Titles;

In class we have been looking at different title sequences to thrillers. We observed the order of titles, and the design of the titles. 
Some of the title sequences that we watched were; In the Cut, Se7en, and Panic room.
When watching the opening credits of 'In the Cut' they had a particular order in which they placed the titles.
Which was; 
Production company - Pathe
Main actors

Less important actors

Different people that delt with music

Producer

Director

Main Title

I feel that the font for the main title is effective as it appears as if it has been cut into it and it is red like blood giving a bigger effect.

                                                                

Survey (Audience research) ;

I created a survey on surveymonkey.com, to see what different types of thrillers the public like and what they like about them.
The following image is a printscreen of my facebook wall;

<--- This image is a printscreen of survey monkey when editing my survey

Brainstorm:

The following is an image of the brainstorm that Georgia and I did for ideas on our thriller.

Moby gratis;

As we are unable to use signed music as it falls under the copyright laws, therefore we must find some music on a website that offers unsigned music. the most popular is Mobygratis.com. Other websites that can be used are; freeplaymusic.comm, newgrounds.com and unsigned.com.

Shadow of a doubt;

"Shadow of a Doubt" is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was made in 1943. 

We watched the beginning of this film in class, when watching we found that the uncle Charlie was the antagonist and his niece Charlie was the protaganist. 

Storyline;
Charlie Newton (niece) decides that she is unhappy with the boring things in her life and wishes that something exciting would happen. She knew that she needed a visit from her sophisticated Uncle Charlie Oakley, which soon enough became true. It was all appearing fine, until Charlie started to notice some odd behaviour from her uncle as he starts to cut out a particular article from the paper. It was only when two strangers approached him and asked questions of him, poor Charlie began to imagine the worst of her uncle.


Mise en scene;
Lighting and colour: As this is a black and white film there is nothing to say about the colour. However the film looks as if it has very natural lighting, this is high key.
Settings and props; The props used are very high class such as cigars and money, whereas he seems to be living in a deprived area. 
Costumes, Hair & make up; Uncle Charlie is finely dressed in a smart suit and hat, with well groomed hair. This shows that he cares about his appearance. 
Facial Expressions and Body Language; Uncle Charlie's body language is very stiff and seems to be uptight. Both him and his niece Charlie are seen laying on a bed this may show a link between them. 

Sabotage;

In Class we watched a scene from Alfred Hitchcocks film Sabotage, this was the Lord Mayor Show scene which contains a lot of suspense and dramatic irony.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the character doesn't and the audience really want the character to know because they are a nice character.

In this scene Verloc (a unknown terrorist) gives a package to his wife's little brother Stevie to take to the theatre as he has told Stevie that the package is a film cannister, whereas it is actually a bomb. Verloc tells Stevie to deliver it by 1:30 as he knows that the bomb is going to go off at 1:45. However unknowing Stevie is not too bothered about when it is delivered and gets distracted by many things, such as the Lord Mayor Show. Eventually the bomb explodes whilst Stevie still has it.  

<This is a picture of Stevie watching the Lord Mayor show.

Montage;

The following images are my montage for the ideas of my Thriller.

   

Researching ideas for our thriller;

When trying to decide on what our thriller was going to contain and deciding on the story line, we watched a few thriller beginnings that we had lying about at home. This helped us choose what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it. This is an image of the films that we watched the beginnings of. 

< sorry unable to rotate. 

we came to our main conclusion when watching 'Flight plan'. Viewing this gave us the decision that we wanted a kidnapping.

Preliminary Exercise;



To get used to our cameras and editing our videos for the future we carried out a Preliminary Exercise which was to create a video of someone coming through or opening a door and using a range of different types of shots, such as point of view, over the shoulder and pan shots. The Video above is our preliminary exercise, made by my partener Georgia, and me.

When making this video we filmed different scenes and editing them to make them fit together looking as if it was all filmed together. This is continuity.  

Storyboard;

The following video shows the storyboard of our preliminary exercise.

Manchurian Candidate;

The Manchurian Candidate was released on 24th october 1962 in the USA and directed by John Frankenheimer. This film contains many well known stars such as Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh.

In the film it shows a form of brainwashing. In the characters nightmares they see some of their colleages killing other colleages, this is as of a brainwash set off by a unknown person. The Brainwash is set off by the character dealing a set of cards, they are brainwashed in and out of the nightmare.

