Art Of The Title

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

This website specialises in looking at Tilte sequences in movies and television from around the globe and rating them on how unique and interesting they are and how they relate to the movie/program.



Scott Pilgrim vs the World


Most recently they looked at Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

Collateral opening sequence

In our media class today we watched the opening sequence of Collateral. We did this because as it was showing us that in the opening of a film you don't necessarily have to have all the opening titles at the start but you can get to know the characters first then do the titles. 

Panic Room opening sequence.

We also watched in our media class the opening credits to Panic Room. We aslo watched these opening credits to see what information we would have to put on our own opening credits.

Se7en (Opening Credits)

We watched the opening credits of the film Se7en in our media class. This was to get a variety of things that we could do for our own opening credits to our thriller.

Sabotage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJphwVjUF9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOfln1alLTU&NR=1

In class we watched part of the film Sabotage made in 1936 and diretced by Alfred Hitchcock. The part we watched which is shown above is where the bomb goes off at the Lord Mayor's Show. We watched this scene as it is thought to be the best way of doing suspence in a movie to date. Many other directors look at this scene for inspiration on how to create the atmosphere to the audience of suspence. Hitchcock does this in with numerous techniques. One technique is dramatic irony. This is because the audience knows that the bomb is in the canister which the boy is holding but the characters in the text don't so makes the audience more involved in the plot as we know something that the characters don't. Also throughout the scene there is a close up of clocks as time is running out for the boy as the minute hand gets closer to the 45 which we know is when the bomb will go off. This makes us wonder if the boy will make it in time to the destination or not? Finally the music is parallel to the scene as its a clock ticking which emphasises if the boy has enough time or not as he goes very slowly and leisurely along the way. Furthermore this drags out the scene and the suspension as you want the boy to hurry up with the bomb.  

Audience Research

For our audience research we were asked to create a survey on Survey Monkey. This is so we can collect a wide variety, along with our vox pops, of answers and views on the thriller genre.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?PREVIEW_MODE=DO_NOT_USE_THIS_LINK_FOR_COLLECTION&sm=F1CCaoEsqZbAa8Rw1bC4Y36hvuFJp%2bduRxQg4ET22aQ%3d

Audience Research

I uploaded my Thriller Movie Research survey on facebook to get a variety of people's answers to the questions. Also i found i got a lot more people to complete the survey when I did it this way.

North By Northwest

 

The second opening sequence of a film we watched in class was North By Northwest in 1958. This film starts with a Graphic Match as shown above. It goes from the title of the film to a typical New York building which has the same patterns and line structure . This is useful as it goes from the title straight into the location then into the streets of New York to the action. This is also shown as this film gets straight into the plot within the first 5 minutes. At first we meet the main character Roger O'Thornhill and his secretary getting into a cab. This is when the audience gets to know his character's personality. Roger is a vein man as he casres about his apperance more than his women and is very business like in both his work and his personal life as it is all structured. His costume, hair and make up are all immaculate with him wearing a smart suit, which he wears all the way through the film and his hair is slicked back to the side. Alfred Hitchcock uses an Enigma in this opening sequence very effectively to create mystery and action in the story at the very start. This will make the audeince want to watch on to find out the enigma which I hope to do in my thiller film.



Alfred Hitchcock made a cameo in the film North By Northwest



Vertigo in 1958 (the first 4 minutes)

Vertigo

The third film that we watched in class was Vertigo in 1956. This film also starts with a graphic match from an eye to swirling vertigo patterns to an eye. This film starts with action as the main character, John Ferguson, is chasing someone with a fellow police officer across the room tops of San Francisco. This is when he realises that he has vertigo which is phobia of heights. This starts the plot of the film off as the rest of the film is about him dealing with the problem. Alfred Hitchcock does this as he is not giving too much away but giving enough mystery and action so that the audience will watch on to find out what happens to John.

