Location Inspiration - The Woods

Much like the Disappearance of Alice Creed, one of our locations would include a forest, as seen in the screen shot below, it could be suggestive of the disposal of a body, by adding a torch and spade.

As for our own location, I search woods and forests in London for inspiration. I came across these night time shots, which could be particularly effective as it allows for great shadows, and contrasting light to be seen through the gaps of the trees. The shadows could also be used for a dramatic shot, while emphasising the chiaroscuro to continue our film noir tone. 

EL

Locations - The Warehouse

Much like in Reservoir Dogs, we want our trailer to include scenes in a warehouse, with a victim tied down to a chair in some sort of interrogative scene.

For our location, we had a quick search of the internet for inspiration. We are hoping to include a warehouse in our trailer, used as the protagonist female character will be taken here and tied up while the antagonists decide what to do with her. 

We want a grungy effect, with dark and messy rooms, surrounded by raw brick walls. There should be small windows to allow minimal light in, allowing for the film noir style we are going for. The examples shown above are what we are aiming for, and will be searching for something very similar to these. 

EL

Main film influences

 

The films above are our main influences for our own media product. Though they are not all directly influencing us in our plot, the characters and style of the trailers are what we are incorporating as well. The first trailer: The Town, as been a massive influence in our plot and locations, using the urban environment of London that we are surrounded by. In the trailer, there is also the Investigator, with the interview at the start of the trailer, which is what we will be incorporating into ours.

 

In the Disappearance of Alice Creed, the trailer gives us multiple influences, those including locations. The use of small dark rooms and the wood, about half way through the trailer are styles of locations we will include in out trailer. The wood is suggestive of disposal of bodies, and so will be what we will incorporate for this exact reason. The plot is also similar, as we too will include scenes of a kidnapping of a female character, so we will look to use similar shots and scenes.



From 7 Minutes, we will also be using part of the plot, as well as the main character (Sam) played by Luke Mitchel. The idea of 'never go in with someone who has more to lose than you do' will be incorporated into our film, and the idea of the young guy, who has the family, being the vulnerable one in the group. As for Luke Mitchel himself, we will use his youth, and hesitant character to develop our own, as well as being incorporated from other similar characters from other films.

 

From Reservoir Dogs, we will use the basic style, which seems natural in the sense that there is no over the top pyro technics, camera shots, chase scenes or shootouts. We like the idea of characters with names, dressed in suits, and so this is something we will use. The location in the warehouse, that where the torture scene commences inspired us to use a similar location, that which we are currently in search of. Mr Pink is inspiration for our middle aged psychotic character, while Mr white is the basis for our wiser and older character.

 

We like the postmodern film noir style of Nightcrawler, and so we are looking to incorporate the same style and tone as this. Along side this, the extensive use of night time will be what we will copy, allowing for huge sections of chiaroscuro to be present.



Although the Dark Knight clip is not a trailer, we really enjoyed the opening, with its fast pace soundtrack, and mix between sections of comedy and violence. The masks are appropriate, and the camera work is what we liked most. The overall feel of the heist is something we want to recreate in the form of a house robbery.

EL

Psychopath Character - Influences and Ideas

Every film of this genre has a character who is the 'crazy' one ie the one that goes off the script and does something insane/stupid. Our character would be the one who would be supporting the idea of killing the girl. We should aim to have the actor be quite rough and look slightly strange however this may prove to be quite challenging.

As Reservoir Dogs is a primary source of influence for us the character in this scenario is Mr Blond, played by Michael Madson. Mr Blond is the crazy character who starts shooting people in the shop and kidnaps a police officer. He is also the one who tortures him, as we are aiming to have our film a 15 we wouldn't quite go to the extent of torture and instead would just have the girl tied up. You don't quite get a distinctive psychopathic feel when you immediately see Mr Blond however when you actually see how he acts you certainly get the feeling that he's crazy. This shows us that it's not essential to have the crazy character look crazy its more how he acts.

Ezra Miller is an actor who has played a psychopathic character in 'We need to Talk About Kevin' in this film he plays an unhinged teenager who has been sent to prison after committing a massacre at his school. Our character most likely wouldn't be quite that psychopathic and instead be more like Mr Blonde who has his moments of madness. Ezra Millar is a good actor to look it however as ideally this character will have to be slightly older, mid 20s but that may not be possible and therefore we would need an actor who would be our age but look slightly older, therefore this film could be used as inspiration for an actor. The actor most likely wouldn't have to brilliant as he wouldn't have that dialogue and instead would have a lot of shots during the montage as he would be at the centre of the conflict. 

