Evaluation Question 1 Revised

7/29/2019 Evaluation Question 1 Revised

1/11

Transit


2/11

Location

One of the most important aspects of our thriller was thelocation. We had to get the location just right in order toconnote the genre of the opening that we were trying tocreate. The location seen in Transit is very dystopian,

portrayed as unglamorous, unpleasant and degraded; thesecharacteristics help to give Transit a very cold and grittyfeeling, much like the British drama/thrillers such as"Kidulthood", "Top Boy" and some of the more establishedthrillers such as "Se7en" and "The Killing".

We choose to use Anglia Square car park for our location dueto its claustrophobic atmosphere and drab grey appearance;thus we were using generic conventions to signify the genreas car parks are often seen in crime thrillers, a good exampleof this is the use of a car park in the TV series The Killingand the estates/industrial areas in Essex Boys. These sorts oflocations are a visual metaphor for moral ambiguity andcorruption.

We developed this generic convention in Transit by makingsure that the car park was desolate so that John was isolated,further signifying the corruption of morality and of society asa whole. Isolated locations can be unwelcoming, much likethe Essex marshes in Essex Boys and the countryside inHeavenly Creatures (during the murder scene) therefore wetried to build on this by creating a claustrophobic and isolatedenvironment.

The car park is much like a labyrinth, with many levels anddifferent exits/paths. This is important because it helps tomake the audience fear the location; thus intriguing andengaging them. Several thrillers make use of labyrinth likelocations, such as Lucky Number Slevin, The MatrixReloaded and Fight Club.

One of our main influences to use the car park was the musicvideo for Angel by Massive Attack because of its sinisteraesthetics and noir style lighting. -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLq1laAC6l4

The car park used in our thriller, Transit.

Underground fighting scene from Fight Club, the

environment has similar lighting and claustrophobic lighting

to the car park we used in Transit.


3/11

Location When looking at films that make use of a multi story car

park, Emulsion was brilliant in terms of a similar

location because the aesthetics of the car park are very

similar to Anglia Square. The lighting depicted in the film

is noir/chiaroscuro styled, much like our own and thestrip lighting seen in the car park creates dim lighting and

strong contrasting shadows. These can be compared to

the shot of Hanna in which half of her face is concealed

by shadow.

Interestingly the female character is also wearing red, this

could connote things such as powerful emotion; passion

and anger for example, or power and blood. This is why

we chose to have Hanna wearing a red jumper, this brings

back a little bit of the generic representation of females

because it connotes that she is possibly dangerous due to

her enticing nature.

The main action points on Emulsion happen within the

car park, this very similar to our film because all of the

depicted action takes place throughout the car park or

the surrounding area.


4/11

Camera Angles We aimed to use a range of shots, but also felt that close ups were

important because they help to engage the audience and also help

to keep the mise en scene feeling claustrophobic. We used close

ups of Johns feet whilst he was moving to enable us to move

through the location quickly and get to the action whilst also

building tension. We also used an extreme close up for the final

shot of Bill because it gives a sense of ambiguity and enigma.

When thinking about these close ups we linked it back to the

opening scene of Kill Bill in which we see Bills feet walking, this

creates suspense whilst also keeping the character of Bill

ambiguous.

Close up shots are often found in thrillers because they are

effective in conveying emotion and engaging the audience. For

example, in Witness a close up is used of the boys hands as hepanics to lock the door, this helps to heighten the tension amongst

the audience. Therefore they can be used to connote the power or

status of a character. We used this generic convention when first

revealing the antagonist Bill by using an extreme close up of his

eyes in order to signify his fixation with John and his backpack.

Opening scene of Kill Bill Vol. 1, close up of Bills feet.

Extreme close up of Bills eyes, engaging the audience and

showing the emotion that Bill is feeling.

Close up of Bills feet (in Transit). This shot creates enigmafear due to it fill up the frame.


