The Brief

To develop an extended sequence from an imagined feature or a complete short story between 2 and 5 minutes

Films and directors that inspired my film

Films:

Pulp Fiction - The use of plot structure, editing and dialogue.

Both scenes in this sequence are dialogue heavy but manage to maintain the audience's interests. The action in the final scene creates massive amount of tension is created in the scene after Jules manages to turn the tables in the "Mexican stand off". We perhaps worry for Jules more since we have spent a longer connecting with him even though he is "worse" than the two robbers. On the other hand, we are much more sympathetic towards the robbers as they show more human traits than Jules or Vincent. I found this scene inspirational as both sets of characters in danger from one another managed not only to created a sense of increased tension but looped the story which I thought was great and intend to recreate. The freeze frame at the end of the first scene when the titles appear inspired me to begin the montage sequence similarly as I like the effect of the title and the shot transposed.    

Reservoir Dogs - The use of dialogue and cinematography.

• Goodfellas - The use of cinematography and performance.

• The Third Man - The use of lighting and location

• Natural Born Killers - the use of editing, lighting and the montage sequence

Natrual Born Killers uses a black and white filter contrasted to the high key/low key lighting to help illustrate the demonising effects of the media. This filter effect is sometimes in slow motion, as shown in this clip. The cut b1ack to reality (within the film) does not alter time. Therefore the filtered shot is abstract. This abstract shot intruiged me and I am trying to apply it to my film since it shares similar themes.  

Directors:

• Quentin Tarantino - The use of extensive dialogue within a scene and non-chronological events within his films.
• Martin Scorsese - The use of auteur features such as his extended shot. The use of overdub to describe a scene.
• Guy Richie - The use of violence as comedy in such films as "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".  

Target Audience

The film is designed to appeal to 18+ males, who have at least a limited knowledge of the crime drama genre and the works of Tarantino and Scorsese regardless of their background. Those who have seen film like Pulp Fiction should feel comfortable with the film as its themes, narrative structure etc is used to endear towards them.

Other audiences could enjoy the film through the use of thriller conventions and violence. The time spent building relationships with the characters could also appeal to others outside the target audience.

Story Type

My film's main theme is redemption as it follows the characters' attempts at redemption in the eyes of their boss by making the equivelent in cash to the stolen diamonds in an otherwise morally ambiguous world. Due to the nature of the plot, being that of a collection of stories (the structure similar to Pulp Fiction) other story types are apparent.

It contains elements of the testing plot e.g Gino stealing the diamonds from the gang; the diamonds being the temptation. At the same time this also conforms to elements of "The fatal flaw" story type, the flaw for Jacky being his love for his brother, the flaw for Fadge, his drug problem and the flaw of Tony, his confession to his lover. Each flaw results in the character's downfall and ultimatley death.

The fact the characters have to return the diamonds and make the equivelent in cash shows the film has "The debt that must be repaid" story type. The debt being to their boss and the focus of the story and what drives the plot in the latter half of the film.

Ultimatly the story is one of redemption as it is in the protagonist's best interests to redeem themselves in the eyes of Big Joe. Without this story type the plot would not progress but each individual story that makes up the plot shares themes with other story types such as "the fatal flaw" and "the debt that must be repaid"  

Main and important character list

Character list

Jacky: – British 27

The aspiring gangster Jacky is the Protagonist and brother to Jacky. Wise guy and head of  the small crew belonging to Big Joe. He supports his brother and Blind Eyes Frankie, believing in some of the old mafia traditions, them consisting of a larger community etc. Jacky can kill if necessary but rather manipulates others to do it for him. Jacky is in debt to Big Joe after borrowing money to pay off Gino’s gambling debt. Instead of being threatened after he failed to pay up, Big Joe offered him work in order to pay back his debts seeing him as an asset using his brother as a bargining chip. Jacky worked his way up from fleecing other people who owed debt to a trusted hoodlum for Big Joe who put him in charge of a bank robbery that was pulled off successfully.

Gino: –British, 25

Brother to Jacky with an addiction for gambling constantly forcing him into a life of crime. Gino is the main reason Jacky turned to Big Joe for money only to be unable to pay it back.  He constantly looks for ways to get money and oftern makes side deals etc, behind his brother's back. He has no sense of loyalty to anybody and becomes increasingly desperate as time and the film progresses.

