Question One: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

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

The term 'mise- en-scene' comes from the French theatrical expression 'put into scene', it encompasses location, costume, make-up actors and actresses. It is the elements that are deliberately chosen to put into the scene that can often define the genre of film.

Locations

Our mise-en-scene is significant because we have challenged some aspects of film noir conventions and some we have conformed to, for example, our locations have been inspired by the typical Film Noir locations, here are some example of classic locations used in Film Noir compared to our location which was a dark alley way, this was an incredibly common location.

The dark alley way is a classic location for a film noir film, the dark shadows and industrial brick all conform to film noir's conventions. 

Another example of our media film conforming to the film noir conventions is our location for our final ad climatic scene, this is where our actor Laurie had been tied up to a chair in a desolate, run down and dark garage. This location conforms to film noir conventions as we were able to use lighting to create dark shadows, this is a key convention of film noir. The dark shadows hint to something sinister and create a tense atmosphere for the audience. The significance of the dark and desolate is how the room is representing the feelings of the American society through dark shadows and emptiness, this portrayed the feelings of sadness and emptiness that American society was feeling in post-war 1940's, this is what Film Noir was meant for.

An intertextual reference we have made through our garage scene is the 1992 'Reservoir Dog's', this film is about a kidnapped policemen, through looking at the scene where he has been kidnapped we took inspiration from this. 

Through mise-en-scene of locations, we have developed the conventions of film noir, we have done this by existing media we have taken on board the locations as such and applied them to our film.

Costume

Although our film has elements inspired by 1940's film noir, the costume took a modern approach. Instead of pinstripe suits and bowler hats, we opted for dark, modern clothing. We wanted our character to look strange, dark clothing is suggestive of a tragic past and gloomy character. Laurie;s hair also makes him stand out incredibly well, he was a red Mohican with red tips. This not only conveys him as a little odd but also someone who is dangerous through the colour symbolism of his hair. Red symbolised anger, danger but also love. 

Catlin, our own female actor in the film, had a costume inspired by Sin City. We wanted to take a modern femme fatal look, same as Laurie we used colour symbolism in her costume. Sin City used the colour red for symbolism too, in our thriller the use of red exagreates the femme fatale by coveying a portrayl of sex and violence.

Our antagonist wears a dark costume to convey violence and a dark character, he hides in the shadows so his costume isn't visable. The dark colours forshadow bad things to later come, through lighting you are unable to see his face, this makes the antagonist seem villianous and wicked.

Lighting

In our film we conformed to typical lighting of film noir, the most common of film noir lighting is low key. This creates a chiaroscuro style for the scene, this style emphasises the depth of shadows and the harshness of the lighting. Here is an example of how we used low key lighting in our film, the shadows emphasise the darkness of our film in terms of what has happened to him. 

The low key lighting coneys a sense of sadness, through shadows its creates a tense atmosphere.

Inter Textual references

In our thriller opening we wanted to make contextual referances through elements of mise en scene such as lighting, costume and characters. Having been inspired of our film but the classic genre of film noir we researched further and found that a female was often portrayed as a femme fatale, a femme fatale is often thought to be a beautiful women with a dark side. It is often common for them to use their beauty to wrap men around their little finger. As a group we decided we wanted to portray a similar character in our film.

Sin City, a 2005 black and white hit directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez andQuentin Tarantino was an obvious choice when deciding want previous films we would want to influence our films. The femme fatale character is always shown in red costume in Sin city, this colour symbloizes the anger or love and passion she feels towards the men she is involved with. This is the element of femme ftale we have decided to replicate with our character, played by Catlin Mapes.

Other elements of costume we have decided to emulate from other films is costume, however we have dcided to do this from a more modern perspective. For example Black Widow from The Avengers is portrayed as a modern day femme fatale. Her red hair coveys the passion, love and anger however the black leather jacket may convey her emotional state, a hard exterior to protect what is inside. Usually a tradtional femme fatale has been heartbroken and therefore puts a front on to pretoect themselves from becoming hurt again.

