Thriller Conventions
Thriller are a type of genre that involves a lot of action. They can also have a major plot twist. The thriller has a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub genres.
A flexible genre
The genre is flexible and can engage the audience through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political tension. Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience to put their toe in the cold water and fear to see what it is like.
Types of Thrillers
Legal thriller, Spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, poltical thriller, religious thriller and high tech thriller.
Todorov- The 5 stages
These are the stages in which the narrative can progress through:
A state of equilibrium, a disruption of that order of event, a recognition that the disorder occurred, an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption, a return or restoration of a new equilibrium.
The Thriller
This is one of the genres most enduring characteristics, the wide variety of thrillers all have something in common, this is the face that each thriller will use the same techniques to make the film tense. The thrillers each try to create a mood, they want the viewer to feel as if they are in the movie themselves. If it thrills, then it is a thriller!
Thrillers differ from mystery stories
In a thriller, the hero must thwart the future plans of an enemy, danger and violence confrontations are a standard plot thriller.
More Characteristics of a thriller
Thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, the heroes in most thrillers are frequently 'hard men' accustomed to danger.
Conclusion on thrillers
Thrillers have: fast pacing, frequent action, resourceful heroes and better quipped villains. Thrillers are also a villain driven plot. Also thriller uses devices such as: suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers.
Monday, 27 February 2017
Friday, 24 February 2017
Modern Opening Thrillers
When looking at the beginnings of thrillers you can see that there are many similar techniques used. I looked at the beginning of a few thrillers and were asked to analyse different techniques used:
The opening of "No country for old men" starts off using non-diegetic sound, a voice over of a man with a southern accent which lets the audience know, and puts the viewer on guard as stereotypically an accent from the deep south, such as cowboys. This creates a feeling of for the viewer that there might be some cowboy action or something has gone wrong. The image at the beginning is a series of dark landscape scenes of native american land filled with shadows which adds an evil feel to all of the nature, like the nature in the film is turning evil. As things start to light up as day begins it gives the impression that something big is about to start.
The opening of "Brick" starts with non-diegetic western music, which feels a bit weird. The sound is almost trickled into the film but the transition is a little off putting. This is followed by a pot to a close up of shoes which again is a little bit of an odd way to start, it gives the audience very little information about what is going on and makes the audience question why they are being shown shoes. This then transitions to a close up of a face which then cuts to the view of a tunnel where we can see that the face and the shoes belong to a boy and the boy is crouched looking over at the dead body of a woman. He appears to be quite fascinated by the dead body which is really creepy. This is then emphasized by the western music that is still playing in the background. However the fact that the boy is looking at the woman in this way, and the way that he is positioned on the other side of the tunnel crouched makes the audience curious as to whether he killed this person.
The opening of "No country for old men" starts off using non-diegetic sound, a voice over of a man with a southern accent which lets the audience know, and puts the viewer on guard as stereotypically an accent from the deep south, such as cowboys. This creates a feeling of for the viewer that there might be some cowboy action or something has gone wrong. The image at the beginning is a series of dark landscape scenes of native american land filled with shadows which adds an evil feel to all of the nature, like the nature in the film is turning evil. As things start to light up as day begins it gives the impression that something big is about to start.
The opening of "Brick" starts with non-diegetic western music, which feels a bit weird. The sound is almost trickled into the film but the transition is a little off putting. This is followed by a pot to a close up of shoes which again is a little bit of an odd way to start, it gives the audience very little information about what is going on and makes the audience question why they are being shown shoes. This then transitions to a close up of a face which then cuts to the view of a tunnel where we can see that the face and the shoes belong to a boy and the boy is crouched looking over at the dead body of a woman. He appears to be quite fascinated by the dead body which is really creepy. This is then emphasized by the western music that is still playing in the background. However the fact that the boy is looking at the woman in this way, and the way that he is positioned on the other side of the tunnel crouched makes the audience curious as to whether he killed this person.
Monday, 20 February 2017
Idents
Film Idents
An ident is designed to identify a particular studio, it is like a logo. This design needs to memorable and easily recognisable to the audience. Both film and television studios often have moving title idents. The ident always appears at the start of the film.
Film 4 ident
Columbia Pictures ident
BBC TV Ident
An ident is designed to identify a particular studio, it is like a logo. This design needs to memorable and easily recognisable to the audience. Both film and television studios often have moving title idents. The ident always appears at the start of the film.
Film 4 ident
Columbia Pictures ident
BBC TV Ident
Friday, 10 February 2017
Psycho Analysis
Psycho
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel)
Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles
Plot
Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam on lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in the alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sams California store. Tired after a long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into Bates hotel.
Main Cast
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
Vera Miles as Lila Crane
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel)
Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles
Plot
Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam on lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in the alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sams California store. Tired after a long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into Bates hotel.
