Experimenting with Genre : An insight into Fargo...

An image is placed in someones head when a film has the genre of "Thriller". The genre Thriller has held many great films and one of it's earliest was 'Safety Last' produced in 1923 by  Harold Lloyd, it followes a typical criteria of a Thriller Film to start with, with its thrilling, hair-raising climax, however its ending follows more of the criteria for a romantic genre in our time age with the hero going off with the best girl and lots of money. One could say that even from the start directors were testing the genre's, and one thing that the Coen Brother do best is test a genre to the extremes, and 'Fargo' was no different, from it's colour scheme to its pace, to be placed under the title of Thriller was at times hard to imagine why, William Luhr was one critic who also expressed how Fargo was "far removed from the stereotypes".

• The first point William Luhr made, and I also noticed was how contrasting the colour scheme of 'Fargo' was. Fargo is associated with Film noir, this is due its grim theme of desperation. However the term noir actually means black, so Fargo with the main colour scheme of white is more of a 'White noir', it is very contrasting the other film defined as film noirs such as 'Out of The Past' 1947. Black is a colour used in many thrillers, as it symbolises doom, death and desperation. The white in Fargo however also holds its own darkness, with the environment and weather, demonstrating that the battle is not only to solve the case but also fight the elements.
• Secondly is the location of the film, when one thinks of a thriller, they think cities, back streets, danger. However 'Fargo' is the opposite it is set is quiet, peaceful setting, one of which looks untouched due to the fresh layers of snow, it is not associated with the sinister plotting and bloody murders. This was one point that William Luhr made. However I interpreted the snow and fresh layers of covering up the murders, keeping the secrets hidden, they use the elements and setting to create the idea of secrets, which I personally would link to thrillers.
• The third point that William Luhr pointed out, and I also found it hard to see as a Thriller due to this was the element of humour. The murderer in a typical Thriller would be manipulating, sinister and cleaver however the Coen brother's made the multiple murderer one who compulsively talked, even when he was shot in the mouth, this would in a usual thriller be seen as grim, however the coen brothers use of Black Humour makes us laugh at him.
• The use of different characters, was an element the Coen Brothers really explored. The main character "Marge", the detective who was middle aged and pregnant. In many thrillers, she would be seen as vulnerable, however she manages to catch in the end the multiple murderer. The view of her showing highly professional skills, is manipulated with the scene's which many directors would cut of her family life with norm, making her an even more unique character for a Thriller.
• The last thing, and the reason why I found it most hard to get into the film was the slow pace. For a Thriller the pace is usually fast, building to a big climax, the aim is to keep the audience "on the edge of their seats" however with the inclusion of the family scenes, slowed the pace right down.

 The trailer of Fargo, 1996

Facts about a Genre : Thriller...

A traditional thriller film has one single-minded goal, that goal is to provide a thrill. Key to the genre is for the film to be able to always keep the audience on edge as the film plot builds about towards its main climax. The way thriller films build the climax is usually through the main character having to to escape a dangerous situation, one of which to any normal person would be impossible. Life is in danger in thrillers, and the principle character usually enters a deadly situation unknowingly, this is to bring out a reaction from the audience, as they are willing the character not to enter the situation creating the audience "to be on the edge of their seats".

There are six different types of sub-genre's to thrillers:

• Action/adventure thrillers
• Sci-fi thrillers (example = Alien, 1979)
• Crime-caper thrillers (example = The French Connection, 1971)
• Western thrillers (example = High Noon, 1952)
• Film-noir thrillers (example = Double Indemnity, 1944)
• Romantic comedy thrillers (example = Safety Last, 1923)

Traditional characters in a thriller = innocent victims, criminals, characters with dark pasts, cops, people involved in twisted relationships

Traditional themes in a thriller =  terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles most of the themes end up in murder

Deconstructing a Film Cover...

Before we watched Fargo we firstly, deconstructed the cover, going again the principle of not judging a book by its cover!

• The word "Fargo" is in bright red text, symbolising that this is a key word. The colour which it is in is a comical red, allowing the audience to suspect that there may be some comical scenes also in the film.
• The colour scheme is scars (red/white/black), linking it the scars environment
• Not only the crime will test the detective but also the environment will test her
• Straight away the film is different from the typical crime, firstly the police officer is the victim. The detective is also not the "normal"type due to being heavily pregnant the audience straight away know that the coen brothers are testing the film industry
• The words "a lot can happen in the middle of no where" attracts the audience, making them question what has happened? why has it happened? where is it set?. This encourages the audience to watch it to answer their questions

The Creation of a Good Character...

