Evaluation of 'A Fall from Grace.'

Introduction

“A real thriller [is one that] that pulls me in right from the beginning. The 'what if' premise delivers on the edge of your seat anticipation, and is a perfect fit for [the genre]."- Mark Stern

The opening of a thriller movie is arguably one of the most important moments – the director has around two minutes to capture the audiences’ attention, enthralling them and keep them wanting to watch more. With this in mind, we created our movie opening to be full of action and clear yet still have an enigmatic twist at the end.

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

The title of our film holds a significance and is an aspect of the film which I, myself am very proud of. We searched and discussed many different titles for the film (at one point The Rep being the most promising of titles, despite our group feeling that it wasn’t very effective.) As planning went on and we began to further develop our characters and the background stories, we felt that it may have been a good idea to use the name of the femme fatale. As I was researching well-known sayings that included the name, A Fall from Grace immediately jumped out at me. The phrase has multiple definitions, appropriate as Grace may have many motives or many aspects of her personality which keeps our audience guessing. A fall from grace could mean the loss of respect or prestige – implicating that Grace could have been an innocent girl somehow corrupted and in a biblical sense, the meaning of the phrase is to become immoral; fitting as murder is the most immoral act that can be carried out. The physical meaning of the word was also apt, the ‘fall’ giving imagery of a struggle or a death which then carries on ‘from Grace,’ thus giving the name of the villain and an implication that she has done it multiple times.



Our thriller opens with an extreme-close-up of a female hand turning off the ignition in a car. The woman is wearing red nail varnish, which contrasts against the predominantly black/grey background. Red is a colour that connotes blood and danger as well as implicating the feelings of lust or anger. The fact that this is the colour of her nails is a warning to the audience; giving them a quick idea of the type of person she may be. We then cut from an extreme close up to a tracking shot of the femme-fatale (Grace Jones)’s legs as she walks towards the boot of the car. Here, we decided to acknowledge the classic femme fatale look (such as Marian in Hitchcock’s Psycho) – where the character is wearing a short skirt and heels, which we then modernised with the use of leggings. We decided that this would be a good idea, as the apparel such as this is instantly relatable to classic femme-fatales. This again indicates to the audience that there is something mysterious about this character – this was one of our key ideas to get the audience hooked immediately. The suspicion felt through her costume and accessories is deepened by the use of a low angle shot of Grace picking up a bag, in which a knife can clearly be seen. Here, we used an unusual camera angle, where we shot from inside of the boot looking out. We felt that this would be an appropriate angle as it begins to give a claustrophobic atmosphere and also pays homage to films such as Tarantino’s Jackie Brown where Beaumont is put in the boot of a car by hostile arms dealer and thug Ordell.



Throughout the film, we attempted to show as few features of Grace Jones as possible (as in Usual Suspects). We thought that this would be a good way to create curiosity and thus hook the audience. Not showing our femme-fatales face gives her an enigmatic persona: a feature of the genre effectively used by directors such as Carol Reed with his character Anna (of The Third Man), an inscrutable, glamorous actress whose true identity is not revealed until well into the film.

When choosing out location, we thought that the shop and the basement we used would be perfect for many reasons. The shop is quite crowded, with many shelves and stands: we thought that this would be a useful aspect of the mise-en-scene as it implicates that there will not be an easy escape and also gives the villain many places to hide. The shop floor also has an extremely interesting layout, where the entrance to the basement is tucked away – this was useful as it gave us the opportunity to be able to validate how the character could sneak into the basement and murder the shop assistant whose unassuming appearance grounds the film in reality. His formal manner is in stark contrast to Grace’s fatal plan.



The basement itself was a brilliant location as it was a dark and claustrophobic space (which is a traditional convention of the thriller genre.) It also had various lights which allowed us to experiment with different lighting and to see which types of lighting (along with the torches we used separately) would work best to create an atmospheric thriller.



Many shots we used were inspired by other films, although they were not necessarily thrillers. One of my favourite shots (that unfortunately had to be taken out for timing reasons- and as we already had a more effective shot, we decided the video would be more effective without the shot) was inspired by the recent Dorian Gray, in which, Dorian is walking up a set of stairs towards the camera. I thought that this was extremely effective as tension built rapidly as the audience cannot see what the character is walking towards.

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." - Alfred Hitchcock



"Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare" - Alfred Hitchcock

Another shot we felt was deeply inspired by another film was the scene in which Grace Jones murders the shop assistant. To film this, we used silhouettes on a brick wall in the basement (as it was effective and safe, as the knife was not physically close to the person that was ‘murdered.’) – A shot that is again reminiscent of Psycho’s shower scene in which Marian Crane is killed by Norman Bates. The use of shadow is another generic convention – used especially in The Third Man. Shadows connote illusion and play on characters imagination, they also suggest nightmare and invisible enemies.



