Thursday 28 January 2010

Music notes

Use garageband to conduct a sequence that fits with the opening.
Preferably no music, or quiet string/beat music for when the phone
conversation is playing as this helps keep the concerntration on the conversation.
The music must then become louder as action cuts in, and then faded out to low volume
to allow maximum voice volume for the news correspondent.
mainly violin sounded music throughout the opening to let the audience know
the distrssful situation.

Details of Costumes

We will only need two costumes in our title sequence as we only have two scenes.
The first scene: News Report.
We, as a group, were advised to use a more mature looking actor in the role of news reporter to make it appear more legitimate and realistic but we realise this may be hard to organise. To combat this we are planning to act ourselves and use a suit to not only make us appear older than we actually are but also to comply with the stereotypical dress code of British Television Journalists. A black or Grey suit with tie, coupled with a microphone and piece of paper will leave the audience believing that this news reporter is a seasoned professional.
The second scene: Shifty criminal.
This scene consists of a 15 second shot of a shifty man leaving a building. To create the mysterious effect via costume we are planning to use a big coat and dark clothes. We may possible include a hat for him to pull down as he leaves on just use the big coat for him to pull across and do up as he walks away. So, this actor will wear black shoes, black trousers, a big coat and a dark t-shirt.

Analysis of examples of political, psychological, action and crime thrillers

There are four main sub-genres used within the thriller genre. There are of course others but the main ones that are used are: Political, psychological, action and crime thrillers.


  • A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of political power struggle. They usually involve various plots, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him from getting it. They can involve national or international political plots. An example is the film, Munich.
  • An Action thriller can be defined, In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist (which is can be known as the "bad guy") . These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and a large set for the action to take place. These films often have elements of mystery and crime which contributes to making a sub-genre of action and a thriller. An example of this genre is, The Bourne Trilogy.
  • A Psychological thriller can be defined as; the conflict between the main characters is ether mental or emotional, rather than physical. A good example of this type of thriller could be the film Fatal attraction, as it shows there are emotional issues between the characters.
  • A Crime thriller is a hybrid of both crime films and thrillers, that follow a successful or failed crime and what happens after it. Crime thrillers normally focus on action rather than psycological, and can be linked to action thrillers. Examples of these can be : Inside man, Seven or Reservoir dogs.

Thriller Mise-en-scene

An important scene that will have to be taken in to consideration will be that of the news report. We are not sure whether to go for a English approach to television journalism or an American one. We are leaning towards and English version however as we ourselves are British and we have British patriotism!
Although this is of a Student American journalist it is a good example of the kind of clothes they wear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbk6jKa_Fq0 The female reporter often wears casual clothes whereas the television journalism we are used to is that of smart clothes for both women and men, usually suits. The American Journalist is also very blunt and to the point... very stereotypical American.
In contrast this is an example of a British Television Journalist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mxFRigYD3s. Both the anchor and the on scene journalist are very professionally dressed and the language is very intimate and detailed. Such details about the World Trade Center's that you possibly would not see in Rash American Reports.

Another scene which mise-en-scene will be considered is in the phone call. In this case, less is more, with just a black screen for the audience to look at. As the phone call unfolds the audience will sit in a pitch black cinema. The whole idea of this is that when in a real conversation with someone you can't see their face can you? By imitating this on the big screen we are creating the idea that the audience are helpless, and making the characters even more mysterious! The conversation itself will be very blunt and not give away too many details as not to give away plot line. Once the phone call has been recorded and uploaded we create a muffled effect as if the characters are talking in fear of being heard talking or of the phone call being tapped. Throughtout the conversation there will be white credits of the actors on screen fading in and out, as to comply with the stereotypical mysterious thriller genre. As the conversation reaches its peak and the dirty gossip is spoken the title will appear on screen. This title will not be big as to not make the product look over the top or silly. It will fade in as the character says the word 'framed' (script to be detailed at a later date). Therefore we are creating continuity. The phone call will end abruptly and will be left with the dial tone, as music is slowly merged in.