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
Vera Miles as Lila Crane
Audience Feedback on 3 initial Ideas
Audience Feedback on 3 initial Ideas
Audience research on Initial ideas
Idea 1
Our first idea was the one with the man getting arrested with no memory as to why. This idea was not received very well as the audience told us that it may be hard to pull off as we would need a police officer costume. We were also told that our idea, since it would be filmed in public, may get us in trouble if we see someone running from an officer. We decided that , after the feedback, that we would not go with this idea as it may of been too hard to film.
Idea 2
This idea was our one about the preacher who goes bad. This idea was received well as we had all our props ready for this film and we wouldn't have to travel too far as we would film it at school. The audience thought that the mystery of how the Preacher became a criminal being a mystery was very intriguing so this was the idea we decided to make our main one.
Idea 3
Our actual idea here was received quite well from the audience however we decided that we didn't have enough people or props for the film. We also decided that the film may go on over 2 minutes so then we wouldn't be able to do it. We decided that this idea was a good idea but we decided it still may be too hard to film so we made it our back up idea.
Fourth Production Meeting
Fourth Production Meeting
In our fourth production meeting, we decided to make our ident for our thriller. Firstly, we had to gather our resources to photoshop our ident. Firstly we got the images downloaded from the internet, along with the sound and font. Patrick photoshopped the log online with the tools used from Adobe Photoshop. Finally, we edited the whole ident on premier pro. It turned out perfect for our thriller.
In our fourth production meeting, we decided to make our ident for our thriller. Firstly, we had to gather our resources to photoshop our ident. Firstly we got the images downloaded from the internet, along with the sound and font. Patrick photoshopped the log online with the tools used from Adobe Photoshop. Finally, we edited the whole ident on premier pro. It turned out perfect for our thriller.
Third Production Meeting
Third Production Meeting
In this production meeting, we decided to film our rough cut. Everyone did their roles very well, and had a very good output. We edited the rough copy to see how it turns out. We were all happy with the rough copy and decided to carry on with the film.
In this production meeting, we decided to film our rough cut. Everyone did their roles very well, and had a very good output. We edited the rough copy to see how it turns out. We were all happy with the rough copy and decided to carry on with the film.
Final Idea
Final Idea
The idea we chose was our third idea, which was:
A normal preacher is giving a sermon with a bored audience but then it cuts to the future and the same preacher is covered in blood and is getting chased by the FBI, the preacher get caught in a corner and pulls out a gun intending to shoot the agent but then he pulls out a card looks at it and then turns the gun on himself and shoots himself in the head. The card is then revealed to be a King of Diamonds card with proverbs 16:12 written on it. We chose this idea as it seemed like our best idea but also the easiest to film and get props for.
The idea we chose was our third idea, which was:
A normal preacher is giving a sermon with a bored audience but then it cuts to the future and the same preacher is covered in blood and is getting chased by the FBI, the preacher get caught in a corner and pulls out a gun intending to shoot the agent but then he pulls out a card looks at it and then turns the gun on himself and shoots himself in the head. The card is then revealed to be a King of Diamonds card with proverbs 16:12 written on it. We chose this idea as it seemed like our best idea but also the easiest to film and get props for.
Second Production Meeting
Second Production Meeting
In our second production meeting we decided what days we would film on. We also made slight changes to our final idea and made sure we had all the props ready. We checked the upcoming weather forecast to see if it was ok.
In our second production meeting we decided what days we would film on. We also made slight changes to our final idea and made sure we had all the props ready. We checked the upcoming weather forecast to see if it was ok.
Style of Editing
Editing
Editing is the process of looking at all the footage shot during the making of a film/TV programme and placing it in the desired order and joining it together.
There are two key areas of editing: Speed of Editing and Style of Editing.
Speed Editing
In a film, each scene can last a matter of seconds or minutes, but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along. If the audience feels anxious the scene would be very quick, the scenes would change very frequently. It is the complete opposite if the audience is relaxed. However, some films do not need editing such as the Russian Ark, which was filmed in one take.
Style of Editing
This when how the shots are linked together. The movement of one shot to the next is called a transition. The are many techniques in the style. Firstly there is a fade. This is the gradual darkening or lighting. Wipes is when one image is pushed off the screen by another. Images can be pushed to the left or to the right, however it is more common for the image to be pushed to the left.
Editing is the process of looking at all the footage shot during the making of a film/TV programme and placing it in the desired order and joining it together.
There are two key areas of editing: Speed of Editing and Style of Editing.
Speed Editing
In a film, each scene can last a matter of seconds or minutes, but the length of each sequence establishes the pace of the film moving the action along. If the audience feels anxious the scene would be very quick, the scenes would change very frequently. It is the complete opposite if the audience is relaxed. However, some films do not need editing such as the Russian Ark, which was filmed in one take.
Style of Editing
This when how the shots are linked together. The movement of one shot to the next is called a transition. The are many techniques in the style. Firstly there is a fade. This is the gradual darkening or lighting. Wipes is when one image is pushed off the screen by another. Images can be pushed to the left or to the right, however it is more common for the image to be pushed to the left.
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