Recce Report

Casting Considerations

Synopsis

My film is centred around the protagonist, Sapphire and her relationship with the drug dealer, Zi. 

Sapphire is a young woman who is affected by seeing her parents murder. In the present, Sapphire is 20 years old and is out to seek the man who caused her parent's death. Her parents were involved in a drug war and were murdered by the drug dealer Zi, when Sapphire was 16.
We, the audience do not know any of this background information until Zi has been killed, therefore the film does not have a linear structure.
When Sapphire and Zi meet in the diner, Sapphire is in control of their irrelevant conversation, whilst holding a gun to his crotch underneath the table.
Sapphire shoots Zi (switching of stereotypical gender roles). She walks off to the bathroom, where she applies red lipstick.
The flashbacks of Sapphire's parents being murdered is similar to Tarantino's backstories of women, which makes the audience sympathise with these characters.

Throughout the present scenes in the film, Sapphire is portrayed as a strong, dominating woman who definitely has control over Zi in the diner scene. (Relating to Tarantino's representation of macho women and the idea of switching male/female roles) however we see this was not always the case when we are shown her backstory. Sapphire's name also relates to Tarantino's representation of macho women and the switching of male/female roles. (The name Sapphire was a commonly used name for black caricatures during the 1920-1960s. Who's characteristics were stubborn and overbearing. This also relates to the theme of Blaxpoitation)
The symbolism of the red lipstick also relates to Sapphire's name and the symbolism of the colour red.

Naming my characters

Throughout planning I have been naming the protagonist Black woman. However, I did not want this to be her name throughout the actual film.

In my film I shall use a lot of symbolism, for example the red lipstick that the protagonist applies. I used this idea to think of the name for my protagonist; Sapphire. I wanted the name of my protagonist to have an actual meaning behind it. Not only does the Sapphire gemstone come in shades of red, the name also has a racial background. I thought that this would tie in Tarantino's use of Blaxploitation perfectly, but subtly. 

"The Sapphire Caricature portrays black women as rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing" By using this name for my film, it will subtly link in with my research question; Does Quentin Tarantino portray women as Macho? 

"It was not until the Amos 'n' Andy radio show that the characterisation of African American women as domineering, aggressive, and emasculating shrews became popularly associated with the name Sapphire. The show was conceived by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white actors who portrayed the characters Amos Jones and Andy Brown by mimicking and mocking black behaviour and dialect. At its best, Amos 'n' Andy was a situational comedy; at its worse, it was an auditory minstrel show.² The show, with a mostly-white cast, aired on the radio from 1928 to 1960, with intermittent interruptions. The television version of the show, with network television's first all-black cast, aired on CBS from 1951-53, with syndicated reruns from 1954 to 1966. It was removed, in large part, through the efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and the civil rights movement. Both as a radio show3 and television show, Amos 'n' Andy was extremely popular, and this was unfortunate for African Americans because it popularised racial caricatures of blacks. Americans learned that blacks were comical, not as actors but as a race." 

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/sapphire/

I have decided to call the drug dealer/man who gets shot Zi. I decided to call him this as I thought it was a tacky, drug dealer nickname that Tarantino may use.

The other characters, such as the parents in the memory scene and the women in the background of the bathroom scene, shall be nameless has they will not have dialog or be the main focus of the film.

Brief Outline

Scene One

The scene begins with the set of a living room, the main focus of the shot being a sofa. The black woman walks across in front of the scene, sits down on the sofa; she picks up the rolled joint which is sitting on the coffee table and lights the joint. She inhales, twists around on the sofa, stretches out her legs and crosses them at the ankles. The song, Jeepster, Trex is playing in the background of the radio.

As she inhales, she stretches her legs. She exhales, tilting her head and blowing the smoke upward. 

Scene Two: Diner

Black woman and man sitting in a booth in a diner. The Black woman again, is the main focus of the shot. Although she is not centred, we see by her body language that she is dominating the man. Throughout the scene however, blocking is used (although the characters do not move, the camera does.) The man is sitting further back in the corner of the diner sofa, almost slumped.
Their conversation is irrelevant, however she is in control of it.
The camera will then pan to underneath the table, where she is holding a gun to his crotch. The irrelevant conversation continues
Gun is shot.