Shadow of a Doubt

The first film we watched in class was Shadow of a Doubt from 1943 directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film starts with the opening credits in front of dancers. The music which is played in the background is called Merry Widow which is very opera style and parallel to the scene. You as the audience wonder why this is significant to the film and is a mystery as to why. This then makes the audience what to watch on to find out which I hope to do in my thriller film to create that atmosphere. It then goes to a pan shot of an American setting to San Francisco's bridge to children playing in the street. The camera then zooms into a typical hotel room where the main character, Uncle Charlie is lying on the bed in the darkness. The room number is 13 which is seem as an unlucky number which gets the audience thinking if this is a safe place. This is the first time we see Uncle Charlie positioned on the bed static. His costume is a suit which is immaculate and his hair and makeup are done to perfection. This tells us that he is very wealthy and because he has a cigar and money set on the floor this supports this.  However because the money is thrown on the floor and he is in a little, shabby hotel room shows that he doesn't think too highly of money. The inn keeper then walks in and has a mainly one sided conversation with Uncle Charlie. Hitchcock does this as there is not a great deal of dialogue so the audience can concentrate on the character and the music in the scene. When she is there she tells Uncle Charlie that there are two men asking for him. This makes the audience wonder why the two men were looking for him and why it is so urgent that they do. This also makes us question if we can trust this character and if he is the protagonist or the antagonist. Moreover when the inn keeper closes the blind on Uncle Charlie he goes into the darkness which suggests he has a dark personality. Hitchcock does this because he is going from light to dark. Also the music goes very dark and is parallel to this scene as a few moments later he smashes a glass against the wall. This illustrates that he has a very sort temper and is hot headed. We then go to the American location of Santa Barbara. Hitchcock chose this specific location because at the time it was considered the nicest place to live in America. We then see the next main character also named Charlie laying on the bed in the light. This is mirrored to Uncle Charlie when he is laying on the bed to her laying on the bed. Hitchcock does this duality to imply that one of these characters is the protagonist and one is the antagonist as they are the same but opposites of each other.

Charlie laying on the bed in the light 

Uncle Charlie Laying on the bed in the dark

Shadow Of A Doubt in 1943

9

Opening Scene Analysis

Alfred Hitchcock

In our media class we watched three openings to thriller films all directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899 -1980). Firstly we watched the opening scene to Shadow of a Doubt, then North By Northwest, then finally Vertigo.We watched and took notes on various parts of the scene and each individual frame from the mise-en-scene to other techniques. We did this so we could look at the props and settings, lighting and colour, facial expressions and body language, positioning of characters and objects and makeup, hair and costumes to give us ideas about what we could do for our own thriller coursework.  Also what works and what doesn't work for an opening scene of a thriller as you don't want to give too much away as it's only the first 5 minutes but in contrast you don't want to give too little information so the audience don't watch on.

Ideas for our Thriller Opening Scene

The Film will be called Sent. Other ideas however that we thought of are Nowhere left to hide, Sleep-bag, Skype and Send.

The main idea was that a couple would be Skypeing each other at their homes. Then a message would come through on the males emails saying "I'm coming to get you!". Then a killer would come up behind the male with the woman on the other Skype would be screaming. The killer would kill the male and send the message on to his next victim which is where our title name would come from. 

The resources that we would need are a Skype account with a web-cam, a killer with a dangerous weapon (a plastic bad, a gun, a knife), and some good actors and actresses to get the emotions and terror across.


   

Research for our thriller coursework

Conventions of the genre that we have thought about are; 

1. physiological
2. action 
3. horror 
4. mystery

Research into real films of the genre that are films we have watched and enjoyed are;

1. Jaws
2. Snakes on a Plane
3. Speed
4. Shutter Island
5. Psycho 
6. The Bourne Identity

Research into potential target audiences are;

1. Teenagers
2. Young adults

Proposal to as to how our project would appeal to the potential audience are;

1. It has to be action-packed
2. Fun and exciting
3. A mind game and a red herring should be involved

Location to Consider

Characters to Consider

Props to Consider

Preliminary Test Analysis

For our preliminary test my group, consisting of Billy Cove, Myle Wilson, Loiuse Levett and myself, had to make a short scene. 

Editing



Acting



Directing

In this assiment we each had particular roles which included Billy and Myles being the actors in the scene with Billy being character A and Myles being character B. Myself and Louise directed this scence and all of us edited it together.

Firstly we draw up a storyboard and planned what we were going to include in our scene. The scene we thought of doing was a Brokeback Mountain style theme where character A would walk through the corridor then through the door into the classroom where character B would be waiting on a desk. Then character A would say "I Miss You I Love You!" then character B would say as a reply "I Cant Do This Any More!" while he got up from the desk and walked towards the door. Character B would stop to a hault when character A holds him saying "Please Dont Go!" then character B would walk out the door leaving character A to turn and lean on the door then slither downwards to create emphasis on the dismial.