Lester Burnham - American Beauty

An Ariel opening shot of a suburban landscape, with the houses being in straight lines. They are all very neat, tidy and formatted, straight away bringing the idea of entrapment, with the use of the lines, we can relate these to bars, to being in prison, we already develop the idea of a character who is trapped in his life. In the background non-diegetic music is playing (non-diegetic means that as audience members we can hear it, but the characters cannot therefore do not react to it, diegetic means the characters can hear it and do react to it).  We then get narrative over the top, where the character introduces himself, and that "in the next year i'll be dead", this straight away makes questions come to the audiences mind why is he going to be dead? Is it suicide or murder? we from that point already put together our own ideas of how the film could end. The next scene is of the characters Lester, face down in bed, the lighting is only from the natural light through the window which lights one side of the bed (his wife's), symbolising that he is always on the darker side, meaning he could be the more pessimistic character. The shots of his wife, is of her always in light, she is in the garden with a perfect rose, showing how she like the rose, puts on a show in the light shes perfect but in the dark she is wilting. The fence around the garden again demonstrates being trapped and boxed in. The scene of the family in the car, allowed the audience to conclude that Lester is a non-respected character as he is sat in the child's seat is the back, whilst his daughter sits in the front with his wife, there is a clear separation between him and his wife/daughter.

Exitisting Contemporary Directors : The Coen Brothers...

The Coen Brothers are American Film makers. Through their film productions they have explored many genres. They have been nominated for a range of awards, for many of their films, with there most successful film being 'No country for old men' which was nominated for 20 awards and won 9.

The ten most recent Coen Brother films:
- True Grit (2010), directed by Joel and Ethan, it was nominated for 18 awards and won 1
- A Serious Man (2009), directed by Joel and Ethan, it was nominated for 5 awards
- Burn After Reading (2008), directed by Joel and Ethan, it was nominated for 4 awards
- No Country For Old Men (2007), directed by Joel and Ethan, it was nominated for 20 awards and won 9
- The Ladykillers (2004), directed by Joel
- Intolerable Cruelty (2003), directed by Joel
- The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), directed by Joel, it was nominated for 5 awards and won 1
- Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), directed by Joel, it was nominated for 9 awards and won 1
- Fargo (1996), directed by Joel, it was nominated for 17 awards and won 3
- Barton Fink (1991), directed by Joel, it was nominated for 4 awards

Mise-En-Scene...

Mise-En-Scene, is a french term meaning what is put into a scene

Each aspect of Mise-en-scene has hidden meanings within a film, it helps send signals to the audience about how we are supposed to feel at a certain point, being the main communication between the director's ideas and the audience. Mise-en-scene is key to all film genres and I have tried to use different examples of Mise-En-Scene from all different genres in these elements. The five key elements to Mise-en-Scene are :


'From Hell'

Setting and Props : In a film this can be as important as the characters, it builds a picture of everything from the genre of the film to even helping the audience think of there own ideas about how the film is going to turn out. It is even more important in film than TV due to the larger screen, you can use the setting to make a big impact on the audience. In 'From Hell' the setting straight away allowed you to know it was going to be a horror with the use of the backstreets of London, we straight away knew the film was going to be a dark one

'Edward Sissorhand'

Costume, Hair and Make-up : This is the initial indicator to telling the audience a characters status, personality and even job. It helps the audience know straight away what time phrase the film is set in, and what social class the characters are. The costume, hair and makeup used for the character 'Edward Sissorhand' straight away allows the audiences to make a profile, of a man who is maybe evil due to dark colour and the hands, lonely with the use of eye-makeup making the eyes look vulnerable.

'Love Actually'

Facial expressions and Body Language : Can help indicate to the audiences how two characters feel towards each other. It straight away informs the audience of a characters emotions, feelings and even status. In 'Love actually' this still image between Kira knightly and Andrew Lincoln allowed the audiences to see that they have romantic feelings towards each other, the facial expression of Andrew allows us to see his vulnerable side, the way Kira has her hands of his cheek in soft hold, allows us to see they are intimate, the gaze between the two shows they only have eyes for each other.

'Avatar'

Lighting and Colour : This can help tell the genre of a film to the audience, we associate horror with dark colours, and comedy's with lighter happier colours. The use of colour of the lighting can also help give clues of the personalities of characters away to the audience for example, the use of green light can symbolise a character being jealous (the green eyed monster). The use of lighting in 'Avator' is really informative it tells the audience that the film will be mystical and a fantasy with the use of fairy lights.

'Sherlock Holmes'

Position of Characters and Objects within the frame : This is the part of Mise-En-Scene that includes the different shots and heights and why they are used.  The position between two characters can help tell the audience their relationship and status. In 'Sherlock Holmes' this position of the characters in this poster, tells the audiences straight away that due to Sherlock being closer to the camera he is the more dominant character, with Watson in the background the audience knows straight away who is of higher status.

One Inital Breif...One inital Thought...

We have all been set the breif of creating our own two minutes opening. We must research information about mise-en-scene, heights and angle's, target audiences, film companys, narraction and lots of other media elements. We must also plan every aspect of the creation of our opening, from the first few ideas to the final one, from researching the target audience to our ideal locations. We must also creat our own script, storyboards music and lighting. After the big creation (which at the moment feels very scary, a bit of a ahhhh "i'm never going to be able to create my own opening") we must fully evaluate our pieces looking in detail at what went wrong and what went right.

As with many once being given a task my mind races trying to think of what I could do, if it would be possible and when can I get started! My inital thoughts is I would like to do something maybe around the topic of mental health in a documentary style or focus of the family, and how our family can affect a persons life. Im sure my ideas are going to change about a million time, develop as I get more confident with media and overall I can't wait to get started to see what develops from my thoughts and ideas....