R&P Post 7: Our title's title and plot outline

Title: Unlawful
Synopsis: 
A beautiful female detective persuades a rich business man to fall in love with her and then murders him and has to keep the police-force unsuspecting of herself being the murderer.
Film plot: 
Beginning- Our female protagonist stalks a man and persuades him to fall in love with her and they end up getting married.
Middle- She kills her husband so that she can collect his money but as she is a very well-respected detective she is able to sabotage the investigation in order to keep the money an stay out of jail.
End- She is living happily with the money but a new detective starts to suspect her and she must use her charm to get out of it. We will leave it open for the audience to wonder if he becomes a victim or not.
Our film narrative follows a classic Hollywood story line but as a twist it starts with a disruption and then follows our protagonist's journey.
Influences & references:
-'The Bank Job' is a film about a strong female character breaking the law and creating schemes and planning very carefully. In this film money is equal to power which is also a very strong theme in our film.
- 'The Big Sleep' is a film produced in 1946 and shows that money being proportional to power is a typical convention in film noir. Lauren Bacall is a femme fatale who uses sex to her advantage just like our female protagonist will.
- Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider' was also influential as she plays a very dominant female role who is portrayed as very sexy.

R&P Post 6: Our chosen genre and how we plan to connote this

Our chosen genre is neo-noir but crime thriller and action are sub-genres.

To connote the neo-noir genre we used a range of conventions, such as:

- Femme fatale character, connoted via mysterious iconography for example the dark clothing, the perfume and red lipstick. In the film 'Darling', the beautiful femme fatale is shown wearing sparkly earrings, revealing skin and was clearly very wealthy, she was referred
to as the 'silk glove on the steel fist'.

- Low-key lighting, high/low angles and mirror shots to create a dark, dangerous atmosphere which are all also typical film noir and crime thriller conventions.

- By keeping the identity hidden until the end the genre is easily identifiable to the audience as this is a common theme in crime and noir-style films. In 'Seven' the character's identity is kept hidden but the audience is given clues about his occupation by seeing him writing and going through a file. The TV show 'Dexter' was also a major influence as he actions he carried out such as cutting bacon with a large knife and shaving and blood dripping in the sink all connote danger and evil.

- The fast-pace will be created by very cuts which also builds suspense and generates excitement and is a common theme with our chosen genre. In 'Seven' it is very fast-paced and in time with the music.

-Our chosen music will also be upbeat and build suspense to connote the dangerous, eerie atmosphere. in 'The Unsuspected' the music is used to build tension and in 'Pulp Fiction', a song by The Black Eyed Peas is playing which creates a very fast-paced, dramatic effect.

-The graphics will be very dark and the font very eye-capturing in order to appeal to the audience and connote the dangerous thriller genre. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and 'Skyfall' both used very attention-grabbing graphics and included key iconography such as a bullet being fired from a gun.

R&P Post 5: How we plan to attract &address our target audience

Our film will attract our target audience in a number of ways, inspired by different openings we have looked at.

-The men will be attracted to our opening because of the attractive female antagonist and because of the action that will be connoted via the shot of the gun in the drawer. In 'Underworld awakening' it shows the female protagonist right from the start and gradually builds suspense.


-The women will enjoy our opening because of the strong femme
fatale character who will be instantly identifiable as she will be cast in shadows and carrying out typical conventions of a femme fatale character. She will be shown doing relatable female actions such as doing her make-up and adjusting her outfit using close-ups. 'Silence of The Lambs' and 'Ocean's 12' show their
main character's routine in the opening and allow the audience
to get to know the character by the way they are portrayed.

-People between the age of 15-30 will be attracted due to the modern twist on film noir shown by using technologically up-to-date devices such as the iPad and also because the antagonist will be played by a young actor. The fast paced music will also capture their attention and build suspense- we know this as films like 'Pulp Fiction' used Black-Eyed Peas 'Pump it' and in 'The Unsuspected' they created tension via their choice of music.

- People between the ages of 40-80 will be attracted as they are used to film noir and will recognize typical conventions like the red lipstick being applied and the dark, dangerous atmosphere we will create. Our opening sequence will follow a typical convention of being fast-paced which is demonstrated in the opening of 'Kiss Me Deadly' as it is very fast-paced to create a sense of danger. In 'Se7en' the atmosphere is also quite dark and gloomy and shadowy effects are used.

