Question 2: How does your media represent particular social groups?

Our thriller instantly shows the stereotypical roles within each gender, with the male characters being in control and dominant, whilst the female character Tiffany is the victim of the crimes. This confirms the conventions of gender within thrillers. The majority of all crimes are committed by working class males, so we utilised these groups in order to show a truly represent the crimes currently within the UK. We also used two male characters in order to portray how vulnerable Tiffany is and the danger she put herself into.

We utilised two different social classes when representing crime, we show Blake as being a member of the working class through his costume and actions within the opening. The manual labour Blake is seen doing in the opening links to the idea that he is used to getting his hands dirty and therefore more likely to carry out a murder. This shows the working class from a negative viewpoint and represents them as being deviant criminals.
The other social class we used was the middle class, we did this in order to show the divide between social classes. The reaction to the murder differs between both characters showing the different norms and values of each social group. Blake is seen to be dragging the body of the girl through the snow, which links to the idea that he has no remorse, this is key to his character because it shows that he either had strong motives behind committing the murder or is unfazed by deviant actions. Peter is shown throughout the scene to be sitting in a bathroom distraught. This links to the middle class having the correct values because he feels guilt where Blake does not. We did not add the upper class into this because we were trying to show a true representation of crime currently within the UK. To add to this link to crime we cast the characters as both being Teenagers. This was especially effective because it represents youth crime within the UK and also strongly links to the riots, which caused many social classes to fight back against society. This links well to Peters motives within the thriller because he is a member of the middle class who's actions caused him to sink down to the stereotypical level of the working class.

The stereotypical views of women were the social group we aimed to represent within our thriller. We decided not to challenge the thriller conventions of women but instead to confirm them... This was in order to give the true representation of women within crimes. Our thriller 'The Red Snow' works well due to the devices between social classes and genders. The 3 characters link well to the 'Good The Bad and The Ugly' due to their roles within the thriller. Blake being The Bad due to his lack of remorse, Peter being The Good, because he represent the feelings of the audience and the guilt shown in the bathroom scene shows that he has the same norms and values as the target audience. Tiffany is The Ugly due to her timid nature and the fact that both The Good and The Bad hold all of the power, leaving The Ugly in the shadows.

The costume of each character represents their status within the society... Blake's hoody and track suit links him to being poor and therefore we link his lack of money to his motives and reasons for becoming involved with the crimes. Peter's large coat links him to the fashion of middle class teenagers, this shows us that his connection to Blake is uncommon and that Blake may have been an unwelcome influence within Peters life. We see Peters vulnerability when the camera cuts to a birds eye view of him holding his head in his hands. Tiffany's costume is of a similar style to Peters which could link to the idea that they are connected through a friendship group. Tiffany's costume also links to the fact that she stands out as a victim. Her large red coat links directly to the small girl in "Schindlers list" who is caught and killed by the Nazi's.

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

Our thriller "Red Snow" has been influenced by many media products, it has linked from the camera angles, locations, generic costumes and character types to the soundtrack, plot and Titles. The main links between our thriller and other media products is through the plot, The first of these links is animal Kingdom. In animal Kingdom we see Joshua, sitting in a bathroom trying to isolate himself from the murder which he thinks has just taken place, whilst in the bathroom the camera cuts to extreme close ups of items which belongs to the victim, this shows the audience that he cannot hide from the situation. We utilised this idea of escaping to a confined space in our thriller, only to find something worse in the room, in our thriller. This location was also utilised in order to create tension because the room feels claustrophobic and the shower curtains are creating an enigma within the room. This is very effective because it links to the murder of Marion Crane in Psycho, where a man brutally stabs a woman to death whilst she is in the shower, during the scene the killers face is always in the shadows creating the perfect enigma. This is an effective link because the character of Peter in our thriller is on the other side of the shower curtain, showing that he is the killer and he can't remember who he killed.