Camera Work: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight rises was the 2012 DC comics blockbuster, bringing $1085 billion to the box office.

It was eight years that Batman had vanished into the Gotham darkness with nobody knowing of his whereabouts or reason, however, the sudden crimes of a mischievous 'cat woman' and her alliance called 'Bane' call the infamous 'Batman' out of the darkness.

The first seconds of the clip focus on a police

car, this is a tracking shot as the audience is following the police car. This gives the audience immediately a sense of danger, the speed of which the camera is moving at also compels the audience to feel excited. As we see the police car following men on motorbikes this suggests at what might be Batman's first appearance as he in the protagonist. The sense of danger created in the first few seconds conveys that Batman will be later coming into the scene to save the day. The camera then cuts to a close-up of two policemen in the car looking frantic, this is also hinting at the idea that Batman is needed to help them. The camera then returns to the police chase sequence, however, the focus on the camera has shifted to focus only on the darkness of the tunnel they are in has become suddenly very dark, again hinting at Batman's appearance. The camera quickly returns to the Policemen in the car again with a close-up. The next shot features the screen becoming dark for a brief second after the policemen says' you are in for a treat tonight son', after light returns to the screen we see one of the men running off the motorbike screaming, this mid shot gives us an idea that Batman may have just appeared in the darkness however it is not given away yet. A few seconds later a cloaked character comes out of nowhere incredibly quickly, it is then that a mid shot gives the audience there the first sighting of Batman's reappearance.

Batman is next shown in a close-up shot, here the audience can see his face. The fact that he is standing with his face taking up most of the screen suggests that he is an extremley important character, the entire scene has been leading up to his appearance. The next shot features Batman showing his power and authority over the law enforcement. Batman looks back towrads a policemen who is holding his gun directly at him, in this mid shot Batman has shown the ultimate power he holds over the city. However the next ten seconds make the audience question his authority as we watch a seris of shots that show the policemen coming into action to 'take batman down'.

This scene uses camera work to establish how the rest of film has been leading to the return of Batman, through the use of mid shots and close ups we are shown Batman's true identity, power and authority.

Updated independent Study: What do costumes say about characters?

The costume is an essential part of defining who a character is to an audience, it can convey who they are as a person, what is happening at a given time in a scene or plot. Costume can be a different narrative for the director, for example, period costume tell us the time period in which the film is set it, it can also tell the audience the identity of the characters

The Girl on the Train

In the 2016 novel adaptation directed by Tate Taylor 'The Girl on the Train, the costume is subtle yet so very clever. As it is set in a present-day society the clothes we see on screen are not anything out of the normal, however, the victim, Megan played by Haley Bennett, is mostly featured in pale pink clothing. This suggests a certain naivety and innocence to the audience, the light flow to her clothes also convey a relaxed, laid back nature to her character. Even the colour of hair is deliberate, her blonde halo of hair contrasts the character in a question of crime, therefore, we see Megan as this innocent creature that has been hurt in which we feel sorry for. The two female leads hair colours may symbolise how Rachel has been replaced by the new shiny young blonde, Megan. However on the other hand how their hair is styled could be an insight to their personalities, for example Megan's hair is wavy and quite relaxed suggesting that she herself is quite chilled out. On the contrast Rachel's hair is well kept and rather straight compared to Megan's. How her appearance is portrayed could be an illustration of her personality, she could be considered much more uptight and straight laced. Another insight to their characters is shown by their clothes, Rachel is shown to be in appears to be straight cut office clothes, this connotes a career focused and driven person which contrasts Megan's clothes, the flowyness of Megan's clothes make seem, again, relaxed, her appearance is much more soft than Rachel's.

