Barry Turi A2 Film Studies F634

Production Aims

As part of my Film Studies F634 portfolio, I will be creating 5-minute

short film based on the comic-book character Red Hood, in which I
will be creating a sympathetic representation of the character. I
have written a creative investigation exploring the representation of
protagonists in superhero movies from 1978 onwards, in which I had
referenced films such as Spider-Man (2002), Man of Steel (2013),
and Batman (1989). I came to the conclusion that representations of
protagonists had very much differentiated as a result of real life
events such as 9/11, and this had encouraged directors to take a
more humanised approach in terms of the main characters of films
to follow.

The ideal tone I want to create in my short film will be reminiscent of

the more gritty superhero texts that I had not included in my textual
analysis, demonstrating that there is more to this genre than I had
covered in my creative investigation. I will be looking to replicate
the tones of Daredevil (2015 - ) and The Dark Knight (2008).
Daredevil does a very good job in setting up a dark and gritty world
that our characters live in, through the use of mise-en-scene, (dark
colours, grunge locations) editing, (long takes of fight scenes to
imply that Daredevil struggles in serving justice, implying hes just a
man) and cinematography which is reminiscent of a thriller rather
than a superhero television series. The series shows that the
superhero genre can also become hybrids with other genres such as
the drama genre and even thrillers (political thrillers and
psychological thrillers). I want to make John Hartleys theory about
the hybridity of films relevant to my production, especially as more
and more superhero films are starting to merge with these other
genres, to change with the times and audience needs to survive in
Hollywood.

Two scenes which I had really enjoyed from Daredevil are the two
long-take fight scenes, in both Season 1 and Season 2. Each scene
starts off with Daredevil ready for a fight, however by the end he is
rundown, exhausted and seriously injured; however he comes out
victorious. The extended long take connotes his prolonged
exhaustion, forming an image of him, which suggests that hes just
a man someone who only wants to make his city better. Compiled
with the realistic setting of the show, the exhaustion of the these
fight scenes helps audiences to interact with the character of
Daredevil even more, showing his pain and tiredness in contrast to
many other fight scenes in other superhero films. I will be replicating
the fight from Season 1, as I feel it demonstrates a realistic
depiction of a brutal fight.

However, my main aim for this production is to form a

representation of the character of Jason Todd. I will be using
 Barry Turi A2 Film Studies F634

flashbacks combined with editing techniques and eloquent

cinematography in order to reach my goal here. POV shots will help
the audience feel as if they are Jason, forming a larger connection to
the character, close-ups will enable the audience to see his anger
and turmoil through clear facial expressions, and a prolonged long
take, which I will be using in my fight scene, will help make my
production seem more realistic and grounded. Combined with a
sympathetic score which delivers empathy to his character, I feel
that I can force the average audience member to feel a degree of
emotion towards the character of Jason Todd in my short film.