Another plot link is with Fargo, a thriller based around a man hiring to men to kidnap his wife only to find the situation turning gruesome and falling out of his control. This links well because the character of Blake links very well to the henchmen because he is shown getting his hands dirty dragging a body, whilst Peter is sitting in a bathroom far from the crime. This is foreshadowing that Peter let the situation get out of control and that he didn't mean for anything to happen to the girl that Blake is dragging along. Another interesting link is with the locations of both of these Thrillers, Fargo and our thriller "Red Snow" are both set in the snow, the snow links to the title because red snow connotes blood being splattered across the usually white snow and the idea that the blood leaves a stain upon the landscape and also across Peters life.

The costumes for our thrillers were based more around social classes than thrillers. We went for fashions which exist in sub cultures which have been stereotyped as being either good or bad natured. For example we gave Blake a black hoody to show that he is trying to be hidden but instead he is clashing with the snow to show his lack of purity. This hoody also gives Blake a rough, poor feel, which could link to the idea that he would do anything to get his hands on money, this links to the character of Jason from essex boys, who's fashion gives the distinct impression that he is poor but trying to conceal the fact. This link could also foreshadow Blake's actions later on within the murder. Tiffany, the murder Victim is wearing a bright orange, which once again clashes with the snow creating the idea that her body will be hard to hide. The orange coat also links to the idea that she is quite happy and was caught off guard. Peter wears a Large black coat and looks middle class, this could link to the idea that he has never had any link to murders before and had to bring Blake into the situation so as to successfully hide the body, the coat also links to Harry Lime from 'The Third Man', who wears a large black coat which does not conceal his appearance at all, this could link to not being prepared to hide from his actions. Another Interesting link is between Blake and Peters lower body, they both wear very similar trousers and shoes and this could show the audience that they are both similar characters and that they are both equally guilty for this crime.

Another intertextual reference with 'The Third Man' and our thriller is the Titles. The same font was utilised from 'The Third Man' in order  to strengthen the idea that the death at the centre of both films may not be all that it seems. This will be an effective link because it will make the audience think twice about Tiffany's death. Another link between the two is the large black coat worn by Harry Lime and Peter from our thriller. This was in order to strengthen the enigma around our character and could link to the idea that Peter may go into hiding.


In our thriller product "The Red Snow" we cut between the exterior and interior shots in order to create an illusion and that reality is being slightly twisted. This could link to the thriller "Fight Club" where the main character is fighting personal demons and consequently is not aware of his secondary persona. This cutting also helps to create suspense throughout the opening. we also used the worms eye shot from 'Once upon a time in America' to put the audience in the position of the character, this is effective because it brings the audience into the film and also helps link to the idea that the character above is in total control of the character we are seeing through. 


Another link between our thriller and "Once Upon a Time in America" is with the sound bridge used other both murder scenes. In "Once Upon a Time in America" a phone is heard ringing throughout a scene, whilst the camera cuts from victim to victim, this links the phone call to the deaths and shows the audience that it must be important. We used the same technique in out thriller to show the desperation of finding Tiffany. This is effective because the sound bridge carries on until he know longer needs to find her. 


Within the titles I used a cross dissolve in order to make certain parts of the white Title turn black, this is in order for the audience to see that throughout the thriller the bloody murder follows the characters. This is also effective because it shows that everything becomes corrupted by the characters. The white titles are almost foreshadowing the idea that the Red Snow is stained with corruption. 

Another link within the titles is the production company name, Torn Curtain was the name of Alfred Hitchcock's 1966 thriller. I used this name because it not only links to the curtains in Psycho which create the enigma but also because The character of Peter nearly tears the curtains down when finding Tiffany's body in his bath. This is a very effective because it foreshadows the events in the bathroom and also links to Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller Psycho.

