1. Lucky Number Slevin
Institutions
The institutions is the information about the Director, Production Company, Release Date, Box
Office Returns, Etc. I have gathered all the information I need from the internet, because of it is
quicker and easier and I have collected the information below from the website IMDb.
Director
Paul McGuigan
Throughout McGuiganʼs career he has worked in both TV and Film giving him
an extra experience with putting together this film. He is also working on two
films that will be released in 2010 they are, T-Leaf and Four Knights.
Writer
Jason Smilovic
Smilovic works on two side of the film industry as a Producer and Writer, he
has worked on both side for the TV show Bionic Women, however never for a film.
This was Silovicʼs first time writing a film.
Production Company
There where five production companies that helped with making the film:
• Capitol Films (presents)
• Ascendant Pictures (presents)
• FilmEngine
• VIP 4 Medienfonds (as VIP 4)
• Lucky Number Slevin Productions Inc.
All of these companies have worked with big films, this could be hinting at the film being well
made.
Release Date
24 February 2006
Genre
Crime / Thriller, the genre is given away by the poster of the film as of the character pointing two
guns in to the lookers direction.
Country of making
The film was made in the USA and Germany, I was not shocked by this as there are some big
American actor on the poster.
Awards
The film has received four awards and has been nominated three times, so far my expectations of
the film are very high I am hoping that it reaches them.
Now knowing what the awards are I am really looking forward to watching the film.

2. Institutions
Directors Guild of Canada
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
Outstanding Sound Editing - Feature Film
Kevin Banks
2006 Nominated DGC Craft Award Lee de Lang
Jill Purdy
Nathan Robitaille
Milan International Film Festival (I)
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
Best Film
Audience Award
Paul McGuigan
Best Actor Josh Hartnett
2006 Won Tied with Peter Falk for The Thing About My Folks (2005).
Best Editing
Andrew Hulme
Best Film
Paul McGuigan
Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA
Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
Best Sound Editing for Music in a Feature Film
Kevin Banks (music editor)
Arthur Pingrey (music editor)
Best Sound Editing for Sound Effects and Foley in a Foreign Film
Paula Fairfield (supervising sound editor/sound designer)
2007 Nominated Golden Reel Award
Jill Purdy (supervising adr/dialogue editor)
Carla Murray (sound designer/sound effects editor)
Nathan Robitaille (sound effects editor)
Lee de Lang (sound effects editor)
Steve Baine (foley artist)
Money
I have split the Money section into two sections - Budget and Gross, I have done this so that I can
see if they have made a profit or a loss.
Budget
The estimated budget is $30 million, I hope that they have used the money resourcefully to make
the movie.
Gross
The worldwide gross that the film got is $56,308,881, the overall profit is only about $25 million,
this is clearly not as much as Hannibal Rising got so maybe you don’t need a large profit to get a
good movie.

3. Audience
In this audience section I will go though the intend audience and the reception of the film, I will be
using ratings and user comments from IMDb.
Intended Audience
The information that I have researched on the IMDb website, I can
assume that the intended audience of the film would be people that
enjoy watching crime thrillers. I presume that this is the intend audience
because of the poster that they have used to promote the film, showing
a character pointing guns towards the viewer as well as the silhouetted
man, in the poster, is also holding a gun, giving a strong description of
the film genre.
The age for this intended audience is most likely to be from the age of
18- 30, I believe that this was the intended audience because this the
biggest age group that goes to watch films like this. Further more they
would have wanted to make a bigger profit because the famous actors
acting in the film, as they would be expecting a high pay roll.
Audiences Reception
To get the audiences reception to the film I have used IMDb to receive the research for this section.
I have used quotes to back up my opinions of the film opening and the average rating of the film.
This is the average rating of
Votes Average everyone that rated the film, as
Males 65,709 7.9
Females 7,616 8.0
you can see the average rating of
Aged under 18 1,333 8.5 the film is 7.8, which shows it had
Males under 18 1,135 8.5 a good affect on the audience.
Females under 18 198 8.8
Aged 18-29 54,368 8.0
Males Aged 18-29 48,670 8.0 I am surprised by the findings, I
Females Aged 18-29 5,587 8.2 thought this film would be a guys
Aged 30-44 14,481 7.5 film but to my disbelief the females
Males Aged 30-44 13,005 7.5 rated it higher in all of the sections
Females Aged 30-44 1,372 7.7
Aged 45+ 3,009 7.5 that I thought where the target
Males Aged 45+ 2,558 7.5 audience.
Females Aged 45+ 418 7.3
IMDb staff 5 7.9
Top 1000 voters 534 7.1
My prediction of the target
US users 19,960 7.9 audeince was correct as you can
Non-US users 53,290 7.9 see the under 29s gave it a higher
rating than the 30s and over giving
IMDb users 81,469 7.8 me the impression that the
younger generation enjoyed it more then the older.
This was the same through the comments for the film, most people giving positive quotes like user
sweethoneyhan, who said “I strongly recommend this film to anyone.” giving me the impression of
how well made the film was, however he could have been looking directly at this as just a story, not
as a film.
The user werewolf966 said “unfortunately this is an ordinary vengeance story” this comment gives
the idea that the film is like all the other crime films, just guns, women and murder, not giving you
any reason to watch the film.

