Question 1:

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

Lighting and Sound

In our media product the lighting played a huge part in creating a dark and enigmatic atmosphere. The colour pallet is very bleak which adds to the city's dark and almost depressing culture almost as though criminality is an inherent part of normal city life. In the film "Essex Boys" the director Terry Winsor creates the same 'British gangster' effect as he also used very bleak and deep colours emphasising the depressing nature of the city. Through the utilisation of chiaroscuro lighting and key lighting throughout the tunnel scenes we also created a noir atmosphere. Furthermore the shadows and silhouette emphasise the hidden identity behind the characters and bystanders creating an evil within the characters and overall setting of the location. In the noir film "The Third Man" chiaroscuro lighting is also extensively used to connote the darkness and corrupt nature of the characters. The use of shadows creates a sense of distortion and entrapment which also goes well with our dark underground location with walls covered in shadows. All of this adds to the confusion and connotes a trapped location which is significant as it is necessary to show that Chantel, who is anxious almost paranoid to grab the money and flee, has nowhere to run.

Essex Boys - Colour Palette

Kremlin - Colour Palette

In tangent with the lighting the sound used in our opening thriller was minimal specifically no use of sirens and traffic noise as then it would feel as though the city is ‘alive and well’. We wanted to create the opposite like that of almost a ghost town where, because few people leave their homes, shady and perhaps even criminal activities can be conducted in the open without any fear. To enhance this ‘ghost town’ feeling we added the sound of a not so distant train passing through, further creating an image to the audience of the location being a derelict place where trains have no need to stop and nobody goes in or out of the city. We also used the sound of a heartbeat which emphasises the importance of the transaction and later on the suspense of Anton's character being the victim of a cunning trick.

At the end of the clip, when Anton picks up the phone to call his ‘henchman’ to do the dirty job for him, we added an electronic sound to further emphasise the dominance in his command as though he is controlling a computer and his henchman is programmed to obey his orders without question. This idea came from the film "The Matrix" which uses an almost identical sound extensively throughout the film when characters are either being teleported into the virtual reality or when the character is communicating by telephone.

Camerawork

Throughout our opening thriller we used a variety of camera angles and shots to emphasise the character and the location and thus the potential immorality of both. Our entry shot is a mid shot of Anton so by hiding his face we hide his identity which implies that Anton is no ordinary person but is a shadowy character. The film ‘Sin City’ successfully utilises this approach when the lady in the red dress walks into the shot with her back towards the camera thus introducing an individual of a yet unknown character however the sophisticated red dress does in fact give an indication of her overall persona. Similarly with our introduction of Anton with the help of his costume, pace of movement and props the audience can already start to make assumptions that Anton is a person of power, authority and importance. 

Opening Shot.

A clear shot of Anton slowly walking from the light into the dark under path filled with shadows emphasises the transition from good to evil and it coincides with when Anton's face is revealed and therefore that he is a corrupt or even dangerous character . The title of the film is also in the shot creating the emphasis that it is just the beginning of a steep slope into an intense and ‘dark thriller’.

We used a conventional technique in thriller films of having a few close-up shots of the characters legs and feet as we saw this is a great way to develop a character starting from small details such as the shoes and how the person is walking. The shot of the feet is seen in many other thrillers such as the ‘Peaky Blinders’ and ‘Kill Bill’ where both use an intense walking scene so we felt this would have the same value in our walking scene.

Anton

Kill Bill

The comparison between Anton and Kill Bill shots is that they both add to the characters personality and perhaps their race and ethnicity

Peaky Blinders

Chantel

Whereas Chantel and Peaky Blinders are both similar due to the following sequence of shots, first it is the shoes and then slowly you work your way up through the props and costumes and eventually to the character’s faces.

In "Pulp Fiction" most of the movie is based around the suitcase which acts as a magufin, the audience never actually finds out what is inside the suitcase however it plays a massive role in the film. We see the suitcase again and again but it has no physical meaning. In Kremlin we also use a suitcase in a similar way, the audience knows it is important but in the opening they never find out what’s actually meant to be inside. It is important because whatever it is inside is highly valuable to Anton as he is prepared to hand over a large amount of money for it,  even more so to pay it to some British thug who probably does not deserve it and hypothetically who will use the money for further criminal activities whether drugs or guns. However Anton does not care, he just wants to reclaim the unidentified objects inside the suitcase and is willing to do anything for it as quick as possible. The essence of success to Anton is not just to obtain the suitcase but also the speed of the transaction.  This is the reason why he does not waste time to murder or rob the female thug on sight; as in the film "Collateral" directed by Michael Mann, even though later on we see that he has the power to do so. Because we established that the suitcase is of real importance we used close-up shots of the suitcase throughout the opening of "Kremlin".

Close-ups are important in order to establish characters as it shows details of the person that the audience may not spot or realise that they are there which can be important in order to fully understand the character. Most and formost obviouse one is the facial expression. In Kremlin, Chantel's facial expression revieles that she is slightly worried and perhaps paronoid as she keeps looking left and right in order to observe her surrounding and so that everything goes smoothly and nothing will interfere with her rendenzvou with Anton, this further connots the feeling of entrapment and is almost as though she is searching for escape incase something should decidevely go wrong. Whereas Anton is a confident character he is not worried he is taking his time and is staring straight at the camera, his boldness of looking straight into the camere is as though he is trying to intimidate the audience with his powerful pitch black eyes. He does not need to look left or righ he feels totally safe almost like he is unstoppable - with the simple attitude that when goes to a meeting he always get's there and achieves his objective. Quentin Tarantino director of 'Kill Bill' uses the same technique when the Japanese Boss walks around the corner.

Fonts
Our idea for the fonts came from the film "Se7en" Directed by David Fincher, in his opening sequence his font is very scratched and psychotic like giving the idea of a psycopath which is exactly what the movie involves around. We wanted to use the scratched font in a similar way. Not in order to connote a violent psychopath but to connote the mystery in the film and emphasise the secrecy of the object inside the case and the characters and its almost as though the director wanted to scratch the titles away aswell so that nobody finds out.
However the actual title of the film which is Kremlin is very bold and is written with Russian lookalike letters which fits perfectly with the Russian Themed Title. Anton is in the title shot which instantly connotes that he is Russian and perhaps is working or is involved with the Russian government which also further develops his identity.