There are many conventions of the thriller genre that we tried to utilise within our short film. Claustrophobic spaces such as the basement we used are widely used within this type of film as they often have one exit, which can easily be blocked; another aspect that these spaces are so popular in these films is that there is nowhere to hide – a phobia of many. We also attempted to use noir and chiaroscuro lighting, which when used effectively can create an extremely atmospheric scene. A good example of this is Once Upon a Time in America where the lighting is one of the main devices used to create tension and suspicion in the opening sequence.



A major influence on our filming was certain camera angles used frequently in thrillers: we used many close up and extreme close ups within our film as it puts emphasis on important aspects of the action. Tilted and canted shots were also extremely important (of which we were influenced by shots in such films as The Third Man) to indicate to the audience that there is something wrong with the character and lend to a disorientation that places the audience into the role of the protagonist. For example, Holly Martin’s first glimpse of his friend (In The Third Man) reflects his growing paranoia and confusion as Lime is meant to be dead.

Narrative structure is another key feature throughout our thriller opening, as we cut frequently between Grace Jones walking to the shop and the shopkeeper counting the money. These two actions would have happened at the same time, and we believed that this was a good way to present this; as well as the fact that the woman is connected. We used this as a device to forewarn the viewer that Grace’s motives are linked to money; the pile of notes also references the money that Marian Crane of Psycho steals, but with which also seals her fate.

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

"[A good film is] a great thriller or mystery, but on another level it's a film about the fact that, if you only look at a person through one lens, or only believe what you're told, you can often miss the truth that is staring you in the face." - Kevin Spacey

The characters we created are also stereotypical of the thriller genre. We used a classic villain and victim relationship, although gave it a slight twist. We wanted to stick relatively closely to the classic definition of the femmes fatales in our thriller. Filmsite.org defines this character as a mysterious, duplicitous, subversive, predatory, tough-sweet, manipulative and desperate women.

In my opinion, we pulled it off quite well in A Fall from Grace as our character, Grace Jones, could be said to have many of these characteristics. She has an air of mystery about her from the start as the audience never sees a shot of her face – the camera is always focused around her body or close ups of her hand taking the money, turning off the light-switch etc. We hoped that this would encourage our viewers to continue watching so they can discover more about this mysterious woman. The duplicitous and the desperate parts of the character come into play through Grace stealing the large amount of money. Obviously, this is not the right thing to do, and by showing Grace and the manager of the shop acknowledging each other, it shows that the character can pull off her crimes with an air on innocence. The subversive aspect comes into play through the role of the villain being played by a woman – although this may seem more commonplace than in films such as The Third Man in 1949, a majority of villains in modern films are still played by men.

Grace’s tough-sweet personality is also evident through her dress sense (being a skirt and heels – a ‘sweeter’ look than maybe a more harsh look of jeans and trainers) juxtaposed against her tough act of murder and theft. I believe that we pulled of the predatory part of the ‘femme fatale’ in an interesting way. The fact that the character that Grace kills is a teenage boy is not accidental. In modern times, teenage boys are seen as villainous ‘thugs’ and girls as more innocent – here, however, we flipped the stereotype and attempted to implicate in our film that some things aren’t always as they seem.

The older man in the car was also an interesting character that we added into our film later. We thought that it may add an interesting twist and keep the audience engaged as they watch the predator become the hunted. The older man gives the film more of a variety, so it’s not purely teenage-based and it also gives the impression that Grace may be part of a team of criminals or even is being chased by one. The older man dressed in a suit is an ironic statement, as usually people that wear suits are ‘respectable’ men with ‘respectable’ jobs and are trusted by many people (also proved in a psychological study where it was found that British civilians were more likely to trust and obey people in suits rather than casual attire). This again goes with the theme that things may not be always how they seem.



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

Our film would be primarily distributed straight to internet – to websites such as YouTube, in particular. I believe that this would be the best form of distribution as it is easily accessible and YouTube has millions of viewers and therefore will hopefully capture the attention of many. It is also an interesting place to gain feedback from friends, family and the unrelated public as YouTube offers the opportunity to comment on the video. This will give us an idea of what was successful in our film and what we would change should we do a similar task in the future; for example, it was suggested that the way we showed the murder in A Fall from Grace seemed a little cliché, and so if we had to do to the task again, I would probably propose that we find a more unique way to shoot it. A few people also claimed that the narrative structure seemed a little confusing at times, and had we had more time then I believe we could have tidied it up a little more.

