Thriller Conventions

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

After viewing our Preliminary Task I believe that there were both successful parts and bits that we could improve in with filming and editing.

I feel that our music timing was very successful as it cut as soon as I pulled the headphone out of my ear, the timing was very accurate. I also believe that our scene transitions worked well and our filming techniques were quite successful.We have a match on action shot at the very start of the sequence, which was part of the brief and we stuck to the 180-degree rule well, which helps the audience to understand who is talking and means that both eye lines of the characters work.

I feel that the sound at some parts were distracting, when I enter the room and speak at in two different shots, in the second shot the fan is louder than in the first meaning that it doesn't flow as well as we would want to as you are aware of the sound. If we could do it again then I think the use of a boom mic would be helpful to make the speech a lot clearer. We also 'lost' a dialogue clip therefore had to play about with what we had to improvise. 

However overall I believe that it was a good effort for our first time using the equipment and editing software and I am pleased with the outcome.

180 Degree Rule

Meaning

The rule states that the camera(s) should remain the same side of an imaginary line. The line is drawn perpendicular to the camera's viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene. The rule enforces continuity of the film.

The rule should never be broken, unless for 'effect'. If you do break the rule it will leave the audience confused in a conversation. Crossing the line when filming over the shoulder shots shifts the person's eye line do not match.

Credit Lists

Credits Lists

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

Final Synopsis

With my group we decided that our final synopsis will be about 17 year old Janet is a quite lonely girl who doesn't have many friends or personal life. She's use yo being by herself and not needing to impress anyone. However when new girl Claire comes along and pays Janet a bit too much attention it becomes a strange feeling.

Claire has paid a peculiar interest to Janet and wants her to always be by her side. Claire's fascination for Janet isn't sexual but an obsession of her personality. They go out to a party and when Janet doesn't want to play along to her rules Claire isn't happy about it. Prier to this Janet had found multiple pictures of herself in Claire's bag; and she had started to have doubts about their friendship.

Claire decides she's had enough of Janet's behavior so she spikes her drink. Janet drinks it and wonders into the road, where she drops and dies.

Now innocent, quite, Janet is dead and there's no trace of Claire.

Treatment

Treatment on Prezi

Character Profile

Character Profile on Prezi

Character profile on Prezi

Risk Assesment

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment 2

Risk Assessment 2

Location Recce

Location Recce

Location Recce

Location Recce 2

'Just Friends?' Costume List

Costume List

'Just Friends?' Prop List

prop list

What is Censorship?

Censorship

Target Audience Profile

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE.

Target Audience Profile

Readership Profile

Analysing other media students AS title sequences

Analysing other media students AS title sequences

Film Openings and Representation

            Representation is how someone or something is portrayed. It may alter with clothes, background, settings and hair etc. It is important when creating a film opening to represent the characters and locations because it is a way of molding the audience’s perception towards the characters. Sometimes a character will be represented in a particular way because of the target audience and the emotions the audience should have to them.

                The genre of my film opening is a Thriller. The narrative of a typical thriller is about injustice vs justice. There are usually events that involve kidnap, murder, stalking etc that somebody needs to come over. Often the events start from the end and work backwards which is the way my group have decided to do out opening. The reason being the audience see’s what has happened but want to know how this has happened. Why are two girls in an alley way? However more importantly why is one on the floor in a pool of her own blood? The audience will come to their individual conclusion and then they can work backwards and we can keep our audience guessing (often wrongly) and try and have as many twists and turns as possible.

                Within the thriller genre the characters never give much away through dialogue. This is one of the aspects we are playing with for the opening sequence. Throughout the sequence you will not hear anything that they say clearly, music will be played over the top. This holds the mystery of what happened. Also you don’t see that one of the girls is becoming obsessed with the other fully so you feel sympathy towards one character which this then turned which provokes new thoughts from the audience because subconsciously they would have an attachment to one girl until they see the other side of the story which changes the whole perception of the plot.

                In a thriller opening sequence the location and setting the scene is very important. Often we see isolated buildings, houses, crime scenes and place out of peoples view. Often they are dark (low key lighting), eerie and scary looking locations. This all helps to create suspense and a mysterious narrative to keep the audience compelled. We chose to have two locations, a party that will set the plot and then an alley way where we will see the dead body and the other female protagonist looking worried. In the party the lighting is fun, bright lights and connotes a good time. In the alley way there would be a deep, dark red or blue filter which gives dangerous haze over the scene, it helps to define the genre.

                We will be using the technique of the Enigma code, which is means you leave unanswered questions for the audience in the opening sequence, it leaves the audience wanting to know more. By working backwards from what it seems the villain’s perspective and finding out why her friend is left dead in an alley gives the audience involvement. It also defies some typical thriller narrative, as usually the main focus is around the ‘hero’ trying to find out how to solve a situation, or a victim’s perspective so this is a bit different but I feel it gives a good twist on the stereotypical thriller genre.

