A large influence on the plot line and the characters names within my production came from David Michod's 'Animal Kingdom' released in 2010. The reason for this was due to the fact that the main character within 'Animal Kingdom' is a young adult (roughly 16-18 years old).
The other parallel between the two films is that in our thriller the main character's mother dies in a horrific way. In 'Animal Kingdom' 'Jay's' mother overdoses on heroin, whereas in our thriller plot line the mother is shot twice in the chest. The character of the mother in our thriller is designed to look like a typical yet modern housewife e.g. wearing jeans and boots etc. The young boy within our thriller can be related to 'Jay' from 'Animal Kingdom' because he is thrown into a world of criminality that he did not choose to get involved with.
The other parallel between the two films is that in our thriller the main character's mother dies in a horrific way. In 'Animal Kingdom' 'Jay's' mother overdoses on heroin, whereas in our thriller plot line the mother is shot twice in the chest. The character of the mother in our thriller is designed to look like a typical yet modern housewife e.g. wearing jeans and boots etc. The young boy within our thriller can be related to 'Jay' from 'Animal Kingdom' because he is thrown into a world of criminality that he did not choose to get involved with.
The rather baggy and casual clothes which 'Jay' wears in 'Animal Kingdom' influenced our characters. The costume of the young boy consists of a plain white top and baggy, stripy pyjama bottoms. The reason we chose to use a plain white top for the boy to wear was to show connotations of ignorance and naivety to his mothers possible involvement in criminal activity; he is "clean". This also acts as a contrast to the mothers plain white shirt which is coated in blood. The blue stripy pyjama bottoms connote calmness due to blue being the colour of calm and collected. The long red hair of the young boy could connote passion and love (maybe for his mother in death), however this said it could also represent anger, hate and revenge and perhaps even blood.
The costume for the dark, enigmatic figure within our thriller was influenced by Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In America' released in 1984. The way in which this film influenced us was through their costumes and use of such items of clothing as the classic trilby hat and the black coat with their face in silhouette. It is typical/expected of the thriller genre.
The name of the mother within our thriller is 'Eve Cody'. Her first name has biblical connotations because Eve was the first woman God created and led Adam into temptation within the garden of Eden. The original sin. This name is used to suggest her deceitful nature. The last name of Cody comes from the Aunt in 'Animal Kingdom' named 'Janine "Smurf" Cody'. 'Janine "Smurf" Cody' is a devious women with a history of crime and each of her children has had petty 'run-ins' with the law. This gives our mother character a devious and enigmatic past. The young boys' name within our thriller we decided to be 'Jonathan Cody'. The first name of Jonathan also has biblical references. The definition of Jonathan is "gift of God".
In terms of location, our main location is in a middle class house. This does not follow an obvious thriller convention which often uses run-down or derelict locations. However this said a thriller convention which we do use is that of noir lighting. This is used to make the enigmatic figure seem that much more mysterious. A screen shot from our final cut is posted below showing this.
A thriller convention is that within thriller films crimes frequently happens in the night time. Other examples of this within films is in Ridley Scott's 'Thelma and Louise' released in 1991. This is when Louise shoots a rapist (Harlem) about to rape Thelma in a car park (another thriller convention location)
The second example is in Quentin Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown' released in 1997. The example here is when Ordell Robbie shoots Beaumont Livingstone in the abandoned car park (the same location again).
The third and final example is when Marion Crane is murdered in a deserted hotel at night.
We play on this by having our mother figure killed in the night. Night-time in general is also a time when collectively we feel more vulnerable thus we are trying to play on audience paranoia.
The way we decided what the soundtrack should be like was to listen to the openings of other thriller films. We finally chose this particular soundtrack was because it fit the thriller genre e.g. it created an ambient yet tense mood, it built in intensity and volume and it had no lyrics or suddenly loud fluctuations to distract the audience from the on-screen action.
A promising first draft James with strong references to the influence Animal Kingdom had on your production.
ReplyDeleteTo strengthen and lift from Level 3 to Level 4 would be to focus more tightly on the conventions of the genre. I put these suggestions on Joe's and Wills blogs:
Your focus on the convention of noir lighting could reference more of your research:
Remember also that Josh's girlfriend in Animal Kingdom is murdered by Josh's psychotic Uncle Pope at night where she is easy prey for the Cody brothers.
Other dark locations which indicate menace and nightmare. Thelma and Louise - when Louise shoots the rapist Harlem in deserted carpark; Jackie Brown when Ordell tricks Beaumont into the boog of his car and guns him down in the car boot in a deserted waste ground; if you google YouTube and search "The Singing Detective Episode 1 Part 1" this 1985 TV drama begins with a pastiche of a noir thriller which the main character is re-writing in his head as he lies in hospital. Here the generic convention of shadows, chiaroscuro lighting and empty streets connote the separation between illusion and reality. Marion Crane is brutally murdered in the shower in a deserted motel at night! Thus night is a time within the thriller genre where dark deeds can bed anticpated, and of course this is a time when we collectively feel at our most vulnerable, thus you are playing on audience paranoia.
Also Eve (Noodle's girlfriend in Once Upon a Time in America) is the hapless victim who the corrupt police gun down at night in a deserted bedroom. Eve in this case connotes deviance (in this film Eve is the classic femme fatale bunned down because of her deviant morality) and doom. Thus Eve Cody in your production is also intertextually references Leone's classic noir thriller.
More screen shots, film clips (screen shots/clips from your production)would strengthen.
At present Level 3 but you must be more adventurous with presentation.