Question Five: How did you attract/address your audience?

Question Seven: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question Six: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

"Anonymous Lead" | Thriller | Final Production | AS Media Studies (Shane...

Question Four: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question Three: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question two: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

‘Anonymous Lead’ does retain elements of equality, in a sense of how all characters (of different gender) have their identities concealed. Although they are not exposed to the audience initially, specific elements; symbols of identification, help differentiate which persona is being carried by the characters, ultimately creating a sense of inequality between genders. It is clearly demonstrated with the female character, Alison (played by Bea Newbery-Jesse). As discussed in Question one, the only female character in ‘Anonymous Lead’ is portrayed as the archetypical femme fatale. Though her face is not shown, the only indication of her status can be identified by her red shoes; the footwear is used to create an alternative presence to the character. As a femme fatale, Alison would lie within the stereotype of cryptic, seductive and dangerous – yet fairly objectified. The use of the red shoes introduces her not only as the archetypical figure but almost itemises her, archetypical in a sense that the red of the shoes symbolises the alluring but dark qualities of a femme fatale; itemising in a way that her value as person brims on the verge of non-existence. Due to the fact that all the characters’ identities are made obscure, it would make her particularly seem less of a person, but more of an object; as mentioned earlier, the shoes represent her presence. This undervalues her even more because she is symbolised as a pair of red shoes. Women (in both Film Noir era up to present) have been labelled as being objectified, but the use of the red shoes in the opening reinforces this label even more, meaning that Alison has perhaps been degraded to a level of what could be considered as nothing more than a possession – a possession belonging to Dean (played by Sebastien Wright). This archetype challenges general stereotypes of women in the way that they completely juxtapose the norm of how women were living in the oppressive, pessimistic, fear-ridden era of what was happening during the time of Film Noir, meaning that the female character contradicts the traditional perception of women in general.

            When casting actors, the initial idea was to cast people of maturity in age, to create realism and context when the film is presented. With this idea in mind, the decision was altered, resulting with the casting of younger people. Maturity is required to add practicality but casting young actors contradicts the whole concept of the purpose of maturity in its entirety. Using younger people as older profiles oppose norms, in a sense that generally, older people try to escape problems that would be more difficult for younger people to do themselves. This could make audiences think of what the current generation (of 16-18-year-olds) could become in the future. For instance, the character Dean is shown revealing a weapon – a weapon which looks like he cannot handle and perhaps use properly, as a young person. At the end, the last shot of him closing the suitcase hints to the audience that he possesses a dangerous personality with menacing thoughts; the low angle shot of the camera inside of the suitcase positions the audience in a way of being intimidated by this ominous but young figure. This flips the original properties and traits a young person possesses and positions them high on a scale of significance, making it seem that youths have more control as opposed to adults who should be the realistic authoritative figure.

            Overall, the film represents social groups through the characters as being more than what they are, in terms of their age, appearance, enigmatic demeanour and enclosed personalities, as well as their intentions; the contrast between the older profiles combined with the opposing younger persona implies that a dangerous combination of ‘youth-meets-wisdom’ is in the mix.

Question One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (in process)

Actors - 'Anonymous Lead'

One of the difficult parts of the planning was the casting of actors for us. In doing this process, me and Seb were allocated responsibility on who should be cast for the opening. We decided to cast Bea Newbery-Jesse for our Femme Fatale, 'Alison Atkinson'; after working with her for our preliminary task, we knew that she would be easy to work with. Also, referring back to our idea of the concealing identity, we would be able to get away with hiding her age, as age is a factor that can contribute to the realism of the film. 

Deciding on location and mise-en-scene - 'Anonymous Lead'

Our film does have a very dark tone in its aesthetic; so dark that there isn't a very obvious idea on as to where we are shooting. Most of the footage was shot indoors which I think was an advantage because you really have control on how to create a contrast between light and shadow (chiaroscuro). The use of drawing blinds and closing curtains was a requirement that contributed to process of creating that atmosphere a peril and suspense as well as the contrasting shadows to hide identity.

Shooting schedule - 'Anonymous Lead'

Camerawork in 'Hard Rain'

This post briefly explores the camerawork in a video clip of the film 'Hard Rain'.

