Evaluation

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

Our media product fits into the genre of a thriller film.

Film Title

The group all had an input for the name of the film as we all came up with different ideas. We ended up with the name In Justice, as this fits into the feel of the film as its about a corrupt lawyer who tortures and kills the clients he believes are guilty. The name of the film appears at the end of the opening sequence. We decided to have it at the end as we didn’t want to interrupt the audiences attention towards the scene as the name could distracts them from the film itself.

Location of filming

As a group we tried to think of a location that would make the torture look realistic and connote to the audience that this is a serious scene. I ended up asking my friend if we could use his garage as it’s a bit untidy and grotty and looked a true to life location that a torture would take place. He ended up agreeing to us using it so we booked the camera and was ready to film. The garage was a great location as its spacious and allowed us to film from good angles to entice the audience. We also decided to use a deck chair as the chair that the victim was sitting on as we thought that this added to the uncomfort of the victim and made the lawyer look more weird and crazy as it looks like hes just improvised with the surroundings.

The first shot of the lawyer, or Michael Goldberg his name, walking into the garage and pulling the pillow case off of the victims head sets up a tense atmosphere and connotes to the audience that this is going to be a thrilling opening as this torture technique is seen in many gangster films and films in a similar genre.

We used a pag light filming the opening sequence to allow continuity through mise en scene.

Throughout the torture scene we hear the victim (Johnson Payne) screaming and trying to tell the lawyer that he has a family and he doesn’t know what hes talking about as he believes that he didn’t kill the woman who hes being accused of killing. As a group we thought that the build up of aggression and frustration of being accused would be taken out and Johnson ended up retaliating from the accusations by insulting the lawyer who reacts by shooting him in the leg.

We decided to use a gun in the scene as we knew that we could edit it to make a real gun sound and add to the reality of the scene. As we didn’t have the access to good make up and realistic props that the experts have we decided to use the gun which is not normally used in torture scenes as it seen as ending it quickly so we had the lawyer shoot the victim in the leg so the scene wouldn’t end as fast.

The torture scene shows typical conventions of a thriller, such as the scene where the lawyer is shouting at Johnson asking him if he likes the pain, which is kind of similar to the torture scenes in Reservoir Dogs and James Bond Casino Royale.

In Reservoir Dogs we see the torturer having a laugh and a joke with the victim after he has been serious with him. We decided to follow the basis of this torture scene as this is voted one of the best thriller/gangster films of all time.

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

I have decided to compare our protagonist, the psychopathic lawyer Michael Goldberg to Mr. Blonde from the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.

These characters are represented as being psychopathic mad men as they have the ability to be crazy and commit horrible actions on people.

In the Reservoir Dogs Mr. Blonde torture scene we see him turn on the radio and torture the police officer in a jokingly sort of way by dancing and playing around with a knife. As a group we thought this was a good idea as it goes against the typical conventions of a torture scene in a thriller film but it still manages to grab the attention of the audience.

We decided that the lawyer should joke around and tease the victim but no to the extent that Mr. Blonde does as we aren’t capable of filming to that sort of level.

In Reservoir Dogs Mr. Blonde is a character who is open and doesn’t really care for anyone else but himself, the character Michael Goldberg is also represented in this way in out film as the victim is begging him to stop by saying he’s got a family but the lawyer doesn’t care which is similar to the police officer in Reservoir Dogs who begs Mr. Blonde not to kill or hurt him.

There aren’t any real differences in the two characters apart from the obvious difference in storylines but I think we created the same mise en scene by the clothing of both characters and the way that they both torture in the two scenes.

But overall they both represent men who have a mental problems and psychopathic but strong minded ways about them. They both have issues and problems that they take out on other people, in these cases a police officer and a client of a crazy lawyer.

In both films there isn’t any attempt to make the character mysterious, which is what sometimes occurs in thriller films and especially in torture scenes. We did think about trying to hide the identity of our protagonist but we decided it would be too difficult, as we don’t have the filming skills to maintain the mystery.