Costume Evaluation

After conducting our audience research and discovering that our target audience prefer modern thrillers we decided to try and choose an actress similar to those in modern thrillers, so we recruted an actress who looks similar to Uma Thruman. In the end we decided on the costume, worn by our actress, for a number of reasons. As our actress has blonde hair we decided to dress her completely in black to cause a strong contrast, making her hair look even lighter next to the dark clothing. The light hair gives her an innocent look which gives her a certain irony. If closely insepected the black jacket has a faint grey criss cross pattern which gives a cage like appearance. Making it almost as is she is encaptured within the black of the coat and with black being a colour associated with evil, it gives her a dark look. This connotes that she is a good person but she is trapped inside an evil world, causing her do evil things, such as stealing this suitcase.

Character Stereotype

Character Stereotype: The ‘Party Animal’

Examples: Chris from Skins Series 1 and 2
Cook from Skins Series 3

Storylines
Characters within this stereotype are usually associated with storylines that involve the leisure and socialising side of teen life. Therefore the storylines these characters are featured in normally involve all the usual aspects of teenager’s social lives such as: Drugs, alcohol, sex, parties and music. These characters normally get the fun side of the programme however they are sometimes involved in the really hard hitting storylines too, involving addiction, abandonment and other dark scenarios that can occur in teenage lives.

Appearance
There does not appear to be a set appearance for this type of character as they can be found in numerous types of costume, all completely different. For example, there is cook from the third series of skins who tends to be very well dressed in expensive brands such as lyle and scott, which is currently popular with teens. On the other hand there are ‘party animal’ characters like Chris from the first two series of skins normally appears to be tired and dishevelled with messy hair and unbranded, brightly coloured clothes. He seems more fittingly dressed for a student as the clothing he is wearing is cheap and suited to a rave or house party rather than anything formal.

I think a key feature of the ‘party animal’ character is that they can come in all shapes and sizes. There is no set routine of how they look or act, this simply adds to their wild way of living and their lifestyle.

Chris from Skins Series 1 and 2
Chris fits in perfectly with the stereotype of the ‘free spirit’ character, more commonly known to youths nowadays as the ‘party animal.’ They way he acts, speaks, dresses and shows his feelings all fit in with the way characteristics of this stereotype.
He is normally dressed in scruffy(ish) clothes, as if he is always ready to get messy, wearing clothes that are old and he doesn’t mind being ruined. He also wears lots of bright colours which was very fitting to the ‘new rave’ fashion that was very popular around the time of the first series being released.
He is not the type of person to where his heart on his sleeve when it comes to emotions, he tends to look on the bright side of life and not let anything get to him.
His storylines all seem to feature drugs, sex, alcohol and parties, other than the hard hitting one featured in the first series where his mum abandons him and he loses his house.
He is pretty much the opposite of Tony, who is seen to be the intellect, who is very much in control of his life, well dressed and well spoken.


Cook from Skins Series 3
Cook is the opposite of Chris, however he still fits into the Party Animal stereotype as he has that one distinctive feature that sets party animals apart, none of them look or appear to be alike. Their only common feature is how they act alike, which is where Cook is recognisably inspired by the character of Chris.
His appearance is different to that of Chris’ as he dresses in brands and expensive clothing lines. He also takes care with styling his hair too.
He too does not show any emotion and does not appear to be able to become attached to any of the girls he has flings with.
His storylines are similar to Chris’ as they all involve sex, drugs, girls and alcohol. However he too has had to deal with abandonment but from friends not family.
He is the opposite of Freddy, as Freddy has a deeper personality and seems to believe in doing the right thing. He is also more dependant on other people and forms emotional bonds with them, rather than having flings with them.

Media Mock Exam

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I have failed very badly on this essay, however from it i can see my mistakes and know for future how not to write in the exam.

Preliminary Task

This is my groups final Preliminary Task cut after edit....

From Dawn till Dusk

'From Dawn till Dusk' is a film directed by Quentin Tarrintino and stars him and George Clooney as two brothers and professional thieves. The plot goes on to lead the film into more of a horror as it involves vampires and too much gore for it to be a thriller. However the opening scene is set in a road side shop in the middle of the desert. This place is made out to be very unglamorous, which is exactly what gives it a thriller edge. This is done by the costumes of the characters, who supposedly live there, all of which are old and drab looking. The shop itself is more of a shack and is in an awful state in this desolate location. This image created, in comparison with normal society, looks very backward and almost menacing in the way that its the only place for miles around, if anything was to happen to anyone nobody would ever know. We have taken some of the features from this, such as the dull lighting and used them within our thriller opening to give it a desolate and menacing look.

1408

Like Silence of the Lambs and Heavenly Creatures, 1408 is not actually a thriller, however it features characteristics of a thriller. The basic plot is that there is a writer who travels around supposedly haunted hotels and stays the night in the to prove that they are not haunted. This eventually escalades into him recieving a postcard inviting him to the Dolphin Hotel in New York, where he comes across a room which truly is haunted, in which he loses his mind. The films genre is more towards horror, however the clsoe up shots of the writer cause confusion and build up suspence in the audience's mind because they cannot be sure of what is coming next. The most fitting part of this film into the mise-en-scene of a thriller is the setting of it, the majority of the film is shot in one hotel room where the character is completely isolated from everyone and everything. This mise en scene connotes the feeling of entrapment that we are trying to create in our thriller. It is for these reasons we have included fast paced editing, similar to that of 1408, to cause confusion within the audience and a small isolated place, the freezer, to create the feeling of entrapment.

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