Evaluation Question 1- Maddison Brown

Our film displays continuity through match on action; shot reverse shot; and 180-degree rule. The editing of the shot reverse shot is used in conversations. The edit is shown through Maddy and Destiny’s conversation and Destiny and the Loan sharks conversation. We used sound bridges to trick the audience to smooth out the cuts between shots. This makes the conversation flow more and appear more realistic. (show an edit photo of sound bridge and shot –r-shot). The match on action is used in the same way. We used a sound bridge over the office opening by using the knocking sound and the Loan Shark speech to make it seem like an ordinary office. (show an edit of sound bridge over match on action). We also applied the 180-degree rule to all conversations. These traditionally happen in all films to show continuity. 

Photo from Usual Suspects

Photo from GR££D

The film does have a montage with quick editing and music that beats to the cuts. This is good because it makes the film more energetic and breaks the middle of film up. This also breaks continuity as there is no continuous shots. Also with the use of mise en scene we also kept continuity to make the film realistic and believable to the audience. This was specially done through costume and make up; props; scenery. One problem we did have occurred when editing to film is that the shots from the park scene have different lighting as they were filmed on different days. To overcome this error we filtered the film with colour correction to darken the shots of Destiny to match Maddy’s shots. We also had problems with the continuity on the Loan Shark scene where the Loan Shark gets Destiny to sign the contract we used two different sheets of paper so we had to wire frame the mid shot to crop out the sheet of paper.  The advantage we had when filming was when the park scene was out of focus on Maddy we only had to re-film Maddy’s part, this is good because Destiny’s hair changed colour so it would have made it hard to connect her with the same character in other scenes. Another advantage we had was planning beforehand; we used production day packs to keep a track of clothing; props; scenery; shot listing and scripts. This helped us keep our continuity consistent.

The film reflects a few conventions of psychological thrillers. One of these is using a male to play the villain or false hero. This convention is shown in Angel Heart, The Box and Cape Fear. The use of the male lead of a villain creates a more dominant and powerful character. This is a natural stereotype from audiences. In other genres this is also a convention such as horror where you have Freddie; Jason; Jigsaw; Scream. They are all following a male stereotype. It is not very often in psychological thrillers a woman is the villain. One film that has challenged this stereotype is Fatal Attraction however a male lead that does wrong is still involved.

 We used a male Loan Shark to hopefully follow the success of the stereotype of haunting; powerful; dominant. This helped create the innocence and scared personality of Destiny as she is bounded to this contract to kill herself. This creates more tension and excitement for the audience. If the Loan Shark was a girl I don’t think it would have had the same effect as lead villain females are normally jealous, wanting beauty, controlling. These conventions do not suit or storyline as the Loan shark is not envious of Destiny.

Photo from Fatal Attraction showing gender stereotypes

Another convention in thriller film is the use of dark or twisted music. However, in our film we used rap/gangster music for the montage. We used this because we wanted to break up the film and create energy to the audience as the first part of the film is a slow pace and long beginning.

One of the conventions we used from other films is the use of suspense. When Destiny gets told she needs to kill someone there is a build up of suspense of who she has to kill. This is then built upon the climax at the end when Destiny gets the letter. This use of suspense is used in films such as The Amazing Spiderman when Peter uses his webs to catch the Doctor but he is waiting ages then a web moves. It is also used in Cape Fear when the husband is in his house and he is waiting for Max to attack.

Photo from Amazing Spiderman 

Photo from Cape Fear

In  our film we follow the drama convention of using no or little fantasy and keeping the storyline realistic by using money worries and loan companies to suggest realism. We also use the factor of job loss to show the modern style of the film. in summary, our film does include many conventions included in the genre of a drama such as realistic characters and storyline. Our characters are dramatic and show emotions like in dramas. However, some aspects of the film challenge traditional conventions, which could be because we wanted our film to stand out to break convention. 