De Niro in Taxi Driver is another unhinged character who we should definitely take influence from. Being an war veteran he is proficient with weapons, which our character should have. De Niro in this film is also a similar age to the character which we are looking for and has a similar look to the one that I am imagining, a strong and tough looking male.

AF

Character - Police Detective

Jon Hamm plays the detective / police officer in the Tow, a film that has been a major influence into our own product. The character himself is a middle aged, rough detective, who's driven to send the crew that commit the heist to prison. He is ruthless, yet charming, being aggressive and forceful when it comes down to the dirty work itself. He takes on the macho role, being tough and fearless. We want our character to be similar, wearing smart clothes consisting of a suit, while having a deep husky voice. He should be well built, and command the scene when present. His visual presence should be short hair, with defined features, but nothing more than what seems like an average man. The clip below reveals a little about his personality, and his driven mind set to send the villains to prison.

James McAvoy plays the detective in welcome to the punch, who takes on a similar role to Jon Hamm, in that he is courages to  pursue the villain, in this case played by Mark Strong. His clothing (at times) is similar, as scene in the second and third picture, he often wears smart clothes including a shirt and tie. This is something we will want our character to be wearing. James McAvoy is younger than Jon Hamm, though we want to find a middle ground between the two ages, so that the detective is of similar ages to some of the men who committed the heist. His character is calm and collected, but throughout the film is seen to, at moments, lose control in his eager attempts to capture Mark Strong. 

EL

The girl - Influences and Ideas

Our trailer will contain one female main character, who resides in the house when the robbery takes place, who then later tries to escape and is finally captured with an uncertain ending. We want her character to be a combination of the stereotypical 'weak' female that is often portrayed in the media to make her appear vulnerable; yet also courageous in the scenes she is trying to escape. For this type of female character, inspiration can be taken from Amanda Seyfried's character in 'Gone'. Her appearance is exactly what we would be looking for in our own trailer, as i would estimate her to be around 18-25 years of age and has an innocent appearance.

Inspiration can also be drawn from the character of Alice Creed, played by Gemma Artenton. Compared to Seyfried's, she appears much more masculine and looks like she has been treated with more brutality, implied from element of her form being in a tracksuit and with make up that has run down her face. Furthermore, minimal feminine features are visually seen in the clothing and the action of dying Arteton's hair darker, makes her appear with greater strength. The character of Alice Creed is not meant to be like your typical good girl, she represents a British girl who is trying everything in her power to escape the men that have captured her. 

For our trailer, we would most likely be asking someone of our age group to play the female role and so we would be able to apply conventions of the two characters above.

EJ

Young guy with everything to lose (main character) - Influences and Ideas

He plays a young, nervous man who is desperate for the money. Though it is not initially clear, later the rest of the heist members learn that he is a father with a recently born young child - desperate for expensive medications that will save his daughters life. His character should take on several roles, being yet slightly younger than the rest of the cast, and slightly more unsure of himself. He needs to be dressed more casually and speak in a hesitant voice. However along with these faults, when he is pressured he need to be aggressive and violent, and be able to step up to the play. 

Taron Egerton is the first main influence for the role of this character. As previously mentioned, the character should be young, skilful, but not entirely sure of himself, something that this actor is seen to do in the opening to his career opening film 'Kingsman'. His young, attractive style, with a twist of modern urban culture along with him growing up with a rough situation is what we want to incorporate into our film. 

That being said, young Matt Damon in the Ocean series is a similar sort of character. He is intelligent, wears smart clothes and is incredibly good when it comes to the heist. He too plays the young, incompetent character, who develops into a key role, with his looks, clothes and hesitance at first, our character will take this role on strongly. 

Luke Mitchel is the actor who plays Sam in 7 Minutes, a heist film where he plays a leading role. Though we are not focusing so much on his character and looks, we want to use his plot involvement, as he is the man with the newly born baby and wife that he must supply for. This will be a huge part of our film, creating all sorts of tensions along the way. As you can see in the third picture (from the trailer itself) we want to include shots of him with his wife to make it clear about his given situation. 

EL