Intertextuality within my thriller

The first intertextual reference is to 'Fargo', due to the snow shown throughout, this could link to the plot of 'Fargo' where a man hires somebody to kidnap his wife, only to have the situation spiral out of control. This links well with our thriller because the main character of Peter captures Tiffany for unknown reasons only to start regretting his actions. Another link between these two films is the hired men that kidnap the wife in Fargo, and the Man in our thriller who is scene later to be dragging Tiffany's body through the snow.


Another intertextual reference is between 'The Third Man' and our own thriller 'The Red Snow'. I utilised the same font in both to strengthen the idea that the death at the centre of both films may not be all that it seems. This will be an effective link because it will make the audience think twice about Tiffany's death. Another link between the two is the large black coat worn by Harry Lime and Peter from our thriller. This was in order to strengthen the enigma around our character because we rarely see Harry Lime's face or Peter's.

Another film that we can link our Thriller to is 'Animal Kingdom' this is because both main male characters sit in a bathroom thinking about a close female friend they have lost. This link could show that it is not directly Peter's fault that Tiffany is 'dead' but the death could still be linked back to him and that Tiffany's murderer could also be after Peter. Another intertextual reference is to 'Fight Club', this is because our character could be fighting personal demons which cause him to create a second persona. This is intertextually linked through the flashing between two characters, one pulling a body through the snow and the other trying to remember what happened to Tiffany. This could link in a way back to Fargo because the main character is not in control of the two men he hired but it was his own greed that caused them to become part of his life.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when something alludes to or references something else of the similar ilk, this is in order for the thriller genre to be developed. Quentin Tarantino uses intertextuality in many of his films in order to strengthen the genre and in order to create and build suspense much more effectively. 3 films which all link together quite well are 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', 'Kill Bill vol. 2' and 'Buried'. Each of these films use the scene of being buried alive in a coffin as a way of creating suspense and vulnerability. In 'Kill Bill' we have several intertextual references that link it with 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly', whereas in 'Buried' there are very few intertextual references apart from the idea that somebody is trapped underground in a coffin with nothing but a torch and a few other handy items.

The first intertextual reference is the soundtrack. When the bride in 'Kill Bill' is shot in the chest, the soundtrack from 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' plays, this gives the audience the idea that Budd (the character that shot the bride) is about to do something that will link to the graveyard scene in 'The good the Bad and the Ugly.' The next scene shows Budd burying the bride alive in a coffin, this links to the graveyard scene in 'The good, the Bad and the Ugly' again because the locations have been linked. The charters in both these films are also have intertextual links towards each other. Blondie (the Good) Sentenza (the Bad) and Tuco (the Ugly) all link to the characters in 'Kill Bill' this is because the Bride, who is called blondie by Bill is the good character.  Bill is the bad because he causes other peoples misfortunes and Budd is the Ugly because he is doing the manual labour and work for the more dominant characters. This links well with the Bride's intensions, in 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' the Good kills the Bad, which could link to the end of the film where the Bride kills Bill.

The Buried alive scene in Kill Bill links to the buried scene in the film Buried because they both start off in complete darkness but then manage to use a torch to start to find their way out. This is an effective intertextual reference because it makes you believe that the character in 'Buried' is going to escape in the same way that the Bride manages to escape. The claustrophobic space utilised in both films creates the idea that there is no hope for escape, but with the Bride we know that she needs to get out in order to 'have her stand off with the bad'. Their is no real reference to whether the character Paul Conroy in 'Buried' will escape or not apart from the fact that the Bride escaped the same situation.

Once Upon a Time in America

Whilst researching for our thriller we were shown shots from once upon a time in america, these shots have become very useful because they show the characters brute like exterior and create links behind the characters true personality and there intentions. One shot that we decided to use in our own thriller was the amazing worm's eye view shot. A worm's eye view allows the audience to see from a characters vulnerable perception and allows the audience to become placed within the situation. Within this shot we notice a lot about the character standing above. He is obviously very dominant due to his large influence among the shot and the fixed look of anger upon his face. We do however see that he is helping the character that we are seeing the shot from the point of, we know this because the character has extended his arm across the shot, almost creating a shield across the worm eyes body. We also know this because the characters trilby hat, (which is a generic convention to most thrillers because it shows social status whilst creating danger and reassuring the idea of power and potential enigmas) is tilted away from the character showing his face plainly, in many ways this is his non verbal way of telling the man on the floor that he has arrived and that he will be okay.
The final reason that this worms eye view is such an effective shot is because the shot is reversed, this could create the idea that the man is feeling faint and is not truly with the scene, or the alternative view that this character is on the opposite side to the other men and therefore he is a stronger character.

