Friday 24 September 2010
WHAT WE HAVE TO DO
RESEARCH INTO THRILLER FILMS
its one type of genre that can be used to make a film. It should appeal to those that like there heart pumping fast with fear and maybe a mysterious theme?
What genre's are linked to a thriller film?
- Action
- Crime
- Suspense
- Sci-Fi
- Western
- Romantic Comedy
- Disaster
- Medical
- Religious
And many more that have been explored in the past. As a thriller genre is normally mixed in with other genres and is then therefore quite hard to put into one category, they normally in twine with another genre. This is called a 'sub-genre'.
Features of a thriller:
- Intense excitement
- suspense
- Provide thrills and keep the audience cliff hanging at the 'edge of their seats'.
- Tension
- Mystery or escape
- Dangerous mission
What kinds of characters do you normally find in thrillers?
Plots of thrillers normally involve characters that come into conflict with each other or with outside forces. The relationships are sometimes abstract or shadowy. Some characters in a thriller may include:
- Convicts
- criminals
- assassins
- stalkers
- innocent victims
- prison inmates
- characters with dark pasts
- Psychotic individuals
- terrorists
- cops and escaped cons
- private eyes
- people involved in twisted relationships
- world weary men and women
- Physco's and many more...
Frequent themes of a thriller are:
- Terrorism
- Political conspiracy
- Pursuit romantic triangles leading to murder
AFI(America Film Institute) rated the top 3 best thriller films to be:
- Psycho (1960)
- The exorcist (1973)
- Jaws (1975)
Who is considered to be the master of suspense?
Alfred Hitchcock was named the master of suspense. He helped to shape the modern day thriller genre. Hitchcock is considered to be the master of the suspense genre manipulating his audiences fears and desires, and taking viewers into a state of mind with the representation of reality facing the characters.
What was his first film and why is it so different from the thriller films that are made today?
His first film was called 'The Lodger' which was released in 1926. This film was very different from films we see today because of one simple reason. It was a silent movie.
The reasons for Hitchcock's great success is his similar ideas throughout his films that were changed to fit different story lines. Hitchcock would explore the dark aspects of a storyline which would often be abuse, murder or humiliation. He would often include sexuality and punishment. Quite early on in his films, he lets the viewers know that a horrible scene or event is going to occur which creates great suspense while we as viewers actually wait for something to happen.
One of Hitchcock's favourite devices that he created was called the 'MaGuffin'. Most of his films were created around this particular device that he spoke about for the first time in an interview in 1964.
' device which, in detail by inciting curiosity and desire, drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters in the story but whose specific identity and nature is unimportant to the main aspects of the film.'
The film vertigo is a great example of a good use of MaGuffin. The character 'Carlotta Valdes' is only mentioned in the film. She is never seen but yet the whole storyline is based on her ghost haunting another character in the play. The details of her death aren't important to the audience but are still the basis of the storyline itself. MaGuffins are seen a lot in several of Hitchcock's spy films including 'The man who knew too much' and 'The 39 steps'. A MaGuffin storyline would simply put the viewers focusing on an initial storyline where a dramatic scene happens but actually ends up being trivial to the whole storyline which is therefore unexpected.
How are women are presented in thriller films?
Throughout most thriller films women are all portrayed the same. Here are a few examples of leading women in a thriller where they all have very similar characteristics and looks as each other.
Laura- 1944
An NYC police detective is investigating the murder of a girl called Laura Hunt who was a very successful advertising executive.He interviews a man who helped her with her career and how he met Laura. The police officer also questions her fiance, her aunt and her house keeper.
The detective gradually starts to become obsessed with Laura and his gains more and more information about her. He falls in love with her. one scene in the film shows that actually Laura isn't dead and comes back to find the detective asleep under her self portrait. Another woman had been mistaken as her. Now, its even more important to find out who the murderer is.
Sorry wrong number- 1948
This film is about a spoiled daughter of a millionaire. She uses her phone as a connection to the outside world. One day she accidentally eavesdrops on two men having a conversation about planning a woman's murder. She tries to inform the police but gets ignored. If the girl couldn't be more distressed, her husband Henry is missing. She eventually starts to put pieces together and it turns out that her husband isn't what he seems to be and in fact, she is the victim.
The spiral staircase-1946
Its about a serial killer who is murdering disabled young women. His next victim is a girl called Helen who is muted and cant speak. She works as a live-in companion for a very wealthy lady. She urges Helen to get out the house as does her doctor who knows the reasons for her loss of speech and is trying to help her get her voice back. With the wealthy woman having a lot of people in her big mansion, where most of the film is set, working for her, the murderer seems closer than expected.