Irish: - British, 28

Irish is in the business for the money and the money alone. Though he believes in the same principles of the mafia that Jacky does, he does not care to participate in any of them. After a short stretch in prison he found himself abandoned by his previous gang, the Irish gang in Boston headed by Jack Sullivan. He moved to Britain and was placed with Jacky on hit on a rival gang. Since, he was involved in the successful bank robbery he has participated in almost all jobs with Jacky. He is in love with a whore, who also carries his disabled child. Afraid of his colleagues' reaction he hides this truth. 

Tony: -British, 32

Tony has very traditional ethics. He was brought up surrounded by gangsters, idolising them and the culture associated. He begins to work for Joe's gang at an early age doing simple jobs such as hiding evidence and small scale vandalism. Tony is very conservative, showing manhood through violence and aggression etc. He spent a total of 12 years in prison, from being convicted of man slaughter. His marriage to his wife is not successful. There is often friction between them and Tony see's his wife as an enemy and being tied to one person is against his "principles". 

Fadge (Johnny): -Italian American, 20

Joe feels obligated to provide an income for his nephew after his mother died even though he is a junkie and a burden. He is nicknamed Fadge by Irish for his inability to do anything on his own and been soft. He was also put into Jacky’s gang to keep an eye on Irish due what seems to be disloyalty when he switched gangs when coming to New York. Johnny has not killed but can usually keep his cool in tough situations.

Big Joe: -Italian American, 57

Though relatively small fry compared to some of the older more established gangs, Big Joe is rich and influential. With several stakes in drug trafficking, arms dealing and with a turf that stretches from one of the poorest districts through to the other side of little Italy he has number of loan shark businesses. He grew up in little Italy and worked his way up from working for the local gang dealing drugs fleecing junkies and gamblers for the money they owed to Santiago Senior (who Joe eventually took over from).          

Marvin Magic Hands: -Australian, unknown

Marvin is the local weapons dealer who is secretly under Joe’s control. He is renowned for his flamboyant hand gestures (as illustrated by the camera concentrated on his hands). Nothing is really known about him other than he is Australian.

Jen: -American, 21

With a family in the police force, Jen leapt at the opportunity to be a member of the FBI. She was asked to go undercover as a gumar for one of the gangsters close to Joe, Tony, and accepted. While undercover she leaked a lot of information on Joe and the time, place and plan of the final bank robbery Tony, Irish and Fadge were going to pull off. Outgoing and head strong she often asks Tony of his work, playing off his stupidity,      

Blind Eye Frankie: -Italian American, 68

The surrogate father to Jacky and Gino, Blind Eye Frankie taught the brothers of the old Mafia traditions. A retired gangster Frankie used to work an italian gang in Brooklyn. He earned himself a reputation for himself by the time he was thirty and was almost a “made guy” but an internal struggle between the former boss and one of his sons resulted in the FBI essentially disbanding the gang and put Frankie in prison for twelve years. He was and did a little work for gangs all over New York. Finally he pledged loyalty to up and coming Joe and remained his advisor for the next fifteen years. He lost his eye in a shoot out in which he was the only survivor and retired at the age of sixty and since then lives in little Italy often making trips back to Sicily and giving advice to Jacky. 

Mary: -Caucasian American, 25

Mary is the girlfriend to Jacky and the only judge of Jacky’s actions etc. Outgoing yet fairly shy she was once a successful doctor but gave it up after meeting Jacky and relies on the profits Jacky makes.     

Film Synopsis

Film Synopsis

The protagonist Jacky is the informal leader of a small gang of odd gangsters Tony, Irish, Fadge and Gino, Jacky’s brother. They are renowned amongst the gang for their heists. The five gangsters try to make big money by robbing the Fatalità Corporation, an international diamond business that has a shipment of diamonds transferring to its local branch in New York. Fadge tells the rest of the gang about this transaction, who finds out from a drug dealer and they agree that if their plans pay off they will be “in the money”. Unaware that the diamonds are destined for their boss Big Joe, they “liberate” the diamonds. The boss learns of the diamonds disappearance and learns of the five’s involvement. He “asks” for them to be returned however, Gino has stolen them. When the rest of the posse learn of the diamonds disappearance and Gino’s betrayal they have no option but to tell the boss, against Jacky’s pleas. Joe gives them a second chance due to their loyalty and Jacky’s ability to make money but wants the equivalent amount of cash as the diamonds and promises if Gino returns the diamonds he will not be harmed but instead orders him killed by a hit man. The Hit man finds Gino and forces him to hand over the diamonds. Though he cooperates he is beaten to death with a baseball bat.  