Scene Three: Bathroom
Rumble, Link Wray is playing in the background in the diner.
Black woman walks off, leaving the man dead.
Black woman walks into the bathroom, walks up to the front of the mirror, pushing her way through other women. She looks in her bag and takes out red lipstick and reapplies it. She is the centre of the shot, which is a shallow shot. The women in the background are slightly blurred. This portrays their insignificance in relation to Black woman. She pulls her head back slowly to look at her reflection better. Extreme close up of her eyes.

Scene Four : A memory
Extreme close up of Black woman's young self's eyes, zooms out. She squeezes her eyes shut, which in turn creates a blackout.
The shot reopens blurred, portraying in a point of view shot, her parents being murdered. She is hiding. Close up : Black woman's young self looks down then strongly into the camera.

Scene Five : Bathroom x2
Rumble, Link Wray continues from the previous bathroom scene, fading in.
Fades into Black woman looking strongly into the camera/mirror. The women still in the background blurred, like how her parents were in the previous scene. She takes out a joint that she keeps in a gold metal tin. She lights it.
She inhales, smiles slyly and blows smoke into the screen.

Brief overview/breakdown of key texts

How how hav previous films influenced contemporary films? Pan geria and foxy brown, shaft b movies made to reach a black audience 

Death proof- vanishing point 

Is Tarantino responsible for switching the stereotypical gender roles around in his films?

How far do you agree that Tarantino portrays women as 'Macho'?

How accurate is Laura Muvley's Male Gaze theory in relation to my Tarantino key texts?

In Tarantino's films, he often provides a backstory for the characters in which he wants the audience to connect with. This, arguably is mainly women. For example; Shosanna in Inglorious Basterds, the first set of women in Death Proof, and Bearrix (The Bride) and O-ren in Kill Bill. It is not often that Tarantino will provide a backstory for the male characters, as their actions should be deemed as unfair and unjust, making them the butt of the joke or the 'bad guy' with no cause. Tarantino imitates a females point of view by providing a backstory scene, this in my opinion, makes it so he is not being sexually biased and contributing to the Male Gaze theory. However, it is important to remember that Tarantino is a white male, and therefore will contribute to the Male Gaze to some extent. 

Pulp Fiction: non linear structure

-focuses mainly around Marcellus, although he is rarely in the scenes

-2 hit men working for Marcellus, go to get the money from a few men living in an apartment, who owe money to Marcellus, this ends up in a mass killing. 

- one of the hit men, John Travolta ( Vincet Vega) is told by Marcellus to take his wife, Mia out for dinner whilst he is away. 

- Mia is clearly a strong, powerful woman who dominates the conversation and night between herself and Vincent Sucking on cherry, asking if he wants a sip of her milkshake, making him dance in the competition. 

-Mia overdoses on the 'cociane' that Vincent has in his jacket pocket (going through his private possessions) however, this is heroine and she does not realise that she ODs. 

-she is then taken to Vincent's friend's house where they revive her; there is no 'hero' in this scene, neither of the two males portray stereotypical masculinity 

-skipping forward to another powerful woman... We are met with Butch and his girlfriend Fabienne. 

-although Fabienne is not deemed as powerful and in control in the same way as Mia Wallace, Fabienne uses her stereotypical feminity. She portrays herself as weak and powerless however this characteristic reverses to Butch and therefore emasculated him, he is in her power. 

-at the beginning and end we are met with HunnyBunny and Pumpkin.  HunnyBunny clearly controls the the relationship, and we can see this through her body language. She also takes the centre of the shot and uses blocking when holding the gun. 

List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:

-Mia Wallace : in tune with her sexuality, sucking on a red cherry and looking sexually in the diner, invading Vincent's privacy when they met ( can see Vincent through cameras. Voyeurism; although this is usually viewed through the male perspective.), she also goes through Vincent's jacket and uses the heroine that she finds. 