I feel that women in thrillers are shown to be perfect. Women are noramally casted in films because of there looks. In most stories where there is a leading lady, the other characters are all based around her and its about them having an impact on her life. They are then normally stripped and shown there faults. Women are also mainly the victims as they seem to be 'weaker' then men. This then brings stereotypes into the film industry.
THREE THRILLER OPENINGS ANALYSED- (1) BLUE VELVET
Blue velvet- 1986
At the beginning of the film, lively and happy music is played to create a sense of irony. It’s the opposite of what the audience is expecting.
The curtain moves behind the credits as they are being shown. This suggests a mysterious image or person is behind it and doesnt want to be seen.
A white picked fence and red roses are then shown outside a big white house. This shows a very positive and typical American location. This confuses the audience as they are expecting a thriller. At this moment in the film, nothing thrilling has been shown or suggested. In a way, this makes the audience more on edge as its ‘too happy’. The mood is alos very peaceful which makes the audience naturally relax. Then it shows what’s really under all the happiness as a man is hosing his lawn. A typical American action. He then gets strangled by the water pipe and falls to the floor. The happy music is still playing so it doesn’t give as much tension as it could have. This suggests that disaster slike this happen all the time in a nice neighbourhood which is shown. It may look perfect and innocent on the outside, but on the inside, its more thrilling than the audience are expecting at this point.
Then, Camera angle is in the sight of something. Brushing through grass and seeing insects close up suggests that we are seeing the eyes of an animal of some sort. Tension builds up.
The next shot then quickly cuts to a big billboard of a typical image of a pin up girl. This changes the mood to being more settling for the viewers and shows a happier tone to the film again.
The lighting is quite natural as it’s outside. This shows more realism to the film.
When a character finds an ear on the floor covered in ants, this is a symbol of the ‘thriller theme’ being finally introduced. Enigma is created. Who does the ear belong to? Why is it there? What is the character going to do? These questions all appear instantly in the viewers mind.
(2) VERTIGO
A build up of tension to the action of the film vertigo was made by music being played quite loudly. Non digetic sounds and ominous tones were also used to create a sense of mystery which is one key feature that a thriller must have.A creation of fear/apprehension/anticipation/unsettling feelings/confusion and doubt over a character was all made by simple movements throughout the film. With the audience knowing that someone else is there that the characters don't no about creates a lot of fear for the viewers as they are circling over and over in their minds as to what will happen next. With the characters not knowing in the films, it makes the audience more anticipated as they are willing and trying to help although they know that it is just a film. This is when the audience really gets into the film and is eager to know whats going to happen next.
A dark, shadowy atmosphere which is created by lighting is used to create a sense of tension in the film. The lighting is changed to create a mood. When the light is natural and brightly coloured, then it gives us a sense of purity, happiness and daytime. When the lighting is dark, it suggests that its scary, nerve racking and in the evening. The establishing mood and atmoshere throughout the film is also shown through mise en scene.
Wednesday 24 February 2010
RESEARCH INTO THRILLER FILMS
Introduction to Computer Generated Imagery.
CGI is a graphical technique in which it creates special effects in games, films, TV programmes and many more. It is used for visual effects and can be created by the hands of one single graphic artists rather than expensive props, settings and actors. Here are a few examples of institutions that use CGI:
- Dreamworks
- The Mill
- Weta Digital
- Rain maker digital effects
- Modus FX
- Speedshape and many more....
PLANNING PRELIMINARY TASK
Brief:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot, and the 180-degree rule.
- Your ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills
- How you apply your knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work showing how meanings and responses re-created.
- Your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.
In our short film, our actors will be Georgia Lansbury who will be playing a victim/kidnapped girl, and Samuel Bysouth whose role will be the french capturer. Our setting will be in the drama room in our school so we have access to lighting that we can adjust. The mise-en-scene in our film consists of:
costume- Our victim is wearing pale colours to suggest that she is an outcast and a blurred figure. She is also Blonde as we will be filming in a dark place so her hair will stand out and therefore be seen. Our capturer will be wearing a black suit to suggest that he is wealthy and a much higher status than the girl. His hear is also big and curly and he looks foreign.
lighting- dim and dark to suggest danger and a tense atmosphere
props- a chair which the victim will be tied to.