In the meantime the four decide to redeem themselves by robbing a large bank and replacing the worth of the diamonds. Jacky learns of his brother’s death from Marvin magic hands the local weapons dealer and so begins his revenge for his brother’s death. He tracks down the assassin to a farm yard and confronts him. Simultaneously Fadge, Irish and Tony rob the bank only to mess up when Fadge kills one of the hostages. Fadge flees from the scene leaving Tony and Irish behind.  The FBI has been aware of the robbery after Jen an undercover FBI and the woman Tony has been sleeping with, leaks the information.

Tony panics due to the sheer nubmer of police officers and is shot dead, Irish runs into a car park only to be shot to death by five gangsters hired by Joe to tie up loose ends concerning the diamond robbery  after the leaks from Tony threaten to uncover Joe’s criminal network.

The confrontation between Sam and the Hit man does not go as planned.  The Hit man manages to shoot Jacky in the stomach. Jacky runs into a near by field. Wounded, Jacky collapses and the Hit man catches up  and shoots him in the head. Joe also hires the same Hit man to kill Jen even though the majority of information has already been leaked.  Joe is sentenced to life in prison and his entire crime organisation crumbles descending into an internal gang war.   

Genre Codes and Conventions essay

Crime Drama, being a genre that shares codes and convention of the Crime Thriller and Drama could be classed as a sub-genre. However, it has certain aspects that make it unique and thus its own genre. The genre is constantly evolving as its two surrogate genres codes and conventions change. It is this, the codes and convention associated and the film found within this genre that appealed to me and caused me to base my film around them.

 

The pacing of Crime Dramas is often slow, fluctuating in action, with short bursts throughout and then action of higher intensity as the plot reaches its climax. Often the violence is used to ensure the audience does not believe that the lifestyle portrayed is good by adding a sense of realism. It also ensures that the characters on screen who are typically gangsters are kept out-side of typical morality. An example would be the concluding scene in Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino, were the gangsters end up shooting each other over the innocence of Mr Orange (Tim Roth). This shows a perverse form of morality: Mr White being on the side of good (protecting Mr Orange) and Eddie and Joe being on the side of evil (they want to kill Mr Orange) in filmic terms. However, no gangster is particularly better than the other, as in an earlier scene we see Mr White shoots two police officers. Thus the Mexican standoff scene is a sort of justice, a convention often played with in a genre that portrays characters outside the laws of morality.

 

 

The Square off between Mr White (Harvey Keitel), Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) and Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) – Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

Characters in Crime Drama often create a hardened criminal facade that they display to their friends among the gang. However, Crime Dramas use multidimensional characters to add a human element and give the audience a method of connecting to the character not as a gangster but as a human. An example in Reservoir Dogs would be were Mr White takes pity on Mr Orange and becomes a surrogate father to him. He even goes as far as telling him his real name which Joe (the head of the bank robbery operation) bans them from doing so. This allows us to connect with Mr White essentially making him the protagonist of the film and the one gangster we connect with even though he is a cop killer. Another example would be in Casino by Martin Scorsese were Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) falls in love with Ginger (Sharon Stone). The affection he shows towards her is not what we expect from a meticulous criminal and thus allows the audience to connect with him on the grounds of similar emotions. It this focus on characters as gangsters and characters as people that is a convention of the Crime Drama genre. 

Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) showing his affection towards Ginger (Sharon Stone) through jewels in Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995), not what we expect from a high flying gangster.

Crime Drama also focuses on the family contrasted to organised crime’s “family”. It explores how they are portrayed and how one affects the other. An example of this would be in Goodfellas, (Martin Scorsese) were Harry Hill and his wife, descend into an erratic world of drug abuse. As Harry’s family falls apart so does his other “family” and vice versa. The juxtaposition of events show that Harry does not differentiate between the two and his private family becomes a part of his business family as shown with the over dub of Karen (his wife) explaining the mob was the only friends they had and that it had become normal to see them on a regular basis.

