2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The opening to our film is set in a family environment in the centre of London. We wanted our characters to fit the stereotype of a warm, loving family with kids. However, we deviated away from having a mother for the two daughters in our film, and kept it a single parent family. I believe this showed the audience the strong bond which can be formed between a father and a child when a mother is not present, because normally the mother is considered the main caregiver. Especially in this case, the two children are daughters whom would normally relate better towards their mother, but the absence of a mother makes their relationship with their father stronger. This in turn makes the struggle for the father to find his kidnapped daughter more passionate and dramatic. On the other hand, one may view fathers as being naturally worse at caring for children than mothers, and therefore when the daughter is kidnapped, the audience may view this as the father being naïve or ignorant for leaving his two young children vulnerably home alone.

We had to choose the actors to play our characters very carefully, as we wanted to make sure that the right representations were carried across to the audience. For example, for our two young actresses, we had two completely different ideas to make them seem younger and more vulnerable. The eldest daughter we tried to portray as being an angst teenager who would be disobedient towards her father’s demands and subsequently lead to the kidnapping of her younger sister. This look is similar to that portrayed by Taylor Momsen in Gossip Girl. This also encourages people of her age to come and view our film as they can relate to her actions at that age in life.




Next, we decided to choose a very young actress to play our youngest daughter so she could create this cute child image; playing with her dolls, talking to her dolls, listening to beautiful music while dressed up. This image which we wanted to be portrayed in our film is the same as that by Drew Barrymore in E.T and Abigail Breslin in Signs.

Finally, in our planning we had to decide on who would play our dad. We came up with the type of real actors that would suit the role that we wanted to be played out and came to the conclusion that someone like Jason Isaac would suit our role as being a caring father but also have the potential to be brutal, strong and forceful at the same time. This idea of the main man in the film being masculine and macho falls in line with the hard lead for men in thriller films. Nicolas Cage in Kick-Ass is a suitable example of the type of image we would like to be represented   in our film, especially as Cage also plays a father who has a 'dark' side as well. 

For cultural background and social status our family is within the bracket of middle-class and British. They live in a big house in the centre of London and later on in the film as the father’s past is revealed, we uncover a secret, spy lifestyle which pays well for him. The absence of a mother adds to the “good father” image which has been created in the opening to our film and is fast becoming more popular in today’s society. The audience will naturally feel sympathetic towards the father as he lost his wife to illness a few years before the time our film was set. It also exemplifies his heroism at the end of the film and therefore makes the ending more dramatic and interesting. I believe verisimilitude is heightened in the opening of our film because of the mundane nature and family environment of which it is set in. This will suite and interest a lot of different audiences as many find it difficult to relate to things so unrealistic or non-representative of the society we live in today. 

JK

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

Many films have inspired different aspects of the opening to our opening sequence, none more so than those in the thriller genre. We looked at a number of films to give us ideas on how successful films have used different techniques to engage and excite the audience. For example the title of our film being ‘Retribution’ in itself gives the audience a clue as to what the film is about before it’s started. This is evident in ‘Taken’, film directed by Pierre Morel which in the name of the film tells the audience that something or someone is going to be stolen. This is a technique which we wanted our film to uphold.

We also had to take into consideration the graphics that our titles would be portrayed in. After deliberation and looking at graphics of other films similar to ours, we came to the conclusion that we would like to keep the title of our film white on black. The simplicity of the title gave our low-budget film the arty look.

Where we decided to locate our film opening was a big decision as having it in a mansion in a low-budget British film would be fairly unusual. Therefore, we decided to film our opening in a typical London house, which is also a fondly used in other British films such as Shifty. I believe the choice of location helps others to relate to the characters and to the area, as it is likely to be similar to their lifestyle.

The costumes that we had our actors wearing also tried to resemble a stereotypical, cosy family environment; with the Dad wearing jeans and a jacket which is probably considered bog-standard. For the girls, we had to make sure that the audience would be able to sympathise with both the elder daughter and younger daughter. We did this by making the youngest daughter look cute and vulnerable, which then makes it more shocking for the audience when she is kidnapped. Then regarding the eldest daughter, we wanted her to seem angst and moody like other teenagers, and therefore signifying her lack of care for her sister. This idea of setting a character up to look vulnerable, so that the audience makes an immediate attachment to them, can be seen in ‘Man on Fire’ with Dakota Fanning dressed innocently to make the audience sympathise and support her as she escapes kidnappers. Altogether, the simplicity and everyday feel of the beginning of our film, helps add to the tension and drama with the girl being kidnapped.

The beginning shots of our opening are to establish the setting, characters and the situation in which our opening start. The opening is mundane and shows no obvious signs of anything untoward happening. Having only had 2 minutes for our opening, we had to establish a way in which to unnerve the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. The first shot that we used to disturb the audience was a point of view shot from a bush; these point of view shots are used commonly in psychological thrillers to make the audience feel as though someone is watching secretly who shouldn’t be.

The non-diegetic sound that we use in our opening also adds to a slightly uncomfortable situation for the audience. First of all, the music box playing an eerie, mysterious, high pitched children’s lullaby heightens the tension and confuses the audience, as it continues to play when the Dad goes to shop, I believe this foreshadows to the audience a build to an event, inside this opening 2 minutes. This tense, eerie music being overlaid our shots is taken from films such as Paranormal Activity where the sound builds up to a climax, until it jumps and has the audience jump.

 A number of things which we set out to do were changed having seen them back in our reccee. For instance, we had first planned to make our film a hard-hitting thriller which would later unravel and become quite violent, like that in the film Taken. This would also include making our titles bold, strong and large. However, our film has turned out to be rather something quite different, swaying more towards the psychological side, with our titles, sound and shots.

