Our use of the femme fatale was mainly influenced by two films, “The Third Man” with the femme fatale “Anna” whose sophisticated style of clothing and elegance influenced us the most and the film “Pulp Fiction” and their
femme fatale “Mia”. We used a similar style to Anna Schmidt in “The Third Man”; we made our femme fatale independant and sophisticated; using corresponding
costumes and elegance. Such as her long coat which covers most of her body, her heeled shoes and the neutral colours that both of the femme fatales are wearing which is a deliberate contrast with the agenda of the femme fatale. We used the exact same shot from "The Third Man" when Anna Schmidt walks straight past the character Holly Martin at the end of the film. We done this to emphasise the fact that our femme fatale is independent and confident. We used the same name as "Eve" from "Once upon a time in America" for our femme fatale. We used a similar style to “Pulp Fiction” when introducing ourfemme fatale. For instance we kept the face of our femme fatale a mystery up to the exchange of the envelopes to add a sense of enigma. Just like in Pulp Fiction we only let the audience hear her voice long while using extreme close ups to show only a few asects of her face. This is also because we used to snow to emphasise the mystery of our thriller, because of the idea that the snow covers up things in the mise en scene so using this technique to keep her face a mystery gives our thriller opening a sense of suspense. We thought about our thriller soundtrack for a long while; trying out different soundtracks that fitted our film and the actions of the characters didn’t seem to help us. We found it difficult to find a soundtrack without using copyright. So we researched into a few different successful thriller films, for example “The Third Man”, “Once Upon A Time In America” and “Thelma And Louise”. “Once Upon A Time In America” soundtrack inspired us the most because it’s highly rated and links well with the plot of the thriller. Both “Once Upon A Time In America” and our own soundtracks are evocative and romantic. We liked the idea of “The Third Man” soundtrack because of the contrast, the soundtrack is playful and somewhat upbeat; this indicates the character of Harry Lime. However throughout the film it is clear that this is soundtrack does not resemble Harry Lime’s character. For our sound effects we added sounds found from the website which included “footsteps in the snow” and a gunshot we done this to add realism to the action a
nd give it a tense atmosphere.Our editing consisted of mostly medium shots and long shots with few close ups, so the audience isn’t always involved with all the action, although on the vital elements of our thriller film we used close ups, for example when Eve is shot in the back and is lying wounded in the snow. We wanted to keep our thriller realistic so lots of close up shots of action and guns wouldn’t fit the agenda of the film. The tracking shots of the character “O-Ren Ishii” in “Kill Bill” inspired us to use this technique. We used the shots of Eve walking towards the camera, just like in Kill Bill. However still keeping Eve’s face out of the shot. In audience feedback, comments for this shot were very positive. Another idea that inspired us was from the thriller film “Phone booth” we used a close up shot/point of view shot of a mobile phone with an incoming call to create a sense of anxiety as the callers ID was shown as “unknown”. This was to draw attention to the specific conversation that Eve was about to have.
We decided to film our thriller opening in the Cathedral close because of its eerie presence which would reflect the classic nature of our film. The idea of the Cathedral being a religious landmark intrigued us as we were filming a crime thriller, the oxymoron of this is self – explanatory as throughout the process of the film the characters are betraying the moral Christian laws. “In Bruges” also made us want to film at the cathedral because of its Norman architecture, this is in order to give a sense of suspense. There is also a river featured in the film “In Bruges” this links with our film as the river is one of the most important signifiers as this is where our femme fatale is attacked. Audience feedback told us that the idea of setting our film at the cathedral was appropriate, as one of the audience members stated “good use of the cathedral” which is definitely what we were hoping for. The unexpected snow gave the mise en scene illusion and purity, which is in complete contrast to the characters. The snow also emphasises the vulnerability of the femme fatale whilst the spilling of the blood on to the snow also adds contrast. However the snow can also be seen as something fake is going on in the film as the snow covers up everything which leads to the characters covering up elements of themselves.
The ambient lighting of the film gave the impression of heaven as the brightness of the snow and the sky together reminded us of angels as angels and heaven are both associated with death we thought this fitted really well with our thriller opening.
