Evaluation: how did you attract / adress your audience? question 5

Our potential audience, being art (film, photography) students and fans of noir thrillers will engage with the aspects of our opening which mirror key conventions of noir thrillers. For example, our consistent use of black and white footage, combined with the use of shadows and our attempt at starring a femme fatale in the opening. The audience will indentify the use of cobbled streets, these strongly links to thrillers such as The Third Man, shot in post war Vienna, and heavily based around cobbled streets which turn into labyrinths for the characters. 

The down-to-earth practical costume of Sophie will lead to the audience of that age group engaging closely with her as a character, as we have purposefully used this costume to connect with the audience as they have things in common, for example, the way they both dress. After this connection is made, the audience will become more engaged with the opening, in turn getting the potential enjoyment out of it.  

The long shots of characters walking across the cobbled streets mirror that of those in the third man, if members of the audience have previously seen this film and recognised the connection between the two, it will become easier for them to engage in the opening as they have now identified the genre and what we were trying to achieve.

 The tracking long tracking shots used are a tribute to Taraninto's Thriller 'Jackie Brown', keeping the camera on the characters faces when introducing them to the audience. If this is seen by the audience, they will feel flattered, and feel as if they are a minority of people who recognise intertextual references. 

Another intertextual reference is that of our antagonist’s name, In 'Cold Case' he is named 'Henry Lime’; clearly we took inspiration from The Third Man, where the main antagonist is named 'Harry Lime'. If members of the audience have previously seen The Third Man, they will engage with the thriller as they have realised the connection between the two.

Furthermore, after this connection has been made they will begin to notice the more subtle similarities, and conventions of a noir thriller. For example, our consistent use of shadows, and the casting of an old fashioned femme fetale (Eve Walcott). 

Narrative structure:

 Our narrative structure was heavily based on flashbacks to tell the story. We differed between coloured and black and white shots when showing the flashbacks in comparison to 'real time'. The use of flashbacks, to the olden day crime, helped unfold the events of the opening in a more unique way, as well as making them interesting, which would attract the audience, and make them more engaged with the opening of our noir thriller. 

We also used flash forwards, in the first 30 seconds of my opening, I used two flash forwards. One consisting of our main character Sophie Banks running down into a claustrophobic space near a river (dead end), another of her vigorously shaking bars to a gate which is trapping her in. the claustrophobic space connotes a convention of a thriller, as many use enclosed spaces, by using these I am giving off a sense of entrapment and tension to the audience, after these fast cuts to events which have not yet happened, the audience will feel more engaged. Wanting to know why, and how these events are going to happen, and who is responsible for them.

  In terms of editing, I used the correct effects and transitions where I thought they would have the best effect on the audience. For example, when attempting to show the similarities between Eve and Sophie, I merged the two tracking shots of each character together, so the first was slowly followed by the second. With this in the opening, it appears clear to the audience that we are attempting to show them the resemblance between the two characters. My use of fade to black, and at times white, gave off a sense of continuity, as the cuts were not jumpy and unclear.

Each scene had either a transition or a slow moving fade to black, I was attempting to create a unique understanding style to my thriller, with fade to black/white edited in, and I believe I achieved this.

 Generic thriller conventions 

As far as generic thriller conventions go, I think the audience would be expecting claustrophobic spaces (the bride gets trapped in a coffin and she has to fight her way out in Tarantino's Kill Bill), derelict buildings, (Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Majority of film was shot in an empty warehouse) enigmatic vehicles (Trunk where Beaumont shoots Livingstone in the parking lot in Tarantino's Jackie Brown OR Jason’s van in Terry Winsor's Essex Boys), Dark Cobbled Streets (specific to noir thrillers, For example, The Third Man, shot in post war Vienna). 

The audience may relate with some of the conventions we tried to use in our opening, such as the tracking shots of our characters on the cobbled streets. This clearly shows the genre of the opening, as the scenery mirrors that of generic noir thrillers. They may also relate to the claustrophobic space of Sophie being trapped in a corner near the river, she is being slowly enclosed in the corner by our two antagonists (one from modern day the other from 1950's).

 I think the fact our thriller is heavily based around 2 main female characters is unexpected to the audience, most thrillers are based on men, and large groups of them (Godfather, Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco, The Third man). The fact the male character is actually the minority here, makes a difference to the style of our thriller. For a change, our opening is focused on our femme fetals instead of the violent male characters. I believe this is challenging generic conventions of thrillers, but works well.

