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 Ritchies 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 girls
life is at stake and follows Todorovs 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 oligarchs 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
mans 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,
its story is accessible and pacey and the audience
is moved by the unexpected twists and turns of the
plots.