The transition between phone call and media collage
This tranisition is extremely important as to grab the audience's attention and engage them with the content on screen. As the phone call finishes the dial tone will kick in and then the music will merge with this. The black screen will not be changed and the media such as photos and newspaper reports and video clips will fall on to the screen, creating quality continuity and a smooth unheard of transition in the student world. Not having any cuts in our title sequence will be easy to achieve but have a very professional effect on the audience.

More about mise-en-scene later.

Prop List

Our filming has been planned so it just covers the specifications required to get top grades, we don't want to elaborate in fear of making the final product look cheap and taccy. Don't threat however, we will satisfy an A grade with other elements of our title sequence. The props we will require are simply and easy to find.
  • Firstly we will need Ollie's HD camera to film, we have chosen to use this camera rather than a Media Department supplied camera because 1.It is a better quality and make a film smoother and less pixelated in the final cut. 2. We will not have any restrictions on when we can film and our out of college filming won't be rushed. This is all subject to whether the camera is compatable with the Mac's we shall use for editing. Although this technically isnt a prop I thought it would be a good idea to include it in the list as it will spell out to you, as the marker, intricate details of our plan.
  • Another piece of equipment we will be bringing from home is my digital camera, we would prefer to use a home camera because it would allow us to take it home and upload the photos to email and then send them in to our macs at colleege. It will minimise stages in which we take and upload photos ultimately cutting time and meaning we can get other things done.
  • The first prop we will need for actual filming is a microphone. In the scene where there is a news report the reporter will require a microphone to speak in to to make the scene look realistic. I am pondering on whether to give the actor, who is yet to be identified, a piece of A4 paper so it appears that the event is so recent he is first on scene and hasn't had time to revise what he is planning to say. I can supply a microphone from home which may be able to plug in to Oli's camera meaning the report will truly sound realistic. If we can't find a suitable microphone from home we will ask around college.
  • Other props come under the other post detailing costumes.

The titles that will be included in our sequence

We intend to include titles and the beginning of our opening, to introduce the people involved with the making of this sequence. The titles will appear as the first section of the sequence starts, dissolving onto the black background and then dissolving out aswell. The titles will consist of all the different jobs that helped to make the film, which include: Production company, Actors in the film, editors, sound producers and director of the sequence. The titles are intended to appear in that order listed above, which will come in one after the other.
The names of the people involved are intended to appear underneath the titles, except from the actors their names will just appear with no title. Researching into different opening sequences, the majority of them have their titles at the beginning with parts or their narrative in the background, with the titles flowing continuously.
I found this by looking at the website : http://www.artofthetitle.com/ , which had examples such as Sherlock Holmes, that used newspapers and articles to add effect to their titles. Also i saw an example of the film Snake Eyes, which used actual footage of the film, not using a separate scene to show the titles. We decided to use the method of using a separate scene for out title sequence, to keep the effect of mystery and suspense as we don't want to reveal much of the narrative of what could be the film itself, as a real production most probably wouldn't do.

Pitch Feedback from Andrea

Your idea is really good and an original approach in the context of this project. I think it is really important that you script the conversation that you hear at the beginning.
Also you need to consider what you are going to do to make the news reports look good. We can work together to do some test footage to use for the news casts. We could use colour mattes and scrolling text as a mock news ticker for example.
You also need to consider how you are going to create the other objects such as the newspaper reports.

Great work so far.

Research other similar films

Our opening is sub genre; crime thriller, and as there is little examples which explore crime thriller, our ideas are hard to base on examples as crime often ends pushing into horror thriller.
See below examples which are similar to ours and similar to our sub genre.



Malcolm X uses the idea that we wish to use. The phone call will be backed by a black screen/still picture where credits come in. This enables the audience to concentrate on the phone conversation. This then cuts to music with action. This is similar to how Malcolm X is narrating while it cuts to action.