Cliff-hanger

 the cliff-hanger in cold case consists of Sophie's paranoia taking over, she begins to lose control of what is reality and what is her imagination playing tricks on her due to lack of sleep as she has involved herself so much in this cold case. It ends with her running down into an enclosed space near a river, being entrapped by a metal gate on one side, and on the other the male antagonist. There are two killers, one being in black and white, which is the original killer from the original case; this is her imagination playing tricks on her. The original killer is not killing her; it is the copy cat killer who is dressed in a hoodie, which is the reality. It ends with Sophie dropping the necklace, has she been killed?  If so, who by? What happens next? These are the questions we hoped the audience will be asking themselves as they view our opening. 

The use of the copy cat killer added mystery and confusion to the end of the opening, as this killer is not used earlier on in the opening. He is seen as an enigmatic character, hopefully this will make the audience want to view the rest of the film, to find out exactly what happened to Sophie, and why? Was it her fate? Or her paranoia? Did these events really take place? 

Edit Planning

After only really having little experience in editing I am only able to plan certain shots, in hope to learn new things as I edit, and then gain experience for other tasks I am going to do.

For example, I wanted to create a clear link between the two main female characters (Sophie and Eve), by doing this, between shots of each character I would use a cross dissolve technique. With this intact, the two shots of each charater would softly merge as one, making the first shot dissapear and leave behind the second. This means that it is easier for the audience to see the clear links and similarities between Eve and Sophie, in turn, helping them follow the story line of our opening.

Another example of an editing skill I hope to use is dip to black, in my opinion, I believe this makes the edit run smoother, instead of each cut jumping straight to another. The fast cuts may cause confusion, which is not what I want to achieve. In my thriller, I want to achieve an opening which the audience can follow, with that, they can understand the events as they unfold, which would engage them more with the storyline, this would lead to a sense of involvment from whoever is viewing the opening.

locations

we wanted to craft our film to resemble a noir thriller, so our choice of location for our shoot was very important. We wanted to look for surroundings which would mirror films such as once upon a time in america and the third man.

The third man is shot in post war Vienna, well known for its famous picturesc streets and buldings. We wanted to mirror things such as the cobbled streets, to create a noir look as well as an old fashioned 1950's look. We achieved this by shooting on Elm Hill in Norwich, the streets were cobbled and the surroundings looked old fashioned. We wanted to keep away from busy roads so our thriller was not polluted by cars and artificial lighting.



The Third Man filming location:
Harry Lime’s mysterious entrance in the doorway:
 Schreyvogelgasse, Vienna, Austria

Elm Hill - shooting location for our thriller
Norwich

costume (Sophie Butler)

Sophie (played by Sorrel) -

• Jeans (Black), Shirt (Light Blue), Jacket (Black or Brown (Leather), High heel boots, rucksack.

Rucksack
to emphasise the fact Sophie is a student, we added a stereotypical rucksack to her costume. In ways to show that she ways a student, but also, as the majority of the time the rucksack is very full, it added a weight onto her back, and made her seem crowded. Obviously, getting out of dangerous situations with a heavy rucksack on your back is difficult, as it is an extra weight. We wanted the character to seem  crowded, and almost claustrophobic, which then mirrors the location she gets trapped in at the end of the opening.




Clothes
To emphasise the contrast between Sophie and eve's costumes, we aimed for Sophie's to be practical and quite casual, to give off a student vibe to the audience. I believe we achieved that, with the common look of jeans and just a plain shirt. This adds a sense of normality and realism to the thriller, in a way making it more realistic, and shocking, as it shows that this could happen to anyone, just an ordinary person. we kept the slightly heeled boots to keep a 'femme fatale' look about her, this way we could relate back to our inspiration films such as the third man and once upon a time in America, both films which we looked closely at when planning the thriller.

Inspired by noir thrillers (plus costume)

After always admiring the look of noir thrillers, when money and equipment was scarse just after the war, i wanted to relfect this in my thriller opening, and pay tribute to films such as The Third Man and Once Upon In America.  It is believed by some that the best noir thrillers were made around this time period, when there was lack of money but definitely not lack of expeirience, ambition or originality. 

 Shadows

The use of shadows were very common in noir thrillers, we wanted to achieve this look in our thriller opening as we believed that if the shadows were used and shot effectively, it could add originality and a nice cinemagraphic look to our film, not only would it be interesting to watch, but also aesthetically pleasing. 

use of shadows in my thriller opening to create noir thriller look

Use of shadows in the third man to create a noir thriller look

Costume
when attempting to mirror the style of a noir thriller film, the costume of the characters is very important. The style in the 1950's was very unique, men would fashionably wear suits and trilby hats, that was the common trend in the 1950's.  Women would commonly wear galmourous dresses, hats and stereotypical jewelery such as pearls and diamonds. 

womens fashion in the 1950's

mens fashion in the 1950's

We wanted to re-create this style through the characters of Henry Lime and Eve Walcott, which we did sucesfully in our thriller opening. We believe that the costume of our characters connotes a noir thriller theme throughout the opening.