Throughout the film close ups and tilts are used in order to reinforce enigmas and to add mystery into the scene. In this shot a close up is used in order for the horrible situation to feel realistic and for the violence to become truly represented. This style of close up would be efficient in our own thriller opening because it would allow the audience to truly understand the murder. For example, when our character is lying dead in the snow, a close up shot of her blood covered face would allow the audience to pity her at the same time as understanding how she died. This could allow her death to be linked to an item later on in the thriller, for example, if she had bullet wounds then a close up of a gun or an empty box of ammunition would link the item with the murder to show the audience who committed the crime.

Jackie Brown Analysis

Jackie Brown is the first thriller to be directed by Quentin Tarantino after his first independent Thriller 'Reservoir Dogs' gained large publicity. The film centres around a middle aged black air hostess, who helps the police to take down an arms dealer, Tarantino does this in order to develop the thriller genre. Throughout the film racial and sexist stereotypes are portrayed in several different lights depending on the character. In many ways the character of Jackie Brown confirms racial stereotypes whilst contradicting typical thriller conventions. Race and Gender are linked throughout 'Jackie Brown' because the main character is a female african american therefore is an easily discriminated character. 

The opening shot is a tracking shot which shows Jackie Brown from waste up as she walks through an airport, this is longest tracking shot in film history and it lasts a full 3 minutes. We instantly notice that she is agitated, this shows us that she is worried about being late somewhere, this tense body language shows instantly that she is used to being a victim of discrimination. The soundtrack is called "Across 110th Street" and the lyrics reference to life on the streets in america, it mentions pimps and drug dealers which links back to the fact that Jackie Brown gets herself into trouble with an Arms Dealer. She gets caught smuggling drugs through the airport which confirms the deviant stereotypes already held against african american women. When watching the character of Jackie Brown we notice that she is walking much faster than everybody else, this links to the idea that she has to follow different rules than everybody else due to her ethnicity and gender. The shot then changes to a low angle tracking shot, this makes her seem more dominant within the shot, which could be because she has been toughened by a harsh life or because she is more visible to the public as a threat. In the shot above we also see that she is the only character within the shot to be in focus, this could link to her significants or the earlier idea that she is being watched because the public believe her to be a threat.

the above clip shows the shooting of 'Beaumont Livingston', within Jackie Brown. It begins with an establishing shot in which both the characters are having a conversation they then enter Ordell's car. Ordell is the lethal arms dealer that Jackie Brown later gets involved with. We see instantly that Ordell is used to being in control of situations and getting his own way, we see from the body language of both men that Ordell is very demanding whereas Beaumont is very limp like a puppet, this links to his willingness to do what Ordell tells him. During their conversation the two charters use very racist language, this is done so that they both fit into their racial stereotype that people would put them into.

The next important shot we see is Tarantino's classic boot shot. This shot is used in all of Tarantino's films and creates vulnerability of the character whilst also confirming the dominance of the person standing above the camera. Within this scene Ordell Trick's Beaumont into climbing inside the boot of his car. He then slowly walks back to his car and starts to put his gloves on. This is very sadistic behaviour and links Ordell to Bill in Tarantino's later film Kill Bill, this is because both characters put a lot of detail into their actions in order to perfect the deviant actions that they commit. Another Link between the two characters is the flashy jewellery that they both wear, this is too symbolise the characters arrogance and create the idea that they come from working backgrounds and are badly attempting to look rich. The close up shots of the gloves being put on connotes crime and automatically makes the audience think that Ordell is about to do something where he doesn't want his hands to get dirty, for example, the murder of Beaumont.

