Evaluation activity 1

Our media product follows many conventions of thriller films.  For example, use of Strauss’s binary oppositions is common practice in the genre and we make use of this through the cast’s dress codes.  The opposition of light and dark, connoting good and evil, is portrayed with the detective (the protagonist) being dressed in a light shirt and the murderer (antagonist) dressing in darker clothes.  Use of oppositions in the opening of our film means that the viewer can instantly easily identify what kind of a role each character will play in the story.  With respect to the murderer, the dark clothes serve another purpose, which is that of giving a more incognito appearance, and giving the impression of the character being a “silent killer”. 

It can be said that one of the more unusual aspects of our production, which goes against the grain of thrillers, is the soundtrack we chose for the opening of our production.  Instead of a loud, fast-paced or tense piece of music, which is the norm, we decided to make use of a slower, more enigmatic soundtrack.  This allowed us to build on the mysterious mood created by the murder scene, and also portray the film as more of a challenge to the expected conventions of thrillers.

The title of the film was chosen because we felt it had two direct meanings within the film.  Firstly, it describes effectively the situation that the protagonist, the detective is in.  This was defined in our plot as being to identify and track down a killer.  It could be said that his goal is “untraceable”.  Similarly, the second way the single-word title bears relevance to the film is that it is a clear description of the antagonist, and reinforces the idea of the antagonist, the killer, fulfilling a common villain role of the “silent killer” or assassin. 

The opening of untraceable follows a fairly common convention of thrillers, which is to immediately follow Todorov’s idea of equilibriums.  We achieve this by showing a murder in the very first scene, and therefore alerting the viewer to a disruption in the film’s plot, and also to who the disruptor is. 

In terms of introducing characters, we thought the best way to introduce Saqib’s character of the assassin was to have him commit a murder in his very first appearance, or scene.  This was to ensure the audience would be in no doubt as to whether or not the character is a villain, as they only have a single experience with him.  He is repeatedly filmed in non-personal methods in order to stop the audience building any kind of sympathy or relationship with him, and to keep the interaction impersonal.  Such methods include showing only showing Saqib’s character from a medium shot while he is committing the murder, and only showing an extreme close-up of his mouth while he making the phone-call.