5/11

Camera Angles

Once again we used a close up, a generic convention

of the thriller genre, to engage the audience and raise

questions about the character of Hanna. This time

however, we shot here from a lower angle in order totry and hint at her elevated status over John, even

though she is killed quickly and doesnt dominate

much of the screen time. Low angles are often used

in thrillers to connote the power and intimidation

that they possess, a good example of this would be in

the film Psycho when Norman Bates house is seen.

If this film was made to be longer or a feature film

then the story of Hanna could be developed by the

use of flashback, such as in Memento; thereforewould be able to explain her position/status within

the triangle of characters.

The use of the low angle also challenges the generic

stereotype of women in film, often they are

portrayed as weak and unable to fend for themselves.

Instead Hanna is shown from the low angle,

connoting her status over the male character of John.

Norman Bates house, shot from a low

angle in the film Psycho.


6/11

Lighting The car park that we were using was already lit with artificial/non-

ambient fluorescent lighting which made for a brilliant

noir/chiaroscuro style. This sort of lighting (light on dark) is very

typical of early noir thrillers; therefore we used this generic

convention in order to establish/signify the genre. Through the use

of chiaroscuro lighting we were also able to pay tribute to the

classic noir thrillers that have similar lighting set ups such as The

Third Man and Gilda.

The natural/ambient light coming from outside also helped us to

create some interesting, contrasting shadows across the face of

Hanna as she was waiting for John. This helps to connote a sense of

moral ambiguity and corruption as well as perhaps hinting that the

character of Hanna is not as she first seems. Using shadows to

connote danger/ambiguity is a generic convention of the thrillergenre and can be seen in films such as Taxi Driver and Kill Bill

Vol. 1. However, I like to think that we developed the use of this

generic convention to further signify/connote the character type of

Hanna.


7/11

Title

We decided to use the name Transit for our film

title because it directly links with the events that are

happening on the screen.

John is tasked with delivering something in his bag;

therefore the items that are in his bag are in transit.The idea of the film title came from the fact that the

characters are always moving and always carrying

unknown items, thus creating enigma.

Bill is driving a van, therefore he must be carrying

items/objects in the back of the van; although once

again it is left a mystery to the audience. The Ford

Transit is also a type of van that is commonly used

by workmen around Britain and various other places

in the world. The van we used wasnt a Ford Transit

but we felt that we could make this link as they look

incredibly similar and serve the same purpose.

Another film where a van is used to create building

suspense is in Essex Boys when they are travelling

to the marshes.

Using a title that gives a sense of foreboding is quite

common within the thriller genre and within the

film industry altogether. Thrillers such as Se7enand Drive utilise such words as to begin to already

explore the main themes of the film. Drive is

about a stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway

driver and Se7en is about a series of murders

based upon the seven deadly sins.


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Enigma

We felt that it was important to use enigma in our thrillerbecause it allows the film to take an interesting turn thatthe audience were not expecting or were unable topredict. The use of enigma also helps to create tension

amongst the audience because the fear of the unknownis a powerful agent when it comes to engaging theaudience.

The bag that John is carrying serves as an enigma becauseit is never revealed to the audience what is inside, nor ishe ever able to deliver it to Hanna. This idea came from asimilar situation in the film Pulp Fiction in which there isa briefcase that is reoccurringly seen throughout the film,even the characters open and look what's inside; howeverthe audience are never shown what is inside, causing

much speculation. This is the effect that we were trying toachieve with Transit because it would help to engage theaudience by giving them something to think about;therefore the opening would captivate them.

The character of Bill is an enigma himself because theonly shots of him are close ups of his eyes and his feet;therefore the audience havent really got an informedimage of what the supposed killer looks like, much like Vfrom V for Vendetta.

An important enigma is the card that John takes from thedead body of Hanna because it is not focused on at thetime. It makes the audience question who left it there?and more importantly whats on the card?. Thesequestions would allow for the film to be developed andtake many different turns.

Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction looking inside the briefcase.

John picking up the card from Hannas dead body.


