evaluation question 1 v3 (2) (checked)

7/29/2019 Evaluation Question 1 v3 (2) (Checked)

1/6

Evaluation Question 1

In what way does your media product

use, develop or challenge, forms andconventions of real media products?


2/6

Film title - EnvyWe named our film Envy because it relates to a stormy relationship, fuelled by jealousy, of

two young women. The theme of envy has been used in various films in many differenttypes of genres. There is an Australian film called Envy (1999), which we found on the

IMDb website. It was described in a users review as being original to start with, however

falling into the trap of typical clich, and it does not challenge the thriller convention.

With our film we wanted to challenge certain aspects of the thriller genre. For instance,

because we use two female leads, this challenges the typical male dominance in thriller

films. This is very similar to an old thriller/drama entitled Single White Female (1992),which has a similar theme of a woman being extremely envious of the other and wanting to

emulate her.

When thinking of our opening credits we were inspired by the film Se7en because of its

use of dark shadows in the opening credits and scary fonts for the titles (see trailer below).

Title of Se7en 1999

Poster of

Single

White

Female

1992

Envy 2013


3/6

LocationsWe have used generic conventions of the thriller genre with respect to the locations we

chose. I used the conventions of claustrophobic setting, for example, the long spiralstaircase in our opening scene is a classic feature of the thriller film, such as The Third

Man (1949) and Shallow Grave (1994). Staircases or long corridors, cellars or dark alleys

are commonly used in thriller films because they create the sense of enigma and danger.

The shadow on the wall, as in the example below, also brings out the nightmare feel and

illusions of suspense and threat. Our aim was a strong use of generic thriller aspects to

create a chilling atmosphere and mise-en-scene. Initially, when scouting for locations wetried finding unusual and different locations to challenge the thriller convention. However,

we soon realised that our film would not generate a strong feeling of tension if we had

shot in a clean or agreeable looking place. The dark scary flat we used created the perfect

setting for a dark mysterious thriller film (see opening for shallow grave below

presentation).

Shot from The Third Man 1949 Shallow Grave 1994Envy 2013


4/6

Costume / character typesWhen thinking about the specific types of costume we instantly knew that we wanted a

character with the same compelling power and charisma as the genius computer hacker

Lisbeth in The Girl with Dragon Tattoo (2009). In this film the original writer (Steig

Larsson) and subsequently the director (David Fincher) challenge a gender stereotype of

computer hackers usually being associated with nerdy young males. What Lisbeth does

have in common with this stereotype is her isolation and compulsion to solve mysteries.

Her piercings and costume design is an extreme challenge to the traditional depiction of

the glamorous femme fatale, for example Gilda in Gilda and Grace Faraday in the recent

film Gangster Squad (2013).

However, both costume and make-up of Zoes character in our film make her appear to be

more defenceless and vulnerable than Lisbeth and therefore, she represents a more

conventional female character.

Gilda 1946 Gangster Squad 2013Envy 2013


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Lighting

This shot in panel A is a good example of lighting that

uses a common convention in our thriller film. It could

be seen as a metaphor of Good and Evil, or Yin andYang, so we used the lighting to express this ambiguity.

One half of her face looks light and kind, however the

other half is hidden in the shadow, this indicates a

darkness and enigma. We wanted this character to

seem mysterious and strange, similar to the example

shown in B.

Panel C shows another example of lighting, which is a generic

convention in the style of noir thrillers. The light foreground with the

dark enigmatic background is a common trait in thriller films. The fact

that there is someone in the darkness keeps to the conventions of a

thriller film and enhances the dread of the scene.

Most of our film was shot using the light that was available while shooting. This was

intentional, because we thought it gave more realism to it, and the slightly darker shadows insome places worked well and to our advantage. This means our entire shoot was filmed

using ambient lighting.

A: Zoe in Envy

C: from Envy

B: shadows


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Sound

When researching films for our thriller, I noticed that many of the films we watchedused diegetic sound very effectively. So we kept all our background sounds in the final

cut. This keeps the sense of sanity mixed with tension.

When trying to find a sound track to place over we wanted to use the typical

conventions of a thriller to make sure we establish the genre. Therefore I found a

website, which puts on unsigned/none trade marked music. This gave our group accessto many choices of music (possible examples below on slide) which were either creepy

or high in tension.

A film which I took inspiration from was the Saw franchise. Their well known music is

an excellent example of music which builds up in tension and induces a feeling of fear.

(music below presentation)

Bent and broken Controlled Chaos Nervous pianoNight Break

evaluation question 1 v3 (2) (checked)

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