Cleaner has a opening which uses the villain as the narrator, who states grim things in crime scenes. The opening is set with dark lighting and low angle mysterious shots but is lightened by Samuel L Jackson's voice. The opening is also set with contrapuntal music which lightens the dark setting.

Things to bare in mind:
  • Possible contrapuntal music
  • Dark setting
  • Little action during part we want audience to concentrate on.
  • Narrator telling story when action is being played.
  • Mise en scene - Lighting, dark gloomy to put across the dull mood. - Costume, for example suit for news correspondent. - Sound i.e contrapuntal or dark
  • Be careful not to make opening move to horror.
  • verity of camera angles/shots which put across the darkness.
  • use transitions which wont make it look tacky, i.e no dissolves. possible mainly fade in/out
  • alter the news broadcast to have strip at bottom

Blog advice from Andrea

Your blog is designed to evidence the research and planning you have done before you start filming your thriller.
A blog in the 'excellent' category could include some of the following detail:

1. Analysis of student thriller
2. More than one detailed analysis of real thriller openings
3. Practise soundtrack for your thriller
4. Practise soundtrack for Taking Lives intro
5. Production company logo
6. Definition of thriller, outline of different sub-genres and hybrids
7. Analysis of examples of political, psychological, action thriller and crime thriller
8. Initial ideas post
9. Final idea post - for pitch
10. Influences and the thriller generic conventions you intend to explore
11. Mood board
12. Research into other films of similar sub-genres
13. Props list - with illustrations
14. Details of costumes - with illustrations
15. Location report - where you intend to film, if it is a public place then you need to consider the logistics of filming there. If it is private property you must seek permission from the owner.
16. Complete shot list
17. Completed storyboard
18. Test footage with a full explanation as to the technique you were testing and how successful the test was.
19. Details of when you intend to film (dates, times and places), who is responsible for bringing what props etc, what actors are needed and who is in charge of ensuring the actors are informed of times and locations.
20. Practise titles, consider the job titles and the names you wish to include. Do some research into titles. Look at Saul Bass as an industry expert in title sequences.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

the check list.

  • tick each bullet point of as we do it. boys, when you read this if there is anything wrong stick it in at the bottom and we will rectify it next lesson. this plan is extremely detailed because it lists every single thing we need to do, meaning that when it comes to doing it we can literally just check of a list
  • We are going to split our opening sequence into three parts: the phone conversation and the collage of information about the murder and the music
  • the phone conversation
  • script a phone conversation, make it around 30 seconds long, start with a ring tone, ring twice, pick up talk for 25 seconds then the dead phone line as one person cuts off. DONE
  • record the phone conversation, then upload to mac.
  • when uploaded onto the final cut put the conversation on top of a black screen, experiment with using credits above the call, all credits fade in and out as it is a mysterious thriller, no definite sharp movements
  • transition - as the phone beeps for 5 seconds as the other person has hung up quiet music will move in and take over from the sound of the phone
  • Without a change of background (the black background stays there adding continuity) the media starts to fly in.
Getting the photos and manipulating a collage
  • we will use my camera (callums) to take photos of the location... the mitre, lots of photos around the 'crime scene' use somewhere that doesnt have people inside (obviously not an active crimescene) i will upload these to my home computer and send them in to school where we will upload to photoshop and edit these to make them darker and more brownish (as though they belong to a newspaper) finally upload to finalcut
  • Make newspaper reports (use real newspaper titles so we can mirror the newspaper saves inventing a whole template ourselves), front page accounts of the murder, and subtitle will detail the accused, someone in power, a minister etc. make these at home , 1 each, then make the screen full screen, take a screen print, and send in to school. upload these to photoshop then later put in to final cut.
  • Use oli's sony HD camera to film two scenes: (firstly chek compatibility with media crew)
  • the first is a newspaper report from the crime scene, use someone in a suit that looks mature. script his 15 second shot he will show the crime scene give basic background info... 'we have no confirmed information on what went on the house , we do know however a murder took place throughout the night of the 24th'... (along them lines) he will say who died and the witness that saw someone leaving the building. the camera angle will be held steady by one of us just as a film crew would at a crime scene. upload this short simple precise clip to final cut and attempt to layer 'bbc news' and 'date and time' to the shot to create the look of a proper bbc news report... use andrea to help with this.
  • the second clip that needs filming is that of the action shot. this clip will be around 15 seconds (the reason for having 2 short bursts is because they are merely film clips as part of a bigger collage, we need to keep changing the media to keep the audience on their toes, the first long bit of filming will be the start of the actual film, that is what distinguishes the title sequence from film) the clip will be of a creepy man, preferably in dark clothes... keeping with the thriller mise en scene stereotypes and possibly a big coat. he will step out of a door of a house, look straight down the lens of the camera and walk away pulling on a hat or pulling his coat closed, looking secretive. by adding in this secondary scene it allows us to fit in with the criteria of 'video' by having different angles and distances. the framing will consist of the crime scene in the background for the news report and the a wierd back passage for the secondary clip)
  • by not including any media that the public would not see normally (the murder weapon, the crime scene with the chalk around the body etc) the audience will have the exact view as they would if it happened in real life, and things will slowly be revealed to them through the actual film.