In the scence we used a short section of on screen diegetic sound, which was the dialouge and the door shutting, and a wide range of camera shots. Me and Loiuse used a long shot at the start of the scence were Billy walks through the corridor to set where the scence is taking place. Then we used a mid shots on character A's (Billy) face and on character B's (Myles) face when they are talking to each other and when Myles walks away and out of the room. This is so the audience can see the body language and facial expressions of both the charaters when they are interacting with each other. We used a Point of View shot on both Billy looking at Myles and Myles looking at Billy when they are talking to each other. This is so we as the audince can see it through there perspective.  Finally we used a close up shot of when Billy is leaning on the door window. This is also to get his emotions across through his facial expressions.


Final Cut Express

   
Then as a group we edited the scene using Final Cut Express the following week. We put opening credits at the start of the preliminary test and a fading effect at the end to create emphasis on Myles fading out of Billy' life.

However there were a few mistakes in our preliminary test. When on the camera I zoomed in on Billy and Myles face the focus went blurry. To correct this I would have to move the camera close to the actors so I wouldnt have to zoom in or use a different camera with a good zoom quality. Also the editing is a bit jumpy and jittery in parts where we havent edited correctly.

Mine, Billy Cove's, Myles Wilson's & Louise Levitt's Preliminary Test

Our Storyborad for our preliminary Test

Analysis of my Video

Location

Sound

My group, including Myles Wilson and Billy Cove, made a video enquiring some of the publics interests in the Thriller genre. In my previous post I talked about what questions we asked the interviewee's and the technical side of the video (how we used the equipment to get the best results) and how we achieved the answers. In this post I am going to analysis this video which is shown below;

Positive analysis of my video is that for some of the interviewee's we put a microphone on them so we got good quality sound when they spoke so you could hear them clearly and precisely in the video. We had a good range of people from tennagers to adults, to teachers to students. This makes our findings varied and unbiased as we got an array of answers from out interviewee's. Billy Cove was our presenter asking the questions to the 5 people and did a good job at asking the questions, getting their feedback, speaking clearly and being confident. Also becasue of our range of candidates we got a wide range of responses which makes the analysis of the thriller gene seem more diverse and shows that this particualar genre appeals to many age groups. Finally our location was varied from being outside the M Block in my schools playground for two of the interviewee's to being inside for the rest of them.

However negative analysis of our video is that we moved location because the sound could not be picked up by the microphone. The first interviewee, which was Myles Wilson, could not be clearly heard becasue of the wind as we were outside. Also 0.29 seconds into the video you can hear me tell Billy what the next question he had to ask was. This was an editing mistake as we should have cut it out to make it run more smoothely and seem more professional. Finally the second interviewee's head has been chopped off slightly meaning he is not in the centre of the frame. This is a recording mistake as we as a group should have positioned the camera correctly before the interview started so he was in the middle of the frame which would have made it look more professional.

Range of People

Vox Pops Video

Health and Safety!

These are the rules and regulations which we must follow and stick to while making our opening sequences of our thriller movie coursework to stay on the course;

Learning To Use The Cameras

In Media we, as a class, learned how to use the cameras, tripods and microphones, safely, for our Media Thriller Movie Coursework.  Then we were given a task of filming and asking five people three questions. The questions were;

1. What is your Favourite Thriller movie?
2. What do you like about the Thriller genre?
3. What makes a good Triller movie?

When set with these questions I got into a group of 3, me, Billy Cove and Myles Wilson, and went to the location of outside the class building and then inside the classroom so the microphone could pick up the sound. Billy was then the presenter who asked those three questions to Myles, Myself, Miss Thompson (our Media teacher), Mr Akerman (our Science teacher) and finally Mr Carder (our French teacher).

Favourite Thriller Movie

My favourite thriller movies are the Bourne trilogy: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. This is becasue all three films are fast paced, action packed, gritty with white-knuckle excitment and heaps of suspense and anticipation.

This is a clip of the third Bourne film, Ultimatum, where Jason Bourne is in a car chase trying to get away from the Moscow police and an assassin that is trying to kill him which demontrates that this film is an action thriller;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUtINRG3pxk

Analysis of Film Openings of Three Triller Films

Children of Men starts off a being calm and relaxed with the main character, Theo Faron, walks into a coffee shop then walks out onto a typical London street. However this film, even at the start, creates a sense of mystery as when in the coffee shop, there are loads of people there watching the News. This is because the youngest person in the world has died at the age of 18. This creates mystery as the audeince wants to watch on to find out why he is the youngest person in the World and how he died. Furthermore as the film goes on and Theo walks out of the coffee shop a bomb goes off inside which creates adrenaline and shock as to why there was a bomb there in the first place. Moreover the audience looks at Theo when the bomb goes off due to the camera angles so the audience attention is diverted which builds even more shock which I will use in my own opening of a thriller movie to create the atmosphere of suspension and shock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikW8z4I2hcI (In German)

