G321 Media Thriller Production Evaluation

By Michael Trayhurn

Question 1: In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

Locations In our media production we have used the location of a more upper-class looking room but also tried to keep it looking down to earth. The main point of our media production is about a woman throwing away the ideas of women oppression and taking control. We used the fancy looking room to represent the generic convention that females in the late 50’s being all about glamour and not being important and simply being objects to men.

The female character is first seen to be under the control of the man as she is only seen in 1 location as she only starts to move around to reveal more of the area, the area which is seen represents the amount of control the woman is getting over the situation as she chooses when the audience gets to see the res of the glamorous room, this also conforms to the generic convention of a woman being interested in money and wealth as she still wants to keep such glamour and riches but also gain control.

The room we used is seen to have a lot of windows with curtains blocking them out. The amount of windows there shows how the room and also the characters are exposed to the outside and there is not much they can go to prevent it other than hide them up with curtains. The curtains also represent how the 2 men in our thriller are trying to prevent or block out the change of the role of women.

LocationsThe amount of windows also represent the hope of the female character because when she hides behind the curtain for refuge she reveals some light into the room which represents so this connotes that she feels her only chance of survival is to hide which conforms with the stereotype of woman not being able to defend but she soon after throws this idea out the window.

The room we used also has a lot of antiques inside which we wanted to represent how the man who owns them is set in his ways of ideals such as woman being lesser than him as antiques never change and are old in their ways. The only furniture the female character interacts is the more modern (for the time) looking sofas and curtains, this represents that she is more representative of new ideals and bringing in a new idea that women can also take control.

We tried to make our room look similar to the room used in Once Upon a Time in America with it looking glamorous and upper class, we also had the key feature of the lamp in our thriller so it would look more similar. We used this for a dramatic effect as the result in the 2 scenes are completely different, we tried to get a sense of irony as the female in Once Upon a Aime in America died because she let the men take over her life as apposed to the female in our thriller opening.

CharactersEva Crawford (Main female character) Name - We used the name Eva Crawford because the name Eva is similar to Eve which has a lot of obvious connections to the bible and the story of the Garden of Eden. Eve is known to be seen as innocent and kind at first and as a partner for Adam, our character is also supposed to represent these characteristics which conforms to the conventions of women. Eve is also representative of deceit and having a slightly corrupt mind when influenced. This represents Eva because she is deceitful as she betrays the man In her life, we wanted the connotation of an outside influence (the Devil in the Garden of Eden story) so we can get the audience thinking of if a woman could do this on her own or she again conforming to someone else's ideas and wants so this could place a sense of mistrust and mystery around Eva. Eva’s name is also similar to that of Eve in Once Upon a Time in America which she is supposed to be similar to but also have some key differences which is why we didn’t straight up choose the name Eve. This also conforms to the idea of women being one in the same and all serving the same purpose.

Costume – We had Eva dress herself in not the usual tea dress or long dress but in a more sophisticated pencil skirt and shirt, this was to represent the change she would bring to the oppression of women as she was bringing a change to the fashion she was wearing. We still wanted her to seem glamorous so we used high heels and she was wearing pearls. The pearls don’t only represent glamour but they are also used to represent tears which represents the pain of our character as she is being oppressed.

Props – We had Eva interact with a book while she wasn’t doing anything of significance to show that she is trying to take action against the stereotype by learning more as well as straight up refusing to conform to the conventions of females. When Eva interacted with the gun in our thriller she was shown having a lot of confidence with it which we wanted to show that she may have previously done this or it reflecting her past life in crime, we also used the confidence with the gun to show she knows she does not need a man to take care of her and she is taking control of her own life with confidence.

Frank (1st Male Character Seen) Name – We chose the name Frank as it is a generic name in thrillers for mob members and generally is the name of a tough guy which is supposed to represent how our character fits into the stereotype of female oppression and sexism.

Costume – We had our Frank character dressed up in a old style suit to fit with the feel of out thriller as well as the time period. The suit we used was actually matching to reflect the fact that out character doesn’t actually have it together so it makes the audience think about what happened to break this man who seemingly had it all together. Suits were also the go to choice of wardrobe for mobsters at the time as they were wealthy enough to afford them, the suit also connotes that the character is upper class and wealthy. We chose a brown suit to not only differ this character from the everyday mobster but also brown is a colour that represents quality.

Props – Frank used multiple props during the intro of our thriller such as a gun, a lighter and a gold watch.

The gold watch – We had frank take out a golden watch from his jacket when he was sitting down to represent not only wealth but the fact he is an ordered individual who used to keep track of the time and keep everything down to a tee but we can see that has changed as he does not even have the watch on anymore. Gold is also the colour of success and triumph which connotes that this character used to be successful at what he did which we wanted the audience to think about.

The brass Zippo – We used a Zippo as one of the items Frank took out his coat to connote more wealth and it was common for mobsters to smoke which is what we wanted Frank to seem like. The Zippo was out of fuel in the intro which we wanted to represent how Frank had given up and no longer had it in him to turn his spark into fire metaphorically which was literal with the lighter. Lighters are also bring a sense of warmth and comfort to others which we wanted to represent how Eva no longer felt warmed by Frank and there fore decided she could go on with out him.

The Revolver – We used a revolver to show that he was prepared for what was to come and also that he was in control at that point but when he loses it is when he gave up and excepted his fate. The gun is also the only non gold coloured item he pulls out which represents how it has corrupted him and ruined his wealth and brought him down to the common everyday man.

Donny (2nd Character Seen)Name – We used Donny as our character name because it is a generic name of the muscle of gangsters, not very high up in the ranks which is what we wanted this character to seem like, just like someone who is following orders and not thinking for himself.

Costume – We used another suit on Donny for the same effect as Frank but a different colour to not only distinguish the characters but also grey is a colour that is very vague, in-between black and white so the audience don’t know much about the character and this is what we want them to think.

Props – Donny didn’t have any interaction with props to make him seem like a less important character than the rest.

Lighting and Colouring We used the convention of a light source behind the head of a character to representthat they were running out of hope or that this was their last source of hope. We usedit here where the character is thinking so it represents that if he can think of a solution then he will have hope.

We used the chiaroscuro lighting on his face to represent that he had 2 sides to him, and the lamp which represents hope was the thing provided the light so it represents that it is his only light side left but he has already gone into the dark.

We used the convention of black and white to pay homage to the old ways of the noir thriller. Black and white also adds impact to the lighting used called ‘spotlight lighting’ we used this to show that the light was important to the representation of the characters.

Sound

We used a generic dramatic sound track for our production that got more intense as it went along to coincide with the story of the opening. We stopped the music as the second gunshot went off to show that the story had come to a conclusion.

The gunshots we used were fast and quick sounds to represent how fast the situation has escalated.

The diegetic sound of the lighter hitting the table was to represent the first sign of real action we had, the generic convention of an object hitting something else loudly is commonly used to represent the coming of violence which is also what we used it for.