Recently, my group came together in order to discuss our ideas on action films, including the conventions and how we could incorporate them into our opening scene, we developed upon each others ideas and views on what we find most entertaining, thrilling and interesting within action films. To ensure that all our newly developed ideas were all together we created a mind map on what our film would entail.
First we discussed the opening scene, we believed that most of the greatest action films begin with a car chase (I am legend, James Bond) as it is straight into the action and gets the audience intrigued suddenly. We decided that the costumes within the car chase should reflect each character and possibly create a plot twist and go against some action conventions to create more of a shocking effect on the audience. For example, we have decided to place the antagonist in a black suite to foreshadow death which meets Propp’s theory of the narrative been driven by semiotics and points of cultural reference, this indicated to the audience that the antagonist will die, as they usually do as good defeats evil. The black suit is not typically stereotypical for the antagonist to wear as they are usually in more formal clothing, this will create the questioning to the audience of “who’s who?” and therefore will engage the audience further in order to answer their questions. For the person that is being chased we have decided to make her female, as this goes against the stereotype of women being weak and less dominant than men, we have dressed her also In a black suite as black reflects death, mystery and evil alongside being the opposite to white which suggests purity and innocence which goes against the final girl theory of the female that defeats evil is innocent and pure. We played around with the idea that the woman should have some sort of big dog that could show companionship and loyalty alongside having the stereotype that bigger dogs are more dangerous making the audience believe that she is evil when she in fact is the antagonist. We have decided to support the male gaze theory by having the protagonist have a gang leader which is also a female however is dressed very provocatively possibly to show a sense of danger and confidence however we thought that we could give her a scar to juxtapose against the proactive manner as the scar suggests strength and power to show that she goes against what she appears to be.
Next we discussed setting, from our research of action convention films and our surroundings close to us to keep a realistic view we begun to think about areas we could use. We began to think about the opening scene, the car chase, we knew that we would need a derelict road with no traffic or pedestrians around as it would keep the main focus on the two characters we have alongside making it more dramatic and entertaining. Furthermore we thought about after the car chase, "what would create mystery yet danger?" suggested Jess, from researching a variation of opening scenes and trailers we came to the decision that a dark room with minimalistic lighting would create the atmosphere we were looking for as this setting is commonly used for when attempting to interrogate a character as well as representing the dominance from the character who is questioning.
Non-diegetic sound and diegetic sound was discussed within the opening sequence, from prior knowledge in action films we previously watched such as other a-level media film trailers and openings such as"The underdog" and other high budget films such as skyfall James Bond we realised that the majority of action films have an up-beat soundtrack, we decided to have this playing from the title credits through to the moment that the car chase ends as it allows a smooth transaction between the two and also gives the audience an idea of how the movie will begin however other non-diegetic sounds we are planning on incorporating are car breaks to show emphasis on the speed and danger both of the characters are involved in alongside having a wheel spin sound effect and an engine roaring. We are planning to use gun fire to ensure that violence is immediately conveyed as well as using a dog barking to create a sense of danger also. Where diegetic sound is concerned we have discussed that we will include dialogue heavy breathing to show the toughness of the situation, loud food steps to show the pace of how quickly the film has escalated which could link in with the sound of heeled shoes.
With the narrative also being discussed we planned on using a flashback of a video with the protagonist meeting with the antagonist to create further questions for the audience to want to answer by reading on, this also creates a plot twist as binary opposites are not supposed to work together or be seen communicating unless attempting to threat or defeat one another however this does develop the plot further which supports Levi Strauss' theory.