the music

  • the music will exist in the background and will start quietly from the phone conversation and get louder and louder ending with an orchestrated score. the production of the music will be done after filming and take around 1-2 lessons as another person edits the clips.

the editing

  • once we have everything placed in order on final cut we will then get down to intricate details, layering the media (photos and videos) on top of each other to creat a collage effect and then tying that in with the phone conversation.
  • finally we will layer the music
  • this will hopefully be completed by the first draft deadline, andrea will then check the project and give us room for improvement.

if we get time we will create our film company logo in lesson rather than outside of lesson

if this goes to plan we will be left with a quality project boys...

Music note - We need to make sure music is not a last minute thing as music plays a big role in increasing suspense and tention, portraying feelings of the actor to the audience. ensure music fits to the scene, if neccesary. #

Possible narration idea - framed guy narrating, only suggestion.

ensure the tranitions are not tacky!

video criteria

The basics to include in our opening:
  • Holding a shot steady
  • Framing a shot
  • using a variety of shot distances
  • shooting material to the task set
  • selecting mise en scene including: colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting
  • editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
  • using varied shot transitions and other effects.
  • using sound with images and editing it appropriately
  • using titles appropriately

Monday 25 January 2010

Idea for thriller opening sequence

I brainstormed a few ideas at home and asked around my family to what they thought. This is my most appreciated peice:

The film opens with a black background and a muffled phone conversation. The conversation details the plan of framing someone for a murder, but at the same time not giving too much of the story away. I have chosen to keep the blackground plain black so that the audience isnt distracted and can fully focus on the conversation. I believe the audience will appreciate such editing as they are mature enough to understand when to listen and don't need pictures or video to keep them occupied. as the conversation comes to an end a orchestrated score will build. Pictures will be thrown around the screen on top of each other such as newspaper reports, pictures and video clips of the crime.

Over this the credits will be displayed using different transitions such as push slides and dissolve.

Pitch - Mood Board


This mood board shows the basis of what will be included in our title sequence. For a more detailed analysis and explanation check our previous blog post titled 'Thriller Pitch'.

production logo practise



We chose 3 specific layers to create our logo, using photoshop. we based our influences on such institutions for example universal studios, cpt productions and Warner Brothers productions.
Then we imported the logo into final cut, and added a fade animation to put across a professional institutional logo.

practise soundtrack



This is the a practise soundtrack we made for the opening sequence to: Taking Lives.
We used the application Garageband to produce our soundtrack, and based the sounds on the film. For example using certain music types to influence a mood to the viewer.

Thriller Pitch

As group T1-29 we have pondered over different opening sequences for our Thriller project. The chosen genre is a 'Crime Thriller'. The essence of crime thriller is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients. However, because we are only creating an opening sequence to the film our project will not include all of the listed conventions.