For all parents, the kidnapping of a child is a nightmare which they hope they will never have to face in their real lives. However, for some parents, it has become stark reality when their child is stolen and can ruin their lives. Hopefully, our take on the kidnapping of a child will show our audience, the effect it has on the parents, but also the strength and determinist view of a parent to get their child back. This strong bond between parent and offspring can be seen in Taken and Hostage. 

JK

Shot list

Number	Cut	Type	Visual Content	Sound	Colour	Time	Characters
1	-	-	White on Black title – ‘Retribution’	SoundBridge – Fridge door opening.	Black	4	-
2		Mid-long shot.	Dad opening Fridge realising no milk. Actors’ names come up in contrast to colours on walls – small writing.	Diegetic	High key – inside.	6	Dad
3	Pan to the right	Mid-long shot.	Follows Dad until he talks to daughter playing with dolls.	Dialogue – ‘Sweetie I’m just popping out alright. I’ll be back soon.’	High key	6	Dad and Sophie (Youngest daughter)
4	Pans back to the left	Mid-long shot	Follows Dad as he walks through door.	Diegetic – footsteps, Dialogue – calls to Jess	High key	4	Dad
5	Straight Cut/Continuity Editing	Mid shot.	Shot down the corridor, with Dad central. Stairs going up on the right.	Diegetic - footsteps	High Key – Light coloured walls.	3	Dad
6	Pan upwards	Mid-long shot	Jess appears at bottom of stairs with headphones in. Dad looking up to her.	Diegetic	High Key	2	Dad and Jess (Eldest daughter)
7	Straight Cut	Close up on Jess’ face	Jess’ face – reveals identity and type of character. Teenage angst looks.	Dialogue – ‘Yeah, what’s up?’ Diegetic sounds coming out of Jess’ headphones	High Key	4	Jess
8	Shot/Reverse shot	Close up on Dad’s face	Dad’s face – reveals his identity and type of character. Middle aged. Smart Casual clothing	Dialogue – ‘I’m just quickly going to the shops. Keep an eye on your sister, ok?’	High Key	5	Dad
9	Shot/Reverse shot	Close up on Jess’ face.	Jess’ face	Dialogue – ‘Yes Dad.’	High Key	3	Jess
10	Shot/Reverse shot	Over the shoulder shot	Jess’ shoulder and Dad’s face as he turns away to leave house.	Diegetic – footsteps	High Key	3	Jess and Dad
11	Straight Cut/Continuity Editing	Mid-Long shot down corridor	Dad walks down corridor to front door and opens and leaves.	Diegetic	High Key	4	Dad
12	Straight Cut	ECU	Outside house showing Dad clearly shuts door.	Door slams shut, diegetic sounds outside.	Dusk, eerie.	3	Dad
13	Straight Cut	Mid shot	Sophie playing with dolls, she gets up and walks over to something.	Very quiet	High Key	4	Sophie
14	Straight Cut/Continuity editing	Close Up	Sophie winds up music box	Sound of her winding box	High Key	5	Sophie
15	Continuity editing	Extreme Close up	Music box opens, ballerina spins around	Music box begins to play – ‘Love Story’	High Key	3	-
16	Cross cut	POV shot out of bush. Zooms in as Dad walks away.	Dad walks down street away from camera	Diegetic – sounds of dusk – cars, birds etc ‘Love Story’ continues to play	Dusk, dark lighting.	4	Dad
17	Straight cut	Long shot	‘Cosy Corner’ shop, Dad comes into shot and walks up to door of shop	Diegetic – outside atmosphere. ‘Love Story’	Dusk	5	Dad
18	Cross cut	Mid shot	Sophie playing with dolls, looking cheerful.	‘Love Story’ continues.	High Key	5	Sophie
19	Cross Cut	Mid-long shot inside shop	Dad walks up to fridge picks up milk and goes to the counter.	‘Love Story’ continues	High Key inside shop	5	Dad and cashier
20	Straight Cut	Close up	Cashiers face	Dialogue – ‘ That’s £2.50’	High Key	4	Cashier
21	Shot/Reverse shot	Close up	Dad’s face, looking down at money. Looks up at the end as he leaves.	Dialogue – ‘There you go, thanks’	High Key	5	Dad
22	Cross Cut	Mid shot	Sophie still playing with dolls	‘Love Story’ continues.	High Key	4	Sophie
23	Cross Cut	Mid-long shot	Dad at the door of Cosy Corner leaving, with two shopping bags	Love Story suddenly cuts out and the silence returns.	Low key - Dusk	5	Dad
24	Cross Cut	Mid shot. Zooms in on	Room where Sophie was, the dolls are still there and the music box is open, but the music isn’t playing and Sophie isn’t there.	Silence	High Key	6	-
25	Cross Cut	Mid Shot	Dad walking down street as he walks up to his door with shopping bags	Diegetic	Dusk	5	Dad
26	Straight Cut/continuity editing	Long shot	Front Door is ajar. Dad walks into shot carrying shopping	Diegetic	Dusk	3	Dad
27	Straight Cut	Close up	Dad’s face looking shocked and worried	Diegetic	Dusk	2	Dad
28	Straight Cut	Close up	Dad dropping his shopping bags	Diegetic	Dusk	2	Dad
29	Straight Cut	Mid shot	Dad puts his hand into his jacket, pulls out a gun and walks up to the door	Diegetic	Dusk	3	Dad
30	Straight Cut	Close Up	Dad opens the ajar door with the gun	Diegetic	Dusk	3	Dad

This shotlist came in handy when we went out to shoot our reccee and our final piece. We used it as reference on what shots we planned to take and also how long we aimed for them to last. This enabled us to keep well within our time targets and also meant that we weren't holding our actors up.  Without it, it would have been extremely difficult to complete the final product that we had planned for.

JK