9/11

Character Types

When deciding on our three characters we had to make surethat they either used, developed or challenged genericconventions of the thriller genre. Although we had limitedoptions with who we could cast I think we managed to use andchallenge the generic conventions of characters through the

use of John and Hanna. Johns character seems to both use the generic stereotype of

ethnic minorities in film but challenge them at the same time.This is because John is caught up in a bad situation in a rougharea, which seems very stereotypical of the black male youthbut in contrast to this he seems quite innocent; thuschallenging the feared hoody stereotype that is so commonlyused when referring to the youth of today. This is similar to thecharacter of Sam in Adulthood who realises that he hasmade mistakes and needs to change his ways. We also used

generic conventions by deciding that Johns costume should besimilar to that of the youth and gangs seen in Top Boy andother such British gritty thrillers.

Hanna is killed off quickly within the opening scenes; thereforewe are using the generic convention of female stereotypeswithin film. However we tried to challenge this representationby showing her to be of a higher status that John (through theuse of low camera angles and lighting). We also challenged therepresentation of women in film by Hannas costume; her red

jumper connotes themes of power, blood and anger whereasthe rest of her costume juxtaposes with the femme fatale

representation that is so commonly seen in thrillers, much likeLisnbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Agood comparison to Hannas role would be that of Eve fromOnce Upon a Time in America who is killed very early on inthe film but is then developed later through the use offlashbacks; an idea that we had thought to use if the film wasto be made longer thus we would be able to reveal more ofHannas background.

Sam from Adulthood

Hanna in Transit

Lisbeth Salander


10/11

Sound

When thinking about possible soundtracks we decided to look

at crime thrillers and make note of the soundtracks that were

used in order to build tension or create a moment of suspense.

Two of the best soundtracks that we found (but were unable to

use due to copyright) were Angel by Massive Attack and Tick of

the Clock by Chromatics. Angel has been used in Snatch,

Best Laid Plans and Pi whereas Tick of the Clock was used

to great effect in the thriller Drive. Seeing as all of these films

are classed as thrillers we thought it best to use similar generic

soundtracks in order to let the audience identify quickly with

the opening and establish the genre straight away by putting

the audience straight in to the action.

We used these soundtracks to influence our decision on what

we wanted to use for our non-diegetic soundtrack. We found

that Tick of the Clock was more effective in creating tensionand so we sought after a track that had percussion and

synth/bass sounds.

Diegetic sound was also important because it helped to give a

natural feel to the film, thus allowing the audience to really

feel as though they are within the mise en scene. We thought

that diegetic sound of the van starting and driving were

important in building suspense and menace so I chose to boost

the sound levels in the edit to make this clear. The engine

starting wasnt loud enough, so I found a clip of a van startingusing a website called Freesound, this greatly enhanced the

effect, especially when heard at the same time of the extreme

close up of Bill.

I also used a sting because I found that these are commonly

used in the thriller genre just before the cliffhanger or

penultimate to the twist. Thus I used the sting to signify the

cliffhanger and also to build tension.

Van starting sound

Sting used towards

the end of the film

One of the possible

soundtracks, similar in

style to Tick of the Clock


11/11

To make sure that the audience identified that the film was the opening

sequence I started to play the soundtrack before the picture actually appeared

on the screen. This gave the impression that the film was just starting, as made

us of in thrillers such as Essex Boys and Once Upon a Time in America.

I also used credits during the first few scenes to make sure that it appeared to be

a film opening, not a trailer. Many films have some of the credits during theopening sequence, either over the action or before the picture actually starts.

I placed the main title towards the middle of the opening sequence and not at

the end. This was done to avoid confusion to whether this was a opening to a

feature film or just the trailer for a feature film.

We thought that a cliffhanger would be vital to include for the opening to our

thriller film because it would ensure that the audience would be intrigued and

they would keep watching. The cliffhanger came in the form of the boot stopping

the elevator door from closing; thus the audience are left wondering what

happens next.

Documents

Evaluation Question 1 Revised