So, our title sequence will begin a phone conversation, shadowed by nothing but a black screen. As the conversation evolves the two characters will introduce the two antagonists who plan to frame the protagonist. Such conversations can be seen in the 'Intro' to 50 Cent's album 'The Massacre'. At the end of the conversation the phone will go cut out and the audience will be left with the stereotypical background 'fuzz' of an unhooked phone. I like the idea of the black screen with a phone conversation as the lack of pictures will mean the audience are fully focused on the phone conversation rather than other material. Due to the audience being 15+ they will be taken in by the phone conversation and won't need pictures or videos to keep them occupied, as younger children would. An orchestrated score will climax after a slow build up, merged from the fuzz of the unhooked phone. Pictures will then bombard the screen dictating the crime that has happened. Pictures will include newspaper reports, pictures of the characters, video reports off journalists at the 'crime scene' etc.

We have chosen this title sequence because in to many past projects students have tried to hard to create a thriller with assets not up to standard leaving the finished project looking tacky and cheap. In our project the majority of work will be done on the Mac's meaning the film won't be shaky and the pictures will fall into shot precise and accurate (as it is controlled by the Mac). We realised doing to much leaves the project looking awful in our 'Children's film' project. We will only need one actor - if we choose to include a journalists report of the incident. This will probably be me, Callum or it could be Ollie or Luke, depending on who would rather film than act. The location will exist on the computer and, if needed we will have one location outside the so called 'crime scene'. This shot will be very easy to film as we will use a tripod and the shot will be stationary - cutting out all shakiness and making the scene simply but effective and successful. The most prominant effect used in the title sequence will be that of pictures giving the audience outline of the crime committed and characters in the film. Still pictures won't give much away and the accompanying music will add an element of mystery. To capture these pictures we will use a decent camera and take shots of the crime scene, the location (centre of cambridge), and some characters - things that will exist in the film. Some of our photos will come from the internet and others will be made ourselves, like the newspaper reports. These pictures and video clips will fall on to the screen, on top of each other to make a sort of collage but each photo landing on top of the other. The final photo will be that of the name of the film. A possible idea for the title is that of an existing name, so the picture can be a building with the name on it rather than a self processed name on Final Cut or Photoshop. The credits will run while the photos are being shown and will begin in the phone conversation.

Our title sequence will finish with the pictures fading out and the music dying down, leaving the rest of the film up to the director.

Sunday 24 January 2010

Ideas

We have alreadly thought of the possiblities of thriller sub-genre, we are going to do, between political thriller, crime thriller and psychological thriller.
We decided this because the openings of these sub-genres for exaple 1408, Malcom X and One missed call, all show moderatly simple, yet successful openings. Over complicating an opening without hollywood equitment, will make the opening look tachy.
Idea
I came up with a possibility of doing a rooftop chase using free running. This was inspired by The Bourne trilogy, a psychological thriller which uses forgotton identity/amnesia, the main thriller convention, where the openings cut straight into action, which seems to be succseesful.
advantage: can turn out to be a successful piece due to examples.
diadvantage: can be extreamly hard to present, due to lack of equitment, possibly over-complicating the opening.

"Why do thrillers thrive?"

Task: read article; "why do thrillers thrive?" and sumerise in bulletpoints why thrillers are succeessful and enjoyed by audiences linking reason back to the quote.

