'Serena' - Thriller Final Cut

Question 2- How does your thriller opening represent gender? (edited)

We decided to challenge thriller conventions and create a strong female rather than a generic "damsel in distress" female. We did this by taking inspiration from "Double Indemnity's" femme fatale and

Mordecai's walking shot.

Serena's walking shot.

placing her in a position of power. The female is strongest in the opening and we did this by using a low angle close up of her to place her in a superior position, therefore presenting her as strong. We also reinforced her power by mirroring the low close up shot of Mordecai walking but we used a mid shot and therefore Serena was more present in the shot therefore placing her in a position of strength over Mordecai. We also used two props to place Serena in a position of power. The first is a large knife which she uses as a mirror.The knife is a physical reflection of Serena herself as the knife is used as a mirror, showing her femininity as she uses the reflection for her make-up, and the knife is a dangerous weapon, showing her sinister and dangerous personality. The second prop we used is the small gun Serena uses to shoot Mordecai. The gun is small and is symbolic of Serena as she is underestimated due to her appearance however she is deadly (shown by her murdering Mordecai).

We also have portrayed women as deceitful by taking inspiration from "Double Indemnity" and "The Killers". This is done by the betrayal of Mordecai from Serena as Mordecai believed he had betrayed Serena however she was just playing a larger game which resulted in Mordecai's death. The deceit is reinforced by the camerawork. We did not show Serena's full face in order to reflect how Mordecai sees her- nothing but a seductive voice who gives orders. There are no shots where Serena's entire face is shown, presenting her as deceitful as she is not showing her full face and she commands her "minions" to do things for her. The face is symbolic for identity and by not showing Serena's face we are covering up her identity, reflecting the premise for criminality which is to not be caught or seen.

We also presented males as intelligent by taking inspiration from "The Third Man's" Harry Lime. The costume Mordecai wore is a smart suit to show his wealth he has amassed by committing crimes and heists. It is clear to the audience that he is a professional thief by his use of the lock pick and therefore it is evident he has stolen before. His intelligence is reinforced by the swift location of the bag inside the house upon entry, showing his sharp intellect and experience when it comes to thievery.

Final shot of our thriller in which
Serena catches Mordecai and
kills him.

Males are also presented as gullible and susceptible to females. This is done by the blocking in the final shot as Mordecai is placed between Serena's legs and Serena appears larger than Mordecai. This places Mordecai in a trapped scenario and places Serena in an empowered scenario, reflecting the power imbalance and the betrayal of Mordecai (the show can be seen below).

Our red lipstick shot

"The Killers'" red lipstick shot. This
inspired our shot of Serena above.

Serena and her red dress, walking
towards the house with a gun.

We also portrayed women as dangerous and therefore submitting to the generic femme fatale in the film noir genre. We used a red lipstick for our character, Serena, as the lips are associated with softness however the strong red colour has connotations of danger and therefore remove any softness or innocence from Serena. This therefore presents Serena as dangerous as she uses her femininity as a disguise for her dangerous side. The red lipstick we used was inspired by "The Killers'" femme fatale. The comparison between our shot and The Killers shows the similarity in colour and the attention the red commands. The red not only symbolises danger but seductiveness. Therefore the lipstick is a physical manifestation of Serena's danger, femininity and seductiveness, presenting women as powerful due to the plethora of traits exhibited by Serena. The power that women exude in our thriller is enhanced by the only male being easily manipulated and killed by Serena. Red is also adorned by Serena and therefore places her in an ever more powerful dangerous position. The red dress draws the audience's eye to it as the colour of the rest of the shot is cold and gritty whereas the red juxtaposes against it, placing Serena in a position of power as she is effectively disrupting the cold shot with the heat of the red.

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? (edited)

Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The thriller we produced is predominantly film noir and we have used and challenged convention of the genre in order to create a unique thriller opening.

Location

Figure 1

We drew inspiration from "Double Indemnity" for the location so we selected a house with a set of stairs with bannisters. The shot of the female coming down the stairs only showing her feet was interesting which is why we used that as inspiration for the shot in figure 1. The bannisters look like jail bars and places our character in a claustrophobic situation therefore showing the intensity and tension of the situation. We also primarily shot inside a house for our opening in a similar way to "Double Indemnity" as the small selection of locations places the character in a claustrophobic situation to portray him as trapped. The trapped character idea is inspired by "The Third Man" narrative when Harry Lyme is cornered by the police in the sewers.

We also used a large house to show the importance and value inside of the house and therefore the gravity of the heist. The large house also reflects our main character's skill as he is breaking into a large house in order to retrieve a bag which is our McGuffin. The location allows some light to be present in shots.


