Evaluation Activities:In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

Essam Ghalia

Our film Snatched, is inspired by Taken (dir. by Pierre Morel 2008) staring Liam Neeson and the revenge thriller of Dead Man Down (dir. Niels Arden Oplev 2013) but using some of the cinematographic gritty realism of Guy Ritchie’s London based crime films.

Snatched is a conventional thriller as it deals with a ‘life-or-death’ revenge mystery where characters are not who they appear to be and a young girl’s life is at stake and follows Todorov’s linear narrative theory. We felt that following the convention rather than breaking it would be a more commercial option as each scene asks a question that the audience is eager to have answered in the next making it accessible to a larger number of people. The raw, quick paced editing and angled shots add to the convention of thriller editing and the addition of dramatic and suspenseful audio accents further highlights the tension.

We set the film in a Russian oligarch’s London home as we wanted to use high production values so using Knightsbridge as a location with a real chauffeur driven limousine was our preferred option and we wanted a moving street scene as the car escapes through the London traffic adding a sense of urgency to the effect.

We used high end products in the mise en scene to emphasize the wealth and power of Brodsky the protagonist such as the Bang and Olufsen BeO phone in gold. These phones are only affordable by the elite and its phallic shape emphasizes the masculine power of the lead character.

We were fortunate enough to be able to use friends at LAMDA to play the characters adding an extra dimension of professionalism to the film and adding to the overall verisimilitude.

The use of discordant piano chords right from the opening, reinforce the thriller convention and set the mood and the contemporary costume gives the feeling that this could happen in reality.

Overall the narrative grips us because this is a revenge kidnap story but a powerful one as a man’s greatest asset is his daughter and with a large Russian presence in central London and the instability of Russian separatist movements this story reflects the reality of the world we live in. And although the film is inspired by Taken the reality is that kidnapping is a genuine threat to global businessmen.

We also decided to subvert the ‘maternal’ role in this film so that the older female protector of the young girl taken is later revealed to be part of the revenge conspiracy which breaks the stereotypical portrayal of women as nurturing and replaces it with that of the dark feminine – a twist that is not apparent at the outset.

In creating this product we set out to make a gripping film that asks questions and takes the audience on a pacey rollercoaster ride. We also wanted to present our work with high production values, smart, crisp and confident. I believe that in the final analysis our film achieves what is sets out to: - it follows a clear Todorovian linear narrative in the thriller genre closely following the conventions, it’s story is accessible and pacey and the audience is moved by the unexpected twists and turns of the plots.