-Young teenagers in particular will enjoy the cool graphics which are stereotypical of film noir and crime thrillers. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' used very intriguing and attention-grabbing graphics in their opening sequence. As the film is certified as a 15 it will also generate excitement for teenagers this age and above.

-By ending on a cliff hanger, which is stereotypical of film noir and crime thrillers, we will also appeal to a range of audiences who enjoy suspense and shock and will watch on to find out what happens after she has left to go on her blind date. In 'Ocean's 11'  the opening ends on a cliffhanger connoted by a close-up.

R&P Post 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

The social group we have chosen to represent are women in their early 20s.

Bridget Gregory's outfit inspired
our femme fatale's outfit. 

- Our main character is young, fashionable and seen as being very current and modern. She can use technology easily and is well-dressed and has done her make-up well. In 'Beyond a Reasonable Doubt' the first shot in the opening is a close-up on a woman who is wearing red lipstick and has lovely blue earrings on.

Angelina Jolie,
'Tomb Raider' - typical
representation of how we
wanted to portray our character.

-She is also fairly wealthy, middle class, connoted by her expensive-looking earrings, she lives in a nice house and owns an iPad. In the dialogue she will also speak with a slightly posh accent. Scarlett Johansson played a femme fatale in 'Lucy' and her voice was very seductive and slightly husky.
- Our opening sequence will be very fast-paced like in 'Seven' and 'Kiss Me Deadly' which use the pace effectively to create a sense of danger and mystery.

R&P Post 3: Our production and distribution institutions

Our chosen distributor is Lions Gate Entertainment Studios as they have distributed films in a range of genres but particularly quite a few crime thriller films such as 'Captivity' and 'Narc'. 'Narc' was released in 2002 and is all about the dangerous world of drugs and running from the law. Lions Gate also have many British bases despite being a Canadian/American company, this means they distribute in the UK often. 'Blitz' was a British crime thriller that they distributed and the story was about a cop who takes down a serial killer. Lions Gate also produced 'The Spirit' in 2008 which is an American, neo-noir superhero film.

We have chosen to call our production company Starlight Pictures as there are no other production companies out there with this name. We will be a British company, based in London as there is a mixture of small and large successful production companies, it's easy to travel to and close to film studios. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Eon Pictures also have their headquarters located there. Starlight Pictures will also be famous for the darker genres of film such as crime, action, horror, so that it is easily recognizable by our audiences.

R&P Post 2: Our target audience

We split our target audience into three categories; primary, secondary and tertiary.

Examples of our TA

Our primary audience is neo-noir fans, both men and women between the ages of 15 to 30.

The certificate of our film is a 15 as this was common with other noir-style and crime films such as 'Lucy', which was a 15 due to strong, bloody violence, and ' The Place Beyond the Pines', which contains drug-use, violence and strong language. The neo-noir genre will appeal especially to young adults as they will relate to the technological, modern aspect and enjoy the suspense and mystery that typically accompanies a crime film. We thought our film would target both genders as we will include action which predominantly attract a more male audience but as our main character is a strong, confident female it will be appealing to females.

Our secondary audience will be crime-drama and action fans and audiences of over 30. 'Man of Steel' had a male viewing of 68% which implies that the action aspect will appeal more to men. We also found out that people around the age of 30+ tend to enjoy crime dramas a lot so this is why they are our secondary audience. 'Dead man down' is an action/crime film based around a women who seduces men in order to get what she wants. This film appealed to both audiences despite being mainly an action film so we think our film can do the same. We also think older audiences will enjoy our film as they will relate to noir film as it was very popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Our tertiary audience will be fans of the romance genre as our female protagonist slowly falls in love with another man and the end of our film will be romantic. 'The Place Beyond the Pines' also has romance as a sub-genre of crime and this broadened their audience appeal. Our film will also appeal to couples as the film is based around a women who has married (and killed) her husband. 

R&P Post 1: How we plan to work as a group

To effectively work as a group we set some ground rules and confirmed and exchanged ideas regularly. We have a meeting lasting an hour every Wednesday and Monday before and after school, alternating weeks. This was very effective as we had the weekend to clarify and finalize all our ideas before sharing them with each other.

Our three main rules were:
- Be on time in order to not keep one another waiting and get work done on  time.
- Discuss any problems with each other when they arise so we don't create tension in the group and to not waste time arguing.
- Do our own individual research so that we all have an equal input.

We also created a Facebook page and group chat to talk about our ideas with each other easily and frequently. On this page we posted information and ideas such as possible music tracks and photos of the setting - the house we will be filming at.