In contrast, Rachel Watson, played by Emily Blunt, who later in the film becomes the suspect in question rather than the witness is portrayed in dark clothing throughout the entire film. Although her clothing maybe dark thought out, at the beginning of the film she features a white shirt which may suggest that a sense of innocence at the beginning it may also connote a sense of naivety towards the audience as we have no idea that later on, she becomes a suspect in Megan's disappearance, this is when  her clothing becomes bleaker and becomes darker. For example,  when talking to a detective in the film who later goes on to as Rachel if she killed Megan she is dressed in mainly dark clothing which may hint towards a dark motif she is hiding from the Police and the audience.

In turn, Megan's clothing presents her as this dainty female that is a victim of a vicious crime by the light pinks and airy clothing, however, this is the front that the producers choose for her as it doesn't immediately show her dark past, it presents her as the good girl in the film.

Title Sequence

Black Swan

Fonts are a key element to revealing aspects of a film within the first few seconds of the opening sequence or even the poster or trailer of a film, the font of which can dramatically impact the way an audience perceives the title sequence. For example the typeoraphy in the Black Swan title sequence is very elegant which directly corresponds with the Ballerinas however the font also has a gothic side, this could hinting at the dark ending Natalie Portman's character will eventually fall to, this font mimics the plot of the film. The font also constantly stay inside the circles drawn with the by

lack chalk held by the ambiguous character, this could be hinting to the dark circle that Nina Sayers becomes stuck in, the font is a representative of her.

Black Swan opening sequence 

The bold letters stand out in contrast to the simple images that are presented on screen, it could be seen as a decorative font as it stands out, the constant capital letters add this as they make the text seem more important as it is not in lower case. In terms of pitch the space allowed is quite large, this adds to the bold effect that the typeface is creating.  The text is always inside the line that has been drawn and near it, this draws your eyes further to the text as naturally your eyes would be following the line that has been drawn. The text could be considered heavy which may imply of the emotion that will be felt by the main character, it contrasts the usual delicate and elegant font that would be associated with a ballerina, therefore it suggests a negative tone to the film.

The overall mood of the film created by the font is dark, almost mysterious tone, the font juxtaposes with the sound being played in the background at the start however as the title sequence goes on the music becomes heavier. This reflects the film as time goes on Nina Sayers, the main characters, becomes in a worse never-ending emotional wreckage. The typeface reflects her and the black line becomes what she is experiencing at the time, the line is becoming quicker and quicker which reflects her mental state, she is experiencing a whirlwind of mental healthy problems accompanied by the stress of being the star of the show.

The font is very effective in terms of it reflecting the character and story line, it draws the audience's attention and stands out in the title sequence, it does not become ambiguous at any point and is very effective in reflecting her emotional state, in my option how it juxtaposes the normal view of a ballerina is what makes it so effective as it is not what is expected

Explanation of planing

We worked in a group of three, Izzy, Lucy and I, we wanted to make the tasks at hand as fair as possible therefore when it came to completing the group tasks we would all take it in turns to complete a section of the work, it would be divided in three as there is three of us, to make it fair. Whilst the others were working it was not un-common for them to either ask for help or for us to make contributions. At the end we have made sure that everyone is happy with the group tasks or would like to add anything else, this way everyone gets a say and does the same equal amount of work.

Gone:explained

The title of our thriller opening is 'gone', the simple effectiveness of a short word creates a sense of mystery as it does not give away too much to the audience. We wanted something that would leave the audience wanting more, all the best thriller films have short titles, for example; Psycho, seven and Inception. Based on the great success of these films we opted for something short. 'Gone' connotes that something has disappeared which is what we wanted as the plot of our film is a kidnapping, however, the short but effective one-word title does not suggest to what may have gone missing. To keep the audience guessing but interested is key.

Personally, I think the audience will respond positively towards our title because it is suggested to what genre of film is it as it is not a positive title and it is easy to remember, other than the incredibly popular 'Gone Girl' it has only been used by a couple of films, neither of which have done very well.