The next scene shows Ordell taking Beaumont out into a large desolate field.  Tarantino uses a long shot in order for the audience to see the whole location and to understand how alone Beaumont is in his situation. The shot is extremely dark creating an enigma of not truly knowing what is happening, this helps to create suspense within the scene. This scene introduces us to Ordell's sadistic personality, his actions show that he is quite psychopathic, this once again links too the character of Bill. This is because both characters have very long calm conversations with their victims before suddenly shooting them without any real signs of remorse. 

The final clip takes place in a mall car park and contrasts completely with the murder of Beaumont. Louis, who is Ordell's long time friend, takes Melanie, a female character who lives with Ordell, to a mall in order to collect a lot of money from Jackie Brown, Louis is very agitated and has obviously taken some form of drug before the trade off. Melanie is very careless about being desecrate with the trade, which leads louis to become extremely angry and shoot her in the middle of a car park. These actions contrast well with the Ordell's discrete murder because where Ordell murders at night in an empty location, Louis just shoots without preparation and in the open with witnesses much more likely. The tension however was build more with louis' murder than Ordell's because there was much less warning before the murder, the actions are so erratic that louis seems to be the single most dangerous character in the film, that is until Ordell shoots him in a later scene.

FONTS AND TITLES FOR THRILLER

TITLES:
After much consideration I decided that my title would need to involve the word snow, for example DEEP SNOW, THE SNOW. I finally decided that RED SNOW not only sounded the best but linked the must to the deviant actions which take place in the snow. The word red symbolising the blood, and contrasting with the white snow to create the imagery of blood splattered across the snow. This is effective because it links to the idea that the murder of Tiffany Wise was hard to cover up, much like trying to remove blood from the pure white snow. The Titles [directed by, starring and produced by] then needed too be placed throughout the Thriller opening. I decided in the end too place all of the titles on top of the snow shots. This is in order for the detailed shots in the bathroom to be uninterrupted and also so that the black writing can contrast with the snow, making the titles easier to see.
FONTS:
The font was surprisingly the most time consuming part of my entire edit, this mainly down to the limited selection of fonts. At first I decided that I would utilise the Quentin Tarantino style for titles, where a large font covers the majority of the screen in his classic yellow.
after getting as close to this font as possible I decided to make the font Red to link back to the title and the idea that somebody has been murdered. When I had finished I was left with a Title which looked like this:

This title sadly
did not work for me because it seemed too flashy, it lacked subtlety and even when shrunk the font would still make the title curt across the shot in a way which just seemed too tacky. I would have too rethink my font if I wanted an effective title sequence. For inspiration I decided to research even more thriller titles.
After looking into Animal Kingdom, once upon a Time in america and Memento I finally realised that the best titles are the originals. The Third Man stood out instantly as a strong yet discrete title, the title was stacked word by word on top of each other creating a compact and effective image. It was almost as if the title was dependant on each layer to hold it up, this gave the idea that everything was in the balance and about too collapse. I then decided that my title needed to have a reasonable order too it, as well as my font needing to be more precise. I added the following font to all of my titles.

This new font was simple but not too formal like times new roman, it worked due to its simplicity, I needed the title too be spread out in one line because I would place it along the bottom of a shot where preserving detail is important. I kept the size small and made sure that the black would always contrast with the whitest parts of snow. Now that I had my font prepared I wanted to create the ordered tower effect shown in the third man. In the end I managed to fit the following title in effectively, the resized titles did not take as much space as the previous clumsy red titles, so I managed to fit them into places which previously a title would not have worked. I stuck this final layered title in a shot where a hand is scene to be picking up a bracelet. This shot later links to the idea of perfecting a crime, which is why the many layers help to show the preparation that goes into carrying out a murder.