4. Technology
In this section I will talk about how the technology has increased the audiences knowledge and
access of the film.
The Audiences Knowledge
In this film the audiences knowledge of what is happening, is set by the titles that are shown at the
beginning of the film. To be honest the opening to this film was very confusing it took a while to get
into the film but by then the film had raised some very important questions, good enough questions
to keep me watching until I realised I was half way through the film (the make of a good film).
The opening was very easy to understand as the film gave the date, it
also had a fantastic set of 70s clothes making it again very easy to get
captured in to the film. The clothes consisted of being bright, but
however they would wear something that would dull down the colour
of it. This is what is done with the father and his bright green shirt, they
cover it up with the dull red jacket. This sort of thing was done in the
70s giving the film the authenticity that is needed in a good film.
To the audiences knowledge the character Good Cat is just telling a
story of a child but this is done to confuse the audience into what is
about to happen, leading them in to a false sense of security. This is
done to mislead the audience so the they get a bit shocked at what
happens in the movie.
Audiences Access
When it comes to the audiences way of watching the film there are various ways of doing this, the
audience could watch the film on DVD, Blu-ray or VHS by easily renting or purchasing the movie.
The new way of renting films that has become very popular in the last couple of years is by ordering
a rental film off the internet, the companies that do this are Lovefilm, Amazon and iTunes.
The way of renting a film of iTunes is that you download it from the software you then have it for
about 30 days after the 30 day it automatically deletes it self. This is a great way of renting films as
you can put the film on to your iPod letting you watch it when you are out.

5. Codes/Forms & Conventions of the Thriller Genre
For this section I am going to go through a wide range of techniques that give a purpose and an
effect to the thriller genre.
Conventions
Lucky Number Slevin doesnʼt exactly follow the conventions of other thriller films that I have
watched, this is mainly because of not showing some of the main characters until twenty minutes
into the movie.
However it does add some conventions hinting at the plot of the
film, this is shown in the title sequence. The title sequence starts
with a normal text saying the directors name as the camera does
a pan to the right the text starts to change into numbers, this
could be hinting that the film has a plot that has a reference to
money. The text then cut to some shots of a man being killed,
after this it then shows a background of a paying in booklet, it
then shows the title of the film this could be showing the plot of
the film.
As you can see the name of the character is coloured in red
this could show that the character has a dangerous past or that
he is going to get into trouble.
However it could represent that the character is in a lot of debt
which would explain why his name is written in red and in the
slot where the money they owe goes in.
here is a shot of one, of the main characters killing a person, after this the sequence of titles
T
changes to a different background of a log book, which now has stains of blood and blood spatters
on the pages, showing the film is going to be about money and violence giving the impression of it
being a gangster movie.
There is one thing that I adore about the thriller films is the way they hid weapons and the way
they turn a harmless object into a weapons.
The first one is a hidden object that is concealed in the glasses
frame, the person does some fiddling and pulls out a needle. At
this point you start to think what is he going to do with that and
what can he do? The character then takes out two of the
bodyguards with the object, giving a great mise en scene effect as
it gives the character the atmosphere of being a man on a
mission.
To kill an old man who is pulling out a gun from his desk draw,
the character grabs a baseball and throws it directly at the old
manʼs eye killing him. I find this a little odd but to make it
seem more believable, the film makers use a POV shot from
behind the glasses, bluring out the character to add the
mysteriousness of the character.

