Nikita's Thriller Opening

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

The Title Of The Film/ Title Font And Style

The title of my Thriller Opening is 'Furor'. Furor means 'rage' or 'fury' - this sums up the entire opening and also the main character (antagonist). Myself and my group came to a conclusion of naming the opening 'Furor' because we felt it was mysterious and gave the opening an immediate edge. Although we knew that this would raise questions to the audience we felt that this gave the audience more of a reason to want to watch the opening to find out what it is about. We felt that having 'Furor' as the title of the film would make the opening more interesting as it is not usually what occurs in thrillers, the antagonist being the main focus and also the title describing the mind state of the character. The title font and style was inspired by the film 'Se7en'.

This can be seen on the left where I have provided a screen grab of 'Se7en' s opening. The reason why the title/titles were created in this font and style is because the font is eerie and gives the opening an edge because of its style. The colour of the font was deliberately chosen as white because this shows purity and innocence which deliberately contradicts who the character is and what their personality is like.

Setting/Location

The setting and location of my Thriller Opening was in a bedroom. We chose a bedroom as the setting and location because we felt this fitted in well with our ideas for the Thriller. The bedroom consisted of ordinary everyday furniture and objects. However we added unusual aspects to the bedroom such as an upside down clock which pointed at '12:12' - this was significant and symbolic because it showed how precise and what mind state the character was in. We also had empty photo frames, which showed the emptiness of the character and her life - all of this gives the audience an insight to the character. We also had the film 'Fatal Attraction' paused at 12:12 to also show the mind state of the character. Also the lighting in the room was deliberately applied - we closed the curtains in order to block out any natural light and used a LED light to use specifically in different areas which we felt needed to be highlighted more than others. Also we limited the possessions owned by the character because she is of a lower class status and her being of a low status and unfortunate is what drives her to want to get revenge upon her ex - boyfriend whom won the lottery - she is also heavily influenced by Thriller genres. The overall setting is very mysterious and eerie and hidden which reveals a lot about the characters life and the way she is.

Costumes/Props

The costumes and props used were the main aspects of my Thriller Opening, for example the dress I wore was white. This was because white symbolises purity and innocence. This was a deliberate contradiction because the character I played was not innocence nor was she pure. Also the second dress which was used was a purple one. This is because purple symbolises power and dominance which is what she possesses. Using the white dress as the main costume was highly important, this is because we used this as a homage from the film 'Fatal Attraction' where the woman wore a white dress. We went against typical Thriller conventions by using a white dress because typically in a 'Film Noir' the woman is usually asQuart and Auster describe this relationship as, "a world where women, often in the central role, were glamorous and dangerous – seductive sirens whose every action was marked by duplicity and aimed at satisfying a desire for wealth and power – while the male protagonists were frequently weak, confused and morally equivocal, susceptible to temptation, and incapable of acting heroically." Using a white dress is the opposite of white represents, the idea of purity and innocence - whereas the character whom I play is the complete opposite of pure and innocent - we felt this gave the Thriller Opening a twist to the story. Another prop which we used was a knife, the reason for this was because we took another homage from 'Fatal Attraction' (as you can see on the right) and my character being obsessed with Thrillers, wanted to duplicate this image. This highlighted the unsettled mind of the character and the mind state she was in. The red lipstick as part of the costume was important because the red lipstick shows the seductive nature to the character and also this is typical in a 'Film Noir' film. However when my character was applying the lipstick, she began applying it neatly and then smudged it. This was deliberately done because this revealed the twisted and unsettled mind of the character. We felt that this would raise questions from the audience which is what we wanted.

Camerawork, Editing and Special Effects

The camerawork and editing of my Thriller Opening was the most exciting and fun part of the entire project. During filming I learnt many ways of using the Tripod, and different techniques such as when panning, to use an elastic band on the tripod to give a smooth, level and easy pan. Also when filming we took a variety of different shots, such as long shot, close up, low angle shot and an effective panning of the entire room to show the audience what setting and environment the film is being set in - also because the setting played a major part in my Thriller Opening. The editing allowed me to feel free to explore what I could do using 'Final Cut Express'. For example on the right you can see the editing I did to the shot of the dress. This was hard to master at first but I got to grips with the 'Colour Corrector' and 'Chroma Keyer' in order to highlight the colour of the dress. I decided to make the entire opening black and white, this is because this is a typical 'Film Noir' aspect and also allowed me to highlight the important colours of the opening. I changed brightness and contrast for every shot, I wanted to highlight shadows, colours and the light areas and I feel I successfully did this. I enjoyed using 'Final Cut Express' as it contained many effects to which I could experiment with to get the best results.