Evaluating the planning - 'Anonymous Lead'

Evaluation of planning – ‘Anonymous Lead’

During planning for ‘Anonymous Lead’, many decisions were made and altered. We absolutely made it adamant that our story as well as the production was going to be based around theme/style of Film Noir, as the films from that era (and neo-noirs) have heavily influenced our whole project. A lot of the tasks have been completed group-wise, but I have done tasks that I thought needed a bit of personal improvement or total completion. The pitch, the mind map of initial ideas, plot synopsis, the screenplay/script, selecting actors, planning the costumes, and formulating the storyboard (the main elements of group work). In doing the individual tasks, the inter-textual references for example, have contributed to further depth of what is wanted to be accomplished for our opening. I do feel that most of the tasks have been completed by myself. Seb has required the completion of some of the tasks in order for his blog to have some content. 

Motifs in Thrillers

This post discusses the topic of motifs and how some have been used in the film 'Casablanca'.

Costume Plan - 'Anonymous Lead'

This is the costume plan (created by me and Seb) of the film opening for 'Anonymous Lead'.

Inter-textual references - 'Anonymous Lead'

This discusses the topics and external media used in research and planning sessions for the film opening of 'Anonymous Lead'.

Title sequence fonts - 'Anonymous Lead'

This explains the font choices made for the film opening sequence of 'Anonymous Lead'.

Soundscape - 'Anonymous Lead'

The development of our soundscape

This idea is heavily based on the concept that the telephone dominates the character's actions and the whole plot itself; the story wouldn't progress without phone calls - the phone acts as a catalyst to prompt certain characters to figure out where they are going within the plot. I did some research on dialling tones and decided to use them in diegetic and non-diegetic ways. I thought that dialogue should not have been exchanged at all in the duration of the opening. However, we made the choice to formulate a script - the main focus of the opening bases around sound; the phone call; the dialling tone. I think that this would make the audience think about what is being presented to them; and that the sounds used are the predominating element to build suspense and uncertainty.

In Film Noir, the ways in which the antagonist, anti-hero, etc. is concealed has one main method: through shadows. Shadows - a key convention of the sub-genre - act almost as the ghost of the person casting it, completely hiding their true identity. It links to our project's concept in the way that we are hiding our main antagonists, but through out-of-focus filming and (maybe) silhouettes; not to mention the catalyst of the story line... The hidden profile could be viewed as an antagonist, due to the fact that their appearance is only shown, well, heard though sound and brief dialogue. 

I felt that although the Investigator is the main protagonist, he should not be seen as yet. Instead, we will use the sound of running footsteps, non-diegetically - to show that he has left the shot/location, to fulfil his purpose as Investigator. The usual opening is supposed to introduce the key cast to the audience, giving them a sense of early understanding as the film starts. In this case, I thought that because we are producing an opening to a film containing elements of Film Noir and Psychological themes, not showing the audience the characters' identities can create disorientation - but only brief disorientation. We are hinting a small degree of what the characters are like and briefly through very few shots of the opening. 

Below are a few of the sounds that are going to be used in the opening. Notice how I have taken the Busy Signal/Interrupted Call tone and the generic Dialling tone; The Busy Signal/Interrupted Call tone sounds like something that would confuse you - the call just happens to be cut off as soon as the information has been distributed - suspicious? The Dialling tone could be used as an underscore, to keep this motif carrying on throughout the opening.

Explaining the title - 'Anonymous Lead'

This is a brief explanation about the title that was decided for our film opening 'Anonymous Lead'.

Initially, ideas derived from synonyms of words/phrases like "phone call" and "unknown". Eventually, "Anonymous Lead" was paired together because those words summed up the main elements of what would create the foundation of the plot. The title of the thriller was devised in mind of the plot; the ‘Anonymous’ part of the title makes reference to the fact that the story’s entirety revolves around a hidden, unknown profile who seems to be ahead of each character’s progress throughout the film. The ‘Lead’ part of the title possesses a two-way meaning; one way of interpreting it could be through the following of the couple’s tracks of escape – the result of following their trail leads you to the truth of their motives of crime. The other, quite literal meaning of ‘Lead’ in this context describes the cord attached to the phone. This interpretation links back the anonymity of who is behind the whole operation of the story. I do think that creating a title that has multiple meanings allows the audience to make sense of their perception of the film, or in this case the opening of the film.