AS Media

     In terms of genre, our group had obviously decided to create a crime thriller and, in truth, it is a fairly stereotypical representation of the genre. There's not much that subverts any stereotype of any kind especially considering as we went for a person of mixed ethnicity as an arms dealer which obviously follows the racial stereotype that black people are associated with crime. This is the general theme with our film, we have two young adult characters which follows the stereotype that young people are associated with crime and are never up to much good. 

     When looking at our characters more in depth, we decided to not push the boat out too much with Luke's character being a young stern male looking to sell on a weapon to a potential buyer - in this case, Jordan's character who is also young and looks fairly intimidating. Neither character has too much dialogue besides Jordan's one liner which was intended to be deep voiced and give an air of mystery as well as alluding to a potential criminal group that we would intend to reveal later on in the film. Obviously we couldn't (or rather didn't) want to give away too much information at the start of the film like, for example, giving a name of the group or any pictures because we wanted the one liner to build some form of suspense and tension too. If we had another chance, I'd say that we would have gone back and made a business card to make it look more official or to perhaps make it look like it's more organised crime which is really what we had intended. upon reflection, I feel that perhaps the scribbled number on the paper does look like it's invovled in some kind of criminal activity but not like it's organised enough. It looks like a kind of rushed crime that was quickly thought up of when we really wanted to put across the idea that this was planned ahead of time. 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

     One way we did subvert a stereotype was that we used Luke's motorbike instead of a car but it wasn't really by choice. As you'll see by our storyboard, we intended to use a car (preferably with tinted windows) but we were unable to find anyone that could provide us with this and Luke only had a motorbike so we decided it would perhaps be an interesting choice to use that instead. It also gave us a chance to use up some time with Luke equipping his gear before heading out; the addition of the gear also could have connotations that danger was to follow too. We had almost decided that it could give the idea that the protective gear was an omen of bad things to come which could build tension for the following hotel scene.

     

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

     In terms of the settings, we once again didn't particularly push the boat out too far with the hotel, stairs and youth club. You could argue that our choice of using the youth club was perhaps a subversion of stereotype but we chose it because we felt it most resembled a place of work for a young person and a place where firearms could be traded. The fact that there is a football cage there also provided us with a chance to have a shot from behind the bars which gave us the idea of making Luke look suspicious or that he was maybe being watched by someone. When we chose the hotel we had hoped that the day(s) we went to film that maybe not many people would be there but we were disappointed upon arrival to see a few cars around. We could still work around this though as there weren't too many cars to make the setting seem too busy. The general idea was to give us a remote place for a deal to go down and the idea of a temporary reservation at a location - probably under a fake name - appealed to us a lot and it was very easy and practical to use the Premier Inn. 

     

 

 

 

 

 

     

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

     

 

     When looking at costumes, we wanted there to be a professional feel to how our characters came across; we achieved this through smart shirts and ties as well as our briefcase prop. The outfits definitely subvert the usual stereotype of rough-looking clothing or tracksuits that are usually associated with street crime. In fact I believe our choice of clothing puts across the idea of organised crime very well. Of course, the main prop we used - the BB gun - upholds the firearm stereotype seen in most thrillers. The BB gun is a pistol rather than any other type of weapon which symbolises the character just starting off in the firearms trade and it represents how most dealers would start, thus not subverting the stereotype.

 

 

 

 

     

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     On the whole, then, our film tends to stick to the general thriller genre including many common conventions but breaks the mould in some instances.