♥ EVALUATION

AS Practical Production http://deannatation.blogspot.com/

 vLog Contents
Who would be the audience for your media
product and how would out attract them?

What have you learnt about technologies

from the process of constructing this
product?

Some final words...

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

This is an aerial shot of someone who is working for the

femme fatale- and it is suggested that he meets an
untimely demise at the hands of our protagonist, this
camera angle suggests that he is being watched and sets
up a whole mood for the film, a sense of omniscience and
judgement between good and evil. Ethics is always a
strong undertone in Noir, with most of the protagonists
being sleuths or police officers.

The use of low angle shots create a sense of power and

control- we used low angle shots for two characters to
get the audience thinking about the motivations of the
characters, Film Noir incorporates mystery and crime
into the plot, keeping the audience on their toes.

Deanna Quirke
When it came to the camera angle- it was extremely
important to incorporate a lot of close shots as they are
one of the trade mark camera angles for a femme
fatale. Close ups draw the audience in closer, and
builds an intimate trust with the characters on screen
just to break it with the horrendous things that they do-
this reflects the true ‘black widow’ nature of a femme
fatale, meaning that it definitely needed to be used in
our project.
Teamed with dark shading, black and white effect and a pair of full lips illuminated- this was a perfect femme
fatale camera angle that we used throughout our film opening. Though the main femme fatale is rarely introduced
the audience so early on, our web survey claimed that it wanted to see male and female characters quite early
on, so we had her appear the film opening which challenged common conventions of Film Noir.
Close ups, like in the case of the femme fatale were very important to the protagonist as
well, but we also teamed this with long shots and midshots to show him in his
surroundings- almost making him appear to be quite streetwise and very aware of his
surroundings. We also played around with ‘side shots’- that give the impression that the
character is up to something. We tried to make the good guy look bad, and contrasted
with the voiceover played over the top- this tried in with the conventions of Film Noir
that the protagonist is just a regular guy who’s out for revenge.
Who would be the audience for your media product and how
would out attract them?

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Deanna Quirke
 How does your media product represent particular social
groups?

We actually used the close up as the sole camera shot for the femme
fatale in the film opening, though an upward tilting long shot that tracks
up the body is another signature camera angle for a femme fatale as it
shows the - we, as a group, thought that this type of angle was solely
used for when the femme fatale was seducing the protagonist, and in
this opening we wanted her to seem more ‘evil’ than attractive.
The sunglasses, dark shading and the fact that we never see her eyes
makes her appear like she has something to hide. I played the femme
fatale, and I chose to play her in an RP accent to give an air of
pompousness about her- also maybe to make her seem more along the
lines of a ‘rich girl’ or a ‘socialite’ to show that she is educated and
refined, and that is why she is the one on the other end of the telephone
and not actually doing the work herself.

The Postman Always Rings Twice: Cora

drops her lipstick case and as she picks
it up, the camera scans up her body.

Deanna Quirke
Our project represents women
as extremely strong creatures,
and men as weak and easily
controlled. Our femme fatale’s
henchman is brought to an
untimely demise all because of
her orders, she lets him know
that she doesn’t care what
happens to him, because she
has taken measures to ensure
he can never be traced back to
her. The fact that he still
continues to do her bidding
suggests that she has the
upper hand and all the control-
and whilst the illuminated lips
and high heels make her
appear to be a sex object, she
has the higher status.
The issue of age and race isn’t really so much of an issue in our film, and in Film Noir in
general. As I’ve stated above, the real representation issues are that involving gender.
Film Noir takes the usual representations of males and females (the separate sphere
ideology) and shatters them, making women the strong, ruthless ones out for personal
gain- and men the meek ones, just trying to do what they think is good.
Though Film Noir tends to represent women in a bad light, there is also many positives to this
kind of representation. For example, in a variety of genres such as drama and romantic
comedies- a woman’s sexuality makes her weak, for example, if she falls in love too easily or she
is lead astray by a man- then it is her fault. However, within the genre of Film Noir, a female’s
passion and sexuality makes her strong and ruthless, giving her power and the real upper hand in
business and relationships. The femme fatale gets her own way and can have anyone do
anything for her- though the femme fatale is portrayed as evil and in many cases, disturbed(!),
this a fresh representation of a strong and sagacious female as opposed to the meek young girl
in so many genres of film.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?

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The importance of camera angles...

Deanna Quirke
 What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?

Dimension Films have a contract to distribute the Sin City franchise, the main influence of our project and probably most
well-loved neo-noir of recent years- this means that’d they’d be perfect for distributing ‘The Lucky Number’. As the
distributors tend to advertise their work amongst each other, people would be watching Sin City could possibly see an advert
for ‘The Lucky Number’. However, Dimension are also known for distributing films like Scream, 18 rated horror films that
would wipe out a huge chunk of our market from the high rated certificate. But it would be naïve to think that this means that
underage people don’t actually watch them- if Dimension chose to DVD advertise ‘The Lucky Number’, which would be rated
a 15 (for the slick, and suggested) violence, then those who are too young to watch Sin City in the cinemas could see that
‘The Lucky Number’ is quite similar and rated an appropriate age for them to go watch the movie at the cinema without
sneaking in or getting an older person to buy their tickets for them!

Though Dimension Films are known for distributing slasher flicks and other gory films as opposed to sleek Film Noir, this is a
positive because they are not a stranger to ‘darker’ films and know the target market and how to really sell them to the
audience. Also, something else that really makes Dimension Films stand out to us is that they are one of the most prevalent
studios, as well as distributing horror/thrillers over the world, they produce/release independent films and foreign-language
films in America. As Film Noir is deemed quite arty by today’s standards, then ‘The Lucky Number’ would most likely been an
independent film, also if we assume that we made this film in England, then the it would fit the foreign/independent bill that
Dimension Films are so accustomed to.

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Deanna Quirke
Some final words...

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