  • The article claims we go to the pictures as we see exciting life, 'reflected on the screen'.
  • It states that because we 'don't experience' exciting lives, we 'must have these shake ups' of 'emotional disterbances' to be able to feel empathy - putting yourself in the actors shoes, imagining that you are playing the role, and making dicitions possibly what the actor may not do.
  • Because these experiences are too dangerous, we experience 'them artificially, where a screen is the best medium for this'.
  • As we sit in our 'armchair' feeling the empathy of the protagonist, we subconciously spot danger and often feel tense through the 'stuggle and turmoil' of the protagonist which is a main attraction for the thriller audience and mainly why people enjoy thrillers so much; the need to feel tense and be made to jump.
  • Although we, as the audience feel tense subconciously, we also, subconciously know that there is the limit of danger that is enclosed withing the 16:9 screen. 'let me illustrate this...an exibition slideshow' showed two collums begin to fall over actors, and 'just before it reached them, it hung in suspense' where the audience became restless, as the danger was real, the 'security was undermined', the audience felt uncomfortable about the safty of the actors.
  • finnally, thrillers thrive due to the audience being able to relate to the actors, for example; people know that the main plot is that heroes always persevere and win over the villains, however, even still knowing this we represse that thought and concerntraight on the safety of the hero and development of the hero in the plot.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Analysis of 'Empire of Dirt'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVBwZ5BZOb4&feature=PlayList&p=181E4BA214EEBE19&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

'Empire of Dirt' is an opening sequence created for a groups Media Studies Thriller Project. Out of all the attempts I have seen this has been the best one for a number of reasons. The first and major reason is that of over exaggeration. Over exaggerating the plot line is a regular occurance for directors as they believe the 'more that is happening, the better their grade will be.' However, by giving away to much of your plot line by, for example, having a rooftop chase scene or a kidnap and then the result: it transforms what was supposed to be a title sequence into a trailer. This is not the only problem, many groups try to hard and because they are attempting to re-enact something from Hollywood movies the result is taccy and messy because they don't have the appropriate skills or equipment. This is the reason I enjoyed the opening sequence to 'Empire of Dirt'. They gave little away by having the chain scene with appropriate music in background and the most they gave away was of a gagged person rocking. The blurred writing and the fast moving clips meant the viewer was disorientated in their thinking and the plot line remained a mystery.

A classic way to start a thriller film is with a black screen and someone talking. It could give a sinister effect or an innocent effect. Either way if the director pulls it of it can complement the film greatly, again, because of the mystery it creates. As someone reads to you it is up to your animation to make a picture. Even if the narrator isn't attempting to create a picture your creative side will automatically pull together what they are saying and 'think' of something.

Although the opening sequence was simply they pulled it of with effective decision making and ordering of clips, which would lead me to giving this attempt an A.

Why Do Thrillers Thrive?

We go to the cinema to watch documents of our lives, things we experience ourselves. These can be ones thqat we would never have the chance of experiencing personally or frequent occurunces with a difference... a 'Thrill'. People yurn for thrills because the world in which we live in is so that we rarely experience a shock or unexpected event. Therefore we get these kicks artificially, 'through a window' at the cinema. As we sit in our seats feeling secure it allows us as the audience to become the character, usually the protagonist, who is in peril. Cinemas are so popular, not only with thrillers, becuase our armchairs give us a sense of security, which allows us to engage in the film. Without this security we wouldn't be able to become the character and interact with the plot line. You would think this would mean that the audience were seeking truly seeking thrills in their day to day lives, however this is not the case, show in 'the exhibition slideshow,' with use of an unexpected falling pillar. So even when good editing manipulates the mind of the viewer in to thinking there is a danger the link between character and viewer will be so strong they will truly believe they are in peril. Such manipulation techniques would be to show a shot of the protagonist falling into shark infested waters. Showing the character swim frantically to the edge, but get dragged back in. Although you may not see the shark and the character together at the same time the urge to believe what we are seeing is so strong that we truly believe it is happening. I myself no that when a connection between the protagonist and I is so strong I truly believe they are in immediate peril.

So, thrillers thrive because of the demand of the audience. The public demand for thrillers to make them jump, keep them thinking but most of all add some suspense into their lives.

Monday 18 January 2010

thriller 08

http://www.youtube.com/longroadmediastudies#p/c/AA38FF5975A95FB3/12/a6cIqcyzKZ4

The opening uses the stereotype of the damsel in distress with blonde hair and blue eyes, who is vulnerable to the killer with the mask. the lighting is predominantly dark to create a dull, scary atmosphere. suspense is built when the killer follows the vulnerable girl into the bathroom leaving the audience on the edge of their seat. The location also builds suspense due to the convention of people believing they are safe in their home, only to be fooled. These conventions are what make this thriller opening successful.

