Question 1: In what way does your production use, develop or challenge form and convention

of real media products?

The title ‘Invisible lives’ was chosen to represent the homeless that have no identity in society, they are omniscient in the media, and are not often used in films. The title also links in with the fact that our homeless characters have no names, due to the fact they are ‘invisible’; no one cares about them, and therefore no one will realise when they disappear, which fits with the title very well.

INVISIBLE LIVES

Our thriller ‘Invisible lives’ was inspired by the classic thriller ‘The Third Man (1958) directed by Carol Reed. The location of our thriller was certainly influenced by the dark, and mysterious, war -torn Vienna. The city in ‘The Third Man’ is represented as broken, ruined and shadowed by the war, therefore creating the idea of a dystopia city. Although in my thriller the city is not shaken by war; but fear amongst society, of stalkers, and homelessness. The thriller convention is almost immediately established in the title of my film when we have used a fast cut, close ups and low key lighting, which we cross dissolved with low key lit shots of a man looking at pictures of young girls in an office.

PICTURE OF OUR THRILLER

The low key lighting we have used in our thriller opening was primarily inspired by the shot of Pope carrying josh’s girlfriend’s body in David Michôds’ ‘Animal Kingdom’(2010) and the low key lit close ups; used to build up tension and show the audience the characters expressions.

The costumes we chose for our male stalker is a smart suit, this was inspired by many films that we researched. One of these films being ‘Once Upon a Time in America’; in this film, the mobs and gangsters are all dressed in smart suits and ties; this symbolises their authority and status; it also determines a certain amount of wealthy and importance. The characters in ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ are also wearing full length coats in the film; something which also inspired us to make our character wear a longer coat for the opening of our thriller.

Another film that inspired our male characters suit was ‘Harry Lime’ from ‘The Third Man’, as he Is a big part in the film, and therefore makes the audience aware that our character is important within the film. ‘Reservoir Dogs’ is also another film which inspired our thoughts due to the classic black and white suit, which later on became an iconic fashion statement. James Bond also was another classic inspiration to our costume for the villain, as the villains within these films wear suits also.

The costumes that we chose for our female victims were inspired by the costume of Lisbeth from ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ which is very androgynous and unfeminine but yet determines her unique and independent identity. It also inspired us to make our homeless characters look more ‘plain’ to fit with their status, and the idea that they have no identity, this also represents the lack of money they have to buy feminine clothes which are not suitable in the weather that our thriller is set in. The bride in ‘Kill Bill Vol 1’ also inspired our costume choice due to her lack of fashionable clothes but rather; relaxed and comfortable attire.

In our thriller opening of ‘Invisible lives’ we have reinforced the generic stereotype of using a young girls as our victims as it helps the audience to sympathise with the characters. Girls are stereotypically weak and vulnerable, an easy target for much stronger, older men. Although we have reinforced the stereotypes with gender, we have challenged age stereotypes by using young people as our victims. The media conveys young people as being associated with anti-social behaviour and rioting that which we challenge because our victim is young, and also because our male character is much older and middle class, therefore challenging the stereotypes of the middle class- as they are traditionally associated with success, politeness and respectability. A homeless person is often associated with crime and drug abuse, and also can be associated with the Home farm protest and ‘Occupy London Protests’.

Although we have not used a conventional claustrophobic location for the opening of our thriller; we have used the generic convention of dark wet streets, which are used in films such as Once Upon a Time in America:

Thelma and Louise:

I can compare these two shots that show the female character in our thriller is similar to that of Lisbeth in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ after the rape scene in the film.

Conclusion • Overall I have developed and challenged conventions of the thriller genre in the

opening of my thriller.