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

By Liam Richardson

Stock Narratives

In our film we used Tzvetan Tordovs Equilibrium theory.

Equilibrium

Disruption

Recognition

Restore Order

New Equilibrium

• We chose this Narrative technique as is helps to engage the audience right from the beginning of the film.

• This is done by showing them some of the luxury's of a gangster life. For example this may include the nice car or house at the beginning of out film. This will make the audience want to carry on watching.

Our Opening

• We learnt that Film openings are important for establishing a tone in which the target audience will fall into. The opening of the film has to grab the audiences attention, and that does not mean it has to be a big budget explosive opening. We attempted to grab the audiences attention by having our first shot panning down from the sky. This was done to set the atmosphere and setting. By tinting the shot to make it darker, signifies how what these people do is a bad and dark thing.

Themes

• One of the main themes that we tried to portray in out film is how important family is to these type of people. However we disrupted this by adding in a betrayal. This was between Frank and James Adams, two brothers who don’t see eye to eye. Betrayal of a Member in the same gang is seen as a major sin, but we decided to go one step further by making it a family member. we chose to make the betrayal be between brothers, as it completely Juxtaposes the term Brother.

• Another theme of the film is the killing of someone ranked higher up in the gang. In real life Mafias and Mobs this is something punishable by death.

• Our final theme is revenge. This is a large part of the whole storey. We represented this by having the main character be very close to the character killed. We made it so Charlie saw the boss of a gang as a father figure due to not having one of his own. Another film that used this is the Godfather where

James Adams

• James Adams, the head of the family and leader of the gang, played by Daniel Payn.

• I have compared him to Don Corleone from the very successful Godfather.

• This is someone we tried to base our character on, and I think that Daniels mannerisms in our opening reflect this.

• In looks theses two a very dissimilar. However this strengthens the fact that this is a English gang with Irish roots, not Sicilian as in the Godfather. The classic stereo type of an Irish person is fair skin and ginger hair. We matched this by using this character. But there are some similarities. For example like Corleone, James Adams has a political voice which tends to make other listen to him.

Charlie Doherty

• Charlie Doherty, the recruit, played by Liam Richardson. I compered this character to Hennery Hill from Goodfellas.

• I chose him as the characters journey is very similar. They are both about going through the ranks in a Mob. Charlie also has the same type of relationship with James Adams, that Henry Hill had with Paul Vario in Goodfellas.

Joe Martins

• Joe Martins, the business man, played by Jacob O’Neil.

• I have compared this character to James Conway from Goodfellas. I chose this character as in the film he covers a large majority of the business side in the Gang.

Frank Adams

• Frank Adams, the brother of James Adams, played by Alex Ratcliffe. I compared this character to Fredo Corleone

• I chose him as like in our film, he is the brother of the boss. His story is also very similar.

• As an adult Fredo was seen as the weakest of the three brothers and was given relatively unimportant business to run. However, he was also known as a charismatic young man, and was usually sent to pick important people up at the airport and entertain them before business meetings.

Stock Settings

• We used this setting to base the introduction to our film as it is a modern looking house yet has that old fashioned British feel to it through the wooden beams. This emphasises the fact that this is a British film with a British gang.

• This is different to most Mafia films as they are set in America, and therefore fashions are different.

• We chose this house as it shows James Adams is a family man just as much as a gang leader. This the reason for its unthreatening nature.

Stock Setting

• This is the house used by Godfather to be the home of Mafia boss Don Corleone.

• There are similarities between the two houses. For example both have the same English Tudor style.

• Both also have the same dark weather and have trees with no leaves showing it winter/ autumn.

Style of Presentation

Camera

We used a POV shot to give the audience a more personal experience. This allows them to put themselves in the position of the character.

I thing that the dolly out in the hall helped to build tension In the opening. It also starts to give the audience an idea of what is happening.

Editing

One of the editing features hat we used was altering the lighting by applying a dark tint. We done this as it gives a darker, meaner feel to the film. We want this as a gang film is not meant to be a bright and uplifting.

We also used Fade up and Dade down features. This makes the footage see slower than it actually is. There are no sudden cuts which look out of place.

Editing

We inserted the title at this point in the introduction as we did not want it to look like a trailer by leaving it longer. We chose this font as its elegant just like the glamorous life of a gangster. We made it gold for the obvious reason that, Our film is called the golden age.

We used adobe premier elements to insert a zoom in feature. This created a bit more tension when the story is being told.

Sound

The music that we used was a very slow tempo piece. It involved main violins. This is because it is a high class instrument, and we tried to portray this in the film.

Diegetic Sound

We found that even though we have the music we still needed some diegetic sound at the same time. For example at the beginning of our film we still wanted the sound of the car pulling up, and the characters getting out and walking t the door.

Misè en scene

• We tried to include as much mafia iconography as possible. For example the smart looking convertible car at the start.

• We also used the Desk in front of the large windows. We used this as it has been used in other films of this genre like Scarface.

• We also put paperwork on the table. This shows the business side of the mafia.