The Fifth day- Audience & representation of social groups

Audiences & representation of social groups

My media product is aimed towards young adults, as this type of thriller often gratifies their need for an adrenaline rush, without isolating them with stereotypical teenage pursuits for example clubbing. It creates and builds tension in them and allows them to experience the pleasure of an adrenaline rush and the euphoria one would bring on afterwards. The darker shots in the beginning are used to build tension, they show the femme fatales inner darkness, the twisted mentality of her character. It sets the dark tone and creates an enigma from the get go- Who is in the images? whose hands are shown? Whose lips? 

By first opening the film with a mixture of point of view shots from the femme fatale (Josie Lovel) and titles I aimed create an enigma for the audience. It allowed them insight into the characters dark mind and showed them the depth of her characters personality. However it is not initially clear that it is her characters point of view, this adds to the enigma, the only things that are clear is that the character who's hands and lips are shown killed a girl. It's the subtle hint towards it being Josie that builds drama and mystery.  This dark representation of a female femme fatale meets the conventional codes and conventions of a film noir. Femme fatales in classic film noir films are shown to be beautiful, naïve to the world and in need of a 'hero' this is part of their allure that reels in the detective in the film. 

My Femme Fatale

This is done in my film and shown clearly in the voice over when detective Greyson talks about feeling 'like a fly lead by a spider' They are usually beautiful, wearing the latest high fashion clothing and quite often speak with a upper crust English accent. Although my character is not actually shown to be talking she is shown to be wearing a nice coat with a fur hood outline. This fits to the characters codes and conventions. These attributes all add to the audiences opinion of the femme fatale, they make her appear intelligent, classy and almost too good for the detective. This innocent persona is usually seen through quite easily, revealing the femme fatale to be dangerous, selfish, cunning and manipulative.

The stereotypical classic femme fatale- (shot from the Maltese falcon)

 This would make the audience especially females feel a little empowered but also resentful towards the negative stereotype. Especially as in today's society women are striving for gender equality. 

This negative female representation of a femme fatale is juxtaposed by the female detective in my film. By having both a negative and positive representation of females in my film opening i'm trying to both show the codes and conventions and but also a modern woman who is more relatable to the audience. By having a female detective which is a stereotypically male role the typical codes and conventions of a film noir are being challenged. the two role female detective and femme fatale oppose each other, showing two sides of women. The female detective is also used in my film to represent a side of reason, she's not going to be fooled by the femme fatale like the male detective.

Female Detective

I also decided to make the female detective paper more modern in the way she dressed, by wearing a leather coat instead of a typical trench I hoped to make the character more easily relatable to a younger audience as her attire would be something they would wear.  

The male detective in my film noire is a classic detective based on classic detectives such as Sam Spade from Maltese Falcon or a more modern Detective William Somerset from Se7en. I wanted to keep to the codes and conventions with my male detective to show contrast between the two detectives. The female was more modern whereas the male was a more classic representation. This is clearly seen in the mise-en-scene as he wears a classic fedora and suit- the fundamental detective uniform. By making him quite classic the male audience would not really be able to see him as relatable as her although played by a young actor is representing an older persona.