Analysis of final preliminary task:
Looking back over our final film, there are many things that i would change but there are also some aspects that i love about it an will use to help me create our final task.
Weaknesses
One of the main weaknesses in our performance was arranging to actually film our short thriller. When it comes to actually filming for our final task, I Will make sure that we are more organised and prompt with our rehearsal times.
Lighting was one of the main issues with our production. We had planned our setting to be dark and dreary which would have been perfect in creating a thrilling and tense atmosphere. Unfortunately, this only gave us more problems to sort out when it actually came to the filming. We were in our school drama room with access to stage lights to play around with. What seemed bright to us in the room, on camera, was too dark and took away any other features in the film. Because of this, we had to film our production more than four times to get the lighting as good as we could get it.
We also had some problems with our tripod. We wanted to use a tripod to prevent from any shakiness that might occur if someone was holding the camera by hand. But using the tripod stopped us from shooting certain types of shots. At one point in our short film, we have a shot of someones feet then then gradually rises up to the back of their shoulder which then forms an 'over the shoulder' shot. We couldn't use the tripod for this so we had to depend on my steady hand. Luckily it worked but it might not have done in another situation. If i want to use this particular shot next time, i will make sure that we look at every angle of shooting it before using my 'steady hand'.
Strengths
Good aspects of our film i think was our choice of characters. The two characters that we used were very different and diverse. One was a boy with really curly, brown, big hair. He looked foreign which then decided to use as a feature of his when filming. We asked him to put on a french accent. This worked really well. Not only did it sound good, but having the man french, gave another feature that was completely different to the victim. This also would have made the victim feel more tense as he is from a different country to them.
Overall, I think our first attempt of making a short thriller film was a sucess. We managed to stick to our brief and contain the features that we were asked to put in. It has now left us with more experience and an idea of what things work and what things dont work when trying to film a production. Here is our storyboard for our premilinary task:
MAIN FILMING TASK
The titles and opening of a new thriller film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
What will I be marked on?
- Your ability to plan and construct media products using appropraite technical and creative skills.
- How you apply your knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work showing how meanings and responses were re-created.
- Your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.
Institution
For our final live filming task, we will be using Warner Bros. pictures as our instituation. This is mainly because of their great global sucess and there past headline fims that were made under their name. If our film was to then be made by then, hopefully it will follow on from other remarkable works they have produced in the past.
Warner Bros Pictures
Warner Brothers pictures is one of the major film studios to this date. It has several subsidary companies including warner brothers televison, warner home video and New line cinema. The comany is the head and forefront of every entertainment companies. Warner owns half of the CW television networks and is growing bigger everyday.DETAILS FOR OPENING- Before filming
Characters:
- Mollee Vasey- Amy-Victim
- Amy Edmonds- Grace- Victims friend
- Samuel Bysouth- Hand of Stalker
Location- school
Lighting- natural
When filming, we will keep all of these feautures in mind to create the best outcome possible for our opening thriller film.
DETAILS FOR OPENING- After filming
Characters:
Mollee Vasey (Me)- Victim
We chose me to play the part of tyhe victim because i have a lot of experience with drama a si am taking it for A-level. I have also starred in other videos in the past. We felt that with my experience, i could really capture the role of my charatcer quite quickly and still perform a good role.
Amy Edmonds-Friend of victim and mislead stalker
We chose Amy to be the victims friend as she looks reasonably different to the victim. We wnated there to be a clear difference in the characters.
Samuel Bysouth- Stalker's hand
Locations
Our first location is inside a room. We have used on wall which we have covered pictures on. This represents the stalkers room. The first 20-30 seconds of our film is all footage of this wall. We filmed this almost straight away. There was some time that we took afterwards to edit thsi part of the film before going on to filming the rest of the thriller. This was because we werent sure how it would look and if it would look obvious as to what we were trying to show to the audience.
The seconds location we chose was in a room with a big window in which over looked our school carpark. We chose this as our stalker is seen looking out of the window. We wanted to be able to have the victim standing at a place where we could actually see her through the window without having to cut the shot. This worked really well and we were able to show some really good angles within the camera shots.
The third location we had was obviosuly outside our school by the carpark. This is where the stalker stood. There are road signs printed on the floor saying 'school' which is where we chos ethe victim to stand. We thought the words could create vulnerabiltiy towards the character.
Lighting & Time
We chose to film during the day. We used the experience from our preliminary task witg lighting to help us decide that filming in darkness is too bigger challenge to take on in a short space of time. The lighting was then obviosuly natural lighting outside which allowed us to see easily when filming. It also allows you to see the final product clearly.
