Evaluation of Faye (no images)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When I first watched ‘Psycho’ (1960), I admired the way Alfred Hitchcock had used the doomed Marion Crane as his main character and I knew that when it came to planning of the film, this was definitely an aspect I would consider. It is a classic thriller convention and I think having a deviant female lead can make the film much harder to predict the outcome. I had also seen the femme fatale being used within ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984) when watching a small section of the film and liked the way Sergio Leoni had addressed his character by dressing her in rich, expensive looking clothes, applying red lipstick and making her look perfect with not a hair out of place. Costume plays a big role in a femme fatale character and attention to detail to the way we dressed our lead role will determine whether we have accomplished the classical look or not. Marion Crane initially inspired our femme fatale character Faye, but not only with her looks. Marion stole money to run away and win her lover over which influenced us when Faye steals the money and card to pursue her dreams. The plot of how Marion had this dream and tried to live it and yet how it ended in tragedy reflects our plot of our thriller film.

The name of our film is the name of our main character, Faye. This was inspired by ‘Jackie Brown’ (1997) by how Quentin Tarantino had used the name of the character as the title. This is quite powerful as it shows the woman dominance in the film. With the initial idea that we wanted to name our film the name of our character it was vital that this title was powerful and effective. Faye was developed from the word ‘fate’ which ultimately shortens the plot of the film in one word. The name Faye could also be suggestively linked to the phrase ‘femme fatale’ that then links back to the classic feature we used.

Another convention we chose to prioritise was unglamorous locations as again this is a great generic signifier I found when researching films. ‘Disturbia’, directed by D.J Caruso, is one when Kale gets chased into a dirty, dingy cellar that he then falls through to uncover filthy water and rats. The mise-en-scene overall gives an unfriendly and claustrophobic feel which is definitely a sense we wanted to create in our own film. Our location was actually inspired by ‘The Third Man’ (1949, Carol Reed) who used dark and desolate claustrophobic sewers in the final scene and also dead and dreary Viennese night street, which gave a nightmarish and relatively scary atmosphere to the film. Our thriller location involved a tunnel look and in the dark created a slightly nightmarish, desolate feel. As with ‘The Third Man’ with the tunnel idea, there was a sense of not knowing who was behind the corner or who was watching.

The final aspect in which we wanted to focus and perfect on were camera angles. This is more of a general film convention but the constant change in camera angles and variety could add to the tension of a thriller film with cutting and constant changing of camera angles showing the sense of confusion and panic which is great for the climax. For example, the use of the tilted low angle shot in The Third Man, introducing Harry Lime in the doorway emphasises disorientation and gives it a nightmarish, overwhelming and threatening feel.

The soundtrack, ‘Basin Street Blues’ by ‘Ella Fitzgerald’ contradicts the mood of the action happening within the mise-en-scene but linking directly with inner thoughts and feelings of Faye herself. It is as though Faye is dreaming and the song is representing her ambitions to move on to bigger things such as living a glamorous life in Las Vegas for example. This is a huge contrast to the situation she is in whilst the song is playing, which suggests to the audience that this isn’t who she wants to be but it’s the only way to get there.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our opening to a thriller film we used characters of both male and female and used them in different ways to represent a contemporary Britain. The way we used our main character Faye to first look devious and evil by apparently assaulting or murdering Robert when she then goes over to him and steals from him also. This suggests that her life is being taken over by greed but she still keeps the sense of realism by being careful about her appearance. That is again related to Marion Crane and how she doesn’t dismiss her appearance as though it is her area of confidence, and still manages to steal money because of what she wants.

The way we have used females as deviant and triumphant could also perceive how women have more independence and make their own decisions in their life and have a great deal of power which is a big contrast to earlier years. This could represent the point that trust is an issue personally and politically in this world. Another representation of modern Britain that we included, not necessarily by purpose, was the use of a ‘hoodie’ of Robert in finale of the 2-minute opening sequence. ‘Hoodies’ are the symbol of all that is rotten in contemporary British males thus this iconic costume is used to reinforce the issue in our film. This is seen as a major issue is modern day society so using it could be risky, but even though it is a sensitive issue it is a good representation.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think our film would target a niche section of the public and therefore be more likely to be distributed as an art house film as many aspects would not be seen as contemporary and therefore dismissed from the mainstream multiplex. Our soundtrack, being early 1950s and Jazz, classic femme fatale features would all bring the film to a much smaller audience as it wouldn’t fit in with new, modern day films. If we had the opportunity to involve contemporary music and had spent more time with modern aspects, along with our attempt to hit on modern day Britain our film could be considered as mainstream film.

Our thriller would be released more Internet than big media institutions simply because of lack of funding available to produce the film. This would include sites such as ‘Youtube’ and be available to download to iPods/MP4 players. With using websites as starting point it could then grow in audience appeal. Working Title wouldn’t have interest in this film as they produce more mainstream appeal films and thriller wouldn’t be their genre.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our audience research questionnaires were handed out to people of all ages from 16-40. The vast majority or younger people showed much more interest in answering our questionnaires than elder people did. According to our results, the overall percentage of people would prefer to see a crime thriller or action thriller, so this is what we tried to give them whilst sticking to our original ideas to appeal to a wider audience. But results were extremely close non-the-less so whichever sub genre we chose to use it would appeal to a reasonable percentage of people. Another point we found within our research is that the majority would prefer to see a male role in the film. As our group had our hearts set on using classic femme fatale signifier we tried to meet both our desires and those of our target audience, although a lot of people also commented that they wouldn’t mind either way. As we touched on the issues of modern day Britain, it is clear that our audience is of a much younger generation, as they would be able to relate much greater. Although it is mainly aimed at students, we feel that a much older generation could relate to our thriller as of our references to femme fatale, and film noir.

How did you attract/address your audience?
The main point of how we would attract our target audience would definitely be the enhancing of the real life issues that may not happen all the time but occur very often. We aim to attract a small, niche audience but have aspects of addressing a more mainstream audience. I think if we were to re-do this again we would definitely focus more on our target audience and every aspect with it. We found it particularly difficult to reference thrillers we had all seen, such as The Third Man, Psycho, and The Shining etc with relation to characters, soundtrack, lighting, camera angles etc, whilst keeping it contemporary with our specific target audience – students. We also struggled with the finding of the soundtrack, as it had to be at least 50 years old and saw it as impossible to make this contemporary. Overall it was difficult to make a modern thriller with dated aspects.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the shooting of our thriller we got to experience using the digital cameras, which were reasonably easy to use. Using a tripod helped enormously with steady shots, this improved the overall product along with keeping it professional. Learning most, if not all the shot types encouraged us to include most of these in our film and therefore improve overall marks and make the final product better. Editing was much harder than initially thought, it was a long process and very hard to match clips to make a sequencing shot. Unfortunately this failed a couple of times in the process but we managed to cover it up with the use of effects. If we got the chance to film more we would have definitely improved in this and therefore make the final product much greater.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Camera usage had definitely grown and improved from the preliminary task to the thriller filming. I feel that I have learnt more about using digital cameras and are more confident with camera techniques and angles. Using Premier Elements has increased my knowledge of editing and I would be good at editing anything in future. Techniques such as the 180-degree rule, shot/reverse shot and match on action are areas in which I am familiar with and certainly criteria in which would be considered if shooting a film in future.