them bold and impossible to miss this is again like the character who is very bold and is a Femme fatale character and when entering a setting would draw everyone's attention. The title font and style gives the audience a kind of eerie effect due to it not being normal and can increase suspense because the audience would then be expecting things to happen.
Story and how the opening sets it up
The story is of a Femme fatale character who murders a former boyfriend out rage and fury of his luck at winning the lottery. She finds out that her previous boyfriend who was already rich has gotten lucky on the lottery from the newspaper that she is reading. Image six shows the character holding the paper and the angle we chose to film this shot. We have shown in a shot that the antagonist was imitating a film noir poster that is on the wall and this shows the characters obsession with thrillers and how she tries to imitate them. This is then reflected in the way she kills him and how she acts afterwards. We have also made it clear in the opening that the main character is a femme fatale by the clothing worn and how she is presented in the opening shots. This would let the audience know what to expect from this character in the film as she would be good at getting what she wants by using deceit and trickery.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
The way the main character (antagonist) dresses does let on to the genre of film noir, but also the homage to other thriller's does suggest that this is a thriller with a sub genre of film noir. In the seventh image it shows how the antagonist dresses and also a bit of homage as on the wall there is a poster of Lana Turner who played the iconic femme fatale character in the Postman only rings twice. The opening is very mysterious and raises many questions such as why she is circling the persons face? and what is the significance of the purple dress hanging in the wardrobe? These questions means that the audience is getting hooked in and created a sense of tension.
How characters are introduced
In our opening we only introduced one character because it clearly highlights who is the main character of the film. As shown in the eighth image we chose for the very first shot to introduce the antagonist using a close up shot of her face because this will let the audience know who the main character is from the very beginning. The lighting really highlights the face of the character which increases the suspense and tension for the audience,as well as that the opening of the eyes symbolises the weakening of the rage and fury inside of the character. We chose to challenge thriller conventions by not introducing the protagonist first, we did this because we thought it would be key for the audience to know who the film revolves around.
Effects
The main effects used would be the sin city effect and black and white effect. All of the shots are black and white (second, third, sixth, seventh and eighth images) apart from the shot of the paused Fatale Attraction (fourth image) and this was done to highlight the fact that it is not part of the our filming and is of the characters doing. Making the footage black and white was simple to do but toke up time because it had to be done to the majority of shots, but I feel it adds something to the thriller opening as a whole. The sin city effect is when the footage is black and white apart from a selected part which is in colour. This is an effective way to highlight a specific part of the image to the audience, and by looking at the ninth image it can by seen as a very effective method. The sin city effect toke a lot of time to do because adding the effect toke little time but tweaking it to make it effective and really standout toke a lot longer, but I believe that it was worth it as it has come out really well.
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