Holiday H/W 2: Conventions of a Thriller

In most thriller movies, the director tends to build tension and suspense through sound, editing, camera and mise en scene. One movie that does this exceptionally well is 'Final Destination 4'. This, epic gut-tighting, franchise gradually drags the audience on the edge of their sit by the lovely and nerve-racking tension it brings to the table. One scene I'd like to focus on is when the lady is trapped in the Car wash. The camera purposely uses a close up on the pipe and water when she is entering the car wash. It builds a great deal of tension because, as an audience, we would be assuming these close up elements are going to be the cause of her death. Minutes later, when the water is pouring into the interior of the car, the camera tends to use tracking on the water entering the car. It is safe to suggest that the tracking of the water pouring from the pipe is rather enjoying the pain it is causing and has no desire in stopping. The soundbridge and cross-cutting of the two scenes creates the suspense. From it, we instantly assume that there are coming to her aid, leaving the audience thinking that she might not die. It is also used to show the comparison of the atmosphere, it shows the characters coming to her aid out in the sun, with rich colours blooming and surrounded by sweet mother nature and on the other hand the lady in the car is surrounded by darkness and is about to meet her end by mother nature- Ironic.  When she is on the phone to her friend, the sound really does set the atmosphere and builds the tension immensely. The voice on the phone seems to sound very frantic and cautious of her well being, the fact that you can barely hear the friend's voice builds more tension. It suggests she's alone, alone and in danger of dying if she doesnt escape. In addition, the non-digetic sounds in the background gets the old adrenaline up. It is upbeat and uses a great deal of dynamics adapting to the feelings of the victim. With the mise en scene, the directors and producers were really set on making the environment look as evil as possible. It chooses dark colours for anything that was environmental like the black car and grey pipes to show it was the villian. Whereas they chose light colours for the victims like pink and blue to illustrate their innocence and purity.

Here's the clip below...Enjoy!

Holiday H/W 1: Analysing Film Openings

 During this holiday, I've been looking out film openings that I could use to help me with Thriller that I am going to make later on this year. Here are the two that caught my attention.

This is the opening from the legendary hardcore thriller- Final Destination 5

 

Final Destination 5

In the opening of this movie, it contains the vital conventions such as studio ident and title sequence. When the names of the characters are introduced, the musical score begins to play. it creates a huge amount of tension and suspense by the quick pace of the instrumentation, this gives the audience the impression that the movie is going to have action involved in it. In addition, there are many signs of editing in this opening. For instance, the slow motion used when the glass is being smashed by the range of objects makes the new viewers start asking questions about what type of movie it is going to be and keeps them intrigued. However for the viewers that have already seen the previous franchises, they will know what type of movie it is and this opening simply reassures them about the 'natural' and gruesome deaths that are yet to come. The colour choice of the background happens to be a dark colour. In this clip the black background and light writing illustrates the dark force that is forever lingering and overshadowing the ones that are innocent. The black background behaves like death and sends deadly objects to destroy the bright writing, we can interpret that the black background is death and the bright writing are the victims that are yet to be destroyed by 'nature'. The camera uses a close up and zoom throughout the opening to the movie. From this, the audience can interpret that the characters in the movie are going to be at risk by quick close ups and the zoom is to show there is going to be another victim.

 

 

Next movie I'd like to talk about is Spiderman 2, here's the opening.

This movie is formally introduced by the studio ident, the sound of the violins and the establishing shots creates a blissful and calming atmosphere, almost impersonating a city before it is attacked by a villian.  When the title sequence comes in, the camera uses zoom to the take the audience into the world of Spiderman. It also uses panning to show some of the characters such as Peter Parker and Mary Jane have a special connection between the two. The colour of choice of red and blue are the colours of the super hero, it is to engage the audience in the opening. The images are all animated and visually tells the audience the type of genre it is. The soundbridges are all used to show that the past scenes from the first spiderman are all linked together.

'Watching' Documentary on Film Openings

1) What Thomas Sutcliffe is getting at is that films should learn how to keep their audience wanting more instead of filling all their needs in the opening scene, this will leave the audience wanting more and often leave the film producers in a struggle.

2) According to Jean Jacques Beineix, the risks of instant arousal is that the audience wouldn't gained a long term commitment and again the producers will have to exceed their previous limitations when starting too strong.

3) The beginning of a movie should always display a certain amount of information about the movie to make the audience know what type of movie it is, whether it is a movie to laugh at or a movie that will educate them. Making the audience feel that they don't know nearly enough yet and at the same time making sure that they dont know too little provides a long term commitment with the films.

4) The critic, Stanley Kauffmann, describes classic openings as orderly and in place. From Kauffmann's perspective, classic openings tend to introduce the character and atmosphere through establishing shots and close ups of the buildings and characters. We, as an audience, can make the assumption if the characters is a villian or a hero by the way they're introduced.

5) The title sequence to 'Seven' is really effective because it instantly tells the audience what type of movie it is going to be by the quick flashing of the characters name and the musical score used. It uses instant arousal for opening to engage the audience into the movie.