A History of Violence like Children of Men starts off with a calm and relaxed atmosphere as not much happens in the first half of the opening. This is emphasised by the background noise of the bugs hissing and the actors looking calm and bored and talking amongst one another in a tranquil manner. However this film creates shock and violence when you realise that one of the men has killed the two people that where in the shop when he went in and the other man kills the little girl whom appears from the other room. This creates astonishment as the film was calm then there was a sudden burst of action when he kills the girl. Also there is almost a sinister act to this as you dont believe that he will do it becasue he pulls his finger to his lips to hush the little girl then when he does it, it surprises the audince which I will use in my own opening to create the shock that thriller movie need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnW_930nmQ

Memento starts with the main charater, Leonard, holding a Polariod picture with blood on it which is going in reverse with the image of a man dead on the floor to it going blank. It then carries on with him shooting the man then him waking up in his hotel room and talking to himself. That part is in black and white which shows the audince that it is a memory which I will use in my thrille ropening if I decide to has part of the story line as a memory. It then proceeds with it going back in time to Leonard meeting the Teddy, the man he shoots in the first scene, at his hotel. This would intrigue the audince as to why Leonard would shoot this man and be so violent towards him when he seems close to him which would shock the audince further. Moreover the audince would want to carry on watching as its quite a confusing and mysterious opening to a film so they would want to find out whats going on with Leonard and his condition. Finally there is an Enigma in this film as Leonard trys to work out who killed his wife but this film tricks the audince as it was really Leonard himself who kills his wife and his condition is him blocking out the memory.  

Analysis of Film Openings

During our media class we watched the opening of three thriller films. We did this to see what a thriller film opening should be like and what it should include to entice the audience to watch on and see more. A few elements that makes a thriller film more interesting to watch are violence, death, suspense, calmness then a sudden burst of action and a sense of mystery to the story line. I will be using most, if  not all of these elements in my own opening thriller movie to create suspense and shock that a good thriller movie needs to captivate the audience. The three films that we watched in class was Children of Men, Memento and A History of Violence. All three of these films openings created a sense of mystery, suspense, shock and cliffhangers which makes the audience want to keep watching onwards. In my next post I will be describing and analysing how and why these films make as a good thriller movie from there opening scene and how I will be interpreting that into my own thriller film to make it more interesting. 

Film Language

There are 5 main key elements which must be included in film language to make a great thriller movie. They are;

• Low Key Lighting

This is important as it creates shadows and silhouettes. Therefore we as the audience would see this person as an antagonist. It also creates mystery and suspense as to what is in the shadow. 

• Cliff Hangers 

These create mystery and suspense to the plot line. It also makes the audience interested in what they are watching and this will make them watch on. 

• Fast Editing

This creates a fast paced scene as if the editing is fast and choppy then the audience will get excited in what they are watching. 

• Antagonist and Protagonist

These characters are in most films made and creates the plot for the film. This is because you want to watch on to see if the antagonist wins or the protagonist defeats evil. 

• Sound

This will create the mood and the atmosphere of the scene and will make the audience feel a particular way as the music can either be parallel or contrapuntal to the scene. 

A MacGuffin, Enigma and Red Herring

A MacGuffin is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story but has little other relavance to the story. In the film Psycho Marion Crane steals $40,000 from her boss. This is the MacGuffin of the film as this story line is what gets the character, Marion crane, to The Bates Motel in the first place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg

An Enigma referes to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable or a riddle or problem. In Thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resloved and the film finishes. In the film North by Northwest the Enigma is that Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a George Kaplan but the mystery is who is George Kaplan and why do they want him?

A Red Herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. Can work with other devices, a MacGuffin and/or an Enigma to create suspence. The Red Herring in North by Northwest is that Roger Thornhill is being framed as they think he is George Kaplin however there is no George Kaplin and never was.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfmTpmIUwo

Famous Directors

Alfed Hitchcock is a very famous thriller director and known for films such as;

Psycho in 1960

Rear Window in 1954

North By Northwest in 1959

Vertigo in 1958

Subgenres

There are many subgenres to Thriller movies. These include ;

• Crime Thriller-Hostage
• Action Thriller-The Godfather
• Phycological Thriller-Inception
• Conspiracy Thriller-JFK
• Mystery thriller-Flightplan
• Sci-Fi Thriller-Alien