-Fabienne : in tune with her feminity, she uses this to persuade Butch and control him into forgiving her and getting her own way. Portrays herself as weak, however this in turn emasculates Butch. Curling up in the corner when being shouted at. 

-HunnyBunny : strong body language, always  in the centre of the shot, blocking Pumpkin. She emasculates Pumpkin by controlling the conversation, interrupting him, sitting up straight to portray looking down on him. 

List of male characters and their development to emasculation: 

Marcellus : at the beginning we only see the back of Marcellus's head we get the idea that he is a powerful man, due to the scar located on the back of his head, and the gossip about what he did to the man who gave his wife a foot rub. However, we see Marcellus's character emasculate throughout the film as he eventually gets raped and called racist names, this portrays his character downfall 

Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield : at the beginning their hierarchy is clear, the shot of them looking the the boot of the car is filmed as a low angle shot to portray their importance and control. However, at the end of the 

film they are presented in 'goofy' looking t-shirts and shorts, this portrays their emasculation in comparison to the beginning scene where they are in sharp looking black suits. 

List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:

List of male characters and their development to emasculation: 

Hans : at the beginning of the film, Hans has a huge amount of power and control, so much that he can act calmly in this situation.  Hans kills all of Shosanna's family with his power and control, and completely emasculates the French farm owner with his presence. However, Hans is emasculated at the end of the film as the deal between him and Aldo is twisted. Aldo results in branding him with the Nazi logo on his forehead. It is not a woman who emasculates Hans but Aldo himself, however one could argue that this only occurs because of Shosanna / Bridget's plan and success to kill the nazis in the cinema. 

Death Proof: The film is almost split into two parts, the first half we are met with 3 women, including their back stories.

- the first half the of the film we are met with 3 very sexualised women; Jungle Julia, Shanna, Arlene and also Pam. 

-these women have been 'Stalked' by Stuntman Mike 

- all of these women play on their sexuality to tease Mike

- this however does not end well for them 

In the second half...

- Stuntman Mike messes with the wrong women 

-although they are too sexual, they are also strong and powerful and do not let Stuntman Mike defeat them 

- Zoe, Kim, Abernathy and Lee 

List of controlling and powerful women & how the act/what they do to emasculate men:

Synopsis Draft

Basic ideas for my film:  

Black woman in drug war:

-sexually aware 

-dominating and powerful control over men 

 Summary: 

Black woman sitting on sofa, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles; bare feet, smoking a joint

Black woman and man in a diner; she has the control of the conversation/ situation; sitting upright etc, he is slumped in the corner. 

Holding a gun to his crotch underneath the table ; phallic imagery, power and control ... Irrelevant conversation before he realises the gun and is shot

Black woman walks off like nothing has happened, goes to toilet to reapply lipstick, showing her control and not caring, his death an insignificance. 

Extreme close up shot of her eyes; fades into her eyes as a little girl; scene of her parents being killed by the man in the diner she is irreverent; curled up in the corner; flicks to her standing in the centre of the screen, the other people in the background blurred and behind her insignificantly (shallow shot). Lights up joint and smokes it, blowing smoke onto the screen. 

A strong woman who is strong due to her past. Based on the psycho analysis of Inglorious Basterds.

No linear structure

Characters: 

Black woman 

Man in diner

Parents : mother and father 

Black woman younger self 

Extras : women in background of mirror in diner 

.....................................................

Set in a diner but flashes back to scenes set in a child's bedroom 

Main character: Ida

Ida's partner: Levi

Ida's Father: Hugo

• Set in a diner at beginning
• Irrelevant conversation between a couple; the woman holding the power of the conversation, the man sitting further back and slumped, portraying his weakness and insignificance
• Extreme close up into female's eyes into another scene
• Zooms out of the females eyes, tear rolling down cheek
• Scene in child's bedroom
• She is in the corner, curled up hiding her face (signifying her lack of power and control) 
• Level framing showing mans clenched hand holding a belt, the girl in the background, blurred.