6. Codes/Forms & Conventions of the Thriller Genre
Sound
For the sound section I will split it up into non-diegetic and diegetic sounds.
During the title sequences my guess about the plot is built upon by the sound of racing horses and
of commentators commenting on the race, giving me the impression that the plot is about
gambling.
All the way through the title there is the sound of a piano playing a mysterious sound by only using
the high pitch, it is then followed by the a drum making a thudding sound and a violin. These
instruments are used to give the opening a mysterious theme, it may also be used to hint at what
the film is going to about, as it raises questions.
The sound doesnʼt change while the character is killing the people in the opening, this could be to
show that the killer is a pro and is calm about killing the other characters.
The sound only changes when a new character is introduced to the film, there is a shot of a long
white waiting room with blue chairs; as the character starts to move up the room the sound of a
flute is played, which later shows how tired the character is.
There is not much diegetic sound during the opening, it is only in place when the killer is going to
kill someone. During the first kill the sound of the victims footsteps are amplified to be louder than
the background music, to add the effect of the characters last footsteps. At the second murder the
main victim asks the question “so...what do want?” this gives the impression that the victim doesnʼt
know his killer, leaving the audience to assume that the killer has been hired.
The next piece of important sound is when a man in a wheel chair ask a stranger “do you know the
Kansas City shuffle?……. Donʼt worry, it normally falls on deaf ears” this part hints that the man in
the wheel chair is a killer, as the only people he would tell it to would die.
Setting
From the first kill I can tell that they are in a city, I can assume
this by the multi story car park, I can also assume that it is a
rundown car park due to the fact that the roof is leaking and they
are on the bottom floor.
However the next setting confuse me a little because it looks
more like an airport than a train station that it is revealed to be
later on in the movie. DOP has selected a great
shot for this scene as it gives the effect of never
ending.

7. Representation
The character shown in the photograph is represented as the
keeper who organises a log-book which conceits of names
and the bets that they have put on and the money that they
may owe.
This is shown by the large amount of papers and items that
are stuck on the wall, a stereotypical base of a betting
company.
The owner doesnʼt really fit the stereotypical betting person
due to him wearing smart clothing whereas the stereotypical
version would be wearing a leather jacket and a hat that has
tickets in the top
This character is represented as an average person having
no distinguishing features. One thing that the character
kept repeating was blinking and rubbing his eyes, giving
the impression that the character has been running away
from something.
From this shot and the characters facial expressions, I get
the impression that he is worried about something, maybe
a debt that he is in which would explain the horse racing
commentary at the start.
The character is also dressed completely in black making
him stand out from the set. However this could be done to
hint at his death or the death of someone he knows which
would explain the sad appearance.
From the way that this new character is shown I get
the impression he is the wise person who makes
the main character of the film act on any given
situation. He is also shown to be the wise person
from the dialogue he uses to make the man
dressed in black think about things clearly.
This character is shown to be in a wheel chair and
a question is quickly raised, asking how he came to
be in the wheel chair. The man is represented as a
stereotypical cripple as he has the very colourful
blanket over his legs. Another thing is the layers of
clothing that they seem to wear, which always has
a jacket or a coat at the top, as shown on the
image.

8. The silhouette in the background has all the faces in the mist of it
suggesting that maybe this person is controlling the people, a puppet
master.
It could also represent that the character has a hidden past that he is
trying to keep hidden, that is why its a silhouette and why he has a
gun.
The three
characters at This sentence
the top may ʻluck has
have hidden nothing to do
pasts I with itʼ could
assume this suggest that
because the film is
they have about a plan, I
half their assume this
faces in because of
shade. the cliché
making me
However the think that the
women looks film is about
like she is fulfilling a plan
moving away
from the
darkness this The guns that
could are being
represent pointed at the
that she is viewer could
trying to get suggest that
away from the film is
the danger about gun
or trouble crime and
she is in. gangsters
Whereas the The man
two men look holding the
as if they are guns, has
trying to hide half of his
them selves face shaded
in the shade, suggesting
maybe trying that he has
to become a different
better side.
gangsters or
trying to hid
from
something.
The title “lucky number slevin” could be irony as for the cliche above say luck has nothing to do with it,
gives the impression that the film has nothing to do with luck, just chance. However the title could have
some secret meaning behind it, I assume this because of the number part being in red maybe be
hinting at blood or danger. Also it could be possible to do with a debt that hasn't been paid, and it being
in red could be hinting this.