6) Orson Welles wanted his opening to feel like it wasn't a movie, that the whole scenario was just natural and calm so that the audience could somehow relate and feel at ease, so that he could take them by surprise. What Universal wanted is to use the opening credits with a musical score, this was to show the audience what company produced the movie.

7) 'A favourite trick of Film noir'. The trick is when a movie decides to use the ending as an opening, this is supposed to make the audience think that it is the beginning of the movie and start making them ask questions in their mind.

8) The opening of 'The shining' creates suspense by the constant pursuing of the camera. The fact that camera is far behind the car almost shows that they're going to be the victims and how they're completely unaware of it. It creates suspense because the audience doesnt know when the action is going to kick off.

The Structure of Film Openings

There are three types of title sequence:

• Narrative Opening-  A narrative opening is when a film begins with a story showing a new location and setting of the atmosphere, examples of a narrative is the movie Panic Room. This gives the audience the impression that a new story is happening, a new chapter and makes it easier to engage in the movie.

• Discrete title sequence- Miniature story: Using editing techniques that stand apart from the film opening. The 1998 hit, 'Enemy of the state', is a prime example of this. The opening seems to start really strong and aggressive by the hard music that follows in but during the end the pace slows down and it becomes more subtle than rough. It gives us a sense that the movie is going to be mixed with different type of genres.

• Stylised Editing: Sophisticated editing within the opening, leaving the audience seeing many possible interpretations of the shots. A movie that does this well is 'The taking of Pelham 123'.

Intertextuality

Review of the Health and Safety tutorial

The Health and Safety video that we watched in Dan's lesson really helped me understand how to use the equipment inside and out of college. In the video it showed how to insert a memory card inside the camera and how to use techniques that would help during the filming of my thriller. We learnt how to use focus, this is where you are able to zoom in without losing the quality of the shot, this will be crucial when I am recording my thriller because I would be able to have close up shots of the characters faces to demonstrate emotion.

Conventions of a Thriller

 

 

 

Throughout this term, we as group 36, have been preparing to create a thriller movie in January. Often people usually mix up the two genres of Thriller and Horror. In a horror movie, the audience are yet to expect scenes containing a great deal of deaths and gore. Displaying villians with menacing supernatural strengths and having helpless victims that lie in their wake, the genre perfectly represents binary oppositions in the movies. One horror movie that does this perfectly is 'A nightmare on Elm street'. The main character happens to be a serial killer that hunts his victims in their sleep with his unique and brutal powers, where the characters can do nothing to stop this evil. The movie contains a substanial of gore and fits the description of a perfect horror. (Link is at the bottom)

 

 

 

On the other hand, a thriller is the genre that uses supsense and tension as its main element within a movie. It is intended to make the audience to sit on the edge of the seat as it slowly builds the awareness by the camera and sound techniques. One movie that utilise this well is the movie 'Pyscho 1960'. The non-digetic sounds that plays in the background during the shower scene illustrates the menace is coming closer to the victim, the high notes on the violin suggest this. Also the high angle shots suggests that she is going to be in the grasp of the murderer because it demonstrates fragility within the character. (Link is at the bottom)

 

 

The movie 'Psycho' will give me ideas in making my Thriller by the dramatic techniques they used such as Camera, Mise en scene, Sound and Editing. It helped me realise that the victims should be dressed in some type of white clothing to illustrate innocence and purity, it taught me that the choice of music should always build up awareness and tension, the editing between scenes should always create suspense and get the audience asking questions; a good one would be 'cross cutting' and last but not least high and low angle shots to represent the power of the characters.

 



Introducing Genre and Sub Genre

1) Genre is the type of movie/category that the film producers choose for their production, often it is aimed  at a specific audience. 

2) When a movie decides to join two or more genres together, this is called Cross genres. For instance the movie 'In time' consists on love and romance, this is to have a wider range of an audience.

3) The conventions of an action movie: 

• Fast moving
• Some slow contrast to action 
• Weapons
• Fighting
• Car chasing
• Stunts

4) Genre is important to PDE (Production, Distribution and Exhibition) because it helps the producers know what type of conventions they're going to put into the movie, for instance in a action movie there will need to be fighting and stunts to appeal to the target audience. Distribution will help the marketing aspects such as advertisements and posters, representing the type of genre it is to the audience and gain a greater demand 

5) Analyse a film poster and explain how it promotes the genre.

Film posters are commonly used to let the potential audience know what type of movie they will be expecting, in this case the type of genre. In the poster that you see below, the characters seem to dressed very formally and look like their couple by the same dress code. In addition, there seem to be a coding on the arm of the male actor (Justin Timberlake). The way this poster was distributed conveys that it is going to have cross genres within the movie, the fact they're dressed in similar colours, standing close together and posed in the same fashion suggests that there's love in the movie. This is to get more female audience to watch the movie. The coding on the arm and the colour scheme of black and green all suggest that the movie consists upon the genre of sci-fi, these particular colours are well known within a movie called 'The Matrix' and happens to be a sci-fi movie. This is to draw the attention of the male audience because it is evident that more men watch sci-fi movies then females. Often when movies borrow other aspects of each other, this is formally known as 'Intertextuality'.
 