The protagonists often tend to be aspiring gangsters, constantly trying to strive for more money and a better life. The plots often centre around the rise and fall of these gangsters showing them succeed and then come undone and end up in a worse position than previously e.g. dead. The films often portray comic sequences to make the characters more endearing to the audience. An example would be in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino) were Vincent and Jules discuss the ethics of throwing a man out of a window on the suspicion of giving the boss’s wife a foot massage before killing a group of young adults working for Marsellus Wallace (the boss).

 

 

 

 

 

 Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) discussing the connotations of a foot massage in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Crime Dramas also show characters with human flaws such as greed or misunderstanding, making them believable characters and allowing the audience to connect with them upon these common grounds. At the same time greed is also often a theme explored in crime dramas and is often the downfall of many characters. An example can be found in Casino by Martin Scorsese, were Nicky wants a “piece of the action” and ends up bringing the attention of the FBI on the casinos which the mob bosses make the majority of their money. This leads to Nicky’s death at the end of the film as wells as the taking of another man’s wife. Another example would be in Jacky Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997) were greed is one of the main themes of the film.

In my film I plan to use the majority of the codes and conventions of Crime Drama. The audience will be able to connect with the protagonist due to the way his relationship is shown with his girlfriend and how he tries to keep his brother out of trouble. These loyalties to other characters make him the more appealing than the rest of the group. The other main characters also have traits that allow the audience to relate to for example, Gino’s gambling problem and Fadge’s drug problem. Each character has his or her own short comings that make them fallible and more human when perform inhumane tasks. Comedy is delivered through dialogue; for example in the opening scene, Irish states how burgers are the height of Capitalism, clearly inspired by Tarantino.

The portrayal of morality is also present within my film. Jacky must perform the tasks set in order to support his brother and pay off the debt to Joe. Though he does pay for the atrocities he has caused with his life he dies trying to avenge his brother, a play on the ideology of “an eye for an eye”. None of the characters in the film go unpunished and as a result the convention of a twisted morality is present.

 

There is little action within my film (again conforming to the genre codes and conventions) and what action occurs, is quick but emphasised when contrasted to the rest of the film except from that of the climax of the plot. The effect being the reality of the harsh and brutal world the characters live in is never far away and the casual way in which the violence is portrayed shows how desensitised the gang is.

 

I have tried to incorporate all codes and conventions into my film with a few exceptions such as the contrasting family conventions will not be covered to a suitable degree but will still be present. I have taken inspiration from the films and directors mentioned in terms of story and plot structure (e.g. I have followed Tarantino’s non chronological plot structure) and filming techniques to attempt to create a good Crime Drama that fulfils its codes and conventions in order to appeal to my target audience and make it a success.  

Callum Ahmed 

Drawing the second draft of my storyboard this week. First one was too long and over complicated. Endeavoring to simplify it and add depth to the meaning of the mise-en-scene.

Also finished my re-write of the codes and contexts. Addressing the issues raised when Tim marked it.

Aims and Context

Aims and Context

For my FM3 Creative Project I am going to produce a sequence to be filmed which is the opening scene and the following montage of my imagined film "Blood Money". It uses the codes and conventions associated with the genre Crime Drama and using aspects of comedy and thriller should appeal to a target audience of 18 year old males, with some knowledge of films of this particular genre, of any background.

I have been heavily influenced by the narrative structure and use of dialogue in Quentin Tarantino films specifically, Pulp Fiction, 1994, Reservoir Dogs, 1992 and Jackie Brown, 1997. Martin Scorsese’s filming style and use of violence has also influenced me with mainly films such as; Goodfellas 1990, The Departed, 2006 and Mean Streets, 1973. Amorres Perros by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also influenced the way I intend to use music and filming style. I have studied these films and took note on scenes and the way they are shot and how they will benefit my film.

My aim is to create meaning through the use of micro features that of: cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing and narrative development, to manipulate the audiences emotions and create the emotional response of shock through violence.

I intend to direct my sequence and to assist with this endeavour I have been studying films of the same or related genre such as Pulp Fiction, taking note of the shots, cinematography, performance, lighting and editing used in an attempt to establish a style and pointers from professional directors. The realistic lighting I intend to use will hopefully engage the audience further by creating the illusion that the film is set within the real world. 

I have learnt from my previous assignment in Film Studies FM1 the importance of good lighting as the film and the effects created will suffer if visibility is reduced or back lighting is apparent with no real effect. However, in the sequence the plot requires a different setting and a different time so good lighting, in theory, should be easier to achieve.