Costumes & Props

Costumes

Our film features the assult of a female at the hands of two male attackers, this means that the male characters are going to be dressed in a somewhat sinister and hardend, as well as dark and menacing to run with the thriller theme. Also because our film ties with the genre of British Gangsta the clothes we use are going to be easily associated with British trends.

This coat shall be worn by one of the attackers, its darkness and aesthetic durability connotes violence and mystery, while the tartan style lining on the inside makes it look British.
We can see resembalences to this style of jacket in teh film "Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels". The characters in the film sport jackets such this, the look of the jackets makes them look strong and whilst somewhat inconspicuous and reserved, these characteristics will suit the attacking character in our film opening well becuse the semi ambiguous nature of characters costume could build tension.












Our thriller opening is going to contain a few shots in which the shoes of the attacker are seen very clearly, this means we must concentrate heavily on what messages the shoes are going to convey to the audience. We have chosen a pair of black "Doc Martin" boots, these will be ideal for our thriller because they are obviously very hard wearing which shows the attacker as needing a hard wearing shoe for their rough and violent lifestyle, this runs well with the darkness of the shoe which connotes evil and mystery. These shoes also tie in with our theme of British Gangsta as they are a type of shoe which is connected strongly with Britain.

Props

The victim in our film is going to be shown smoking a ciggarette whilst hiding in the Civ. The ciggarette gives the girl a sense of social decay, breaking her from purity and turning her to a darker side, it also gives her a sense of toughness in this less civilised world.

In our film the girl will be quite scared whilst she is hiding and will smoke the ciggarette to comfort her. This is action is contrasted in our film because as she is smoking the ciggarette, she hears the footseps of her attackers and this will cause her to drop the ciggarette whilst in her state of fright. The dropped ciggarette will then be snuffed out by one of the boots of the attackers, indicating her comfort being ended by the bad people.

Other than the ciggarettes there is only one other prop in our film which is a blunt weapon such as a plank of wood. A plank of wood symbolises a more DIY choice of weopon which fits our storyline quite well as the attack of the female character is quite off hand and not premeditated. The use of a plank of wood connotes the debased nature and raw violence which is incredasingly portrayed in the news and media of the British youths of today. This behaviour is reflected in the British psycological thriller "Dead Man's Shoes", where a group of drug addled wasters humiliate, torment and kill a vulnerable young adult with learning difficulties called Anthony. The attackers in the film killed Anthony on impulse whilst under the influence of drugs, this could be the reason for the attack in our film.

In this poster for "Inglorious Bastards"we can see a bat of some description whcih has been used as a weapon. This is the sort of thing that we intend to use, its dark pitted surface connotes darkness and evil which the effect we are trying to create in our film.

Locations

Our group decided that because we were mixing the style of Thriller film with some of the imagery of British Gangster our film would need a location that shares connotation with both. With this in mind we chose our location as an abandond, burnt out buildingknown as "The Civ". This location looks like the quintessential idea of urban decay and could easily be related to an abandond building in anyones area, it would also be home in many British films like This Is England or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The second reason we chose The Civ for our thriller film is that the burnt out nature of the The Civ makes it a very dark place and the themes of decay, seclusion, and entrapement are created whioch makes for a good scene for a Thriller film to be set. The Civ also connotates lawlessness because of the amount of vandalism done to the building boith destructively and and through graffiti, this sense of lawlessness would welcome dark and dangerous situations making it ideal for a British Gangter style Thriller.

This shot shows the dark alley leading down to The Civ, we are planning to use this location for a chase scene because the enclosed space creates entrapement and isolation which give a hightend sense of fear for a character if they are being chased. We can see similarities in the film Third Man. Both examples working with the ideas of entrapement abd isolation in the same way. I think a tracking shot would work well in this scene, also depending on the finalised story board an over-the-shoulder shot from the behind the chaser showing him chase the victim.

This is the main corridor of the room. the heavily graffiti'ed walls and burnt ceiling show the strong direpair that the building has fallen into due to lack of care and vandalism, these themes will then be evident in the film because of the location. These themes will create a strong sense of fear for the characters in the film and add to the tension.
Here we can see inside one of the rooms, however a large section of the wall in it has been knocked out. This shot shows the complexityof the structure, which makes it easy to film complex camera shots in a small space creating the illusion that it is bigger than it realy is. The victimised character in our film hides in a room at one stage, and with the complexity of the structure it is obvious that we could experiment with her findin a place to hide, espescially if she was being hunted down by the other two characters.

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is an Italian word used originally to describe the use of contrasting light and dark in artwork, if used properly in a painting art gained new metaphorical and dramtic connotations between good evil etc. With the developement in black and white film in film Noir, the directors needed to pay close attention to the chirascuro of the film to convey certain styles and imagery which was key in both black and white filming and the concept of film noir.

As we can see here in a shot from the classic Noir film Stranger on the Third Floor, there is a strong use of shadows marking the shape of the stairs against the wall. This draws attention to the situation because the shape of the shadow that the bannisters create against the shadow of the character Mike Ward, create the visual metaphor of prison bars which creates a sense of entrapment, and hightened tension and danger of the scene.

This shot from the film Sin City shows the character
Marv heavily bandaged following a previous violent epsiode. The brightness of the bandages on his body highlight their importance, giving us a strong idea of the physical danger that the character encounters, however we can also see from the nature of the bandages that they have not been adminsterd by a proffesional medic, this gives the impression of the characters anti-authoritarian lifestyle. The stark whiteness of the bandages show connotations of healing and purity which contrasts the darkness of his character, displaying a certain vulnerabilty especially if the female character has bandaged him.

L.A Noir

LA Noir is an alteration of classic film noir, sharing its conventions but putting them in a vibrant and more modern setting such as Los Angeles. This changes much of the context creating more contrasting imagery between the classic anti-hero noiresque protagonist, and the conflicting pitfalls of modern society that they are immersed in. The extremely stylised plot lines and characters, as well as artistic imagery and settings in Film Noir, can often make it hard to relate to real life issues, but with the more modern and well known areas of LA noir we can see the normal Film Noir characters in new surroundings, with new elements of conflict such as drugs, prostitution and gang crime. This makes the film more edgy and relevant to current world problems, it also shocks the audience in many ways because underneath a seemingly normal society, is a debased underworld running concurrently with everyday normality.
An example of LA Noir would L.A. Confidential, this film revolves around the sunny, glamorous and idyllic Los Angeles and the violent crime filled life of Gang leader and the police force that are trying to oust him and his crimes.