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

Obviously, whilst creating the film we had our audience in mind. Before we began our thriller opening, each member of our group had conducted various pieces of audience research, both generally and focusing on the thriller genre. This research gave us the chance to gain an insight into what audiences expect to see in a successful thriller. We found that generally, middle-class teenagers of both genders would find a film such as ours most appealing. We believe that this age may be interested as they are beginning to find their own interests and old enough to watch other films of this genre such as Extreme Measures. Also, the fact that we used a teenage shop assistant allows our audience to relate to and become involved in the film’s characters as many middle-class teenagers have Saturday jobs in small independent shops. Females in the 15-25 age range may be curious about Grace’s behaviour and interested in how a girl who dresses like them and looks respectable us capable of a heinous crime. The older man in the back of the car, which looks as though he is some kind of mob-boss may also broaden the appeal to older audiences also.

Question five: 'How did you attract/address your audience?'

"I am the audience." - Quentin Tarantino.

Although the above quotation from Tarantino may seen a little strange, I believe it holds a truth in the way films are made. In one way, we made the film for ourselves, as if we would have enjoyed certain aspects (being in the specified age range of our audience), generally many others would feel the same. If a certain part of our film bored us, then we would cut it out, and if we thought an idea would be slightly unnerving; we tried to think of a way to intensify that feeling and would have us on the edge of our seat.


This interview is an extremely interesting one with Alfred Hitchcock about how his films are effective and create fear within his audience.

There are many aspects of our thriller that we planned to ensure the audience would want to continue watching the film. First of all, we tried not to make our plot too complicated – as many people watch films to relax and do not wish to have to think about what’s happening just so they can follow the storyline. We also used both male and female characters to broaden appeal – it also shows that both sexes are capable of dark deeds motivated by greed which we have explored in our film. In our audience research, we discovered that our target audience believe a “mysterious location” would be most effective. They also said that films that start off in a recognisable setting and then take a “scary turn” – therefore, I believe that our location is perfect. We start with a car park and a shop, and then follow our characters into a cellar – a mysterious and claustrophobic location; thus taking the film into the dimensions of the imagination. The action in the opening, we believe is a good way to hook the audience – in the first two minutes of the film, there is a murder, a robbery and a twist (where the murderer has a knife held to her throat by an older man.) Many people do not have an appreciation for films that take a while to get into the action, so we believe that jumping straight in and leaving a cliff-hanger will captivate our audience.



During editing, we also decided on a mix between diagetic and non-diagetic sound. Our soundtrack is playing throughout the whole introduction; however a few sounds can be heard over the top – for example, a creaking door or the heels of the femme fatale. We thought that this would be a good idea as it can give the opening a dissociative and almost dream-like quality which contrasts with the diagetic sounds which grounds the film into reality – this is what may give the audience the incentive to continue watching as they begin to wonder if Grace is about to be kidnapped, killed or whether she may fight off the man who has found his way into her car.

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

Throughout the course of filming our thriller opening, I have learnt more than I expected to about the process of construction. First of all, I learnt the importance of camera angles: not only does a variety of camera shots make a film/programme more interesting, but it also assists in the build-up of emotion and the audience’s judge of characters. For example, a tilt shot could create suspicion or disorientation (often associated with iconic villains such as Harry Lime) and close up’s are extremely important when trying to create atmosphere. We also discovered how different movements are significant in creating a character – for example, in our thriller, the shop assistant jogs down the stairs which gives him a nonchalant air, which also allows the audience to empathise with him, as he is a normal teenage boy. The femme-fatale however, walked with a slower pace, which made her look more menacing and gives her an air of superiority.

Before our project, I had also underestimated the value of editing in the creation of a film. Through editing, you are able to change the tone of a film dramatically. We changed the sequencing of our shots a number of times – the cross-cutting between Grace’s arrival and walk to the shop with the shop assistant counting the money added to the pace and thus suspense. This is good as not only do the stories run parallel to each other, but we were also able to emphasise which characters were linked. Slow motion was also extremely useful as it enabled us to put emphasis on important actions – Grace’s walk through the basement with the knife for instance, slow motion is also useful in creating more tension in the atmosphere.

We also discovered the importance of effective titles in a successful thriller film. Films such as Terry Winsor’s Essex Boys have an extremely effective title sequence which sets the scene for the rest of the movie. Of course, we only had two minutes to draw in our audience, so a title sequence such as this one was not possible. However, we still wanted the titles to be effective. Therefore, we used a large, readable font which was set aside from the action, but with a colour that contrasted against the scene which means that the viewers eyes are drawn towards the words. Hopefully, this has created the desired effect of simple yet successful titles.