LongRoad Film Thriller Conventions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD72QqZPUkU

The first we are analysing for thriller conventions is 'Stolen' by P1-02. The short opening sequence is set in a dark room with a gagged girl tied up.
Mise en Scene is that of a thriller due to the shadowy background and tense music. The darkness gives a fear of the unknown that thriller audiences love to see. With most thrillers the location is an abandoned place as seen in this opening sequence. Although this is obviously only a school classroom the torn up material and candlelight give the impression of an abandoned building. The damsel in distress idea is shown with the tied up girl, a key convention of thriller.
We believe that this opening sequence is a successful one as it demonstrates key features of Thriller films. One problem that could be exampled however is that the content of the opening sequence is high and could be a give away of the plot line.

Thursday 14 January 2010

1408 - the thriller conventions

the film 1408 was written in 2007 and the opening sequence gives us a good indication that it is indeed a thriller.

as he drives in the car he is surrounded by the dark forest and it rains with lighting this mise en scene is classic thriller because it immediately alerts the audience that it will be dark and possibly scary.
The location; a quite 'off track' hotel, makes the atmosphere dark/sinister.
The eiree dim lighting and atmosphere helps build suspense; the audience expect danger

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Vertigo - Thriller Conventions



Vertigo uses:
suspense - When the cop in the suit was looking down the suspense built as the audience feels scared for him.
fears and flaws,
mystery,
objectification of women,
obsession,
identity,
lighting,
damsel in distress
non-linear.

Deadlines

Shooting Deadline - End of lesson Wednesday 24th February
Rough Cut Deadline - End of lesson Monday 1st March
Final Cut Deadline - End of lesson Monday 8th March
Draft of Evaluation Interim - 15th March
Final Evaluation - 9am March 22nd

Thriller Conventions

Suspense
Music - Sound - Silence
Edge of Seat

Complex Narratives
Non Linear/Linear - Non Linear doesn't tie in with the traditional 'nuclear' film
Flashbacks
Speeding up or Slowing down time
Different Perspectives - Characters

Fear of The Unknown

Protagonist - In Danger (Protagonist is Good Guy, Antagonist is Bad Guy)
Flawed Hero - Usually title of the film
Fear/Flaw which is exploited by villain

Identity
Doppelganger - Someone with two identical identities
Stolen/Mistaken Identity
No Identity/Amnesia - Bourne Trilogy

Location
Abondoned Building
Familiar Places - False Sense of Security

Mystery
Enigma - A puzzle of mysery that is resolved at the end
Web of Intrigue - Draws you in
Revealed Narrative Closure/Narrative Closure

Lighting
Film Noir/Neo Noir - Neo Noir = Sin City
Dark/Shadowy/Dingey

Damsel in Distress

Objectification of Women - Use of camera work and clothes (Vulnerable)
Voyeurism - Pleasure of Looking

Thursday 7 January 2010

Monday 4 January 2010

Key Terms

Establishing shot.
In film and television, an establishing shot sets up, or "establishes", a scene's setting and/or its participants. Typically it is a shot at the beginning (or, occasionally, end) of a scene indicating where, and sometimes when, the remainder of the scene takes place. A good example of establishing shot is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qf1XWz4tww
Close Up.
A close up is a zoomed in shot of a person or object. A good example of a close up is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgLm4_fq6GY.
Match On Action.
Is cutting during action to another angle. A good example of match on action is in this trailer for the bourne identity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD-uQreIwEk
Reaction Shot.
A reaction shot is a close up of an emotional reaction from a character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFQebvkii90
Long Shot.
A long shot is exactly what is says on the tin... a long shot of the characters. A good example of this is in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O76m3kpgPTQ.
Over The Shoulder.
An over the shoulder shot is one from the point of view of a shoulder, usually looking at another character in a conversation. A good example of this is in the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdmWA5YRGYI.