Story And How The Opening Sets It Up

The story of my Thriller Opening is of a Femme Fatale character who wants to get revenge against a former boyfriend. My character sees in a local newspaper that this former 'rich' boyfriend has won the lottery. Immediately she is jealous and feels that it is her who deserves the winnings. As her mind state is very twisted and manipulative she sets out to kill her former boyfriend out of rage and fury in order to retrieve his winnings. My character enjoys duplicating characters from Thriller Films and experimenting with different plots and techniques. As she duplicates one of the woman characters from 'Fatal Attraction'. As you can see on the right, we took a shot of my character reading the newspaper and observing her former boyfriends winnings. My Thriller Opening sets the story up effectively and clearly because the costume and props immediately reveal the Femme Fatale nature. The black and white also immediately shows the audience that this is a 'Film Noir' as 'Film Noir's are typically black and white. We made it clear in this Thriller Opening that the character is someone who gets what she wants when she wants it. Also because of the way in which we set up and projected the setting and props around the bedroom, this revealed the unsettled mind of my character and gave the audience a clear insight to what her mind state level was.

Genre And How The Opening Suggests It

The genre of my opening is Thriller, with the sub genre being 'Film Noir'. The sub genre Film Noir is clearly shown by the characters clothes and the obvious homages highlighted in the opening. Such as posters and props. The opening is very mysterious and raises questions to the audience - such as 'Why are certain colours shown?' , 'Why is she copying a poster?' - these questions satisfy us because we know that the audience have engaged with the opening and a that the use of the homages have created a firm and clear tense atmosphere. The opening suggests the genre throughout because we constantly reveal something new and something unusual such a props, homages, costume and the characters behavior and actions.

How The Characters Are Introduced

In our thriller opening we only introduced one main character, this was because we deliberately wanted the audience to be aware that there is only one character who is introduced in the opening and that they are the main focus throughout. At the start of our opening we immediately introduce the main character as you can see on the right. We did the shot close up because we felt that it gave an immense focus on the character, also the lighting was deliberately done in this way to highlight the character and give more effect to the shot. The eye opening shot we felt gave a kick to the opening, this is because it showed some form of possessive nature and a unsettled person. We chose to challenge the thriller conventions by introducing the antagonist first and not the protagonist, this is because we wanted to make it really clear whom the audience are to focus and pay attention to throughout.

Myself and my group spent weeks preparing to film for our thriller opening, we finally filmed our thriller opening. We focused on the setting, lighting and props for our thriller.

Setting

For our setting we used a friends bedroom which fitted the exact criteria for our thriller opening, this was because the positioning of the room was perfect and allowed us to be able to re-arrange the way in which we wanted it if needed, whereas filming outdoors would of restricted us because if we did need to repeat any shots it would be hard to keep continuity. Also the location was close and we were able to feel comfortable in the environment we were working in.

Lighting

The lighting for our thriller opening held a importance significance to the whole concept of our opening. this is because we had the lights off during filming with the curtains closed - this was to create a eerie and suspicious atmosphere. We only used a led light during filming, which was shone on myself as I was the actress to emphasise me being a seductive and provocative woman.The led light helped to reinforce the idea that the character was living in darkness and was of a lower class. Also it showed that she lived in a dark atmosphere which also linked in with the personality of which she possessed because she was obsessed with thrillers and the way in which people acted in those thrillers, they became an influence.

Props used
- A white dress which signified innocence and purity
- A purple dress which signified power and dominance
- Homage from Silence Of The Lambs which were the motivational words on the tree - (we used this on the back of the door in picture 3).
- Homage from famous Femme Fatale films posters on the wall from Fatal Attraction, The postman Only Rings Twice and Double Indemnity.
- The trenchcoat, whiskey and cigarette which are iconic Film Noir props.
- Empty photo frames and a upside down clock to reflect on the characters mind state but also to raise questions to the audience
- Red lipstick and red nail varnish to show a provocative and seductive sense but also to show a hint of danger

This picture is of empty photo frames and the upside down clock is deliberately pointed at 12:12. The idea of 12:12 is to signify the characters rigid mind and how precised she is within herself and the way in which she lives her life. The empty frames shows her mind state and the way in which she is mentally empty as is her life because she does not possess much money which is why she transcends into a plot of killing a billionaire who wins the lottery.

This is a picture of myself and my group whilst filming. As you can see it was our very first shot and take which we found very exciting and were determined to see what it is like using the cameras and lighting. As the actress it was a very hard challenge for me to get into character and be able to act appropriately in front of the camera without laughing or smiling. After awhile I was able to compose myself and stay in character which transcended us onto a very productive filming session.

This picture is of the homage we used from Silence Of The Lambs. We took this idea from the scene of the motivational words on the tree whilst the girl is running as you can see in the picture above. The reason why we did this is because it links with the criteria we came up with. The idea of using motivational words on the back of the door gave more of an edge to the opening and the way in which the character is. Also