The Manchurian candidate was effected highly by the cold war, which was just threats and no action. This is as during the cold war many people suffered from paranoia, which many characters in the film have been shown to suffer from, as their reoccuring nightmares caused it. Another aspect of the film that shows it was effected by the cold war is that the characters were made to choose what political side they were supporting.

This Film was also effected by senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy. This was as Senator McCarthy made many claims about the government trying to brainwash the public. After Senator McCarthy if anyone makes claims that someone is not what they appear to be that is now called McCarthyism. 

Vox Pop;

About Vox pops;
In our previous lesson we learnt about Vox Pops and produced our own. Vox pops can also be known as Vox Populi with the latin meaning of voice of the people. 


The Making of our Vox Pop;
In our Vox pop we carried out a number of interviews and asked the people three questions, these questions were; What is your Favorite Thriller? What do you like about the Thriller Genre? and finally What makes a great Thriller?


When filming these interviews (making our Vox Pop) we found a problem. This problem was that the sound was not working at all and you could not hear anything the people were saying. Therefore in our next lesson we re-filmed two interviews and made sure that there was sound and these interviews came out successful.


What I found out;
Carrying out these interviews I discovered many things that the public like about thrillers and many examples that could help my group to carry out our thriller. 

Video;
when trying to upload our vox pop, there was a problem in the process, therefore I am unable to post it. However we created another;

Mise en scene;

Mise en scene is the french meaning of 'what is in the frame'.
When working with mise en scene you should consider the following five things;

• Hair and make up
• settings and props
• sound
• lighting and colour
• where things are placed in the frame.

Different Shots;

ECU: Extreme Close up
Pan: Camera at a fixed point and moves horizontally across following somethings actions.
Tracking shot: When a camera is on a set of 'tracks' following the action.
Tilt shot: When the camera is at a fixed point and tilts to either side, up or down.
Crane: Camera is lifted to higher than eye level.
These are just a few to name.

Low angle; makes the character seem 'big' and powerful.
High angle; makes the character seem small and vulnerable.
There is also; Long shot, midshot and close up.
Point of view; the camera shows a characters point of view.
Over the shoulder; camera is looking over the character's shoulder.

Sound;

Diegetic Sound;
Diegetic sound is a type of sound that you can tell is linked in the film, whether it is on or off screen, e.g Character talking.

Non-Diegetic sound;
This is a type of soundthat you can see is not fitted into the film. e.g backing track/ voiceover.

Parallel sound; A sound that fits with the atmosphere of the film. e.g upbeat music when someone is running.

Contrapuntal sound; When the sound does not fit with the atmosphere of the film. e.g upbeat music when someone is sleeping.

Sound bridge; When a sound is carried from one clip through to another.

Lighting:

There are many different types of lighting when looking at films.
These are; key lighting
                Backlighting
                Top lighting
                low key lighting
                high key lighting
Key lighting gives an all round light to a clip, and lightens shadows to give more of a natural effect. 
Backlighting creates a silhouette, which give the character a mysterious effect as you are unlikely to know what they look like depending on how stong this light is. 
Top lighting is when the light comes from above and gives off a glamourous effect on the character. 
Low key lighting is when there is a high contrast between the light and shadows, sometimes giving off a spooky or mysterious effect. 
Finally High key lighting is when the lighting looks natural.

Children of Men;

Children of Men;

At the start of this film it shows beginning credits while having the voice of a news reporter announcing breaking news in the background. This engages the viewer as they want to find out what happened. The breaking news is that the youngest person living had died, this person being 18 years of age. As the youngest person was 18 it makes the viewers think why has no one in the world had a baby for 18 years? and what will happen if no one else has a baby? These questions are known as Enigmas. Another Enigma is why was there an explosion?

Memento;

The beginning of this film is different to any other film as it begins to tell the story backwards. This keeps the audience wanting to know more as it shows you that the main character has killed a man, which makes you want to know why he killed this man. Therefore the audience are trying to solve this great Enigma that this film seems to basically be made from. As the film is playing backwards at the beginning there is slow deep music which i feel dramatises the film from the start.