Genre

1) Genre is the type of movie or category the film directors base the film on.

2) Cross genre is when you cross two or more different genres together, for example; Thriller&Horror, Comedy&Romance and sci fi, fantasy and adventure.

3) The conventions of action movies are:
. Fast Moving
. Some slow contrast to action
. Weapons
. Fighting
. Car chase
. Stunts

4) Genre is important to PDE ( Production, Distribution and Exhibition) because, when directing a film the producer would have to decide on which genre to base the film on, once this is done it is easier for the producer to decide on which celebrity to act in the film,  for example if the film genre would be action, the producer would contact, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stalone.  Genre is also important for distribution and exhibiton

Genre and Cross Genre

1) Genre - A type of category which is used in music, film and literature. There are several genres to choose from such as supernatural, political, crime, horror, gothic, comedy, thriller, romance sci-fi, fantasy, adventure and action.

2) Cross Genres - In which two or more different genres come together in an experimental format. For example, action and adventure or rom-com (romance and comedy).

3) The Conventions of action movies consists the following aspects:

• fast moving
• fighting
• transport
• guns
• stunts
• explosions
• hero/villain

4) Genre is very important to Production, Distribution and Exhibition or PDE, as it helps to allows producers to decide what type of film producers intend to make, and following it up with certain aspects that is needed to such specific props, actors and stunts. Genre is also key when considering the distribution, by advertisements or posters presenting the type of film that is being expected from the film, and will help appeal to the target audience, and through exhibition the film meets its initial expectations of the spectators.

 

5) This poster from the 'Bourne Identitiy' tells the audience a lot about the film, by firstly looking at the top-right it displays a picture of a fight scene in the film, which straightaway would indicate that the genre of the film action, but the fighting looks more eastern style rather than western, by the style of the kick. Whereas down below it  presents the image of a couple kissing, which indicates that there is romance in the film, and and more than one genre is in place. the letter 'O' in 'Bourne' is shown to imitate a target, which implicates that there are guns are the main weapons used in the film, this is backed up by the character in the front of the poster having one. The woman on the left of the poster is shown to be running which possibly tells the audience to expect a chase. Furthermore in the background half is in orangey-red, whereas the other is blue, this suggests that the perhaps suggests atmosphere of the mood that is contained within the film, with the orangey-red indicating anger and hostility, whilst blue indicates the calm and coolness.

Juno Remake

Juno Opening Remake

Film Opening using most Conventions

Mr and Mrs Smith Opening

One film opening I quite like is the Mr and Mrs Smith as I believe it contains various conventions. In this clip it contains the opening scene of Mr and Mrs Smith, this clip has various convention of film opening, firstly studio ident is used to introduce 'Summit Entertainment' and 'Regency' for co-producing the film like in many film. Another convention used a lot is the introduction of the film, as the the title Mr and Mrs Smith is in clear white text with the background pitch black. When the film starts it the scene is set as the couple in the film sitting in a quiet room and discuss their relationship with a marriage counselor, but afterwards the setting has changed as it switches to Bogota, Colombia filled with smoke and a helicopter flying in the air, this shows the comparison of the two different settings and the atmosphere of the mood.. the establishment of genre is another convention of film opening, which is displayed by it being an action film, with the use of a helicopter, explosions in Bogota and police in uniform indicates it an action film, also another genre in the film is romance  when the couple first set eyes on each other.

Storyboard for Juno Opening

Camera shots

Close up: 

This shot is usually used to show the feelings of a individual.

Wide shot:

This is an example of a wide shot, this is to show the surroundings and sets the scene.

Over the shoulder shot:

This is commonly used when two people are having a conversation.

Rule of third:

Rule of third is used to show more than one characters in a scene.

Window: 

A shot used to show the character looking at the city.

Interesting feet:

A shot to make the feet look as interesting as possible.

 

Film opening including the conventions

(X-men: Last stand)

 

• This is a clip from the movie 'X-men: Last stand'. Within the opening of this movie, it contains the vital conventions which are: introducing genre, setting the scene/atmosphere, title sequence/carrying the title sequence, studio ident and many more. In the opening of the film, it introduces the genre, sets the atmosphere, displays the studio ident, shows the title and introduces the characters. By all the quick pace and action packed non-digetic sounds in the background, the audience gets a sense that the genre is going to action packed and filled with excitement. As you can see, some of the characters tend to look rather futuristic and capable of special abilities. From this unique display of the characters, the audience will be able to make the impress more than intrigued in watching the movie and recommending to others. The characters and atmosphere is set perfectly during this clip. Other aspects of the conventions such as the studio ident and title sequence is intended to let the viewers know what they're watching and who's the production is by.