The use of the fur coat, necklace and galmourous earings give off a femme fatale look. Fur was very popular in the 50's, along with expensive jewlery. This along with the flower printed dress gives off a very female look, which shows signs of beauty and glamour, which was very significant in the 50's, amongst all classes of ladies. 

Eve Walcotts costume.

For Henry's costume, we stuck with a noir thriller stereotypical convention of a smart suit and trilby hat. I believe that this connotes a sense of noir thriller, as it resembles what the fashion was in the 1950's. Not only does the suit resemble fashion, but also that of harry lime from the third man. As a character in a noir thriller, we took a lot of inspiration from him when choosing Henrys outfit.

far left, Henry Limes costume.

Thriller Synposis

Our thriller is based on a cold case, and a young girl who researches into it and finds herself being victim to a copy cat murderer who took inspiration from the original case.

Sophie, a young aspiring criminologist is researching into a cold case of a 1950's murder. As she journeys deeper into discovering what really happened to victim Eve Walcott she beings to notice similarities between herself and Eve, through appearances. As she discovers more, she becomes paranoid, and starts to believe that the original murderer, Henry Lime has found her, and is following her, ready to commit another murder on another vulnerable innocent women. Her paranoia leads her to an emotional breakdown, where the new-modern day copy-cat murderer takes advantage of her vulnerable position and murders her to forfill his sick obsession with the original crime.

Characters in thriller opening

                           Characters in my thriller opening

Our thriller opening consists of three main characters, which together help the events in our opening unfold into a noir/psychologically thrilling production. These three characters are...

Sophie Butler
Sophie Butler is one of two main female characters in our thriller opening, she is the victim of the 2nd murder by the Henry lime copy cat killer. The murder took place in the modern day. Sophie Butler is an aspiring crimonlogist, which ties her in with the murder of Eve Walcott. As her first crime she decides to do independant research into the case of the murder of eve, due to the fact the killer was never caught. The case also strikes an interest from a modern day man, who turns into a copy cat killer and kills sophie. Whilst researching Sophie discovers that herself and eve have a lot in common with the way they look, as she becomes more involved with the case she becomes paranoid. Leading her to become mentally unstable, and eventually being murdered by the copy cat killer. When creating the character sophie butler, we took inspiration from the two main female characters in tarantinos 'Jackie Brown'. She has the independance and intelligence of Jackie, but then again shares the vulnerability of melanie. Also, she is murdered by a man who dominates her emotionally and through her characteristics. In turn, we though sophie was a mix between Jackie and Melanie.

Sophie Butler (Thriller opening character)

Jackie Brown (Jackie Brown)

Melanie (Jackie Brown)

Eve Walcott
Eve Walcott is one of two main female characters in our thriller opening, she is the victim of the original Murder. she is a stereotypical 50's women, she works in a factory and the reason for her murder is unknown. She is murdered by the protagonist in our opening, Henry Lime. She was murdered on the 22nd of january 1953.  When creating the character of Eve Walcott we took inspiration from the femme fatale character from the famous noir thriller  'once upon a time in america'. The female femme fatale in this film was also named eve, we saw similarities as both female characters are murdered early on in the film, and from the murder, other deaths occur due to the loss of this character. For example in my thiller opening, Eve is murdered first and then Sophie. The two murders are related, due to the murderer being the same man.

Eve walcott (my thriller opening)

Eve (Once Upon A Time In America)

Henry Lime 
Henry Lime is the main antagonist in our opening, he is the murderer of Eve Walcott.  The male character murding the female character is a stereotypical convention of a thriller, we thought adding this in would easily establish the genre, where as in other situations we would challegne conventions to make it unique and interesting. The murder of 'Eve Walcott', which happened in the 1950's, Henry was never charged for, resulting in the case being dropped, and turning into a cold case. This cold case inspired a modern day copy cat killer. Who then murders sophie, out of pure chance. To fit with the genre of my film being a noir thriller, we took inspiration from The third mans 'Harry lime' when creating the character 'Henry Lime'. Other than their character traits, one being a murderer and the other not. They share the same antics, of hiding in the shadows and being an enigmatic character, keeping a sense of mystery around their character to the audience. Henry Lime is played by Matthew Butcher. 
 

Henry Lime (my thriller opening)

Harry Lime (the third man)