The title of the film is “Eve” this can branch off to many different meanings such as “life” or “living” however we liked the meaning “creature of the night” which implies that our femme fatale is deceitful. This adds to the layers of the meaning within our thriller.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We immediately play on modern stereotypes of 21st century Britain in our thriller film.
We have represented women as naïve and vulnerable in our film. This is also how femme fatales are represented in thrillers such as “Once upon a time in America” and “Pulp Fiction” this is in contrast to femme fatales in such films as “The third man” and “Jackie Brown” who show an independent and strong side of women, however still being deviant and seductive. The main
character for our thriller film is female. We made Eve have the same qualities as a traditional femme fatale with contemporaries. She is represented as a glamorous, elegant and upper class woman, this is due to her costume and general persona. We know this even before the camera exposes her face because of her well spoken, polite mannerisms during her phone conversation in the first few seconds of the production. The fact that she is smoking a cigarette is a symbol of her deviance and rebellious attitude. Using this prop associates with this archetype and is classic 1940’s fashion. The cigarette represents a particular social group as a large percentage of society can relate to this.We stick to modern British stereotypes in both of our male characters as well. Harry conforms to the trustworthy, high earning, high social standing stereotype. He is only shot in the film once, when he is involved in the envelope exchange with Eve. Even with only a glimpse of this character the audience can establish an impression of him. As he has a smart appearance and is of obvious importance to the plot.
However “unknown character” conforms to the low social standing, low earning stereotype. This is also portrayed by his costume and shot choice. The tilt shots used for this character gives a sense of distortion and instability.
The tilt shots in “The Third Man” are a strong feature and connote confusion and disorientation. The establishing shot of Harry Lime is a tilt shot, suggesting his skewed relationship with morality.
We have given Eve the lead role in our film to challenge the male domination of male characters in this genre, for instance “Pulp Fiction” – Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield and “Reservoir Dogs” – Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde.
Our aim was to represent Eve as a believable young woman who is able to eventually look after herself as “The Bride” does in “Kill Bill 1” and “Kill Bill 2”.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The kind of media institution that would distribute our film if it were completed would probably be distributors that would have already distributed films that have inspired ours. Such as “Once upon a time in America” and “Pulp Fiction” which have previously been mentioned in this evaluation. I researched “Once upon a time in America” and “Pulp fiction” to find out what companies distributed the films. I found that
Once upon a time in America had many distributors from all over the world, including “Warner Bros.” From France and “Warner bros. Pictures” from USA. Pulp fiction had distributors such as “Miramax films” from USA and “Buena Vista Home Entertainment” from UK. Which are both mainstream.
However if our opening was completed to a hour or longer film then Working Title would also be likely to distribute our film because the company like to develop on new films that may be successful, whilst encouraging British talent.When I researched thriller films that are most like ours it displayed nothing about being viewed on television so I researched what channels show what sort of programmes or films. BBC1 show more of a sports and news variety which is aimed at a more older audience. BBC2 show documentaries and more programmes that you would find during the day, for example “Escape To The Country” or “Natures Top 40”. ITV show reality shows and quiz shows like “The Jeremy Kyle show”, “Dancing on Ice” and their most popular programme “Coronation Street” This channel do not normally show films. Channel Four shows the most popular shows on television, which are mostly aimed at a young audience. This is because of the connections this channel has with E4, More 4 and Film 4. I think that if our thriller opening was made into a succesful thriller film it is most likely to be viewed on channel four as that is the channel that show a variety of films because of the links with film 4. Our thriller film would be scheduled for after the watershed (after 9pm) because of the scenes of violence.
The thriller films that are similar to ours were shown at multiplex cinemas instead of small cinemas or art house cinemas. This concludes to our film would be more likely to be shown at a more high budget cinemas rather than art house ones.
However, it is very unlikely that a mainstream distributor would distribute our two minute thriller opening. Our opening would more likely to be shown at short film festivals such as the London short film festival or short film competition websites that can be found on the internet. There are such websites which allow undiscovered film makers to show their work, which is normally a short opening or a short film. For instance 'Filmaka - Global Digital Studio'. The most likely exhibition of our two-minute film is for it to be shown on youtube. This is because youtube allows anyone to view each video. Youtube is free and very popular so it is very likely that a two-minute film would be viewed many times.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
On IMDB I researched into thriller films that inspired us the most with the making of our opening crime thriller to find out the demographic ratings for each film. Each film had the same highest user ratings, which were males under 18. However the females user ratings were much lower than the male user ratings for each film. This could suggest that this is because women normally find crime thrillers less appealing because the action is revolved around the male characters.
