Who were you attempting to target with the opening sequence?
Our target audience, as previously mentioned, is very versatile. Our aim is to have a variety of people watch our film and hopefully come out of it questioning society and people's intentions.
Which characters did you use? Where these archetypal of the film genre? What roles did they take in the film?
The main character in our film is a lower-middle class young man who works in a kitchen. I wouldn't say that this is an archetypal of thrillers, as majority of the protagonists in thrillers are either teenagers or middle-aged men. Our character fits right in between those two commonly used demographics.
What themes/ issues were represented in the film – did these reflect any particular ideologies – dominant or alternative? Could these be linked to other examples from other films?
Our thriller is psychological and explores the idea that as humans we all have a dark side. We were heavily inspired by Carl Jung and his theory that the only real danger that exists is man himself, and that us humans are the origin of all evil. He suggested the shadow or "shadow aspect" ;(1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself....it is largely negative. Films such as 'American Psycho' and ''Psycho' explore psychopathy, obviously to a much more intense extent but nevertheless are inspired by similiar ideologies as ours; that every human has something evil inside them and has the capability to inflict pain on others.
Have you reinforced or challenged stereotypes in your opening sequence?
I wouldn't say that we are reinforcing or challenging a stereotype, we are merely exposing human nature and the types of people who exist in our society that we are (largely) unaware of. The only aspect of our character that conforms to the stereotypes about mental unstable people is the violence and murderous qualities. It is commonly misjudged that all people with mental disorders are dangerous, and our thriller reinforces that stereotype. "Most news accounts portray people with mental illness as dangerous" (Wahl, 1995).
Overall, what social group have you represented?
As we only have one character in our opening sequence we are only representing one gender; young males. We have represented him as being violent and dangerous, which does conform the to the stereotype that most thriller films reinforce; that masculinity is seen through violence.
Our thriller also represents someone who suffers from a mental disorder and the self-harming thoughts that they may suffer, however we have challenged that slightly as our opening sequence shows him smiling about the pain that he is inflicting on himself.
Our thriller also represents someone who suffers from a mental disorder and the self-harming thoughts that they may suffer, however we have challenged that slightly as our opening sequence shows him smiling about the pain that he is inflicting on himself.
Lo x
Loa
ReplyDeleteI feel that you need to also consider the issues that you have attempted to represent in your film opening sequence - almost as if you are dealing with a split personality. The social group you are representing are young men - there are also comparisons here with films like American Psycho? You do need to explore the issue of masculinity which is very strong in your opening sequence & the representation of violence? CA you follow-up these points on your blog. Try to use hyperlinks which demonstrate the points that you want to make.