The opening shots of our opening was inspired by the location of the "Essex Boys" however we were not able to incorporate a
vanishing point as we wanted the road to reflect the death of our character at the end of the opening. The location is different to our location however the premise is still the same as there is still a long road.

The house used.

We tried to conform to the film noir conventions for our location but found it difficult to find a location suitable enough for it. Ultimately, we used a large house which had pillars and a long drive as it was the best location we could film at which would suit the film noir style. The house's pillars show the wealth within the house and reflect Mordecai's level of skill as he is breaking into a wealthy house.

Costume

Figure 2

Our costume was inspired by the "Sin City" opening as the red dress has connotations of allure, passion and danger. The dress is perfectly symbolic for our femme fatale as Serena is an empowered and seductive woman who is always ahead of the game. We also took inspiration from "Gilda" for the shoes as the shoes were high and appeared strong which reflects Serena's high reputation in the criminal underworld and her strength in the underworld.

Harry Lyme, "The Third Man". Inspiration
for our character, Mordecai

Mordecai and his costume

For our male we were inspired by "The Third Man" as we wanted to portray our main character as a professional at what he does. The classy costume shows that Mordecai is sophisticated due to his knowledge of heists (shown by his use of the lock pick). The shoes are conventional for film noir as they are black and leather to show the hidden and reserved personality of Mordecai. Also, the white shirt worn underneath Mordecai's blazer is symbolic of Mordecai's moral ambiguity. Mordecai was planning on betraying Serena to stop Serena's criminal influence so the white shows the balance of good and evil within Mordecai. The matching suit reflects how much income Mordecai has- he is a well funded thief. This presents Mordecai once again as professional at what he does.

Sound

We initially had planned to find a jazz sound track however due to various copyright laws we were unable to find a soundtrack fitting of 1930 film noir opening. Due to this we had to adapt and we used simple sounds such as a deep cinematic rumble and a loop of soft drums to build tension. Despite the sound challenging film noir conventions the purpose was served adequately and tension is built.

We used a long low rumble sound throughout our piece to illicit the tension that is present throughout our entire opening. The non diegetic rumble creates an impending tone as the audience subtly learn that something will happen to Mordecai as he is the first character shown.

We also used a non-diegetic wind chime sound whenever Serena was in shot during the phone call to portray her as psychologically unstable and therefore the reasoning behind the eventual murder she commits of Mordecai. The wind chimes are in a minor key and therefore have connotations of evil. The non-diegetic sound of the wind chimes only accompanies Serena and therefore is associated with her. The wind chimes do not conform to thriller conventions as they are in a minor key, presenting Serena as morally evil and challenging the generic female characters in thrillers. We also had to use a phone beep noise when Mordecai ended the call with Serena to add to the continuity and reality of the film as our film is meant to be set in a more criminal version of the real world.
Props

We used a large knife for Serena to use as a mirror for her make-up and by doing so we challenged film noir conventions. Normally, the females do not possess a knife however we wanted to portray Serena as strong and dangerous so by giving her a knife we can show her as dangerous however we decided to use the knife as a mirror to fit in with the stereotypical look-obsessed femme fatales in film noirs such as "Sin City" and "Gilda". The knife is a symbol of danger and femininity, representing the femme fatale archetype itself.

We also used a small gun to be an embodiment of Serena's character as the gun is small and would therefore be underestimated however it can still be lethal. Serena is underestimated due to her being a female however she proves to be dangerous as she ultimately kills Mordecai. We also used Chekhov's gun in order to show the film noir genre.

The item Mordecai locates is a bag containing something unknown to the audience. The bag therefore acts as our mcguffin and leaves the audience wondering what is in the bag that is worth Mordecai betraying Serena for.The mcguffin also incorporates a sense of enigma, another film noir convention, and envelops the opening in mystery thus creating suspense in our opening in order to be entertaining.

Camerawork

Our camerawork was heavily influenced by different film noirs. For example, the shot of the knife, lipstick and phone on the table was inspired by "The Disappearance of Alice Creed", "Coffee and Cigarettes
" and "Se7en". The neat organised shot reflects Serena as she is organised and she is an important presence in the criminal underworld. The organised and neat display of props shows Serena as prepared for anything and therefore presenting her as professional at what she does.

Coffee and Cigarettes bird eye view
shot

Se7en bird eye view shot

"Serena" bird eye view shot

Serena's copied side walking shot

The original side walking shot

We also recycled the side walking shot of Mordec
ai when Serena walks towards the house. The recycled shot shows Serena is following Mordecai however more of her body is seen and therefore she takes up more of the shot, reflecting her power over Mordecai.

Storyboard

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Rough Cut

The rough cut is in very early stages and we have identified the various issues we need to fix (sound, satuartion, the lack of excitement etc.).