For my creative project I looked at a number of similar films and texts, that come under the same genre, to draw a variety of influences from. These include 'Dead Man's Shoes' (Dir. Shane Meadows, 2004), 'American Psycho' (Dir. Mary Harron, 2000), the HBO series 'The Sopranos' (1999-2007), and 'Goodfellas' (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990). As well as similar films, I also looked at real life hitmen and serial killers.
In my creative project the narrative is driven by revenge, the main character wanting to seek revenge on the people who have done him wrong, much like 'Dead Man's Shoes'. The actions of Richard (Paddy Considine) are all done due to his desire for revenge and, to a greater extent, redemption. Much like Richard, the main character in my creative project is seeking revenge on his 'employers' (the crime family who give him the contracts to kill). Much like Richard, he achieves this by creating an orgy of bloodshed and torment. I wanted the theme of redemption to play a part in the project too and his killing of the wrong doers (again, the crime family who hire him and their associates) being the act of redemption, although the character would show no remorse for his actions. For this idea, I took into consideration real life killers and hitmen. Some killers, but not all of them, kill those who they believe don't deserve to live e.g. drug addicts, rapists etc. An example of such killer is John Bunting, an Australian serial killer, who's tragets consisted of homosexuals and paedophiles, although he wasn't limited to just the two. His killings became known as the 'Snowtown murders' or 'Bodies in Barrels murders' and he is considered Australia's worst Serial Killer. Another influence was Gambino family soldier and head of the DeMeo crew, Roy DeMeo. His crew were suspected of killing, at the minimum, 70 people over the period of 10 years (between 1973 and 1983). The crew used dismemberment as a means of disposing their victims, dubbed the 'Gemini Method' (taking it's namesake from the crew's main hangout The Gemini Lounge, a place where the majority of the crew's killings took place). My primary influence, however, would be the killing of Paul Castellano, the head of the Gambino Crime Family, who was assassinated on the orders of John Gotti over fears that he, and his crew would be killed for dealing drugs. This idea of a sort of mutiny within the crime family plays a big role in my creative project.
As I wanted the character to keep his personal life and business life as two seperate entities, I planned the trailer to show this. The trailer cuts from a scene of the character getting on with his everyday life, to a scene of him performing acts of violence. For this aspect of my project I used a number of texts as inspiration, including films and real life killers. Firstly, I looked at 'American Psycho' in particular the character of Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), who manages to hide his insanity from his associates at Pierce & Pierce whilst battling a dependency to prescription medication, such as the psychoactive drug Xanax. Another inspiration would be the character of Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) in the TV series 'Dexter' who manages to keep his 'Dark Passenger' hidden from his friends and family. A real life influence for the character is Richard Kuklinski, a Polish-American contract killer who worked for both the Five Families in New York and the DeCavalcante family based in New Jersey. Over a career spanning 38 years he claimed to have killed more than 250 men, whilst keeping this dark secret away from his family and friends, not allowing his personal life to hold back his 'career'. Admitting in an interview that he had left his family celebrating Christmas (or a similar holiday) to go and kill a man. Similarly, the character of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) keeps his blood family and his extended family (his associates within his crime family) separate, but not to the same extent as previously mentioned examples. In several episodes of 'The Sopranos' Tony involves members of his family in his business. An example of this would be Tony stashing guns and money in his Mother's retirement home, using his wife, Carmela, as a distraction. For my creative project I want the audience to have the feeling that the main character also has a blood family, but keeps them out of his business, getting the idea that they are almost fully secluded from the 'real' him. The idea that he wears a mask when he's in the presence of his blood family. This can be seen in the trailer with the character's body language being, overall, calmer and relaxed when he is in his home, compared to his aggressive nature outside.
Like many films in the crime genre, religion is both a major and a minor theme. In my creative project it is mainly in the background, and doesn't greatly influence the character's life. Personally, I believe that the theme of religion plays a part in the idea that the character wears a mask for his family, making that mask more believable and giving it that Three-Dimensional feel. Religion isn't mentioned, nor is it implied, in the trailer, however it is implied to in both the magazine cover and poster, with the character wearing a Saint Christopher medallion. This idea of the character being sacrilegious/contradictory in his views is a convention which is present in more American films than British. For this idea, I looked at films like 'Goodfellas' and 'Mean Streets' and analysed how the characters deal with living with crime whilst also having a religion, with extra emphasis on Harvey Keitel's character Charlie in the latter.
Overall, the creative project follows a wide variety of conventions from both American and British films of the same genre due to the amount of films I used as influence. As a British crime film, however, it does break conventions to a slight extent. For example, not many British films, if any, focus on a main character hiding his business from his family, nor do they focus on a characters theological beliefs. Because of the mixing of conventions I believe it gives the project a uniqueness, making it stand out from other crime films.The conventions used in the trailer included things like violence, revenge (implied), betrayal (revenge), and family. As well as the aforementioned conventions, the characters were also dressed in a way conventional to both American and British crime films including suits and shirts to casual wear.