The character in this film seems to have a condition where he forgets things that had happened the previous day, so to remind himself what is what he takes pictures of things with his polaroid camera and writes a note about them on the back. As of this Red Herrings can possibly be formed.

History of Violence;

At the start of this film it already has shown three murders, and the men that carried out these killings seemed calm and peaceful. This made it effective as you can see that they could kill as many people as they want and don't care. This could make it rather thrilling as you never know when they are going to kill someone next because they seem to have no feelings. 

There is a little amount of sound in the beginning of this film which is unique as you may normally have a soundtrack that builds up suspence. However the lack of sound also is effective as the first main bit of sound you hear is a small girl scream which can make the audience jump. 

Altogether this beginning is rather good as it leaves the audience with enigmas and suspence.   

North by North West;

North by Northwest is a highly known Alfred Hitchcock thriller, starring Carrie Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The main story line of this thriller is that the main character is a victim of mistaken identity and spends his time trying to clear his name. Carrie Grant pursues across the US running away from the government for so called 'smuggling microfilm containing government secrets'. He grabs an partner on the way (Eva Marie Saint) who helps him achieve his goal. 
I found this film rather boring towards the beginning but as the film actually kicked in I began to find it rather exhilarating. I also liked the fact that they literally had us on a cliff hanger at the end when falling and climbing Mount Rushmore. It is full of tension and suspense keeping you on the edge of your seat.  

Hitchcock;

Alfred Hitchcock is a very famous Film director. Hitchcock is well known for his psychological thrillers. Such as 'Psycho', 'North by North West', and 'The Birds'. In these thrillers, many devices are used these being: MaGuffin, Enigma, and Red Herring.


A Maguffin is a device that encourages the character and advances the story even though it has no relevance to the actual storyline. E.g. in 'Psyco' it is the money that Marion runs away with.

An Enigma is a mystery or a problem in the story. In thrillers it tends to be something which the protaganist has to try to find or solve before the film finishes.

A Red Herring is a device which diverts the audeince from the truth. Red Herrings can also work with devices such as (Enigmas) and create suspense. 

  
   

No Country For Old Men

In my previous media lesson we watched an extract of the beginning of the film 'No country for Old men'. In this extract it gave out a lot of tension and suspence which is crucial in a thriller.

At the beginning of this extract there is a voice of someone talking and adressing the audience however he is not to be seen on the screen as it just shows empty landscapes. This creates mystery and suspence as you want to know who the person is talking and you want to know where it is placed as they seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Another point that creates mystery is that you do not see the murderer's face until a bit later into the extract, instead of showing the murderers face they create a silhouette of him by using backlighting. 

This extract also brings an amount of curiosity to your mind as the killer shows no emotion when killing his victims, and stays in a calm manner. It brings you curiosity as innocent people are dying and he seems to feel nothing inside. Another reason why i feel this extract brings curiosity and confusion to the mind is that the murderer chooses to fool one of his victims into thinking that he is a police officer and will not hurt him so he trusts him to do whatever needs be.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQNvn4eb8LQ

^ This is the link for the extract

About a Thriller;

Thrillers tend to get your heart racing, in suspence and tension and include an atmosphere of crime, murder, violence and menace. They include things that you may not notice or see in your everyday life and what may appear to be strange. For example they can include psycopaths and femme fatale. Other characters are more likely to be a Villian, a Victim and Police. Most Thrillers include a twist at the end and use sound to create drama and atmosphere. Examples of Thrillers are; Godfather, Inception and Shutter Island.

    

Coursework brief;

In this Blog I will explain the research that I have made into the thriller genre and thriller films. I will also show the steps that my partner and I have made when making our 2 minute thriller beginning.  

Hi :)
My Name is Hannah Sharples i would like to welcome you to my blog. On this blog i will explain and go through my 2 minute Thriller that i will be creating.

Thriller Conventions

-Crime at the core of the narrative (often Murder) 
-A complex narrative structure, with false paths/clues/resolutions
-A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved
-Protagonist who is systematically, dis empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by an antagonist. 
-Extraordinary events happening in an ordinary situation.
-Themes of identity
-Themes of mirroring
-Themes of Voyeurism
-Protagonist with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the antagonist.
-Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonist/antagonist psychological state.
-There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
-Mise en scene which echoes the protaganist plight.