Most audiences who view films inadvertently take an immediate liking to the main character this is because the director uses ways for the audience to relate to this character. Because of this we believe that the user ratings for o
ur film would be in contrast with the outcomes of the user ratings for the thriller films that influenced our film.Because our main character is a young female and camera follows her throughout the entire opening of the film, capturing everything that she does until the gunshot at the end of the opening.
The target audience is primarily females. Females estimated aged around early 20’s would be the most likely to have the highest user ratings for our film because of the strong link to the femme fatale. Our target audience (aged 18-29) would enjoy television programmes such as “Sex and the City” or “Eastenders” Because “Sex and the City” is based on four women living in New York, this programme relates to many women because they have story lines which generalise the majority of women, for example boyfriends, husbands, shopping etc. “Eastenders” because it is about a small town in London which is based on families, friends and daily life. Which is also something that many women can relate to.
How did you attract/address your audience?
As stated before in this evaluation we were mostly aiming at 18-29 year olds, because this is women who could identify with the main character Eve. Which is a large quantity of people that vary from students to parents. This can be difficult as categories within this age group may have completely different views.
I think that the fact that our main character is female would attract half of the target audience just simply because of the gender. At the very beginning of our thriller film shows a shot of Eve (femme fatale) smoking a cigarette, to show impatience and that she’s a risk taker this can relate very well to a lot of our target audience.
The fact that the thriller has been filmed in the snow should apply more to our audience, as people that are aged 18-29 seem to appreciate the snow more than older aged people do.
Our linear narrative structure is appealing because it gives the audience the pleasure in watching events. The violence at the end of the opening, it’s a great cliff-hanger and young people enjoy action based films. Our audience feedback told us “nice idea of the opening eye at the end” this made us realise that the target audience would like the idea of the twist at the end of our opening and most people would want to know if Eve survives, like the girl in “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” seeks her revenge.
The mise en scene is also appealing with its medieval location, which represents British heritage. If we completed our film, it could encourage tourism to Norwich. As a completed version most of the action would be in and around medieval Norwich.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We all learnt lots throughout the production of our thriller film.
We all developed shooting techniques and editing knowledge. We realised how to create a good mise – en – scene and use the natural lighting we were given to our advantage.
We always made sure we were trying out different shots for the significance of the mise – en - scene. However some of them did not work with our thriller so we just kept to the ones which did fit. We learnt that the more close – up shots of our characters and important aspects of our film would help the audience understand the narrative better and keep up with the film.
We learnt how to make our thriller film authentic and how to create different thriller conventions to connote certain aspects of our film.During the editing we learnt how to fit certain sound effects into the specific place working around the soundtrack. We also learnt how to use different transitions to create a more thriller feeling to the film. However the editing became quite simple to us after we had understood the program and the controls.
We used a digital camera for stills. We thought that using a digital camera would be the best option because it allowed us to immediately review our footage which was helpful during production.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
We all feel like we have developed since the making of our preliminary task, however the preliminary task was at the beginning of year 12 and we hadn’t learnt or understood key techniques until we started filming for our thriller film.
The shooting for our film was more complex than the preliminary task and on a few occasions we had to refer back to small bits of information that we learnt during the lessons.
Mostly I have learnt that you always have to shoot the same shot many times to get the perfect shot.
When we had finished the filming of our preliminary task we had to edit it. Which is something that none of us in the group had done before, however we were at an advantage when it came to importing the preliminary task on to youtube as Aaron already had an account.
Each of our contributions acted as a major part of our thriller film opening. Alice contributed to the filming and directing of our film while Dan was playing the role of two parts and took control in the editing as he knew all the features. My contribution was to film and direct along side Alice.
The strengths of our production is that the narrative structure is strong and has had positive feedback. However the weakness of our production is that we didn’t have enough close – ups of the action to create claustrophobia or to get the audience involved.
In conclusion we all learnt a lot during the process of production and editing.
If I could do it again I would remember to shoot the same shot more than once to get the best result overall.