                Another way we are also challenging a typical thriller opening sequence is with our characters, we are using counter types. In most thrillers the protagonist is male which builds the stereotype that men are physically and emotional stronger. The victims are often blonde, pretty and vulnerable. However in our case the ‘stronger’ character is the one that ends up dead. I feel this makes it more relevant and authentic because it shows that men aren’t always the ‘hero’ and sometimes there is no hero at all. Sometimes there’s more than one villain.

'Just Friends?' Script

‘J U S T F R I E N D S">

Synopsis and concept of film opening

Synopsis:

My film synopsis idea is to have a young millionaire that gets kidnapped and tortured to get to his Father who is a powerful MP. Mixing politics, action and AK47's is the perfect recipe for a thriller. Miles Anderson is a eighteen year old boy that has everything he ever wanted, his Father is a wealthy MP with a lot of power in London. When Miles starts finding notes left for him, he doesn't take much notice until he starts receiving death threats. It isn't long before he is kidnapped on a night out, with the mixture of alcohol and a buzzing group of friends nobody realizes that he is missing. The kidnappers want access to important documents and his Father bank account at Couts. They send his Father  clips of their son asking for the documents for the kidnappers. His father is left in a dilemma to put his job and all other MP's obs on the line to save his son. But what will he choose?

Main Task Introduction

I am working with Enid and Mujo on my main task, we are going to create an opening sequence for a thriller film. We chose this genre because we felt it had achievable and strong codes and conventions. We all felt that this was a genre we felt comfortable with and could create a creative and artistic title sequence.

'This is England' opening sequence analysis

'This is England’ opening sequence">

Title Sequences

Title Sequence Work Sheet. Kenya. Docx">

Introduction to the Brief

Today we were introduced our main task for this year which is to create the titles and opening of a fictional film that will last two minutes.

I feel this is exciting and engaging task, being able to create an opening and titles to a film that you have created should be interesting. I'd like to make a unusual, artistic and unique opening.

Script Analysis

In today's lesson, we looked into script writing. Scripts are the most important document you need when making a film. It contains lots of different information for the director and the actors. We were provided with the book, 'Not Now, Bernard' and told to create a script for it (which is below) Kenya Not Now Bernard Script

Se7en Codes and Conventions Analysis.

After observing the opening credits of the thriller Se7en, it was obvious that there were many codes and conventions used to fit the genre of the film and engage the audience. A code is a system of signs which can be interpreted to create a meaning. They are broken down into three groups, the technical codes, the verbal codes and the symbolic codes. All three codes are evident throughout out the trailer. A convention is the way it is done, the style and form of the media text.

We see the technical conventions straight away in the opening sequence. It consist of fast paced, cutting shots, this adds to the suspense and creates an atmosphere, also complying with the typical stereotypes of a thriller, it tell us the film is going to be action filled and mysterious. A technical code we see is the grainy film and red filters. The grainy film makes the whole scene look old but also filmed not very well with shaky hand camera work, connoting fear, as if you are observing what someone is doing without wanting to be caught. Mixed with the red filter which gives everything a dull red and clack colouring, this connotes danger, blood and death. Everything we expect from a thriller.

 The camera angles are also part of the technical codes, during the opening teaser we see lots of close ups of books, writing, needles, blades and fingers following things, as if this person is desperately searching for something, researching something. It connotes a slight feeling of desperation but also the sense that what they are looking for is not something that is right if they need to search so deeply for it. The camera angles are also counter shots, often not being centred and slightly out of focus. This makes the audience feel like a fly on the wall, as if they are observing into someone life that they shouldn’t be, finding things they shouldn’t, witnessing things they shouldn’t.

The verbal codes and conventions are everything that involves the language the dialogue or anything written.  For example in Se7en’s opening sequence the font that the directors, actors and production teams names are written is like messy handwriting, like someone has rushed writing it. This compliments the genre and fits what is going on in the scenes, as the person is underlining words such as ‘pregnant’ and ‘transsexual’. This still leaves and air of mystery but also gives some incline to what it’s all about. At the very end of the sequence there is a quote from a song that says ‘I want to be closer to God’. This can be read many ways depending on the audience. Some people may think that it contrasts with the visuals and it may be seen as an innocent religious quote. However the words ‘closer to God’ also connote suicide, death and it’s almost like they are begging to die and be in heaven closer to God.

The symbolic code is the appearance of the supporting character including the costume and performance. We don’t actually see a lot of the character; however we do see the actions of the character which reflects their feelings. The character actually cuts his finger tips with a blade; this connotes that the character may thrive off of pain and is quite a dark character. However we get these thoughts but still don’t actually know the character but it cleverly doesn’t give hardly anything always, leaving you wanting to know more however expecting nothing.