We edited the wall when editing to give it a slightly darker and gloomier effect to contrast with
the natural light in the second part of our film.
Sound
In our thriller, we have edited a song called '' by ''. We wanted to use the original at first but we realised this would be copywright. So instead, we edited it using a partcualr software which managed to created abtter version which creates more thrilling tension for our opening. The song has lyrics to it which we chose to be different and diverse. Most thriller openings do not have lyrics with their openings but just instrumental music. We also slowed the tempo of the song down slightly when in the footage, the hand of the stalker strokes a picture of the victim. We slowed the action down to ephasis what he is doing more for it to be noticeable to the viewer. We then therefore slowe dthe music down to create more suspense and to make it match the action.
Throughout the rest of film, we hear silence, natural noise and traffic from outside to get a sense of realism, and a sound effect which we added in in quick stages of the filming to build up even more tension.
Script for thriller film opening:
For our opening, we didnt really want any speaking but we felt that the storyline might become too confusing for the viewer as we have a lot of camera angles from different people in the film to mislead the watchers to belive that the stalker is infact the victims friend. To be able to do this, we have had to shoot from different sides of the location to represnet the eyes of certain characters. This would have been too confsuing for the viewer if we hadnt added in dialouge to explain what has been happpening.
We decided to keep it short and simple which worked out well as it leave sthe film at a good poisiton to then carry on, leaving the viewers at the edge of their seats. Here is a preview of the script that we planned out:
Mollee- 'Grace you frightened me!'
Amy- 'Sorry! But you must admit, it was pretty funny'.
Mollee-'No it wasnt, anyway can we just go, i swear i saw someone watching me'
(start walking off)
Mollee- 'what took you so long anyway'
Amy- 'Im sorry, i went to the shop'
(Sound fades as they are walking so only a mumble can be heard)
Changes made before and after editing:
We had to change the layout of our storyboard slightly to create better angles and shots that we had originally planned. When it actually came to filming, certain shots that we had hoped to achieve, actually wouldn't of told the story as clear as we hoped. Instead, we adjusted the storyboard to gain better views of characters.
We then had to change the storyboard again once we had finished editing. This was because of our time limit. We were running over two minutes which we had to edit to make the film shorter. This therefore ment that we had to cut footage that was not really needed. The wall of images in our beginning had to be cut short to allow our film to be two minutes. This was not what we had planned in the storyboard. We therefore changed the storyboard to make it final and complete.
The title of our thriller opening:
We thought about our title for our film for a while. As a group, we discussed possible titles for our film but none of us agreed on one particular name. Our first choice was, 'Two kinds of infactuation'. We decided on this as it told our story. The 'two kinds' being the victim herself and then the stalker. 'Infactuation' means want and to have an obsession over something. We thought it would tell the story well. However, when we told people our title, they were confused and didnt know what the definiton of 'infactuation' was. We then therefore decided to put together a questionnaire to help us decide on a good and we recieved title. It looked simply like this:
Audience Questionaire
We put together a screening where we got a group of people together to watch our thriller opening. This audience we had to gather together had to be within the age range of our target audience. We then created a small questionaire which we gave out to the audience to fill in. We useda range of open and closed questions to get the best possible answers to help us see what we could have improved but also what worked really well. This organisation was very helpful.
FINAL TASK STORYBOARD
ACTION- camera moving slowly to the right, showing images of a girl. credits fade up then down
SHOT-medium shot, then cross dossolves to next shot
EFFECTS-'grey scale' effect
SOUND-song by deathtones that we edited.
(2)
ACTION- moving slowly down to the right of wall. credits fade slowly on and off
SHOT-medium shot, cross dissolves to next shot
EFFECTS- grey scale effect
SOUND- deathtones edited
(3)
ACTION- moving slowly to the right. credits fade up and down.
SHOT-medium shot, cross dissolves to next shot
EFFECTS- grey scale effect
SOUND-deathtones edited
(4)
ACTION- camera stops moving as hand comes to stroke picture
SHOT- medium shot, cross dissolves to next shot
EFFECTS- grey scale effect
SOUND- deathtones edited
EFFECTS-bright lighting
ACTION-girl standing by road. zooms slowly in from long shot
ACTION- zooms out slowly, hooded figure standing still
FILMED EVALUATION
This is a filmed version of our evaluation which we presented to a group of teenagers in the age range of our target audience.