In previous questions I have displayed some of Richard Dyer’s theory. This theory relates to why we watch films. The sections of this theory are:

• Energy
• Abundance
• Intensity
• Transparency
• Community

Our film supports this theory because our film shows energy with the break of continuity and music in the middle of the film. This shows that the audience want to watch this film because they feel they need to be energised and motivated. Our film does not do this is a common way, normally films use action, fight scenes and fast pace cutting. We used fast pace editing and cutting to speed up the film and grab the audiences’ attention.

Our film again supports this theory because of abundance. In our film Destiny comes enriched with money. When she has this money she spends it on a car; house; paying Maddy back and getting her life back. However, since Destiny is full of greed she uses the money on materialistic objects and nothing for her own real benefit. This utopia to the audience makes them feel in a world of fantasy of what they would do with £2 million. This is parallel to when someone wonders what they would do if they won the lottery. This shows the audience become captured in a dream land. The montage also happens in Rocky films and creates energy to the audience. 

Photo from Rocky Montage showing energy

 Gr££d shows intensity when Destiny opens the letter and when she makes the choice of killing someone. These parts of the film are intense because they create suspense for the audience. This is done through the letter as it is a mysterious letter. We used close up shots to show Destiny’s confusion when she first sees the letter and we used slow acting to display Destiny’s emotion. When she opens the letter the audience see who she has to kill. However there is no name just a photo. To display Destiny’s emotion we used a key frame to zoom is on her face and a freeze frame. The freeze frame also shows a mug shot still photo with the look of emptiness and sadness. This happens in the box when they are faced with the box and we can the actors emotion. 

Photo from The Box showing emotion and intensity 

The film shows transparency as Destiny isn’t hiding anything she isn’t hiding that she has no money or that she does have money. Maddy is transparent because she shows an honest and confronting personality to the audience. However, the Loan Shark does challenge this as he does say that Destiny has to kill someone he keeps the secret of who that person is.

Photo from The Box showing transparency 

The film displays community as Maddy and Destiny are good friends and Maddy helps her out. However, we also see Destiny is alone a lot, she seems to have no family, no job and no other communication through social networking as she can’t afford internet. This shows the audience the Destiny needs sympathy that she is so alone and her only way out is through a Loan Shark. This is also shown in Gangster Squad when John needs to get a squad together and gets one of his friends to help him, Jerry. Jerry then falls for Grace who then asks Jack for a favour as a friend to hide Grace from Mickey. 

 photo of Jerry and Grace displaying community by becoming acquaint.

 Mickey and Grace displaying affect which shows a different type of social community

Photo of the gangster squad showing community in their friendship. 

c) Are there any elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, where you ‘play’ with the genre’s codes and history? Are there any intertextual moments where you hint at a reference to another film?

In our film we have used ideas from Angel Heart to help us set the scene and film it effectively. We used this scene because the shots are not complex and the scene in Angel Heart is similar to what we wanted to achieve. In the short film Room 8 that I researched we wanted to use similar camera shots to when Destiny first meets the Loan Shark. Another part of the film was the montage. For this part we looked at Teen wolf, Rocky, Scarface and Dirty Dancing we used all these different genres of films because we wanted to see how they used the music in collaboration to the cuts.  

To find research for our film we looked at Angel Heart and The Box. These films follow the theme of selling yourself or making a life changing decision.  From these films we used: the plot twist of agreeing to a sin and getting revenge. These films have also impact some short films we used to base our film around. One of these short films is Room 8, a film about a man who is imprisoned with an inmate who has an “escape plan” however this is a trick for people who are not paying for their sins. From this this film we used the same setting and shot frame of when the Loan Shark is introduced. (Show images). Another film we looked at was Black Button, this film follows a man trying to make the decision of killing someone and having a lot of money to walking away to freedom and heaven, after he chooses the money he is sent to hell for greed. From this film we used the conversation and characteristic of the judge in our Loan Shark. This type of conversation was also in Angel Heart when Louis cypher is speaking to Jonny Favourite in the church. (Show image). From these films we also looked at their film posters. The convention of The Box and Angel Heart show there is 2 or 3 main characters focus on; a mass use of black; simplistic features; mysterious tone. These poster helped us aim our film at a similar audience.