Evaluation Question 2

Our thriller primarily represents Status and age. We wanted our thriller to convert to the stereotypes when talking about the working industry. We wanted to convey that as age increases and the more time is spent in the job meaning professionalism for the older characters, we also used this concept to highlight that along with age, the status someone may have in the particular place of work affects the consequences you may face as a beginner.  We wanted to keep the stereotype that the adults will always be better than the teenagers and young adults as so perceived in today’s society.

Our professional sniper is an adult man. We wanted to almost immediately show the audience that he was professional and of a higher level than our trainee character this therefore conforming to the stereotype of age and status complimenting each other and the higher the better. Although typical of the adult to be in charge for our plot this was important to be presented this way to grasp the idea that what the professional decides is final. We used someone younger to show this as we wanted there to be a harsh brutality in consequences when a professional’s needs are not met.

We dressed our professional in dark trousers, a large green coat, boots and a black hat. We dressed him this way to give the impression that he is so good at what he does that he does not need the full camouflage gear as he can always get away with it. This contrasts our trainee who we dressed in a navy-blue jumpsuit, dark boots, and a camouflage jacket. We dressed him this way to present that he is not of a high enough level in his training to be able to use his skills to get away as those are skills he does not have fully developed once again converting to the stereotype.

The first point at which this is presented fully is when the two characters take position amongst the bushes. It is presented at first in levels, the real sniper who is training his recruit is sat on a piece of wood whereas the trainee is laying on the ground. These two levels present the difference is status between the two characters, the two men are both part of the same occupation of sniping, however, the older man is a professional which contrasts the younger man who is merely in training. The use of dialogue shows the audience this contrast in status as he begins to instruct and give orders to the boy questioning his knowledge thoroughly saying things such as “set her up” “which way are they blowing” but on the other hand the boy on the receiving end is intimidated and does not speak much to show that as he is of a lower status he does not need to speak and address the professional, he only answers simply such as “yes” and “left and right”. When filming we used the camera to make a clear shot of the two characters in one frame, throughout the beginning conversation when we convert between one character to another the two levels are implied by what appears around and behind the characaters in the shot, this is then made factually clear to the audience showing the shot of the difference in levels. When in the editing process we chose to give the trainee more screen time in this section, we did this because our target audience is young adults and we wanted them to form a connection with our trainee who is of a similar age and get them to sypathise with him during his learning process and getting the audience to make their own formed opinions of if they want him to shoot or want him to not. All of these things in this first section convey our aims for the characters difference in status.

The most important time at which the contrast in status is shown is in the during the trainee sniping a civillian. When the trainee goes to take his shot there is clear hesitation shown through the mise-en-scene, his finger begins to remble when reaching to pull the trigger and he almost shuts his eyes to suggest he cannot bare to look at what it is he is about to do, this suggesting that as he is of this low status he does not want to go through with soemthong he is not ready to do. The volume of the dialogue coming from the professional increases dramatically, he begins to show agression and anger through his tone of voice “soldier you are about to lose your target” “take the shot do it NOW”, this gives the impression that he is ill-tempered and cannot handle someone as low down as the trainee daring to ruin a mission for someone as important as himself. The camera pace inceases and the panning across of the target becomes shaken to show his hesitation, the editing process we used shot-reverse-shot on a number of occasions whilst having the dialogue of the professional go over the top of these shots. The way the dialogue goes over all the different shots implies that he is of such a high status his word needs to be said no matter what goes on in the shot while the trainee does not utter a word once again defining the adult is in charge.

The aftermath is the final portrayal of this contrast in status. The professional and trainee flea the sniping site and appear in the woods, the professional pulls out a cigar, this brings us back to defining age, the trainee looks baffled at the concept of him having a smoke showing that he really is young enough not to understand why he would want to smoke a cigar. “Start packing down a riffle” the professional once again gives him orders and does not accept any questions asked. The trainee goes on to apoligise for his hesitation whilst carrying out the orders set by the professional the shot goes to a close-up of the trainee packing away the riffle, he suddenly falls to the ground as he is shot in the head by the professional. The shot revals the professional stood behind him pointing a gun at his head. This moment is really important as it represents that the higher the status the more you can decide including who lives and who dies.