Evaluation Question 3:

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

       It would be hard to get a large media institution to distribute our film because it is low budget and targeted at a small audience. An institution such as Fox Searchlight Pictures would not be interested because they look for films that will please a large audience and which they can produce and distribute to large cinemas. Our film would not thrive in such a situation because it would not fill a large cinema's seats. A student film is usually disregarded as it is low budget and lacks the experience of major film makers. Two films who we drew inspiration from are the Black Swan and Girl, Interrupted. Girl Interrupted is distributed by Columbia Pictures which is also a large film distributor looking for high grossing films starring Hollywood actors. Obviously we do not have a Hollywood cast and this means that they will not be very interested, again we must look for smaller individual distributors for an audience who are not looking for a mainstream film. An example of a low budget media institution that might be interested in distributing our film might be momentum pictures, they have distributed many films in the past few years such as Let The Right One In, The Girl Who Played With Fire and Dark Skies. These are not high budget films starring a multitude of Hollywood actors and this is why we might be interested in them distributing our film, this is still quite a large distributor for our film and we might aim  for a smaller one because they would be more likely to accept our film.

Evaluation Question 2:

 2. How does your film opening present particular social groups?

Eponymous character Margot is from a white middle-class background. Her mother is a workaholic single mother who has a high-flying career in the city, affording them a comfortable existence in a pleasant residential area. We established this location by filming her wandering through a fairly wealthy part of London. Margot's father lives abroad, and is distant in his relationship with his daughter which may account for the isolation she feels.

Margot resembles Effie in Skins due to the fact they both grew up in a affluent household, yet have a dysfunctional family and deal with mental health issues. They are both aloof and possess an air of mystery, although Effie indulges in a lot of drug-taking and provocative activities, Margot prefers to be more solitary. She has a few friends, but steadily removes herself from them and the rest of the world throughout the film, a lot of the time because of misunderstanding. We chose to represent our main character in this way because teenage audiences usually react well to anti-heroes, particularly because rebellion against parents and conventional lifestyles is an ever present theme amongst adolescents. Because of the broken relationship with her family she represents the conflict that many others experience, and subsequent formation of an intense friendship with another figure that becomes a family-figure to her and replacement for the support and affection that she feels she missed out on.  Therefore we deliberately chose not to represent her mother in the opening so we could we could show her absence as normal and focus on the character development of Margot, particularly as it appears that her usual routine does not require any interaction with her mother and she is comfortable with that. However this representation of parental figures challenges certain stereotypes about middle class lifestyles as being a nuclear families, and the single-mother-no-father figure is instead habitually used in 'gritty' realism dramas about low-income families. Yet we acknowledged the idea that parents who are obsessively-career orientated often are not able to maintain functional relationships with their families.

With her pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, Margot's looks are reminiscent of characters from typical Gothic literature because of their ethereal qualities. The character of Eva is a deliberately an 'exotic' contrast to Eva so as to represent the fact that she personifies all the characteristics that Margot feels could make her complete as a person. Thus Margot becomes obsessed with 'possessing' Eva. This theme is similar to the plot of Robert Altman's Three Women. We liked the idea of using unknown actors in our film because that way the audience is able to fully realise them as the character, and not just as a famous and recognisable actor playing yet another role.

SL

Evaluation Question 1:

Locations:

We chose to film the dream sequence in a park, as it seemed a wide, natural space that was empty enough to show the exclusivity of the dream of Margot and her subject, Eva. This contrasted well with the second location of the crowded house, where the atmosphere was still bleak, but slightly more claustrophobic, reflecting how Margot feels trapped in comparison with her dreams of freedom.

Iconography:

The close up of the medications on the table is specifically important as it establishes Margot unstable nature and possible issues with mental health suggested through the iconography. Inspiration for this came from Requiem for a Dream, where Sara inspects her black-market diet pills, and the camera uses a close up of them lined up on the table.

Themes:

Our films took inspiration from other films with a similar dynamic between two female characters, one with a dominant personality and the other infatuated with this. Thrillers such as Girl, Interrupted and Black Swan present this type of relationship as a focal point of their plot. We mainly conformed to this theme of a thriller, as it is less common than other traditional aspects of the thriller-genre, and therefore can be produced in our own way without seeming repetitive.

Title: We decided on the title Margot is it is simple and effective. We took inspiration from other Thrillers that used the protagonists name as the title, such as Leon.

Camera: The opening shot of the intertwining branches of the trees is inspired by the end shot on Malick’s historical drama, The New World. The shots focusing on the tree branches swaying show the isolation and eeriness we wanted to open our film with. 

Editing - As the character Margot awakens, we purposely featured close-ups of her personal belongings, which we intended to give clues to the audience about her as a character and the slightly bizarre nature of the plot. 
 Genre - Our film is rooted in the psychological thriller genre, implied through the inclusion of pill iconography to denote the mental health issues experience in the film. It gives an idea as to the later themes of the plot, similar to the opening of Se7en where the viewer sees the murderer indulging in obsessive record-keeping. 

Plot - Loosely based on Todorov's narrative theory, in which two characters begin in equilibrium, but a disruption leads to a series of event that cause tension, until finally resolved. Our narrative of obsession spiralling out of control echoes that of Black Swan, in which an already unstable female protagonist, living in isolation,  begins to self-destruct as she becomes more infatuated with another character. Eventually all this tension implodes, but in our plot the main character has a revelation that leads to finding solace in her life. However it is implied that she never complete peace. 

What amendments/changes have you made from your original plan that show you can challenge the generic conventions of a thriller? - We left out showing any interaction between Margot and her mother so as not to overtly imply the damaged relationship between, and instead suggest things about her more subtly through the use of iconography. We have shortened the amount of time we see Margot outside and stylish, action visuals, and so focusing more on her home life, establishing more intimacy with her.

How does the use of lighting challenge the forms/conventions of a thriller? - Many thrillers create and suspense by featuring sequences in typical dusk/night-time lighting, but we chose have the sequence progressing through early morning lighting, that gradually gets brighter in parallel with the soundtrack. This reflect comedies such as The Devil Wears Prada, but in this context gives the illusion of normality before Margot's impending breakdown.