The cameras we used were also extremely useful in the filming of our production. Technology has allowed cameras to give quick previews of raw footage on location, which meant that we could shoot a scene and look over it to see what needed changing or what we could add to make the mise-en-scene more effective. This was one extremely useful in our group especially as our location was in North Walsham – a place difficult to reach for the majority of our group. Fortunately, one of the members in our group (Adam Ward) had a father who was willing to drive Adam, myself and Andreas to the shop, for which we were extremely grateful. We then thought that it would be a good idea to give Adam’s father a role in the film, and in the final cut, he plays the part of the older man in the last scene; giving the film a final hook.



YouTube and IMDB were both extremely useful websites into our research and planning for our film. I used them both to look further into the world of the thriller films and they gave me a lot of information about the conventions and also let me watch trailers and clips of classic thriller films. Both websites also allow feedback from the general public, meaning that I could see which aspects most appealed to the audience and which we could include in our own films. YouTube also allowed us to publish our own film online and since, we have had various pieces on feedback; all of which were very useful.



BlogSpot is another website to which I owe a huge part of my project. On this website, I was able to post all of my planning, photos, processes, reviews of thrillers and much more. This meant that all of my work could be organised and laid out for other’s to see and witness my progress through the process of making the film.



"To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence." - Quentin Tarantino

As is evident, the internet has played a large part in making our thriller film possible. It has also enabled us to find a soundtrack for our thriller that is un-copyrighted. As is in our prompt, we needed a soundtrack to our film which was either over 50 years old or by an unsigned band. From the MobyGratis website, we found a soundtrack that we believed was perfect for our film. The song ‘across’ is an instrumental/classical piece that could be described as calming; written and performed by an unsigned band. We got in touch with the band and asked whether it would be possible to use the song. They agreed, asking to see the finished production. We wanted to create an ironic statement with our soundtrack, as did Sergio Leone in Once Upon a Time in America with their soundtrack of ‘God Bless America’ in the opening scene. We done this by juxtaposing the soothing piece of music to a violent, ruthless act of murder; out intention was to create a eerie, nightmare-like quality to the atmosphere.

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

In contrast to our preliminary task, it seems that through this project we planned a lot more. Our plans helped us to shoot, edit (and then re-shoot) as with each step, we knew what we had to film, how to edit and what we needed to change. Within our group, we also shot each scene multiple times, with different camera angles (and on our re-shoots, we also varied the lighting as well, after realising the importance of lighting to the tone of the film.) This enabled us to have a range of shots to be able to chose from when it came to editing, and therefore make our film better overall.



The preliminary task also helped us to understand the 180° rule (a guideline stating that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right position to each other unless we see the character physically move to a different position.) This rule helped to create clarity in our narrative and filming; also helped by our practise in continuity editing.

I have also learnt through this project the difficulty of working in the confines of a genre. Each film wants to have a unique selling point and something in the plot which sets it aside from the rest – however, working within the conventions to show our understanding of the genre proved to be a task more complicated than it at first sounds. In the end, my group decided that to be most effective, we’d attempt to create a mix of conventions; camera shots and a narrative structure that we felt were most appealing in our own minds and ended up with a production that will hopefully be liked by others too.

Within our groups, we each made various contributions to the film. We all completed the planning, each offering different suggestions – a concoction which made up our final project, and we discussed our ideas together as a group for a long period of time until we were all completely happy. I completed two audience research methods; both a general one and one focusing specifically on the thriller genre. I used a variation of people for my participants; from peers to family members with an age range of fifteen to thirty five. I wanted a wider age range to discover how broad the appeal of thrillers was and what we could do to include as much of an audience as possible. We shared ideas of costumes and location. I also contributed the costume of the femme fatale (and was also planning to before the our original volunteer to play Grace unfortunately had to pull out). I turned up to every shooting session and I played the role of the femme-fatale – despite the fact that I am not a drama student, or have never done much drama in my life, I tried to do the best job I could as I knew it would have an effect as our project and the group as a whole. I also brought a few handbags (as well as other props) on our first shooting session, although we decided to use one that belonged to the mother of another group member in the end as it seemed the most appropriate for the role, the black colouring lending to the convention of the thriller film and the leather connoting fashion and yet a sense of cruelty. I also brought a lamp that was proposed we use, but decided not to use it in the film – however, it still contributed towards lighting. Since filming, I have also spent every lunchtime (other than the times I have been ill) with my group helping to edit the film.

Overall, I believe that our thriller introduction turned out much better than I thought that it would, and thanks to the hard work of each member of our group, I am extremely proud of it.